writerswritecompany
“In many cases when a reader puts a story aside because it ‘got boring,’ the boredom arose because the writer grew enchanted with his powers of description and lost sight of his priority, which is to keep the ball rolling.” ~Stephen King
In my first post in this series on writing scenes and sequels, I covered 10 important things to remember about these storytelling devices. In today’s post, I am going to cover the anatomy of a scene.
weneeddiversebooks
We also need to be considerate of the depiction disabled people—especially those of us with intersecting identities, like race and sexuality—in our society. They should have a place in writers’ rooms and on mastheads to showcase what disability in every form—both physical and invisible—is like, and prevent the portrayal of negative reactions to disabilities in movies and on TV.
alexreadsboooks
I love love love the way this book works with superheroes and supervillains! 😍 it’s just so amazing!
Today my brother officially finished his apprenticeship so we went on a little roadtrip to his graduation ceremony. My baby brother is all grown up!
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#grimdragon Day 25: “You either die a hero, or live long enough to see yourself become the villain.” Heroes and Villains
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#bookstagram #bookish #booklover #bookworm #booklr #books #bibliophile #junebookchallenge #bookstagrammer #booklove #booksofinstagram #instabook #read #reading #reader #buch #bücher #lesen #bookstagramfeature #bookphotography #leser #igbooks #bookishallure #vicious #veschwab #paranormal #sciencefiction #scifi
fantasy-writing
keith-the-pardoner
[ tidbits ‘bout bows,war-bows and archery that I threw together:
Good stuff to know!
writingwithcolor
lanewilliam asked:
It’s best to start a piece off with neutral or positive descriptions of Characters of Color, if possible. Even if it’s a brief description, that’s better than nothing. Beginning the story with a negative association to Blackness (particularly a negative description such as dark skin being fetishized or put down) starts us off on a bad note that could potentially color the tone of the story in said negative way. In this case, it seems like the character is contrasting her looks with that of the opinion of a racist white woman who saw her as pretty, but the character herself doesn’t believe herself to be pretty. Is that right?
If so, I do think what I said regarding beginning a character off with a neutral or positive description is best for the fact that the description is contrasted from a racist character whose view of the character being pretty is actually seen in a negative, threatening way. I’d feel differently if that contrast was from a friend or loving family member, genuine in their praise, and the MC simply didn’t believe in her beauty yet.
In short: The description itself is okay to use, especially since you’ll be exploring the character’s low self-esteem, colorism, and eurocentric beauty ideals, but i’d recommend at least beginning the introduction with a neutral or positive description of the character’s race, even if it’s a smaller one.
~Colette
I can’t tell if you’re thinking of introducing the Black character via the racist’s view, or if you’re going to have the bullied character recall an instance that shaped her. Regardless, the way you introduce the description will depend on the depth of PoV and whether you have room to give a non-characterized description, or if you have to think a little harder to get the characterized description neutral at the start.
If you’re introducing it by the racist in a deep third or first, then you have to show that the bully finds the character threatening by beauty. This characterizes her and allows you to have a neutral to positive description first. If you jump straight to her negative thoughts, then you both lose a characterization opportunity and lose the positivity needed.
If you’re introducing it by the girl impacted in deep third or first, then maybe have her remember how cute she felt that day, then how it was all destroyed by one instance. This sets up the character arc of wanting to feel good in her own skin again, and shows how one interaction can poison you.
That being said, if you’re going for a moderate to distant third person, you have the narrative room to give a neutral, non-characterized description without any perspective to influence how the Black girl is seen. Then you can introduce their views later.
It’s possible to include a double standard of how they think vs how they act/how they’re perceived, but the way that shows up will differ based on how close you are to the character’s head.
~Mod Lesya
weneeddiversebooks
disabilityinkidlit
Laura Brown on writing the visual language of sign language:
“One thing I’ve learned as I researched for this article, is that when sign language appears on the page, I have a lot of questions as a reader. I instantly want to know who’s deaf, who signs, how well they sign, etc. There’s a whole world of history in simply referencing sign language, as a hearing character who is well versed in ASL would have had an early reason to learn, be it a parent with a hearing loss or a neighbor who was Deaf. Meanwhile, a hearing character who is just learning ASL could simply have a fascination with the language, or a crush on Nyle DiMarco, and not really know anyone with a hearing loss. And it depends on the story whether these questions stop me as a reader, or keep me going forward.”
weneeddiversebooks
diversityinya
Back in 2011 when I first started drafting Skid, it never occurred to me that my main character Gabrielle would be considered unusual. All I remember from that the time was wanting to tell a story that combined some of my favorite elements—romance and ghost stories and murder mysteries and crows that might really be servants of the underworld coming to steal your soul. Oh, and it would be set in an apple orchard, which struck me as the kind of almost mystical place where these various elements would naturally converge.
It would also star the sort of main character who I never saw in YA books, a girl that would be completely normal within the banality of my own existence. A girl living with an injured back and chronic pain.
See, my mother has been living with back problems since I was a child. My husband does too, thanks to being hit by a car (while he was on a bike) only a couple years after we met in college. And my own back pain issues began just a few years after that when I was in grad school. Pain was part of my life. A character dealing with those issues on top of falling in love and struggling with school and life and the collapse of her dreams—that was just how the world worked and the story I needed to write. I hadn’t read it before, and I just knew I couldn’t be the only one who could relate.
To paraphrase The Princess Bride, life is pain, or at least it is for many people. Studies vary, but approximately 15% of adolescents and teens report living with chronic pain of some sort. That’s part of the reason why the U.S. is facing an epidemic of addiction and overdoses caused by narcotic pain relievers. (While many people abusing these drugs may not need them, data suggests that most people who abuse painkillers started out taking the drugs for legitimate pain issues.) Modern medicine is capable of amazing feats, but its ability to address pain is woefully inadequate. It’s not just drug dependency that goes along with chronic pain either; it’s depression and suicide and an overall reduced quality of life.
Reading has always been one of those things that’s helped me cope, whether with pain or daily life stressors, and there’s a reason why I gravitate toward reading escapist stories. But even purely escapist stories can—and do—show us possibilities for real life. So long before I figured out the details of the orchard and its mystery (or the cute farm boy who lives there), I knew one thing about Gabrielle’s story. It had to be honestly hopeful. That is, I wanted Gabrielle’s story to be true to my experiences and to not trivialize what she goes through because there are no miracle cures in real life, not even love. In fact, I tend to believe in the opposite—we must heal ourselves in order to find love. But within that context, I didn’t want Skid to be a sad story because living with pain doesn’t need to be sad.
As Gabrielle figures out in Skid, we always have choices. Or as she puts it, as a former swimmer with shattered Olympic dreams, we can either keep swimming or we can let ourselves sink. Some days, that choice is harder to make than others, but ultimately, I hope we all find ways to cope and to work around whatever it is in our lives that’s trying to hold us back. I want everyone to choose to forge ahead, grasping the precious moments of life with both hands—the ones that remind us that life is, in fact, more than pain. It’s the fluttery feeling of first love, the sweet crispness of fresh apples, and the mysteries of the past and awe of the unknown.
And it’s there for all of us.
Tracey Martin wanted to be an astronaut, a doctor, and an actor, possibly all at once. Instead, she studied psychology, and that led her to have an epiphany–imaginary people are way more fun than real ones. And so she became a writer.
She likes her coffee simple, her music epic, and her movies to contain explosions. A city girl at heart, she doesn’t understand how she and her husband ended up living in New Hampshire, but writing keeps her off the mean, small town streets.
Skid is available for purchase.
weneeddiversebooks
diversityinya
As all book lovers who thrive on social media or anywhere on the internet, there’s always new books to look forward to, whether they’re a few weeks away, or even a year. While there are dozens of exciting new books to look forward to in the coming year of 2017, I wanted to feature the following books that should be on your radar when it comes to Asian YA.
Note: This list chooses to focus on books that both feature Asian MCs and Asian authors, whether they’re #ownvoices or not, although the majority of the books listed here are #ownvoices. Those that are not #ownvoices or I am unsure about have been indicated with an asterisk. I tried to make it as comprehensive as possible, and if any titles are missing that fit the above qualifications or I made any errors, please let me know as soon as possible!
I hope you found some new books to add to your TBR and are excited about the upcoming releases! I, for one, cannot wait to pick these books up and am patiently counting down the days until I get a chance to read them. Stay tuned for the part 2: the non-YA edition for 2017 books, coming soon.
t h i s p o s t c a n a l s o b e f o u n d o n m y b l o g
It’s going to be a great 2017 reading year!! And please give asianya a follow!
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society19
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