Claire Hennessy's Blog, page 40

"I'm a writer…I don't have the time to write…"

'I don't have the time to write!' We all say it. We are all terribly busy people.

I know writers who wrote when loved ones were in hospital. Personally I think that those situations are the ones where you absolutely-positively need to be let off the hook, but it impresses the hell out of me that they managed it.

I know writers who write when they have kids. I know writers who work full-time. I know writers who work full-time and have kids. I know writers who work full-time and have a variety of interests they pursue. I know writers with several jobs and kids and passions. And they write.

I also know a writer who is something absurd like six years late for a project that they've been paid for. I know people who spend years talking about the book they keep meaning to write once they have time. I know people who can explain to you in excruciating detail what happens in their book and why it'd make a great movie and how they'd market it – but haven't written a word of it. I do not have an awful lot of respect for these people, particularly when they insist that yes, they are WRITERS. In capitals.

I am wary of the 'Writer' label because of this, because of these people who think that Writerliness is some kind of state of mind, some special condition that you have, something innate and magical. (On the flipside to this, though, Alison Wells has a great post on describing yourself as a Writer rather than an Aspiring Writer over here and it's well worth reading.) Writerliness is something that you work on. Something that you nurture. Something that you make the time for.

We are all terribly busy people, but busy people need to prioritise things. If you insist on calling yourself a WRITER, remember that it's not a label that you get at birth and get to hold on to, like a nationality or a star sign (we'll leave aside political upheaval and wacky new-fangled astrological stuff for the moment). It's like saying you're an athlete when you haven't been in training for years – even a natural affinity for something isn't going to get you all of the way there.

Being A Writer does not mean seeing the world in a special fuzzy insightful amazing way. It may mean that, for many people, but it also means actually getting those special fuzzy insightful amazing thoughts down on paper. If you 'just don't have the time to write', but insist on your special Writerly status . . . well. Just don't start up a conversation with me, okay? It gets a little tiresome.

Mostly sending you elsewhere, really…

As of last month, I can be found occasionally yammering over at the Anti-Room, including in today's group post on that day that happens in the middle of February each year.

My writerly Facebook page lives here, should you spend time over at that dangerous-yet-oh-so-alluring time-suck-of-doom.

The fabulous Irish writing resource site writing.ie has gone live, run by Vanessa O'Loughlin of Inkwell Writers' Workshops, and well worth poking around both today and as it continues to be updated. You can find a 'day in the life' piece by yours truly here, though I will put my hand up and confess to getting neither morning-writing nor morning-yoga done this particular Monday.

And also tips on writing YA fiction, including creating playlists (my annotated 'getting in touch with your inner teen' playlist lives here.)

And now back to work!

Book-post!

Siobhan Vivian – Not That Kind of Girl

I'd been meaning to read this ever since it came out – love Siobhan Vivian's books, in particular her ability to capture complex and nuanced friendships amongst teenage girls. Not That Kind of Girl doesn't disappoint. The heroine, Natalie, is of the variety often described as 'prickly' – she's disdainful of most of the people in her school, including the obnoxious football players and the provocative freshman girls trying to get attention by how 'sexy' they are. She's also the student council president (echoes of Tracy Flick here, in the best possible way) and determined to do her best, particularly as her teacher and mentor is putting pressure on her as one of very few female student presidents in the school's history. The parts which detail the ways in which sexual activity or stories can be twisted and used horribly against teenage girls are heartbreaking and true, and even though Natalie isn't 100% right in how she goes about things, the reader understands that it's an area with very few '100% right' solutions.

Lesley Fairfield – Tyranny

Graphic novel for teens, focusing on Anna's struggle with an eating disorder and battling Tyranny, the part of her self that demands control over eating (or not eating). Given the distorted viewpoint inherent in anorexic behaviour, it lends itself well to artwork (Anna's protuding collarbone is particularly haunting), and Anna's ideas for stories also work well represented visually. The moments where Anna is in therapy and listing off the things her disorder has taken away from her, especially time, is particularly poignant, and as with verse novels, is all the more effective for being minimalistic. At the same time, the spare prose doesn't always serve the narrative as well as it might, even with its pairing with artwork – there's an awful lot happening in this slim book, often very quickly, and a more narrow focus might have been more effective. (Sidenote: oh-so-conscious of using terms like 'slim' and 'narrow' when discussing an eating disorder book!)

Sophie Kinsella – The Undomestic Goddess

Following my devouring of the Shopaholic series I investigated SK's other works. In this one, a workaholic high-powered lawyer ends up working as a housekeeper in a quaint village after a disaster of epic proportions at work. The trouble is, she's completely clueless about anything vaguely housework-related… and wacky antics ensue. I really enjoyed this one – I am not a high-powered anything but the look at high-income-but-no-life-jobs versus work-that-you-do-and-it's-done is handled well, without necessarily advocating for one or the other as The Best Thing Ever. And it's brilliantly funny.

Portia De Rossi – Unbearable Lightness

Memoir of Portia De Rossi's battle with eating disorders with some astute commentary on the world of acting, modelling and celebrity. Beautifully written and well worth checking out. There's some interesting stuff in the epilogue which discusses modern culture's relationship to dieting and exercising, which I would have liked to have seen more of. (Sidenote: there is not a huge focus on Portia's relationships but every time Ellen Degeneres is mentioned the reader is liable to melt.)

Robert Cormier – The Chocolate War

One of those iconic YA texts that's been on the 'to read' list for ages. I had a vague idea it was about not selling chocolates for the school, but what intrigued me was how much messier it was – not a simple act of rebellion on Jerry's part but all tangled up with the secret society, the Vigils, that keep things under control at the school – with the tacit approval of the staff. It's dark, with a downbeat ending, but authentic because of it. Glad I read it.

Jacqueline Susann – Valley of the Dolls

Fabulously soap-opera-ish tale of three women in the entertainment industry in the 1940s and 50s, and the drugs they take in order to cope with it. Wonderfully entertaining – even if Susann's show biz knowledge is far superior to her medical knowledge (one word: Tony).

Rebecca Stead – When You Reach Me

Time travel and classroom politics in 1970s New York. This won the Newbery last year, so I had that mix of sceptical (award-winners can often mean 'good for teaching in a classroom' as opposed to 'an amazing read') and intrigued, particularly given the references throughout to Madeleine L'Engle's A Wrinkle In Time. Like L'Engle's books, it handles big themes while interweaving the everyday. Well, well worth reading.

Some questions on a Friday

Some questions I have been posing over on the ol' twitter as of late and wish to ask in a more extended manner:

1. Does anyone have any recommendations, or know of, any work that would/could be categorised as 'chick lit' while also dealing with a heroine or supporting character's chronic illness? Not something like cancer (which does feature in quite a number of books) where there's room for either a tragic death or an improvement in one's condition, or mental/psychological issues like addiction or depression which can involve definite 'improvements'? I've been thinking about the genre and the way in which so much of it is a kind of coming-of-age or discovering of identity, but it strikes me that while chronic illness issues do turn up in kids' and teen fiction, they appear less so in 'chick lit' novels. Maybe it's because certain kinds of illness instantly mark out a book as 'too serious to be chick lit'? I'm also surprised that chronic conditions specific to women, like endometriosis, don't turn up more often, but again, it's a wide genre and there may in fact be plenty of books out there dealing with various conditions! Any thoughts?

2. A shorter query: anyone know of any academic/critical works which focus on The Babysitters Club series? There's a book called 'Sisters, Schoolgirls and Sleuths' which looks at girls' series fiction but in a broad way – am just curious.

3. What's your favourite fairytale adaptation? (Okay, mostly I just love fairytales. But they seem to be more fun to twist and warp than simply tell.)

Getting in touch with your inner teen

I've been meaning to do this post for ages, since the week of Octocon actually, when part of the workshop was a 'how do you write realistically about teenagers? How do you get inside their heads?'

The answers:

1. I cheated for the first few books, which were written in my teens.

2. I am fifteen at heart. Or occasionally thirteen. Seventeen sometimes. Yes, I have moments of grown-up sensibleness – but so do teenagers at times.

3. Paying attention to things that remind me of the intensity, first-time-ness, unfairness, joy and pain of being a teenager.

For #3, music is a great way of doing this and tapping into teenage angst and ecstasy. I think there are some songs and artists that naturally lend themselves to this regardless of how old you were when you first heard them – Avril Lavigne, Taylor Swift, Alanis Morissette, the Smiths, Placebo – and others which will stand out for certain people.

Here be dragons the annotated list of some of the songs that help me channel my inner teen, and why:

Goo Goo Dolls – Iris

I'd like to say this song doesn't turn me into a ball of angst every time I hear it, but… This one I associate with teenage discos and with whoever it was you liked being with someone else. Or teenage life and whoever it was you liked being with someone else. Or not being with you. (Oh, the agony, the agony… and so much terrible poetry.)

Pink Floyd – Another Brick In The Wall

'We don't need no education' – surely explains itself.

Europe – The Final Countdown

We used to sing this one in school, coming up to the Leaving Cert. Very apt.

Don McLean – American Pie

Wistfulness and nostalgia and joy. This is the song that's played at the end of every disco at nerd camp, where I spent four of my teenage summers, learned a lot, developed various crushes, and made some terrific and long-lasting friends. So, yeah…

Bellx1 – Eve, the Apple of my Eye

Not one from my teen years, but it played one of the Valentine's Day episodes of The OC, which I loved passionately for the first two seasons.

The Ally McBeal soundtracks

You'd think these would channel the grownup, career-vs-love, dreamer-vs-realist parts of me. Or even the 'yum, Robert Downey Jr' part of me. But I loved Ally McBeal in all her neurotic craziness and in particular because she does so many of the things that you do as a teenager, especially wanting and feeling. And, all right, Robert Downey Jr does sing a couple of tracks as well…

Dire Straits – Romeo and Juliet

Purely 'cause this one was recommended to me by a friend when we were teenagers and I listened to it a lot.

Smashing Pumpkins – Tonight, Tonight

Or any Pumpkins song, really, but there's something about this one – the promise of something magic and life-altering about one night – that echoes the nights you have sometimes with groups of people, friends or acquaintances. The kind of times you feel 'infinite', as Charlie puts it in the perks of being a wallflower.

Jessica Riddle – For Wowzer

Jessica Riddle (now Jessica Jacobs) is a good one for capturing teen experience in general, but this one I like because it's about friendship and admiration and awe and a little bit of envy all mixed in together, the kind of stuff that tends to get left out of 'grown up' songs.

The Moulin Rouge soundtrack

Epic love, high drama, silliness and parody all mixed in together. So, you know, adolescence. With costumes and a lavish set and a nineteenth-century brothel thing going on.

Ani DiFranco – Not A Pretty Girl

Partly because one never feels like a pretty girl in one's adolescence (unless you did, in which case, what's wrong with you?*), partly because this is all about the strength of not being reduced to a cute little damsel-in-distress figure.

Michelle Branch – Goodbye to You

Mostly because it was used at the end of the 'Tabula Rasa' episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which is a sequence that's stuck with me, especially Buffy's I-shouldn't-but-things-are-kinda-messed-up-now scene with Spike.

The Killers – Somebody Told Me

Jealousy! Angst! Something you can dance to! What more do you need?

The Spring Awakening soundtrack

19th-century angst with a 21st-century soundtrack, and the voices of Lea Michele and Jonathan Groff. The play/musical is about sex and knowledge and growing up, and the songs serve as interior monologues. One of my favourite soundtracks and a definite slipping-back-to-adolescence listening experience.

*Unless of course you felt like a pretty girl while being male, which brings its own issues.

Hi there, 2011

If it hurts too much, step away, or do something to change it.

I've been trying to think of what I learned in 2010 (or re-learned, as so many of these things are really about – we usually know the wisest thing to do but need to keep learning what it is or that it's okay to do it or that we're brave/strong/whatever enough to do it). A few not-so-great things happened. A few fabulously-great things happened.

I like unifying themes, and it's taken me 'til now to see what the one for 2010 was. Question what you're doing, and why, and whether it needs to be that way. Question the people in your life, and what role you have in each other's lives, and why. We don't always have the power to cut people out of our lives entirely (or, conversely, to keep them in our lives if they'd rather not be), but we usually have a choice about some element of our interaction with them.

It feels a little vague and amorphous to have this as a New Year's Resolution, to remember this, but that's what most resolutions come down to, I guess – identifying what we have control over, and what we want to do with that power. Or as the Serenity Prayer has it…

Grant me the serenity

to accept the things I cannot change;

courage to change the things I can;

and wisdom to know the difference.

(Why, yes, I am a Serenity Prayer junkie. I do make a point of omitting any deities though. More like imploring the universe. I used to believe in the Exam Gods but only in the sense that you could anger them with comments like "Yeah, that paper was dead easy" or "I think I did really well on that exam", they were never benevolent.)

Book-post!

(The last of the 2010 reads…)

P R Prendergast – Dancing In The Dark

Jessie's brother James died six months ago – not that it's made much of a difference to how much they bicker. He still has a tendency to turn up in her room – or in school – and offer his take on what's going on, including an upcoming dancing competition. Sharply-observed story about bullying, grief, school and family life; well worth checking out.

Anna Carey – The Real Rebecca

Anna Carey's first book for teens, though hopefully not the last. Rebecca's mother writes books – mostly romantic fiction with lots of interfering motherly types, the kind that her new English teacher utterly adores – but it's never been too embarrassing, until her next novel is revealed to be for teenagers – inspired by the 'antics' of 14-year-old Rebecca and her older sister Rachel. Now everyone – including the bitchy girls at school, and the cute Paperboy – will think Rebecca really is as dreadfully silly as her fictional counterpoint. Unless, of course, she proves them wrong… This is a fun read which gets some of the genuine craziness of teenage girls (Rebecca's classmates – she and her friends are mostly normal-ish) spot-on.

Maeve Binchy – Minding Frankie

Binchy manages to be warm without being unrealistic in this tale of family life, featuring some new characters as well as old (Muttie and Lizzie, the twins, Ciara and Frank and the others at the heart clinic, etc) – Noel sorts out his life in order to take care of his baby daughter, Frankie, but it's a tough road ahead and one with a few inevitable tricky spots. Maeve Binchy fans will enjoy her latest – and have their hearts broken just a teensy bit along the way.

Kody Keplinger – The DUFF

Bianca is the DUFF – Designated Ugly Fat Friend – of her group, or so man-whore Wesley tells her. So clearly he's the last person in the world she should be sleeping with in order to distract herself from what's going on at home – right? A fun read about contemporary adolescence and sexuality.

Deirdre Sullivan – Prim Improper

Primrose is thirteen, has just started secondary school, and is adjusting to a new life living with her businessy moustachioed father after her mother's sudden death. This makes it sound like a very tragic grief book, which it isn't, though there are some bits that will break your heart. Prim is comfortable in her own skin, funny and analytical, and precocious while still being a bratty teenager in many ways. Looking forward to seeing what Deirdre Sullivan writes next.

Sophie Kinsella – the Shopaholic series

Only recently got into the Shopaholic series and devoured the lot of them (six, including the latest, Mini Shopaholic) over the holiday season. Becky Bloomwood is a shopaholic with a heart (and credit card) of gold; the books follow her throughout her mid- to late-twenties with all the wackiness that ensues, including various career dilemmas, relationship traumas, family woes, and… shopping issues. Becky's often-clueless but always-funny narration is regularly interrupted by letters from banks and other financial organisations, offering up some social critique along with the shoes et al. Very very funny books – Sophie Kinsella does what she does extraordinarily well.

The writing life; the reading life

Two links:

I really like this post by YA writer Lara M Zeises (aka Lola Douglas) on the 'working writer' life. So much of what's out there on the interwebs about writing is about 'how to make it a career' rather than 'how to love doing it', and it's refreshing to see an honest take about one can sometimes mean giving up the other.

And also: YA author Barry Lyga on his year of not reading kids' books. Reading within your field when it's kidlit is slightly different from reading within a genre field, I think – it's a different set of parameters (there's such a wide range of genres in children's fiction, but then a narrow range of ages for the protagonists) but it's always worth looking at your own default settings and trying to push beyond the boundaries of what you'd normally read.

I'm keeping writing- and reading-related things in mind when developing New Year's resolutions (as far as I'm concerned, 2011 properly begins January 4th, after the weekend and bank holiday – who in their right mind can start all that energetic self-improvement jazz on the 1st?) – how to benefit most from what you're writing and reading, while still keeping the love.

Dystopian YA Reads I'm Looking Forward to in 2011…

Bumped (Megan McCafferty) – because I am so excited to see what the author of the Jessica Darling quintet does with a high school dystopia scenario.

Divergent (Veronica Roth) – because the author apparently wrote this while putting off college assignments, and that's a kind of procrastination I can identify with.

Delirium (Lauren Oliver) – because Lauren Oliver's Before I Fall was completely brilliant, and this has the idea of love as a madness you need to be cured of. (Which makes a lot of sense, right?) I have a very good feeling about this one.

The Fox Inheritance (Mary E Pearson) – because it's the sequel to The Adoration of Jenna Fox, which is perhaps, yes, less straight dystopian and more general science fiction, but I'm including it on the list anyway.

Crossed (Ally Condie) – because it's the follow-up to Matched. Enough said.

Wither (Lauren DeStefano) – because it's being compared to The Handmaid's Tale, one of my favourite books of all time.

Prized (Caragh M O'Brien) – because it's the follow-up to Birthmarked, which I loved even more than Matched.

Favourite YA Books of 2010

That time of year for yearly round-ups, so…. here are my favourite twelve YA books of 2010. With some bonus statistics.

Short story collections: 1

Collaborations: 1

Single-author novels: 10

Dystopian: 3

Contemporary/realistic: 6

Suspense: 1

Paranormal/dead narrator: 2

Authors I'd read before: 4.5

Authors new to me: 7.5

Books I saw being fussed over and hyped up: 4

Books I would have liked to have seen more hyped up: 8

And the list itself…

Ally Condie – Matched

Caragh M O'Brien – Birthmarked

Deb Caletti – The Six Rules of Maybe

Emily Horner – A Love Story Starring My Dead Best Friend

Gemma Malley – The Legacy

Holly Schindler – A Blue So Dark

Jandy Nelson – The Sky Is Everywhere

Jeri Smith-Ready – Shade

John Green & David Levithan – Will Grayson, Will Grayson

Keith Gray (ed.) – Losing It

Lauren Oliver – Before I Fall

Rebecca James – Beautiful Malice