Category Archives: April A-Z Challenge
Z is for… (#AtoZChallenge 2012)
Z is for Zzzz
(Post 26 on my WIP)
Off to the land of sleep and dreams
I fly on a horse with feathered wings
I sigh as the journey for today is done
Look forward to another yet to come
It’s here – the last letter post of April’s A to Z Challenge 2012. There will one more post – a reflection post on May 7th.
I started this challenge when I had a week’s leave from work and got ahead with scheduled posts – and then I went back to work and ended up losing out on sleep to write and stay on target (and keep up with everything else I needed to). Unfortunately because I really couldn’t give up on sleep all together (funny that!) I had to let go of commenting on as many blogs as I managed to do to start with. This was a shame because I did find some excellent posts and people to connect with. Hopefully the list will remain so I can continue exploring at a more leisurely pace.
Now, as we all know, but often forget, sleep is a very important occupation. One I love. As a night owl I think I produce my best work at night and then I prefer to sleep in later in the day – but often day to day jobs are not conducive to this pattern of living. One of my wishes for the post A-Z lull is to catch up on sleep and try and work on developing a better sleep routine (any hints and tips on doing this welcome).
In my book Jane has a number of dreams which I see as being her subconscious guiding her to consider what is important. This is because during waking hours she often isn’t that aware of what it is she does want, just managing to deal with the day to day routine of life.
I used to spend lots of time daydreaming but am finding that is happening less as my head gets filled with other things. Now writing these posts about my WIP have been all well and good but they haven’t been writing my WIP. Nicola Morgan wrote a post last week about Writer’s Block that I really empathised with. As a result I am going to try and banish some stuff, get some sleep, start daydreaming again and hopefully come back to Training Time feeling refreshed and ready to finish that full first draft.
Happy snoozing fellow A-Zers – look forward to catching up on your reflections. Other than sleep what do you plan to catch up on now the challenge is over?
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Y is for… (#AtoZChallenge 2012)
Y is for You
(Post 25 on my WIP)
To be ‘successful’ writers need readers and I’m hoping that means you.
As readers I believe we are jointly responsible for creating the story, we filter it through our own personal lens and analyse the work through our own experience. A book will be read in a different way by everyone who reads it and in a different way again on repeat readings.
I think I have learnt an important lesson for me and I think that is that I would prefer to share my work when it is more complete – where I have at least a complete outline and a fuller understanding of my characters if not a full first draft. I find I can get easily confused if too many filters are used and find it hard to back track to the original view. That is not to say the views of others aren’t or won’t be important – I think I would just be able to be clearer about what can be re-filtered and what I want/need to stay raw.
What I’d like to know today though is all about you and your reading habits – feel free to tell me anything but I’m particularly interested in the following questions (feel free to answer as many or as few as you like):
Where do you like a story to start?
What traits do you look for in a main character?
What do you look for in an ending?
If a series is planned do you like cliffhangers or prefer each book to be rounded off?
Where do you read?
E or paper or both?
Binger or snacker? (i.e. Do you prefer to read books as quickly as possible, sometimes in one go or one chapter at a time, making the ‘flavour last’)
Do you read books more than once? Why? What happens in a repeat reading?
To you what makes a good book?
I look forward to reading all about you and eventually I’d really love to be able to give you my interpretation of Training Time for you to filter in your way.
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X is for… (#AtoZChallenge 2012)
X is for X-Rated
(Post 24 on my WIP)
Just read what could be considered a raunchy scene in Insurgent (full review on 1st May, when I’ve finished it and when we are allowed to release our reviews in celebration of the publication day of Veronica Roth’s follow up to Divergent).
Also one of my beta readers commented on how I’d introduced Jane, representing her as promiscuous, and whether that was appropriate in Young Adult fiction.
This got me thinking about audience and what is appropriate – about the ‘moral responsibility of authors’.
There has been debate about the violence in The Hunger Games and Tabitha Suzuma’s Forbidden which centres on a brother/sister incestuous relationship has massively divided opinion.
When I think about what I read when I was younger I think it helped me explore issues that I needed to understand in a non threatening way.
But as Serendipity Viv so eloquently writes – there are times when our threshold of acceptance change – as we age, as we become parents or experience other life events.
My response to her post was (and when I say children I really mean teens):
Wow, what a brave post. I really don’t think anybody really wants to see incest, violence and other unsavoury things in YA or other fiction – I’m guessing (hoping) they were just demanding its right to be there and sadly it exists in the ‘real world’. I think you are perfectly within your rights not to read a book if you don’t want to.
I won a set of Tabitha Suzuma’s books and read Forbidden first (the only one I have read so far). Why did I pick that one? Because the reviews were outstanding, as is the book. It makes you understand how these things could happen and it broke my heart just a little.
I am speaking as a person who is not a mother but I recognise that the protective feelings that come with that are not made up, I have seen some quite unsappy friends change quite dramatically. I think you are right that parents need to be more aware of what their children are reading (and watching) and not police it or stop it but to be prepared to discuss the difficult issues that arise. I think literature is an amazing way to learn and I think we do children a disservice if we protect them too much leaving them naive and a bit vulnerable possibly. Neither do I believe we should shove it in their faces before they are ready. My copy of Forbidden does say ‘Not for younger readers’ on the back.
I think the reasons I have drawn to paranormal/fantasy are similar – it’s not real – it’s escapism. I don’t think I could read a Forbiddenesque book everyday and stay happy but sometimes we need to understand the dark side too – it’s just way too scary otherwise.
If you do decide to read it I look forward to your review.
Thanks for this very thought provoking post.
As I already mentioned in my Q is for Questions Answered post – Nicola Morgan says (in the comments on this post here) ‘NOTHING is too dark for YA! (Though it does have to be handled properly.)’
Do you agree that there is nothing too dark for YA?
For those who are parents – do you think you’d stop your younger self reading the books you did when a teenager?
kirstyes 