Megan Lentz

People always ask me if I was an English major. Actually, I was an Anthropology major. And I then got my Master’s in Archaeology. In fact, I despised this boy in college who was an English major so I tried to avoid any English classes I thought he might be taking. Mature, I know, but hey, I was 18. It seemed like a really good idea at the time.

I’ve always felt a little leery about my chosen career path. What if by not taking a million lit classes, I missed out on my opportunity to be a better writer? Now that I am writing full-time, I can actually take the time to read the writing technique books I never had time for when I was writing in between my full-time job, dinner, house work, life, etc. And you know what reading technique books is teaching me? That you don’t need a class to be a good writer, but it won’t hurt you if you take one.

I just finished James Scott Bell’s Write Great Fiction – Plot & Structure, and what I got from it were not ways to write better, but rather ways for me to express the things I already know. Any prolific reader knows what does and does not work in a plot, but can you verbalize why a plot is or is not working? When I write, I pull from my experiences as a reader to make sure my plot is moving at the right pace, my characters are likable and exhibiting growth, and that the first chapter grabs you from the get-go. But now that I’ve read this book, I can analyze why I’m doing these things. Often when I write I can tell that something is wrong. As I said, I’ve read enough books to know how a book should flow. But I can’t always explain why it isn’t working. I just know that it’s not.

Now that I have time to read books on technique, I feel less inferior about my degrees. But you know what else I have gotten from reading technique books? A new set of vocabulary for talking about books and analyzing the good and the bad. And maybe, just maybe, having read this and other technique books will allow me to better critique my own work and help me produce something people want to read.

Photo by Andreas Levers, http://www.flickr.com/people/96dpi/

There are a lot of opinions about word counts. Some people feel that you shouldn’t rely on them – they lead to sloppy writing if all you care about it making your number. But other people find that word counts give them the extra push they need to keep writing.

Daily word counts as motivation

I tend to go back and forth on the subject. But I will say that one of the things that helps get me through NaNoWriMo is the word count graph. Seeing my word count growing is a real morality booster. Especially because when I’m writing, I don’t often remember what the word count was when I sat down to start writing for the day. Entering it into a graph shows me just how much I achieved. And this gives me the mental boost I need to keep going.

I don’t think writers should rely only on word counts. After all, editing usually leads to less word counts and brainstorming sessions don’t exactly add to the word count either. But not relying solely on them doesn’t mean they are a bad thing.

I’ve decided to start keeping track of my daily word count using a simple spreadsheet and graph. If nothing else, it will serve as a way to show the fiance (a.k.a. my financial backer) the progress I’m making. But I think it will also help push me to write more each day.

Writing out-of-order to keep me moving forward

In addition to keeping track of my word counts, I’ve also decided to break my cardinal rule by writing out-of-order. I’ve had this problem lately where I have scenes in my head that come much later in the book. I don’t write them because I want to write in order but then I find myself rushing through the connecting bits because I want to get to the scene I’m seeing. So, to save myself the extra editing that will result from rushed writing, I’ve decided to just get the scenes out on paper. I know that they may not flow into the rest of the story, but by extracting them, I will be able to move on to more writing.

What methods do you use to motivate yourself to write? Do you even need to motivate yourself? Do you write in order? Or do you sometimes like to mix things up?

I know, it’s late Friday night and there is no book review in sight. I read a book this week that I had every intention of reviewing, but once I finished it, I decided that it was so bad there was no way I could review it in good conscious. I know writers are supposed to have a thick skin and be used to negative criticism, but I don’t want to be the one throwing out the negative comments. So I decided to hold off on my review this week.

There is another extremely good book I read this week as well, but I wasn’t ready to review it yet. So stay tuned next Friday for my review of Maggie Stiefvater’s The Scorpio Races.

Do you prefer the glossiness of The Capital or the grittiness of District 12?

Lately I’ve been reading a lot of post-apocalyptic books that take place just after the apocalypse. Or I’ve been reading some books that show the apocalypse and the destruction that follows. These books are gritty and set in a world with very little hope. In reading these books, I’ve realized that I’m more of the glossy, everything appears good on the outside but is really gritty and dark and horrible on the inside kind of girl.

For me, there is something more intriguing about seeing the hidden underbelly of a society. When everything has fallen apart and there is corruption and limited resources and fighting, there is no surprise. You expect things to get bad and then the hero just has to rise above the bad. But when a character lives in a world that seems safe and easy, it seems like the struggle is more difficult. They have to give up the seemingly perfect world to fight for what is right. To me, this must seem like a bigger battle and a more interesting character.

I think a lot of why I find the shiny, glossy, pretty dystopians to be more interesting is because I can better relate to them. Our world we live in is, more of less, shiny and pretty, but there is a dark underbelly if you know where to look. I, for one, would be hard pressed to give up the security of my life, so I can relate to a hero’s struggle when they come from that type of world.

What do you think? Do you prefer a certain type of dystopia?

Photo by Wally Gobetz, http://www.flickr.com/people/wallyg/

Last night I hit send on my fairy tale short story and sent it off to be critiqued. Maybe it will be selected as one of the short stories to make it into an anthology that will populate donated Kindles. Or maybe the judge will laugh at my writing and my idea and quote bits at cocktail parties as a big huge joke. But regardless of how it is received, I took a step towards being a real writer.

In truth, though, this is not the first thing I have submitted. I submitted a piece to a writing contest many, many years ago. And my short story was published. Only I was young and ignorant and, while they were supposed to pay me, they did not and I did not keep good track of the correspondence, so I was SOL. To rub salt in the wound, I couldn’t even get a copy of the published article.

Yesterday the fiance was asking me about the writing contest and like who would hold the rights to the work or how the work would be published, and, having learned from my mistakes many years ago, I was happy to actually knew the answers to his questions.

I don’t want to get all preachy and spout anti-trust sentiment, but if you decide to go down the writing contest road, be sure you know what you are getting yourself into. While I was happy to get published when I was in school, I should not have let the company shaft me on my fee. Also, had I done my research, I would have learned that they shafted other writers as well. No matter how desperate you are to be published, there are certain comprises you shouldn’t be willing to make. It is fine to have your work published for free, but only if that is the agreement you willingly enter into when you submit your work.

In short, writing contests are a great way to get your name out there and to practice your writing, but make sure you do your homework. And now to end things on a more positive note, here’s a link to the story I submitted, Once Upon a Cupcake.

P.S. Today is the Boston Marathon. I thought the photo of the finish line seemed fitting.

The Water Wars, by Cameron Stracher

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

Summary: Vera and her brother Will live in a world where water has become the most valuable asset. Set in a future where the United States has been divided into new countries, where Canada has dammed off the flow of water from everything south of its borders, and where the ocean, mined for its water has become a toxic waste land of salt and pollutants, The Water Wars follows the story of Vera and her brother Will as they go on a wild journey to try to rescue their new friend Kai, who has mysteriously disappeared. As they encounter pirates, militant environmentalists, and corporation thugs, Vera and Will discover the power of friendship and learn that appearances can often be deceiving.

The Good

There were a lot of things I really liked about this book.

Characters

First and foremost, Vera and Will are very likable. They bickered like brother and sister, but you could also feel the love between them. I thought this relationship was very believable and enduring. There were also some great supporting characters, like the Pirate King.

Action

This plot was packed full of action, which I enjoyed. It made me not want to put the book down because I had to know what happened next. Sometimes inner strife can keep me hooked, but usually when a book grabs me and won’t let go, it’s because of the action. While it was a little slow to get going, once Vera and Will set out to find Kai, the action pretty much keeps going and doesn’t stop until the very end.

Concept

I loved that the concept was so believable and I thought the world Stracher created was well-defined. When looking at the politics behind oil, it is easy to imagine another liquid commodity, water, being played in a similar way. While the UN would most likely step in and stop countries like Canada from building a large dam and stealing fresh water sources from the rest of North America, it is not entirely far-fetched that this could at some point happen. Especially if the U.S. becomes a disjointed place made up of several new ‘countries.’

The Cover

I know you aren’t supposed to judge a book by its cover, but the cover is gorgeous and very intriguing.

The not so good

You don’t get a 3.5 star rating if there aren’t elements that I didn’t love, and The Water Wars had a few.

Characters

OK, I know one of the strengths was characters, but this was also one of the weaknesses, particularly with the bad guys. I didn’t really get where they were coming from. I like a villain that is complex. I like to root for him and also despise him. I want to feel like he has some redeeming quality. After all, no one is all evil. Part of this problem could have been a result of the intended age group for the book. This definitely felt more MG than YA and I’ve noticed that often in MG books, villains are evil because they enjoy being evil, pure and simple. But I still would have liked just a bit more depth.

Action

Again, with the good came some not so good. While I loved that the book was packed full of action, sometimes I found that the flow of the action didn’t really make much sense. Like characters suddenly knowing where things would be or events happening in a way that logically did not make much sense. Maybe it was a fault on my part, but this is something I have noticed in a lot of books. It feels almost like some of the scenes are thrown away or like things were edited out but then when editing the next scene, someone forgot that things had been removed from the previous scene. This may or may not have been the case, but that is how parts of the book felt to me when I was reading it.

Environmentalism

I know you are probably scratching your heads. What could be wrong with environmentalism in a book for kids, right? And normally, I would say nothing. I support the earth and I’m all for making people of all ages aware of our precious resources. But when I am reading a book, I like to stumble upon the underlying themes in a more subtle way. I do not like it when they are repeatedly banged over my head. I started to feel like the environmental themes were getting a bit preachy by the end and I felt, instead of helping the message, that it hurt it a bit. The rest of the world may not be like me, but when I feel like I’m being preached to, my first inclination is to do the opposite. I worry that the preachy nature of the “underlying” theme may turn some people off of the message. And if you notice, I put underlying in quotes because it was not so underlying as one might expect.

Concluding Thoughts

All in all, this was a fun read with an interesting plot and, despite the not so good elements, I think it is definitely worth reading. It is totally appropriate for the Middle Grade reader while also being fun for the Young Adult reader.

I recently read an article that said one of the best things you can do to help yourself get published is, well, to get published. Writing contests are a great way to get short stories out there which helps build a name for yourself and makes publishers feel a bit more comfortable about investing in your full book. Plus, stretching yourself to write a short story is a really good writing exercise. And for those of us who focus on full-length novels, a short story is a stretch, believe me.

I found a wonderful writing contest and am punching away at the keyboard to try to finish my submission before the April 15 deadline. This contest does not lead to any financial payout. And, if selected, your name will not be included on the published piece. But, the contest is for charity. And if I win, I can still list it as a publishing credit, even if my name is not on the published piece.

Kindle for Kids

The contest is to write a short story fairy tale to populate kindles that are going to be donated to a children’s hospital. Now, I don’t know if you’ve spent any time in a hospital, but I have. And boring doesn’t even begin to describe what a dull place hospitals can be. Now imagine being in a hospital as a child. Or imagine being that child’s parent, struggling to entertain your child while also trying to conquer your fear so your child doesn’t pick up on it. And in steps Kindles for Kids. By supplying Kindles to hospitals, children can have books to read or have their parents read to them while they wait for countless hours for all those scary hospital things. Who wouldn’t want to support this, right?

I’ll keep you posted on how the contest goes. And in case you were wondering about the title of this post, my short story is called Once Upon a Cupcake. I do love my cupcakes.

Navigating through a WIP can be as complicated as trying to navigate the Tokyo subway system.

Last week was a week of progress, only it wasn’t the adding to the word count kind of progress. Instead, it was a week of removing words, removing whole scenes, to get my WIP back on track. Talk about exhausting!

Writing’s Awesome. Editing Kind of Sucks.

I love writing. Nothing is more exciting than seeing your pages fill with words created by you, seeing your characters come to life, seeing the pictures in your head become reality on the paper. Editing and rewriting, on the other hand, kind of sucks. It means these brilliant scenes have to be reworked or sometimes erased all together. It means those words you thought so hard about, suddenly cease to exist.

Usually when I hit a roadblock, I know that means I went off course somewhere. And I start to find all sorts of other non-writing things I have to do because I know what going off course means. It means you have to find a way to get back on course. And sometimes it is hard to get yourself to go back and painstakingly rework the problems. But I think that is the difference between someone who enjoys writing as a hobby and someone who has chosen to make writing a career. Big words from someone who has yet to submit anything to a publisher and has definitely not made a cent from writing. But all the same, I notice that the writing I did in high school rarely led to serious rewriting. The writing I do now that I am taking my writing seriously, now that I know I have to present my best piece of work if I hope to get a paycheck, involves a lot of thinking and strategizing, and yes, even deleting.

How do you cope with roadblocks? Do you plow through them, or do you go back and try to figure out where you went wrong and, ultimately, fix the mistakes?

The Eleventh Plague, by Jeff Hirsch

Rating: 4 out of 5

Summary: 20 years ago, the world Collapsed as a result of biological warfare. Now, the survivors are forced to survive however they can. Some have turned to human trafficking. Some are scavengers, who hunt ruins for useful things left over from the past. And still others are struggling to hold on to the world as it once was.

Stephen Quinn, a fifteen-year-old, has been handed a scavenger’s life and travels the trail with his father and grandfather until his grandfather passes away and his father is terribly injured. Now Stephen must turn to Settler’s Landing, a group that is trying to rebuild the world as it once was. But will Stephen’s friendship with Jenny Tan, the town outcast, force him to leave this tranquil life? Will he even want to stay?

This book did not read like a lot of the dystopian or even other YA books coming out at the moment. Instead, it reminded me of something more timeless, more like the YA books that were coming out before YA books were even a thing. I could see this book being taught in school, and I mean that in the best way. Especially following on the heels of a recent NYT op-ed that argued that YA books have no real substance and are not worth the time of anyone with an adult’s intellect, which I would argue is not the case with this book. But that is a discussion for another day.

Reality in a Fiction = Good character building

I liked that this book felt real. People acted in ways I expected them to act, with honest emotions, the right mix of flaws, and we were able to see a wide variety in the types of people who existed in the world Hirsch created. I also liked that this book had a love story, but it was not sappy. There was a romantic interest, but it felt more real, more authentically teenager than you see in other books. I also really enjoyed the underlying morals, something I feel I don’t often see in books anymore.

Standing up for what you believe

One of the big underlying themes of this book was standing up for your beliefs and doing what you can to make sure the right thing happens. Pretty much every character is forced to make a decision at one point or another about doing what is right or doing what is easy. It was interesting watching which decisions the characters would make and also seeing how doing something that seems harmless can quickly spiral out of control.

Finally, a male protagonist!

This is a book that I think males can enjoy. There was not as much action as I may have liked, but it was refreshing to see a male protagonist and to watch how males interact with their world. So many of the YA books out there have a female protagonist and the male supporting characters are single dimensional and make weird decisions. Stephen felt real in his reactions and it was refreshing to read a book from the male perspective.

If you enjoyed The Cay or Ashfall, I think you will also enjoy this book. While different from what I normally read, it was definitely a winner.

I know, everyone and their mother, and, in some cases, their brother, has written a review of the Hunger Games movie, but what kind of dystopian writer would I be if I didn’t also add my two cents? Not a very good one, or so I have convinced myself.

My Two Cents

In watching the previews, I was concerned that the District 12 scenes would not be gritty enough and that the Hunger Games would not be disturbing enough. And, happily, I was proved wrong. Not only did District 12 feel gritty and depressing, especially when compared to the glitz of the Capital, but the Games were incredibly disturbing as were the responses from the citizens in the Capital.

I enjoyed getting to see more the working of the Games with all of the behind the scenes shots as they added in obstacles and manipulated the players. This was an element we did not get to truly experience through the book, though the manipulations were there, and I thought that this really added some nice depth to the movie. It was also nice to get to see more of Seneca’s character. Wes Bentley created a very likable character and I really felt for him.

Even though I saw this scene many times in the previews, I still got teared up when Katniss volunteered to take Rue’s spot. I thought Jennifer Lawrence’s acting was very good. She was pensive enough to fit the character as portrayed in the book, but was also able to ‘fake’ the right emotions for the scenes where she works to manipulate the sponsors into helping her and come off as seeming very real in the scenes where her emotions were meant to be real.

Gale was ok. I’m a bit concerned about how Liam Hemsworth will do in the next movies where he has a slightly larger role. Josh Hutcherson as Peeta grew on me as the movie went on. While he was completely different than I imagined, I was actually really pleased with the casting for Haymitch. Woody Harrelson gave the character a bit more depth than I expected.

One complaint I had was that there was too much in the movie, and because so much of the plot was added and so many characters were included, we did not have the opportunity to become as emotionally connected to the characters as you can through the book. My mom warned me that I had better make sure my fiance read the books before going to the movie because otherwise the relationships would not be as clear, and she was correct. Had I gone to the movie with a completely blank slate in regards to the plot and story, I probably would have left a bit confused. I know it is a tough job, creating a movie from a book. Sometimes there is too much editing, but I think this movie could have benefitted from more editing.

All in all, I was pretty pleased with the film adaptation of this great book and I am eager to see what they do with the rest of the trilogy.

What did you think about the movie? Did it live up to your expectations?