Read with your kids instead of banning books

by | Sep 19, 2010 | Uncategorized

A YA book that deals with tough and unfortunately relevant subject matter, SPEAK, is under attack. You can read more about that here.

I see two separate issues here. One, silencing people who talk about violence against women and girls does not make violence against women and girls go away. It only helps perpetuate the problem.

Two, if you are concerned about what your kids read (and I’m sorry, but you only have the right to be concerned about what YOUR kids read), the best way to deal with that is not by banning books. It’s by reading with your kids, going to libraries and bookstores with them, and guiding them to appropriate choices when needed.

My kids are far too young to read SPEAK. We’re reading Ivy and Bean here. But the need to direct kids to more appropriate reading level started well before kindergarten. My five year old wants to read comic books with werewolves and monsters in them. She’s not old enough to deal with graphic images. So we guide her to age appropriate comics featuring characters like Lightning McQueen, and to picture books like Neil Gaiman’s The Dangerous Alphabet, which is creepy enough to please her but still well within her tolerance.

We don’t just tell her no, you can’t read that book/see that movie or TV show. We explain why and help her choose something else.

Like it or not, kids are experiencing the problems confronted in SPEAK
in reality, and pretending that isn’t true will not make it true. Why
not read the book with your kid and use it as an opportunity to discuss
personal safety, what to do if the worst happens, what to do if it
happens to a friend?

I read an interview in which a friend of the deceased author of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo said he wrote the books because he was haunted by a rape he witnessed as a teen, when he was so shocked and unprepared for the reality that he didn’t know what to do and only realized later that he probably could have stopped it. So SPEAK doesn’t only speak to girls. 

Violence against women is a reality. It happens to all age groups, including those who are least experienced and knowledgeable and least able to deal with the consequences. I encourage parents of teens to at least discuss these issues with their kids and point them to resources and help them think of appropriate actions they or their friends could take. Maybe the book isn’t for you, or isn’t for your kids, but these issues are likely to confront them at some point in their lives, and talking about it is a far better choice than silence.

Project RX

by | Sep 17, 2010 | Uncategorized

I’ve been going through projects, trying to decide what to work on, and discovered that basically I have 3 I feel very strongly about and they all have serious flaws.

And basically all those flaws come down to the same flaw, which is trying to push the story to fit a particular editor/line/whatever set of requirements, and in every case the story suffered as a result.

So now I have to decide whether to throw out what’s written and start over, or revise heavily, or some of both. For the most part, a lot of what’s written is fine, it’s just badly incomplete and also has some stuff that jars me reading it as clearly not my voice. (Who was I trying to sound like when I wrote that sentence/scene, I find myself wondering.)

Really it all comes down to: you have to trust the story. You have to trust your voice. You have to follow your gut. This is hard to do when you’re writing to fit somebody  else’s vision of what the story should be. I know there are some writers who do very well at building around an external framework, but I’ve learned that I am not that kind of writer. For me it’s all internal and I have to excavate a lot to find out what kind of thing I’m working with. It’s a process of discovery, and it’s a fragile thing in the early stages.

For me, trying to write from an external point results in this kind of Project RX. Which is why I currently have no desire to ever sign a contract before a story is done again.

For now and for the forseeable future, the cure is to just write the book without expectations. And then when I see what I have, rework it to make it better, stronger, truer. And when I can’t come up with any other way to improve it, send it out into the world to find a home.

Project RX. I see a whole lot of Motivation Reaction Unit analysis in my future, but for now, the biggest issues are character and stakes so we start with the big story pieces first.

Come on, PBW (apologies to Dexy’s Midnight Runners)

by | Sep 14, 2010 | Uncategorized

Poor old Johnny Franzen
Sounded sad upon the big hurrah, he moved a million hearts through Oprah.
Our mothers cried and read along and who’d blame them.
Now you’re NYT, not literary, now I must say more than ever.
Go Toora Loora Toora Loo-Rye-Aye
and we can write just like our fathers.

Come on PBW,
We miss you (and your blog) I check daily hoping for  something,
Your
pub dictionary entries so full of hilarity you’re subversive
Ah come on PBW.

These authors round here wear beaten down eyes
Sunk in Mary Kay faces they’re so resigned to what their fate is,
But not us, no not us we are far too young and clever.
Remember Toora Loora Toora Loo-Rye-Aye
PBW we’ll hum this tune forever.

Come on PBW, one more blog entry
Ah come on, you can write anything,
They won’t get you in a suit (you’d hoot)
Ah come on, blog, ah come on PBW.

And just so you can have the earworm all day, here’s a link to
the real song.