Wednesday, June 16, 2010

WIP Wednesday

I feel like it's been forever since I did one of these. I've been trying to catch up on some reading lately; writing hasn't been my main priority since I still make time for that during the school year. But I've still made some progress since classes let out and I've been back home.

The current project, abbreviated TSA, is now 60 words exactly from 25k, which, ya know, kind of really bothers me. I thought about writing a bunch of crap or typing 'blah' repeatedly just to get there. I resisted!


Anyway, it's about 25k now and I have 10 completed chapters. I'm happy about that. The other major thing that's going on with it, is that I've pretty much given in to the fact that it's MG and not YA. This has been a little hard for me, not because I don't want it to be MG. I read that as much as I read YA. But because I've always considered it YA.

TSA centers around a girl who has to make a few hard choices all centered around her 13th birthday. Her family is at stake, the lives of other soon-to-be teenagers are in her hands, there's potential romance, and, oh yea, the fate of mankind rests on her shoulders (but that's a given :P). It isn't just about figuring out who she is and who she wants to be, but about where she belongs in the world and making hard choices, about growing up. (Like how I didn't give you any real plot details? Muahahaha!)

To me, this really feels like YA. But she's 12 and turning 13 is a big deal, and I don't think most people would agree with me that TSA is meant to be YA, simply because Taryn isn't 15. I think if I changed her age people would call this YA without hesitating, but they say age doesn't define a book as YA. From where I'm sitting, a whole lot of people do.

Oh well, I don't know that it really matters anymore. People will read it if they want to, regardless of where it's shelved, assuming I can get it on the shelves of course.

Anyway, that's where I'm at on the WIP. Where do you stand with yours?

6 comments:

Lydia Kang said...

Aren't those words counts just torture? The worse is when you're at a count you like and then you have to cut out a ton...ouch.

I'm still revising, revising, revising.

:?

Natalie said...

MG can be romantic too! Have you read Janice Hardy's The Shifter? It's a more mature story about a girl trying to save her family and the world too (and she's even 15!) but it's considered MG. I think content determines genre more than age does. :)

I'm writing an older MG story too.

Stina said...

I agree. Your book sounds MG to me. Great story concept. :D

Jade said...

WiP is sitting at about 16k. It's messier than a bucketful of smashed crabs but as long as I'm having fun. Right? RIGHT!

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

Think of all the people who read Harry Potter, and that's MG!

Stephanie McGee said...

Don't worry a whole lot about whether it's MG or YA. You can determine that as you write and revise and if all else fails, just ignore the distinction in a query and let the story sell itself.

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