Writing YA Characters Part II: The Writing Life

Happy Friday!

Me at HS graduation

Last week, I shared some reflections on Writing Young Adult Characters.

From that post:

Recently, my middle sister and I were talking about my choice to write young adult characters. She was wondering how I connected to being a teenager and wrote them so beautifully (thanks, sis!), because she she felt removed from that time in her life.

Upon further reflection, I realized another reason I love to write about young adult females and why I can relate to it: I'm still finding myself. As silly as it sounds, I still have one foot in childhood/naiveté and one in adult responsibility. 

As life helps me open my eyes and formulate who I want to be, I wonder how someone younger would handle the same situations. My sister is one of those people who decided who she wanted to be and never strayed. I admire her for that, but it's so not me. I love the fluidity of learning, even if it scares the crap out of me.

Also, since I continue to move every two to three years, I have the opportunity to leave behind people's opinions of me and change things. That can be both a blessing and a curse--it leaves me good at inventing, but not so good at finding the true definition of self. I've been able to play the part of many characters over my lifetime. However, since I have been able to start over, I'm still playing around with the real me.

I'm fascinated with what molds us and makes us who we are, so writing young adult paranormal opens up some amazing topics. Now, I can explore how a teenager would handle normal coming-of-age issues like body image, love, parental relationships, etc., while also dealing with the challenges of becoming a vampire, werewolf, fairy, zombie, and so on.

Please share why you love (or don't love) reading young adult characters? If you do love more adult books, why?

Mark Twain: Fascinating Facts Friday

Welcome to another edition of what strikes my fancy, aka Fascinating Facts Friday.

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My 7th grade daughter and I were talking about the "old English" (her words, not mine) in Mark Twain's The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, her assigned reading this quarter. Her teacher sent her home with a list of vocabulary words from the text.

I pride myself on being a word nerd, so my daughter decided to quiz me. Here's some examples from her list:

resurrected
circumstantial
glowering
tranquilly
furtive
intervening
odious
portentous
futility
oppressive
vagrant
lugubrious
aversion
conflagration
derision
ominous
vindictive
vivacity
vexation
imminence
opulent
incongruous
dissent
clamorous
prodigious
famished
forlorn

I'm going to out myself. The two that stumped me: conflagration (a large destructive fire) and lugubrious (mournful, dismal). My daughter was thrilled to have stumped me since just this week she asked me to stop using the words catawampus (although I love askew and wonky as well), discombobulated, and fastidious. She said they made me sound uncool and nerdy. What she doesn't know is that I embrace uncool and nerdy when it comes to words.

But back to her point about old English. Whatever happened to the beauty and complexity of the English language? I know using too many "big words" can come across as pretentious, but sometimes the bigger words do more justice. Pretentious has a beauty that showing off doesn't. Oh, or ostentatious. Yummy.

Since I'm using Mark Twain to illustrate my love of the language, it only seems fitting to share some of his musings...

"Don't say the old lady screamed. Bring her on and let her scream."

 

"Get your facts first, then you can distort them as you please."

 

"It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open one's mouth and remove all doubt."
 

"A person who won't read has no advantage over one who can't read."

 

"Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; Truth isn't."

Read more at BrainyQuote.

What's your favorite big word? How do you feel about using "old English" in writing?

Tell Me About it... Stud

Let me further cement my status as a dork by admitting how much I loved Grease and Olivia Newton-John growing up. I can sing every song and repeat every word of Grease (and Grease 2, but that's more embarrassing to admit).

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So imagine my joy when I saw an article online today about how gorgeous she still looks at 64! (Go to the article to see how great she looks. My operating budget doesn't allow for buying copyrighted pictures.)

If only John Travolta had aged as well (he looks more and more like an aged Eddie Munster every day). Come to think of it, a lot of the actors I had a crush on haven't faired so well: Val Kilmer, Tom Hanks, Don Johnson, James Spader and Judd Nelson. (visit here for some fun then and now images).

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Thankfully, some of my teenage crushes have held up pretty well: Rob Lowe, Kevin Bacon, Pierce Brosnan, Robert Downey, Jr. and Harrison Ford. I wasn't into the obvious Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt sort of looks. But I have to admit, they've hung in there.

Oh, and I have to give special mention to one guy who definitely blossomed late in life... Patrick Dempsey. Who would have ever thought, even though I did love Can't Buy Me Love. John Cusack is another example. He looks so much better now. Did those two make a deal with the devil or something?

What star from your childhood still looks good?

Since I did mention Grease 2, Michelle Pfieffer still looks amazing.

Teenagers: Fascinating Facts Fridays

The bargain bin at Barnes & Noble can be a great place to find little treasures, let's call it a dock in a sea of worthy reading options. Sometimes I can't find good material with all the choices. I know people who swear by clothing stores like TJ Maxx. I walk in and see chaos. I don't know where to start.

In a bookstore, I have my favorite sections, but that only means I'm missing opportunities in other areas. The bargain bin gives me a chance to see some options.

The other day, I picked up Dough Lennox's The Little Book of Answers. First, I'm an inquisitive person by nature. Second, I figured it would help me with my Fun Facts Fridays (now renamed Fascinating Facts Fridays, because I realized all my facts weren't "fun"). Third, books like these make perfect bathroom reading. For those that don't quite get that last statement, maybe my house was the only one in the universe that was always stocked with books and magazines.

I opened up to a random page, and what did I see...

How did teenagers become a separate culture?

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I write about teenagers, I have one and two more on the way, and I was once a teenager not that long ago. Yeah, a Friday topic with some meat. Let's call it character research.

Teenagers

According to The Little Book of Answers: The word teenager first appeared in 1941... Until then, there was only childhood and adulthood. At the age of thirteen, a girl became a woman and could marry or enter the workforce and a boy became a man. Today, teenagers are treated as children with suppressed adult urges.

(My personal opinion: a lot of teenagers are really treated as adults with suppressed child urges. I want my teens to embrace youthful exuberance for as long as they can without too many adult situations ruining it.)

Most countries have an age of majority, ranging in age from 12 to 21, where "minors cease to legally be considered children." (I'd love to be on the committee trying to determine a magic age where a person is capable of adult decisions. I think, instead, there should be a basic adult skills test that should be passed. Okay, I say that tongue in cheek. Mostly.)

Some statistics

Percentage of teenagers 13-17 who can name the city where the US Constitution was written (Philadelphia): 25. Percentage of teenagers 13-17 who know where you find the zip code 90210 (Beverly Hills): 75 ( Survey conducted by the National Constitution Center (NCC), Philadelphia, 1998.) Source

Media
According to the Center for a New American Dream, children and teens are exposed to over 25,000 ads in a year, and companies spend over $17 billion a year on marketing toward children and teens. Source

Body Image
In Depression Cookies, two characters suffer with anorexia, a chronic mental illness that affects many teenagers and has deeply touched my life.

• The body type portrayed in advertising as the ideal is possessed naturally by only 5% of American females.3
• 47% of girls in 5th-12th grade reported wanting to lose weight because of magazine pictures.12
• 69% of girls in 5th-12th grade reported that magazine pictures influenced their idea of a perfect body shape.13
• 42% of 1st-3rd grade girls want to be thinner (Collins, 1991).
• 81% of 10 year olds are afraid of being fat (Mellin et al., 1991).
(Source)

The mortality rate associated with anorexia nervosa is 12 times higher than the death rate associated with all causes of death for females 15-24 years old. Source

2007 National Endowment of the Arts Reading Study Findings

Less than one-third of 13-year-olds are daily readers, a 14 percent decline from 20 years earlier. Among 17-year-olds, the percentage of non-readers doubled over a 20-year period, from nine percent in 1984 to 19 percent in 2004.

On average, Americans ages 15 to 24 spend almost two hours a day watching TV, and only seven minutes of their daily leisure time on reading.

Teen Reading Trends
(2012, from Sarah Flowers, President of the Young Adult Library Services Association, Source)
"I think dystopias and post-apocalypse books will continue to be popular, especially with the Hunger Games movie coming out in March. There are several trilogies that are still just on the first book, like Divergent, by Veronica Roth, and Ashes, by Ilsa Bick (which has the added benefit of zombie-like creatures!). And I would expect to continue to see steampunk. Paranormal romance is still somewhat popular, but vampires are definitely fading, from what I’m hearing."

Social Media
More than 90% of teenagers are connected to the Internet. About 68% of teens regularly text, 51% visit Facebook and about 11% send or receive tweets every day. Many teens, 41%, admit they’re “addicted” to their devices. Around 36% of teens who responded said they wish “they could go back to a time when there was no Facebook.” (Source)

Understanding Teenagers

Teen Slang
During my research, I found a great site, Love to Know Teens. There I learned some of the following (for a full list, click here):

* Cray cray - Something is really crazy, no cool
* Hater - Someone who is jealous or out to ruin a good time (they spew haterade)
* Mackin - To put on your game (example, flirting with more than one girl to flirt versus actually getting the girl)
* Swagg - individuality and coolness
Note: One of my daughters used swagg recently, and I wondered what kind of free gifts they were talking about. Once they explained it, it made sense... short for swagger.

Whatever happened to, "Gag me with a spoon"?

Teen Text Terms
From Time, I found a list of 92 Teen Text Terms. A sampling:

* 2Day - Today (really? Because To is so much harder to type than 2.)
* BOL - Be on Later
* DWBH - Don't Worry, Be Happy
* HAK - Hugs and Kisses
* JSYK - Just So You Know

I'm exhausted. OMG, BOL.

My gut tells me this is just post one of Fascinating Facts Friday focusing on teenagers.

What fascinates you most about teens?

As You Grow, My Wishes for You Grow

Today is my oldest daughter's 12th birthday. Every day I pray for my children. For her birthday, I wanted to reprint the wishes I posted last year... with a few additions.

Love: I hope you concentrate on loving yourself before trying to love another. I want you to find your soul mate without too many “sole” mates (my version of the boyfriend equivalent to the crap on the bottom of your shoe or smelly, rotten fish!). May you find yourself before you find him. If he’s THE one, he wants an authentic you as much as you should.

Mom and Jackie 2000

Dreams:

“Dreams are illustrations . . . from the book your soul is writing about you.” ~Marsha Norman

Keep a notebook for dreams. Jot down everything your imagination considers. Later, another dream may replace it, but don’t simply disregard anything on your list. (And for my sake I hope your dreams don’t include inspired tattoos, too many men on motorcycles, collection of Mardi Gras beads, or anything to do with modeling or casting couches).

Faith: There’s a reason it’s called a “leap of faith” and I hope you take that leap. In a world where religion is often distorted and used for evil, remember grace, mercy, forgiveness, and love. Let your faith guide you and be your shield without it ever being armor against good people.

Stumbling Blocks: Life is full of them. You can’t avoid them. I just want every pothole in the road to teach you something you needed to learn in order to reach your destination. I hope none leave scars that cannot heal. Know your father and I (and sisters and grandparents, Aunts, etc.) are here to catch you if you fall or throw you back in the ring if we think you can handle it!

Technology: May Facebook, Twitter, and email lose their social allure and good old-fashioned letter writing, kind conversation, and phone calls come back into vogue. Or, at the very least, may you understand the power of social media. Just because you have a thought for a few seconds does NOT mean you should blast it out to all your friends. Once you hit send, you can't take it back.

And a final list of what we’ll both need:

· Patience – for each other and in life

· Prayer – but know unanswered prayers can be the sweetest gifts

· Resilience – for when patience and prayer need a helping hand

· Humor!!

And know all the things we want for you could not possibly be compiled in a list.

God lent us one of the sweetest angels when He gave us you!

What are some of your wishes for your loved ones?

Yakety Yak = Y: Blogging from A to Z

I am a woman surrounded by women. As the oldest of three girls and now mom to three daughters, my life is destined to be full of yakety yak. I'm not complaining, conversation is character study for a writer.

Still, I have to admit the lyrics of The Coaster's song, Yakety Yak, often come to mind these days. My oldest daughter is 12 (the other two are 10 & 7), so I've only just begun the journey through teenagerdom. The next time I'm asking for something and getting a lot of lip service, I think I might just break out into song.

Yakety Yak

Take out the papers and the trash
Or you don't get no spendin' cash
If you don't scrub that kitchen floor
You ain't gonna rock and roll no more
Yakety yak (don't talk back)

Just finish cleanin' up your room
Let's see that dust fly with that broom
Get all that garbage out of sight
Or you don't go out Friday night
Yakety yak (don't talk back)

You just put on your coat and hat
And walk yourself to the laundromat
And when you finish doin' that
Bring in the dog and put out the cat
Yakety yak (don't talk back)

Don't you give me no dirty looks
Your father's hip; he knows what cooks
Just tell your hoodlum friend outside
You ain't got time to take a ride
Yakety yak (don't talk back)

And two extra verses from me for fun:

You are too young for some snot-nosed fool
to be making you squeal and drool
So get back to putting your clothes away
And please don't let your thoughts stray
Yakety yak (don't talk back)

I'm doing this for your own good
so stop hiding 'neath that hood
Don't be thinking you invented yak
'Cause your Mama mastered talking back.
Yakety Yak (cut me some slack)

If you enjoyed the extra lyrics, give me some comment love.

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Tune in Monday, April 30th for the last A to Z post, and don't forget to check out other alphabetizing bloggers here.

Onomatopoeia = O: Blogging from A to Z

I am a word nerd; I say it loud and proud. Words have the amazing ability, when strung together properly, to inspire and ignite. The fact that we've made up new words throughout the years to represent sounds and feelings is inspiring (unless that new word is irregardless, but that's another subject!).

Onomatopoeia: [on-uh-mat-uh-pee-uh, ‐mah-tuh‐]  1. the formation of a word, as cuckoo, meow, honk, or boom, by imitation of a sound made by or associated with its referent. 2. a word so formed. 3. the use of imitative and naturally suggestive words for rhetorical, dramatic, or poetic effect.

There's the obvious buzz, wham, tick tock and then there's the pure joy I get from even saying the word. Onomatopoeia rolls off the tongue like Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious and simply makes me happy. Someone really should honor the word with a song (don't worry, it won't be me) and the melody it inspires.

It already brings to life so many of our favorite nursery rhymes like Baa Baa Black Sheep and Old MacDonald. What Mom has not spent countless hours perfecting her perfect woof, moo, meow, and quack? And to honor O, there's ouch, ow, and oink.

Now that my children are getting older and approaching the teenage years at a rate I cannot control or slow, I have new appreciation for onomatopoeia. Words like mumble, huff, huh, hiss, growl, chatter, screech, sniff, ugh, whisper, and so on.

What's your favorite example of onomatopoeia?

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O down, eleven more to go P to Z.
Thanks for joining me!

Find some other great O bloggers here.

The Tween is Reading Our Book: Part One

My daughter has been asking to read our novel, Depression Cookies, since the day it come out. I wanted her to be old enough to handle some of the themes. I also worried she might have a hard time distinguishing between reality and fiction, since the book has some common elements with my life.

Recently, I decided she was ready. I told her to discuss anything she wanted with me.

Yesterday this conversation happened:

Tween: Mom, you are a liar.
Me: What are you talking about?
Tween: In the book you said you'd never make your kids do all these things, and you do.
Me: First of all, the book is fictional. Second, I wrote a teenager's point of view.

She was still looking perplexed and had yet to uncross her arms and soften her stance.

Me: Trust me, dear, most teenagers swear they'll never do what their mom does. They truly believe that, so to a teenager it is not a lie. But I need to let you in on something (I leaned in close and whispered for dramatic effect)... all of you will.
Tween: No, I won't.

She huffed off. Later that day, she admitted she could relate to Krista (the teenage character I write in the book). I decided not to push my luck and remind her I was once a teenager. I'm hoping Krista can do that for me.

I'll be interested to see how the book affects her. It means a lot to me what she thinks. The side benefit is it will also open up a dialogue to talk about some sensitive issues. Wish me luck.

When's the last time you were nervous about a loved one's opinion/reaction?

Why I Love to Write About Teenagers: Part One

It took me a while to figure out what I wanted to write. As a reader, I like almost all genres. But my favorite books have at least one thing in common... strong, memorable characters.

After writing Depression Cookies, I realized I love young adult characters. They are this great hybrid... the curiosity and naivete of children but with the will and desire to grow up. So much there for an author to work with.

I also love writing about teenagers, particularly females, because I have the perfect specimen living in my house. It makes research a breeze.

My daughter wants so badly to be grown up, to be trusted and looked at in a different way than her two sisters, who are 10 and almost 7. Yet, she doesn't want to know too much, especially about the birds and the bees (although she'd die to know I called it that).

A recent exchange with my teenager:

Preteen daughter: I want to teach you to play this Sims Life game.
Me/Mom: What's it about?
Preteen daughter: You get to run your own life.
Me/Mom: I do that every day.
Preteen daughter: Yeah, but you get to make people.
Me/Mom: I already did that, too.

My daughter started gagging. She ran from the room telling me I was gross.

Such a contradiction... she loves this game because she can manipulate the life of her made-up character, but she doesn't want to know where babies come from. Too funny.

I'm calling this Part One, because I want to further explore this topic. But I had to share this story first.

Do you study people to write your characters?

Don't Procrastinate: Everything is Right Today!

Today, and today only, everything you do is right. Yes, you heard me correctly. Today only, March 16, you enjoy the grand privileges of Everything You Do is Right Day. Every. Single. Thing.

I don't want you to waste much more time reading this post, because I want you to embrace all the things you are afraid of doing. No fear today.

"They" (and I've never understood who they are) wouldn't name a day without careful consideration.

If the fear of being wrong was gone, as it is today, what would you do?

MY PLANS

Write, write, write. The worry of writing the next best novel goes out the window today. All will be right when I write. No editing worries. Perfection.

Talk to my teenager. I do this everyday, but I do it cautiously. Even though I'm normally right in this case anyway, knowing I'll be right will make it all the better. As long as she doesn't know that she's right too, we should be okay.

Or, maybe we could just drop the "right" and have a pleasant conversation. Now, there's a concept.

Write my Congressman. Not so much to tell them I'm right, but to ask them to put aside politics and do what is right. Follow their hearts and true opinions versus doing what they think will buy them a future in government or pay back those they owe.

Talk sports. I love sports, always have, but men tend to have an opinion on women who "think" they know sports. Today, I would chat them all up without the fear I'd get one word wrong and prove them right. Speaking of sports, I'm ALL about March Madness. I'm a University of Kentucky graduate. Go CATS!

Cook. I'm not the worst cook ever, but I'd use this day to be a better cook and, more importantly, to get my family to agree on one meal.

Pick an amazing outfit. My style is non-existent. I have my kids' styles down much better than my own. Today, I would walk into a store and buy that perfect outfit. I'm sure there are no budgets on Everything You Do is Right Day!

I'm sure there are more, but I need to put this day to good use!

A Small Ripple in One Heck of an Ocean

In Depression Cookies, Krista is a teenager navigating the perils of teenage life and circumstances out of her control. I started writing this book as a new mom and found it difficult at times to make sure Krista's voice was free of mother thoughts.

An excerpt (during a particularly rough teenage moment):

"I was surviving, nothing more and nothing less. This in itself was a small victory. There were many times I felt like nothing special. Have you ever realized it was not the same old robin or mourning dove that caught your eye while you were staring out the window? Usually, it took the brilliance of a blue jay or the sound of a red-headed woodpecker to draw your attention. The other birds flew in and out of our lives with no effect, not even a conscious awareness of their existence. I was starting to view my life this way . . . a small ripple in one heck of an ocean. If nobody remembers you when you’re gone, did you ever really exist?"

Funny how I still struggle with these thoughts and how often I feel like I'm surviving day to day. I say to myself, "If I can get through Tuesday, I'll do something fun." But the commitments and responsibilities just keep on coming. The closer I get to my 40th birthday, 288 days (not that I'm counting), the more frantic I feel about defining myself and embracing life's moments. I thought I'd have it all figured out by now. I don't.

I worry sometimes about letting my more adult thoughts creep into Krista's voice. Mom and I are now writing the follow-up to Depression Cookies which has Krista heading off to college. Krista's voice needs to mature, but to what end? Other than language and a slightly increased ability to reason, and the second increases in very small increments with age, I've come to the realization that our fears and worries don't change a lot as we get older. Actually, the more knowledge and experience we gain, the scarier and more confusing things become.

Please tell me I'm not the only person who feels this way. Do you think your voice has changed much since your teenage/young adult years? How so?

Thanks in advance for comments. We'll call it research for the new novel, but I'm looking forward to the answers on a personal level, too. As hard as it is to question, I don't want to ever think I have all the answers.