I doubt that had anything to do with their desicion, but they accepted.
And he’s off!
Because I love acronyms (and because the title may change), I’ll hereby refer to this experiment as the Young Adult Book About Desire Authored By Asher, II...or Y.A.B.A.D.A.B.A., Deux. Why am I using the French translation for two? Guess you'd better stay tuned to find out!
So how far into Y.A.B.A.D.A.B.A., Deux am I? For the past week I’ve been struggling to get the perfect opening chapter. A lot of authors write their first chapter fully intending to tear it apart and put it back together later on. I can’t do that. Unless I’m totally satisfied with my beginning, I can’t get excited about the rest of the book. With my first book (Y.A.B.A.D.A.B.A., Une), the opening chapter is almost identical to what I wrote the day I came up with the idea. And it’s one of the only chapters my editor told me to leave alone.
Once again, I have two main characters: one male, one female. And something odd I've noticed, as with my previous book, I'm having an easier time writing from the female P.O.V. than the male. Do you find it easier to write as the opposite sex or is it just me? And if it is just me...why?
- Jay
7 comments:
Congratulations and yabba dabba doo!
It's just you, you weird, strange person. No, no, I'm sure it's not just you. My first novel was told in a male voice because I liked the male character I created in a short story and decided to use him in a novel. But now I've been writing a lot of female main characters, and it does seem easier for me to stay with the same gender. If only people were interested in the life of a middle-aged suburban housewife, I'd write about that.
Wow, Jay! How long did it take you to come up with that one? Yes, Jay is the creative brain of our threesome. Robin's the industrious and responsible one. Not sure what I contribute.
Anyway, Jay... loved your YABADABA Une, and no doubt will love YABADABA Deux just as much. Especially since Robin and I helped you come up with the idea...sort of. Okay, not really. We were just present when you came up with it. Does that count as helping??
As far as you writing from the teen female perspective, I was just going to make fun of you, but realized that I had an easier time writing from my 13-year-old inner city boy perspective than I am with my teen girl voice...not sure what that says about us. Past lives, maybe?? Or maybe we're just freaks.
xoxo
Eve
I can only write from a girl's POV, can't seem to get the boys' voices quite right. But one of the women in my crit groups is writing from a boy's and a girl's POV, and her boy's is much more believable.
BTW, I just discovered this blog ... you guys are very entertaining. Loved your "When I told them" posts from last fall, Jay! And congrats on the book!
Linda B. (who is a fellow ABLA client and who always kind of had a crush on Barney Rubble)
Debby, you nailed the male P.O.V. in Storky! Especially when describing his problems with "Rex".
Eve, I think we're just freaks.
And Linda...welcome! I'll admit, Pebbles was pretty hot when she grew up.
(What's that, Rex?)
- Jay
Okay, the YABADABA Deux thing is pretty awesome. I think you get the rest of the week off for coming up with that.
Oh, I hate to be the one to take the bait here, but someone's gotta do it! Jay, don't you find it more comfortable to write from a girl's point of view because of all those fabulous dresses you've worn?
You understand us...the ill-fitting pantyhose, the smeared mascara...the desire, no, the NEED for quality skin care products! Stand tall, Jay. You are beautiful.
Go Hillary '08!
-Robin
For many years, I worked on a mystery novel, with a first-person, 29-year-old, female protagonist. Okay, the longer I worked on the book, the farther I got away from that 29, but...when I fell in love with the book I'm currently working on, it had a lot to do with the 11-year-old boy who's telling the story. I LOVE writing in his voice. I go with the theory that I write better in his voice precisely because it's far away from mine. I actually have to step out of myself to write as Joel, and somehow that opens up more doors of creativity for me.
Of course, I do take pride in my ability to out-gross my son and his friends at times. So maybe my theory is totally off-base!
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