Dystopian Story Decision

So I’ve finally reached a decision when it comes to my dystopian story.  I know, I know, I’ve been deliberating over this story a lot recently on this blog, but that’s because I’ve been agonizing over a big decision—whether to keep it middle-grade or change it to young adult because of some of the story’s subject matter.

And my decision is (drum roll)....................................I’m keeping it MG.  At least for the time being.

I’ve discussed it with a couple critique partners, and we’ve reached the conclusion that if I remove the sex aspect, the story should stand okay as middle-grade, since there isn’t anything else about the story that would mark it as more appropriate for YA.  What also helped us (or me) arrive at this decision is that I’m simply more comfortable writing MG.  It comes more naturally versus writing YA, and since I already have a draft of the story written in MG-style, why change it to YA if I don’t really have to?  There are other reasons for keeping it MG, but these are the biggest.  That being said, if an agent or editor told me it’d be better as YA, then I’d definitely consider it and would probably make the change.  But as for now, I’m sticking to my guns with MG.

This all brings me to the fact I have plenty of revisions to dig into for this story, so I can finally take a sigh of relief on this YA vs. MG business (ah, the fun lulls in writing…definitely something I’d rather do without) and get busy.  Among other things, I plan on first removing the sex aspect of the story, then I’ll beef up some character motivations, and then I’ll incorporate more of the overall world of the story (since the story currently focuses more on the trees than the forest, if you know what I mean) into the, well, story.  Hmmmm…maybe I’ll do a blog post on that last one at some point…

Brainstorming Issues for my Dystopian Story

So I know I recently blogged about considering changing my dystopian novel from middle-grade to young adult because of the sexual content in the story, but now I’m leaning toward keeping it MG.  That being said, I’m having IMMENSE difficulty trying to figure this whole dilemma out.

There are a couple perks in keeping this story MG.  For one, that’s the current form it’s in now.  Changing it to YA would probably be very difficult for me.  I mean, if I absolutely have to, I’ll do it, of course.  It’s not like I’m afraid of a challenge, and I have to do what’s ultimately right for the story, of course, but a part of me is thinking that I have a lot of good things already in place here, and—at the moment, at least—I’m definitely more comfortable writing from an MG perspective/voice versus YA.

But if I stick with MG, that definitely means removing the “forced sex” aspect of my dystopian, since that’s too strong for MG.  And that’s fine.  I’ve been playing around with the idea of incorporating In Vitro Fertilization into the plot instead, and I think it could work.  That being said, I’m wondering about one major potential issue.

1.      Even though the forced sex aspect is gone, the story still deals with mating and bearing children, which might be a more reasonable subject for YA, but is it enough to make changing this story to YA essential???

That’s really the one major question that’s been eating away at my brain for the past couple weeks.  It’s a toughie, all right.  Anything else in this story that needs to be softened for MG, I’m pretty sure I can do it—at least with minimal difficulty (and I’m not sure there really is anything that does need to be softened, anyway).  But I’m really not sure about this one question, and it’s quite crucial to this story to keep the whole mating aspect in there.  If anybody has any ideas or opinions on this, please let me know!!!

*Sigh* It’s amazing how annoying these little brainstorming conundrums can be.  More than anything I want to be able to MOVE FORWARD with this story, which I’m hesitant to do at the moment in light of this dilemma, so hopefully I’ll figure this one out soon.

Writing—and life in general—is so much easier when you know exactly which step you should take next.

Alas, life isn’t always that way, though…

World-building Tip: Plight of a Stuck-in Detail

I've been playing around with the world-building details in my dystopian story, and have made a less-than-exhilarating discovery: sometimes the details feel like they’re a bit of an infodump, or shoved in there purely for the reader’s benefit.  And it’s true that they at least help the reader picture this world I’ve built, help flesh it out in their mind.  Definitely a good thing.  But the problem is some of those details feel stuck in there in the sense that they appear unnatural and out of place.  Like my Uncle Renaldo in a Where’s Waldo? book (OK, I don’t really have an Uncle Renaldo).  So…how does one fix that?  Well, here’s at least one solution: Make the world-building detail feel like it’s part of the main character’s natural thoughts in that moment of the story.       

Here’s an example from the second page of an earlier version of my dystopian story: “I went into my faction, a big suburban house at the end of a cul-de-sac where ten boys, including me, lived.” 

Well, that’s not very good, is it?  I mean, even though the reader doesn’t know what a faction is, my main character does, since he lives in this society, so the fact he sticks in a flat-out mini-explanation of it (“a big suburban house at the end of a cul-de-sac where ten boys, including me, lived”) feels pretty damned contrived, doesn’t it?

I’ll answer that for you: Oh hell yes (note how I left out the comma after the “oh” in order to imply that this is a fast, automatic response; crafty, huh?). 

Now here’s that same sentence, revised: “My faction house loomed in front of me at the end of the cul-de-sac.  The big suburban residence with its chipped white paint always gave me a warm, homey feeling, even though I only had one real friend in there.” 

Well, it might not be perfect, but it’s certainly an improvement.  The reason is because it feels more natural.  And why is that, class?  Because it’s more in the narrator’s voice.  The details of what a faction house is have been relocated so they flow in his thoughts.  Plus, I’ve added in the way he feels about the faction, which makes those details seem even more natural and prevalent to this moment in the story. 

Thank you for your rapt attention, class (*bows*).

MG to YA

So after receiving some feedback from crit partners, I'm considering making my MG dystopian book, The Adult Plague, a YA novel. The main reason is because some of the content (sexual content) is more appropriate for a YA audience. The society in my story forces kids to procreate, and that can come across as kind of icky/inappropriate for an MG audience versus YA.

Of course, making this change will come with its own set of challenges. I will probably have to beef up the plot (which will also help make the book longer, since it's only around 50,000 words long, which would suffice for MG, but would probably be better upward around 70,000 for YA). I will also have to add more/deepen the emotional content. I will also have to tinker with the prose to make it more suitable for YA, which is something that will probably be particularly difficult for me. I read YA all the time, but writing one—that’s a whole other story. I'm more versed in MG now, since my thesis for my MFA program had been an MG novel, but I think YA will prove to be a bit difficult.

My other option is to stick to MG, but soften the procreation aspect. I think it's possible, but I'd have to think on that one for a bit, so we'll see. At the moment I'm leaning toward shifting the story to YA, but I'm definitely going to have to give this whole thing some serious thought. Wish me luck!

Do What Feels Natural

When it comes to writing (and probably other things, but it’s not like I’m going to be talking about those here), it’s sometimes not a bad idea to simply do what feels natural to you, to give in to your strengths. I've recently come to the realization that I tend to write best in first-person POV. I have no idea why, but I noticed when I write in third-person, I tend to pull away from the protag a bit, be a bit distance-y. And, in general, that's something I always try to avoid.  I want to be right there in the protagonist’s direct thoughts and feelings, so readers feel like they’re perceiving the world and story through the protag’s eyes.  For me, that tends to lead to a stronger reading experience, and for me that’s best achieved in first-person.  Maybe when I write in third, the very fact that I refer to the protagonist as a “he” or “she,” rather than “I,” naturally starts to pull me away from the protag and things only get worse from there.  But either way, I wind up having to do lots of revision to make the POV tighter and closer when I write in third-person POV.  So now, I think I’m not going to fight it anymore, and just plain write in first-person POV. 

That’s not to say I won’t write in third-person if the story calls for it.  If I happen to think of a story idea that involves multiple POVs and it simply makes sense to go for third-person, then I will.  But I figure, why purposefully go for third when I tend to write better in first?  Why fight my nature?

I realized this same type about myself a while ago regarding the audience I write for.  At first I wrote adult stories, then realized very quickly I’m naturally better suited for a younger audience, so I wrote in the young adult genre.  But turns out I have more of a natural middle-grade voice, so now I write middle-grade, and I love it.  Why fight it, you know?

But again, that doesn’t mean I won’t write outside my natural comfort zone(s) should the occasion arise.  I plan to start writing my adult superhero story (now that I’m nearing pre-planning completion), and we’ll see how that goes.  But I’d say that, in general (as there are always exceptions, of course), write to your strengths and what feels natural to you.

Crossroads

So it appears I'm at a crossroads, which happens to writers all the time (or so I suspect) - one of those times when I'm really not sure what to work on next. Queries for my thesis for my Seton Hill Writing Popular Fiction MFA program are out to agents, my new middle-grade dystopian book is out with critique partners, and, well, I'm not sure what to do right now.

Part of that is because I'm still not sure what I'm going to do with my MG epic fantasy story. I don't even want to count how many times I've considered just trunking this story. I still love it, but I'm not really sure what to do with it. There are some revisions I could do, but part of me wonders if I shouldn't just chalk it up to a practice novel and move on. Especially since that new story idea (the adult superhero one) has been knocking on my door. That being said, I'm really not quite so sure the new story is the "real deal." Perhaps if I did some brainstorming for it, I'd figure that out. But then again I've worked so hard on the epic fantasy...In a way it seems like a waste not to keep plugging away on that one.

Argh! Don't you just hate times like these! And meanwhile, time passes and in the back of my head I wish I'd just be productive already! But I guess the fact of the matter is this is just part of the writing process. Figuring out what to work on next. So I guess I shouldn't let it get to me too much.

Well, wish me luck. Hopefully the answer to this mindbogglingly perplexing problem will solidify sooner rather than later.

Brand-spanking New Story Idea!

So within the past week I was bombarded with a new story idea.  It just hit me one day, and I was completely obsessed with it for two days straight.  It’s been only a few days since I first thought of the idea, but I still can’t stop thinking about it.  There are quite a few funny things about this (cue the nifty bullet points).

1.      Story ideas are incredibly rare for me.  So many writers are constantly bombarded by story ideas—usually with so many they get distracted and don’t know which one to write (or so I hear).  Not with me.  Story ideas that I’m genuinely excited about hardly ever come around.  The last one that did was the idea for my MG dystopian story, and that was about 8 or 9 months ago.  Yeah…it’s been that long since an idea pounced on me with its sharp, clingy claws (how's that for a metaphor?).

2.      This story idea is for an adult novel.  WHOA!!!  Seriously, at this point I thought for sure I was a children’s book writer (particularly within the science fiction/fantasy genres), and would be forever.  So now...maybe not.  This poses a couple problems for me, however.  Such as writing with an adult voice.  I’ve been trying to master a children’s voice (particularly a boy’s) for so long, it’d probably be quite tough for me to transition to an adult’s.  That, plus the book will have to be adult-length, and as I’ve said, I’m an extremely sparse writer.  So another whopping difficulty/challenge (not that I’m one to back down from a challenge; just sayin’).

3.      This story is a superhero story.  I’ve never written a superhero story before in my life!  I take it that makes this an Adult Fantasy novel, but I’m not even sure.  Something I will have to research, but it’s kind of wild that I’ve never done this type of story before.  But that’s also a part of the reason why I like it—it’s unique—to me, that is.  I’m sure there are a couple other superhero stories out there (OK, there are millions).

4.      The story idea was entirely built around a theme.  This is another first-time affair for me.  Usually I have to write the whole story, or at least most of it, before I even begin to understand what the theme/the whole point of it is.  But I literally built this story around the theme, so the theme is a massive reason why I’m really excited about this story idea right now.

 
So, yeah, a lot of firsts there.  It’s still way too early to know if I will go through with this story, but each time I think about it, I get goosebumps.  Of course, that’s happened to me before with other story ideas that wound up not panning out.  (One time I had an idea for an adult contemporary novel—even more out of my typical zone—but it wound up not panning out.)  Sometimes you just gotta cycle through a few ideas until you weed out the gold ones from the fake-gold ones.  Good thing is, I have a lot of time to figure that out about this one.  I’m still hard at work on my dystopian story, which has a long way to go before it’s done, and I’m still not entirely sure what I’ll do, if anything, with my MG epic fantasy story.  Either way, I’ll be sure to keep you posted about whether this new idea vanishes, leaving a green stain behind, or if it turns out to be the real thing.
 
How about you?  Do you cycle through story ideas a lot?  Are you constantly bombarded by ideas or does only the rare one entice you?