What is Required for YA Fiction? by ML-Larson, literature
Literature
What is Required for YA Fiction?
Another one from the Wattpad dungeons. A common topic of discussion over there is teen fiction/YA, and occasionally NA (New Adult). Which is not surprising, given Wattpad's average userbase. But there's always a constant thread of confusion amongst these categories – which is what they are; not genres.
I had someone recently remark in confusion that they had thought all of my books are YA. I categorised A History of Magic as New Adult entirely because of the focus on Carly's college experiences. Lay of Runes might have some younger characters, but that series sits firmly in fantasy.
So what makes one story with young characters fall i
Z vs S ... and occasionally C by ML-Larson, literature
Literature
Z vs S ... and occasionally C
Z vs S (and occasionally C)
Yes, I do live in the US. Las Vegas, in fact. And no, it's not an awesome place to live. Quite the contrary, but that's beyond the point. And yes, I did go to American schools.
However, I did not learn to read and write within the American school system. Due to some rather unusual circumstances, I did not attend pre-school. Or Kindergarten. Or my first and second years of primary school (or elementary school, or whatever the hell it's called over here). I didn't enter the public school system until my third year, by which point I was already reading and writing in both print and script. This did annoy my teachers
Drawerfic, or Writing for Yourself by ML-Larson, literature
Literature
Drawerfic, or Writing for Yourself
I had a conversation with a very dear friend today on the merits of drawerfic and writing for yourself. Drawerfic, as a term, is most popular in fandom but it's not exclusive to it. Basically, it's the story you write for yourself without ever having the intent to publish it. If anyone ever sees it, it's because you've shown it to them. It's the story that, if it were hand-written, would be kept in the drawer of your desk where no-one could see it.
Especially today, when everything is so easily accessible on the internet, there seems to be an expectation to publish everything you write. And in fandom, where the whole point is sharing yo
It‘s something you hear every day if you hang out in writers’ communities: “That’s been done before.” “It’s so cliché.” “There are no original ideas left.”
Well. So what? Hamlet’s 400 years old, but that didn’t stop The Lion King, or 2011’s Thor from being wildly popular. What makes The Great Gatsby so much different from Romeo and Juliet when it comes down to it? Well okay. In both Shakespearean versions, everybody dies, where only Scar and Gatsby bite it at the end. Even Loki comes out of his role relatively un
On Why Being a Writer is Neither Glamorous nor Exciting
If you watch the blogs and various sites around the internet about writing, you've probably seen at least one list that details a few universal truths about writers, but they all pretty much boil down to several actual truths.
All writers write.
All writers procrastinate.
Writers don't actually write, because we spend all our time doing something else.
This probably explains why, in the dark hours of one of the very last days of NaNoWriMo, I'm sitting here writing this, when my NaNo is sitting in another window with a pathetic 31.8k words.
Will I finish by 11:59pm tomorrow? Probabl
I'm talking specifically about music releases, but book and film releases are heading into the digital age as well. Hell, I just spent all of last night watching movies via Netflix's Instant View feature, streaming it through my X-Box 360 to my television.
I think the older readers will be able to relate more to what I'm saying today (or those who, in this single case were lucky, did not obtain internet access until recently). I've never really understood the the full appeal of downloading music, be it legally from sources like iTunes, or via a torrent. I can, however, glimpse beyond the curtain and catch hints of why people do it. There's t
An Apathetic Atheist with Pantheist Tendencies
I was raised with religion -- my family is Lutheran, to be exact, only most of my family is Lutheran in the sort of way where if you really look, you might find a bible in the house, and church was something that was reserved for weddings and funerals.
Though, for reasons I can't quite fathom, my brothers and I were sent to church for most of our youths. We'd go to youth group (read: church for kids), Sunday School, and during the summers, we were sent off to Vacation Bible School. As a kid, it never occurred to me to ask why no one else in the family went to church, and yet we were sent off ev