"Writing for Guys"

My writer-friend, Paddy Lock, and I spent an informative and hilarious afternoon recently at the Flintridge Bookstore in La Canada, California, listening to authors Michael Reisman and Ben Esch talk about how to write middle grade and young adult novels for and about teenaged guys.

As you may know, Michael is the author of the middle grade novels, The Gravity Keeper and the soon-to-be-released The Octopus Effect, and Ben (a "repeat guest" here at YA Fresh) authored the young adult novel, Sophomore Undercover.

Both Michael and Ben say they write the kinds of books they wished they could have found as kids. (For what it's worth, this is also true for me.) While they both strive for realism and authenticity in their characters, Michael goes more for fantastic ideas like ways to defy physics, whereas Ben says he bases many characters and adventures on people/events from his past.


Ideas that they (and audience members) shared with us for writing for boys:

--whenever possible, listen in on teen boys' conversations, both in real life and reality TV shows;
--revisit your yearbooks and re-read what your guys friends wrote for deeper insight on what they might have been thinking or feeling;
--listen to kids' movies with your eyes closed, focusing on the patterns of the boys' speech.

Other interesting notes:

--action draws in boys more than emotional drama;
--guys don't discuss personal things face-to-face; maybe in the car, or painting a room or other side-by-side position;
--guys typically use fewer words and have shorter conversations, especially with girls or about relationships.

On the topic of teen romance (which of course, made my ears perk up), Michael told us that boys are even more confused and conflicted than girls. And while girls have the outlet of discussing their feelings with each other, guys can't bring themselves to even talk about it, so, he said, "We just hit each other." Which got a big laugh.

Other members of the audience, who shared insights from both literary perspectives and as mothers, were literary agent Jill Corcoran of the Herman Agency and multi-published author Amy Goldman Koss.

Here's a picture of Michael, me, Amy, Ben taken during the book signing session:

Some seriously big smiles there, as you can see, remnant of good conversation and laughs.

So check out Ben, Michael's and Amy's books via the links I posted, and if you have any questions about what I've presented, or further questions on the topic of writing for boys, please leave them in the comments. And if I can't answer them, we'll invite Michael and Ben here to take over.

Mondays: Yay or Yecch?

For the longest time, I’ve loved Mondays. My family--who of course, I adore, but sometimes enough is enough--goes back to work and school and I get to spend quality, uninterrupted time with my characters and my on-line friends.

I’ve always figured I was alone in this (insert The Bangles singing “Manic Monday” and The Mamas and the Papas harmonizing about how you “can’t trust that day”) until I started talking to an author friend or two.

So that spurred on to an Author Round-up with some of our favorite YA FRESH guests. And let’s see what they had to say.

So...Mondays: Yay or Yecch?

Simon Pulse author Wendy Toliver calls it a YAY because, she says, “I can get back into some semblance of a routine."


"My two oldest boys go to school," Wendy says, "and my youngest and I go to the gym. I like exercising and the other women have become good friends. I usually get to write (or do other authorly things) after lunch time and when my youngest naps. I love making nice dinners for my family, and my husband seems particularly thankful after a hard day at work (Mondays are almost always that).”

Debut author Deborah Pape Kerbel concurs. “I have a six year old son and a three year old daughter, both of whom I love more than life itself. But being 'high energy' children, they keep my husband and me so busy on the weekends, there's no chance to do anything for ourselves."


"When Monday morning rolls around," Deborah continues, "I breathe a sigh of relief, send them back to school with hugs and kisses, and then reclaim the silence of my home and the freedom to write.”

Two time RITA finalist Rosemary Clement-Moore is in the YAY camp, too.


“Since writing is my day job," Rosemary tells us, "when a book is really calling to me (or, ahem, on deadline), I work just as hard on the weekends as the weekdays. And on those times, as much as I love my family, I'm sort of glad when the house clears out and I have it to myself!”

The always funny Ben Esch offers us a different take.


“One of the cool parts about being a writer," says Ben, "is that the days of the week kind lose their significance pretty quick. So, Monday is pretty much the same as any other day of the week in that I get to sleep in until noon and eat cereal in my underwear until I feel like getting to work. I understand this arrangement might change should I ever get married and/or have kids. Anyway, I'm going to say Monday is a yecch mainly because there's nothing that good on TV that day, which really bums me out.

"But do you know what day gets a double big yay? Wednesday. That day is either South Park or Top Chef and for a few magical weeks, both South Park and Top Chef. God I miss Top Chef.”

Never having seen either show, I'll just have to take Ben's word on that!

The creator of the Aspen Brooks series, Stephanie Hale, remembers when she lived in the real world of 8-5, how she used to give Garfield a run for his money on hating Mondays.


“But now that I stay home,” Stephanie says, “it doesn't really matter. My hubby has weird days off that rotate every week, so usually his days off feel like the weekend anyway. Luckily I have a calendar in the kitchen so I can figure out what day it is. It is kind of a bummer to send my son back to school on Monday mornings though so I guess I'm still with the other yecch Mondayers. Yeah, I just made that word up. I can do that stuff cuz I'm a riter.”

PAY IT FORWARD author, Catherine Ryan Hyde is on the fence.


"The thing I love most about being a writer is the freedom to make my own schedule," Catherine tells us. " So if I want to work all day Sunday and kayak all day Monday, it just means less traffic on the water. The only slight downer about Monday is that the email (I "just say no" to the phone) starts up again. Over the weekend it's either delete-able junk or from friends. On weekdays I get slammed again, usually with requests from total strangers. Then again, I can answer it any day I want, so why fault Monday?”

All great answers. Thanks to our six fantastic visitors today. And now it's your turn-- jump in and now tell us your opinion! Monday: Yay or Yecch?

Welcome, Ben Esch!

I had the pleasure of meeting debut author, Ben Esch, at my book signing last January, and enjoyed his sense of humor so much that I went on to pre-order his novel, Sophomore Undercover.

In the weeks that passed, it was fun to see him leave a comment or two here at YA Fresh--one in particular so funny that it won a Caption It! contest.

The day his book arrived, I read the cover blurbs, with the intention of adding it to my ridiculously large to-be-read pile. But I got stopped dead in my tracks by the author bio. (I know...the author bio?) Which I know from experience that authors usually write. It was so funny and so punchy and so clever that I couldn’t help myself from turning to page one.

And at that point, I was a goner. I loved his book. Loved it. I often read sections twice, once as a reader, and then once as a writer. I laughed out loud. I grimaced. And even before I finished it, I started telling everyone I know they HAD to buy this book.

So, with no further adieu, allow me to introduce the exceptionally funny and quite adorable Ben Esch!


Hey, Ben, could you tell us a little about your writing background and how you made your first sale?

I messed around with some writing stuff when I was younger, but most of my mental energy was consumed with A) figuring out how to get a basketball scholarship despite being relatively stumpy and unathletic and B) elaborate and ultimately unsuccessful schemes to date girls, so that didn't really leave a lot of time for short stories. Or schoolwork for that matter. I was kind of a crappy student.

I started getting a lot more serious about writing when I was in college, and after I graduated, I decided that I wanted to take a shot at doing this for a living. Now, I'd like to say that this was because of my burning passion for literature, and that's kinda true, but it was mainly because as an English major the only other jobs I was qualified for was security guard and cart wrangler.

Don't get me wrong, those are both fine career paths, but I didn't really feel like either was my true calling. It took me about a year of writing and revising to get a draft of my book together that interested an agent, and then we worked together for another seven months or so before we sold it to Disney-Hyperion.

That was about a year and a half ago and the book just came out a couple weeks ago. It's still crazy to me how long this whole "making a book" thing takes. I kind of assumed that my book would be out in stores a couple of weeks after we signed the contract. So, the last year and a half has been pretty educational in that regard.

Readers and writers often like to get a behind the scenes peek of an author's writing routine. It would be great if you could share your typical writing day schedule.

Boy...you know, I really wish I had more of a writing schedule. No two days are exactly the same, but when I'm really working well, my days tend to go a little something like this:

1. Wake up at the crack of 11. Get some cereal.

2. Peruse the internet. Drink coffee.

3. Sit down to work around noon. More coffee.

4. Break for some more cereal around two.

5. Continue writing. Switch from coffee to diet root beer so my hands will stop shaking.

6. Break for the day around five.

7. Cartoons.

I also try to fit in a couple of hours of reading in there somewhere between the coffee and cartoons as well. I have a really hard time writing if I don't read a lot.

Please tell us about Sophomore Undercover and what we can expect from your characters.

Sophomore Undercover is about a kid named Dixie Nguyen who is an adopted Vietnamese orphan, social outcast, and lead reporter for the school newspaper. He usually has to cover "fluff" pieces about the football team and the chemistry club, but one day he sees some of the jocks doing drugs in the locker room and he finally has the chance to write about something newsworthy as well as strike a blow against his tormentors at the school.

The rest of the story follows Dixie's investigation into the football team and his attempts to scoop the biggest drug scandal in the history of high school athletics with the help of a cheerleader turned goth named Brynn, his older brother and former football player, Brandon, a menopausal journalism teacher, and a hippy counselor named Huggy Bear.

Some of my biggest laughs from Sophomore Undercover came from Dixie’s germaphobia. I know as a writer I often “dig deepest” when a character is expressing some of my own personal traits. That said, do you carry “emergency” antibacterial wipes and stock up on pumice stones and Purel?

I'm actually not that much of a germaphobe. Don't get me wrong, I think carrying around Purel is a good idea and all, but I'm much more of the "five second rule" school of thought for germs and microbes. Intellectually, I know that's a bad idea, but if I drop a cookie on the floor...I mean, that's still a perfectly good cookie, right? The germaphobia thing just really clicked for Dixie, though.

What's up next? Do you have another project in the works?

I am under contract with Disney-Hyperion for another book that I think will come out sometime around Fall 2010. It's not going to be a sequel to Sophomore Undercover, but I'm having a lot of fun writing it and I'm really excited to get it out there.

Would you like to close with a writing tip?

Two things:

1. Write the story that you want to read.

2. Don't question the magic or it might go away.

For example, I fully believe that french vanilla coffeemate and flair tip pens make me write better, and I'm just going to keep on believing that until I don't anymore.

I have to admit to bit of a coffeemate addiction myself...but that's a blog for another time.

Thanks, Ben, for hanging out with us here, and best of luck with your book!