Being Reductive

I've been thinking a lot about being reductive.

When someone boils down a complicated, nuanced concept into an oversimplified phrase, he or she is accused of being reductive. We rebuke the person who dares to rob issues of their complexity, rendering dialogue inauthentic or incomplete.

In fiction, reductive character development is the kiss of death. Who wants to read about a simple person? We want all the inner conflict and confusion we see in ourselves. We want to read about the person we love to hate alongside the person we're cheering for.

However I think being selectively reductive can play an important role in our writing, especially in middle grade and young adult writing, and I want to argue that case.

Let me be clear: I do not for one minute underestimate my readers. They are mature, sophisticated thinkers - much more so than I was at that age.

But some of the concepts we're writing about are things they're just discovering their own opinions about -- and I fear that sometimes in our zeal to be complete, we can try too hard.  There's nothing wrong with using universal terms that are easier to understand.

In television news, we tell very short stories. Usually about 1 1/2 to 2 minutes. This includes sound bites from interview subjects.  We hone our writing craft toward the pithy, the simplistic, the reductive -- in order to keep it short.

Sometimes it's easy -- Snowmageddon coming! Prepare! Evacuate!
Weather is simple. We predict, we react. (WE ARE HYPER-DRAMATIC) Sometimes we get surprised.

People are not simple. They do beautiful and terrible things for nuanced reasons.

 Terrorists kill French satirists.

North Koreans terrorize the entertainment industry.

We connect with each other on a very simple, reductive level by slapping labels and hashtags on the news of the day.



I think there's value in this - in spite of the fact that the nuance gets flattened.

In books, we get to explore nuance. We get to have unreliable narrators and vulnerable villains, we can explore a troubled sibling relationship and allow for change. Or not.

Characters lie, change their minds, are achingly sincere, and stunningly oblivious -- and by the end of the book, we understand why, even if we don't like their reasons or agree.

Sometimes the best way to keep the author from getting in the way of his or her own narrative is to be simple -- even reductive -- in order to let the characters work things out for themselves.

What do you think?

Why I Write MG

I've been thinking a lot about this question lately. Partly that's because the #mywritingprocess blog hop is still alive and well, and I've been reading others' answers to that question. And partly because I've been rereading some of  my old favorites.

It started when I got this hankering to go back to ANNE OF GREEN GABLES, which was hands down one of my very favorite series for many years when I was young.

I still have the books - they're on a bookshelf containing many of my old besties, waiting patiently for the day my daughter may want to read them. (My son's tastes definitely do not run toward that kind of voice -- he's more of a Star Wars, Percy Jackson, and Origami Yoda guy. And he loves Roald Dahl. MAYBE I can get him to read Sammy Keyes. I love the books he loves too - but they're definitely not Anne. He's among the primary  reasons I write MG, but that's the subject of another post)

When I pulled the book off the shelf, it made that delicious sound. You know, the one a hardback book makes when it slides out from between other hardback books? That scrapey, soft sound of anticipation. As I felt the weight of the book fall into my hand I had the SAME FEELING. The one I had all those times I read it as a young girl, the feeling of deep content. I was hanging out with a person I loved, living in her world, talking and acting a little like her - kind of on purpose and kind of because I couldn't help  myself. She's why I always wanted to be a red head.

These books in particular hold a special place in my heart because I bought them myself. I found them in a bookstore and begged my stepfather to buy them all for me because the library only carried the first three of the eight books. He did buy them -- but then made me purchase each one back from him. At the time I thought that was unusual cruelty. I want them now! now! now! But instead, I had to slowly earn the money, babysitting every weekend for months, hoarding dollars and quarters until I could afford a book. Truth told, in spite of my childish impatience, the process made each purchase all the sweeter.

And when I was finally able to fork over the cash and get a new book  -

                                                                  HAPPY DANCE!

Each purchase merited cozy days of nothing but reading, tucked into a corner of the living room or on my bed, blocking out everything in the world but Anne Shirley and Prince Edward Island.

It's that -- the tucking in and coziness and lost-in-another-world  memories -- that fuels my MG writing specifically. The book worm I was and still am today hopes deeply to create and share those exact blissful moments for young book-worms-in-the-making.  This is the age when you either learn to love reading, begin to see it as a necessary part of your life, or not. The books they read now - I hope - will be books they return to again and again, like calling up an old friend on the phone to catch up. I want to be one of those old friends.

Other authors that took me to my happy place? Madeleine L'Engle, E.L. Konigsburg, Louisa May Alcott, Maud Hart Lovelace, Laura Ingalls Wilder, E.B. White.

Who are yours? And why do you write?

Blog Hop - My Writing Process

 
I'd like to thank Michelle Hauck, prolific blogger, contest runner (she's running a mini contest right now!), and newsletter writer, for inviting me to join this blog hop. Check out her post here:

Michelle is also the author of Kindar's Cure, and a contributor to the anthologies Winter's Regret and Summer's Double Edge.

 



For those new to the blog hop, the idea is this: Each contributor to the hop will answer 4 questions about #mywritingprocess, then invite 3 more bloggers to contribute. Learning about how others work is interesting and also a source of new inspiration and ideas.

SO, here's my writing process:

1) What Am I Working On?
I'm editing two manuscripts - one which has been complete for about 8 months but has gone through 3 very dramatic rewrites, and another which is in its first draft revision stage. The first is EXQUISITE SENSES, a YA Thriller with light sci-fi elements. Leila and Dane learn they have extra sensory talents just as they're launched on a cross-continental rescue mission after Dane's mother. They battle old family enemies and their own personal demons in order to save all of their lives.
The second is an MG Adventure with light sci-fi, untitled, about a young boy who gets bionic legs when his own are amputated.

2) How Does My Work  Differ From Others of its Genre?
I have yet to read about stem cell biology as a source for plot in YA speculative fiction. It's a fascinating subject, ripe with ideas. I love the process of taking very real science and asking the question what if? The concepts I write about are so close to being reality they're really only a decade or less away - so my work could possibly be contemporary before long!

3) Why Do I Write What I Do?
As a kid, one of my favorite authors (among many) was Madeleine L'Engle - spec fiction writer extraordinaire. So I guess one of the reasons I write what I do is because I loved reading her work and then dreaming about it endlessly. I couldn't get enough. Now I want to write like her. 
Later, ironically, although I dutifully studied Bio, Physics, and Chemistry in high school, none of those classes caught my attention - I basically just showed up, had no passion. But now, I am back to my younger self - completely fascinated by cellular and molecular biology and quantum physics. I'm in love with the process of taking a theoretical concept and throwing it off a cliff, adding people and narrative as it flies.

4) How Does Your Writing Process Work?
My writing process reflects the fact that I have two young children!  I write when I can - before my children wake up, when my toddler is napping, after my children go to sleep. My amazing husband often takes over on the weekends so I can string together a few more hours in the day to really dig in.
Usually I muse about a book subject for a little while, then outline it, then let it marinate until I can't stand it anymore and I have to start writing it down. I take notes everywhere - spare pieces of paper, on my iPhone. I try to keep them consolidated, and try to do a streamlined recap every now and then, as new ideas alter the flow or fix plot holes. Because I cut my writing teeth as a reporter, I write quickly - used to crushing deadlines!! But I am still new at creating novels, so I edit pretty deeply.
I also have to plot my characters and their arcs by hand - somehow I think better for my people when I write them longhand before I type them.

Now I get to invite three other bloggers to hop on!

NEXT WEEK:

Rebecca Waddell:

By day, Rebecca works for the beautiful county of San Luis Obispo, but writing is her true passion. Between working on her middle grade and young adult novels, she enjoys dabbling in short stories and poetry. Her motto is: "If I don't write, untold numbers of fictional characters will die!

She writes a poetry blog that is well worth your time: www.ReflectionOfFaith.wordpress.com

Follow her on Twitter: @GloWolf143

Kathryn Howes:
Kathryn is a writer, mother, blogger, former physical therapist, and guinea pig groomer, among many other things. She writes a hilarious blog about mothering, raising readers, and writing.

Here's where you can find her: http://www.kateywrites.wordpress.com
 Follow her on Twitter: @kateywrites

Lea Dickson:

Born and raised in a small, Scottish village, Lea had no plans to drastically change her life. Then at twenty-two, she married her high school sweetheart, graduated from college, and moved to Texas where she decided some kids were needed to complete the madness!

She loves MG and YA and hope to one day join some of her favourites on the bookshelf.

Here's where you can find her: cobalt714.wordpress.com

Follow her on Twitter: @cobalt714