WIP Wednesday: Puzzling it out

So I'm in a pretty fun place with my writing right now. I'm two-thirds to three-quarters finished with the first draft of my second novel, Dyllan and Abigail. I've built up a lot of relationships between the different characters over five or six different plot lines, and now many of these plot lines are coming together, and the story has become a puzzle that needs solving. In other words, I've built up this whole world and placed this tangle of characters and events in it, and now I have to figure out how to sort everyone out in a way that satisfies the reader and keeps the integrity of the story intact. And all of those answers are coming out in the most unexpected ways—witch colonies, magical botany, sand demons, battles, and enchanted disguises to name a few.

Here is the gist of Dyllan and Abigail:

Abigail Gray thought her father's series of children's stories about Abernwyth, land of the Folk, was just that: stories. But on her thirteenth birthday, she discovers that not only is Abernwyth real, but she has magic in her blood, and her father is actually a legendary Folk hero.

Halfway around the world, scrawny Eleanor Griggs runs onto the Scottish moors, fleeing bullies, when she is captured by a strange-eyed man, and taken through a split between two worlds.

And in Abernwyth, in the small mountain village of New Alband, the beautiful and enigmatic Dyllan becomes an orphan for the second time.

The course of the next three years brings the three children crashing together, with world-altering and tragic consequences.

(Oh, and there's a binturong, too. Her name is Steg and she adores a slice of cake (or two).)

So that's where I am with my WIP so far. It's currently 67,229 words long, with about another 30-40,000 words to go. I try to put down at least a thousand words a day, but it's hard sometimes with my day job. I'm hoping to have this draft finished by spring break (the beginning of April).

Image credit: Linda via Creative Commons.

Dear Readers, where have your writing adventures been taking you this week?

The Fault in Our Stars: can reading sad books be a positive thing?

Have you ever read a book that made you laugh or cry, actually out loud? I've had a few of them—The Harry Potter series has made me laugh many times over the years, and of course I cried when Dumbledore died (actually, I cried at some point during each of the last three books. But when Dumbledore died I both cried and threw the book to the floor. Yes I was twenty-two years old). The book Marley and Me had me alternately laughing and crying as I sat on a plane from Seattle to Burbank, and then as I sat reading for an hour afterward on a mercifully deserted train platform (if you've seen the film, it's crap, I know, but the book is honestly really really good, especially if you've ever owned a dog, and especially if your dog was badly behaved). I cried reading A Walk to Remember by Nicholas Sparks (which I realize is lame but I was seventeen). I even got a little bit teary at the end of The Graveyard Book, when Bod ventures out into the wide world.

Photo: Amazon.co.uk

Last Friday I read another book that left me in floods of tears: John Green's new young adult novel The Fault in Our Stars. Though I had been waiting on the book for months, I honestly didn't know what to expect—I had loved the author's debut Looking for Alaska (another tear-inducing novel), but personally found his Paper Towns a bit underwhelming (despite its containing a lot of good ideas and Walt Whitman references). The Fault in Our Stars follows Hazel—a smart, insightful 16 year-old who also happens to be living with stage four cancer—as she meets and gets to know Augustus, a cancer survivor with a fondness for heroics, symbolism, and grand gestures. Together they share their love of reading, which—without giving too much away—leads to the central adventure of the story. Though there is obviously a lot in the book about illness, Green tries to avoid the clichés that Hazel so emphatically despises—in particular the brave, ever-positive, ever-inspirational cancer kid. Instead he tries to give the reader an honest picture of what it's like to live with a serious disease (according to his vlog, the story was inspired by his time working as a student chaplain in a children's hospital). The characters are complex, real, flawed, and variable. Which is one of the reasons the book is so heartbreaking.

But that brings me to my central concern of the week: why do we love books that make us cry? I mean, crying is bad, right? Yet I have a general rule that any book that actually makes me cry deserves at least four stars. Why? Because the author has made me care about these fictional characters to such an extent that I shed real tears at the tragedy of their situations—I mean, isn't that amazing? It's like magic to me. That kind of skill is what I aspire to. Not necessarily to make readers cry, but to be able to write such believable characters that the reader can't help but become emotionally invested in the story. Characters make or break a novel. Reading really good characters is entrancing, almost intoxicating, nearly addicting—we've all had books we couldn't put down. We've all (all of us who are readers, anyway) stayed up a little too late with a great book, arriving at work or school in the morning with shadows under eyes, mumbling about having had a few too many (chapters) last night. (And yes, while I realize that plot is very important in a novel, I would argue that without characters that the reader can care about, plot alone isn't enough to keep them turning the pages.)

Not everyone feels this way. When I commented to my fellow library lady last week that the book I was reading was "so sad! I'm like, an emotional wreck right now!" She just shook her head and said "You don't want to read something that makes you sad. You want something that makes you happy!" And while I found this a valid opinion, I sort of realized that sad books, in some weird way, do make me feel happy. Or, if not happy, then hopeful. Or maybe optimistic is a better word—as if I've gone on some sort of worthwhile emotional journey.

So what do you think, Dear Readers? Is there something to be gained from reading books that bring us to tears? Or do you find the whole idea a bit masochistic? Let me know in the comments!

Kindle and me: seven months later

For my birthday in June, I decided to buy myself a Kindle with an Amazon gift card I had received from my family. At first, while I was excited to receive my first e-reader, I wondered how much I would actually like it compared to reading "real" books. After all, I had fallen in love with reading through physical books, and I loved the very essence of them—the paper and ink, the different fonts, the cover art, the entoxicating smell of a new book. These are things that I still enjoy, and I don't think I would ever read e-books exclusively, but at the same time, I've discovered some real advantages to the format:

1. Weight—my Kindle weighs about the same as a paperback, so even when I'm reading a very long book, it's easy to carry around.
2. Durability—I always take a book with me to work to read on my train journey and during my breaks. Because they are bouncing around in my bag with my other things, paperbacks tend to get scuffed, or the covers might get bent or frayed. Not so with an e-book. My Kindle stays safe in its Neoprene cover, ready to slip out and read at lunch time. 
3.  Reading while eating—anyone who reads all the time will tell you, it's hard to eat certain foods while simultaneously trying to hold a book open and turn pages. The Kindle lies flat on the table next to you, needing only a finger to press the page-turn button.
4. Switching between books—if I'm reading something and come across an allusion to Shakespeare or a quote from the bible that I want to check out, no problem: I can be there in a few clicks.
5. Taking notes—I've never liked writing in physical books; it's always seemed like vandalism to me. But on my Kindle I can highlight passages I want to remember, and I can type notes at any point in a book. Handy! I can also see highlights from other readers, which is interesting.
6. Traveling light—Going on a trip, or moving? You can take your whole library with you without weighing down your luggage. Sweet!

Of course, I've noted a couple of disadvantages too:

1. Battery life—the Kindle has an amazingly long battery life. And while only having to charge it once a month certainly seems an advantage, I find that I have to charge it so infrequently that when it comes time to do it, I forget! Admittedly, this is a personal problem and not the Kindle's fault. But still.
2. All books look the same on the Kindle—You don't get all of the wonderful variations of font and paper that you have with physical books.

Overall, I'm really happy with my Kindle, and I'm glad I bought it. I still read plenty of physical books, and will continue to use my local library for many of these, but I find it nice to be able to toss my Kindle into my bag and know that I'll have a choice of several different books to read, wherever the day takes me.

So, Dear Readers, what are your thoughts on e-books? Would you ever read them exclusively, or are you old school all the way?

A new year, a fresh start

One of the things I really like about New Year's is the feeling of having a fresh start—of looking at a whole year, full of possibility, spreading out before you. That's why I think New Year's resolutions are so fun; there are innumerable ways you can resolve to change or improve your life. My resolutions this year are pretty standard fare:

1. Eat more fruits and vegetables, and less sugar
2. Finish my first draft of Dyllan and Abigail, and finish revising Water Magic
3. Understand more, and judge less
4. Draw more—at least once a week
5. Keep blogs up to date, with at least one post a week
6. Read 60 books

I would also love to learn Spanish, but I don't know if I'll be able to afford classes this year. The same for yoga and photography. But overall, I think the above list is enough to keep me busy. Some year I would love to make a crazy cool resolution like "learn the violin" or "volunteer in Africa" or "finally learn how to surf." But then, who knows what 2013 will bring.

So, Dear Readers, have you made resolutions this year? Or, what's the best or most fun resolution you ever made? Let me know in the comments.

Oh, and happy, happy New Year! I wish you peace, happiness, and fulfilment in 2012.