Writing the Teenage Perspective

NOTE: I am looking for reader feedback. The three best responses will win copies of Cory Doctorow's book Little Brother.

Fifteen-year-old Matt (names been changed to protect me from angry family members) ramped his skateboard off the roof of his house. "It's his ADD," the parents said. "We can't trust him to go down the block to the park on his bike. We know he'll do something stupid."

Just another three years and that 15-year-old will be on his own. Maybe at college. Maybe at his job. What will those parents do then? Spy on him? Follow him around campus? Ask his boss if he's behaving? In my opinion, it's the desperation to experience life that made him do something so crazy. If everyone wasn't breathing down his neck—don't do this, don't do that, don't get dirty, don't be dangerous and wild and free, and you can't do anything worthwhile because you are just a kid—he wouldn't feel the need to almost kill himself just to feel alive.

I may be 34, but my rebellious teenage angst still motivates much of my life philosophy. Even though I am a parent, I don't believe that one person can ever control another. Parents / teachers / authority figures who try to control only destroy the soul. And I believe it is wrong, wrong, wrong for schools to subjugate students into mindless, empty robots. That's why I home school my kids.

Truth is I don't really feel like I've changed since my teenage years. However, today it's not my parents & teachers but rather responsibility, society, & money that keep me from true freedom. Now I have three little persons who depend on me. Mouths to feed and rent to pay.

I enjoyed Cory Doctorow's book Little Brother. A friend of mine complained that it did not accurately portray the teenage mindset. But what really is the teenage mindset? How do you write it? How do see the world through the eyes of a teenager?

I am looking for reader feedback. I want to hear some thoughts from teenagers and adults alike. As stated above, the three best responses will win a copy of Cory Doctorow's book Little Brother.

Some possible questions to answer:

What makes teenagers different from adults?
What makes them similar?
What motivate(s/d) you?
If you are an adult, writing YA books, how do you accurately portray your characters?
If you are a teenager, what is it that you yearn for?
What books best portray teenagers today?

Short Story Review: Baen's Universe Articles

A friend of mine sent me these Baens-Universe articles, written by Tony Frazier. From a writer's perspective, I am impressed with the tone of voice that emanates from the narrator, a retired superhero with an attitude problem. The story is written in first-person present tense, which gives the story a very powerful impact.

Astromonkeys, is the retelling of how Digger and Astro save the day when these nasty, green space monkeys attacked. Sounds ridiculous, doesn't it? But the way the tale is told--with Digger sitting at the bar with a friend of his, explaining to the barmaid why promises must be kept--the reader gets easily sucked into Digger's sassy, disrespectful account of the events.

Double-Secret Weapon starts with Digger signing fan-pics at a mall when Professor Pierce, an evil-doer who throws needles, shows up in line to beg him to let him be on the show. There's nothing Digger could do, even if he wanted to It's a world where superheroes are reduced to the role of Hollywood heroes. Here's an excerpt:

Another picture slides in front of me, a little blond kid, about the same age as the last one, staring at me with big, round eyes. His mother nudges him. "Tell him your name, honey," she says.

"Darren. I really like your show," the kid says, "And my favorite character is Dig-Dog."

Jesus wept. Of all the things I hate about The Digger Family Amazing Power Hour, and there are several, the one I hate most is the extended family they've saddled me with: Kid Digger and Daisy Digger and Uncle Digger and the Three Lieutenant Diggers: Ditch, Posthole and Grave. But the worst, the absolute worst, is the Mighty Dig-Dog, mainly because he's the real hero of the show. They play me as a big buffoon, always getting in over my head until Dig-Dog comes in to save the day. Bastard.

But I try to keep a smile on my face as I write on the picture. I hand it back and say, "He's my favorite, too." Smiling makes my face hurt.

These two stories are excellent entertainment but also are good examples of writing with voice.

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Other topics on voice:
style and voice

style and voice

In writing, much is said about voice and style. For that's what publishers are looking for, but they can't really define it for you. They know it when they see it, but they can't tell you what it is or how to get there.

Style...

...is unique to an author--personality coming through. When I was in high school, I listened to Handel's Messiah so many times that I could easily pick out other music written by Handel. Because of style. I could differentiate between Vivaldi, Tchaikovsky, and several other composers. 

A better example for today is comparing Metallica and Disturbed. Disturbed was greatly influenced by the classic metal bands, in particular Metallica. But they have a style all their own. Unique. A sound that you can't mistake.

The same goes for Evanescence. They're in the same genre--gothic--as Within Temptations, but one does not sound like the other. Each has its own style. Its own personality. Its own sound. And that is how it should be.

In the same way, when you pick up books by famous authors you can sense a difference. Some of it is turn of phrase, similar wording, the use of punctuation, or a particular cadence to the words. For example, Stephen King always impressed me with his direct manner of speaking. He didn't flower his words. He said what he meant, nothing more, nothing less.

We all have a style that is unique to who we are. We are not cookie-cutter people. And we are not cookie-cutter writers either. The world already has a Stephen King. And he has already given us so many of his books that we don't need you to try to emulate him. No, we need you to be you. Produce what comes from the deepest recesses of your spirit.

Life would be boring indeed if every flower was a purple rose, if every tree a maple, if every animal a monkey, and every person had red hair and green eyes.

Style can mature. Just as we grow, deepen, become stronger and wiser, so does our writing. It develops over time. You have to keep reading, writing, studying your art, living to the fullest, self-editing. 

Voice...

...is unique to a character and is very closely linked to proper POV usage. Whether you are in first person or third person, you need to write from a single POV rather than the omniscient author POV.

Why? Because you are not in your story. You are not a character, and your expert knowledge on the plot and situation reminds the reader that this is just a story, crafted by an author sitting in front of their laptop. 

You don't want your readers to remember that. You want them to feel like your story is real. Part of doing this is by allowing the voice of your character to color everything that is revealed, from setting and descriptions to the development of non-POV characters and plot. This means that even when you are not writing dialog, your text will have the sound of someone speaking. Your readers can hear that voice in their heads.

Here is an example of voice taken from my book Scrolls:

     He hated blue coats. They were nothing but bones on the inside. Emotionless, sniveling poshes. Empty heads that follow the general's orders. Like robots.

     He'd dreamed about the day he would come face to face with one and beat the thing until blood poured from its dry veins. And now he had his wish. But he couldn't even pull the trigger.

Notice the use of fragments--sounds more natural as people don't always speak in full sentences--and how the character (in third person) describes the people labeled as blue coats. Even though it isn't even in first person, you can still see how the physical description is colored by his opinion. That's voice.

Contribute...

...some description from your writing that includes voice. I'd love to hear from you.