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Wednesday, January 12, 2011

RTW: In Which We are Pretentious!

Writing Song of the Day: "The Story" by 30 Seconds to Mars

Of course, it's that time again--Road Trip Wednesday! It seems as if YA Highway wants us to love on ourselves today. :) This week, we've been challenged with the task of picking out our favorite lines from either a book or our own writing. We have plenty of faves from books, but alas, we can't bring the stacks to our day jobs. Therefore, we will go with option B. Neither of us are too stoked by this as we are our own worst critics...but here goes!

Quita's Fave Lines from Untitled WIP (Possible YA Mystery):

This is about a boy who's best friend is murdered. He wants to find out who did it, b/c his father was also murdered and the cops never found his killer. This is the opening:

Thursday Morning 6:45 AM
Henry Knight was found bludgeoned to death early this morning.
I’m pretty sure I was whacking off to one of those phone sex commercials at the same moment that someone was bashing his head in. I don’t know if anyone is going to miss him. Hell, I don’t know if anyone even remembers him. Maybe David Warren does. Especially since he’s our friendly neighborhood drug dealer. I know I remember Henry. He’s my best friend’s number one customer at school. Henry’s the main reason Kyle was able to buy me that bad ass skateboard for my birthday.

Pam's Fave Lines from Wants:

Okay, Wants is told from 4 different POVs, and this is the opening from "bad boy" Austin's first chapter:

In tenth grade, my geometry teacher said I meandered. Yeah, I didn’t know what the f-- he meant either. But I looked it up. To wander slowly and aimlessly. Hell yeah. I started saying it all the time. I like how my lips have to squeeze together to form the first sound. How my cheeks have to stretch into a smile to complete it. Hell, I love “meandering” so much that I wrote a song about it. But I never finished it. The lyrics wandered a bit.

What about you? What are some of your fave lines from books or your own work??? Feel free to leave comments about the writing--we welcome criticism. We might cry a lil' on the inside, but really we welcome it ;)

15 comments:

Holly Hill said...

Awesome you guys! I love them both!

KatOwens: Insect Collector said...

totally different and I love them both!

Kara said...

Agreed, both totally different but love them! You guys really nail the teen boy voice!

Unknown said...

"The lyrics wandered a bit." FTW. I agree with Kara, both quotes really get the teen boy voice, which is waaaay harder than it looks. Awesome!

Kaitlin Ward said...

Love them, ladies!! Agreed with the others that you both nailed the teen boy voice :)

Erinn said...

"I’m pretty sure I was whacking off to one of those phone sex commercials at the same moment that someone was bashing his head in." awesome- it's awesome for so many reasons. Funny, clever and gives the reader a sense of what's happening in the world. My brain exploded.

"How my cheeks have to stretch into a smile to complete it. Hell, I love “meandering” so much that I wrote a song about it. But I never finished it. The lyrics wandered a bit." Love it-- I love how the lyrics of a song about meandering-- meandered out of meaning. awesome

Racquel Henry said...

You guys I love this! I'm SO serious. Each one made me want to read more! (Feel free to send to me. Wink, wink). And Henry is such a good name for a character! ;)

Kirsten Hubbard said...

great voice, both of you guys!
Pam's made me LOL.

Emilia Plater said...

The voices in these are so different, but they're both so excellent! Love em :D

Kate Hart said...

DAMN QUITA, way to go for the jugular there!

And Pam's last line just made me grin. So excellent.

Abby Stevens said...

You both NAILED the male POV. And Austin sounds very philosophical in his own bad way!

Lara Ehrlich said...

Love these! Thanks so much for sharing them :-)

Amie Kaufman said...

Oh wow, I love these! The voice is so clear in both of them--they make perfect hooks. I want to read more!

Amanda Hannah said...

Love 'em!! The first is so blunt and honest, the second . .just love the wandering lyrics!

Jess said...

I'm always really impressed when female authors can write male POVs. :)