Reading YA and Editing

This past week (or is two now?! it's crazy!), as I've been fangirling and squealing over John Green and riding high on a cloud of love and happiness, I started to think about how I came to openly love reading YA novels and not be ashamed. Because there is this thing around them. That they're for teenagers and they're a lower sort of literature and not as good, and all this RUBBISH that is perpetuated. I know this has been blogged about countless times, but I just felt like I wanted to add to it.

And yes, there have been times when I've felt embarrassed to be out and about reading some because of their awful cheesy titles and I just want to scream it's really well written! Leave me be!

Somehow with John Green it's okay.

I've been rereading them all, and carrying them around, and as I sit reading, hoped many a time that someone would come over and say 'Hey I love John Green', or 'DFTBA'. 

But I don't care so much anymore about what people think when they see me reading any sort of YA. Because I know it's good. I love it, and why should I be embarrassed about what I know is good and what I enjoy reading?

So thank you John Green, for reminding me that YA is cool.

And there's my brief thoughts on that.

A quick writing update; I am editing again. I think I mentioned before that my wonderful CP, Laura gave me amazing feedback on my story and so I have been obsessively editing it. It has been great to be able to see it with a fresh perspective. I was so stuck in the thought that 'meh, it'll do', that I just couldn't be bothered. Now somehow I have a whole new energy for it, and have been excitedly editing. Yes, I am actually ENJOYING editing. I did one edit through, with Laura's suggestions and my own careful rereading of it all, and now I am going through it again, reading it out loud, which is SO painful but so worth it. It's mad how many silly things you pick up on once you start reading it out. I always put it off because of the sore throat that happens, but it's so worth it. So I'm working through it like that at the minute, obsessively making sure every sentence reads well. Phew. I needed to do this. I'm delighted (at the minute) with how things are going. Yay!

Writing weekly exercises for class too, which is challenging, because developing a new story and characters in a few days is difficult. This week I have pushed myself out of my comfort zone, and have written a 29 year old male character as the MC for the exercise. And I actually like it. What a crazy world!

In other news, things are busy at the minute, this term is always crazy, but this year there are added things (my own fault) but I like being busy. And it makes me more organised!

Family are down this weekend to celebrate my birthday early (as it's half term) so I better go get ready!