Fifty or so teenagers, eavesdropping
October 18, 2013 5:19 AM Subscribe
Your next Young Adult novel, in fragments.
From the blog Your Next YA Novel, by Johnny Dale, author of online YA novel the Darling Budds.
From the blog Your Next YA Novel, by Johnny Dale, author of online YA novel the Darling Budds.
Your next clever Tumblr is a notion of YA that bloated, died, and was buried in 2008. It never moved beyond the early bestselling, blockbuster Tumblrs that got all the Grumpy Cats the book deals. Outdated meme is outdated, but the Tumblr goes on and on, in ORANGE, the color of the future (circa every website in 2008.) It has a taste of misogyny, probably unintentional, 'cause the superstars are girls, and the girls are doing it all wrong.
Edgy,
edgy,
egdy poetry
Tumblr poetry
because the market
share is almost
as small
as a skinny dipping
dick
in january.
posted by headspace at 5:52 AM on October 18, 2013 [1 favorite]
Edgy,
edgy,
egdy poetry
Tumblr poetry
because the market
share is almost
as small
as a skinny dipping
dick
in january.
posted by headspace at 5:52 AM on October 18, 2013 [1 favorite]
“Shaka, when the walls fell.”
posted by D.C. at 5:57 AM on October 18, 2013 [2 favorites]
posted by D.C. at 5:57 AM on October 18, 2013 [2 favorites]
Correct me if I'm wrong, but that "scene painting" style seems to be derived from the early cyberpunk novels, which is itself taken from Burroughs. When it works, the effect is to create a rough texture to the text. I suppose it only makes sense that it would make its way into dystopian YA fiction at a time when adults are reading YA as an entry point into sf.
posted by deathpanels at 6:21 AM on October 18, 2013 [4 favorites]
posted by deathpanels at 6:21 AM on October 18, 2013 [4 favorites]
Enjoyed it. Impressionistic. It's new enough, but clear enough. Calling it "cheap, maybe?": cheap.
posted by Drexen at 6:45 AM on October 18, 2013
posted by Drexen at 6:45 AM on October 18, 2013
I ...uhh like to figure out the general shape of the story and sequences I enjoy, then write the fun, tone setting, flashy scenes first and then try to connect them up and out them in order so it makes sense.
Am I a bad person then?
posted by The Whelk at 6:54 AM on October 18, 2013 [1 favorite]
Am I a bad person then?
posted by The Whelk at 6:54 AM on October 18, 2013 [1 favorite]
Yes, but not for those reasons.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 6:55 AM on October 18, 2013 [2 favorites]
posted by Potomac Avenue at 6:55 AM on October 18, 2013 [2 favorites]
It's because you eat baby koalas.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 6:55 AM on October 18, 2013
posted by Potomac Avenue at 6:55 AM on October 18, 2013
Baby koalas start life as larval looking bug things crawling in fur that are frequently eaten by lice.
posted by The Whelk at 7:04 AM on October 18, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by The Whelk at 7:04 AM on October 18, 2013 [1 favorite]
Yummy!
It's an interesting point that so many popular YA and other novels are doing this. Sometimes it does feel like language is getting more and more disjointed (texting!), and that sooner or later we will all just be communicating in grunts again, but then I just tell everybody to get off my lawn and I feel better about things.
posted by onlyconnect at 7:11 AM on October 18, 2013 [1 favorite]
It's an interesting point that so many popular YA and other novels are doing this. Sometimes it does feel like language is getting more and more disjointed (texting!), and that sooner or later we will all just be communicating in grunts again, but then I just tell everybody to get off my lawn and I feel better about things.
posted by onlyconnect at 7:11 AM on October 18, 2013 [1 favorite]
As formulaic as a lot of YA feels, I enjoy that it's making pulp-esque genre literature a larger part of pop culture again!
posted by phillipmasters at 7:18 AM on October 18, 2013
posted by phillipmasters at 7:18 AM on October 18, 2013
In what library or bookstore (or universe) is Fifty Shades considered a YA novel?
posted by zakur at 7:47 AM on October 18, 2013
posted by zakur at 7:47 AM on October 18, 2013
Calling it "cheap, maybe?": cheap.
Well, I didn't have the luxury of complete sentences there to explain myself, but yeah: cheap in the sense that writing in sentence fragments can be neat to read (though maybe not long-term) and fun to write, but if you're just using them as a shortcut to poetic-sounding prose, it'll seem just as hollow and forced as any other stylistic trick.
But there are certainly lots of ways to tie that style into the themes of the novel and make incomplete sentences into something meaningful and resonant: maybe the prose is symptomatic of a modern world where, as onlyconnect suggests, communication is being broken down into little nuggets of context-free information. Or maybe it's more personal, and the writing style reflects the protagonist's increasingly disconnected state or their frustration with an inability to clear out the noise in their head so they can think clearly.
(If anyone else wants to try writing something in just fragments—which I recommend, it's a fun diversion—a word of warning: only do it on a day when you don't have to write anything else. After I got to work, I felt like I'd been hit in the head whenever I tried to put together a full sentence. There's a particularly impressionistic pharmaceutical services brochure out there thanks to this.)
Anyway, I don't even think that this entry is particularly successful; I considered just emailing it to friends instead of posting it. But...I hit the button and here we are. If I can be vain, my favorite entries from this side project so far have been:
Well, I didn't have the luxury of complete sentences there to explain myself, but yeah: cheap in the sense that writing in sentence fragments can be neat to read (though maybe not long-term) and fun to write, but if you're just using them as a shortcut to poetic-sounding prose, it'll seem just as hollow and forced as any other stylistic trick.
But there are certainly lots of ways to tie that style into the themes of the novel and make incomplete sentences into something meaningful and resonant: maybe the prose is symptomatic of a modern world where, as onlyconnect suggests, communication is being broken down into little nuggets of context-free information. Or maybe it's more personal, and the writing style reflects the protagonist's increasingly disconnected state or their frustration with an inability to clear out the noise in their head so they can think clearly.
(If anyone else wants to try writing something in just fragments—which I recommend, it's a fun diversion—a word of warning: only do it on a day when you don't have to write anything else. After I got to work, I felt like I'd been hit in the head whenever I tried to put together a full sentence. There's a particularly impressionistic pharmaceutical services brochure out there thanks to this.)
Anyway, I don't even think that this entry is particularly successful; I considered just emailing it to friends instead of posting it. But...I hit the button and here we are. If I can be vain, my favorite entries from this side project so far have been:
- The Carrie Diaries, a YA prequel to King Of Queens
- A YA novel about reliving memories, of course featuring a Madeline
- A trilogy based on songs by The Clash, Falco, and The Replacements (And only on Metafilter do I have to say: yes, I know I fudged the dates of the songs a bit to make it work with the ages of the characters. Mea culpa.)
not for those reasons.
posted by Alexsandra at 7:50 AM on October 18, 2013
posted by Alexsandra at 7:50 AM on October 18, 2013
I recognize only one Young Adult Novel.
posted by nanojath at 7:50 AM on October 18, 2013 [2 favorites]
posted by nanojath at 7:50 AM on October 18, 2013 [2 favorites]
In what library or bookstore (or universe) is Fifty Shades considered a YA novel?
It was originally Twilight fanfiction. Reportedly, Robert Pattinson (Twilight alum) was the author's first choice for the titular character (based on the character he played in Twilight). That's the connection; it's not itself a YA novel, but was definitely born in that world.
posted by flibbertigibbet at 8:06 AM on October 18, 2013
It was originally Twilight fanfiction. Reportedly, Robert Pattinson (Twilight alum) was the author's first choice for the titular character (based on the character he played in Twilight). That's the connection; it's not itself a YA novel, but was definitely born in that world.
posted by flibbertigibbet at 8:06 AM on October 18, 2013
AskMetafilter: Yes, but not for those reasons.
posted by Ned G at 8:40 AM on October 18, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by Ned G at 8:40 AM on October 18, 2013 [1 favorite]
Correct me if I'm wrong, but that "scene painting" style seems to be derived from the early cyberpunk novels, which is itself taken from Burroughs.
You may be surprised to learn how much of William Burroughs' output was published under the pseudonym Franklin W. Dixon.
None. (Surprise!)
posted by Sys Rq at 11:52 AM on October 18, 2013
You may be surprised to learn how much of William Burroughs' output was published under the pseudonym Franklin W. Dixon.
None. (Surprise!)
posted by Sys Rq at 11:52 AM on October 18, 2013
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posted by Potomac Avenue at 5:20 AM on October 18, 2013