Writing on Reading: The Hunger Games Trilogy

Suzanne Collins' The Hunger Games hit the world by storm in 2008. Published by Scholastic, it is a YA science fiction novel. The other books in the series are Catching Fire (2009), and Mockingjay (2010). In my opinoin these books are some of the best I've ever read. Let's take a look and see why they work so well...

At first glance, the story of teenagers fighting to their deaths in a dystopian post-apocalyptic world might seem too brutal. But it is precisely this black-and-white good versus evil (often seen in YA) that makes the plotting here so effective. Throughout the three books, the leader of the Capital puts our teenage heroes at risk for his person agenda. The stakes are very high, with the protagonists fighting for their lives, and eventually, the lives of everyone in North America. So, excellent plotting: check.

I think the most effective aspect of these books, however, is the characterization. The protagonist, 16-year-old Katniss Everdeen is flawed and yet very sympathetic. Collins uses all the tricks of the writing trade to make the reader care about her. Katniss first shines when she volunteers to take her beloved sister's place in the Hunger Games. Protecting those less powerful evokes sympathy. Check. As I said, Katniss is flawed and she does do some very bad things BUT she feels very bad about them. It's okay with readers if characters do bad things--as long as they regret them. Check. She also defies authority. This is particularly appealing to young readers. Check. Collins uses these techniques masterfully throughout the books, and since readers are emotionally invested, the books' pacing is very fast.

As a kind of literature geek, the influences of, and references to, other cultural works is very appealing. For example, the name of the country in the books, Panem, refers directly to the ancient Roman saying "Panem et Circenses" which means "Bread and Circuses"--appeasing the populace by distracting them via food and entertainment. Collins also claims to be inspired by the ancient Greek story of Theseus and the Minotaur, wherein as punishment for past crimes, Minos forces Athens to sacrifice seven youths and seven maidens to the Minotaur.

But, I don't think we can discuss The Hunger Games Trilogy without comparing it to George Orwell's classic dystopian novel 1984. There are many obvious similarities between the trilogy and 1984, including governmental control, personal independence and Big Brother watching. In my opinion, the most horrific aspect of 1984 was O'Brien's eventual control over Winston's thoughts and feelings. Without giving too much away, Collin's utilizes this horrible plot point as well. Wow! Very powerful!

Did you read these novels? What did you think?

BICHOK

Some of my writer friends have an acronym they throw around: BICHOK. It's often given as advice, with a wise nod, "BICHOK, girl. BICHOK." Or maybe as a battle-cry, "BICHOK!" Of course, this means Butt In Chair, Hands On Keyboard. I must admit for all my good intentions of writing routines and journaling and what-not, I have some rapidly approaching deadlines next week and many, many empty pages. Ugh.

Well, there are absolutely no excuses left. I know what I'm going to be doing all weekend ...BICHOK. Wish me luck.

How about you? Do you have any weird writerly acronyms? Or even better, any tips for keeping your butt in the chair and your hands on the keyboard?

Writing Facilitates Thinking

About a month ago, I mentioned the National Councl of Teachers of English has a document NCTE Beliefs about the Teaching of Writing which, among other things, states, Writing is a tool for thinking: When writers actually write, they think of things that they did not have in mind before they began writing. The act of writing generates ideas. I must admit at the time I didn't fully appreciate just how powerful this could be.

A multitude of academics have studied how writing facilitates thinking. They've covered such topics as "How Writing Helps Physics Students Become Better Problem Solvers." What, you ask? How can writing and physics have anything to do with each other? In the aforementioned article, Judy Grumbacher required her students to keep "...a log about what they are learning in class...Some students...quickly discover that writing about physics helps them learn physics." There have been several similar studies including in disciplines such as math!

The data seems to indicate everyone should be keeping a journal, a learning log for life, to help them facilitate thinking. Who knew? I just bought a new notebook for that very purpose. Of course, a blog is like a journal, too...

How about you? Have you ever journaled? What do you get out of it?

Wild West of Publishing?

I went to a program Saturday about the "Wild West of Publishing" in which self-publishing, print-on-demand, custom/independent publishing, traditional publishing, and electronic publishing were compared. There are definitely more publishing avenues available for authors than ever before, each with their various pros and cons.

The primary differences seem to be the cost to the author. Self-publishing, print-on-demand, custom, and electronic publishing all require the author to pay some costs up front--although these differ widely, with electronic cheapest, and custom publishing costs going up to $18,000 or higher. Traditional publishing, of course, does not cost the author up front. A possible drawback to traditional publishing is the author sells away the rights to their work and it can be costly to get them back later.

There's another consideration, however, as only books produced by traditional publishers make the author elgible to join professional organizations such as Mystery Writers of America (MWA), Science Fiction/Fantasy Authors of America (SFWA), Horror Writers Assocation (HWA). (Romance Writers of America (RWA) is a little more lenient.) Thus, although there are a lot of new publishing opportunities, maybe things haven't really changed so much.

It will be interesting to see what the future brings. What will happen to the publishing world? Will the professional organizations change with the times? What do you think?

Support your nonlocal author

I've mentioned before writers are part of a community and as such we should support each other. One way I support authors is with an ezine I founded with some writer friends in 2006. We publish short speculative fiction quarterly from authors all over the world. We have a new issue coming out February 28, 2011 some highlights of which include:

"The Untold Story of an Executioner" by Dawn Lloyd--a chilling tale about maybe the worst job ever "End User" by A.L. Sirois--a horrific story with a character that definitely does not follow Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics "Birth of a New Day" by Fredrick Obermeyer--a unique fantasy in which daybreak requires a special kind of midwife "What Eats You" by Sara Kate Ellis--a near-future adventure involving role-playing and political correctness taken to the extreme "Touch of Poison" by Jaelithe Ingold--a traditional fantasy in which a power struggle has a very unexpected outcome .

Cover art by Dave Migman.

Check out ElectricSpec! It's totally free for readers. :)

What's your paradigm?

I went to an interesting lecture last week by famous journalist Chris Mooney. One of the things he mentioned was C.P. Snow's influential 1959 lecture "The Two Cultures" and subsequent book The Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution. Snow claimed modern society has two different cultures, sciences versus humanities, and their lack of commonalities was a hindrance to solving the world's problems. One of Mooney's points was our society is still grappling with some of these same issues.

Unfortunately, as a writer, I also seem to be dealing with a kind of rationality versus creativity dichotomy. One of my professors said recently I was too rational and needed to be more personal in my writing. My kneejerk reaction was, how can you be too rational? And I've worked hard to train my brain to be rational. But upon reflection, I realize fiction is about people/emotions and not about data, so I may need to revisit my paradigm. Ugh.

How about you? Are you more of a rational scientist or a creative humanist?

writing goals

One of my professors, Lee McClain, led a discussion the other day about writing goals and how to meet them. One thing she said was you should have a variety of writing goals from huge to small. She said you should have giant goals (like winning a national writing award) and visualize them, to help you focus.

You should have big, but achievable goals, to work towards, and you should visualize completing them. You should also have smaller monthly, weekly, and/or daily goals and complete them. One way to meet goals is to break them down into smaller goals. And if they're still too big, break them down further. For example, say your goal is to write 5 pages a day. If you try and fail, don't beat yourself up, halve your goal: write 2.5 pages a day, etc.

The class as a whole had a lot of good ideas, too. Some people advocated writing 5 (or 10 or 15) minutes a day--no matter what. One person kept their laptop next to their bed and wrote every morning before she got out of bed. Generally, the consensus was writing, or at least thinking, about one's WIP every day was important.

How about you? What are your writing goals? How do you meet them?