Monster High = Product Placement

Ok, so I just got done reading the prologue, the first chapter, the second chapter, and the third chapter to Monster High (the novel based off those cute dolls everyone has been going crazy over), and can anyone say product placement?  No seriously, every few words were practically plugging a brand name.  The story and from what I could guess of the plot were cute, but the product placement just kept getting me.  Are teens so materialistic that they wouldn’t “get” a story without Gucci, Uggs, and Calvin Klein being mentioned?  Since when did characters in stories become so materialistic?  That was honestly a turn off for me, and I thought to myself would I let my son or daughter read this novel, if i had either of course?  And I believe I would let them read it, but I would worry if this would make them want more instead of appreciating what they have or what can be afforded.  I don’t know, maybe I am thinking to much into this.  I just don’t think the story needed all the product placement in it.  It’s a good story so far.

But it also makes me wonder why they released so much of the story.  Are they worried it won’t be good or accepted?  Perhaps this is a thing the author already did in the past.  Not sure, I will be investigating her blog some more and report back.  But it does make me wonder about other YA/MG authors and if they plug a lot of products.  It’s been some time since I read YA, but that will be changing soon as I am planning to hit the library some time in the next week or so to check some out for research for my writing.  But tell me, what do you think about product placement in stories?  I mean mentioning the characters are going to McDonalds, which I am sure will show up in the story somewhere, is one thing, but mentioning over 10 different products in maybe 30-40 pages worth of novel is a bit much.  And a lot of them got repeat mentions.  So it just makes me wonder how others feel about it.  Maybe I am just getting old…I am turning the big 3-2 in a little over a week after all.  *tear*  I wouldn’t have minded product placements if they were made up items like J.K. did in the land of Harry Potter.  This story could have done that with monsters being the main characters…I’m assuming.  I won’t say more on that, go read the chapters to get what I mean by that.

Ok peeps, I’m off.  I need some sleep.  I want to get back to writing tomorrow, something I have slacked on for over a week now.  I want the rewrite done by my birthday…in a little over a week.  Wish me luck!  Ok, bye for now. 

Writing away,
M.

Mom at Sixteen

So I just finished watching the Lifetime movie “Mom at Sixteen” online and it made me thinking of writing.  All I ever read about writing YA is that you should never force a moral or lesson down your reader’s throat.  That will make them basically get bored and lose focus on your novel.  This movie was exactly that.  It was very predictable, I’d seen it before but forgot about it so rewatched it, and the lesson was constantly pushed down the watcher’s throat: Don’t have sex or you could become pregnant.  It was kind of irritating and pulled away from the story for me.  There were constant sex education classes the focused on sexuality and why do girls give in and have sex with guys.  There was a lot of “Well we want to do it,” “The peer pressure,” “They won’t like us any more if we don’t do it,” and honestly I can remember feeling the same as a teen.  But even I was rolling my eyes by the third class meeting going over the same thing, girls should dress appropriately and not have sex.  It seemed like every teenage girl in the movie was either dressed like a slut or doing “it” on campus somewhere.  But of course the baby mama teen was dressed prim and proper and was appalled at the actions of her peers.  Although it’s been a while since I was a teen, I remember that this just wasn’t how it was.

So why am I reviewing a movie on my writing blog?   Because movies come down to the same concept of novels.  An interesting and engaging plot with characters you can relate to.  I felt I could relate to Jacey the baby mama and the sex ed teacher the most.  The sex ed teacher can’t have kids of her own even though she is trying…can you kind of figure out the ending from this?  Well she figures out the baby is Jacey’s and it’s because of her big mouth the school finds out.  Then the school carries on calling Jacey a slut and throwing stuff at her like she is the only one in school that is pregnant.  Now I ask you, when have you ever heard of only one teen being pregnant in school?  In a small town maybe, but in a regular town heck no.  This story was just so far off course from reality, and while I know it was a Lifetime movie that had to end nicely or with a twist, it still irked me.  They could have tried a little harder on the script and made the characters more relatable and made the story a little more correct.  This was done around the time when the sex bracelet games started, so it’s not that old of a movie, and it was after I had graduated, in fact it was made the year my sister graduated five years ago.  So it’s not old.  And when I was in school it was not a shock to hear a girl was pregnant every few weeks.  And then when my sister started telling me about her schoolmates being pregnant in school it didn’t shock me.  So the story was just kind of meh to me.

I think if you are going to do a story like that you need to do your homework and really try to understand your audience and the people and story you are trying to portray.  The story was a sweet story that ended happily, as most Lifetime movies do, but it just could have been better.  But that’s all for this review.  I have another one coming up.  Just want to do some research for it first.  Bye for now.

Writing away,
M.

I write like...

So my sister showed me this cool website called I Write Like. It basically tells you, well, who you write like. I just put in the first few lines of my novel and it said this:

I write like
James Joyce

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

Here's the wiki for James Joyce if you need some extra info on him. So I was rather impressed with myself when I saw that, but then I started thinking...does that mean my work is classic or dated? LOL! I'm going to try posting some blog posts and other novel bits in and seeing who it says I write like then. Let me know who you right like. :-)

Writing away,
M.

I'm back.

I had been thinking of merging all my blogs into one, but seeing as each one deals with a different topic I have decided not to merge and to leave them all as they are. So I am back writing here. I have been working on Jumper. 3 chapters are done and 3 are left. I know that there will be more chapters than that as the plot unfolds and more things are revealed to me. So far the story has changed several times and I like the changes. But it just feels so weird rewriting Andrea's story. Her plot is getting thicker and I am back at the "hard" part of writing, getting her story started. And now I am doing it from her point of view. Ugh!!! Don't get me wrong, I love the story and it refuses to let me walk away from it, but it's so frustrating and I have several other ideas I want to entertain in other novels but I can't until Andrea tells me her story. So that is where I am write now. Rewriting history, at least where Andrea is concerned. Wish me luck.

Writing away,
M.

I think I need a do over.

So here lately I have been in this weird funk. There are so many things I need and want to do but I just can't stick with anything long enough to do it. I don't know why. I'm not really a lazy person. Once I start something I am dedicated to it until I finish it. So I don't know what this funk is. It might be related to things going on in my life that I can neither control or change and it's frustrating to me. This frustration is sucking the life out of me along with a few other things that I actually can control and change but for some reason I just don't have the dedication to do it. It's so weird. On some things I will do what I need to do until it's done. But on the one thing I need to do in order to change my life I just can't be dedicated enough to do it. Maybe I will be blog about it in my main blog later...if I can be motivated enough to do it.

So why am I writing about this in my writing journal? Well, this funk I am in has also affected my writing. I have not be dedicated to it in a long time even though writing is all I can think about. So for the past couple of days I've tried to get back to writing with little to no success until this morning. I got back to "Jumper" and tried revising chapter 6 when I just saw that the story was lacking something. I've let it sit so long that it's no long the story I want to write. Don't get me wrong, I still want to write Andrea and Maxwell's story, but there is honestly something missing as well as the story seems like a tango done by two people with either two left feet or they've only had one lesson. So I've been tinkering around in my head lately on what to do with it. Do I just keep going? Do I chuck it all together? What do I do? Well, it was two seconds ago that I finally decided what to do.

I'm going to rewrite "Jumper" and I'm going to do so in first person. I've been reading a lot of first person YAs lately and I think this story might be better told in first person. There are so many people in the story that it's easy to lose sight of who the story is about. It's about Andrea and what happens to her and Max. So instead of me telling her story, I will simply let her tell it herself. I think that's what she's been trying to tell me all along.

I will be starting on chapter one tonight to see how I like it. Fingers crossed tight that it will work. I want this novel done and ready for submitting by Fall. The way I wrote her story first time around it seemed to only warrant two books, but perhaps writing it in first person will warrant several books like I originally intended it to do. She was suppose to go through several time periods fixing certain events so that her life would go in a certain way that would better the world. To give you a better idea of what I mean, think the Terminator and how he went back in time to kill Sarah and John Connor to fix his time. So yeah, we will see how this works out. Wish me luck. :-) Off to write now.

Writing away,
M.

Chapter 4 is done.

Now that I've finished chapter 4 I am seeing where chapters after this are going to need some filler. I feel I should really be taking away from the story instead of adding to it, but I'll just do that in the 3rd go round I guess. Gotta get ready to take off for a bit, but I will work on chapter 5 when I get back. More later.

Writing away,
M.

Chapter 3, done.

I wonder if I am moving to fast through my chapters? I mean I don't know how this all really goes, but I am thinking I am ok for now. I don't really need to add anything in as of yet. I do see where I may need to add some more bulk to the story later but for now it's "ok". Going to chapter 4. Hoping to finish it and chapter 5 today. Ok, I'm off.

Writing away,
M.