Even though April is over, DIY MFA continues, though in a more relaxed fashion.  Since many participants from April are new to DIY MFA, I thought I’d do some review posts every week to go over some of the DIY MFA concepts we discussed back in September.  Today we’ll go over the four core elements of a Writing MFA (Master of Fine Arts) and how you can do-it-yourself to create your own DIY MFA. 

In a Writing MFA, writers must…

Read.  Most MFA programs have a literature component, where students must take a series of literature classes along with their writing coursework.  At The New School, not only do you have to take literature classes, you actually have to write a literature thesis as part of your graduation requirement.  In that sense, reading is a huge component of the MFA process.  Similarly, DIY MFA puts an emphasis on reading the literature.  By creating a reading list, reading the books and writing responses to what you read, you can simulate the literature study you would do in an MFA program.

Write.  Of course a writing program must include a lot of writing, and so must DIY MFA.  In a writing program you’ll receive instruction on the craft of writing and be pushed to produce a substantial number of pages each semester for your workshop.  This process of writing and rewriting helps you hone your craft and strengthen your own abilities.  Without a writing component, the MFA (including the DIY MFA) would miss the point.  To be a writer, you have to write.  It’s that simple.

Workshop.  The workshop is a central component of any MFA in writing.  By giving critique to other writers, you sharpen your reading skills.  In receiving critique on your own work will learn to make your writing stronger, as well as develop skills to handle rejection and criticism on your work.

Connect.  One component that many writers forget is connecting to the writing community.  Connecting can happen in many different ways.  Attending readings, going to conferences, connecting with other writers via the internet… these are all great ways to engage with the writing community.  The reason community is so important for writers is that otherwise writing can be a very lonely enterprise.  Community gives us a reality check and helps us stay motivated.

Which of these elements is easiest for you?  Which is the biggest challenge?

Welcome Back to YA Cafe, where book lovers can gather and chat about teen literature.  I’m your barista, along with Ghenet from All About Them Words.

Each Friday we pick from a menu of topics and share our thoughts on our respective blogs.  We’ve also got plans brewing for interviews, events and even some exciting giveaways, so stay tuned!  Join the discussion by responding in the comments, on your own blogs or on twitter using the hash tag #yacafe.

Today’s Special: What’s your favorite YA voice?

Just as I couldn’t decide on a favorite YA character, I also can’t pin down one YA voice that I love because there are so many good ones out there.  Instead, today I thought I’d talk about ways to capture that teen voice.  As many of you have said in the comments voice is one of the main things that differentiates teen literature from adult fiction.  Sure, there are other considerations (like the age of the main character) but voices is generally what makes YA stand out from other categories.

So how do you get that teen voice?  There are no hard and fast rules, but here are a few tips that have helped me nail down the voice of my own characters.

1. Listen to how teens talk.  Ever done that eavesdropping exercise where you go somewhere and listen in on people talking?  You can learn a lot about teen slang and the rhythm of how they speak just by listening.  Whenever I ride the subway or bus, the temptation is to zone out but listening to how teens talk can give you insight about your character’s voice.  (They say Nabokov nailed down the teen voice for Lolita by riding the TCAT bus in Ithaca and listening to local high school kids.)  When you listen–really listen–to teens talking, you’ll notice things: not just what they talk about but how they talk about it.  Here are a few examples:

     “Did she tell you we used to play checkers all the time, or anything?”
     “I don’t know.  For Chrissake, I only just met her,” Stradlater said.  He finished combing his goddam gorgeous hair.  He was putting away all his crumby toilet articles.
     “Listen.  Give her my regards, willya?”
     “Okay,” Stradlater said, but I know he probably wouldn’t.  You take a guy like Stradlater, they never give your regards to people.

J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye

     “Oh.”  Her voice was mock-pouty.  “Are you sure?  He’s no trouble.  He hardly takes up any room.  All you have to feed him is a Mini Wheat.  Or two grapes.  And he won’t poop on your rug.  Will you Cinnamon?  Go ahead, stand up and tell him you won’t.  Stand up, Cinnamon.”
     Cinnamon stood on my sneaker.  His eyes shone like black pearls.
     “Doesn’t he have the cutest ears?”
     Who notices a rat’s ears?  I looked.  She was right.  “Yeah,” I said, “I guess he does.”

Jerry Spinelli, Stargirl

2. Don’t be afraid to add imagery.  Just because the voice captures the way teens speak doesn’t make it any less sophisticated in terms of imagery and language than adult fiction.  Teens respond to beautiful imagery, as long as the language fits the style of the voice.  Don’t be afraid to use metaphors or similes either, if it fits the voice you’re going for.  Some examples:

     Cassie killed the snowmobile engine.
     Total silence, her favorite sound.  Ice crystals sun in the Arctic air.  Sparkling in the predawn light, they looked like diamond dust.  Beneath her ice-encrusted face mask, she smiled.  She loved this: just her, the ice, and the bear.

Sarah Beth Durst, ICE

     Then the worst thing happened.  A boy noticed me.
     He was the most unattractive boy in the room, a dog-face, a Poindexter, the one who hadn’t asked any girl to dance, because he knew that no girl wanted him to.  But I was a stranger so he figured, why not?

Judy Blundell, What I Saw and How I Lied

3. It’s OK to break the rules.  Some YA novels do a great job capturing not only the voice, but the vernacular of teen speech.  To write in vernacular, not only must the author have a great ear for dialogue, but depending on who’s narrating the story, the vernacular can carry over into the narration as well.  In Coe Booth example below, the vernacular is not over-powering, but it’s carried through out the book both in the narration and dialogue.  Even just a touch of vernacular in this book gives us a better look into the protagonist’s world than if the book had been narrated in standard English.  In the M.T. Anderson, the vernacular is completely made up, invented by the author for this futuristic society, but it fits the characters and gives us an idea of what this society is like.

     I mean, she the one that called my cell this morning and told me she needed to talk.  Then all the way to her place it’s like she wanna say something but don’t know how to tell me.  Se we just walk without saying a whole lot, which is alright ’cause I got a lot on my mind anyway.

Coe Booth, Tyrell

     Everything at home was boring.  Link Arwaker was like, “I’m so null,” and Marty was all, “I’m null too, unit,” but I mean we were all pretty null because for the last like hour we’d bee playing with three uninsulated wires that were coming out of the wall.  We were trying to ride shocks off them.  So Marty told us there was this fun place for lo-grav on the moon.

M.T. Anderson, Feed

Now I want to know, what’s your favorite YA voice?

Want to hear more about voice?  Fellow barista, Ghenet shares her thoughts on her blog: All About Them Words.  Check it out, then tell us what you think!

Welcome Back to YA Cafe, where book lovers can gather and chat about teen literature.  I’m your barista, along with Ghenet from All About Them Words.

Each Friday we pick from a menu of topics and share our thoughts on our respective blogs.  We’ve also got plans brewing for interviews, events and even some exciting giveaways, so stay tuned!  Join the discussion by responding in the comments, on your own blogs or on twitter using the hash tag #yacafe.

Today’s Special: What makes for a successful story starter?

Starting a novel or short story is like making a promise to the reader.  You set up rules and expectations that your readers will rely on as they read your piece.  Specifically, there are five things that you should establish early on in your story to gain the reader’s trust.  Delaying or changing these elements on your reader will create tension and while that might get the reader’s attention, it will also mean you’ll have to work that much harder to gain back the reader’s trust during the rest of the story.

5 Essential Things You Promise to Your Reader:

1) You promise a character.
From the get-go your readers will want to know who they’re supposed to root for.  Sometimes writers will artfully delay the appearance of the main character in order to create anticipation or to reflect the character’s personality, but this is very unusual.  In most cases, the protagonist usually appears in the first chapter, and is often the very first character the reader sees.

A great example of a delayed main character from children’s literature is The Wainscott Weasel by Tor Seidler, in which the protagonist does not appear at all in the first chapter.  (OK, this example isn’t YA, but it’s such a great example, I couldn’t resist.)  Another example, of course, is Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, in which Elizabeth’s ultimate love interest–Mr. Darcy–doesn’t appear until well into the story.  In the case of both books, these characters are introverted and shy.  By holding the characters back and making the reader wait for them, the authors show us this facet of their personalities.

2) You promise the voice.
The voice of the narration is central to establishing the mood of the story.  Compare the opening sentences to the following novels and notice the different moods that they convey.

“Everyone thinks it was because of the snow.  And in a way, I suppose that’s true.”

                  ~Gayle Forman, If I Stay

“We went to the moon to have fun, but the moon turned out to totally suck.”

                  ~M.T. Anderson, Feed

“If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you’ll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don’t feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth.”

                  ~J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye

Point of view (POV) is also central to the voice and mood.  Notice that in the three above examples, all of the narrators were in the first person, which allows us to hear the character’s voice.  There are other scenarios where the narrator is not the protagonist, but the voice of the protagonist still comes through loud and clear in dialogue.

3) You promise the world.
Promise the world?  As in the whole world?  It might sound huge but it’s not just any world you’re promising, it’s your world.  It’s the world of your book.  It doesn’t matter what genre you’re writing either.  Whether you’re writing contemporary YA set in a regular suburb, or some elaborate fantasy story set in another world, you have to let your reader into that world and it must feel real.

4) You promise a problem.
From minute one, your reader has to know that there’s a problem the character is facing.  Whether that problem is explicit (like the family’s financial state in Pride and Prejudice) or a mystery (like in If I Stay) we know from the first moment that the character is facing some difficulty, some problem.  This promise is essential because whatever this problem is, it will be crucial in establishing the central conflict for your story.

5) You promise an event.
Every book opens with some sort of event that kick-starts the story.  In If I Stay, the event is huge and turns the characters’ lives upside-down (not gonna say what it is, in case any of you reader-friends haven’t read it yet).  In Catcher in the Rye, Holden leaves boarding school and that sets off the chain of events that is the story.  In Feed, we start by going to the moon to have fun and the story unravels from there.  Whether the event simply nudges the story into motion or gives it a sharp shove, there must be an event early on that gets the story started.  Your reader will be waiting for that event, so you will need to deliver.  Try not to delay it for too long.

What do you think?  Any promises I missed and any you’d like to add? 

Want to hear more about YA story starters?  Fellow barista, Ghenet shares her thoughts on her blog: All About Them Words.  Check it out, then tell us what you think!

Sometimes we need a little R&R, and I don’t mean “rest and relaxation,” I mean “reading and recharging.” Of course, writing is important because if we’re writers and we’re not actually doing any writing, then there’s something seriously wrong with the equation.  At the same time, if all we do is write and we don’t stop to read what else is out there in the world, then we’re living in a vacuum and that can be very lonely.

Yesterday in #DIYMFA chat, the subject came up of reading as a warm-up to writing and the idea really seemed to resonate with a lot of people in the chat.  With that in mind, I thought today we could talk about literature that inspires us and puts us in that writing mood.

But first, I wanted to tell you all of a great tool I’ve been learning about.  It’s called Goodreads.  Sort of like Facebook–but a lot cooler–Goodreads allows you to follow friends and get updates on what they’re reading, what they thought about it and what books they recommend.

Personally, I haven’t really started to scratch the surface of what Goodreads offers, but I Love reading list function.  You can put books on your to-be-read list and mark them off as you read them.  There’s even a 2011 reading challenge (for which I’m totally behind schedule!) that tracks how many books you read this year.  If anyone happens to be a Goodreads expert, please feel free to add more tips in the comments because I feel like this is such a great online community but I’ve only begun to explore its many benefits.

If you are on Goodreads (or you happen to join), please feel free to friend me (Gabriela Pereira–you’ll recognize me because I’m the only person on Goodreads with an iggi as a profile pic).

As for today, I’d like to hear about what you read.  What snippet of literature puts you in the mood to write?  For me, it’s a poem.  In fact, this poem always helps me see the lighter side of writing (and receiving criticism) so I like to read it as a warm-up when I’m feeling stressed-out by a writing project.  This poem makes me giggle and helps me not take myself too seriously.  After all, writing should be fun or else why do it, right?

Here’s the poem that inspires me: Workshop by Billy Collins

Homework: Please share in the comments a snippet of something you’ve read that has inspired you or helped put you in the writing mood.  Let’s inspire one another to write by sharing the literature that we love.  If it’s a short quote, you can tweet it too. Because literature that awesome can’t be kept to oneself; you have to share it with the world.  Write on!