Endless Rewrites

Listening to Blue Ocean Floor, by my man JT. I really cannot get enough of this album.
Thinking about writing and the many issues that accompany it.
    I was reading old posts to be sure I still wanted them on the blog. Just on a whim. I stumbled on one from the December I'd first started this blog. I'd just finished my first NaNoWriMo, and I was filling in the blanks between big events in the story. The same story I'm working on now, only this is a complete rewrite. I was having problems, I wrote, with the boring and the mundane. The every-day events. Now that I've changed so much of the story, I'm trying to tone down the big events so that they don't take so much stage. I don't want them to be the center of the story, to stand out from it. I want it to all be one continuous line. The way the novel should end, were I to put it in musical terms, is on a softer note, and the whole story should lead up to it at the same tempo, but still with a sense of forward motion. Does that make sense?
    The thing is, I took two short story writing classes, and my strength, unbeknownst to me, is writing the mundane and still making it entertaining. I would take small vignettes and make a story out of them, and though nothing huge happened, it was still a moving and engaging story. That's the feeling I want to evoke in this novel. It doesn't lead up to the big bang ending you want, but you're content with it nonetheless. This is apparently my strength, isn't it?
     So why do I find myself struggling with it? Someone de-riddle this for me, because I'm losing my patience with myself.
***Added*** Shout out to my good friend Hannah from Hannah Cynthia Lane for being such an awesome reader and writer, for that matter! (Y'all go check out her blog ASAP; she makes me giggle like a hyena during a hostile takeover.) Hope you have fun in Fiction Writing this semester with Big Daddy Platt. Also known as the Plattypus. (Side note, don't call him any of these names. We kinda got him angry a few times.)

YA in the College Setting

Listening to nothing, but you'd better believe That Girl is playing on repeat in my head. Oh, JT...
Thinking about how daunting this semester is going to be.
    Before finalizing his plans for the semester, one of my professors did something that none of my other professors have done before. He did two things, actually. First, he sent the whole class a survey with about twenty books on it, asking us which we were most interested in reading. Secondly, almost every book on that list (it might have even been every book - I don't remember them all) was YA Lit.*
    Finally. Finally someone sees the significance of YA literature. Finally someone realizes that there is so much to be learned from these authors and their stories. Finally, y'all. There is hope for the future of YA. And I have to say I'm most excited that John Green's wonderful The Fault In Our Stars is on the list. I've been dying to read this book, but as an English/English Ed./Latin major, I really don't have time to read for pleasure during the semester. Oh, delight, someone's finally realized this book is worth studying in a class.
    Now I realize that so many educators have already seen the importance of these books, but not at my university. I've been reading the same books over and over for classes for the past nine years. I can't tell you how many times I've read Uncle Tom's Cabin (yes I can. Twice, and I didn't like it either time), and it's on yet another class's book list for this semester. At least one professor has finally realized that there is significance and import in contemporary YA authors' works that should be studied at a collegiate level. Studied, for that matter, so that it can be taught at a high school level.
    Thank God I have at least two classes I can look forward to this semester, because the other three will likely destroy me with the canon. (Get it? Lit pun. And you thought I was over those.)

Have any of your professors introduced YA into the college classroom?

 

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*Which is what I have always loved, read, and write.

**He was supposed to post the finalized book list today, and has not yet done so (it's nearly midnight), but I'm resting assured that most of the books on the list were books that I'd like to read.**

Soon, My Friends

Longing for my head to hit the pillow
Unfortunately I have to use the restroom and I'm too tired to get up and go.
    Thought I'd share this with you since I'm SUPER PSYCHED about it.

Maggie Stievfater is without a doubt one of my favorite YA authors. Shiver made me jittery with excitement, the final chapters of Linger haunted me, and I'm sure I'll never want Forever to end.

For your convenience, you can buy Forever here: http://www.fountainbookstore.com/autograph-maggie. 

Have an awesome Tuesday!