From: Feed

"'There's a forest,' said Violet. 'It's called Jefferson Park. We're thinking about going either there, or out to beef country.'

My dad nodded. 'It'll have to be beef country,' he said. 'The forest's gone.'

'Jefferson Park?'

He nodded, then squinted while he like clawed something from the roof of his mouth with his tongue. He told us, 'Yeah. Jefferson Park? Yeah. That was knocked down to make an air factory.'

'You're kidding,' said Violet.

'Yeah, that's what happened,' Dad said, shrugging. 'You got to have air.'

Violet pointed out, 'Trees make air,' which kind of worried me because I knew dad would think it was snotty.

My father stared at her for a long time. Then he said, 'Yeah. Sure. Do you know how inefficient trees are, next to an air factory?'"

Feed, by YA author M.T. Anderson, is like, super good. You need to go read it. Like now. Especially if you miss Kurt Vonnegut.

You digging anything special right now? Tell me what you're reading and loving.

It's Virtual Hug-Your-Beta Day!

I used to be anti-beta.

Am I the only one who thought that rather than reading other people's manuscripts, a better use of my time would be going over my own work with a fine-tooth comb?

I can't be the only one. I've traced this seemingly selfish behavior back to my MFA program. Before there was beta-ing, there was workshopping, or weekly in-person beta-ing. Imagine the frustration of repeatedly reading someone's work, offering color-coded comments, and listing suggestions for further reading, only to get my own story back, not even creased because it was never actually opened.

Grrrrrrr.

I found my beta readers by accident. Blogger extraordinaire Megan Rebekah was blogging about how she wished she had a writing group. She posted her stats, sort of like a literary eHarmony profile, and the gates were flooded with wannabes. Well, maybe not flooded, but there were quite a few of us. Megan set up a private blog and named us the Word Stringers.

Some word stringers flittered away, and then there were four.

Anyway, we didn't beta at first. We posted pics and useful articles. We dared each other to meet word count goals. And then someone was like, Hey, we should beta. I was like, Great, 'cause I got spare hours lying around for that malarkey.

Then I read this article about writing workshops at Glimmer Train where writing teacher Jeremiah Chamberlin argues that, "Being forced to analyze the effectiveness of other writers' stories and to then provide them with clear, concise, specific suggestions for improvement will do more to develop a writer's craft than almost anything else."

Once I realized beta reading was purely selfish I was all, sign me up!

This week my betas have been helping me out big time, so without further adieu, meet my beta grrrls, along with what I love most about each of them:

Megan is kind of a hard ass. I've never met her, but in my mind she's dressed as a drill sergeant. I don't bug her with excuses. I just get things done when I tell her I will. She writes, she blogs, she works, she reads, she raises little dogs--and I don't think I've ever read a complaint from her. Megan gets the good attitude award. (By the way, that's not Megan in the pic; that's Tish, one of her dogs.)

Nat is a ray of positivity from the West Coast. She's straightforward, and she doesn't waste time with self-doubt, or minor details, or wondering what so-and-so would think about whatever. Like Nikey, she just does it. Clearly it works, as she's just secured representation from formidable literary agent Sara Megibow. Again, that's not Nat in the picture; that's the state of her living room since she's become a represented writer.

Karen is awesome because she's not afraid to lay it all on the line. She's all, here's my writing. How can I make it better? And when I get done critiquing, she's not all, boo hoo, you hurt my feelings. Instead she's all, thank you ma'am can I have another? I admire her tenacity. That really is Karen, btw; isn't she crazy?

I am changed, peeps. I am PRO-beta. My beta readers point out ridiculocity in my writing, like that you can't move across the country and start school on the same day, or that if two hands are brushing the cymbals, another can't be tightening a bolt on a separate drum. But the best part is how much they teach me, and also the support, my god the support.

What do you get out of beta-ing? Give your betas some love!

Mission Accomplished

Tira over at Time is Running Away tagged me in a sort of virtual game of drink-while-you-think except there's no drinking (as far as you know). She wants me to name my seven favorite songs. Now, I won't go into why that's impossible because you already know: too many to choose, changes on an hourly basis, depends on my current levels of insanity and insecurity, can I pick seven per genre?

At 10:57 (Eastern) on Tuesday, September 22, 2009, my seven favorite songs are:

"Say it Ain't So" by Weezer
Dear Daddy, I write you in spite of years of silence...

"Killing in the Name of" by Rage Against the Machine
Fuck you, I won't do what you tell me...

"Vienna" by Billy Joel
You can't be everything you want to be before your time...

"Better Get it in your Soul" by Charles Mingus
Oh yeah...

"Creep" by Radiohead
I want a perfect body; I want a perfect soul...

"Sweet Jane" by Velvet Underground
Anyone who ever had a heart, well they wouldn't turn around and break it...

"Birthday Boy" by Ween
I'll be around. I'll be in town if you need a place to stay...

Now, I have to tag seven peeps to keep this game going. So hey, peeps, tell me your seven favorite songs:

Megan Rebekah
Natalie Bahm
Karen Amanda Hooper
Fiction Groupie
Joanne Fritz
Frankie Dianne Mallis
Unpublished Guy

Now that my important work is done for the day, I can get back to writing.

From: After Tupac and D Foster

"'There's millions of people in the world, though. And more getting born every day. And some of them blow up--like Tupac did. I think that's why he's so cool by me, because he didn't come from any rich people like a lot of those celebrities be coming from--with their mamas or their daddies already movie stars.' Neeka leaned her head against the window. 'I mean his parents were out there being Black Panthers and whatnot, but they was struggling too. Didn't always have money. Didn't always have food.'

Neeka looked at me. 'I want to blow up. Have people knowing my name. I want to walk inside a subway car and have white people be giving me big respect instead of looking at me and my family like we some kind of circus act or something.'"

From young adult novel After Tupac & D Foster by Jacqueline Woodson

Found: Time, glorious free time

"If art is to nourish the roots of our culture, society must set the artist free to follow his [or her] vision wherever it takes him [or her]."

John F. Kennedy
(Equality added by me)

How to Make your Story High Concept

If you’ve put any research into what kind of book you should be writing, you’ve come across the term high-concept. You probably don’t know what the hell it means exactly, but you’re trying to make your book high-concept anyway.

I’ve been thinking about the definition of high-concept lately—mostly because the other day, one of my betas, who knows quite a bit about all this fiction stuff, asked, “All the agents say they want high concept, but I don’t know if my book is high concept.”

No one does, grasshopper; no one does.

But like obscenity and good writing, agents know it when they see it.

I am going to make a bold, unconfirmed assertion:

Your story is high-concept, because high-concept is all about how you present the idea.

I know. Scandalous. Please, let me explain.

At a writer’s conference I attended, the great YA writer Lara Zeises explained that high-concept means that your book has a big idea, something that is easily summed up in one enticing line. For instance, I’m going to throw out a couple of one-sentence enticing lines that describe current, popular high-concept books:

• Girl falls in love with teenage vampire.

• Boy listens to tapes on which a girl he liked explains why she committed suicide.

• Girl gets to decide whether she will live or die after her parents and brother die in a car accident.

• To save her sister, girl volunteers to go on a reality show where teenagers fight to the death.

Get it? One sentence excites me enough to want to read more and tells me what the whole book is about. OK, not the whole book. Think of all the major stuff I left out of these descriptions: jealous werewolves, muttations that prey on our worst fears, maps of hometowns, rock-star boyfriends, daddy issues, cello playing, secret societies in Italy, Gale and Peeta, commentary on the lack of empathy in high school, a futuristic North America that would freak out George Orwell.

All that stuff is important to the books, but it wouldn’t mean a damn thing if there wasn’t a central high-concept plot that made those details significant.

In perhaps the greatest description of a query EVER, the great Miss Snark once said, “Give me six sentences of less than ten words that tell me WHO is doing WHAT to WHOM and why I should give a rat's ass.”

I love succinct explanations. It really does warm my little writer heart. And that's most of what people mean by high-concept--that the conflict of your story is clear.

In an interview posted at Word Hustler, YA agent Katie Grimm said, “A one-liner type hook, even if your book isn’t high-concept, helps me determine just exactly what your book is all about.”

The definition of high-concept is that one sentence could theoretically sell the story. That’s how exciting your central plot is. I assert that you can make your one-liner as exciting as a high-concept book even if you're not sure that your book is high concept. Leave out what you must. Keep only those details that are essential to getting people to read further. But still be honest about what your story is about. Tricking your way through an agent’s inbox will only piss them off. Writers have enough worries; they don’t need to be pissing off agents.

If your story can’t be broken down into an enticing line, I offer the same advice I offer for pretty much every problem in life: try harder. Give it a few weeks. Ask your betas for an outsider’s perspective. Your one-liner is basically the view of your story as seen from far away. Focus on the big picture, not the details.

Extra credit: Can you name the books I described in those one-liners above?

From: Catching Fire

"This time, there is nothing but us to interrupt us. And after a few attempts, Peeta gives up on talking. The sensation inside me grows warmer and spreads out from my chest, down through my body, out along my arms and legs, to the tips of my being. Instead of satisfying me, the kisses have the opposite effect, of making my need greater. I thought I was something of an expert on hunger, but this is an entirely new kind."

P.S.:

Dear Suzanne Collins,

I think I speak for everyone when I say, More Gale. Seriously.

Thank you,

The Booknapper

P.P.S. Why didn't I write The Hunger Games?

P.P.P.S. In my opinion, yes, Catching Fire is just as tense and romantic as The Hunger Games. Readers, do you agree?