Sex in YA - You Know You Want It

"... and you know you want me to give it to you." Biff's words to Lorraine in Back to the Future had me totally flummoxed for a looong time. What was it? How could Biff give it to her? And why was he trying to touch her panties in the front seat of the car during the dance? Why was Lorriane talking about Marty's Calvin Klein's in their meeting scene? What's the fixation with underwear?

I remained in the dark about these topics for awhile. I knew sex existed, but I didn't have the whole Tab A, Slot B mechanics of the dance figured out until er... well... later. Not so today's teens. Blame it on the media, blame it on the culture, blame on parenting, blame it on the rain (how many 80's references can I get in here?) Let's just set blame aside and focus on the fact that it simply IS. My opinion - kids aren't having more sex, or earlier than before - it's simply no longer a taboo subject.

So, because it's not taboo, because they do know the mechanics - what do we write about it? Do we write about it?

It's up to you. I've read some really graphic sex scenes in YA. I don't find them offensive. I have a hard time believing there's anything in there that the average teen hasn't already been exposed to. However, I do monitor content in the books that I give out to junior high students - not necessarily because I think they're about to have their minds deflowered - but because their parents DO believe that, and they might have my ass in a sling. And I need my ass. I use it everyday.

My own philosophy runs thus; I have always believed that less is more. Why does Jaws work? 'Cause you don't see the shark. I typically refrain from physically describing my characters because I want my readers to fill in their hot guy, their hallway bitch, themselves as the MC. So when it comes to those backseat moments, or when my MC invites a guy over to "watch a movie," (yeah right, I have yet to see the end of Ferris Bueller's Day Off), I want them to fill in slot B on their own. Something happened. Unless it's imperative to the plot, does it matter what? Do they need the description? Do they need to see that shark?

Here's a great example from Harry Potter & the Order of the Phoenix: (I know you're saying "What!  An HP makeout scene?") Oh yeah... it's there. A meeting of Dumbledore's Army has just ended. Everyone has filed out except for Cho and Harry, who are kinda hanging out there in the Room of Requirement... and who didn't guess that thing had multiple uses? pg. 456-457:

"I really like you Harry."
He could not think.  A tingling sensation was spreading throughout him, paralyzing his arms, legs and brain.
She was much too close.  He could see every tear clinging to her eyelashes...
*PAGE BREAK*
He returned to the common room half an hour later to find Hermione and Ron..."

Hey! Wait a second!! Half an hour later? Gee... what were they doing? Now, obviously Rowling had a duty to her young readers to keep it clean, and to her older readers to keep it interesting. Not so for all writers, certainly. But I think it's a good example of letting the reader take it to their own level - of comfort, of familiarity, without being told what happened.

My own writing gives a little more detail than this highly gratuitous page break, but you get the idea.

One last thought - what do you want your readers to take away from your book? I haven't read Breaking Dawn, but I know that Edward and Bella break the headboard, cause that's all anyone wanted to talk about. Other than that - zero clue what the plot is about.

I'd love some feedback! What are your thoughts? Show the shark, or keep him underwater?  :)

A Collection of Friday Thoughts on Futility

It's Friday - Spring Break Friday - so it's one of those bittersweet days where I take stock of all the things that I didn't accomplish on this week off.  There's also quite a bit I DID do, but I'm neurotic so we're focusing on my failings today :)

I've discovered that if I take all the knitting projects I've got piled up, the books waiting for me to read them, the genealogy data I need to slog through.... my life is essentially claimed.  I mean the whole thing - no time for sleeping, eating, bathing, parenting, working or writing.  What this means is that I will die poor and stinky of exhaustion, but my friends will have hats for their babies, I will die well read, and I'll be able to say "Hey, I know you!" to my ancestors when I arrive in the afterlife.

So how do we balance these things, not only as writers, but as human beings?

Hobbies are awesome until we're no longer doing them for pleasure.  It's the process that's supposed to be enjoyable, not the end result.  Do I want to hate every stitch I make, but love the sweater?  Do I resent the time I put into reading, just to be able to say "I read that?"  Obviously no, if that's the approach, we've missed the point.

I think the same is true of writing.  If I sit down and I'm hating every word, or writing them only to fill in blank spaces, or hit that goal for the day - I don't think I'm accomplishing anything.  Sure, it's not just a hobby now, it's my career.  But it's a career by choice.  I do it because I'm incapable of NOT doing it, if that makes sense.  In other words, if the muse isn't talking today, I'm OK with that.

She'll be back :)

Mother Who Writes, Repeats, and Graciously Answers My Burning Questions

I snared KristaV, (or KristaG to QueryTracker users) for a guest interview today. Krista runs an excellent site for aspiring writers over at Mother. Write. (Repeat) where she posts periodic Interactive Agent Interviews that you do not want to miss. Krista provides this incredible resource in her spare time, and donates so much of her own blog space to help out others, that I wanted to give her a chance to talk about something else she does – write!

So you run an excellent blog for aspiring writers over at Mother. Write. (Repeat). What made you decide to take this approach on your blog, and how do you get all these awesome agents to agree to the interviews you do there?

I knew I wanted to blog about mothering and writing, since that’s pretty much what my life is about. I tend to blog a lot more about writing than I do about mothering, but I figure the writing stuff is (marginally) more interesting than the mothering stuff. I mean, how many times can you tell people your potty-training son peed on the floor AGAIN before it starts getting a little old?

As for the interviews, a blogging friend, Bailey Clement, once interviewed Lisa McMann on her blog, which, obviously, I found quite cool. I asked Bailey how she’d gotten the interview, if she happened to know Ms. McMann, and she said something like, “Heavens, no! I just e-mailed her publicist and asked if she wanted to answer my questions.” At which point I thought, “Hmm, I could be brazen bold enough to pull that off. But who would I interview …?” It took me all of ten seconds to come up with my answer: agents!

What other websites / resources can you recommend for writers out on the agent hunt?

I’ve found QueryTracker and Agent Query to be extremely useful in generating large lists of agents. I also frequent Absolute Write’s Bewares, Recommendations, and Background Checks forum to see what other writers have to say about response times--and to make sure the agents I plan to query haven’t been behaving badly.

Let's talk about your writing for a little bit. I see that you name your WIPS and MS's - now that's an interesting thought - what brought that on, and why those names?

I started calling my current manuscript Bob when I couldn’t come up with a title for him. (I actually held a “Help! Bob Needs a Title” blog contest last August because I couldn’t come up with anything I liked. The winning entry from that contest, WHOSE TEETH ARE AS SWORDS, is now Bob’s official title.)
The nicknames themselves are pretty arbitrary. Bob is easy to say, easy to type, and easy to remember. I’m all for easy.

What genre do you write, and is there any one particular thing that led you to it?

I write YA and MG, and I tend to gravitate toward more plot-driven genres, like urban fantasy, science fiction, and thriller. I’m definitely a commercial girl, and not ashamed to say it:)

Where do you find your inspiration, typically?

Anywhere. Everywhere. Bob’s first seed of inspiration came when I was walking across my college campus one day and noticed someone talking on a Bluetooth headset. “What would happen if communication technology became even more invasive?” I wondered. “What if we actually started getting implants?”

This was before I’d ever heard of M.T. Anderson’s FEED, mind you (and maybe even before FEED was originally published), so it seemed like an original idea at the time:) And like I said, since my tastes run more commercial, Bob takes the idea in a completely different direction.

Do you use beta readers, and if so, where do you find them?

Yes, yes, YES! Bob is actually the first manuscript I’ve written that I’ve exchanged with beta readers, and I think that’s one of the major reasons he’s done so well in the querying arena.
I found all my beta readers by networking through the blogsophere. That was one of the main reasons I started blogging: to find a few like-minded writers I’d feel comfortable exchanging manuscripts with. The other writers I’ve found have been terrific!

Between raising your children, taking care of the dog, managing your blog and writing, do you ever get time to read? What are you reading now? What books coming out are you most looking forward to?

I love to read. In fact, in many ways, I think of myself as a reader first, a writer second. (I was a reader before I was a writer, after all.) At the moment, I’m reading Robin McKinley’s PEGASUS, and I’m finding that it walks that thin line between literary and commercial fiction quite well.

Hey, how DO you have time to write?

Writing is important to me—really important to me—so important that I carve out several hours almost every day to write. I typically write while my kids are sleeping, so from about two to four in the afternoon and eight to ten at night.

Any words of inspiration for aspiring writers that aren't cliched like the ones I give?

I had a thought the other day that I’ve kind of latched on to. One of my biggest vices is comparing myself to others, seeing what they have and wishing it were mine. But my journey is my journey, and I need to learn to own that. It’s so much easier to be happy for people who have good news and sad for people who have bad news when I’m not worried about what I have or don’t have and how they compare to me. And isn’t that what life is all about, learning to love and serve each other?

*steps down off her soapbox*

Sorry to get all preachy on you, but I do feel pretty strongly about this subject. This big, bad publishing race isn’t against each other, but ourselves. As long as we’re steadily improving, that’s all that really matters.