writing it out

I should be angry. I've got, you know, an entire book that I've got to get edited by the end of three weeks (personal deadline before school starts!). And then I go and order on Amazon, and not just one, but two of the books I've ordered have turned out to be un-put-downable, read-all-in-one day books.

I'm talking, of course, of Keri Mikulski's Screwball. I was charmed with the book's cover, and even though I don't usually go in for that particular style of YA, I thought the hook sounded intriguing. And I love Keri's blog, which is currently hosting a Yay for YA! Book Give-Away, so everyone go over there and sign up for a chance to win free books!

Plot: Screwball is about Ashley Clarke's first year of high school, filled with a new softball team, a new boyfriend, and problems with both. Christy, the other pitcher on Ashley's new team, apparently hates Ashley for no reason at all. And Megan, the local school slut, keeps digging her claws into Ashley's super hot and older bf. Overall, this book has a great high school tone, realistic dialog and relationships, and is a wonderful portrayal not only of an average teen (albeit a rather sporty one--Ashley's a triple threat), but of a teen's life and friends and surroundings. Sure, Ashley's pretty obsessed with softball and her boyfriend...but what teen doesn't have some kind of obsession?

Warning: My "writer review" of Screwball is pretty spoilerific. As in, it's all about the end of the book. So if you don't want to ruin the end, quit reading!

Writer Review: So, what can a writer learn from reading Screwball?

1. Battle Scenes: I tend to read and write YA fantasy. Diana Wynne Jones, Rick Riordan, Patricia Wrede, Robin McKinley...these are my friends*. And usually, in a YA fantasy, there's some sort of battle. It could be an external battle, like Peter and Caspian leading the Narnians to battle the Calormeens, or it could be an internal battle, like Meg fighting It. Either way, there is clearly a Fight and a Battle with two opposing sides and a Victor.

Sometimes it helps nerdy people like me to remember that fantasy battles are all well and good, but there are battles in real life, too. Ashley's opposition in Screwball is Christy...a very realistic, typical teenage-girl hatred. They also have a typical fight. In real life, I can't go up to the people I hate, slap them across the face with a kid leather glove and shout out "sir, tonight, we duel!" No, in real life, I complain about that woman at work who freaking gets on my nerves, and I wouldn't say no to a chance to one-up her. Ashley gets her chance when she and Christy are on the softball field. Sure, it's a game. But it's also a real life battle. Whether you write realistic fiction or fantasy (or whatever), it's important to cross genres sometimes just to remind yourself what a battle looks like in all its different forms. Keeping in mind the way a real life battle would happen for a real life teen helps keep in perspective that magic battle with wands I've got at the end of my manuscript. The emotions are still the same; the motivations; the desire.

2. Happy Endings shouldn't be Happy. Now I sound pessimistic. But it's true. An ending that's too neat and tidy, that leaves the female protagonist being swept off her feet by the male protag with the villian frowning and twisting his mustache sucks. At the end of Screwball, there are some good things: Ashley's grown up and realized she's grown up, Ashley has a decent boyfriend that looks like it could be True Love (instead of hormone driven infatuation), Ashley's won the big softball game, etc., etc. But not everything's perfect: the new bf is moving after his mom died, Ashley has realized that doing one thing may mean sacrificing another and there's no way out of that, and she still has to deal with Christy being a b---- and Andrew being a jerk. But that's good. That's how the real world is.

*If, by friend, you mean the people that I would stalk if I had the time and means to do so.