Last week, I started reading the cobbled-together monster that is my NaNoWriMo 2008 novel. Let me just say this: WOW. It reminds me of what my dog might create if I gave her some blank paper and her own excrement to spread around. Anne Lamott was not wrong, no sirree:

Now, practically even better news than that of short assign­ments is the idea of shitty first drafts. All good writers write them. This is how they end up with good second drafts and terrific third drafts…I know some very great writers, writers you love who write beautifully and have made a great deal of money, and not one of them sits down routinely feeling wildly enthusiastic and confident. Not one of them writes elegant first drafts. All right, one of them does, but we do not like her very much. We do not think that she has a rich inner life or that God likes her or can even stand her.

Yeah, yeah, I know. Still, it’s hard not to be completely demoralized by the stark contrast between my novel and the fabulous creation I’m currently reading, Broken Soup.

But the awesomeness that is Jenny Valentine gave me an idea. You know how in middle school, to learn proper grammar your English teacher made you diagram sentences until your eyes crossed? It sucked, and I am totally not condoning such heartless torture of defenseless kids. But I have to admit—and please don’t tell any teachers this—that it kind of, sort of, maybe helped me learn grammar.

Could I “diagram” a great novel to learn how to de-suckify my own novel? Kind of like taking apart a car engine to learn how it all works together?

Leave a comment to chime in with your thoughts on whether this is viable:

• Have any of you aspiring writers tried to diagram a novel before? And if so, how did it go?
• Or: If you haven’t ever tried such a thing, do you think it would be useful to your writing? How would you tackle it?

Photo by miconian.

Audience Pick!

Title: American Born Chinese
Author: Gene Luen Yang
Category: Fiction, Young Adult
Rating: 3/5
Why I Read It: Because you told me to!

Summary: Jin Wang moves to a new school where he’s the only other Asian kid. He eats lunch alone and has no real friends. Will he ever be like the other kids?

Review: This is the first graphic novel I’ve ever read. I liked it, but I didn’t love it. I think that’s more to do with me getting used to a new story medium than with this specific story.

The message of this book—to accept yourself—is universal, and the artwork is crisp and vibrant. And I enjoyed how the three different storylines come together in the end.

I’d like to try reading more graphic novels to see if I can get into the format. Which titles would you recommend to a graphic novel neophyte? Leave a comment or add your recommendation to the Pick My Next Book section in the sidebar!

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Title: Suite Scarlett
Author: Maureen Johnson
Category: Fiction, Young Adult
Rating: 3.5/5
Why I Read It: Before I started this blog, I read Let It Snow and loved the story by Maureen Johnson. I decided it was time to check out one of her novels.

Summary: Scarlett and her family own and live in a New York hotel. For her 15th birthday, she’s given a suite to take care of. Which would be so much easier if it wasn’t inhabited by a Broadway has-been who gets her kicks from bossing Scarlett around.

Review: I will definitely be reading more by Maureen Johnson. I absolutely LOVE her sassy, sarcastic humor. I’ve also been reading her blog to get more of her brand of funny on a regular basis. (Very entertaining stuff, except that it always makes me a bit depressed after the chuckling tapers off. I’m just a wee bit jealous of Ms. Johnson and her funny-making skills.)

Here’s a little taste for you:

Perhaps it sounds like a wonderful thing to be born and raised in a small hotel in New York City. Lots of things sound fun until they are subjected to closer inspection. If you lived on a cruise ship, for example, you would have to do the Macarena every night of your life. Think about that.

Still, this book made me daydream about living in a hotel. But only if I can live with a family like Scarlett’s.

I adored the characters in this book, especially Scarlett’s older brother. The scenes with Scarlett and her brother were among my favorites mostly because of their witty banter but also because they had such a great sibling relationship.

Have you read any books by Johnson that you would recommend? Leave a comment or add your recommendation to the Pick My Next Book section in the sidebar!

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Title: Perfect Fifths
Author: Megan McCafferty
Category: Fiction, Young Adult
Rating: 3/5
Why I Read It: I read the rest of the Jessica Darling series in 2007, so I wanted to see how the last book wrapped it all up.

Summary: Three years after he proposed to her and she said no, Jessica Darling runs into Marcus Flutie—literally.

Review: I’m glad I read the final book in this series not just for the closure but because the book offers up some truly enjoyable moments. And even though it had been almost 2 years since I last read about Jessica, this book brought it all back immediately.

But this wasn’t my favorite book in the series. A few reasons why:

• Transcript in the middle—The 2nd third of the book is a conversation between two characters, but nothing else happens. You don’t even get to see what the characters are doing except when they talk about it. It’s like reading a transcript. Interested technique, but it got old for me after a few pages.
• Clever bordering on pretentious—I like smart humor, I do. But a few times, the extreme cleverness of the characters induced eye-rolling.
• Short wrap-up—This is probably just me, but I wanted more of a conclusion. Or at least more time in the conclusion. After such a long series with a back-and-forth, steamy relationship, I was looking forward to more of a payoff. But then, I’m in the camp that liked the conclusion of the last Harry Potter, which I know isn’t universal.

With that said, if you’ve read the rest of the Jessica Darling series, I think you’ll enjoy this one.

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Audience Pick!

Title: Saving Francesca
Author: Melina Marchetta
Category: Fiction, Young Adult
Rating: 4/5
Why I Read It: Because you told me to!

Summary: Francesca goes to a formerly all-boys private school where the only thing co-ed is the fact that girls get their own bathroom. But that’s not even her biggest problem—why does her usually peppy mom refuse to get out of bed?

Review: Ah, I could read Melina Marchetta’s books all day, every day. I loved Jellicoe Road more than this book, but I still adored Francesca’s story.

This woman should teach a class in writing dialogue, if she doesn’t already. The dialogue she writes is clever without being pretentious. And funny. Actually, forget being jealous of how the author writes the dialogue, I’m jealous of how these kids speak. If I could be that quick with a comeback, I would be the coolest ever.

Another thing I loved is how Francesca has guy friends who aren’t interested in her romantically. They’re just really, truly her friends.

Finally, a little taste for you. A boy named Will put the moves on Francesca, and she confronts him about it:

“I don’t want you to think I do that all the time,” he says, sounding a bit strained.

He’s very stressed. I have caused that stress. I am jubilant that I have caused that stress.

“Why would I think otherwise?”

“Because,” he says.

Because?

“Don’t you do legal studies? Aren’t you in mock trial? Does the argument ‘because’ usually work for you?”

He doesn’t even have the decency to be shifty-eyed. He just stares straight at me.

“You were drunk, Will,” I say after a moment. “I wouldn’t expect you to even remember anything.” I turn to go.

“If I was sober, you would have been impressed,” he says, repeating my words from that night.

“But you weren’t. And I’m not,” I say firmly. “And if you think that I am praying at night for you to ask me out, just dream on.”

I walk away, so proud of myself that I can hardly contain it.

***

Dear God, please please please let Will Trombal split up with his girlfriend and ask me out.

The prayer becomes my mantra all night.

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