Youre Leaving School When You Finally Get It Out Of Him. Youve Been Nagging Him About That Bruise All

You’re leaving school when you finally get it out of him. You’ve been nagging him about that bruise all day and you finally break through. “I’m not going to leave you alone! I’m worried! Are your parents abusing you? Did someone attack you?” “No! It’s a hickey ok?!” You stop, “What…” He stops too, “What? Because I’m shy and antisocial I can’t get it on?” You stare in disbelief, then snap, “No! Because your BROTHER just came back from Werewolf HELL where he probably almost DIED and you’re missing school, not to see your brother, but to go get chicks?!” He snorts, “What? No! I’ve been hanging out with Jr, but do you expect me to follow him around and mope and cry over him twenty four/seven? He didn’t even have a hospital bed for me to cry at. He literally just used his condition as an excuse to eat a TON of food and then went around and flirted with literally anyone within arms length. Should I have followed him around and watched him make out with people? No thanks.” You open your mouth to argue, but nothing comes out. If you’re being honest, that sounds exactly like Jr… You close your mouth, then say, “What about missing school?” He shrugs and kind of grins a little shyly, “I’m pretty sure ANYONE would use any excuse to get out of school for a while…” Once again, you can’t argue. This is true. You had tried to use stubbing your toe as an excuse to miss school, so you aren’t exactly in any position to judge. You sigh, “Why couldn’t you have just TOLD me it was a hickey? Most guys would be bragging about it. I was really worried. And what if you’re lying? Now I don’t know WHAT to think…” He sighs, “I’m not lying. I’m shy and antisocial remember? I’m not just gonna brag about getting laid. That’s not cool. That’s private. It’s none of YOUR business. I shouldn't have to tell you when I’m in a relationship…” You feel shame rise in you, he’s right, and probably one of the only decent guys you know. But you didn’t know it was a hickey. And you were worried. You look down, then back at him, “You’re right. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to pry. But I WAS worried. I didn’t even consider that it could be a hickey.” He chuckles a little, “You know what that tells me? You need a boyfriend.” You take it back. He’s not a decent guy. He’s a prick. You glare at him, “I do NOT. I’m not interested in dating. Guys are nothing but trouble." He leans back, looking offended, “I’m not trouble…” You can’t help but laugh, “YES. YOU ARE.” He grins, “But you’re not supposed to know that remember? I’m shy and antisocial.” You laugh again and head towards your house, “Oh yeah… I’ll keep that in mind…”

You walk home from school. Your mind is dull, tired. It’s been two weeks. Nothing. No plan, no sudden epiphany, nothing. If only you were stronger. If only some sudden power would show up. And then what? You’d break him out? Run away? You’d be fugitives forever. Both your futures would be ruined. Somehow, you don’t think Jr would thank you… You suppose it doesn’t matter though, since you don’t have any powers to speak of. Jr’s brother comes up, startling you. He had missed a week of school, and then you had avoided him. You were too ashamed to face him. Too afraid. That makes you want to cry all over again. Why are you SO WEAK? You have no powers, no will, you’re even too much of a coward to face Jr’s brother… Frustration builds in you and you want to scream. If only you were a superhero. If only you were braver. If only you were smarter. But you're not. You're just a little girl, too weak and scared and stupid to do anything. “I want to go see him.” Jr’s brother’s words break you out of your thoughts, “What?” You stare in disbelief. “Jr. I want to go see him. I want you to come with me.” You laugh, but break it off quickly, “You CANNOT go out there. You’re a werewolf too. I’m not having you thrown in there-” “I’m not.” “What?" You blink, “What do you mean?” “I’m not a werewolf.” You roll your eyes, “Yes you are. Jr’s a werewolf. You’re his brother. It runs in the- Did he get bit?” He hesitates, then nods, “Yeah. Yeah he did. When he was young, still a kid. It almost killed him… I think dad was hoping he would die…” Your lips twist, “That’s awful…” He shrugged, “Is it? At least he wouldn’t be stuck down there if he had…” You frown, “Do you wish he had died?” His eyes widen, “No! No, of course not. I’m just… I don’t know. Let’s go.” You shake your head, “We can’t get in. They watch the inner walls VERY strictly. The furthest we can go is on the wall…” “Then I want on the wall…” You shake your head, “We can’t…” His glare is so intense it scares you, “YOU were with him! YOU were there! YOU did nothing! You OWE ME!” You flinch, heart sinking because... You do. You do owe him. It is your fault… You sigh, “Ok… But I can only take you TO the wall. We were on the wall and… Fell…” His eyes widen. You continue “So they’ll be watching that part carefully. I don’t know where the blind spots are and I can’t climb that wall…” He nods, “I only need as far as the wall…” You frown, “You really don’t know where it is? Everyone knows where it is…” He blushes, “I’ve… Never left the city… And I’ve never been curious about it…” You shake your head. You would think, with his brother being so into all that, he would at least know where the GIANT CITY FULL OF HOWLING WOLVES IS… Oh well. You take him, just like you said you would. The walk is long and awkward. You don’t know what to say, and he’s quiet anyway. You open your mouth many times to start a conversation. But how can you? After getting his brother put in Hell, you really have no right to speak to him at all. So you walk in silence. When you finally get there, you zigzag through there blind spots, just like Jr. had showed you. His brother follows. He seems to be fairly adept at sneaking… This worries you a little. What does he do to be that good at being sneaky? You reach the wall and look at him. Then your jaw drops. Feathers are springing up on his face and neck. “Wait for me…” And then he’s a blue jay, flying up the wall.

I have to agree. I write and many of my works are BASED around the complexity of human nature and how indecisive "right" and "wrong" are. I come from a Christian family and had considered writing Christian books, but ran into the same block. With Christian books there was this expectation for it to be perfect and clean and pure. It's simply unrealistic. I don't believe in completely good characters or completely bad characters. All of my characters have some flaw or another. I don't believe in a perfect world and the most gripping and intriguing stories I've read have been about people with demons and internal struggles of their own. Personaly, I think the ideology of a perfect character is, well, childish. The world is so complex. You can't put people in categories of "good" and "bad". Maybe a few, but the majority is in the smudgy grey area in between. And those are the ones I'm most interested in. How they think, how they act, how would they react in this situation? You don't know because they're not automatically going to do what's "right" or what's "wrong". They have their own ideals, instincts, and impulses. That's what makes us human and that's beautiful and interesting and I'll never stop being amazed by how complex people are as a whole.

I’m really nervous to write about this but

When I was younger, I read a lot of Christian books. In high school, I wrote a paper on Christian literature, specifically, what it is about Christian literature that makes it often flatter and less compelling than other genres. I’m not saying it all sucks, but I am saying that somehow, I’ve noticed through my life that Christian books suck more than their secular counterparts on average. I found them to often be juvenile, one-dimensional and derivative, and I didn’t think it had to be that way. I didn’t think that being Christian made a book bad, but I observed that the genre was stuffed with a lot of bad books, and the bad books were far worse than bad books outside the category. 

I’m not intending to start a discussion about Christian literature; I’m not alone in feeling this way or noticing this phenomenon if you believe it’s a thing. Online, you can read a lot of articles discussing the same thing: that Christian lit tends to be lower quality. So I wanted to know why. 

To answer the question, I looked at interviews of Christian authors and submission guidelines for Christian publishers. I wished to understand the intent behind writings in the genre and what might lead to the difference in quality. And what I found was very illuminating. 

Essentially, many Christian authors and publishers feel that: 

1. their books have a responsibility to promote morality in their readers, and authors are somewhat responsible for the moral fiber of their readers  

2. there has to be a strong delineation between “moral” and “immoral” behavior in books 

3. many topics either can’t be addressed at all or must be very clearly pointed out as “bad” if they are 

4. certain topics and ideas ought to be brought up in a book and pointed out as good as part of the purpose or meaning of the book

The conclusion I came to was that these ideas were resulting in flat, one-dimensional characters and dull plots. The responsibility of promoting moral integrity, and having to make absolutely sure that nothing you write could condone or promote immoral behavior, was of paramount importance. 

And what that caused was preachiness, one-dimensionality, a lack of compelling moral conflict, flat characters, and intellectually numbing stories. 

Why am I talking about this? 

Because a lot of the ideas I’ve been seeing spread around in writeblr and in the online writing and reading communities as a whole are identical. 

A lot of the posts I see online now about writing are almost exact echoes of the ideas I wrote about in my paper. 

Nowadays, I see posts constantly urging people to think about why they want to write their stories, and whether they are good or helpful or edifying. I see authors being slammed for not condemning characters with disgusting beliefs hard enough. I see people being dragged for liking characters that are not morally and ideologically pure. I see posts telling people to approach any difficult topic with extreme caution and crisp, unmistakable condemnation. Media is widely vilified when its fandom becomes toxic or nasty, assumed to be at fault for the moral fiber of its fans.

I see authors and publishers advertising their books as “feminist”, as if that makes any sense at all (is the author feminist? Does it just handle female characters well? Are the characters feminist? Is it focused on women’s issues?). I open a book and see poorly-integrated lines of dialogue dropping ideas about prejudice or gender that seem like a Tumblr post or part from a nonfiction book on racism inserted directly into a character’s mouth. I don’t think feminism is bad. I think feminism is great. And I don’t think talking about prejudice or gender is bad. I think these things need to be talked about. I definitely don’t think these ideas can’t be expressed in fiction. On the contrary; I think fiction is one of the best ways of expressing important ideas. 

But, I see some kind of preoccupation with the ideas your writing promotes, prominently including the idea that you must promote and you must condemn certain ideas, and that everything you write makes a statement about morality, and you’re responsible for edifying your audience and making them better people. And it’s really, really familiar. 

The conclusion that my paper came to is that you can’t clean up the reality of humanity. You can’t make the messiness of existence crisp and clear so you can feed your readers the ideas you want them to absorb bite by bite. You can’t have light without darkness, and you can’t have either without shades of gray. 

In life, racist people will not always be obviously horrible. (Even though sometimes they are…) Sometimes they will be people who love their spouses and kids and are generally “nice” and adopt dogs and love kittens, and they will still be racist. Sometimes even “good” people will say or do racist things and have to realize their mistakes and then make mistakes again and have to realize THOSE mistakes. Sometimes getting out of ideas you grew up hearing is long and difficult and you have to catch your brain repeating them even years after you tried to change. Racism can be passive, subtle, it can exist in people who are “good” in some ways. Sometimes people make progress toward changing but still have problems. How do we show this in books? Is it an author’s responsibility to solve all this and sort out everything? 

Is it racist for a racist character who is seeking redemption  to not have entirely overcome their prejudices by the end of a book? Is it the author’s responsibility to make sure racist behavior in the book is clearly labeled? Is it a reflection of the author’s views if a character says something racist? 

Note that I’m asking these questions. I’m definitely open to and would like perspectives from other people on this, people of color foremost and especially. The idea I am exploring is, does giving an author the responsibility of making sure their book clearly and unequivocally promotes certain ideas and condemns others impair them? Could it make it more difficult to address the ideas they want to? 

When I analyzed Christian literature, the conclusion I had to reach was that it does. I found christian lit as a whole to be excessively black-and-white, simplistic, shy of tackling anything with complexity, and almost dishonest about human nature. Is there an analogy in this situation? 

In life, relationships aren’t always pure and unproblematic. People don’t fall neatly into “people who have never done anything to hurt their partner” and abusers. People can sometimes have problems in their relationships and have to change their behaviors to preserve their relationships. Relationships have difficulties and arguments. Sometimes a person needs to change or become better in order to have a healthy relationship. Sometimes a relationship can be unhealthy without being abusive, and sometimes relationships are abusive. Must the author draw lines about “toxicity” and “problematicness” in super clear neon spray paint so people know the difference? 

These arguments come up about all sorts of morality-related things in books. And on some level I agree, you shouldn’t promote racism, and you should be careful and sensitive about portraying some things, but I am also extremely apprehensive about certain aspects of this culture that has sprung up. 

It’s really almost totally identical to what I noticed about Christian literature, and imo there it has done a lot of damage. I don’t really believe that authors are totally past being responsible for damage their ideas do, quite the opposite. But there is this expectation of dictating what’s bad and what’s good on a very clear level. 

That was part of the problem i noticed in Christian literature, the teaching of ideas rather than forcing readers to consider them. 

I’m not trying to talk over anybody at all, esp with things about racism, I’m white after all. And I really urge and ask my white followers and people-who-see-this-post to listen to the opinions, ideas and feelings of people of color who reply on the topic of racism. What I really want is everybody to consider this: is it an author’s job to make sure all “bad” and “good” things in their book are clearly delineated? If not, what is the best practice for an author? If not, might this cause problems? The culture I am seeing in the writeblr community seems to hold that it is, and rejection of redemption for villains, morally ambiguous situations and characters, addressing of complicated topics, and portraying anything “bad” without making absolutely certain that it’s clearly wrong is growing. 

Personally, I have a bad feeling about it. 

Thoughts? 

You sit on his bed and stare around his room. It’s so simple it’s almost sad. The only thing that decorates it is a picture on his dresser. It’s a picture of him and his brother. He has an arm slung over his shoulder and is laughing. His brother is smiling, cheeks red. He looks like he wants to hide, though he also looks happy. You smile. They both look happy. The door opening makes you jump. You look at the door and are surprised to find Jr there, fully dressed… You smirk, “Wow, you actually came dressed!” He smirks back, “I mean, I could go do it again and come back naked. I wouldn’t mind…” You throw a pillow at him, “I will LEAVE.” He grins and comes over, climbing on the bed. You scoot back to give him room. He sits cross legged, “Ok. Ask.” You nod, “How long have you been a werewolf?” “I was born one.” You frown, “But your brother said you were bit…” Jr snorted, “Well he’s a little liar.” You frown, “Oh. Well then, why isn’t HE a werewolf? Ya’ll are related…” Jr shrugs, “The werewolf bloodline isn’t indefinite. Not everyone is born a werewolf just cuz their parents are. Besides, my mom’s not a werewolf, so our blood's not even pure…” You nod, “So your dad’s the werewolf? Was he born one?” Jr shakes his head, “No. He was bit.” You nod, “Do you turn by the full moon?” Once again, he shakes his head, “No. Well yes, but we can learn not to. I don’t. Neither does my father.” You nod again, “Ok. Have you ever bit anyone?” Jr rolls his eyes, “NO. I’m not a monster…” You lift your hands, “Ok, I was just wondering. Has your dad?” “No!” Jr glares. You scoot a little further back. Jr presses his lips together and glares at you. You say, “Have you always had such a bad temper?” You know you’re just feeding the fire, but you can’t stop it from coming out. Much to your surprise, Jr laughs, “Yes. Since I was a baby.” You say, “Why do you always act like such a jerk?” Jr shrugs, “Because I can? Nothing’s gonna happen to me. Besides, the world's fucked with me enough. I think I have a bit of a right…” You glare, “No one has a right. You get what you get. Being mean isn’t going to change that.” He flashes a grin, “Keep telling yourself that baby girl.” You glare, “Don’t call me that.” Jr smirks, “Or what?” “Or I’ll slap you,” you bite out. Jr shrugs, “Whatever. Do you have any more questions?” You glare. And here you were, thinking he was starting to be nice… You should have known better. He’ll always be the same jerk you found on the streets. You say, “Yeah. How do you stand your mom?” Jr laughs again, “Barely. She’s where I get it from, haven’t you noticed?” You snap, “You say that like it’s not a bad thing! You shouldn’t be MEAN to people! Why is it SO HARD to be nice to people?” Jr crosses his arms, “PEOPLE AREN’T NICE. Why am I required to be nice to people who are just going to turn around and call me a monster?!” He bites his cheek, looking away. Ha. Got him. You watch him, “That touched a nerve a little bit.” Jr glares at you, “Are you done?” You nod, “Yeah. I am.” “Then get out.” You get up and walk out. He stays seated, not even watching you leave the room. Your heart is hammering wildly for some reason. You don’t know whether you’re terrified or excited… His parents watch you as you exit the house. As soon as you’re out you run for town. You have the urge to laugh, but you also kind of want to cry. You’re not sure whether to be excited that you finally got SOMETHING real from him, or sad that he has to have such a difficult life…

I just finished my first novel! The feeling is indescribable. Do you have any advice on editing, big or small?

Dear fate-and-chance,

Congratulations on joining THE ENDTIMES CLUB. 

Editing is basically the place the novels become novels — it’s impossible to overstate how the rough draft is only 10% of the process. Here is a pie chart demonstrating the overall gist. It’s messed up because I aggressively and deliberately misunderstand math at all times and also because I traced a ramekin full of discarded date pits on my desk for the outside, but you get the idea.

What I’m trying to say is: be prepared to spend the same amount of time editing as writing. 

GET CRITIQUE PARTNERS

This is the first step to editing. You need outside eyes. You don’t know if you have written the story you intended to tell until readers tell you that you’ve succeeded. A story is not complete until it has an audience. 

You can find some here. 

BIG PICTURE EDITS

It’s important to do your edits in the right order: there’s no point focusing on word choice when you don’t know if you’re going to keep a scene or not. What you’re looking for in big picture edits are

• pacing (is it taking you forever to get to your inciting incident? Are you leaping into breathless action so fast that the reader doesn’t have time to get emotionally invested? Is the general shape correct — do your stakes both emotional and physical slowly ratchet up til the climax?)

• clarity (do we know what the point of the book is? Do we understand who the main character is? Do we understand the stakes of the magic or the mystery or love story, etc?)

• momentum (are your scenes stacked in the correct order, or do you move backwards in stakes or have two scenes that essentially do the same thing?)

• consistency of character (are your characters consistent and inevitable? can we predict their behavior enough to be shocked if they do something out of character for once?)

• correctness of cast (do you have two characters who do the same thing in the plot? do you need to delete or add POVs or characters to your cast?)

• simplicity of execution (does the reader understand where they are in the plot? can they guess they are halfway through when they are halfway through, etc.?)

Title a document “outtakes.doc” and throw stuff that’s not working into it. You can always come back to them if you need them, but it’s often easier to see what you’re doing with the chaff removed.

LINE EDITS

Line edits are when you stop having to move big chunks around and can start fixing things within your newly edited shape. That is when you can start looking at adjusting pacing, tone, and momentum on a line level. Example:

Original sentence: The box rolled out of the truck and hit the ground.

Speed things up: Wham. The box, dropped. Tssss. Glass, exploded.

Slow things down: She snatched at air, and felt the whisper of the box sliding against her fingertips. The sound of the bottles exploding on the pavement echoed down the alley.

Ground us: Everything changed the moment that box hit the asphalt.

Tell us about a character: Ten years before, she’d been watching a box fall from through her mother’s hands in just this way. MORE ANECDOTE HERE 

COPYEDITS

This is the part where you actually fix typos and continuity errors, and it’s the least important part of editing. This is where you can enlist a non-bookish friend to feel useful, because the less invested you are in the book, the easier they are to spot. 

IN CONCLUSION

You could write entire books about revision — someone probably has — but this might be a start.

Happy wording.

urs,

Stiefvater

You’re forced, struggling, to your knees. Jr is wrestled out of the net. He bolts for the door, but is grabbed instantly. The guards slam him to the ground and you scream. Two collars are brought out and you shiver. Although you know you aren’t a werewolf, the collar is still scary. You look over at Jr. He’s struggling to get back, away from the collar, but two guards hold him still. The man snaps the collar on you. The cold metal sits heavy on your neck, giving you chills. You watch the man, waiting for something, anything. Finally, he smiles, “See? That wasn’t so bad. You’re good to go.” He takes the collar off and your focus instantly goes to Jr. A guard is wrestling a collar on him. As soon as it snaps closed he wails and thrashes. You scream and fight towards him. He writhes, struggling to wrench it off, but it’s hard when his skin is rippling and twisting. You cover your mouth as he arches his back, blood flecking his mouth. You gasp, “You’re killing him! Stop!” Jr gives a last wail and rips violently into a wolf, shuddering and shaking. You freeze, staring. He’s beautiful. Big and almost golden. His fur is long and thick, rippling with every move he makes. His eyes are still the same though, blue and very, very human. He stares at you, crouched on the floor, shivering, and whimpers. You can only stare. It’s hard to decide whether to be terrified, like you’ve been taught to be all your life, or mesmerized. Because he is very VERY definitely in control. But that doesn’t make sense. Werewolves are monsters. They CAN’T be in control. They become violent, hungry animals when they turn… The guards step forward and Jr snarls, his appearance instantly changing. His fur bristles along his back, making him look much bigger, and his lips jerk back, revealing his teeth and gums, mouth hanging open threateningly. It’s a truly terrifying sight, and you just stare as they struggle to get close to him. He snarls and snaps, not hurting anyone, but scaring them enough to back off. Once it’s decided that it’s too dangerous to come close, they retreat, grabbing guns. You instantly fight, “Wait! Don’t kill him! DON’T KILL HIM!” They raise their weapons and you scream desperately, fighting with everything you have against the guards holding you, but they fire anyway. A dozen darts strike him and he jerks back, snarling and barking wildly. You don’t know whether to scream some more, because they’re HURTING HIM, or be relieved that those weren’t real bullets. Jr stumbles and falls, eyes rolling back. You shiver, whimpering. A man looks at you, “What is she still doing here?” The guards blink, surprised, and he snaps, “Get her out! She’s been traumatized enough!” The guards scramble and grab you. You struggle a little, “Jr….” “That’s not your friend ma’am… That’s a monster…” Tears spill down your cheeks. He’s not a monster. He’s a person… You two weren’t really close, but you were JUST starting to become friends… You don’t want to leave him… But you’re not strong. You’re not fast. You have no special power. Nothing you can pull out of thin air to solve the problem. You’re dragged out of the tower, down to a car. They put you in the back and you curl up, “He’s not a monster! He’s my friend! He wouldn’t-” Your voice breaks. Would he? Honestly… You don’t know. Maybe not while human. But even as a wolf he seemed so…. Human…. But that could just be your judgement too… You don’t know what to think anymore… You rest your forehead on your knees. You need time to think. You need to tell his brother, warn him… ‘But if he’s a wolf… Doesn’t he need to be seperated? He’s dangerous….’ You hug your legs tighter. Why does life have to be so complicated?