TopPart IV: YA Authors on Characters, Names, Love & Music (all super-important!)

Done with love triangles? How 'bout a love rhombus? The fabulous YA authors ponder characters, names, love & sex, and the necessity of good music. Enjoy! (Full transcript of two-night chat here: YALITCHAT MegaChat)

ON CHARACTERS

sarahreesbrenna: @AliseOnLifeChat I like serieses. I get to love characters & want to follow them, inflict more pain on their sweet familiar faces

hollyblack: @daniellebunner because I had to *learn* how to plot, but characters seem more mysterious. i need name & they need to feel right

melissa_marr: @Zaviezera Sure. Dreaming abt the characters is just another way yr mind works out plot issues, IMHO.

AlysonNoel: @AlleyofBooks Most of my characters contain a little piece of my or my experiences

hollyblack: @CarolChristo Good main character is someone you love, often not despite flaws but because of them

mstohl: I'm with Carrie, our characters never do a thing we say.

melissa_marr: @ForeverBelievin Nope. I don't want to be in any book, incl mine. I enjoy my real life too much.

hollyblack: @lisagailgreen It's such a fun POV/tense, but so hard not to make the character seem affectless, eh?

kamigarcia: @MyraMcEntire For us, it is so much easier to write from a guy's POV.

jamesdashner: @junestormcrow Hey, mine are in 3rd person. But it's weird how often people think it's so unusual. I had no idea.

jamesdashner: @lights_aurora Yeah, I really like 3rd person for some reason. Just fits me more.

cassieclare: I think writers choose the style appropriate to telling that particular story.

ON NAMES

sarahreesbrenna: Book titles usually come about halfway through the book for me... secretly, I wish my publisher would pick 'em. They are HARD!

cassieclare: "ow do you come up with character names?" Like Holly said, they tend to just click into place. Same with book titles.

hollyblack: @AliseOnLifeChat I am terrible at titles. Mine never click into place the way names do, they just grow on me like mold on bread

sarahreesbrenna: Names just fit in place. I always planned to use Nick as a kid's name & now he'll be like 'MOM, you namedme after that jerk!'

hollyblack: @maggiesmoment I pick names that feel right. They click into place

kamigarcia: @maggiesmoment We spend a lot of time choosing names & lots of the names in BC have hidden meanings.

ON LOVE & SEX (in YA)
JackieKessler: @ALGFaithKeeper Triangles are overdone. I say it's time for a love rhombus! ;)

mstohl: i think love rhombus and rock lobster are two phrases that we all need to use in our WIPs.

CarrieRyanchat: I tend to have a different love interest for the different aspects of the heroine's personality.

cassieclare: But @sarahreesbrenna says "lots of making out" is the solution to everything

melissa_marr: @nflbabygirl LOL. No, I don't see the need to have only ONE interest (or partner) in life, so I don't pick only 1 in bks either

CarrieRyanchat: I dont tend to write sex scenes because I love writing the sexual tension more

mstohl: SEX: When you hand everything to your own teen girls, you tend to write pretty clean.

melissa_marr: @Georgia_McBride As far as they need to go for that scene 2 b real. I write for teens not children. Not gratuitous. No flinching

ON MUSIC (or lack thereof)

AlysonNoel: @PaulWHankins Love 70's songs--my playlists are lousy with them!

kamigarcia: Black Sabbath. The Cure. The Smiths. Black Sabbath.

CarrieRyanchat: I wish I could listen to music while I write but it just gets distracting

sarahreesbrenna: Country music is my muse. Others have judged me for it...

AlysonNoel: @CRDWLLG I make playlists for all of my books-helps me get into the world/mood

AlysonNoel: @ForeverBelievin They don't really determine yet, but they can help to shape and define it (music/playlists)

CarrieRyanchat: @mrsjillewheeler I spend a lot of time thinking up the names of my characters

JackieKessler: @JustAGirl_LJ The book I'm going to start writing next month: Linkin Park's "New Divide" is basically its theme song