As long as I'm on a craft book kick, this week I checked in with fellow Swoon Reads author, Jenny Elliott. Jenny's book, SAVE ME, will be a January 2015 release from Swoon Reads. Here's Jenny about her writing process and favorite craft books:

"I'm hard at work on my first round of edits for SAVE ME. I absolutely love the new title! I'm still somewhat in shock that I skipped the process of getting an agent. I also skipped the revision stage that usually happens when an agent represents an author, before a book is submitted to a publisher. It's daunting, but exciting!

I rely heavily on outlines when I write. I also spend most of my waking hours in a dream world in my head, watching my characters and recording their doings and dialogue. I'm beyond happy to be getting paid to do what I love. I've been doing it for years anyway and don't see myself ever stopping.

If I were to recommend three books on writing, I'd say a writer would do well to begin with Stephen King's, ON WRITING. It's an entertaining read and full of basic pointers. Donald Maass's, WRITING THE BREAKOUT NOVEL is also a good one to help a writer figure out ways to make their book stand out. Before a writer starts a story, or at least before they revise and start querying, I'd recommend Noah Lukeman's, THE FIRST FIVE PAGES: A Guide to Staying Out of the Rejection Pile. Most everything Noah points out that agents and editors look for in the first five pages can be applied to an entire novel.

Noah Lukeman's chapter, Subtlety, helped me the most. In it, he says, "...if we were to stop and ask what best signals the proficient writer, the answer would probably be subtlety. Less is always more. Subtlety is the mark of confidence and is thus by far the hardest thing for a writer to achieve." He goes on to ask, "Will a reader want to read your book twice? Three or more times? If not, why not? Is so, what will he gain from additional reading?" Working toward achieving subtlety in my work has been challenging, but rewarding. I often turn back to Lukeman's book, and am constantly working to improve at all the aspects it covers.

In my experience, getting published takes a lot of hard work and a little luck. Those who love writing will put in the time and effort. I've been told it often takes 10,000 hours of practice before one's writing reaches a professional, publishable level. That sounds about right to me. Good thing the journey is a fun one!"

Increase your hour count this weekend - pick up one of these books. Got a craft book you can't live without? I'd love to hear about it, please leave a comment!

Pre-order Jenny's book on Amazon.
You can also follow Jenny on Twitter: @jennykelliott

I've been wanting to write a story about synchronized ice skating for awhile and today I felt like I was finally ready to put some of it down on paper. (Yup, I'm procrastinating again.) But as I'm playing with this new idea, I want to make sure my efforts are worth the all-nighters they might make me pull later when my critical essays are due. So as I start, I'm referring to one of my favorite craft books: Writing the Breakout Novel, by author and agent Donald Maass, of Donald Maass Literary Agency. To separate the good premises from the bad, Maass suggests checking your idea for plausibility, conflict, originality, and emotional appeal. For ease of remembering, I've rearranged these into C.O.P.E. Can your premise cope?

Conflict: Does your story seed contain conflict? Nobody wants to read about perfect people in a perfect world. There's a reason that the celebrity scandals fill headlines. “Anywhere that there are people, there is inherent conflict” (Maass 42). Make sure your idea brings out the conflict, whether it's conflict with the setting, among your characters' relationships, or both.

Originality: With so many stories on the market, how is your story different? Maass states that “there are no new plots” (Maass 43). What is your fresh take, your new angle? Make a new riff, combine two different story elements, or do the opposite of what your readers expect.

Plausibility: Could this really happen? This is not to say that you should never write fantasy, for example. But “like the best lies, the real whoppers, a breakout novel has a grain of truth. It is that truth that persuades us to care and convinces us that this story contains the stuff of life” (Maass 41).

Emotional Appeal: What in your story tugs at the reader's heart? Maass examines Nicholas Sparks's novel, The Notebook, as an example. There are many love stories, but a man reading the story of their relationship to his wife, who has Alzheimer's, “in the faint-but-loving hope that she will remember, just for an instant,” (Maass 49) sinks an emotional hook.

With these in mind, let's examine my original thought for a premise: the story of a synchronized skater who dreams of attending the national championships with her team. Conflict? A little, because of course the other teams would like to win as well. Original? Well, very few novels have been written about synchronized skating. Plausible? Yes. I skate on a synchronized team myself. I know this world, and I can describe it so that my readers understand it as well. Emotional appeal? Some, for who doesn't want to succeed?

My credibility may be solid, but “a little” conflict and “some” emotional appeal aren't going to sell my premise. I could use more originality as well, since many stories have been written about wanting to win a sports event. How can I dig deeper? To do this, Maass suggests using “what if” questions.

What if I add more conflict? Some drama not only with the competitors but within the team itself? What if my skater doesn't fit very well with her team? What if she's the weakest link in the line of skaters? Better yet, what if she isn't that weakest skater but someone who follows the others in teasing that teammate because she is worried that her teammates will otherwise pick on her because she is overweight? Now she has conflict within herself as well as within the team as well as with the other teams. I've added an additional two layers of conflict and, in doing so, I've increased my originality as well by combining the desire to win with a bullying situation.

I can increase the emotional appeal by making my skater's parents lose their jobs to the recession, which adds financial conflict, too. By adding a love interest to the mix, I continue to build the other layers as well. But I want to steer away from the obvious, so my character doesn't have just a regular crush. She has a crush on a teammate, not a token male member but another girl on the team. Whoa, here we go now. What if my skater isn't out to her parents? What if my skater's expenses are sponsored by an organization that would cut its sponsorship funds if the truth were revealed? What if the skater everyone teases turns out to have a gay father leading an anti-bullying campaign? Now I'm talking seven layer burrito!

So here's what just those four principles from Maass's chapter on premise helped me develop:

Starting premise: A synchronized skater dreams of qualifying for the national championships with her team.

Breakout premise: When Kylie's parents lose their jobs and her family moves in with her grandparents, her figure skating dream seems lost until she earns a spot on the synchronized skating team and her grandparents' church sponsors her expenses. Kylie now has a chance to qualify for the national championships, but she never expected to fall in love with a teammate. Self-conscious about her weight and terrified that the others will realize her crush on Noelle and out her to her family and church, she joins them in ridiculing a teammate they nickname “Domino.” As long as everyone is focused on Domino knocking people over, Kylie's own chain of dominoes can stay upright. Then Kylie meets Domino's father, a leader in the fight against LGBT bullying. Knowing that taking a stand means her whole world will fall down, Kylie must decide what winning really means.

If you found this helpful, this chapter of Maass's book contains many more examples and questioning techniques to help your premise reach its maximum potential. In other news, congratulations to Wendy, winner of Something Real for correctly guessing Gabe's original name of Tommy. No correct guesses for Maddy yet, and next time I'll make the contest easier! :-)

If you're reading this post, you've probably at least seen the question before about what three books you'd want to take with you if you were to be stranded on a desert island. Though there are many, many authors I would miss, if I could only take three books I would take these three craft books so I could write myself a lifetime of stories. Egotistical? Perhaps, but these three books are worth it.

For developing great premises, I love Donald Maass's Writing the Breakout Novel. This book also taught me how to raise the stakes, incorporate psychology of place and social trends, and to develop my themes more fully.

“In one-on-one meetings at writers conferences, I can usually stop a story pitch dead in its tracks by interjecting the following: 'Hold on, your protagonist wants to [insert goal here}.], but let me ask you this, if he is not successful, so what?'” (Maass 60)

Robert McKee's Story: Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principles of Screenwriting  is the book I wish I had seen in high school. Though I learned to basics of character, setting, and genre in school, McKee explains the relationships between these and other essential elements. “A beautifully told story is a symphonic unity in which structure, setting, character, genre, and idea meld seamlessly. To find their harmony, the writer must study the elements of story as if they were instruments of an orchestra – first separately, then in concert.” (McKee 29) Though the book was written for screenwriters, it is very applicable to novels. This is the book I turn to when developing plot lines and character arcs, the book that taught me about beats, writing a scene, turning points and climax.

Once I've developed a strong premise and have an idea of how the character arcs and plot structure will work, I write the first draft. Then it's time for the last book on my list: Self-Editing for Fiction Writers: How to Edit Yourself into Print, by Renni Browne and Dave King. “You can drop your amateurish look and give your writing a professional edge.” (Browne & King 4)  This is the book that I use to polish my drafts. With checklists at the end of each chapter, it guides writers to check for showing instead of telling, avoiding backstory dumps and tangents, using the most effective point of view, creating authentic sounding dialogue and much, much more.

Check back on future Technique Tuesdays for posts where I apply Donald Maass's Breakout Novel techniques on a potential new WIP!

So as it turns out, teens these days are having sex. It’s all over movies and television, and I’m not just talking about Gossip Girl and the likes. Unless I’m missing something, those little cherubs on Teen Mom 2 look pretty darn real.

Teens have been having sex for awhile, as I can remember my friends and I blushing and struggling to describe the (completely innocent) acts we’d engaged in with our high school boyfriends (who we truly believed we were going to marry). Teens likely will be having sex for awhile, something, as the parent of a beautiful little three-year-old girl, I don’t really care to think about it.

But facts don’t lie, and nowadays in the United States, the average age at which a female loses her virginity is 17.3. Regardless of how unsettling the words “Young Adult” and “sex” sound together, the reality is, these words go together, provided we’re being honest.

And for me, honesty is at the heart of my writing. When I craft a story, above all, I want it to be authentic for its intended audience. With that in mind, several of my manuscripts have included teens engaging in sexual acts. But as the person holding the proverbial pen, it’s not just my characters I’m getting in bed with. There are always several other people on my mind when I’m getting down to business. (Which is never a good thing, right?)

First and foremost, as a storyteller, I’m thinking about my readers. What ‘s going on at “third base” these days anyway? Are teens doing more, earlier, and believe it to be okay, or has the pendulum swung at all in the other direction? Will readers dismiss me as preachy and flat out old if my characters choose to keep it classy? For the young adults who pick up my story, what’s real these days, and how do I capture it in age-appropriate language that’s true to my characters? (Sex in YA may be okay, but anything even close to the phrase “throbbing member” is verboten, IMO.)

As an aspiring author, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t think about “the editors” too. What’s selling these days, and how can I make my story fit within the current boundaries? Will agents and editors dismiss my story as soft porn if I get real about what teens are doing? Will they consider my writing gratuitous? Will they write me off as outdated if I strive to keep it clean? From a marketing standpoint, what exactly is the perfect amount of heat?

As an educator, I can’t help but think about the students I see on a daily basis. I remember fourth graders carting around Twilight, knowing full well they’d likely make it all the way to Breaking Dawn. Fade to black or no fade to black, they were still reading about sex. I remember being in middle school, and passing around a tattered copy of Go Ask Alice, shocked and awed by the honest and disturbing descriptions of sex and drug use. There’s an innate appeal to read what you’re not supposed to read, but it’s a cheap ploy to capture the attention of readers if that’s the only reason an author includes graphic sex scenes. As someone who works in education, do I have a certain level of moral responsibility? Rather than merely describing what a teen would likely do, do I have a greater responsibility to show characters making better decisions? Do I champion the cause of good, wholesome books and stick to my guns that such stories still have a place on today’s bookshelves?

And at the end of the day, I’m somebody’s daughter. Somebody’s wife. I’m somebody’s mother. Maybe this is something some writers don’t care about, but I suspect that many do. I would like my daughter to be able to read my work one day. I would like my daughter to be able to read my work without cringing and going, “Ewwwww…. Moooooom, you wrote this? That’s disgusting.” How much weight do I give my parental status? How much thought do I give to the parents of my prospective readers, and how likely they’d be to approve or disapprove of my content? How much thought do I give my own parents? If one day I reach that elusive goal and my words are actually published, will I be able to share my success with them without any shame? Will they be proud of what their daughter is putting out there for young adults to read?

(side note – I’m pretty sure I’m not the only female writer still concerned with her father’s approval. I remember a blog post from Diana Peterfreund where she wrangled with the idea of her father reading her work. And to me, the talented Ms. Peterfreund is the champion of sex scenes. Granted, the Secret Society Girl series fits more within the New Adult genre than Young Adult, but Diana still chooses to handle sex with subtlety and finesse. Hell, she even manages to impart some culture along the way!  Take note of the following description from book 2, Under the Rose (really, you need to read these books):

“The throne on top of the dais is an antique, intricately carved affair, covered as it is with bas-relief scenes from the Grecian underworld and crowned by two large globes on the front of each armrest, which, it turns out, are great places to hook your calves when you’re in particularly intimate positions wherein you are on the chair and he is… well, not on the chair, but rather, on the dais. On his knees.”

Wait a second… is she talking about… oh my God, she IS!

Masterful, no? )

But back to my own attempts at writing about sex for the young adult audience. I guess all I have to do is create a product the editors can market and my readers can embrace that won’t cause any fellow professionals, parents, or family members to half want to disown me for “lewd thoughts.”  That doesn’t sound difficult at all. Sure.

I’ll share my guiding principle – if the emotion surrounding the sexual act is authentic, a writer can go in either direction regarding level of candor and end up with a successful scene.  As my writer friend TH Hernandez put it: “Throughout history, sex has remained relatively the same. What words kids use now, how young they are the first time, the societal stigma attached to behavior changes, but people have clearly been having sex since the dawn of man. How you write about it might change, but the emotions attached to sex are pretty timeless.”

With that in mind, regardless of what words you use to describe “the deed,” the emotions you bring to life should stand out first and foremost. The emotional component should be more powerful than the act itself, which as it turns out, would be the advice I’d give to my characters before they decide to jump into bed anyway – and it’s only right that I follow my own advice.

If you nail the emotional component, you can be vague and still end up with a great sex scene.

If you nail the emotional component, you can get away with a bit more candor without coming across as gratuitous.

So I say put emotion first, and then write the scene in the manner that’s most comfortable for you as the author. Others will judge the way you handle sex in YA the same way they judge every other aspect of your writing, so when you click “Save,” ultimately, you have to be happy, comfortable, and confident with the product. Regardless of who reads it or who doesn’t.

Agree or disagree?  What’s your guiding principle when it comes to sex in YA?

K.A. Cozzo (Twitter:@KACozzo)
Check out How To Say "I Love You" Out Loud on SwoonReads!

I am proud to belong to a fantastic SCBWI critique group called Four Ladies and a Gent, and my fellow members helped make Pairing Up what it is today. I knew the novel was ready for submission when our gent, a writer of MG fantasy and sci-fi, confessed that he couldn't believe I'd sold him on a figure skating romance. I think well-written stories can reach far beyond their intended audiences, and with that in mind I have two recommendations for this weekend with premises I never thought I'd like.

I must confess that I am not a horse person. My apologies to all of you who are, but please don't stop reading because I'm about to recommend a couple of great horse books. If, like me, you just want to get out of this "stinking fresh country air" (quote from my four-year-old self), please also keep reading because these amazing authors sold me on their novels despite the fact that they're both about horses.

Nineteen-year-old Sean Kendrick is in love with water horses. It doesn't matter that one killed his father, that the mythical creatures brought to life in this novel would gladly eat their riders for lunch, that they're monsters. Puck (Kate) O'Connolly is terrified of these beasts who made her an orphan, yet through the novel she grows to love them and Sean.

Stiefvater made me love these monstrous horses as well, with a world so seamlessly built into her story that I'm going to have to write an entire critical essay this month on how she did it. A fantasy without information dumps? A rare creature indeed, and I'm on a quest to find more. You don't have to like horses OR fantasy to LOVE The Scorpio Races, Stiefvater will sell you on her story either way.

This is a light-hearted romance and not a fantasy at all, yet Kenneally uses her character's voice to show her world. I am a huge fan of Kenneally's use of landscape to flavor her character's voices and this book didn't fail to please, heading off to the races right out of the starting gate. Having read Kenneally's previous books, I also enjoyed the skillful way in which “where-are-they-now” scenes with characters from prior works were woven together with Savannah's story.

Happy reading!

When I started writing my second novel, Empath, I knew music was going to be a part of the story right away. Lucy, the main character, is an excellent singer who falls for Anthony, the lead singer in a band. When these characters showed up in my mind, I knew they would want to perform in the story. So, I had to figure out a way to include music in my novel. But first, I did a little research about what’s involved with using real song lyrics and band names in fiction.

First, let me say that very few novels have real song lyrics in them. Want to know why? Because you have to get permission and PAY to use them (unless they’re public domain). Many authors and publishers don’t want to deal with the hassle or expense and frown upon using real lyrics unless they’re pivotal in the story. If you’d like to read more about how complicated it is, here are some useful links:

Jane Friedman’s blog about getting permissions: http://janefriedman.com/2012/01/23/permissions/

Virginia Lloyd’s article on copyright: http://virginialloyd.com/vblog/using-lyrics-or-an-epigraph-in-your-book-curious-about-copyright/

Permission information with actual addresses for record companies: http://www.copyrightkids.org/permissioninformation.htm

Another really important thing to consider when deciding whether or not to include song lyrics in your novel, is the problem with dating your work. If you include a top-forty song on the radio today, will readers be able to appreciate it in five or ten years? This is especially true when writing YA novels, because young people can’t relate to out-of-date music or artists. In my opinion, it’s best to keep music generic so readers can imagine artists they think are cool as they read. This is why a lot of authors who have song lyrics or band names in their novels write the lyrics themselves. If you’re a serious writer, you’ve probably written poetry, and it’s really no different. I gave it a shot in Empath, and it wasn’t too difficult to come up with a few lines for Lucy and Anthony to sing.

Lastly, music is a big part of most people’s lives, and we associate certain songs with various feelings. If you include a song you have good feelings about, it doesn’t mean your reader will feel the same. You might actually ruin a scene for your reader if you set the tone with a song they hate. Then they might put the book down and that’s the last thing you’d want to happen, right? I think the best way to convey the mood in a scene is to use sensory details and imagery rather than real song lyrics. But in real life, please play your favorite songs to set the mood. Jam out my friends! 

Sally White is the author of This Side of Tomorrow. Follow her on Twitter @sallyannwhite70!

If you want to be a big goldfish, you can't swim in a small pond. My coach liked to apply this saying to the skating world as well. Look at Olympic gold ice dancers Meryl Davis and Charlie White - they train with the silver medalists Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir. There's a lot to be said for surrounding yourself with talent, and I like to think about writing the same way. It's part of why I'm studying at VCFA. Fortunately for writing, you can surround yourself with talent without freezing your butt off. Just curl up in your favorite chair with a good book. If you're looking for a book to up the size of your pond, here are a couple of suggestions...

For an example of a great premise:

So often we see the story of the adopted child who doesn't feel like he or she fits in, but this book flipped that premise by taking the perspective of a couple's one biological child among twelve adopted children. Heightening the already amplified teenage angst of this situation, Bonnie(TM) gets to have her worst moments carefully edited into an hour of prime time television – her family is the cast of the reality show Baker's Dozen. An interesting cast as well as the inclusion of e-mails, web sites, tabloid articles, and TV scripts makes this book really something.

For an example of an excellent hook:

Breaking the rules, this book begins with a back story prologue. And, to use language of the main character, Gerald, it's so damn interesting readers won't give a shit. Lesson learned: although everyone poops, even young adults (and adults!) are fascinated by it.

You could win a copy of Something Real - enter the Pairing Up trivia contest! By entering the trivia contest, you are certifying that you are at least 13 years old. One entry per e-mail address. Winner will be contacted via e-mail to arrange prize delivery. Please note that I can only mail prizes to US addresses. To win, you must be the first to guess the original names of Gabe and Maddy in Pairing Up. If no one has guessed both correctly by my next Technique Tuesday post, then the first person to have guessed Gabe's name correctly is the winner. Fortunately, I'm not Rumpelstiltskin so I'm giving you multiple choice options. :-) CONTEST CLOSED - CONGRATULATIONS TO WENDY!

Eleanor & Park, by Rainbow Rowell, is the story of two misfits. Eleanor lives with a stepfather whose goal in life seems to be making her miserable, shares a room with her four brothers and sisters in a house with no door on the bathroom, and is tormented by her classmates. Park falls short, both physically and otherwise, of his father's expectations. Yet Eleanor & Park lives up to the “sexy, smart, tender romance” it is proclaimed to be in by Gayle Foreman's cover review. By strategically placing tender, smart, and sexy moments in the otherwise tragic lives of her characters, Rowell both tames tension and amplifies the effect of these hopeful moments to leave readers with the sense that love can uncross the stars.

The novel opens with a short prologue that is actually a reprint of part of a scene that occurs much later in the book, where Park mourns the loss of Eleanor: “Standing behind him until he turned his head. Lying next to him just before he woke up. Making everyone else seem drabber and flatter and never good enough” (Rowell 1). Both tragic and tender, this scene sets the tone for the novel and provides the tenderness readers need to sustain them through Eleanor and Park's first meeting. A far cry from love at first sight, Park describes Eleanor using the words big, awkward, and mess. He compares her to a scarecrow. When he grudgingly allows her space on his seat, his first words to her are “Jesus-fuck...just sit down” (Rowell 9). Quite the heartthrob, and Eleanor's no better, silently thinking of Park as “that stupid Asian kid” (Rowell 12). Yet the prologue gives readers a sense that there is so much more to come, enough to sustain us through Chapter 6, when Eleanor finally thinks that Park at least has “cool shoes” (Rowell 24) and Park admits it feels “wrong to sit next to somebody every day and not talk to her” (Rowell 24).

Park and Eleanor slowly begin to interact with each other after Park realizes that Eleanor is reading his comics along with him on the bus and notices her eyes:

The new girl's eyes were darker than his mom's, really dark, almost like holes in her face. That made it sound bad, but it wasn't. It might even be the best thing about her. It kind of reminded Park of the way artists draw Jean Grey sometimes when she's using her telepathy, with her eyes all blacked out and alien. (Rowell 33-34)

Park still doesn't say anything to Eleanor, but he begins holding his comics to make it easier for her to read along with him, begins saving them only to read on the bus so she doesn't miss sections, even begins bringing comics to silently lend to her. These smallest gestures of kindness are amplified because Rowell surrounds them with the depiction of Eleanor's crappy home life, where her creepy stepfather has torn down even the sheet that was over the bathroom doorway, and the back story reveal of how Eleanor had to live with another family for months, which was “Terrible. Lonely. [But still b]etter than here” (Rowell 36).

Though Eleanor's home life is awful, Rowell doesn't make her a mere damsel in distress. She establishes Eleanor as intelligent and funny by interjecting scenes such as this one from an English class discussion:

[Shakespeare's] so obviously making fun of them...Romeo and Juliet are just two rich kids who've always gotten every little thing they want. And now, they think they want each other...They don't even know each other...It was 'Oh my God, he's so cute' at first sight. If Shakespeare wanted you to believe they were in love, he wouldn't tell you in almost the very first scene that Romeo was so hung up on Rosaline...It's Shakespeare making fun of love. (Rowell 44)

Wow. This girl is so smart, and I want to get to know her better.

So does Park. They begin really talking on the bus, with playful banter including witty one-liners from Eleanor such as “The least boring Batman story ever, huh? Does Batman raise both eyebrows?” (Rowell 60). Rowell writes, “They agreed about everything important and argued about everything else. And that was good, too, because whenever they argued, Eleanor could always crack Park up” (Rowell 64). These smart scenes diffuse nights at home where Eleanor comforts her siblings as her stepfather rages and attacks their mother in the next room, where Eleanor wakes up smelling like pee because her brother wet the bed and heads off for the bus with only the scent of her stepfather's bacon for breakfast.

Having established a tender, smart foundation for the blossoming romance between her two main characters, Rowell begins to include the first sexual scenes between Eleanor and Park. It doesn't take much. Combined with the tragedy that surrounds them, these scenes are amplified to the point where Rowell is able to sustain Eleanor and Park holding hands for the first time over two whole pages – and it's extremely hot. Not even beginning with actual hand-holding, Park first is simply holding the old silk scarf Eleanor had tied around her wrist. When he finally “slid the silk and his fingers into her open palm...Eleanor disintegrated” (Rowell 71). After, Eleanor wonders: “How could it be possible that there were that many nerve endings all in one place? And were they always there , or did they just flip on whenever they felt like it? Because, if they were always there, how did she manage to turn doorknobs without fainting?” (Rowell 73). Set against the tragic, the power of this scene is completely credible.

When a girl named Tina (who “went” with Park in sixth grade) and some other mean classmates dump Eleanor's clothes in the toilet during gym class, Park gets an accidental view of Eleanor in her tight gym suit. Rowell twists the tragic into sexy by making Park aroused: “How could he even look at her now? He wouldn't be able to. Not without stripping her down to her gym suit. Without thinking about that long white zipper” (Rowell 245). Park's next meeting with Eleanor results in six steamy pages of make-out bliss, at the end of which he confesses his gym suit turn-on. Rowell sneaks in a classic bit of comic relief with Eleanor's smart response: “Tina would be so pissed” (Rowell 254).

Through the inclusion of these and other tender, smart, and sexy scenes, Rowell sets readers up for the book's climax and conclusion. When Eleanor's stepfather finds out about Park, he is livid. Eleanor has to leave home again and we know she can never come back. Her last scenes with Park, as he drives her to her uncle's house hours away, are filled with the tragic and tender as we know they have to say good-bye. Unable to express her emotions for Park in words, Eleanor doesn't answer his letters. But after all these two have been through, this can't be the end and finally, on the last page, there's a postcard from Eleanor. “It filled his head with song lyrics...just three words long” (325). Rowell never says what those three words are, but we know they're the three that Eleanor never managed to tell Park. Just that one sentence and we know these star-crossed lovers get a happily ever after. Tender and tragic, smart and sad, sexy and stinging: Eleanor & Park is a combination as timeless as sweet and sour sauce that leaves readers wanting to come back for seconds.

Is your work in progress too sweet or too sour? I hope this provides some food for thought. Also, check back this weekend for the debut of a new blog feature: "What to Read this Weekend." I'll be sharing a pair of YA books each Friday that I'm reading for inspiration, annotated with why you might check them out to improve your own craft. Included with the first "What to Read this Weekend" post will be the promised quiz to guess Gabe's original name in Pairing Up to win a hardcover copy of Something Real, fellow VCFA student Heather Demetrios's fantastic debut novel.

Works Cited:

Rowell, Rainbow. Eleanor & Park. New York: St. Martin's Griffin, 2013. Print.