The Good, The Bad, and The Just Shoot Me in the Face so this will End Already.

I am reading a book I do not particularly like and it’s been a little rough for me.  I refuse to give up because I want to like it so much…but I can’t.  The premise is incredible, the cover amazing, but my internal editor is freaking out over the repetitive use of words and phrases sometimes within the same paragraph! 

We know this can and does happen even with new releases.  None of us are immune.  We all have our tics that we don’t see as clearly as we'd like (my overuse of the words ‘but’, ‘almost’, and ‘just’ top the list), but hopefully we catch as many as we can before it hits the shelves.  However, the one thing that I can’t overlook is a voice that just isn't authentic to the story.

This is YA and I actually had to look up a word to see what it meant*.  If I don’t know what it means you can bet my teenager doesn’t either, and would definitely not be able to use it in a sentence.  Even if he did know, he wouldn’t use it because his friends would give him an atomic wedgie while dancing around him in a circle, chanting.  Yes, his high school is strikingly similar to Lord of the Flies.

But I will finish this book, regardless of how I feel.  Because it isn’t just the good books that make us better writers, it’s the bad ones as well.  And honestly, is there ever really a bad book?  Or is personal taste getting in the way of our objectiveness?

* I’m pretty well read and although my education was not the finest, it was more than adequate to place me in a professional field.  In other words…I am not an idiot.  I hope.  At least not most of the time and never in public.  Unless I'm drinking.  Then none of this applies.

What I did on My Chistmas Vacation

Ate and Read.  That's pretty much it.  You don't want to hear about shopping nightmares, a frenzied Christmas morning, washing stacks of dishes every few hours, or the fact that toward the end my cleaning consisted of scooting toys into a big pile in the corner with my foot.

I ate and read.  I also took a day to write but it wasn't easy after finishing this trilogy.

I can't tell you about it.  I wouldn't be able to do it justice.  Just read it and know that for a few days afterward everything you write will sound like sh** in comparison.  Get over it.  You don't want to be the next Suzanne Collins.  You want to be the next you. 

So, what did you do on your Christmas Vacation?  Anything exciting?  Tell me so I can live vicariously through your adventures.

Wednesday’s Word:Wordecstasy (wor-dec-stasy)

You know the feeling you get when you read something really good? The hair lifts on your arms and a great swell of feeling rises up in the middle of your chest...a force so powerful that it must be vocalized. Whether it’s a laugh or cry doesn’t matter…it’s the power of the words.

Every word nerd knows what I’m talking about. Those stories you didn’t just read but actually lived. You know how cramped the cupboard was under the stairs on Privet Drive or how the sun felt on your shoulders when you stood in a field of wheat on a different world and watched men with wings jump from towers. You’ve smelled the salty sea air even though you have never seen the ocean…and fought vampires on a snowy mountain slope to save someone you loved.

You have cried with these characters, laughed with them, felt their pain and their fierce joy. You know them and they are family. When you open the pages of their story…you are home.

This is more than just reading…it is Wordecstasy.

And that, my friends, is the Word.

Tuesday's Take: Eating Your Genre

What genre do you read normally? Do you stick with the same one or do you hop around, sampling a variety of tasty morsels offered?

Limiting yourself and not reading outside your genre is like having the same thing for dinner every single night. Mac and cheese gets old. Pretty soon you will find yourself only able to talk about mac and cheese. You will not be able to share recipes with friends…because you only know how to make mac and cheese. There are different versions of course, you can step away from the box and try to create home made.  It may taste better but in the end…it’s still mac and cheese.

Do not be afraid to experiment. Try new things. You might not like everything you try but you will never know if you don’t give it a chance.

You might find that missing ingredient that you never realized you were searching for. Then when you do go back to your old favorite, you can bring all the knowledge you gained and before you know it…instead of just macaroni and cheese…you may have a full blown noodle casserole.

Why eat just your own genre when there are so many more books waiting to be devoured?

 

That’s my take on it. Anyone else hungry?

Monday Must Read!!

The Body Finder by Kimberly Derting.

This is Kimberly’s debut novel and it’s incredible. It is rare that I get caught up in a story so completely that I forget to look at the mechanics of the writing but with this story it was impossible not to.

Overview:
Violet can sense dead bodies. Each one leaves a specific echo and they call to her. It is her junior year of high school and the bodies calling to her are the victims of a serial killer that she intends to help capture. If that wasn’t enough, she develops a smokin’ hot relationship with her childhood friend Jay…and I do mean smokin’.

The writing is tight, the descriptions are remarkable, and the characters are people we wouldn’t mind hanging out with.
Total Bonus: Kimberly is a rabid Stephen King fan. If I didn’t love her before, that sealed it.

Read her blog, and you will find that she is also really funny in a down to earth, self-deprecating kind of way. I can’t wait to read more of her stories in the future.

Agent: Laura Rennert of the Andrea Brown Literary Agency
Read an interview with her at Dark Faerie Tales.
Visit her website: kimberlyderting.com/

Writers Are Readers

What do you read? I know that you do because the idea that you don't is unbelievable. Over on Nathan Bransford's blog last week there was some discussion about whether you need to be well read in order to be a good writer. That the question was even asked was a shock to me. That some people actually said no was beyond shock. How could you possibly hope to be a writer when you don't read? Why would you even want to? Reading is a writer's first love.

When I was younger, I read whatever I could get my hands on. Adventures, mysteries, romances, my brother's westerns. Don't knock Louis L'Amour until you've read him. He is the man. I discovered V.C. Andrews in the 5th grade. I found Stephen King a short time later. Those were two very different genres, yet I loved them both. I read whatever appeals to me that week and the selection is unlimited.

I have read a few classics and enjoyed them but I am primarily a lover of commercial fiction. I don't care what you read, as long as your reading. How can you hope your writing will appeal to readers everywhere when you are not one of us?

Learning To Read...Again.

I love to read. That phrase seems so pale compared to the feeling behind it. There are few things that I enjoy more than a good story. I love movies but the movie that plays in my head when I'm reading has wide screen, High Def, and surround sound. I not only see the characters, I get to hear what they are thinking. I am a voracious reader and when the story takes me, I can read at a much faster pace.

I read the first three books of Stephenie Meyers 'Twilight' series in one weekend. From late Friday evening to Sunday afternoon. The only reason I didn't start the fourth was because I had not purchased it yet.....and by that time I wasn't sure if my name was Bella, Edward or James Earl Jones. The story took me and it was hard to pull myself back out of it. I loved Edward Cullen with all the intensity of a high school crush for several weeks. I am still in recovery.

That is how I read as a reader, but as a writer I feel as if I am learning to read all over again. I force myself to slow down, I hold back and try not to be consumed by the story so I can study technique. This is incredibly hard at times but necessary. I read 'Twilight' again and I saw mistakes. The writing is not as polished as it could be and it is flooded with flowery purple prose. It is still a great story and Stephenie Meyers made us care about the characters....and she made us believe.

Some books are easier to read than others. It took me two nights to read Dan Brown's Angels and Demons. I struggled with the frenetic pace and the complex symbolism. It was a good book but a hard read. I went back and reread some of Laurel K Hamilton's books. Whether you read them fast or slow....you always want to sit back and light up a cigarette afterwards. Stephen King has a style all his own. He is clear, abrupt, and shockingly insightful. All of his characters are flawed, as we all are, and yet we love them more for it. You get the impression that King sees more deeply than the rest of us and isn't afraid to share that vision.

I still love to get lost in the story but reading with a writer's eyes is necessary for us to improve. I have pulled out historical romances that I used to love from ten years ago and I wince at how badly that are written. These books are actually more of a learning tool than the good ones. We know when something isn't working, when the writing is mediocre and the characters as one dimensional as a cardboard cutout. It can be difficult articulating exactly what is wrong at times when I don't enjoy a book but part of learning to write is being able to spot these flaws in the work of others and making sure we do not repeat those mistakes.