Read Before You Write -- and During and After Too
In a recent episode of Louie, the title character (who, if you - like the majority of people - don’t watch the show is sort of depressing Seinfeld) was called upon to critique a young comedian. You could see the dread on his face, and it was justified when the comic gave a cringe-worthy performance, talking unfunnily about his abusive childhood. Struggling for something to say, Louie attempted to explain what comedy even WAS. Finally, he asked the comic what HE found funny. “Buster Keaton and Lucille Ball,” the comic replied. And Louie was done.
This was very relatable to me. I attend writers conferences and talk to people who want to be writers. Yet it seems like they don’t actually read in the genre in which they wish to write - at least not since they were that age themselves. More than one aspiring young-adult writer has told me they like Nancy Drew, for example. Nancy Drew, a series that dates back to 1930, was old and clunky to me as a child. I’m in my 40s. The young-adult genre barely existed in my youth, and many of the children’s books that were published when I was a kid simply would not be accepted now. Everything about young-adult has changed in my lifetime. In fact, a lot of it has changed in my fourteen years as a published author. Recently, when my publisher published my book Breathing Underwater (2001) with a new cover, I asked if I could correct it to remove dated technology references such as beepers. Books from my own childhood seem downright historical now.
For this reason, it behooves aspiring writers to be aware of what is popular now. Read Publisher’s Weekly. Scout websites like Amazon and BN to see what their top titles are.
On the other end of the spectrum are people I meet who believe YA literature begins and ends with John Green. Nothing against John Green, but it is frustrating to me when I see lists of “The 100 Best Young-Adult Books of All Time” and they include 25 or more titles from the past five years. Like, really? Writing has just improved that much lately? Also, there are an awful lot of vampire titles in that time period, which is probably what gives the impression that YA is nothing but vampire titles.
But mostly, to look at too small a time period would give too narrow a perspective of what young adult literature is. What one is thinking is the definition of YA might merely be a trend of the past few years. Or the thinking of many years ago.
As a music student many years ago, I had to take a class called 18th Century Counterpoint and another one called 20th Century Expressions (It was the 20th Century at the time). In that way, we learned how a fugue was constructed and how musicians like John Cage or Charles Ives composed music more recently. We learned the rules, and then we learned how to break them too.
By the way, did you know that many of the great composers first had jobs, copying sheet music, before there were printing presses. So that is a good example of learning by studying the form of those who came before.
I’m not a composer, but this seems like a good way to learn. Learn the bones so you know what makes something good. And then, see what other people have done to rearrange those bones. But read enough that you know their way (the novels of the past five years) isn’t the ONLY way.
So I guess what I’m saying is, you have to read it all. Or, to bring it back to the Louie reference up top, Buster Keaton and Lucille Ball were funny but the comic should probably have been familiar with Sarah Silverman and, indeed, Louie CK.