Mad Max Fury Road: All Show No Tell

My characters tend to be emotional teens who are stuck inside their heads. When I was in high school, I had a hard time seeing the world outside of myself. I overthought and over-analyzed everything (probably still do). Because of this, when I write contemporary young adult novels, my characters tend to have the same self-reflection and existentialism.

Recently, I've been moving in another direction. While I still plan on making several contemporary, emotional YA books (A Criminal Heart, No Sugar Coating, and The End Diary), I am working on several fantasy and sci-fi titles. While these characters still have some introspection, the books revolve heavily around plot rather than internal turmoil.

So why Mad Max: Fury Road? Warning: Spoilers. Not only is the movie visually stunning, but there is virtually no "telling" at all. There are moments where the characters could explain a lot (through monologues and exposition), but they don't. Information is passed along quickly with characters interrupting each other as a natural ebb and flow of dialogue.

"The soil, we had to get out."
"We had no water."
"The water was filth."
"It was poison..."

This conversation takes a minute, but they (along with the viewers) come to the horrible realization together: there is no green place. Furiosa screams into the desert, heart-wrenched. We know how she's feeling, and it's done visually. No existential internal narration needed.

We never receive an explanation of the war boys, but we collect knowledge of this universe through context and dialogue. "At the end of his half-life" and the tumors growing on the side of Nick Hoult's neck. We know how hard it is to have a non-deformed child because the stillborn baby was "perfect in every way" (a grand announcement), and every single ruler has something physically wrong. This makes extra narration unnecessary.

This is hard to do when most YA books feature a teen at the start of their journey. With In a Blue Moon, my MC Effy stumbles down a rabbit hole into absolute chaos. She needs to ask questions, but only has limited time due to her deadly situation. Information is revealed as new questions arrived to avoid any long-winded info-dumps.

The story I recently started, Ferals (working title), features Wren, a teen who has grown up in this universe. She knows and understands the world, thus she doesn't need to explain it to the reader. I am taking a page from Mad Max and trying to show this universe is instead of explaining how it came to be. In the first 5000 words, there are two paragraphs of exposition. Two. The rest of the world comes through descriptions and dialogue between the seven characters.

By having an MC who is aware of the world, more work is placed on the reader to fill in the blanks. Mad Max: Fury Road unfolds the universe without explanation, while still providing viewers with enough information to draw conclusions. A good writer should be able to do this. I should be able to do this.

While film does rely on the inherent visual aspect, books can and should lean that way as well. Sure, you don't want your MC to sound like a robot prattling off X happened then Y happened. You need some flavor. You need descriptors and emotions. Incorporate all the senses. If you are writing in first person, you can have some internal reflection (heck, you can have this in third person too).

Instead of: I stuck out my hand, and he shook it.
You can have: I stuck out my hand--a stupid move I wanted to take back--but he still shook it.

The second gets you into the character's head. The MC is self-conscious around this guy. It keeps the focus on the visual aspects, but provides insight into the MC's thought process without a long-winded diatribe (though, there can be a place for that as well).

If anyone wants a refresher on "how to create a universe where your MC is aware of how the world works, but the reader does not... and how to clue the reader in without over-saturating your book with exposition," watch Mad Max: Fury Road. Analyze how they show the world and how they accomplish bringing you into the universe. The script might give you some good ideas for writing your next novel. Reflecting on this movie has helped me.

Writing Over 20,000 Words in a Day

I wasn't sure I would ever get here.  Honestly, when I started writing again, squeezing out six thousand words in a day burned me out.

But this weekend, I set a goal for 10,000 words during a 24-hour competition of word wars. After getting woken up by cats at 4:30 am, I started writing.  I managed 1,600 before crawling back into bed (it was 5:00 am, could you blame me?). I woke up again at 7:30 am, a more appropriate time.  I wrote.  I didn't stop writing until my dearest husband made us breakfast - then I only stopped to eat.

By 4:00 pm, I finished my novelette, a semi-comedic dystopian.  It stands at 19,380 words.

Since I hadn't broken 20,000, I switched gears and wrote a few more thousand for No Sugar Coating.  My grand total of the day was 21,968 words.

A lot of people commented on my status updates and said I was a machine (okay, maybe I said that I was a machine).  I kind of felt like it that day.  My fingers kept writing in this weird autopilot.  It was my writing and me, nothing else came into play.

It was a little bizarre to finish the entire novelette in one day, almost like I had watched a friend grow up in the span of nine hours.

I wanted to share some tips on how I made this possible.

1. If you have a significant other, get him/her to support you for the day (like making food).  You may owe them a few back rubs.  If you don't have a partner in crime, be prepared with meals you can heat, eat, then resume writing.
2. Outline, outline, outline.  I'm usually write by the seat of my pants.  A lot of writers do this, and I used to love doing it.  But I've seen the light. Outlines can really save you from making weird little plot bunnies that don't end up going anywhere.  They can also help you stay focused.  I wrote 2,000 words in my outline.  2k for a 19k piece seems excessive, but my characters stayed on track.
3. Read over your outline the night before.  In fact, you should be thinking about your story almost constantly in the days leading up to this! 
4. Give yourself a reasonable goal.  Pass it.  Then keep writing.  I started with 10k.  Once I finished that and saw how early it was, I said, "I can do this."  Set my next goal for 15k.  Finished that, still had time.  So 20k it was.
5. Don't sweat the small stuff.  You will have grammatical errors and probably a lot of typos.  This is your rough draft.  It does not have to be perfect.  Can't think of the right word?  Find a quick filler and keep going.
6. Reward yourself.  If you achieve your first goal, you should allow yourself to do something that you don't normally do or buy a little something for yourself.  In my case, I bought more books.  (ALL THE BOOKS).

It's possible.  It takes a lot of focus, some fun and friendly competition, a super supportive group of people (thank you husband and members of the G+ community!!), and tons of motivation.

Any of you have big writing goals planned?  How do you approach a full day of writing?

Oh, and be on the lookout for upcoming news of my novelette.  I plan on releasing it in July, but there will be plenty of sneak peeks and information before then!

YA Sex and Other Things

Author and friend, Brooke Johnson, has this lovely blog and asked me to do a guest post.  I talk about the subtle side of YA sex, and also have an excerpt from one of my works in progress, A Good Criminal Heart.  I know that I wrote it, but I still say that it provides some insight to how to write YA sex, especially if you are going for a subtle feel and don't want to be so overt.

I submitted my story to the contest on a blog - and I'm sad to say that I didn't make it in... again.

I've decided to change my way of thinking of rejection.  Instead of a "no," I think of it as a "No from us."  Which, in a way, is healthy, but I worry that it's impeding the growth of my piece.

The intro probably isn't as strong as it could be.  I liked my old intro better, but a lot of people told me that it felt too promotional.

Which gives me the idea to incorporate the old intro into my query letter.  Right?

I really need to work on my query letter and get it out there again.  While this piece has received a few "No"s, it doesn't guarantee a no from everyone.  Making runner-up is a "mostly yes," and I did receive a partial request once.

In conclusion:  My piece is worth it.  I need to start submitting to other places and stop getting so hung up on the "No."  I need to stop expecting different results from the same people and circumstances (isn't that what they call insanity anyway?)

And as far as I can tell, I haven't gone insane (yet).

On Rejection

I've seem to be getting a lot of rejections lately, which is part of the whole process - so I felt like it was time that I put my own thoughts out there about rejection.

Rejection doesn't necessarily mean that my stories are bad - it doesn't mean that about anyone's writing.  Rejection does mean that you should take a harder look at your story.

Is your introduction gripping?  Absolutely gripping?  Do you pick up the book and suddenly need to turn the page to figure out what happens next?  If not - what have other books done to catch your attention?

I'll never forget the opening the The Outsiders, where there was an intense excerpt at the beginning of the book.  That excerpt, taken out of context, sucked me completely in.  I needed to read about him walking out of the dark light of the movie theatres, because I had to know what happened next - I needed to know what made Ponyboy get to that point in the novel.

Is your grammar correct?  Some people will see the typos there/their/they're and immediately get turned off.  Here's the thing:  It matters.  If you don't have great grammar or spelling, no problem - ask one of your friends to help out!  Surely there is someone you know that won't mind beta reading your books.  Heck, I can beta read if we trade beta reading!

What is your style like?  Look at the writing your desired agent represents.  Are they completely left-field whereas your style is right-field?  They probably won't represent someone that doesn't resonate with them.  Try picking up one or two books that the agent has represented and read them.  Check out the style and see if it is something that you like.  You need an agent to like your work, but you also need to like the agent's work.

Know your audience.  While using some larger vocabulary is good, make sure that your readers don't get lost in needing a dictionary by their side.  YA literature can still be smart, sophisticated, while being fast-paced and smooth.  Take the novel Bunnicula, for example.  The language isn't dumbed down, but it certainly only uses enough words to make you learn, not to make you read the dictionary in tandem with the book.

How is your pacing?  Finally, once all of that is done, you should step back and look at the pacing of your novel.  Do you have parts where it is just explanation?  Just dialogue?  Just action?  Is there any way to mix them into the same scene so that you don't have blocks of explanation?  Does your evil-doer go on a two-page long tirade?  Yes, a two-page long monologue is probably a little too long, especially if you are writing for YA.

Should you reflect on your writing every time you receive a rejection?  It's not a bad idea to read it over and make minor changes.  Your writing is only going to get better over time, especially if you can be your own worst critic.  And if you get advice and suggestions from people, don't take it personally, but take it to heart.  They are only trying to help - no matter how critical they are.  Continue to work on it, no matter how many rejections you receive.

I've seen so many people decide to quit writing just because they aren't getting noticed.  Do I even need to mention how poor some famous artists were?  Do we need to discuss the poverty of painters, writers, and true artists over the years?  No, I don't think we do.  Just because you aren't getting sold doesn't mean you aren't good.  It just means it wasn't good timing or the right style.  And if you think you are good enough, grab some beta readers, hire a good cover artist, get an editor, and self-publish.

But never, ever give up.