Description is also Voice

I keep hearing people talk about descriptive narrative as though it's something different from internal dialogue. I suppose if you're writing some kind of literary fiction from an omniscient POV, it might be. But for the most part--especially in children's and YA fiction--it is the same thing.

Interiority and description are the same. It's all in the POV voice. It's all about what the POV character is thinking. Sometimes they're thinking about their feelings and motivations, sometimes they're thinking about what they're seeing/hearing etc.

All of it needs to be written from the mindset of the POV character.

Remember this poem by Wordsworth?

I wandered lonely as a cloud

That floats on high o'er vales and hills,

When all at once I saw a crowd,

A host, of golden daffodils;

This is good practice to think about description in your own writing. Imagine a huge field of daffodils. Now ask yourself, how would a lonely or depressed person see that field verses an angry person, a betrayed person, or a happy-go-lucky person. Then write the description through their eyes and in their voice.

It's easy to try too hard to write a snarky narrative voice, but then when it comes time for description, wax into an eloquent Dickensesque voice. 

It should be all the same voice. 

All writers struggle with this, so practice and always keep it in mind.

UNRAVELED Cover Reveal!

Hooray for a new year and a new book!

Here is the awesome cover for UNRAVELED coming in February. I'm so excited.

When sickness swept through Bronwen’s family, it took the life of her father, brother, and sister, and left her permanently crippled. On the stormy eve of her sixteenth birthday, a faerie-witch gifts her a pair of enchanted shoes. Bronwen slips them on and is healed--but only when the shoes are on her feet. Her grace and beauty catches the eye of the king’s son--Urien, a handsome young man who prides himself on having everything perfect. 

When Rhys, an old acquaintance and Captain of the Guard, recognizes Bronwen, he threatens to tell Urien her secret. Desperate to keep her deformity hidden and not to lose the love of handsome Urien, Bronwen quickly finds herself tangled in a web of lies and deceit. But there's even a bigger problem--she can't wear the shoes forever.

Head on over to Goodreads and mark it to read. Thanks!!

How Do You Feel about Love Triangles

All, right. Let's get right down to it. In YA literature, love triangles are everywhere. Example from Twilight: the Edward-Bella-Jacob triangle.

I want to know how you feel about love triangles. Do you like them? Hate them? Don't really care? Depends on how it's written?

As a genreal rule, I don't like them. I don't mind so much if it's simply a case of two people liking the same person. Two boys like the same girl. What I hate is when that one person strings along the other two.

I have to fall back on the Twilight example. Bella likes Edward, and she seems set in her feelings towards him. But she also sort of likes Jacob, even though she claims there is no chance she'll ever end up with him. Instead of cutting him loose she strings him along. We see this kind of thing all the time in YA lit.

I think the reason I can't stand this type of scenario is because it makes the character doing the stringing appear unfaithful, cruel, and selfish. Why would either of the guys put up with that? The story loses credibility and my sympathy for the characters.

What are your thoughts on the love triangle?

Book Release Date

So I finally have a release date for my novel, A Blind Eye.

February 2013

It's sooner than I expected, but I'm not complaining. So now begins the first round of edits, the waiting to see the cover, and trying to find people to actually buy the book and read it!

If any of you readers out there have tips or secrets or advice you'd like to share, I'm seriously all ears.

Things you wish you'd done differently? Mistakes I should avoid? Great ideas? I'll take anything.

In the mean time--here's a teaser:

A Blind Eye
Some people are born blind. For some, tragedy leaves them blind. And then there are those who simply refuse to see. This is a story about all three.

In an attempt to escape his heartless and disinterested father, seventeen-year-old Christian runs away from home. But when he finds Scarlett--blind from birth--hiding in his car, his efforts to leave become a race to save her from death by scientific experimentation. Forced to return to his father, he learns that Scarlett is not the only one who cannot see.  

IN OTHER NEWS:
Agent Mary Kole is giving away a copy of the 2013 Children's Writer's and Illistrator's Market on her blog. These books are a goldmine of information on both perfecting the writing craft and finding an agent or publisher. 

Too Close to the Edge?

Currently Reading: Fourteen first-20-pages for everyone in the Martine Leavitt workshop next week. Lots of critiquing to do. 

Because of the recent article in the wall street journal by Meghan Cox Gurdon, here, and Robison Wells excellent response to that article, here, I've decided to re-post a blog I wrote last year for the Utah Children's Writers website. 

There has been a lot of talk lately about “edgy” young-adult literature.  Read the blurbs about what many agents are looking for and it will include the word “edgy” or "dark."  Manuscripts are rejected because they aren’t “edgy” enough.

Edgy is generally defined as books that push the boundaries of what is socially acceptable.  One definition said that there are no forbidden subjects in edgy young-adult fiction, but they are “written with sensitivity and care, not gratuitously.”

Critics opposed to edgy YA argue that the novels encourage destructive or immoral behavior.  

Those in favor claim that fictional portrayals of teens successfully addressing difficult situations and confronting social issues helps readers deal with real-life challenges.

One book that recently caught my eye is about a teenage girl who falls in love with a boy from her apartment building.  The girl’s feelings for the boy become confused when she discovers that he is actually a girl who has had a sex change.

Is that edgy?  Is it gratuitous?  Or does it help teens confront real-life challenges?  How many teens will really have to face that kind of situation?

Another recent book is written entirely in text message lingo and deals with a group of teenage girls who discuss boys, gossip, sex, clothes and getting drunk.  A book geared for grades 8-10.

One reader left her comment regarding this book on Amazon:  “This book offends me and makes me ashamed to be a teenage girl…is this what people think we’re like?  AHHH.  No.”

Are we underestimating our youth when we push edgy too far?  Are we selling the rising generation short when we appeal to the lowest common denominator?

Many books that were once considered too edgy are now taught in our schools.  Lord of the Flies, The Outsiders, and Speak.  What’s the difference?  What makes these books worthy of study?

What is the boundary between “edgy” and “trashy”?  Where is the line for taboo subject matter?  Do we compromise ourselves as authors when we cross those lines simply for the chance to make money or get our work published?

There are many books for YA's that deal with dark subject matter in a positive and inspiring way. I made my teenage son read "Thirteen Reasons Why" by Jay Asher because it dealt with the reality of suicide in a way that I felt sent the message I want my son to learn: You never know how unkind words might affect the life of another person, and suicide is not the answer.

All teens deal with challenges, heartache, and a huge range of deep, serious, emotional issues.  It seems to me that books that actually help them cope with these “real-life challenges” are uplifting, not gratuitous, and carry a message of safety and hope.  They stretch the teenage mind into a positive, new way of thinking that inspires them to want to be better, rather than simply shock and tantalize the senses.

What do you think?