10 February 2012

On My Own Loose Ends and Developing Plot


I've been writing all morning. Well, analyzing data, more to the point. Sarah Jaffe has been my soundtrack: melancholy yet not overpoweringly so. 

That's been my mindset lately. Sad along the edges. This too shall pass. 

I've been filling the time normally filled with a Manfriend with books and have been fortunate to find several really amazing YA novels as of late. Have you read anything by Gary D. Schmidt? If not, run (don't walk - his books are that good!) to your local library or book store and pick up any of his books. I read Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy over the holidays and loved his careful, honest treatment of the subject matter. I finished Okay for Now, his newest tome last week and was blown away by his beautiful and sparse words weaving together themes of art, love, and redemption. I just finished listening The Wednesday Wars, which introduces the character Doug from Okay for Now and was blown away. The man has a knack for packing a ridiculous amount of meaning into a sentence, for writing middle schoolers who are smart and vulnerable and maybe, perhaps, just a little bit devious. I loved all three of these books, though, reader be warned, they don't end happily ever after. 

Perhaps that is why they have been the perfect before-bed reading: by the end of the novel, there are still loose ends, still stories to be told. 


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