Is There A Fourth Wall In Writing?

So I am reading a book right now that is part of a mini series of a series, hope I didn’t lose you there. Anyway, so in this book I am learning some things that I find irritating in writing.  One major thing being, breaking the fourth wall.  The narrator of the book I am reading, which shall remain nameless, keeps having a conversation with the reader. The author’s favorite thing to do is ask the read rhetorical questions.  I really hate that.  I hate that I am engrossed in the story and I am feverishly reading and getting my mind in the heads of the characters and there situations, and then bam!, I am suddenly pulled out of the story with some “witty banter”. Why?

Now granted this book is from the 90s and it’s Young Adult, but I started to wonder if teenagers from that time found this interesting.  Then it hit me, umm duhhhh, I was a teenage from that time, lol.  And no, I didn’t find stuff like that interesting.  I had read other books from the series that were written by other author’s, and I assumed that all the authors got notes on how to narrate the story so they would all have the same feel, but none of the other books I read really broke that 4th wall.  Nope, they did something else I don’t like instead.  Foretelling.

Ok, so umm, I am reading through this book for a reason.  To find out what’s going to happen.  So why would you tell me about what is going to happen before I even get to the event?  And after reading some great advice blog posts about showing instead of telling a story, I can better understand what the advice meant. Along with the foretelling in these stories there is also a lot of telling in general.  I don’t want to be told how she is feeling.  I want her actions to speak words. I want to be pulled into her mind and if she beats the crap out of something because her boyfriend dumped her, I want to feel her rage by being shown it.  I don’t want to read, “Lily was really angry”.  No, just no.

And one last thing these books are becoming irritatingly know for are putting words into the characters’ mouths that would not normally be coming out of them. The characters in this book like to do the swears that are always cut off at just the right moment, or it is just said they swore. So I know these characters outside these books in another form of media and they are not the cursing kind, at least not to the extent in this book. It’s just this one author that I have seen has them cursing. Now I’m not against cursing, but only if it fits the character.  These words do not fit the characters at all.  I’m not sure if the books were going for shock value or if they were trying to use the “lingo” us kids were using back in the day, but it just failed to “impress”.  I have two more books with this author and if it weren’t for me wanting know how it ended I would have stopped at book one.

So yeah, I had to share my little thoughts with you all on that.  I’m glad to see that my way of reading is changing and I am finally learning what I do and don’t like about writing. I feel guilty not liking something about someone’s creation, but if I do become successful at becoming published, I know I will face the same sticky wrath of judgment.  So I might as well have my say.  Speaking of which, I may post some more book issues in the future, but I would like to let it be known that I won’t be telling the titles of any of the books in question simply because while I might not like a technique used by a writer it doesn’t mean I will bash them in a public forum like my blog.  I just want to share my reader’s observations in hopes that they may help someone else with their writing.

And on that note I am going to close for now. It’s almost 5 am and I’m super tired now. I want to read one more chapter, but it’s really late now. I’ll read more later.  And I will talk to you all later as well.  Be good until then.  Bye for now.

Barely able to keep her eyes open,
M.

Authors on Writing

So, in prep for NaNo, I wanted to read some writer's blogs and found this article through one of them about authors and how they feel about writing. Its shocking to read the different views from the different authors. At some point through the writing process I am all of them. There are times I loathe writing, while other times I love it. A lot of the time I am shocked and amazed at the words on the screen, wondering where I pulled them from.

It was refreshing to see that the feelings I have towards writing are not just my thinking, but are shared by other writers as well. Ok that sentence was odd for me. I don't consider myself a writer actually. I consider myself an attempting writer. Writer in training perhaps? Well, anything but actual writer. I feel a writer is someone who has something published. Until then we are just writers in training. I know other people feel if you write you are a writer, but I just feel you need something published to solidify that claim.

So anyway, the outlines for my novels are not coming along so well. I got lazy this month because I didn't want to face the task of working on the outline. I will have to do that daunting task of writing out all the scenes and character bios and ugh, I hate this part. I mean I like it also. I love coming up with characters and their backgrounds, but it is so hard to. Trying to figure out who they are and sometimes those bitches don't want to talk. Ahhhh!!! I got lucky because I am working on a series and these characters will be repeating for the most part in the other stories and I will only need to make up one or two bios per book for other characters or expand on some older characters as they change and their lives change.

This series I think will have a run-off series near the end of it. I plan to write about my young female character until she graduates. Then I will make her niece the focus of my novel attention who will be starting kindergarten, and my main character will do cameos.

Oh yeah, made a banner for my book. Just was bored one day and thought it would be fun to make one. What do you think?



I will need to make one for the second novel eventually. Not even sure what that adventure will hold yet and I only have a week left!!! Omg!!! Ok, today I will work hard on my outlines. I must have then done by Oct. 31st, since the family is planning a little Halloween moviethon. They know it must be done by midnight because I shall be typing away by then. Ahh, so excited about this. I'm scared too. I want to win. I want to finish both novels. I want to do it so badly, but I just don't know if I will make it this year. Last year was hard for me. This year will be hard also. I won't fool myself into thinking this will be a walk in the park. I guess I'm one of those writers who does not like to write the first draft. I am sure revising will be the fun part for me. But the initial first draft part is hard for me to do. Ughhhh!!! Ok, suck it up girl! Ok, I'm fine...or at least I will be fine. :-) Ok, gotta go, gonna work on some outlining. More laters.

Writing away,
M.

Sharing what I learn along the way.

Ok, so in reading blogs of writers and agents I am learning a lot of valuable information. Some stuff I already knew, others not so much. It got me thinking about my blog and what I want it to ultimately turn into. I want my blog to be away to reach out to others about my writing, be it readers, writers, agents, whoever. But I don't want my blog to be just about me and my writing. I also want it to be about what I've learned and passing it on.

I'm a searcher and researcher, and I love to find out new information about something new I am learning. But sometimes some of the stuff I find is just by pure luck and some of the blogs I read don't really have a lot of readers or attention but the content is amazing. So I have decided to share the links and information I find as I go along for any one who just happens across my blog and aspires to be a writer like me one day.

For my first helpful link, I found a very interesting blog post on Write Well Me explaining about how writing is a process. I found this blog entry interesting because the way she described most people's mindset on how a writer writes is kind of how I saw it. I mean I have read some information about how you need to take a break after writing your manuscript before you start editing it to get a clearer vision of it. But the prewriting part, although I do make notes, I do it at the same time that I write. I think this is why my stories are not getting written. I need to outline, as much as I hate the thought of doing that, I need it. So I have a fresh notebook sitting next to me, with the title "Jumper" at the top, just waiting for fresh new ideas. I don't know if I should write my other typed notes in it or not. I guess I will, so I'll have them all together. I think better and write better when I hand write things, so maybe hand writing my notes will help me get a clearer idea of where my characters; Andrea, Maxwell, Cameron, and Andy, are headed. Its a crazy tale that I'm trying to write, but I just feel it could work if I could just get it down on paper, or computer screen.

So if you are having a hard time getting your words to flow, I highly recommend this blog post. Its short and sweet, but full of valuable information.

Writing away,
M.