Avoiding your Baby Otters

    Will you do me a favor? Take a moment and google baby otters. (I would have included a picture here, but I can't for the life of me figure out copyright stuff, and I don't really want to get sued.)
    Have you done it? They're adorable.
    They also have nothing to do with what you're writing.
     In Kiersten White's Teen Author Boot Camp class, she discussed avoiding your baby otter scenes. You know those scenes that are so fun, but have nothing to do with the rest of the story? Yep. It's those ones.
     They may make you so happy, but you must cut them. You don't even have to delete them. Put them in a separate document. Turn them into an AU where everything is perfect. But for the sake of your novel, don't keep them.
    There's a reason these baby otter scenes are harmful. They drain the conflict like a leech. If your characters have time to be off riding a roller coaster while their parents are being held captive by the villain, then the reader gets the impression that either a), your characters don't care about their parents, or b), that nothing really bad will happen. It takes the urgency away.
    Now I'm not saying that your characters can't have little pockets of happiness in between the times they almost die. Just be sure they mean something. Maybe they take twenty minutes to ride that roller coaster, and those end up being the twenty minutes that get someone killed. Or maybe they find a vital secret taped to their seat. Whatever the purpose is, make sure it's there. If it doesn't tie back to the story's core, then it's probably a baby otter scene.
    I'm going to expand this metaphor a bit. You have baby otters in real life, too. Things that are keeping you from your writing. They're so fluffy, but they're not productive. I don't mean everyday obligations like homework or family here. You need to do those things. But that hour you spent on Pinterest isn't getting you closer to your goals. Neither is watching Doctor Who (though Doctor Who is awesome. Keep watching it. Just not during your writing time.)
    I'm convinced that the entire universe hinges on balance. The earth can't be too close or too far away from the sun, we can't have too much or too little water, and you have to make time to write without neglecting your off-page life. Your characters have to go through suffering without being too depressing. It's a hard balance, but practice will help you achieve it.
     What do you think about this post? What are your baby otters? I'd love to hear from you below!

On Dystopia

      I'm pretty sure most people have read a dystopian novel in their lives. Particularly teenagers. They're all the rage at the moment, after all. 

     One of my favorite dystopian authors, Dan Wells, gave a keynote address at Teen Author Boot Camp a couple weeks ago. (By the way I really apologize for not posting last week. I'm trying.) But anyhow, he brought up some excellent points about the genre. My head exploded a couple of times. 

    The first thing Mr. Wells brought up (or at least the first in my notes) was the question, what is a dystopia? My, very technical, definition is a society characterized by human suffering. He simplified it a bit. At its heart, a dystopia is a terrible place. A place where the power is not shared.

     Of course, one trademark of the modern dystopian novel is that they're under the guise of perfection. So, how does one identify a dystopia?

     Do we live in one now? (cue the head-exploding)

     Dan Wells discussed Ursula K. LeGuin's short story, The Ones who Walk Away from Omelas. It's a description of a utopic society, to each person. Imagine your utopia. That's what this world is. But then, at a certain age, children learn the truth about the city--a child suffers every day to maintain it. Some choose to ignore it. Others walk away, hence the name. 

     This story was published in 1973. It bears one major difference from the majority of today's dystopias--there is no rebellion. That's because, in the olden days (meaning before about 2005), most dystopians had the terrible society, but the characters either grinned and bore it or left. The first major trendsetter for the rebellion dystopian novel was Scott Westerfeld's Uglies series. 

      Dan Wells brought up the meaning of this shift. The previous generation had a "Life sucks, oh, well." attitude to their novels. Millennials and forward have a more save-the-world approach. This could be a good thing. But revolutions aren't the best way to bring about change (more on that later).

      I'm going to jump back to the question of whether we live in a dystopia. While this is a rather large question, Dan Wells went with yes, and his reasoning made disturbing sense.

      A dystopia, as highlighted by Omelas, is a utopia for everyone but the ones who are stepped on. If you look at today's world, you'll see that. We don't notice because we live in the Capitol. But there are people in third world countries laboring, starving dying, for our luxuries. Think about that next time you want to complain about your phone service. 

    So now we're jumping back to the revolutions bit. Older dystopian novels have an "accept it and leave" approach. But there's a third option. The option to stand and fight it.

    Now would be a good time to mention that I absolutely DO NOT CONDONE VIOLENCE. The number of bloody revolutions in dystopian novels is slightly scary for this reason. There is more than one way to fight. I'm going to fight it through my art--my writing. 

    You can quietly show the issues you are passionate about through the lens of a story. And there are plenty of issues. We may not even know about some of them. Women have constantly been underrepresented in media for decades, but we're only just noticing it. What else are we missing? These are the things you can explore in your stories--dystopia or not. 

    Of course, before we're writing to show important issues, we're writing to tell a story. And even before that, it's because we love it. Never forget that passion. If you can hold on to it, you can use your art to change the world. 

Finding your Story's Core

 
   I spent all of Saturday at Teen Author Boot Camp, a writing conference designed for teens. It was AMAZING. Plus, it gave me material for several weeks' worth of blog posts.
    Today I'll be sharing what I learned from Catherine Linka's class, Writing that's Ripped (or Make your Editor Swoon). The title came from an underwear model analogy, but I'm not going to go into that. Suffice it to say, she taught us how to tighten our story's core-- and how to find it.
      To get a great story, according to the presenter, you need it to diet and exercise--AKA you need to revise it. She brought up the point that there is no good writing, but only rewriting. And while rewriting is a large, and often daunting, process, knowing your story's core can help.
      At this point, I was confused. I'd never heard of a story's core (which just goes to show that as soon as you think you've got it figured out, you find something you don't know.). Basically, the core supports the characters, theme, and plot.
      Catherine Linka taught us three exercises to find and implement your story's core. She said they were simple, but not always easy. So, here they are--
     Exercise #1-
        What does your main character want? What does he/she yearn for? And what lengths are they willing to go to to get it? Sometimes they themselves aren't entirely aware of what it is, but you, as the writer, ought to know. My writing mantra is Motivation is Everything. What they want most will drive them throughout the story.
      To find what your character really wants, you can think long and hard about it. If that's not working, try reading through what you've written for clues. You can also ask a friend to help you--sometimes you need an outside point of view.
     Exercise #2-
         What is your story really about? The good thing about this is that it also works for a quick-ish pitch. Ms. Linka gave us a basic formula for this--
        -Who the character is
        -What they want/need/long for
        -Something that happens to change their life
        -They have to choose between multiple paths
        -But their journey is made harder by their flaws
      Once you have this core, you can use it to link each chapter. Each scene should be related to one of these five elements. And each of these should be present. If they aren't, find ways to implement them. You also may need to cut bits that don't relate to the core. I put my cut bits in a separate document. I can often find new homes for them later. 
       Element #3-
          Ms. Linka started this section of her presentation with a slide that said these four words-- Deed, Decision, Discovery, and Accident. Just because your character is doing something doesn't mean they're moving the plot forward. Each scene should fall under one of those categories.
        A Deed is an action that puts them closer (or further) from what they want.
        A Decision is a choice that affects the rest of the story.
        A Discovery is when your character learns something that affects the goal, their feelings about it, or how they need to achieve it.
        An Accident is an unexpected occurrence that affects the story goal.
        Each scene and chapter should have at least one of these; otherwise, it's not moving the plot forward. It's what another presenter, Kiersten White, termed a "baby otter scene." It's adorable and you want to keep it and snuggle it, but it just doesn't work (I'll talk more about that class another week).
           Look for the scenes that don't tie into the core. Rework them, or find new homes for them. Also look for scenes that repeat earlier scenes. It's hard to cut them, but your story will be 1000% better when you do.
     
     P.S. Catherine Linka's novel is entitled A Girl Called Fearless. I haven't read it, but it sounds super cool, so you should look at it.
       
  

An Apology

So I won't be doing my regularly scheduled post this weekend. It's one of those hectic weeks, and I have to get up at the crack of dawn tomorrow for a writing conference.
I might be able to post about it on Sunday. I apologize for the delay, and thanks for understanding!