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Thursday, November 18, 2010

Phase Two: A Twilight Rant-- No One Is Safe!

I wrote a little over 2,000 words yesterday, and I'm still behind by a lot! I'm sort of resigned to the fact that I may not make the deadline in time. Or I may have a Zen moment and type and finish it all in a day!

I spent way too many days writing nothing at all for whatever reason, both listed in my Procrastination Confessional and not. This tells me that if I just write every day like a good WriMo, I would not only be caught up, but very much ahead or finished by now!

Now, what I do know is that I really like the NaNoWriMo format. For someone who intends to get published in the near future, I find the one-month rough draft to be a priceless attempt. Mainly, I like the tight deadline because it prevents me from rambling... much... and procrastinating... a lot. I could easily-- exhaustingly-- get most of my entire series completed in rough draft by the end of next year! (Though I'll probably space it out a bit more!)

Editing will be an experience, especially since I know I'm gearing the work toward a YA audience. I was worried about watering down the content for a younger audience and then did some research. In the higher and lower age groups for YA, I noticed a lot of violence as their conflict. Even Twilight had blood and gore, and that was to my "chagrin" and I'll be over my initial shock in "(insert fraction here) of a second." Gaaaaaah!

If so many of my pet peeves are activated by a highly successful novel series like Twilight, and it still sells wildly, and spawns movies that bring Taylor Lautner's abs and cute baby face to the world, I guess I could learn something about the subject matter and storytelling devices rather than Stephenie Meyer's insistence at not cutting out her "darling" phrases.

I forgive you, Stephenie Meyer, for how New Moon upset me. And for your insistence upon "chagrin" and "(fraction) of a second." I'm still working on letting go of Jacob, though. I called that one, and I'm still mad. Not that Bella deserved him... Stupid Renesme. :) There, a fangirl moment. Brought to you by off-brand Fruity Pebbles and cheese and crackers for breakfast.

I do love and anticipate Bella's suffering in the last movie. Ever since Kristy stuck Twilight under my nose one boring day and I ended up buying all four books and hating that I loved reading them all, I have waited for the long days during which Bella will suffer. *sigh*

I also love that the books are a quick, easy read. Even when a story isn't in first-person POV, they seem to sell easily when someone doesn't have to sit with a thesaurus to understand it. I don't like word-heaviness for the sake of word-heaviness. Blah! Among Anne Rice, T.H. White's The Once and Future King, and Michael Moorcock's Elric series, and some points in Anne McCaffrey's Dragonriders series, I own plenty of books for which it is perfectly acceptable to possess and utilize an extensive vocabulary and highly-structured grammar.

But as horrible as it sounds, I don't have the time or attention span to muddle through Anne Rice's deeply self-conscious writing style. (Yes, Louis. We know you're sad. We know you miss your humanity! For crying out loud! We don't care anymore that you shuffle your feet intentionally when you walk-- even though you can move silently-- so you can feel more human!!!) I love her dearly, still, for she helped me through those angsty, morbid, years of my life when I had all the time and freed-up attention span in the world. (I read Interview with the Vampire at 12.)

But all the other books I mentioned, I crave. I have read and re-read those many times. That's what I want to infuse my books with. (Yes, Grammar Nazis of the World. I ended in a preposition!) Re-read-ability. Meaning no matter how heavy or light the writing is, the world and characters are engaging enough to keep a reader coming back. For sequels. For re-reads while anticipating sequels. To buy the graphic novels and the action figures. (One can hope!)

I think I mentioned one time that those Twilight books are an amazing fad. That, unlike Harry Potter, they'll fizzle out into an "I love the 2000s" special one day. (Or whenever they were first published.) Be that as it may, my dear Brandon made an insightful comment that went something along the lines of this: "Yeah, but she's set for life. I bet you wouldn't mind a ten-year fad for your books!"

Touche, Brandon. And touche, Stephenie Meyer.

1 comment:

  1. I really freakin' loved this post. I read large portions of it out loud to my labmates, and they liked it too. :)

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