Monday, March 20, 2006

Monday's To Do

Quite a week I have going for me. I have 13 things on the to do list, including two articles due, three articles due the next week and I have to make sure I have the sources for, finish polishing the first three chapters of Lips and send back out to Jenny, and start on the synopsis. Those are just a list sampling. Busy, busy, busy.

I like busy though. It keeps me from thinking about not making the GH finals. How do I know for sure? I just do. My prologue that I sent out with the GH version isn't nearly as strong as the one I have now. So there you go. Plus, I know a lot of the women who entered the YA catagory. A lot of them have scored agents or contracts with those very same books. I know, I know, I am one of those who scored an agent with her GH entry, but I haven't gotten a contract yet, have I? So I am fairly certain that I haven't made it and I am okay with that. But still... there is a little part of me. LOL That wishes I would. Hee. And no, I'm not just saying this to have people prop me up with positives. I'm not being negative, just realistic. And... this is my way of dealing with the not knowing. Some people are all confident, others immerse themselves in work and I say, oh I don't have a chance and carry on. None of those ways are better than the others, just different.

I am on chapter five of the big third to first person switch over. It's going fabulously. So far my Cp's are really positive about the change, though one isn't as enthusiastic about chapter two as chapter one. I will tweak a couple things, but I think it's fine. It is different writing for and about teens than it is adults. Teens are more forgiving of a protagonist not knowing what they want and being changable in their goals, because they can relate. Being changable is the teen norm. I get frustrated with adult novels when the heroine is all wishy washy, going this way and that. Because she is an adult and should have a fairly well defined sense of self. A teen protag could be a punk, but still be lured into wanting to be a prep. They are in the middle of changing. And they don't know what they want. And what they think they want can change one or more times.

For instance, my heroine thinks she wants to fit in because that is something she never really had before. She does all sorts of things that aren't really her because of this goal. But there is one part of her that is a bit pissed off about having to do those things and she extracts revenge now and again. So on the one hand, she is doing her best to be something she's not, to fit in. On the other hand she is disdainful of the people she is trying to fit in with and herself for wanting to fit in. That is one of the realities of teendom.

Hee, I don't even remember where I was going with this. Probably just trying to cement in my mind why my girl is pretty contradictory in the second chapter.

Okay, must get started on the to do list from hell...

1 comment:

Rachel Vincent said...

Sounds like you have teenagers down pat.

I could never write YA. I don't remember well enough what it was like to be a teenager, even though that was only ten years ago.