Thank You, Twilight.

No, really.  I think that young adult authors everywhere owe Stephanie Meyer a debt of gratitude - and I don't mean for setting the YA fiction bar so low that we can easily step over it.  I honestly think that she deserves praise.

She has created a story with no discernible purpose.  Twilight is not full of important life lessons (unless you count old men hanging out in high schools and going after jail-bait is romantic or necrophilia is A-OK), it does not reach its readers to be better people or force them to think critically about the world.  What Twilight does (though I'm sure many will argue this) is entertain*

When I was a child, the thing that irritated me most about children's fiction was when the author referred to adults as "grown-ups".  In my mind, adults were adults - and only an adult would ever think of calling them anything else.

As I progressed into reading YA fiction, this feeling of being shortchanged remained - still caused by the obvious attempts of an older author to sound much younger than they were - like they were in disguise, trying to make their insights seem more palatable or their wisdom more realistic.  In most YA fiction that I've read, the authors blow their covers in two ways: trying to use language that makes them seem young, which, unless it's done with extreme skill,tends to come across like boy, this sure is funky - and with platitudes passed from the main character-puppet from their soapbox, right at the end of the story: She realized that her parents really did only want what was best for her.

Where Twilight succeeds, and where other books since have excelled, was with shrugging off the idea that YA fiction should be in some way appropriate.  There is some wisdom in the idea, in terms of parents being the ones who pay for the books and are, in theory, monitoring what their kids read - but Twilight (and a lot of the books that have followed) don't shy away from dark subject matter, and aren't afraid to stray into the realm of the ridiculous.  I'm not saying that Twilight is the first YA novel to take this route, just that its popularity has made it more acceptable to be taboo - and, yes, I acknowledge the inherent irony.

The thing is, I don't think that YA fiction has to do anything.  Our job as fiction writers is to tell the best story we can, in the best way that we can for our audience; it is not to raise other people's adolescents or police what young adults are reading and have access to.  If we can impart a lesson or two and avoid emotionally scarring our readers in the mix, that's just gravy.  I'm not saying I'm going to go out and write a bunch of quality-free YA pulp, but it's nice to know that the choice is there for me.

And if I want to write an ultimately meaningless piece of reader-gratifying fluff, I have that option.

*Not me.  But it must entertain someone.

So, So (So-So?)

So.
I didn't finish my NaNovel this year.  I'm still working on it, in between my day job and trying to learn Slovak, but I'm more than a little disappointed in myself.  I think I was padding my word count too much and it was leading to bad writing, which was leading to me not really feeling like putting the effort in.  Plus, suddenly working 9 hours a day after long periods of lazing around the house made me super tired.  Excuses, excuses.  Point is, I didn't finish.

And my real point is, rather than focusing on my unfinished story, to ask you how you found NaNo this year, if you finished, if you got anything out of it, if you'll be doing it next year, etc., etc.

Also, I'd like to take the opportunity to wish you a Merry Holiday of Your Choosing and a Happy New Year.

In keeping with last year's tradition, some random, creepy holiday art.

50,000!

I thought you might like to know that, between all of the DevCo-writing NaNoWriMo participants, we've passed the 50,000 word mark.  Most of this, I must confess, is down to E.

I'm under par, but pretty much back to where I want to be, IE, needing to write 2,000 words per day to finish on time.  I wrote 7,400 words this weekend to catch up, so I'm feeling pretty good about myself, if a little exhausted.

I have an early morning meeting at my day job tomorrow, so it's off to bed for me, but for those of you back in Canadaland, enjoy the rest of your writing day!

All Hallow's Read

My poster design for All Hallow's Read 2012

http://www.flickr.com/photos/athenasotherpics/6294880139/

Rain

It started raining last week.  Not heavy but endless.  Cold, constant, November rain. 

There aren't any animals.  If there are any left, they're in hiding, curled up under a tree somewhere, waiting for the rain to stop.  You can see faces, too, in the windows of other houses, staring out at you, watching the rain and wondering the same thing you've been wondering all along: is this it?

Of course it's not it.  You tell yourself that over and over again.  Of course it's not.  But you don't know, not for sure.

The world will end on a Tuesday, there isn't any question.  The only uncertain thing is which Tuesday it will choose - and where all the calenders have gone.

That's my flashy thing for the writing prompt I put up on Monday.  I had the idea for it during heavy rain yesterday, and wrote it just now - the sky is a crisp blue and cloudless, the sun is shining - we definitely are not having apocalyptic type rains here.

So I'm gearing up for NaNo, and working like a nut to finish my All Hallow's Read poster.  I only found out about the contest last week, so creating something worthy of AHR in that time is not going to be easy - that being said, I am at the finishing touches stage, so I should have it in by the end of the weekend, and I'll definitely post a link to it when I have.

I also finally got myself another day job, which is good (yay!) but is also a minimum of 45 hours per week (also yay!) - which means NaNoWriMo is going to be CRAZY this year, especially since I'm also going to Prague for four days at the end of next week (super yay!) - I'm going to have to write at least 2,000 words per day at the end of a 9 hour shift - but I was reading through my (now 16 page) outline a couple of days ago, and I really do think this story is going to be good.

Halloween!

I love Halloween.  I always have.  I think it's the combination of creepy and candy - and, of course, getting to be someone else for a night. 

I think the disguise aspect of Halloween appeals to my writer sensibilities.  I feel like each of our characters are costumes we put on, extensions of ourselves.  Obviously the degree to which this is true varies for each character (I don't believe all fiction writers are creating Mary-Sue MCs* and implanting them willy nilly into stories) but I think it's a little bit true for all of them.

You may be wonder why I am posting my Halloween post now, rather than, say, a week from now. Two reasons:

One, Neil Gaiman has come up with the concept of All Hallow's Read (If you haven't heard of it, the idea is that you give someone the gift of a scary book on Halloween), and I wanted to mention it early enough to give everyone a chance to choose and buy a scary book, if they are so inclined.

Two, it's been a while since we had a writing prompt, and I thought that since November is likely going to be a slow month in terms of DevCo posts, now would be a great time for one.

It's going to be a relatively easy one, because we all have NaNoWriMo and other things (if I remember correctly, midterms) on the brain, but here it goes:

Write something about fall.  Anything.  Up to 1000 words, fiction or non-fiction, poetry, whatever.  The only real rule is that it has to be about this wonderful season we find ourselves in (unless you live somewhere where it's spring right now.  If that is the case, please write about that).  To be posted anytime between now and October 31st.  Fallish/Halloween pictures would be great, too.

*If there isn't already, there needs to be a male equivalent to Mary-Sue.  My vote would be for Billy-Dean.

So...um...yeah.

Greetings!

I know I've fallen off the internet for a while...there's an explanation for that. It mostly involves living, but...yeah.

Anyway, everyone knows NaNo's staring in a a week or two, which is exciting...and I have no idea what I'm going to be writing for it. Maybe I'm out of practice, or maybe it's writer's block, but...I really haven't got a clue what to write, and every idea I come up with...doesn't work.

Now, I'm not whining...much. One of the biggest reasons I haven't come up with anything is time. You see, I've gone and acquired myself a husbandboyfriend and a stepson who's 8 now, and this month I've been embroiled in helping him to construct a Halo Spartan costume out of old shin guards, knee pads, etc, spraypaint, duct tape and cardboard. I got promoted in August to HR Manager at the hotel I work for, which is a much more hectic position for not too much more money than I was getting before, and I'm often there later than I would like to be...but the upside (no more night audit for me!) is also something of a downside, because it means I can't write at work.

I've barely even crocheted anything.

Now, I'm not whining because I'm being all growed up and doing my job and being step-mum when one has no real experience being a mum is...different (and not something I'll ever give up), but...I miss writing. NaNoWriMo would be the best time to get back into writing, except for the one, pesky detail that I can't escape:

What The Hell Am I Going To Write?