YA Guy... Visits Schools!

As YA Guy has said before, probably the coolest thing about writing for young people is that I get to visit schools (and libraries). And probably the coolest thing about those visits is answering questions from students, who always challenge me and give me a new perspective on my own writing.

Recently, I visited Shaler Area Middle School (close to the city of Pittsburgh) and talked about FREEFALL, science fiction, and social justice to a group of young readers who'd just finished a unit on segregation. Here are some of the great questions they asked me, with my reconstruction of how I answered them:

Charlotte: Do you believe the society represented in FREEFALL is likely to occur in the future?

YA Guy: Actually, I think it's happening right now. Not only nationally but internationally, we're a people divided by race and class, and in some respects those divisions have worsened despite legislation that was meant to shrink them. That's one of the things with science fiction: though it's typically set in the future, it comments on events that are happening right now, sometimes tweaking those events just the tiniest bit for the purposes of fiction.

Jamin: When you're writing a story, how do you know if your idea is good or not?

YAG: The short answer is that you don't. Or at least, if you mean "good" as in "lots of people will want to read it," it's hard to gauge that while you're writing. So my best advice to writers is to write what YOU think is good--the story that you want to tell (or that you'd want to read). You can't really control whether others will think it's good, so you probably shouldn't waste time worrying about that.

Taylor: Have you ever based a character off your own personality?

YAG: In the largest sense, every character I create is based (at least in part) off of me, because I'm the person whose thoughts and feelings I know best. But sometimes there's an even closer connection. For example, Cam Newell, my narrator in FREEFALL, is a guy from a relatively privileged upbringing whose viewpoint is changed when he comes into contact with people from very different backgrounds. His process of development is quite similar to what I experienced when I went to college, where for the first time my eyes were opened to people, perspectives, and issues that I'd never been exposed to before.

Tiffany: Where did the title FREEFALL come from?

YAG: Sometimes, I don't have a title for a book until I'm about halfway through, when I've finally figured out what the book is about. Other times, a word or phrase just pops into my head, and I decide it would make a good title--but then I have to figure out how it's relevant to the story I'm telling. That was the case with FREEFALL. I liked the word, partly because I knew I was writing an outer space adventure, and I was playing with the ideas of gravity and being grounded (or being thrown out of one's accustomed ground). But I also started to think about how being in love is kind of like being in freefall; it's scary and exhilarating and unpredictable all at once. So since the book has romance elements too, FREEFALL seemed like a good title. Eventually, to make it even more relevant to the story, I named one of the starships the Freefall.

Shahaan: Do you write books to inform or to entertain?

YAG: Many authors will say that the only purpose of writing is entertainment, and I do agree that entertainment is primary. But with a book, we're not talking about random light shows or clown acts, which might be purely entertaining; we're talking about language, which means that there's also going to be information conveyed from author to reader. I don't believe in hitting the reader over the head with a "message," but at the same time, I see nothing wrong with the author having information s/he wants to convey to the reader, so long as s/he leaves it up to the reader to receive and process that information.

Chris: When you use first-person point of view, what's the best way to describe your narrator?

YAG: Well, you probably want to avoid the overused device of having your narrator look in a mirror (or other reflective surface) and describe him/herself. You might ask whether you really need a physical description of the narrator, or you might drop little nuggets of physical description here and there. But if you want a single, sustained description, you should try to find an original way of doing it, such as I tried to do in FREEFALL, where Cam reads his own physical data on the screen of the life pod where he's been in suspended animation for 1000 years.

Logan: Where do you get the names for your characters?

YAG: Lots of places. I'll meet someone with a name I like, or I'll hear something on the news, or I'll create a name from scratch. In the manuscript I'm currently working on, everyone has names from Greek myths, so it was fun researching those names. For FREEFALL, I named the three male leads after my son's favorite NFL players.

Sammy: What was your inspiration for the Upperworld?

YAG: I honestly looked around at the real world and thought about wealth disparity, segregation, and oppression in the here and now, and then said to myself, "What if current trends get worse and worse in the next hundred years?" I'm no prophet, but there are very troubling signs that the world's wealth is becoming more and more concentrated in a smaller and smaller percentage of the global population, and if that keeps happening, we might literally have an Upperworld and a Lowerworld in the next century: an elite 1% with all the wealth and a remaining 99% with none.

Candace: How do you stretch a short story into a novel?

YAG: First, I'd point out that if you're writing short stories right now, there's no need to stretch them into anything other than what they are. Short stories are the perfect length for young writers: you can complete them in a week or a month, and thus feel a great sense of accomplishment, whereas for most teens (including myself forty years ago), tackling a novel is an exercise in frustration--it's just too much, and the likelihood that you won't finish it tends to produce feelings of failure. That being said, I've found that the key difference between a novel and a short story is that in a short story, the narrator or main character has ONE challenge s/he has to face and resolve, whereas in a novel, there will be multiple such challenges, each one yielding to a greater one. But I do want to repeat that for young writers, I think short stories are the best way to go: they give you a chance to hone your skills, and possibly even to gain some publishing credits.

Alexandra: Do you plan your novels out first, or figure things out as you go along?

YAG: I'm what people call a "pantser"--that is, I don't plan much, and so I kind of fly along by the seat of my pants. I'll have a basic idea for a novel--such as in FREEFALL, where the idea was to write an adventure/romance having to do with outer space colonization--but I'll let the rest unfold as I write. The reason I like to do it this way is that I feel as if I make my best discoveries as a writer "in the moment," where one idea will lead to another that I hadn't foreseen. But other writers like to plan out more than I do, and I think it's important for each writer to find the method that works best for her or him.

Maddox: How did the plot of FREEFALL develop?

YAG: This is a perfect example of the process I just described, where one idea leads to a wholly unexpected one. I'd created my main characters, Cam and Sofie, but I felt that something was missing--they were too similar to each other, and thus there wasn't enough tension and conflict in their relationship. But then the idea of Upperworld and Lowerworld popped into my head, which led me to the obvious conclusion that one of my teens would be an Upperworlder and the other a Lowerworlder. Once that idea was in place, the story took off: if they were from different parts of the planet, they'd have to meet somehow, and there would be some kind of conflict when they did, and each of them would have to learn from the other, and so on and so on. I didn't plan any of that when I started writing, but all of it unfolded in a series of discoveries during the writing process.

Emma: What's your favorite part of FREEFALL?

YAG: I think my favorite part is a scene where Cam and one of Sofie's Lowerworld friends are working together to rescue her from the book's villain, and they have a conversation where Cam realizes that, though they have the same objective, they have drastically different motivations. That was an important scene for the story, not only because it leads Cam to question his own motivations, but because it raises the question of whether it's possible to understand the life experience of someone whose circumstances are very different from one's own. I personally think it's possible to respect someone's position even if one doesn't fully understand it, and I hope that's what Cam learns too.

Dante: Have you had any hardships while writing?

YAG: Many. For example, with FREEFALL, my first draft was so horrible I almost gave up on it, but fortunately, I had the experience to know that if I set it aside for a while, I'd come back to it with fresh eyes and be able to make an objective assessment of its strengths and weaknesses. Writing is hard work--though nowhere near as hard as many of the jobs that people perform--and you have to be strongly motivated to persevere in it.

YA Guy Answers Questions... from Students!

One of YA Guy's favorite things about writing for young people is that I get to visit schools. The energy and enthusiasm students show are truly amazing--and the questions they ask about my novels and the writing process are great. To give you a sample of what I mean, here are some questions that I received from eighth grade students at a recent school visit, along with my answers.

Michael: Did you ever test your writing on your own children?

Me: As a matter of fact, yes! My daughter was my first reader for SURVIVAL COLONY 9 when she was twelve years old (she's now eighteen and about to go to college). I'd written a single chapter and wanted to see if it was any good, so I asked her to look it over. Fortunately, she gave it the thumbs up!

Conner: What were some of the main changes you made in the draft of SURVIVAL COLONY 9?

Me: One of the biggest changes was that I removed a chapter that included a lot of backstory about the world, the wars, the coming of the Skaldi, and so on. It was too much information all at once, and it slowed down the story. So I took tiny parts of it and included them in the chapter where Querry and Korah talk by the pool, and I sprinkled some other parts throughout the sequel, SCAVENGER OF SOULS. If, as I'm currently planning, I publish a prequel, some of the information will find its way in there too!

Brittany: Were any of the characters inspired by real people?

Me: Most of them were, in one way or another. But in particular, I think the character of Laman was inspired by my own father, who's a great guy but (as is sometimes the case with fathers and sons) who sometimes rubs me the wrong way. The scene in which Querry and Laman play catch was definitely modeled on my own life--because the one thing my dad and I can always talk about without risking an argument is baseball.

Alex: Is writing your full-time job?

Me: I wish! Like many writers--maybe most writers--I have a full-time job that pays the bills, and then I write whenever I can. Balancing the two can be difficult, because writing takes so much time. But luckily, I'm a teacher, so I do get summers off!

Abbey: What's the favorite book that you've written?

Me: I'm tempted to say "all of them," but the reality is, one of the books I really, really love is also one that will probably never be published. It's a strange, quirky, satirical science fiction novel that is so personal, I can't see it finding a mass audience. It's what writers sometimes call "the book of my heart," the book I really wanted to write. But as a writer, one has to accept that a book like that won't always be published.

Gaven: Are you a fan of post-apocalyptic movies?

Me: How could you tell? Yes, I love the Terminator series, the X-Men movie Days of Future Past, and a number of other similar stories. Someone told me when SURVIVAL COLONY 9 came out that it was somewhat similar to The Walking Dead, so I watched the first episode of that series. But alas, I've never been a fan of zombie movies.

Austin: How did it feel to create a novel?

Me: This is a sort of dorky answer, but in all honesty, it felt similar to creating a child. I remember how it felt to hold my daughter for the first time, and it was similar to holding my own novel for the first time. (Holding my daughter was better, though. I have to say that or she'll kill me, but it's really true!)

Rocco: Did you ever try to publish any of your novels from the past?

Me: That's an interesting question. Like most writers, I've written more books than I've published, including a fantasy novel I wrote when I was sixteen. These days, with self-publishing, I could easily put those novels out there. But I feel as if that would be a mistake, because there's a reason most of them aren't published: they're not very good. They were the novels that helped me develop my skills to the point where I could write publishable novels, so it's probably better they remain in my closet or on my hard drive!

Lindsey: Is there a particular character you relate to?

Me: I definitely relate to my narrator, because he's the most me: a guy who tries to do the right thing but sometimes fails and sometimes doubts himself. But I also relate to Aleka, the character I'd most like to be. I find her really admirable, because she has a very strong sense of justice that I wish I could live up to in my own life.

Christian: How did you handle criticism from your editor?

Me: Another great question. Like all people, I feel bad when I get criticized, when someone doesn't like my book, when I get a negative review, and so on. But as a writer, you have to learn to deal with criticism--which doesn't mean ignoring it, but putting it to productive use. My editor always has critical comments to make about my manuscripts, and at first they sting a little. But then I take a step back, think about what she's saying, and do my best to learn from her criticism and make the manuscript as good as I can.

Hannah: With all the disappointments in a writer's life, what gives you the strength to go on?

Me: I think the answer to that is simply that I've wanted to be a writer almost as long as I can remember. If I'd given up, if I'd let disappointment stand in my way, I wouldn't have achieved my dream. So every time the going gets tough, I remind myself of why I'm doing this, and that helps me find my way.

Nadia: If you were living under the circumstances Querry lives under, what would you do?

Me: The reality is, I'd probably die. I'm not saying that facetiously; in order to make this book work, I had to take certain liberties with reality (such as the scarcity of water in Querry's world) that probably aren't actually survivable. But if it were possible to live under these conditions, I like to believe that, like Querry, I'd fight for the future, not only my own but that of others.

Jared: Did the ending of SURVIVAL COLONY 9 stay the same from draft to draft?

Me: Yes--but the middle changed a lot! That's usually how it is with me as a writer: I know where I want to go, but I don't know how I'm going to get there. I do a certain amount of planning, but for the most part, I enjoy being surprised by the twists and turns that occur during the act of writing.

Mike: Are there any of your characters that you dislike?

Me: I've definitely written unlikable characters, but that doesn't mean that I, the author, don't like them. Or maybe it would be better to say that I identify with them--I know what makes them tick, I get where they're coming from. I believe it's important for authors to know all their characters through and through, which often means recognizing qualities in them, even negative qualities, that are part of one's own make-up.

Madison: What's the most important struggle in SURVIVAL COLONY 9--the internal one or the external one?

Me: Wow, fascinating question. I tried to make Querry's internal struggle--to accept himself and grow into a confident leader--connect with his external struggle--to defeat the Skaldi. That's not to say he needed to defeat them to prove himself. It's to say he needed to learn to take risks, to get outside himself and act for the good of others, and to overcome his own insecurities and doubts. The Skaldi, as creatures that steal identity, became important antagonists in Querry's quest to discover who he is.

Santiago: Is there anything you'd tell your younger writing self?

Me: I'd tell him to calm down, to take his time, to not worry so much about the future. When I was a teenage writer, I was so desperate to be published I don't think I enjoyed the journey as much as I should have. I know it's relatively easy for me to give this advice now, since the journey did end in publication. But even if it hadn't, I would have wanted the younger me to be less hard on himself and to feel better about who he was, without worrying so much about who he wanted to be.

YA Guy... Gives Away SCAVENGER OF SOULS to Schools and Libraries!

I know it's been a long time since YA Guy posted here, largely because I've been frantically revising my 2017 novel, FREEFALL, while working on a new project during National Novel Writing Month. But NaNoWriMo is drawing to a close, and I wanted to announce a very cool giveaway I'll be running throughout the coming year.

Each month in 2017, I'll be selecting one winner to receive 20 FREE hardcover copies of SCAVENGER OF SOULS. That's 12 winners, each receiving 20 FREE copies. The giveaway is restricted to schools and libraries in the United States, but other than that, there are no strings attached. If you're a teacher or librarian, head over to the Survey Monkey form here to enter:

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/ZMQC9XN

And if you know of teachers or librarians who might be interested, feel free to share!

FREE copies of SCAVENGER OF SOULS for schools and libraries. I suppose there are cooler things than that, but at the moment, I can't think of any!

YA Guy Asks... To Free or Not to Free?

The question of whether authors should charge for their appearances is a big one. Many authors maintain that it's degrading to the profession of authorship to expect authors, almost alone among working professionals, to offer their services for free. Yes, lawyers do pro bono work and such, but no one expects them to work for free always and everywhere. Some folks seem to expect authors to do just that.

On the flip side, others in the field (authors, agents, publishers, publicists, etc.) will argue that exposure for an author, especially one at an early point in her/his career and/or not published by a major house, is so valuable that no opportunity should be passed up, even if it's a freebie. (In fact, this might be why some venues are shocked when authors ask to be paid; they're probably assuming that the exposure is worth it in itself.) According to this logic, alienating a prospective client or losing potential appearances by demanding payment is a big no-no.

YA Guy's been doing this author thing for over a year now, and I've spoken at many venues. Some have paid me, some haven't. For what it's worth, I offer the following thoughts about when it's appropriate to expect payment and when it's okay to work for free. These are based on my own experiences and instincts, mind you, so you shouldn't feel as if these suggestions are written in stone.

Bookstores. Unless you're a mondo gigantico bestseller--and even if you are--you're probably not going to get paid for bookstore appearances, and that's fine. This is one of those instances where the exposure, sales, and interaction with paying customers are sufficient unto themselves. Plus, you can often make contacts at such events that lead to other, paid gigs.

Schools. Personally, I believe schools should pay authors for their time. (Not only for physical visits but for Skype sessions.) The reality, however, is that not all of them do (or at least, not all of them will offer to pay up front, and some will get miffed if the author asks to be compensated). In some cases, this is a simple budgetary matter; some schools are financially strapped, and they genuinely can't afford to pay. In other cases, there might be less savory explanations. But to me, having some quality face time with my target audience--by which I mean not only students but teachers and librarians--makes a freebie worth it. So I always ask to get paid--or, failing that, to have the school order a certain quantity of my books--but I don't turn down a school gig just because they can't pay.

Libraries. In my experience, they seldom pay, or if they do, it's a mere pittance. I believe this is because libraries are chronically underfunded, not because they're clueless; librarians, of all people, recognize the value of a writer's time and labor. But as with schools, the opportunity to chat with young people and schmooze with librarians makes a free visit worth it to me, not only in terms of possible sales but because it's what I like to do. So I ask for money, but I don't turn down an unpaid gig.

Festivals. Unless you're the headliner, forget it. The point of being there is to sell books; no one's going to pay you on top of that. (In fact, the likelihood is that you're going to have to pay to have a table there.) Ditto with conferences (unless, again, you're the headliner). Don't bother asking; you'll look like a rookie and a doofus (not to mention a megalomaniac) if you do.

Colleges. These folks should pay you. They have money, and if they're the kind of place that wants authors on campus, they're the kind of place that values authorship enough not to be shocked if you ask for money. I recently sat on a thesis defense committee at a local MFA program, and they paid me, as is entirely proper. The only exception you might make here is if a student group asks you to speak on campus; then you might need to explore their budgetary situation.

Professional organizations. I recently gave a talk for the Western Pennsylvania chapter of the SCBWI (Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators). I didn't ask, or expect, to get paid (though they did give me a B&N gift card). To me, this kind of appearance falls under the category of professional courtesy or obligation, and I wouldn't insist on payment.

Media. Radio, TV, podcast, etc. Obviously, if you're appearing on some major TV talk show, they're going to pay you. Otherwise, not. That's journalism, and it would be pointless to ask the local radio station to pay you for being interviewed on their morning show.

Miscellaneous appearances. Such as, you've been asked to give a keynote address somewhere or other, or to be part of a lecture series, or anything of that nature. There's no doubt in my mind about this one. Payola!

So those are my thoughts. As with just about everything in writing, each author has to find what they're personally comfortable with. (Nor are you locked into a particular course forever; just because you didn't charge for school visits this year doesn't mean you can't change your mind next year.) Determine how much your time is worth to you, how much you enjoy or gain from appearances, and develop your own guidelines accordingly. The only thing I'd say as an absolute is that you should never, EVER feel guilty about asking for money. This is your job, or one of your jobs. You're a professional with a highly desirable and relatively rare skill set. You write for love, sure, but you write for money too. There's never any need to apologize or feel bad for that.

YA Guy Visits... Schools and Libraries!

YA Guy's discovered that one of the coolest things about writing books for young people is that you get to visit schools and libraries to talk about your book, the writing life, and lots of other things besides! (At a recent library visit, the middle schoolers I addressed were very interested in what I'd eaten for breakfast.) Here, for fun, are some pictures from recent events!

At Community Library of Allegheny Valley

At the new Teen Space in the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh East Liberty branch

On a panel with other local YA authors at the Peters Township Public Library

And here's my book on a library shelf, next to books by friends in one of my author groups!

More events are coming up, so I hope to post more pictures soon! In the meantime, if you're a teacher or librarian looking for YA authors to address your students, drop me a line--I'm newly on Skype, so even if it's not local, we can make it happen!