The "will it get published?" rant.

It's been too long since my last post, courtesy of GRE prep, work, and summer school. What's been on my mind lately in my writing is the topics in young adult novels. That is, what's appropriate to write about? What's not? Or, more accurately, what's publishable?
Young adult novels are definitely getting darker and, true to history, breaking the barriers. There's been a crazy amount of "dead teenager" books put out in the last couple of years, what with If I Stay, Thirteen Reasons Why and various other books. Not to mention Hunger Games.

Last summer, I picked up the book Wintergirls, by Laurie Halse Anderson. Upon reading it, I couldn't decide wasn't sure whether I was pleased or not to find that the first accurate representation of anorexia I've ever read as a teenage novel. Is it right to write about (no pun intended. Okay, maybe a little one)? There are pros and cons to both. When I read it, for example, I found myself thinking about how amazing it would have been when I was going through an eating disorder to have read the book, had someone to relate to. On the other hand, I was really glad I hadn't been able to read the book, because just reading such a relatable story and being able to get into the main characters mind stirred up all my old anorexic thoughts, which I'd been able to squelch before. Then again, that's just my reaction. It's a tricky business.
Basically, regardless of all the heavy teenage books being published, there are still some rules to cover. Is it okay to write books with underage smoking? Drinking? Drugs? Is it okay to write about death, sexual abuse, eating disorders, sex? Mostly sex. What are the rules about sex with teenagers? What if the problem isn't the focus of the story, but just something that happens in it? Most of all, will it get published? Current day evidence says yes, but I just don't know. I'm concerned, and I know it's come up in conversation about writing with my girlfriend. But if it isn't okay, then what about books like Because I am Furnature or even older ones like Speak? I write what I write because it's a good story, because I feel it's important. And because I had to turn something in to my advanced fiction class. Not to mention the fact that one of my main characters visited me in my sleep.
Unwritten rules are so complicated.
On the bright side, if these things are allowable, I'm in the right niche.

Next up: it's high time for a preview. A sample of my writing!

Officially getting GRE'd...before taking it.

Let's talk for a minute about Grad School. Or, more importantly, what I'm doing to get into Grad School. I've been reading through a GRE exam book, and slowly having confirmed what I've suspected all along:

• The GRE is not a good indication of how well you will do in Grad School.
• The GRE is not fair.
• The GRE is not a good test of your knowledge.

Most importantly, figuring out these facts have lead me to one simple conclusion:

• The GRE is a test of how well you can take the GRE.

This is why I'm spending my traveling hours on public transportation reading a GRE book that teaches me not new material, but specific techniques to be able to answer the questions.

I've been reading voraciously (a GRE word?) since I was a little thing, and I'd like to think I have a pretty large vocabulary (even if it's not always projected in this blog. Hey, a writer has to have some place to vent sometimes, right?). But reading through the vocabulary "Hit List" as my book calls it, there's absolutely no way I know all the definitions for those words.

Another big problem with the GRE is that it's computer adaptive. If you speak like a normal person and have no idea what this means, it means that the computer you take the GRE exam on is mean, and far too smart. It assumes you have the average score for a particular section, and, depending on whether you answer a question right or wrong, asks you a harder or easier question next. Let's put this into perspective.
Let's say you're taking the verbal section, and the average score is 450. Let's just pretend. This means the first question the computer gives you is an "average" question for that section. If you get that question right, it raises you score some percent, and gives you a harder question. If you get it wrong, it lowers your score, and gives you an easier question, most likely of the same type you got wrong so that it can pound your misery into you over and over again. Anyway. This type of testing means the questions not only get harder, but the percent by which it raises or lowers your score also gets smaller. This means that the first questions are worth more than the last.
And that's my long-winded rant about the GRE exam.

Does it make me less of an author because I keep getting lower scores on the Verbal part of my practice tests than the Math section? Or does it just mean that I don't know the third listed definition of "catholic" in the dictionary?

p.s. More Grad School posts to come that actually have to do with the schools. But the next blog will be once again about writing.

p.p.s I do not own that comic. It's property of the website posted at the bottom of it.

In which I notice that my writing is quite similar to Sara Ryan's

The first subject is that I've discovered that my writing is oddly like Sara Ryan's in a lot of ways. It's also not in a lot of ways, but the characters she has in Empress of the World hold just the right amount of wit, insight, sarcasm and, of course, dorkiness to be delightfully cutting. When I first read the book, years ago, I wasn't sure I liked it. But as I've gotten older and reread it, I find that I like it more and more as time goes on. I'm not sure yet how I feel about her second novel, The Rules for Hearts, but the first one is enjoyable. It's possible that part of this is due to the fact that it's one of the first books involving gay teenagers that I've read that isn't about being gay. That is, it's not a coming out novel. It's a "coming of age novel" if I must put a name to it, that happens to have a gay main character. I don't see very many novels like that, and it's refreshing. So many gay novels are just about coming out. More on that later, as I think the subject deserves its own blog post.
Anyway, if you have time, you should read it, and let me know what you think! It's fairly short. I'm starting to think I should do more book/author plugs in this blog as well as my own, boring personal life.

Also, prepare for it, you guys. The next blog I write is going to be on...*insert ominous music here* GRAD SCHOOL.