Greer Gilman, the author of Moonwise and Cloud and Ashes, has a great post up about style and “transparent” writing.

When I was still just starting out as a writer, I definitely was writing above all else for Story — not necessarily for plot, for I wasn’t great at plot, but for thrilling dramatic moments, for emotional highs and lows. I loved some beautifully-written books, but they seemed like something that I somehow couldn’t emulate, like my friends who dressed dramatically while I wore solid-colored shirts with jeans nearly every day. Maybe I didn’t know how, maybe it just seemed like it wasn’t for me, but in writing I just wanted to be smooth and efficient, getting to the Good Bits without too much unnecessary fuss.

It took a lot longer for me to realize that the words are not the ribbon on the package — the words are the whole package. Samuel Delany, especially, was instrumental in getting me to see that style is not optional. And even if you aspire to write the kind of stories that foreground plot, and Dramatic Emotional Moments, getting any impact from those Dramatic Emotional Moments depends utterly on how words control pacing and rhythm, how words convey tone, how … there may be characters and landscapes in the back of your mind, playing out scenes; but all that you can give to a reader, to reconstruct those characters and those landscapes, is words.

I’m still not a flashy writer by any means. I’m not Greer Gilman or Samuel Delany. But I think I have a better appreciation now for how getting the words right is a crucial part of getting the story right.

I’m completely excited to be a part of this year’s NYC Teen Author Festival!

I’ll be at the Dweck Auditorium in the Central Library of Brooklyn Public Library, Thursday March 18th at 10 a.m.; and in Manhattan at 42nd street by the NYPL lions, Friday March 19th at 3:00. There are going to be so many exciting events and great authors and if you’re in the area, you should come out and see all of them!

Monday, 3/15 (NYPL, Tompkins Square Branch, 331 East 10th Street, 6pm):
First Draft to Final Draft – Talking About the Writing Process

featuring: Gayle Forman, Daphne Grab, Carolyn Mackler, Sarah Mlynowski, Blake Nelson, Marie Rutkoski, Eliot Schrefer, Natalie Standiford

Tuesday, 3/16 (Barnes & Noble Tribeca, 97 Warren Street, 7pm):
Getting Inside the Mind of a Teen Boy

featuring: Nick Burd, Matt de la Pena, Gordon Korman, David Levithan, Barry Lyga, Michael Northrup, Jon Skovron, Jake Wizner

Wednesday, 3/17 (Mulberry Street Branch, NYPL, 10 Jersey St, 6pm):
The Treasure Map to Going Bovine with Will Grayson(s)
(or, an evening of readers’ theater)

featuring:Libba Bray, John Green, David Levithan, E. Lockhart

Thursday, 3/18 (Five Borough Read, 10am):
Authors read to high school students and the public in libraries across the city.

Manhattan:

Countee Cullen Branch, NYPL, 104 W 136th St
Donna Freitas, Eliot Schrefer, Rachel Vail, Lynn Weingarten, Ebony Wilkins

Jefferson Market Branch, NYPL, 425 6th Ave
Gabe Guarente, Carla Jablonksi, Kristen Kemp, Barry Lyga, Samantha Schutz

Muhlenburg Branch, NYPL, 209 W 23rd St Emma McLaughlin, Lauren McLaughlin, Courtney Sheinmel, Jennifer Smith

Mulberry Street Branch, NYPL, 10 Jersey Street
Angie Frazier, Aimee Friedman, Alice Hoffman, Robin MacCready, Sarah Maclean, Amanda Marrone

Seward Park Branch, NYPL, 192 East Broadway
Cathleen Bell, Susane Colasanti, Matt De La Pena, Gayle Forman, Daphne Grab

Yorkville Branch, NYPL,, 222 East 79th St
Micol Ostow, Robin Palmer, Shani Petroff, Robyn Schneider, Abby Sher, Jake Wizner, Michelle Zink

Brooklyn:

Central Branch, Brooklyn Public Library, Dweck Auditorim, 10 Grand Army Plaza
Emily Horner, Melissa Kantor, O.Rhuday-Perkovich, Matthue Roth, Siobhan Vivian, Adrienne Maria Vrettos, Melissa Walker, Robin Wasserman

Bronx:

Bronx Library Center, NYPL, 310 East Kingsbridge Road
Coe Booth, Sarah Darer Littman, Neesha Meminger, Maryrose Wood

Queens:

Broadway Branch, QPL, 40-20 Broadway, Long Island City Jessica Blank Sarah Burningham, Heather Duffy-Stone, Marianne Mancusi, Elizabeth Scott

Staten Island: West New Brighton Branch, NYPL, 976 Castleon Avenue
Elizabeth Eulberg, David Levithan, Michael Northrup, Kieran Scott

Thursday Evening, 3/18 (Books of Wonder, 18 W 18th St, 6-8pm):

Sourcebooks Fire Launch Party
featuring authors Lisa Brown, Anne Eliot Crompton, Helen Ellis, Adele Griffin
AND
the rocking tunes of Tiger Beat! (with Libba Bray, Dan Ehrenhaft, Barnabas Miller, and Natalie Standiford)

Friday, 3/19 (South Court, 42nd Street, 2-5 and 6-8:30)
NYC Teen Author Festival Symposium Afternoon

2:00 Introduction

2:10 – 3:00: Using Genre to Tell the True Story of Adolescence

featuring: Judy Blundell, Sarah Beth Durst, Lauren McLaughlin, Diana Peterfreund,
Sara Shepard, Maggie Stiefvater, Robin Wasserman

3:00 – 3:30: Making a First Impression – 2010 Debut Authors

featuring: Angie Frazier, Emily Horner, Alyssa Sheinmel, Ebony Wilkins

3:30 – 4:15: Grief, Loss, and the YA Novel

featuring: Alexandra Bullen, Heather Duffy-Stone, Donna Freitas, Alice Hoffman, Sarah Darer Littman, Lisa Ann Sandell, Samantha Schutz

4:15 – 5: The Boy You Can’t Have

featuring: Susane Colasanti, Elizabeth Eulberg, Robin Palmer, Elizabeth Scott, Melissa Walker, Maryrose Wood

5-6: Break

Evening

6:00 – A Tribute to Regina Hayes

featuring: Sarah Dessen, Joy Peskin, Jacqueline Woodson

6:45 – 8:30: What it Feels Like for a Girl – Writing in a Teen Girl’s Voice

featuring: Jessica Blank, Eireann Corrigan, Sarah Dessen, Jenny Han, Terra Elan McVoy, Siobhan Vivian, Adrienne Maria Vrettos, Jacqueline Woodson

Saturday, 3/20 (Bartos Forum, 42nd Street, 1pm): Stuff for the Teen Age Event

Come check out Stuff for the Teen Age, The New York Public Library’s list of the hottest books, movies, music, and video games from 2009. Talk with your favorite authors. Rock out to your favorite songs. Have fun. Hear a very special presentation from keynote speaker, Libba Bray, the author of Going Bovine.

Sunday afternoon: Books of Wonder Signing (18 W 18th St, 2-6)

NOTE: Because of the number of authors, signings will be in shifts. Below is the approximate schedule, which is subject to change

2:00-2:45
Alma Alexander Nora Baskin Cathleen Davitt Bell Judy Blundell Libba Bray Coe Booth Elise Broach Alexandra Bullen Nick Burd Sarah Burningham Susane Colasanti Matt De La Pena Violet Haberdasher Maggie Stiefvater

2:45-3:30
Tom Dolby Heather Duffy-Stone Sarah Beth Durst Elizabeth Eulberg Gayle Forman Aimee Friedman Jenny Han Alice Hoffman Carla Jablonksi Melissa Kantor Kristen Kemp Michelle Knudsen Peter Lerangis David Levithan

3:30-4:15
Sarah Darer Littman Barry Lyga Robin MacCready Carolyn Mackler Sarah Maclean Marianne Mancusi Amanda Marrone Wendy Mass Lauren McLaughlin Neesha Meminger Sarah Mlynowski Michael Northrup Robin Palmer

4:15-5:00
Diana Peterfreund Shani Petroff O.Rhuday-Perkovich Matthue Roth Marie Rutkoski Lisa Ann Sandell Samantha Schutz Elizabeth Scott Kieran ScottCourtney Sheinmel Sara Shepard Abby Sher Jon Skovron

5:00-5:45
Jennifer Smith Natalie Standiford Rachel Vail David Van Etten Siobhan Vivian Adrienne Maria Vrettos Melissa Walker Robin Wasserman Suzanne Weyn Lynn Weingarten Martin Wilson Jake Wizner Maryrose Wood Michelle Zink

Every so often I hear some writing advice that annoys me, and then I want to rant about it.

This time, I’m mad about this idea that you can get away with being weird if you’re a genius. But if you’re still just learning, you have to color inside the lines and play by the rules.

When I think of, “If you’re still just learning, you have to color inside the lines and play by the rules,” I think of things like realistic painting, or classical music. Fields where you’re trying to get close to some specific ideal: what the thing you’re painting actually looks like, the notes that the composer wrote down. But if you’re not trying to paint a bowl of fruit that looks exactly like a bowl of fruit, how are you going to say that a realistic style is better than an impressionistic or abstract style? And, in the same way, how are you going to say that Raymond Carver’s style is better than Cormac McCarthy’s, or that Greer Gilman’s style is better than Hemingway’s? I have personal preferences, sure. But all of these writers are writers who are in control of their craft. They’re not aiming for some single standard of Good Writing; they’re aiming for their own particular visions.

And somehow we have this tendency to say that it’s only the writers who are in control of their craft who are allowed to follow their own particular visions. The rest of us have to follow the Rules, and stop using adverbs.

People tend to point to me as the person who’s the computer expert, but I learned everything I know about computers just by trying different things to see what happened. It’s only by trying this thing and that thing and Googling shell commands and crying that I’ve been able to put together in my head a pretty good model for how a computer works. The people who don’t trust themselves to try different things just to see what happens, the people who don’t trust themselves to make mistakes, are the ones who are always raising their hand for help as soon as something happens that they don’t expect.

I think it’s the same way with writing, or with any kind of art. You can try all you like to follow the Rules, but one of these days your gut will say, this doesn’t work. I don’t know how to do this. And you try building the new tools that you need, and maybe they don’t work perfectly and maybe you build something that’s kind of rickety and weird. But it’s yours. It’s what you needed to make.

A Love Story Starring My Dead Best Friend has a structure that interweaves two different timelines. I fought against that so hard. I thought that trying to interweave two different timelines was totally pretentious and you shouldn’t try it unless you’re a supergenius. (I think I first encountered the technique in Angela Johnson’s The First Part Last; Angela Johnson is, for the record, a supergenius.) But my gut told me that it was the right thing for the book, and I had to follow my gut.

So I don’t think there’s any such thing as writing with training wheels on. I don’t think that you’re going to gain anything by sticking to the advice that people give you and the techniques they say are safe. You have to have a space for just smearing the paint across the canvas and seeing what happens when you do this and when you do that.

There are a lot of times I’d rather read a bad book than a safe one.