Old People Writing for Teens, IV

Status
Not open for further replies.

Stiger05

Super Member
Registered
Joined
May 25, 2011
Messages
2,497
Reaction score
234
Location
Huntsville, AL
This is also my dilemma. I must have gone through the earlier chapters a (or two) dozen times.

Among the bugs, my original secondary plot line (packing orders at school) was too plain/happy/conflict-less and I'm revamping it, but every evening during shower (my brainstorm time) I'll figure out something wrong with my intended approach and thus its become an eternal back-and-forth struggle. I'm now trying to skip school plot and move on with the main plot. I'm not sure how this approach will work. It's kinda frustrating. I think I need more whiskey and ice cream.

The stinking shower gets me every time. I've rewritten the first two chapters of my WIP like ten times. I was thinking about it in the shower the other morning when the beginning popped in my head. I had repeat it over and over in my head while I hurried to rinse my hair so I could scribble it down before I forgot it. It's far from perfect, but it's finally in a place where I can move on and keep writing.

I think the key is not to lose momentum once you get it. You can always go back and revise later if you realize the beginning isn't quite right. That's what I keep having to tell myself.

Of course more whiskey and ice cream never hurts.
 

Sage

Currently titleless
Staff member
Moderator
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Oct 15, 2005
Messages
64,562
Reaction score
22,367
Age
43
Location
Cheering you all on!
So hyped up about H/V series. Wish I could write it. Right now I'm going through book 1, seeing if the plot twist I want for the series can work or not. I think it can, and I kinda love it the more I plan it.

But first I have to type up my write-in story for this week. I didn't love it, and I think it was much better in my head than on the page. Of course, the prompt had to do with colors and in my head I could see the colors...

Haphazard - You may need to go with Stiger05's advice. Finish your draft and work with some betas. It may be your book is right on target and where it should be. Plenty of writers (JK Rowling included) have said they didn't write for a certain age group, but wrote what they wanted to say. The age group/genre found them. This may be your case as well. Just keep writing and see where it takes you!
I remember you had the age group problem a lot, Hap. So, I agree that it's worth finishing the book and then seeing where it falls age group-wise. You might have to edit to meet a market, but you're going to have to edit anyway. Don't worry about it for now, or whether your setting or plot is similar or different from anything else, or whether it starts too slow, or whether it should. This is the first draft. Worry about those things later. Enjoy the writing process :)
 

Hapax Legomenon

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jun 28, 2007
Messages
22,289
Reaction score
1,491
Review requests? What are those?

EDIT: also I think I may actually be writing MG.
 
Last edited:

triceretops

Banned
Flounced
Joined
Feb 12, 2005
Messages
14,060
Reaction score
2,755
Location
In a van down by the river
Website
guerrillawarfareforwriters.blogspot.com
Yes, when you have an Author Review Copy (ARC) it means it's time for the publisher to send out either trade paperback or e-book versions to review sources--like Kirkus, NYT, Library Journal, Locus and such places. As an author, I get involved and solicit review sources to see if any of them are interested in reading and reviewing the book online, or in print magazine fashion. I turn all requests over to my publisher and they send out the books. It's part of a pre-launch campaign and normally lasts from 2 to 3 months, depending on scheduling.

ETA: I say "requests" because a lot of reviewers do not want you to slam them with a copy, cold and out of the blue. They have forms or guidelines or "policies" on how to send in a copy, usually by providing an explanation about the book first. They want to make sure it's the right genre, category, length and such things.
 
Last edited:

Hapax Legomenon

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jun 28, 2007
Messages
22,289
Reaction score
1,491
Ah I see. Makes sense.

Must be a fun job though, reviewing books.

Question: Would there be a winter break if there was no such thing as Christmas or Christianity in general?
 
Last edited:

Sage

Currently titleless
Staff member
Moderator
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Oct 15, 2005
Messages
64,562
Reaction score
22,367
Age
43
Location
Cheering you all on!
It's not always fun. I just reviewed a book that was not so fun. The books you review aren't always going to be winners or appeal to you in the end.
 

jtrylch13

Has semi-colon; will use it!
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Nov 17, 2010
Messages
3,169
Reaction score
353
Location
Michigan
I'd LOVE to get paid to review books, but your right. I bet it isn't always fun. Better than drawing highway plans, though. (My old job!)
 

StoryG27

Miss Behave
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Aug 2, 2005
Messages
10,394
Reaction score
4,062
Location
TN
I'd LOVE to get paid to review books, but your right. I bet it isn't always fun. Better than drawing highway plans, though. (My old job!)

Or being a mortgage loan officer.
My current job.

I can imagine there are times it wouldn't be great, but right now, I'd trade for it!
 

KSavoie

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Dec 17, 2012
Messages
822
Reaction score
63
Location
Los Angeles
Website
undergradtoauthor.blogspot.com
I've reviewed books before that you just can't get into or are horribly anti-feminism, it was a nightmare to read, and it just makes you want to throw the book and never finish it. Unfortunately you know you have to.

On another note, the undergrad literary magazine I work at gives away an award every year to a book that has come out in that current year and for 2013 we got a book from Joyce Carol Oats, a book from Amy Tan, and a crap ton of books from Harper-Collins! This is really huge for us so I'm really excited!
 

Stiger05

Super Member
Registered
Joined
May 25, 2011
Messages
2,497
Reaction score
234
Location
Huntsville, AL
I can definitely see how book reviewing can be tedious. I think I'd rather just read for fun.

Ah I see. Makes sense.

Must be a fun job though, reviewing books.

Question: Would there be a winter break if there was no such thing as Christmas or Christianity in general?

Probably. The Christian Christmas celebration was put in December to coincide with Winter Solstice celebrations as a way to ease other religions into Christianity. That's where the tree comes from. They combined celebrations a lot, actually. It's why we have the Easter Bunny/Easter eggs, etc, it's why All Saint's Day is the day after Halloween. The Winter Solstice celebrations were older and common. I want to say they can at least track it back to the Druids.

Most historians believe Jesus was actually born sometime in March or May.
 
Last edited:

Hapax Legomenon

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jun 28, 2007
Messages
22,289
Reaction score
1,491
What is the purpose of winter solstice, anyway? Isn't it still a form of worship? The dominant religion seems to be non-Christian Gnosticism (if that's even a thing that makes sense) so I'm unsure if they would have any religious holidays at all.
 

jtrylch13

Has semi-colon; will use it!
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Nov 17, 2010
Messages
3,169
Reaction score
353
Location
Michigan
Better than drawing highway plans, though. (My old job!)

Or being a mortgage loan officer.
My current job.

Well I bet it still beats my current situation -- being unemployed.

On another note, the undergrad literary magazine I work at gives away an award every year to a book that has come out in that current year and for 2013 we got a book from Joyce Carol Oats, a book from Amy Tan, and a crap ton of books from Harper-Collins! This is really huge for us so I'm really excited!

Quit rubbing it in KSavoie! :)
 

Stiger05

Super Member
Registered
Joined
May 25, 2011
Messages
2,497
Reaction score
234
Location
Huntsville, AL
What is the purpose of winter solstice, anyway? Isn't it still a form of worship? The dominant religion seems to be non-Christian Gnosticism (if that's even a thing that makes sense) so I'm unsure if they would have any religious holidays at all.

Read the Wikipedia article in Sage's link. It's the longest night and shortest day of the year. People just celebrated that. Yay, we made it this far! We're alive, let's feast! The days are going to get longer from this point forward, yay for more sun! The religious ties came later.
 

Hapax Legomenon

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jun 28, 2007
Messages
22,289
Reaction score
1,491
I'd think that if you wanted a "hooray we're alive" holiday you might want to put it in February, then again there might not be enough to feast on because everyone's starved to death. I'm also still having trouble thinking of why you might get two weeks or more off of school for just that.

I need to do some serious worldbuilding...
 
Last edited:

Zoombie

Dragon of the Multiverse
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Dec 24, 2006
Messages
40,775
Reaction score
5,947
Location
Some personalized demiplane
I want to start a thread in the YA forum to ask a question, but I don't really know if I want an answer to the question, or if I just want to show off my plot ideas.

...hm...

Also, celebrating the winter solstice moves beyond being happy we're alive. It is also just nice to know that days won't get any shorter and nights won't get any longer and that soon, the growing season will be starting. That's reason enough to be happy, I think.
 

Hapax Legomenon

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jun 28, 2007
Messages
22,289
Reaction score
1,491
I'm not totally agrarian but I would guess that the winter solstice is closer to the end of the last growing season than the beginning of the new one?
 

Hapax Legomenon

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jun 28, 2007
Messages
22,289
Reaction score
1,491
I mean like you have October with harvest festivals, and then you have November, and then in December you've got your solstice, and then there's still two and a half months until anything thaws.

I guess it's kind of stupid to argue with stuff that already happened, though.
 
Last edited:

lisalulu09

Potterhead Gleek
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Aug 12, 2009
Messages
15,476
Reaction score
120
Location
Hogwarts
A thirteen year old princess who goes to become a knight after finding out her country might be going to war.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.