Networking

I'll be the first to admit that I'm not all that great at networking. It's not just that I'm a slightly technologically challenged teenager, it's also that I find it difficult to tell whether what I'm saying is interesting and I have almost no idea whether an online community will be good for me until after I get into it. I usually try something for a while and then drop off the face of the forum, either a week or a year later, and occasionally go back and look at my quiet page and think about what it's like to be an internet ghost. By the way, if anyone wants to write about an internet ghost, you can have that one. Like I said, technologically challenged here, and that idea frightens me because of the amount of research that could possibly be involved. Can spectral material travel over internet signals? How does chain mail feel as it zips through your entity? Are spammers really just ghosts that are as tech-illiterate as me trying to get our attention?

Anyway. Lately, when I go to join a writing site, it seems like it's either a big gaint community that intimidates me with it's connectedness, a giant community that really isn't very connected at all and isn't that great of a place to be, or a small community that intimidates me by its intimateness. And most WIP sharing sites have strict rules about what can be in manuscripts, and I break at least a few of them. This makes me kind of sad. I had no idea my book was too bad for the internet. The irnoy is cold and painful like a rusty scouring pad to my self-confidence.

Anyway. What I'm trying to say is I know it's not as easy as it seems to do social networking. People you meet over the internet can be just as, if not more, intimidating than real-life people. The pressure is all on you to be witty and charming without even having eyelashes to bat, and internet sarcasm has a nasty habit of going over peoples heads. So if you are a socially awkward struggling networker trying to find their place in cyberspace, don't be afraid to ask for help. Just not from me, 'cause I'm as clueless as the rest of you. I also use 'Anyway' way to much. I was just about to start another paragraph with it. I'll restrain myself.

...Check out these websites that have at least marginally worked for me!

http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/
http://www.webook.com/home
http://fantasy-writers.org/default.asp

And fictionpress.com is okay, but you've gotta have a way to draw people in from other places, because that site is ginormous.

Til next time!

The Song of the Story

A lot of writers say this, but I can't help associating stories with music. A song can take one emotion out of the many connected threads which make a novel and make you feel it (my Christian Living teacher refers to this facet of modern music as 'emotional porn'. It's kind of funny, yet kind of disturbing). It's a way of increasing the emotional connection between the character and the writer/reader, because many songs (mostly popular song) are generic and can speak to the experience of the character while also speaking to your experience or your desires. Songs help you understand how and why people can relate to your character, because a large number of people in the general demographic have related to the song, if it's popular.

If the music fits the tone, too, you're on a roll.

There's a reason I've been thinking about this, but I'm not sure I want to go into it just now. Instead, I'm gonna list a few songs that make me think of books I've loved, or vice-versa.

The Reason (Hoobastank) - Girl, Stolen (April Henry)
Once (Caleb Kane) - Ink Exchange (Melissa Marr)
Chasing Cars (Snow Patrol) - The Outsiders (S.E. Hinton)
I'm Alive (Becca) - Howl's Moving Castle (Dianna Wynne Jones)
Ugly Side (Blue October) - Beastly (Alex Flinn)
I Will Possess Your Heart (Death Cab for Cutie) - Paranormalcy (Kiersten White)

I'm sure there've been more, but I've forgotten them.

Of course I do this with my books, too. Rather obsessively. Perhaps, one day, I'll be able to post some of those here, when people have actually read them. I will say that "I Will Follow You into the Dark" is rather permanently in my head as "the song of the story" for Accidents. There are a few others.

Now that I've prattled, I want to hear your thoughts. Do you agree with my match-ups? What songs do you associate with a book or character? What songs would you chose to represent your own work?

Maybe I'm Crazy...

I've never tried to review a book before. The English journals I've been posting are the closest I come. But I just figured out how to work my dad's camera, and I've been wanting to make a more professional youtube account, and it all just sort of happened. Apparently I do video book reviews now.

There's only one up, for Girl, Stolen by April Henry. Wonderful book. If you want to know why, well, you have to go watch the review.



I hope this works...

I wonder how long I'll keep this up. I have one more video waiting to be edited and a few more books I already know I want to review, and I'm having way more fun than I should with this. So, we'll see where it goes.

Sincerely (deranged),

Day

Writing Class, Scripts, and Classics

My writing elective for this semester began today. Because my teacher is awsome, we spent most of our hour-and-a-half watching and discussing clips from Knight Rider and movie trailers. This could partly due to our writing scripts this year, or it could be my teacher's idolization of talking cars and The Hoff. Anyway. I had a novel I've been dying to try writing out as a script, so I'm feeling pretty good about it. And at the end of the class the guy who wrote the script for Buried (the movie that won Sundance where the entire film takes place inside a coffin) is going to come in and talk to us. We're connected like that. (Sort of. His cousin attends our school.)

Any writers who've tried this before, what's it like trying to switch a story from novel to script? Hopefully at the end of the summer I'll be able to answer this myself!

Also, while my mom's copies of A Seperate Peace and The Great Gatsby (assigned reading, yay~) seem to have dropped into some black abyss, I located a very dusty Catcher in the Rye and started reading it. I have never felt so inundated by swearwords in my life. But by golly if it's not some of the best characterization I've ever read. Things don't get to be "classics" for no reason, I guess. I will eventually finish the six-thousand books on my pile, but Holden might come first...

I missed journals on Sunday. There will be some this weekend, unless the snow decides I'm not allowed to have power.

God bless us, every one.

English Journal and Baby Rant

I finally have my journal back. So the first one for Living Dead Girl goes up today, but before I get into all that sadness and amazingity, I figure I can rant about this because this blog is supposed to be about being a writer and a minor, and it's semi-related, so humor me.

I've never entered a writing contest. I probably should, but they make me incredibly nervous for no good reason. Then sometimes, like today, in my case, you'll stumble across a contest that looks really fantastic -- free edits from editors or agents, chances of publication, money, the good stuff. And then, just as you're thinking, "Maybe it'd be worth it," you see the clause: must be over eighteen years of age. Gahburgahhhh. Whatever. I'll just have to go out and find a good one without the clause (like this one over at Coming Down The Mountain: http://karenjonesgowen.blogspot.com/2011/01/here-it-is-as-promised-submissions.html). It's my own fault for not being a proactive contest-enterer.

Anyway, enough of my frustration. In two years I'll be able to enter whatever contests I want (by the way, I've been worrying recently what I'm going to do with this blog when I'm not a minor anymore. I suppose I could keep the name under the idea of writing for minors, which I still plan to do.) Here's some ramblings about a wonderful book.


Living Dead Girl -- Elizabeth Scott

I'm not sure what I'm going to say about this book. I don't suppose saying, "It's indescribable" would win me any points? Maybe I'll start on the writing style and see if I'm up to the plot as I get on.

It would not be inaccurate to say the book was brilliantly written, though well written might be a bit of a stretch. The author has given up convention and 'literary excellence,' offering instead a first-person narrative whose heart beats between each syllable. The simplicity of the language juxtaposes interestingly with the depth of concept, reflecting realistically (or at least I think so) the voice of a teenager who, though only educated up to fifth grade, spends a lot of time experiencing and thinking about difficult things. It's an immediate voice, with flashbacks that feel like real, powerful memories and a cold, disenchanted life that's strangely enrapturing. The author didn't have to go into the gory details to whip your heart around like a kite in a hurricane. It's a journey-taking book. I read most of it in one sitting, and was disappointed to be interrupted.

It's a New Year...

I should get some sort of award. "Latest New Year Post". Isn't there a wall of shame somewhere for people like me?

Anyway.

I'm not gonna do a list of resolutions, because I don't like to be disappointed or disappoint others. However there are a few things I'm planning. Tentatively.

1. I would like to blog twice or thrice a week. Because my current level of suck here is just ridiculous.

2. I want to read all the classics on my TBR list (To Kill a Mockingbird, Catcher in the Rye, some Shakespeare, and finish Huck Finn and Dorian Gray).

3. I want to be more outgoing; comment more, interact, etc.

4. I want to query for Accidents and complete at least two first drafts.

That's all. At least, all the interweb related ones.

In other news, I finally found a beta partner. Her name is Writein and we met on Absolute Write (wonderful forums, an awesome query workshop and lively discussions) on a third party's beta reader request thread. I'll see if I can scrounge up a post about betas and editing after we've finished each others books.

And, with a B&N giftcard graciously given by my aunt, I've read Personal Demons, Ink Exchange, House of Many Ways, and am about a third through with Dorian Gray (I also bought Danger Days, new album of awesome, but I can't start talking about that or I swear I will gush). House of Many Ways was wonderful; even better than Castle in the Air, but not quite as good as Howl's Moving Castle, I thought. Ink Exchange was really neat, and I'll probably be reading more Melissa Marr soon. Personal Demons was great, but dunno if I'm gonna read Original Sin. Got a few funny looks carrying that book around, but it's worth it. Dorian Gray is an example of why I don't need drugs - a future favorite, I think. Probably all of these will show up in the English Journals posts eventually, but my journal is now being graded for the last quarter, which is why I didn't post one tonight. When I get it back, the next two will be for Pegasus by Robin McKinley. (Edit: I lied. They're actually about Living Dead Girl. I'll get to Pegasus eventually.)

Happy New Year. Anyone have any fun resolutions (or tentative plans) for 2011?

English Journal: Paranormalcy #3

Let's not mention last week. It was a bad week.

As always, beware of spoilers, read good books, and happy holidays.


Evie works for IPCA, an international organization which attempts, with mixed success, to control various paranormal creatures and keep them away from humans. They are just a little anal about this. When Evie leaves IPCA later in the book, 'organization does not equal justice' becomes something of a theme. She joins what might be considered an anarchist faction, if the book had been more political. Though it's run by a normal man, the principle is for the paranormals to keep each other in check, rather than having Big Brother constantly peeking over their shoulder. There's understandable animosity in the faction toward IPCA, made more reasonable when you discover some of their less lucrative tactics. Still, the tension between the "anarchists" and Evie is practically palpable for a while, until she comes to terms with her friends being her enemies, and vice versa.

Evie tried to explore other species' positions a little, earlier on, but she's quickly distracted by her own duties and opinions. Joining the faction wakes her up a bit. I was glad she didn't flip-flop - "They're good, I like them, oh wait, they're bad, I hate them." She does become something I'm constantly working toward: objective. She reconciles with the fact that even the people she loves are at fault, and even those at fault can be loved.



That's it for the Paranormalcy journals. The next two, if I keep going in order, will be on the incomparable Living Dead Girl by Elizabeth Scott.