G Younger: Blog

I had work done on my computer and we recovered a partial Cast document for Sophomore Year. It has about 90% of the characters so I decided I should put it up on SOL to assist the reader in figuring out who is who.

Received an email from one of my readers that I thought might be a good blog entry.

Any updates in the pipeline? Getting anxious.

Seems there are a few changes or enhancements in this chapter-at-a-time release that were missing in the Stupid Boy - Sophomore Year preview edition. Good surprises.

Keep up the great work!

I go through each chapter before I post it and make updates. My editors hate it because that is where 99% of the mistakes make it onto SOL. The thing is I wrote it several months ago and find things I wished I had done better...

Pipeline. I have written three chapters of Stupid Boy - Junior Year. I sent out the original draft of Getting it Wrong (the Do Over story) to some of the people who purchased Sophomore Year and received a lot of feedback. I rewrote quite a bit of it.

BlackIrish, my lead editor, has read through the first few chapters and said he felt my edits in first couple of chapters really changed the story. It got him thinking very differently about character and his situation... Him liking it is a big deal for me ... tells me I may have something worth reading. I wrote an additional three chapters to work out a better ending to Book 1. Book 2 is started and I just completed the chapter layouts.

Little Tony, my mob story, I've written a couple of chapters for the next book which will feature his sister Pia. I shelved this for now as I am focusing on the Do Over story.

The Third Son, sword and sorcery story, I was originally planning on that being my next book. I had it laid out and then realized that wasn't the book I wanted to write. I've been working it out in my head though and I think I have a much better idea. Of course it went from a quick novel length book to potentially 10+ 50K+ word shorter stories.

Thanks
G Younger

One of my readers asked me a series of questions about writing Stupid Boy. I thought others might be interested in my responses.

Q: Do you have the entire story planned out yet?

A: No. I take each book and give it a rough outline. For example I have Junior Year's chapters figured out for the first half of the year. When I write it it's not as structured as some writers. It is more of a stream of conscious as the scene develops on the page.


Q: What method did you use / are you using to put this story together? Did you just sit down and start typing, or did you plan it all out in a spreadsheet, or did you throw the petrified ox bones at the new moon?

A: I do two things. The first is to get out a calendar and put in all the important continuity things (B-day, Holidays, Anniversaries, etc.). I then look at the dates and figure out when things have to happen. A good example is the football schedule. There are conference games and then playoffs. I look at last years calendar and see who was home and away. Then I look at when school will be in session. From there I can schedule when David could be doing photo shoots etc. I think you get the drift with the calendar.


I then write out half a year of chapter summaries based on the calendar. I only do half a year because I want to write it before I do the second half. I want to give myself the freedom to explore what comes out of the creative process.


Q: What's the most common complaint you get about the story, and do you feel those people have a valid beef?

A: Not enough sex ... too much sex ... I hate the sex and skim that part. The sex actually makes it so I can't really offer the stories to a larger market. Most won't post under aged sex stories. The other thing is writing sex scenes is harder than you think. There are only so many ways to describe it and keep it interesting.


Q: When you're envisioning the girls in the story, where do you draw your inspiration? Celebrities, acquaintances, or some other source?

A: I forgot to tell you about my Cast Document. It is completely different than what you see on the site. I'm a guy so I tend to be visual. Let me give you two examples.


For the freshman cheerleaders I did a search on Bing Images for high school cheerleaders. I found a photo of four girls. I then played the game, what would each girl be like. In my cast document I have the picture and then different things I thought would drive them as a character. Emma seemed to be serious and in charge, Kylie looked fun and outgoing ... based on that I began to get an idea of that they would be like in the book.


For the models I went to actual modeling websites and looked at the cards for each girl. You quickly find out they are all about the same ... five-ten 'A' cup etc. With their cards they have examples of their work. From that I was able to get a better idea of their personality.


Q: What's the biggest stumbling block you've encountered so far in writing the story, and how did you get around it? (Note: I'm not talking about real life getting in the way, I mean a storyline conundrum that tripped you up)

A: Hands down Tracy. The hardest part was writing the chapter where she told her story as to why she was the way she was. My personality is not that dark and I knew it had to be to make it work. The problem I had was I couldn't imagine what she would have gone through to make her so damaged. I can never understand the need to treat a woman other than the special person she is. My fear was it would come off as unbelievable.


Thankfully I have a great editor in BlackIrish who helped me through it.


Q: In your opinion, who is the most interesting character in the series aside from David, and why?

A: The easy answer would be Tami. She was who the book was originally written to be about. Tracy would also be in the mix. I'm going in a different direction. David's Mom. You'll notice I never give her or his Dad names. It is always Mom or Dad.


David's Mom is a mystery and yet she's not ... she is unpredictable and has a wicked sense of humor. She can shock you one moment and be compassionate the next. In a lot of ways she is an open book. You know where you stand with her. I love pushing the envelope and seeing what she can do and still be a real character.


Q: What was the hardest scene so far for you to write, and why?

A: Let me give you two and leave out the Tracy chapter.


Sex scenes. After you have written as many as I have it gets hard to be creative with insert part A into slot B. Luckily the internet is a wonderful place for porn ... did I just admit that? The other thing that helps is knowing your characters and trying to bring what they would do in a situation like that. My fear is it will get redundant and not add to the story. I find my self doing the lead up and then they were happy afterwards approach, especially if the couple in question has done a couple of previous sex scenes together.


The avalanche scene. I was scared how the reader would take it and I was leaving a hell of a cliff hanger. Some people absolutely hates those. The other thing is I have a real fear of being buried alive. Just thinking about it while I wrote it got me anxious.


Q: What was your starting point, that made you want to write this story? (AKA - Was reading a similar story and thought you could do it better; Had the character come together in your head and started to weave a story around him; Was bored and wanted to see what came out if you started writing; etc etc)

A: I've had a story idea in my head for years. It is actually the basis for David's movie 'Star Academy'. I knew that if I was ever going to do it justice I needed to write and learn my craft. I sat down Memorial Weekend and started writing. The original title was 'Train' as in training him to be a man. The goal was to write a short story and post it on SOL to see what people thought. By the end of the weekend I had 140 pages. I broke that down into chapters and posted it. Luckily the feedback was good and I continued.

Tracy hands down gets me the most emails. It is not even close. People either hate her and advise I never let poor David anywhere near her -OR- David needs to cut the poor girl a break.

As a writer a character like Tracy is golden. In my case I dated a Tracy in high school. She was this girl that no mater what she did to me I kept coming back for more. Turned out she really was nuts...

At the time all my friends couldn't figure out why I let her have her way with me. The thing was I knew of her past abuse and her battle with mental illness. I just couldn't bring myself to just abandon her. Plus, when she was well she and I clicked.

The thing was, she was having issues and at some point when you are a teenager you have to walk away. Your just not emotionally equipped to handle the constant drama. Over the years I lost touch with my Tracy. Last I heard she finally got the help she needed, but for the two of us it was too late.

So I draw on the crazy girl I fell in love with to write Tracy and I understand my readers frustration. Looking in you can see the car wreck coming ... and it is coming ...

Thanks for reading and keep sending me advice on how David should handle Tracy.

G Younger

First of all, thank you for reading my story. 8,200 of you downloaded it the first day. People had some similar questions.

Q: What is you posting schedule?
A: I post a chapter once per week on Saturday.

Q: How long is Stupid Boy - Sophomore Year?
A: 39 Chapters / Over 950 pages / Just under a half million words.

Q: What are people saying about the Pre-Release Version of Sophomore Year?
A: Here are some of the comments I got back.

Kurt - I just finished Stupid Boy - Sophomore Year. You are really developing as a writer! The stuff with Tami over the summer had all kinds of subtlety and layers I hadn't seen from you before. Wow.

Chris - AWESOME!!!!!!! Couldn't put it down and finished in one day. I can't wait for Junior Year.

Kev - I finally got around to reading the first two books and I have to say I laughed, I cried, I enjoyed the hell out of them. Sophomore year was even better! I don't really understand football, but you made it come alive. I might actually start watching the game. The good news for me was this was not just a story about sex and football - there is an actual story. You have characters that I have come to love. I find I root for some and want to kill others. I look forward to your next story.