Thinking to Inking Blogversary: Secret Quirks of Teenagers

Thinking to Inking is two years old this month! To celebrate, we're highlighting some of our favorite posts and giving away all kinds of fun swag (scroll down for the Rafflecopter!)

One of my favorite regular blog features here at Thinking to Inking is "Curious Lives of Teenagers." Lauren (who is a high school English teacher) periodically asks her students questions of interest to writers and then posts their responses anonymously. The answers range from silly to morose to insightful, but they give an excellent glimpse into the teenage mind.

I thought this post from last year about her students' secret quirks was particularly useful to the YA writer. Who doesn't want to add more individuality to their characters?


Curious Lives of Teenagers: Our Secret Quirks?

When asked what they thought YA writers would want to hear from them, my high school students suggested that the writers should know the things teens do to make individual teens unique. The students thought a sampling of real-life quirks might help flesh out characters/ inspire new side characters for writers with writer's block. How considerate. These quirks are anonymous, and the kids have given permission for you to use with abandon. So here are their secret quirks/ a bit of silliness for a Wednesday afternoon:

• I shower with my socks on
• When I was little I used to "cook" things in my belly button
• I eat Oreos with lemonade
• I look in two different mirrors with two different lightings to see if I look okay
• I will read for hours and try my best on tests, but I never do my homework
• I secretly watch the science channel
• I jump over every sidewalk crack so I don't break my mother's back
• I eat lemons whole
• I have to brush my hair 100 times before leaving the house every day
• I set my alarm for 6:36 am, take out my retainer, and go back to sleep until 6:44
• I put ketchup on my Mac & Cheese
• I feel the automatic need to wink at people when I don't know what to say in passing
• I hint at people to invite me places
• When I go to restaurants, I ask waiters with mustaches for pickles
• When I was little, I stuffed my American Girl dolls into a doll-sized tent to see how many would fit in
• I'm waiting for my own Godot
• I lose weight to get concert tickets
• Things Rick Astley will never do: #1-Give you up #2-Let you down #3-Run around #4-Hurt you #5-Make you cry #6-Say goodbye #7-Tell a lie #8-Desert you (fyi you've just been Rick rolled)
• I eat Doritos with peanut butter
• I like turtles
• I rub my fingers through my hair to think
• When I eat apple strudel, I eat the filling first, then the pastry part
• Eye contact makes me feel uncomfortable
• I read Dictionaries in my free time
• I can have fun with anything from a broken highlighter to an empty wrapping paper roll
• I like to make people feel as uncomfortable as possible by saying really awkward things. If someone is talking about what they will eat for lunch I will then interrupt with a random statement such as "aborted fetuses are surprisingly interesting" and then I will walk away
• I like rubbing people's earlobes
• I have to drink one and a half glasses of milk before bed every night
• Quirk?..I'm perfect.

And finally, a hint for writers from one precocious student: "To make any title better add a question mark at the end." (See title above. Did it work?)

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YA Book Pick: FANGIRL by Rainbow Rowell

Once a month, we choose an outstanding YA book to review. We want to spotlight books of interest to aspiring writers, as well as highlight some of our favorite books and authors!

This month's Book Pick is FANGIRL by Rainbow Rowell.

Synopsis (from Goodreads):

A coming-of-age tale of fan fiction, family and first love. 

Cath is a Simon Snow fan.

Okay, the whole world is a Simon Snow fan . . .

But for Cath, being a fan is her life — and she’s really good at it. She and her twin sister, Wren, ensconced themselves in the Simon Snow series when they were just kids; it’s what got them through their mother leaving.

Reading. Rereading. Hanging out in Simon Snow forums, writing Simon Snow fan fiction, dressing up like the characters for every movie premiere.

Cath’s sister has mostly grown away from fandom, but Cath can’t let go. She doesn’t want to.

Now that they’re going to college, Wren has told Cath she doesn’t want to be roommates. Cath is on her own, completely outside of her comfort zone. She’s got a surly roommate with a charming, always-around boyfriend, a fiction-writing professor who thinks fan fiction is the end of the civilized world, a handsome classmate who only wants to talk about words . . . And she can’t stop worrying about her dad, who’s loving and fragile and has never really been alone.

For Cath, the question is: Can she do this?

Can she make it without Wren holding her hand? Is she ready to start living her own life? Writing her own stories?

And does she even want to move on if it means leaving Simon Snow behind?

First Line: "There was a boy in her room."

This is a great first line, because it sets up the conflict immediately. Our viewpoint character is someone who isn't comfortable having boys in her room. The next few lines make it clear that Cath has just arrived at her new dorm and is sort of freaking out about the newness of everything.

Highlights: Gosh, where to start? First, let me say that I devoured this book. I literally couldn't put it down. My YA fiction taste tends to skew more speculative, but this contemporary novel completely won me over (much like ANNA AND THE FRENCH KISS and LOLA AND THE BOY NEXT DOOR by Stephanie Perkins--also highly recommended).

I gushed about Rainbow Rowell nailing the teenage voice in my review of her last book, ELEANOR & PARK. This book is even better. Cath, her sister Wren, the boys in her life, her roommate Reagan--any one of them could have stepped right out of life and into her book. The central romance is sweet without being cloying or sappy. Cath's fears and doubts about her love life will ring true for anyone, not just eighteen-year-olds.

The author's take on the subject of fandom and fanfiction writing is gentle, but also realistic. As someone who spent her teenage years obsessed with the TV show The X-Files, I saw a lot of myself in Cath. I think a lot of readers will be able to relate to this, no matter what their age.

A Good Read For: YA contemporary/romance writers searching for great examples of teenage voice or a slow-build romantic relationship. Although the book was marketed as YA rather than New Adult, it is set in the first year of college and therefore might be of interest to NA writers as well.