The Character Was Being Passive

One of my biggest peeves in novels, and one of the most common, is when I don't have a vested interest in the main characters. It means I don't care about what happens to them. I checked out A Curse as Dark as Gold last week and let me tell you, this is one exquisite piece of literature. The writing is beyond superb. But I didn't finish the book because I didn't care enough about what happened to Charlotte. She was so stoic, strong and impervious to Wheeler's bad dealings. I'd rather see the story from Rosie's perspective, because she was superstitious and fun.
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Another book this week, Good Girls, had the same problem. It's the story of what happens when a compromising photograph of an honor student is spread around the school. Fantastic premise. But I found Ashley, however realistic, slow and depressing and not inviting. I didn't finish that one either, because it didn't matter to me whether she fixed it or not.
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Although annoying or mean characters tick me off, I hate passive main characters most of all. That is: characters to whom things happen, rather than characters that cause things to happen. Briony, in Atonement, is one heck of an unlikeable person but she makes things happen. Holden, well, Holden Caulfield was produced by a genius pen. If you're writing a book about the circus, should you write it about the BFF of the ringmaster or the ringmaster him/herself?
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The best example, as always, is Frankie Landau-Banks from E. Lockhart's March 2008 book. Frankie starts out as a "normal," intelligent girl with one ex-boyfriend. We can all relate. But as the book goes on, Frankie changes into someone who makes big things happen and pays the price for it. Gretchen Yee, in Fly on the Wall, goes on a similar transformation. I think of Maddie in Lauren Myracle's sharp and brilliant TTYL (more on that later), Jerome Foxworthy in The Moves Make the Man, Riley in This Book Isn't Fat, It's Fabulous.
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I have hated Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen the movie like no other movie. It redefined stupid. But Mary/Lola made things happen, as much as you hated her. That's an effective protagonist.

Query Letters, Part Tres: Who You Be?

As a responsible WriTeen, I do not use proper outlets for my rebellious hormones and therefore stick to legal ways of trashing the establishment. In a new three-or-four-part series on query letters, here is Part Three first: the bio.

Writing Credentials. Without a doubt, this is the most important part of your bio. Where have you been published? When you start writing, you may not have been published anywhere and that is quite all right. Leave this part out if that's the case.

If you have been published, list fiction credentials for fiction queries and non-fic for non-fic. If you've been published 20+ times, pick the 6 biggest and most relevant names for your bio. For example:

I have been published more than twenty times, writing for Cusackipity, JohnCusackstan, Say Cusack-Thing, The Other Cusack, Martian Cusack and Cusack Life the John Way.

Other "Professional" Credentials. This applies to non-fic queries. If you're writing a doggie article, what is your experience with dogs? Do you write a doggie blog with good traffic? Have you been a dog walker for 5+ years? How much money have you made from dog grooming?

I also run the Cusack fan site, Where's John Now?, which receives 1.6 billion hits per day and was featured on Oprah. Entertainment Weekly called me the greatest living expert on this great actor, and said I probably "knew more about John than he did."

Tasteful, Funny Add-ons. Be careful. This is appropriate only if you can pull it off. You can add "extra" things if it's relevant, humorous and shows off your writing panache. Otherwise, stick to your big guns.

I have met John a total of one time, in which he stared at me and then asked me for a drink of water. I still have the cup.

If anyone actually is interested in learning more about John Cusack, please see Say Anything. It will break your heart and then mend it again. Sigh.

Sad Postponements

Okeydokey, folks, bear with me. My mind is fried and if I tried to talk about query letters... I'd tell you to write it all in Sanscript. Sanskrit? Goodness. Posting will come, but to quote Reviewer X, real life is more important.

I Love Your Blog! Awardsiness

That's so COOL!

Nicole B. over at http://www.wordforteens.blogspot.com/ nominated me for the I Love Your Blog award. Thank you, thank you, thank you, Nicole! I love yours too!

The rules to the ILYB awards are as follows:

1. You put the logo and the rules on your blog

2. You link the person who gave it to you

3. You give seven of your favorite blogs

4. You have to tell them they're given the award

Okeydokey. My nominations are:

Miss Couturable (http://www.misscouturable.blogspot.com/): Noel runs a peerless fashion + life blog that makes my day, every day.

The Pema Pad (http://thepemapad.freehostia.com/): Pema hands out fantastic advice and support for every writing teenager, and I'm so impressed with what she's accomplished.

All Five Stars (http://fivestarreading.blogspot.com/): Gabbi writes brilliant, straight reviews, devoid of flattery or high-fives, and I respect her opinion.

Melissa Walker (www.melissacwalker.com/blog): Melissa writes about fashion, body image, culture, books and cover stories (incroyable!) and is the perfect read for any day.

Janette Rallison (http://www.janette-rallison.blogspot.com/): Janette, apart from writing very funny books, writes a blog about the author's life and the dogs of Orlando Bloom. Wonderful combination.

Teen Fiction Cafe (http://www.teenfictioncafe.blogspot.com/): This is a collective blog that rocks my socks. I love them. So much.

AND I can't think of one more even though I read 35 blogs. Who would you nominate? Self-noms are fine.

Gabrielle Online

I have an overwhelming inclination to yell, Wheerrre's Waldo?

My October column for KidMagWriters.com is online at www.kidmagwriters.com/work-day/freshideas.htm.

I blog every Thursday for Orb28, an online extension of New Moon magazine and blogged about cooking here: http://orb28.blogspot.com/2008/10/when-in-doubt-use-paprika.html.

And my post about the fantabulous Basket of Kisses was mentioned in their Lipp Gloss round-up. As I said, my life is now complete. Don't believe me? Visit at http://www.lippsisters.com/2008/10/04/lipp-gloss-week-of-september-29-2008/.

I updated our sidebar with quite a few things. The Innovative description has been rewritten, I've added a list of what I'm reading and now you can follow this blog as five lovely ladies have already done (Thank you Kristi, Lenore, Lana, Mags and KB!)

WORD will surface tomorrow as part of a 3-step guide to writing query letters. See ya!

Bookshelf: Hello to Ally Carter!

Ally Carter is the New York Times bestselling author of the Gallagher Girls series, featuring I'd Tell You I Love You But Then I'd Have to Kill You and Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy, with GG#3 coming out next June. ILKY is being turned into a Walden Media movie (think Chronicles of Narnia), which is totally wicked. Thank you so much for joining us, Ally!
INN: Which Gallagher Girl most resembles you?

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AC: It’s really hard to say, but my guess is that Cammie probably feels the way I feel more frequently than the others. I do have to say, however, that Anna Fetterman and I are prone to the same sorts of accidents (bloody nose from opening a can of Pringles? Yeah, actually happened.)
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INN: How did you react when you first found out that I'd Tell You I Love You But Then I'd Have to Kill You was on The New York Times bestseller list?

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AC: Great question! At the time I was still working at my “day job” and it was an incredibly busy day as well, so at first it was a huge shock, and then a huge thrill, and then I had to stop thinking about it and go do a bunch of other stuff that had absolutely nothing to do with books, so it was very surreal to get this HUGE news and then have to switch gears so quickly and get back to work.
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What was perhaps more shocking was the next week when I found out the book was still on the list. And the week after and so on and so on. I honestly expected that all the people who were going to buy the book had already bought it. The fact that it kept selling was the most amazing thing of all.
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INN: Did you do any espionage when you were a kid? Or if not, who would you have spied on?

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AC: Well, yeah, I guess I did. I think we all did, to tell you the truth. All of my friends knew the class schedules of the guys they liked, and where they were likely to be after school, and all that stuff. And that’s exactly what real spies do. That’s something that I’ve always said about these books: every girl with a crush is a spy—these girls just have the training to back it up.

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INN: What are you reading right now, and why?

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AC: I just got back from the library where I picked up The Perks of Being a Wallflower because that’s one of those books that when other writers find out I haven’t read it, they gasp and yell YOU HAVE TO READ IT! So I’m going to do that this weekend.

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INN: Any advice for teen writers?

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AC: Don’t think and worry and talking about “being a writer”. Just write. It’s honestly as simple as that—read everything you can and write all you want. That’s the only way to learn this business.
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Thank you so much, Ally!

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Visit Ally Carter at her rocking website http://www.allycarter.com/, and buy the first Gallagher Girl here on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Tell-Love-Then-Gallagher-Girls/dp/1423100042/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1223129257&sr=8-2.

Just a Too Darn Geeky Review

Laura Preble was one of our first bookshelf interviewees, a big supporter of Innovative and the author of a geeky series called The Queen Geek Social Club. The latest in the story of Becca, Shelby, Amber and Elise's quest to geek out the world is Prom Queen Geeks, released this September.
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In this third book, Shelby is caught between two worlds (or two proms.) Becca is determined to create an alter-prom to say "Pooh pooh" to the high school elite and "hello!" to international geeks. However, Shelby's beloved-and-often-neglected boyfriend Fletcher is running The Real Prom and wants Shelby to go with him. Returning cast members are Euphoria (amazing robot), Mad Scientist Dad (clueless and adorable) and Thea the Mother of Art, as well as all those other geeks populating the Geek Club.
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Mixed bag on this one. On the proverbial one hand, Queen Geek Social Club needs to be in print because it's a recognition of a huge teen counterculture that Gossip Girls ignores. Not everyone wants to be popular; that's a fact. I also really appreciate how Laura Preble has woven the themes of boy-girl-bestfriend dynamics into her books, because it's a subtle conflict that happens in real life all the time: again, something that is ignored in most teen literature.

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On the other (left, maybe?) hand, I wasn't too happy with either Becca or Shelby. Becca's behavior, which in other books has been feminist assertive and enjoyably belligerent, was down right rhymes-with-witchy. I didn't find her likeable at all. Shelby, in contrast, annoyed the heck out of me for being so passive. Her passive-aggressiveness, or inability to tell the truth to those around her, is the real conflict of the novel. Everyone wants her to do something, but what does Shelby, the protagonist, want?

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I didn't think this conflict was resolved as the prom [SPOILER] problem ends with Shelby realizing how much her friends and Fletcher love her. Although there was a hysterically funny police car scene involved.

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Laura has a kick-butt website over at http://www.queengeekssocialclub.com/ , where you can find out more about the Geeksters, how to buy the books and Laura Preble herself.