Timeless Teens?

My current WIP (whose rough draft I vow to have completed by the 15th even if it kills me) is my first attempt at YA. I read both adult fiction and YA, so it’s only natural my story ideas would cross between the two. 

Writing for teens and for adults are two different beasts entirely, I'm learning. It's not so much HOW you write or WHAT you write about. I think the main divider is the extent of the importance adults place on certain matters versus their teen counterparts. Since I'm a bit of a Peter Pan type myself that part isn't so hard for me to tap into.

The real problem I'm having is figuring out what cultural reference are still relevant to teens, even those they haven't necessarily lived through. Elvis Presley for instance. The man died before I was born, but I still know exactly who he is and I'm willing to bet most teens have heard of him before. But not all cultural references are quite so timeless.

For instance, In my story there's a constant bantering that takes place between two characters. He likes to pick on her because she's short. She teases him because his hair is a bit on the longish side. They do this by greeting each other with ever-changing snarky nicknames.

Even if this story were to be published four years from now, I'm pretty sure most readers would still get a Justin Bieber dig...

<---- For the record, Carter looks more like this. No offense, Beebs, but you can't compete.

(I must stop staring at the picture. Back on track)

So I know the Bieber deal is fine, but would a sixteen year old girl think to use a Beatles reference?

And the one I'm really iffy on is when he refers to her as Frodo.  Now several years back I wouldn't have questioned it, because the movies were huge, and there were plenty of teenage girls (and those of us a tad bit older) who were all kinds of googly-eyed over Orlando Bloom and Elijah Wood. But is it a reference they'd still get now? Do teen boys still tackle books like LOTR?

I guess what I'm asking of my other YA writing friends, what do you do to verify whether a particular reference makes sense to today's teens?  And/or does anyone know of a teen I can borrow for questioning?  :D

What Your Blog Says About You

And I don't mean what our blogs talk about behind our backs.

I'm sure most of us have heard about personality tests. Introvert. Extrovert. Artist. Analytical. So on and so forth. But now someone's put together a nifty little site that attempts to decipher our personality types by analyzing our blogs. (I totally stole this idea & site from Adam Purple, btw)

The best part is, it's super fast . . . and from what I can tell, fairly accurate.

Here's what the type analyzer site had to say about the creator of Forever Endeavor (that's me!!)


ISFP - The Artists

The gentle and compassionate type. They are especially attuned their inner values and what other people need. They are not friends of many words and tend to take the worries of the world on their shoulders. They tend to follow the path of least resistance and have to look out not to be taken advantage of.

They often prefer working quietly, behind the scene as a part of a team. They tend to value their friends and family above what they do for a living.

What did everyone else get?


Two other things real quick:


1)  If you have a few minutes to kill hop on over to Shannon McMahon's blog. Shannon has decided to open her blog up to anonymous critiques. Want others to give you their opinion on your first 250-500 words? Have a certain trying scene you want feedback on? Shannon is offering her blog as a place to do it anonymously. People are more apt to honestly critique an anonymous stranger, than a friend. So stop by, lend your thoughts, and don't forget to mention to Shannon if you'd like to  take a shot!


2) Check out the couple of blogfests I'm partaking in this month. One to spread the holiday fun and one to spread the query fu. . . well, one for those of us who are looking to strengthen our query letters. And hey if an agent or two happen along to read a few, we're not gonna complain, right?

When Fiction Gets Real

This past weekend I read "The Mockingbirds" by Daisy Whitney

I know this debut has been making its way around the blogosphere, because that's how I heard about it.

The Mockingbirds is the story about a junior at a prestigious private high school who wakes up the morning after she's just been date raped, and has to come to grips with what happened and how she's going to deal with it.

Pretty heavy topic for a YA, right? It is and yet it isn't, because it's a very real problem for adolescent females out there.

In fact, statistics show that young women between the ages of 16-24 are more than four times as likely to become victims of date rape. And in 90% of those cases alcohol was involved.


The Mockingbirds is wonderfully written. The novel is gripping, because it's more than just the story of a young woman falling victim to a sexual assault. Yes, we do follow along on Alex's journey to recall and process exactly what happened to her that night (as she refers to it). But it's also the story of a secret students' society which doles out the justice the adults at the school can't. Think Dead Poet's Society meets high school Law Club.

It's one of those rare books where fiction tackles a serious issue without making it sound preachy or judgmental. If you haven't read it already, I highly recommend it!! I'd also urge parents of teens & pre-teens to think about putting this story in front of them. Girls and boys.

Has anyone else read this or another Young Adult book that deals with a much heavier topic than first loves and broken families?