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Once upon a time, I sent an email to

zeisgeist in which I lamented my nonstop reading of YA novels. You see, it's something I'm supposed to do as part of my job, but when it comes to attempting to think creatively, it kills my muse.

I could write a YA novel, I wrote to Lara, and I could have it be a retelling of my favorite fairy tale, East of the Sun and West of the Moon.

Oh. Like East by Edith Pattou.

Well, that's all right, I continued. I could write a book about a percussionist in a family crisis. Or the time it takes to rebuild a damaged reputation. I could write about kids at a summer arts camp, or I could write a book about anything I wanted, as long as the whole thing was in sestinas. Or maybe the future effects of consumerism. Frankenstein meets My Fair Lady. Or maybe something pink and fluffy, but with a message of substance.

Except I can't write any of those books, I realized, because they've all been written already. Drums, Girls, and Dangerous Pie. Story of a Girl. Dramarama. Keesha's House. Feed. Shattering Glass. Most everything by Meg Cabot. If I didn't read so much, maybe I'd have more confidence in the thought that I could write a YA novel. But on the other end of that sword, it's really, REALLY easy to tell when a YA author hasn't read a lot of YA. The voice is usually wrong somehow, whether it sounds too old and clearly adult, or too young.

But in today's USA Today Books section, this appears, and it makes me think that maybe I'm going about this project all wrong. If publishers are selling adult novels on familiarity (which, yes, has been done in YA for years but didn't really make me feel much better), then maybe I could build a novel around that idea of familiarity, tell something that's already been told. Then the challenge is to make it sellable to those that have already seen the original, and not necessarily make it better, but make it different. (But not too different, because then you lose the whole familiarity argument and then it becomes a round of "There's a Hole in my Bucket, Dear Liza, Dear Liza.") Working with this familiarity is the entire foundation of reader's advisory, anyway. "I liked The Chocolate War. What else do you have like it?" Now, reader's advisory has crossed into movies, and not just movies made from books. YA librarians know this well; when we're faced with that kid whose mom has dragged him to the library because he just has to read something on The List (Accelerated Reader, summer reading list, pick your poison) for school the question of "What do you like to read?" doesn't work so well. I've taken to asking those reluctant readers, "What TV shows or movies do you like? What do you like to do in your spare time? Have your friends mentioned any books lately that they thought were good?" So I guess I could say that it's the publishers who are late to this party, not me, but that doesn't make me feel any better.

I think this is why I write fanfiction instead of original works. At least then, I KNOW I don't have to try being original only to find I'm writing a story that someone else has already told, and better.

Enough procrastinating. I have sixteen book discussion guides to write in the next ten work days.

Tags: angsting, books, writing
126: working
780: if I'd only thought of something charming to say