So, the first page -- the first paragraph, the first sentence -- is arguably the most important part of your novel. It's the first thing a reader will see. It gives an impression if your work, your style, your tone. Everything. There's a judgement made within the first couple paragraphs on whether or not the reader likes your work.

You need to get it right. It needs to be perfect. This is important shit.

With that firmly in mind, I completely skipped over my beginning.

I sat in front of a blank screen for a good two months, trying to start from the beginning. I never got farther than about five thousand words in. (Also, the beginning scenes I had never left me with the right feeling to start off the book, and when the book starts off on the wrong foot ... meh.)

And then one day I decided -- screw it. There is absolutely no rule that says you have to start at the beginning. There's no rule that says you can't work from the end back. (Though I imagine that would be a difficult way to write.) So, I have no beginning, and a solid 10k words into the novel, I'm completely okay with that.

I do realize that I have to go put a beginning in later, and then I will resume staring a the page blankly, writing a few words, then erasing them, but at least I'll be doing it while sitting on an otherwise-completed manuscript.

If I tried to pass this off as anything other than complete laziness, I'd be a lying liar. Honestly, I didn't want to write the beginning, so I didn't. It'll come later. I'm not worried.

So, question for you readers: 

How important to you is the first page? First line? First chapter? How long do you give a book to catch your interest before you put it down?
All right, so recently the Wall Street Journal posted this article on YA literature, and why they feel smothered by the dark themes being shoved down the throats of today's youth.

To which I say: tough shit.

I'm not exactly sure what my feelings are on this matter. I'm kind of indignant. Annoyed. But it's more than that, I think. I'm pretty sure that I'm a little bit more disgusted at the fact that this mother has taken the decision out of her child's hands and ruled that YA literature is not for her.

(This could very easily lead into a rant on censorship, but I don't have the time to devote to that right now, so I'll try to steer it away from that direction.)

What I'm trying to get at is that yes, young adult literature is full of "dark themes." Yeah, books swear. Characters have sex. Shit happens.

But you know what, concerned mothers?

Your 13 year old hears worse in the lunchroom. Your teenager sits across from the kid with an eating disorder. They have a class with a kid who cuts. They know someone who was sexually abused. Something is happening to someone, and your child is in the middle of it.

You can't shelter them.

Stopping your child from reading about "dark themes" is not going to stop it from affecting them. It's going to limit your communication. It's going to place you as someone who prefers to ignore things rather than acknowledge that they happen. And that sucks.
We're going to talk about critique groups, why they are awesome, and why they are less-than-awesome. Ready go!

Awesome: 

Part of writing is getting feedback. That's one of the completely non-negotiable parts of writing. (Along with a nice cup of something drinkable, good music, and StumbleUpon.) We need that so people can tell us our writing sucks, we can go, "Oh, it does, doesn't it?" and then go fix it.

And if we don't know exactly how to fix it, just having a new pair of eyes to look at your writing is helpful. Others pick up things you wouldn't catch, wouldn't even think of, so being able to shove off some of your writing problems on others is definitely helpful.

Less Than Awesome: 

Less than awesome is when people in your critique group don't tell you that you have an issue and you should probably just burn it and start over. (Harsh, yes, but true.) The ones who will smile and say it was fine, really, when you know in your little writerly heart that there is something wrong.

A lot of people are scared of hurting feelings or crushing egos, and thus, nothing helpful actually happens. So, as a note to those people: be harsh. It's okay. We asked for it. And if we get upset over your critique, we need to grow some balls. Sure, be nice about it, (no one likes their ego completely trampled on,) and always find something that you like, and be sure to mention that, but never be scared to simply say, "This didn't work for me." and then try to pinpoint where I went wrong.

Awesome: 

There is a great range of opinion in a group. You've (hopefully) got a range of ages and genres and writing styles, and all that experience and ... stuff ... contributes to making your writing better, and more accessible to a wide audience. Take advantage of your group. Pick people's brains. Explore different genres. Go outside your comfort zone.

Less Than Awesome: 

You're always going to have people that aren't going to get your writing style or genre. And you're going to get the same kind of critique from them each time as they can't get past the initial differences. The hardcore Epic Fantasy writer might not be able to get into your YA Urban Fantasy, and sometimes writing styles and people just don't mesh.

I mostly end up really wanting feedback from a select few within the group - those who share my genre and ideas. That isn't to say that I ignore feedback from everyone else, but I do take everything they say with the consideration that their idea of a good story is different than mine, and ultimately, I'm writing for me.




On a completely related note: 

There's a really cute little ginger kid here I want one. Everyone together now: Awwwww!


Number one most popular piece of writing advice for newbies: write what you know. I can't tell you how many times people have told me that. It's an idea that's ingrained into my mind so firmly that I will never be able to venture out of what I know without very briefly going, "But I don't know what I'm doing!" 


That advice? Forget it. Or - don't forget it - but take it very lightly. Writing fiction is simply bullshitting your way through a story, and maybe if you bullshit it well enough, people will buy into it and go along for the ride. 


I'm not saying the advice is completely off. Write things that are familiar to you, write about your passions, a theme that's important to you, and it will come easier. In fact, I don't think any writer could write something they're not passionate about. Too much goes into it. But write what you know is too limiting. We don't know anything, in the grand scheme of things. Your life and experiences - what you know - is such a pathetically tiny part of what there is. The world is much bigger than you can take in.

When I first started writing, creating characters who acted outside of my comfort zone was a big issue for me, I think partly, because that rule was always in the back of my mind. Characters who lived a life that I didn't personally know, characters who acted in ways that were irrational to me - I didn't exactly know what to do with them.

Therefore, I had very flat characters.

How do I write a character who has sex? I hadn't had sex; I didn't know. How do I write a character skydiving? I'd never skydived. A story set in New York? A character who hopped to school on her left foot every day?

Right, you get my point. My characters were really damn boring. They didn't do any of that stuff, and really, who wants to read a story if it doesn't involve sex and skydiving over New York ... while ... hopping to school ...

I think the way I overcame that issue was just practice. A lot of crappy two-dimensional characters. A lot of stories put on the shelves. Realizing that I could try different things, let different characters take the spotlight, and if it didn't work - what did it matter? Learning that I could research something and then act like I knew what I was talking about. Meeting people - that's a big one - knowing people from every different situation in life, talking to them, trying to understand. Not understanding and realizing that's okay. Putting all that into practice. Letting the character take the front seat. Learning how to listen to the character.

My advice: write what you love. Write that story that's in your head, hammering to get out. Don't let anything restrict you. Research. Talk to people. Go camp out in that I-don't-believe-in-ghosts-but-that-house-is-definitely-haunted house you pass by every day so you can properly describe the ghost-house your characters will stumble into in chapter five.

- Sarah
This is a post so I can see what a post looks like here. Obviously it will look like the best post ever, but for the sake of visualizing, I"ll type it out and write a post with a lot of words so I can see how a post with a lot of words looks in this layout that I"m trying now. I'll probably go through about a hundred layouts until i find one I like, and then periodically change it over the next few weeks.