The mind of a child has to be a truly alien thing.
Take for instance my older son. His younger brother has recently started eating infant cereal. We've given it to him a couple times, sometimes he can't seem to get enough of it (like when my husband feeds him) and other time he wants nothing to do with it (like when I feed him ). So when we got home from our walk today, I set the youngest on the floor so i could take care of some stuff in another room. While I was out, I heard my oldest giggling, so I thought nothing of it.
When I got back, there were cereal flakes everywhere. It was like it had snowed in that one section of the living room. The floor had enough flakes for our son to draw in. The blanket the baby was laying on was covered in flakes. So was the baby. And after picking up the baby, I was covered in cereal flakes too.
The oldest had this big smile on his face, showed me the box of cereal, and might've even said, "Baby more," which is his way of saying the baby's hungry and wants to eat. He just didn't understand why mommy got so upset when he was trying to be helpful.
While in college, my husband studied psychology and one of the things they talked about was how up until a certain age, the right hemisphere and left hemisphere of the brain don't communicate with each other. And I was like, well, what does that mean? The best he could describe it was that children will do stuff without knowing why.
Like if our oldest son had better communication skills, I could ask him why he poured cereal all over the floor. He'd probably tell me, I don't know. And he truly wouldn't know.
Since my husband told me about this, I wondered what it would be like to live this way. Sure, there are those rare adults that either by some genetic defect or brain damage, the right and left hemispheres of their brains don't communicate with each other.
But what would it be like if a whole society maintained this disconnect into maturity? How would their society be different than ours? And, more importantly, how would it be similar?
It's one of the reasons I like writing speculative fiction. You can take something from the real world like this, and see how a fictional society would change with it.
Showing posts with label fiction vs. real life. Show all posts
Showing posts with label fiction vs. real life. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
Friday, July 22, 2011
To My Kitty
Dear Kitty:
I do not like your house guests, kitty cat.
I do not.
I do not like them of the flying variety.
Nor of the crawling variety.
I do not like it when they land on my head.
Now I need a shower, yes I do.
I do not like it when they poop on my pillow.
Now I need to wash it, yes I do.
I do not care if you're stuck in the bathroom
while I get your guests to leave.
I do not.
Say, I do like it when your house guests return home.
Yes, I do.
Kitty, kitty when will you learn
I do not like your house guests anywhere?
Not in my living room.
Not in my dining room.
Not in my hallway.
Not in my kitchen.
I do not like them anywhere.
Perched on a box.
Flying above my head.
Stuck in my hair.
I do no like them anywhere.
Kitty, kitty
I do not care
How much you meow.
How much you beg,
Plead,
Yowl.
I will not let you out of the bathroom
Till your guest is safe at last.
Say, kitty cat
I do like it when your house guests
Can be caught.
Can go home.
Can be free.
***
Sorry, I read Dr. Seuss' Green Eggs and Ham to my two-year-old yesterday, so it's been stuck in my head.
It doesn't help that my kitty's had such a fondness for bringing in house guests lately. The most recent being a bat last night and another bird this morning.
This years totals include:
3 bats
6 birds - 4 nestlings, 1 fledgling, 1 adult
2 chipmunks
2 rabbits
I think these last two were brought in because the heat wave we were having finally broke. He brought in a chipmunk last Sunday morning. (Which made me forget to grab my friend's son's birthday present. That wasn't a big because we just got him his first d20 as a stand in gift.) Then we had such a high heat index with it being up in the 100s to 110s (I can't say for certain since I didn't pay that close attention) that our kitty lounged in the air conditioning with the rest of us. Last night was his first chance to get back outside.
I love my kitty.
I just wish he didn't have such a fondness for bringing in guests.
And I know at one point I told my husband it wouldn't be so bad if our kitty ate some of the animals he caught, but I think I've changed my stance on that too. Especially when we got back from the drive-in and had to mop our floor.
Of course in the middle of mopping the floor and trying not to throw up from the blood, I thought of my vampire novel where Ayako finds her first dead body in the lounge car. In the original draft I had it that she didn't throw up. After all, it's just a dead body, right? And since she was a biology student, she had her share of dead bodies she needed to dissect.
Then I was mopping up the blood.
This was after my husband told me not to look, that he would throw away the parts. All I needed to do was mop the floor.
And maybe it has something to do with the fact that it was once a cute bunny that now had it's entrails strewn about my dining room floor (at least the kitty ate in the right room and didn't take his dinner onto the carpet or hide it in the basement), but yeah, now I just need to think about all the little details of that night to conjure up that same reaction.
When looking at the body, I had Ayako think of it as a painting. And to an extent, it is a work of morbid art. But then, I was thinking, you know, if I can get this sick to my stomach over one little bunny, how is Ayako gonna react to a human? Yeah, about the only thing she has going for her is that she doesn't have to worry about cleaning up the mess.
So, yes kitty, thank you for giving me those experiences to make my writing more realistic.
I do not like your house guests, kitty cat.
I do not.
I do not like them of the flying variety.
Nor of the crawling variety.
I do not like it when they land on my head.
Now I need a shower, yes I do.
I do not like it when they poop on my pillow.
Now I need to wash it, yes I do.
I do not care if you're stuck in the bathroom
while I get your guests to leave.
I do not.
Say, I do like it when your house guests return home.
Yes, I do.
Kitty, kitty when will you learn
I do not like your house guests anywhere?
Not in my living room.
Not in my dining room.
Not in my hallway.
Not in my kitchen.
I do not like them anywhere.
Perched on a box.
Flying above my head.
Stuck in my hair.
I do no like them anywhere.
Kitty, kitty
I do not care
How much you meow.
How much you beg,
Plead,
Yowl.
I will not let you out of the bathroom
Till your guest is safe at last.
Say, kitty cat
I do like it when your house guests
Can be caught.
Can go home.
Can be free.
***
Sorry, I read Dr. Seuss' Green Eggs and Ham to my two-year-old yesterday, so it's been stuck in my head.
It doesn't help that my kitty's had such a fondness for bringing in house guests lately. The most recent being a bat last night and another bird this morning.
This years totals include:
3 bats
6 birds - 4 nestlings, 1 fledgling, 1 adult
2 chipmunks
2 rabbits
I think these last two were brought in because the heat wave we were having finally broke. He brought in a chipmunk last Sunday morning. (Which made me forget to grab my friend's son's birthday present. That wasn't a big because we just got him his first d20 as a stand in gift.) Then we had such a high heat index with it being up in the 100s to 110s (I can't say for certain since I didn't pay that close attention) that our kitty lounged in the air conditioning with the rest of us. Last night was his first chance to get back outside.
I love my kitty.
I just wish he didn't have such a fondness for bringing in guests.
And I know at one point I told my husband it wouldn't be so bad if our kitty ate some of the animals he caught, but I think I've changed my stance on that too. Especially when we got back from the drive-in and had to mop our floor.
Of course in the middle of mopping the floor and trying not to throw up from the blood, I thought of my vampire novel where Ayako finds her first dead body in the lounge car. In the original draft I had it that she didn't throw up. After all, it's just a dead body, right? And since she was a biology student, she had her share of dead bodies she needed to dissect.
Then I was mopping up the blood.
This was after my husband told me not to look, that he would throw away the parts. All I needed to do was mop the floor.
And maybe it has something to do with the fact that it was once a cute bunny that now had it's entrails strewn about my dining room floor (at least the kitty ate in the right room and didn't take his dinner onto the carpet or hide it in the basement), but yeah, now I just need to think about all the little details of that night to conjure up that same reaction.
When looking at the body, I had Ayako think of it as a painting. And to an extent, it is a work of morbid art. But then, I was thinking, you know, if I can get this sick to my stomach over one little bunny, how is Ayako gonna react to a human? Yeah, about the only thing she has going for her is that she doesn't have to worry about cleaning up the mess.
So, yes kitty, thank you for giving me those experiences to make my writing more realistic.
Friday, October 22, 2010
Mature Themes and Writing YA
These two posts are both cross-posted from the NaNoWriMo message board, with some addition comments.
The thread is about mature themes/topics in YA books and what readers can handle versus what writers can/should write. It's a long debate, especially with books like The Hunger Games trilogy where many readers, parents, and librarians were outraged at the violence of the trilogy, especially in Mocking Jay. I haven't read the books yet, but they're on my list. But then you have other books that have teen sex, drugs use, drinking, any number of things that some adults don't want/thinks teens to/should be exposed to.
Actually, I think the thread started as a rant, but as someone who writes YA, this interests me beyond the level of a rant.
So here's my first post.
Granted I'm no longer in the YA age range, but I still love reading and writing YA. I read YA a lot more now then when I was actually in high school just because the YA market has become it's own entry since then. Before I would have to look for books in the adult section and hoped they had younger characters or just deal with it.
But now YA has exploded as a market, and in some cases it's more popular than the adult market in the same genre. So it seems like a lot of authors are crossing over, meaning they're writing the same genre, but now for both markets.
The only problem I have is that it seems that some of these authors need a formula in order to write YA. Like the last book I read, it seemed like the author made a checklist of all these things that are in YA books, and therefore she needed to use them in her own writing.
Her philosophy seemed to be:
Every teen drinks, unless the parental units are around.
Teens do drugs, like pot and cocaine.
Every teen has sex.
If you can't have sex, you'll masturbate.
Even if the character's in a steady relationship, there still needs to be a love interest that's the new student at school.
That's all I can think of for now, but it just really annoyed me.
I think as an older person trying to write YA I'm more sensitive to some of the stuff that older YA writers feel like they have to include. Mainly because when I was in high school, not everyone was drinking or smoking or doing illegal drugs or even having sex. And sometimes I feel that older YA writers feel like they have to include these things otherwise they won't be true to the YA market, when instead it feels like they're writing stereotypes of teens.
And my second.
When I was in high school I didn't want to read about characters swearing, drinking, having sex, etc because I didn't do any of those things. So a lot of the fiction I wrote at the time was anti-swearing/drugs/sex and it seemed like I went out of my way to avoid those topics in my writing.
But now, ten years later, I've learned a lot about writing, creating characters, and life in general. Now I don't have a problem writing about some high schoolers going to a party and drinking. I don't try to write how evil acohol is, even though I don't drink myself and would prefer my son didn't drink until he's 21. At the same time, I don't write it that every character drinks, has sex, does drugs, etc. It's not who I am now and it wasn't who I was in high school, so I think it's important to show that not everyone does these things, but I think it's more important to be true to the character.
Just like some people experience more "mature themes" at a younger age, some characters can and should experience those same things at a younger age. But just because some teens drink, smoke, do drugs, and have sex, that doesn't mean all teens do or that all teens should in writing either.
Finally, some additional comments.
Do I think that writing YA makes me obligated to write about teen sex/smoking/drug use/drinking/swearing? No. Just because it seems likes it's becoming the norm to write "edgy" YA doesn't mean I need to. That's like saying just be use I write adult fiction about a character in a romantic relationship, I need to include explicit sex scenes. (But that's a topic for a later blog post.)
Some people mention (not necessarily on that thread, but this is just what I've picked up around the blogosphere) that if you include sex/drinking/swearing, etc. you should be obligated to educate your readers on it. Like at another message board I go to, someone said if your teens are having sex, they need to have "safe" sex (which was suggested to them by their agent/editor). I have nothing wrong with that, but birth control still isn't 100% effective. You can extrapolate this into saying if your characters drink and drive, they need to get into an accident or get pulled over by the cops or something.
But other people say that the only obligation you have to your readers is to tell them a good story. You don't need to preach to them about the horrors of teen sex/drugs/drinking or anything else--whether that's your view or not.
To me, telling a good story is being true to my characters. Some of them drink, others don't. Some of them have sex, others don't. Just because I think writing young adult should be true to the young adult experience. Not every teen drinks. Not every teen smokes. Not every teen has sex. So why should all of my teen characters drink, smoke, have sex, etc.?
The thread is about mature themes/topics in YA books and what readers can handle versus what writers can/should write. It's a long debate, especially with books like The Hunger Games trilogy where many readers, parents, and librarians were outraged at the violence of the trilogy, especially in Mocking Jay. I haven't read the books yet, but they're on my list. But then you have other books that have teen sex, drugs use, drinking, any number of things that some adults don't want/thinks teens to/should be exposed to.
Actually, I think the thread started as a rant, but as someone who writes YA, this interests me beyond the level of a rant.
So here's my first post.
Granted I'm no longer in the YA age range, but I still love reading and writing YA. I read YA a lot more now then when I was actually in high school just because the YA market has become it's own entry since then. Before I would have to look for books in the adult section and hoped they had younger characters or just deal with it.
But now YA has exploded as a market, and in some cases it's more popular than the adult market in the same genre. So it seems like a lot of authors are crossing over, meaning they're writing the same genre, but now for both markets.
The only problem I have is that it seems that some of these authors need a formula in order to write YA. Like the last book I read, it seemed like the author made a checklist of all these things that are in YA books, and therefore she needed to use them in her own writing.
Her philosophy seemed to be:
Every teen drinks, unless the parental units are around.
Teens do drugs, like pot and cocaine.
Every teen has sex.
If you can't have sex, you'll masturbate.
Even if the character's in a steady relationship, there still needs to be a love interest that's the new student at school.
That's all I can think of for now, but it just really annoyed me.
I think as an older person trying to write YA I'm more sensitive to some of the stuff that older YA writers feel like they have to include. Mainly because when I was in high school, not everyone was drinking or smoking or doing illegal drugs or even having sex. And sometimes I feel that older YA writers feel like they have to include these things otherwise they won't be true to the YA market, when instead it feels like they're writing stereotypes of teens.
And my second.
When I was in high school I didn't want to read about characters swearing, drinking, having sex, etc because I didn't do any of those things. So a lot of the fiction I wrote at the time was anti-swearing/drugs/sex and it seemed like I went out of my way to avoid those topics in my writing.
But now, ten years later, I've learned a lot about writing, creating characters, and life in general. Now I don't have a problem writing about some high schoolers going to a party and drinking. I don't try to write how evil acohol is, even though I don't drink myself and would prefer my son didn't drink until he's 21. At the same time, I don't write it that every character drinks, has sex, does drugs, etc. It's not who I am now and it wasn't who I was in high school, so I think it's important to show that not everyone does these things, but I think it's more important to be true to the character.
Just like some people experience more "mature themes" at a younger age, some characters can and should experience those same things at a younger age. But just because some teens drink, smoke, do drugs, and have sex, that doesn't mean all teens do or that all teens should in writing either.
Finally, some additional comments.
Do I think that writing YA makes me obligated to write about teen sex/smoking/drug use/drinking/swearing? No. Just because it seems likes it's becoming the norm to write "edgy" YA doesn't mean I need to. That's like saying just be use I write adult fiction about a character in a romantic relationship, I need to include explicit sex scenes. (But that's a topic for a later blog post.)
Some people mention (not necessarily on that thread, but this is just what I've picked up around the blogosphere) that if you include sex/drinking/swearing, etc. you should be obligated to educate your readers on it. Like at another message board I go to, someone said if your teens are having sex, they need to have "safe" sex (which was suggested to them by their agent/editor). I have nothing wrong with that, but birth control still isn't 100% effective. You can extrapolate this into saying if your characters drink and drive, they need to get into an accident or get pulled over by the cops or something.
But other people say that the only obligation you have to your readers is to tell them a good story. You don't need to preach to them about the horrors of teen sex/drugs/drinking or anything else--whether that's your view or not.
To me, telling a good story is being true to my characters. Some of them drink, others don't. Some of them have sex, others don't. Just because I think writing young adult should be true to the young adult experience. Not every teen drinks. Not every teen smokes. Not every teen has sex. So why should all of my teen characters drink, smoke, have sex, etc.?
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
May You be at Peace
What really sucks is that last night I went to bed an hour later than I meant to because I was really excited about my story and learning who my main character is, only to wake up this morning with one of those phone calls you wish you'll never get, and now I'm trying to figure out how I can get back to the States on really short notice. As a result, it's kind of drained all my energy for writing.
My grandpa died. I don't know when exactly due to the time difference, but my father-in-law had been trying to get a hold of us for at least three hours before we finally woke up enough to answer the phone. Of course the first thing I said was, "Which one?" when I've only had one grandpa my entire life. (My other grandpa died before I was born.)
The second thing that happened to me was exactly like I was a character in some book (the main character too, since this is *my* life). After hearing that he got a brain hemorrhage (just like how my friend's mom died last summer, or the summer before) and went into a coma. And I think my family (I don't know who) basically decided to pull the plug. My mind tried telling me that they hadn't actually pulled the plug yet, that there was still time. Only to remember that the first thing my father-in-law said was that my grandpa died.
The first thing I thought was how it was unfair. Not to me, but to my grandpa. Some years ago when I was still in college (I think my second year), my grandma was in a terrible car accident. (And at the time, I tried to use my emotions in a poem for my creative writing class.) The accident had been so bad that no one thought she was going to make it, but eventually she managed to pull through. During that time, you could see how much my grandpa really loved my grandma because he waited by her bed with her, only leaving when the nurses forced him out, or when his children told him he needed to eat. Because to him, nothing else mattered than to by by her side. So I thought, after he went through all of this for my grandma, it was unfair of them (because I don't think my grandma would have made this decision on her own) to not even give him the fighting chance. And okay, so I know if you get a brain hemorrhage, the chances of survival are practically non-existent. But they could have at least given him the chance.
Part of me is more than just sad that I'll never be able to talk to my grandpa again, or to hear any of his stories about how difficult it is to butcher a buffalo (from a farm, not a wild one, and he had permission or whatever for those of you who may be worried) or even his travels in Asia, which I only recently learned about how much he actually did here when I got back from Korea (last summer). Just last week, I thought about asking him more about his travels and where he went in Japan so I can go there too, and experience some of the same things he experienced.
But really the most important thing, and the one that makes my life seem most like some character in a book right now is my "backstory" coming back to haunt me, more likely it's guiding my actions. The summer after I was in 9th grade, I went with my friend and her older sister on vacation to Georgia, Kentucky, and Ohio to visit their relatives. And while I was in Ohio, I got the call saying that my uncle had just died. I tried going back to Minnesota early, but "cost too much" to change my ticket or it was too difficult, and that I should just stay and enjoy myself when all I really wanted to do was be with my family. Now my family isn't close or anything, and I wasn't even close to my uncle, but my family just kind of flocks together when there's a tragedy, It's almost like there's this calling inside each of us and we just know when and where to go.
So I guess really because I didn't get to partake in this almost pilgrimage when my uncle died and I was only a couple states away, I'm a million times more determined to get back home now, even though I'm halfway around the world. Plus, I knew my grandpa a lot better than my uncle, he was closer related to me, and I just want to be there for my mom (because its her father).
I'm also reminded of something my sister said back when my grandma was in the hospital, and that's, "Because the two of them were so close and loved each other so much, that one wouldn't be able to live without the other. So if one dies, the other will soon follow." And its sad because you don't want either of them to die, but I think it's also very romantic (and the stuff fiction is made of). It goes with what my grandpa told my sister the first time she was engaged, that he "loves [my grandma] even more today than the day they met," and he will continue loving her more each day.
My grandpa died. I don't know when exactly due to the time difference, but my father-in-law had been trying to get a hold of us for at least three hours before we finally woke up enough to answer the phone. Of course the first thing I said was, "Which one?" when I've only had one grandpa my entire life. (My other grandpa died before I was born.)
The second thing that happened to me was exactly like I was a character in some book (the main character too, since this is *my* life). After hearing that he got a brain hemorrhage (just like how my friend's mom died last summer, or the summer before) and went into a coma. And I think my family (I don't know who) basically decided to pull the plug. My mind tried telling me that they hadn't actually pulled the plug yet, that there was still time. Only to remember that the first thing my father-in-law said was that my grandpa died.
The first thing I thought was how it was unfair. Not to me, but to my grandpa. Some years ago when I was still in college (I think my second year), my grandma was in a terrible car accident. (And at the time, I tried to use my emotions in a poem for my creative writing class.) The accident had been so bad that no one thought she was going to make it, but eventually she managed to pull through. During that time, you could see how much my grandpa really loved my grandma because he waited by her bed with her, only leaving when the nurses forced him out, or when his children told him he needed to eat. Because to him, nothing else mattered than to by by her side. So I thought, after he went through all of this for my grandma, it was unfair of them (because I don't think my grandma would have made this decision on her own) to not even give him the fighting chance. And okay, so I know if you get a brain hemorrhage, the chances of survival are practically non-existent. But they could have at least given him the chance.
Part of me is more than just sad that I'll never be able to talk to my grandpa again, or to hear any of his stories about how difficult it is to butcher a buffalo (from a farm, not a wild one, and he had permission or whatever for those of you who may be worried) or even his travels in Asia, which I only recently learned about how much he actually did here when I got back from Korea (last summer). Just last week, I thought about asking him more about his travels and where he went in Japan so I can go there too, and experience some of the same things he experienced.
But really the most important thing, and the one that makes my life seem most like some character in a book right now is my "backstory" coming back to haunt me, more likely it's guiding my actions. The summer after I was in 9th grade, I went with my friend and her older sister on vacation to Georgia, Kentucky, and Ohio to visit their relatives. And while I was in Ohio, I got the call saying that my uncle had just died. I tried going back to Minnesota early, but "cost too much" to change my ticket or it was too difficult, and that I should just stay and enjoy myself when all I really wanted to do was be with my family. Now my family isn't close or anything, and I wasn't even close to my uncle, but my family just kind of flocks together when there's a tragedy, It's almost like there's this calling inside each of us and we just know when and where to go.
So I guess really because I didn't get to partake in this almost pilgrimage when my uncle died and I was only a couple states away, I'm a million times more determined to get back home now, even though I'm halfway around the world. Plus, I knew my grandpa a lot better than my uncle, he was closer related to me, and I just want to be there for my mom (because its her father).
I'm also reminded of something my sister said back when my grandma was in the hospital, and that's, "Because the two of them were so close and loved each other so much, that one wouldn't be able to live without the other. So if one dies, the other will soon follow." And its sad because you don't want either of them to die, but I think it's also very romantic (and the stuff fiction is made of). It goes with what my grandpa told my sister the first time she was engaged, that he "loves [my grandma] even more today than the day they met," and he will continue loving her more each day.
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