Library Love

One of my seemingly numerous day jobs is a substitute teacher at my former high school. There have been a bunch of changes in the district this year. With major budget cuts last spring, several teachers lost their jobs. A few also retired, including the grumpy old librarian who was essentially a male version of Madame Pince with a handlebar mustache.
The library of my memories as a student, student teacher, and substitute was a brittle and stuffy one. And not in an endearing nostalgic kind of way. More of a I'm going to get thrown out of here breathing too loud, don't you dare bring that water bottle in here, you heathen, you don't deserve to touch books kind of way. Really inviting. Not.
When I was subbing last week (the first time this year because I was in the other state) I passed the library and it was a completely different place. There was a Newberry Honor bulletin board on one side of the door and a collage of the best 100 YA titles to date on the other. Just inside the door, I saw a display table of Halloween themed books for October reading.
Later, I asked a student who the new librarian was and suddenly the world made sense again. The new librarian is the former elementary school librarian. The zany, quirky woman who made library period in grade school awesome.
As a rule I'm not a big fan of change but I am definitely a fan of this.

The Great Noveling Adventure!

I forgot to tell you! I am officially joining The Great Noveling Adventure. I will be posting on Saturdays starting next week, 19 October! I'm so incredibly excited.

Also, I bought a Disney Princesses calender and a HUGE package of stickers today because I'm trying the sticker technique. (learn about it here: http://youtu.be/kvDtCIA-_dk)

In other news, I am listening to my G4 playlist for the first time in a while and OMG it is so spot on. Sometimes I really know myself/my brain/my writing. :)

A great book and mini rant

A few days ago I read Unspoken by Sarah Rees Brennan and LOVED it. Well, loved it right up until the end.
The book full of sass and friendship and boys and magic and secrets. It was well written, imaginative, quirky, and painful. I forced myself to read it more slowly than I normally would because I was enjoying it so much and didn't want it to end. It was so good.
Then it ended.
The end is absolutely heartbreaking, but that wasn't why I didn't like it. I didn't like it because a few pages before the end it suddenly became really clear that this was the first book in a series and things were just taking off, not wrapping up. And nothing against series. I know they're trendy, plus more of a good thing. But sometimes I just want a book to be self-contained. I want it to end on the last page.
That being said, I still love Unspoken, and I plan to continue the series. I just feel have a preference to single books.
ok, end rant.

Musical Family.

You all know musical theatre plays a big role in G4, right? Well, musical theatre played a pretty big role in my own high school existence and I now do choreography for my old high school (this is a blessing and a curse). 

When I was a senior, I adopted a musical little sister. Not everyone does it, at least not formally, but I did. She was the cousin of the lead, far too pretty for her own good, and completely innocent in the ways of musical drama. I already knew her vaguely from working with the elementary school musical. (As I write this, I realize just how big a part of my life musicals were and are. Suddenly I am no longer surprised I am writing a story like G4.) I also had her father as my global history teacher. K, as we'll call her, was just what I needed my senior year when I was full of nostalgia for all my past shows and worried that I would never perform musical theatre again (which I sadly haven't). 

K is in college herself now, a volleyball star at a big ten school where she doesn't really have time for musicals anymore. I haven't talked to her in a while though I keep tabs on her through her cousin (the lead from senior year and also a good friend). Despite writing about a high school musical, I actually hadn't thought about K in a while. 

Then, today, she posted on my Facebook wall. Bam. Social media strikes again. She called me Big Sis, and I was flooded with nostalgia and I missed her. I missed sharing stories and helping her deal with first year issues. I missed coming back to see her in her prime years later. I missed everything about my little sister and our wonderful musical memories. I miss you, K. 

I'm taking the day off from writing because I'm liable to make stupid choices because I'm thinking about my musical life instead of Mirella's. 

cemetery finds

I made a stop on the way to the corn maze to write in the cemetery (don't judge) and look what I found!

Voice (and my TGNA audition piece)

My boyfriend and I recently drove from Columbus, Ohio to Princeton, NJ and back. In the gaps between Black Sabbath, Blue Oyster Cult, Rush, The Clash, Twisted Sister, and various others, we listened to A LOT of NPR talk radio. Deprived of the visual accompaniments afforded by TV news, the way in which the news was delivered mattered. It wasn’t just some airbrushed, pantsuit-clad woman sitting behind a news desk as images of bloody car accidents and struggling schools flashed across the screen. I listened to a report of the Navy Yard shooting and a music review within half an hour of each other, and I could tell the difference in subject matter from the get go.

All I could think about was Voice. 

Voice :

1. Voice is the author's style, the quality that makes his or her writing unique, and which conveys the author's attitude, personality, and character; or
2. Voice is the characteristic speech and thought patterns of a first-person narrator; a persona. Because voice has so much to do with the reader's experience of a work of literature, it is one of the most important elements of a piece of writing.

As a writer, I've spent a large amount of time constructing my characters and getting to know them. Recently, I've come to realize that even a wonderfully developed character can fall flat with the wrong voice.  Also, just as a poor voice can be detrimental, a quality voice can be redeeming. I remember reading a book a few months ago that was terribly predictable with a formulaic story line and stock characters. However, the voice of the narrator was so spot on, so acutely accurate, that I really enjoyed it.

My current project, G4, is narrated in the first person by Mirella, a drama nerd in her senior year of high school. She’s a bit off beat, loves old movies, and is dying to live a little. Getting the voice right is crucial not only to her character, but to the story as a whole.

For example, Mirella is snarky and smart but she doesn't sound like she is doing a voice over for National Geographic when she describes her peers and the world around her. That doesn't mean she can’t use “big words” or has to narrate in slang. (although she could). What it does mean is that the words fit and flow consistently with her character and mood. Mirella absolutely uses words like scampered, compares her classmates to lost kids in the grocery store, and occasionally uses extreme punctuation for emphasis.

To be honest, finding Mirella’s voice was both easy and hard. I know her, so I know what I am trying for, but actually getting it on the paper isn't always easy. Keeping the voice consistent is even harder. Sometimes I have to read what I've written out loud to really get a feel for what it sounds like (or doesn't). Other times, I know as my pen slides across the page that the words are perfect. Still other times, my CP’s have to point out things that slipped through. 

Take away from all that rambling? Experiment and find the voice that works for your character and your story. Then, keep it up. Use your skills and your (beta) readers to help. 

Happy Writing!

Checkpoint

Guys,

I have officially filled an entire one subject notebook with nothing but words for G4. I am so excited to be making real progress on this story. I love getting into the plot and character interactions. I love seeing where this story is going since I'm pantsing it.

I am going out of town for the next week so I don't think I will get much written but I will be having a great time anyway. When I get back it will be pen to paper all the time :)