Okay, so a big part of a lot of novels I read (and write) is the classic love triangle. It’s so fun because there’s automatic conflict and someone ends up having to make a big important choice.

You have three major players in the triangle. Now, I am not saying it’s always the same, but most of the time it’s pretty similar.

(You can enlarge the pictures to read the type.)

That pretty much sets up your classic triangle. The thing about the triangle though, is that it requires a mutual attraction to work. Sort of a give and take if you will.

You see the problem, don’t you? Um… what the heck? There is an obvious problem here. The bad boy and the good guy–yeah, they don’t have a crush on each other. In fact–they probably hate each other. Big time.

This triangle thing doesn’t work at all. Who came up with this crap? Why is this like common literature knowledge? We need a new name, a new system…a new something!

I propose to you the love point. I thought about turning it upside down and calling it the love V, but um–I think that’s something else.

Let me just say first that I love books. I love character development, and I love watching characters grow over the course of a story into something they didn’t know they could be. It’s exciting, entertaining, and pretty much the only reason I read a story.

I want the girls in my stories to be strong, tough women that can take care of themselves. I am not saying they have to start out that way–heck that would be kind of boring, and I’m not really sure where the plot would go after that. But, I am saying that I want to see them learn to be a kickass version of themselves.

YA has taken a lot of flack lately for talking down to girls and teaching them to devalue themselves based on a boy.

I’ve been thinking a lot about this, because those are two books I really like, and when I read through them, I just didn’t see it. But, as I read what people have to say and start to really examine the stories, I can see why people think that. It’s definitely a matter of opinion, though, because you could also look at Hush, Hush or Twilight and see girls fighting for love against ALL odds. That’s pretty cool if you ask me, and it makes me happy to think in this time where more than half of marriages still end in divorce, the teenage audience wants to believe in unfaltering love.

That kinda rocks.

The thing is this… we can’t tell kids what to read, and we can’t tell them what to be into. The reason they love these girls is because they see them as versions of themselves. The meek girl sitting quietly in the back of the classroom finally gets her day to shine, and what is a reader if not the girl with her nose in a book?

So, I feel like when I tell a story I want to combine those things, I want the reader to identify with my characters so–you know she doesn’t feel like she’s reading about some hottie cheerleader that she already hates, but in the end I want to see my main character take charge of the situation and save her friends, her true love, her dog–whatever. I just want to see her be a badass, because it gives me hope.

And hope is what reading is all about.

This weekend my husband and I took our daughter to the Casa Manana children’s theater. We have season tickets that my mother-in-law gets us every year. All in all they are awesome. I was wowed by their production of Treasure Island, I cried when Charlotte climbed up to her web for that last time, when Shere Khan stepped out onto that orange stage I laughed out loud, and my daughter still talks about that other snowman from the Frosty show.

But, this time–they did not impress.

Their production of Alamo, the Musical was completely inappropriate. Now, I know what you’re probably thinking, “Jamie, how can they tell the story of the Alamo without a little death and canon shooting?”

I’m not upset about that, I am upset about Santa Anna holding an old man at knife point in front of my four year old–it was unnecessary to the story, and not at all in line with their audience.

You see, when that happened I started looking around the Casa Manana theater and gauging the ages of the audience. Adults aside, (because seriously, we’re just there for our kids) the average age of the theater goers was four or five. So, here we are watching a play with a great set and some of the best singing I’ve heard from that theater in the last four years, and they bombed it because they didn’t know WHO they were putting on the play for.

Which, got me to thinking…

When I sit in writer’s workshop on Wednesday nights, I hear a lot of really great stories… but I don’t get who they are for. You hear all the time in the writing business that you should just write a good story and not worry about things like trends or things like that, but I do think you need to worry about WHO your story is for. YA writers think a lot about this when they are monitoring their bad words, romantic scenes, etc., but I wonder if it’s more…

How do we really know that the stories we’re telling are geared toward the people we’re writing them for?

All this talk about grammar rules yesterday really got me to thinking…

When I was younger, I was one of those kids who would make up a game for everyone to play, and then change the rules right in the middle of it just because I didn’t think it was working the way I wanted it to.

That really pissed off a lot of people, I’m not going to lie. My brother HATED this. He would throw a giant fit, usually break something of mine and refuse to play with me. I never really understood, because I was just trying to make the game more interesting.

How did he not get that?

Okay, so maybe I it was more like I was just trying to make it easier for me to win.

Whatever.

Either way, I’ve been thinking about rules. I watched this video recently:

(BTW, she’s having a contest on her blog here.)

She said a lot of interesting things, but the thing that stood out the most to me was the fact that she likes to take traditional stories, characters, fairy tales, etc. and redo them to be her own. I LOVE this. There’s a reason certain things are considered tried and true, but there’s also a reason they can get stale fast–so doing your own spin is a great way to take care of that.

So, what I want to know today is…

What have made your own?

When I think about characters, they start out perfect. My gamer geek is actually a hot as hell bimbo blonde who kicks butt, my teachers are wonderful caring people that want to nurture and such… and of course there’s the guys.

The first drafts of my guys are super model-quins who love unconditionally and overlook all the faults of those leading ladies.

But, um that’s kind of boring.

And, you know… unrealistic.

I’m not saying that your characters can’t fit into stereotypes. Hell, a certain amount of that is expected when you read a story because it helps the reader fill in the blanks. What I am saying is that you have to give them faults in order to make it real. Even Clark Kent wore eyeglasses so we wouldn’t immediately* see him as the perfection that is superman.

So, the question here is–how do we write characters that have these faults but are still believable as the types we want them to be? Sure prescription glasses are something, but I mean other more interesting faults that people can relate to. One that comes to mind is clumsy Bella in Twilight. To me, this really stuck out, so I guess what I am wanting to see is characters that have flaws that blend into the story and make it better. Ugh… that kind of sounds hard just thinking about it.

So, now that I’ve decided the answer isn’t just some really kickin’ eyeglass frames, I have a lot of thinking to do about characters and their flaws. Which means I am going to turn it over you, dear readers…

So, what flaws do you like to see in your books?

*Why can I never spell immediately right the first time? I feel like I should write it 100x on a sheet of notebook paper just to learn it.

So much so that I made an informative graphic:

Now that I’ve just come out there and admitted it, I feel much better. I hate socks, and I hate shoes more. If I could just wear flip flops year round I would, but it’s been like snowing in Texas so that’s not really an option this winter. Which means, my feet are all cooped up sweating into my shoes and socks, and just straight up stinking. Ugh.

I know what you’re wondering…

Why would I admit this on my blog?

Well, because I think it’s confession time. Sometimes when I am writing I have a lot of trouble letting my characters get embarrassed. I hate to watch people in awkward situations, and I try to protect my characters from it. So, in an effort to help them through the flushed faced life of a teenager, I figured I would just come out and embarrass myself.

So, I’m Jamie Harrington and my feet stink.

Do you want to embarrass yourself today? Leave it in the comments!

So, the other day I was talking to my agent and she asked about my current work in progress.

A(gent) o(f ) A(wesomeness): You outline your books, right?

Me: Um, yeah, Sorta.

AoA: Well, do you want to send me what you have?

Me: Uh, I guess I could take a picture of it or something.

AoA: A Picture? You don’t do it on the computer?

Me: (Crap, I have to tell her…) No, I use a giant drawing of a dinosaur.

AoA: I’m sorry,I think we have a faulty connection. It sounded like you said dinosaur.

Me: His name is storysaurus.

AoA: Yeah, do you think you could just put it in a word document?

Me: Sure I’ll get right on that.

You see, when I was in second grade, Ms. George taught us how to write a story. She used the storysaurus. He was a dinosaur with spikes on his back. Each spike represented a chapter, and his whole body represented the story’s main plot. I fell instantly in love with storysaurus, and I still use him to this day.

And, because I love you–and because you probably have no freakin’ idea what I’m talking about… I made you a little drawing:

(If you click the drawing, it should show you a larger version)

So, dear readers of my blog–my guess is that you don’t use a dinosaur to outline our stories. (Although, you may now, because let’s face it, dinosaurs make everything more fun.)

So, tell me.. How do you plot?

Sigh, fine… you can buy storysaurus apparel here.

So, I blame a lot of stuff I do every day on the fact that I write for teens. I figure it’s time to come clean. Truthfully, I love all this stuff.

1. Online Gaming – I love playing games with friends. So much so, that my new character has a bit of an online gaming internet addiction. So I like to blame the fact that I spent most of last night perfecting my drum solo in a Beatle’s song on the fact that I really need to BE this character and understand where she’s coming from.
2. Talking Like a Teenager - I’m for serious peeps. Occasionally, I’ll catch my self saying (out loud) O-M-G or W-T-F, and that’s really just the tip of the iceberg. So if you cool cats want to get jazzy tonight, I’ll hot dog it on over to the speakeasy and we can 23-skidoo!
3. Pink Hair, Blue Nails, and Whatever the else crap I want to wear – Okay, so when you get all grown up you’re supposed to stop dressing like you’re fifteen, but I was way too big of a wimp at fifteen to dress the way I wanted, so instead I just do it now.
4. Being Plugged In All The Time – I love being on the internet. Browsing Reddit all day, checking out the latest fads on the GeekSugar, Twittering, Reading Blogs, Watching Live Stream Videos… it’s all so fun. But, who the heck has time for all that stuff unless it’s part of their JOB to check it out. Well, I have to keep up with the trends, don’t I?
5. Reading piles and piles of YA Books – You have no idea just how cool it is to buy up like very book in the whole store and then attribute it all to research. It’s amazing.

Because it’s Tuesday and because you rock, I thought we should do another author signed book giveaway. So, hooray for signed books. They make me so happy! This week, we’re giving away Courage in Patience by Beth Fehlbaum. (This is is an older YA book, so keep that in mind.) You can also check out her super awesome birthday contest going on over at her site.

In order to be entered in the drawing, all you have to do is comment below!

• If you want an extra entry, well– just tweet about the giveaway!

• If you facebook the giveaway, then you can win an extra entry as well.

(To make sure you get an entry for each cool thing you do, please leave them in a separate comment below.)

This giveaway ends on Wednesday at 11:59CST, and please don’t comment anonymously–I won’t be able to contact you if you’re the winner!

I’ve been thinking a lot about super powers lately. Yeah, I know that most of you probably don’t spend a lot of your spare time sitting around thinking about what you’d do if you had special powers. (Or maybe you do, and that’s why you’re here. In that case, wanna go for coffee? I’m buying.)

I still don’t know what I’d want my super power to be. I mean, there are just so many really cool and endless possibilities, but what I do know is if I were in high school and I was the lowly picked on uber geek like we always read about in our favorite YA adventures, and I woke up with super strength or whatever–dude I’d have some serious ass to kick.

Yeah, that’s right–I wouldn’t be one of those boring hero-types that say around hiding my powers or what have you. I’d pwn some people.

1. The Bully: Okay, this is a no brainer. But, that guy still deserves to get his butt kicked into next week. He preys on the innocent, and what the hell kind of super power having person would I be if I didn’t give that guy a piece of my mind?
2. The Super Smart Girl: Oh, but she’s smart. Why on earth would you want to beat her up? Because she’s been sitting at the front of the class wrecking the curve and knowing all the answers to questions. I hate this girl, not because I want to be her or anything, but because she’s just so right all the time.
3. The Snotty Cheerleader: Why? Dude, we’re talking about a nerdy geek here who’s been picked on for years. The thing about that typical cheerleader type is they go two ways in books. They’re either super nice and awesome, or they’re complete bitches. I’m not saying I’d kick the butt of the nice girl. It’s the mean one I want to take down with my yet to be determined powers.
4. The Pretty Boy: That seems like a bad idea to some of you, because chances are he has his own set of problems, what with being the pretty boy and all that, but I am still ging to pwn him based solely on the fact that he’s prettier than me.
5. The Drum Major: Oh man, when I lay the smack down this is going to be my favorite. She’s bossy, and probably best friends with #2, but I don’t even care. She’s like the leader of the nerds, and that alone is enough for her to go down–but I have other reasons. You see, I was a bass drum playing band geek myself, and I’ve spent many a Texas summer standing at attention wishing more than anything I could just take my drumstick and shove it right–

Whoa… this list got more personal than I intended it to. So, on that note–I want to know:

Who would you beat up?