November, 2013
Being Thankful with the Class of 2k14
The Class of 2k14 wants to share our thanks. For other class members’ posts, check here.
It’s that time of year, and I have to say, I’m thankful for this whole year. In particular:
- Several rounds of edits, because it’s cool that I have the opportunity to work with the editors I have.
- My friend Mindy McGinnis having her book debut, because I’ve been able to learn so much from watching her go through it all a year ahead of me.
- Friends new and old in the writerly world, including at Class of 2k14, AgentQuery Connect, and OneFour KidLit, because insanity is so much better when it’s shared.
- Family, including a brand-new nephew, who—at the time of this writing—should be arriving any minute.
- I’m even thankful for all the craziness that comes with the day-job, including the kids who make me want to scream, because hey, challenges keep us growing.
What are you thankful for this year?
Speak up:
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Class of 2k14, gratitude, thankfulLosing My Religion
On November 8th, the New York Times ran an article by one of its religion columnists titled “Mormons Offer Cautionary Lesson on Sunny Outlook vs. Literary Greatness” … which, naturally, set off at least half a dozen “Are you kidding me?” reactions in my brain.
The none-too-subtle implication that genre and YA fiction are inferior forms of literature? As someone who writes (and loves) YA sci-fi, yeah, I have a problem with that.
The conclusion that all “Mormon authors” write cheery, sunny stories? Well, some do. Just like some non-Mormon authors do. And some (plenty) don’t. Stop with the generalizing, please-and-thank-you.
Speaking of generalizing, that reference to parents telling children to only journal positive things, never negative? An isolated incident as far as I know, because I have never heard of any parents teaching that … and I grew up in Utah!
More than the article itself, though, I was really interested in the ensuing conversation I was able to observe among several Mormon (or not!) Utah-based authors. One noted that at signings and events, people are always remarking on her religion or asking her about it.
A published friend of mine is Lutheran. Yet that doesn’t ever seem to come up in her professional dealings as an author.
It raised the question for me: Am I a Mormon who happens to be an author, or an author who happens to be Mormon?
When it comes to my writing, I’m going to go with the latter. For one, I don’t write “Mormon literature.” More importantly, yes, my beliefs and background have had some influence on my stories … but so has the fact that I’m the middle child, the oldest girl, a math teacher, and a cellist. These aren’t things that create an “agenda” in my writing. They’re just things that have contributed to the lens I see the world through, and therefore naturally filter in varying degrees into my work.
Here’s the thing. Even when I do have an element that could be taken as reflective or symbolic of one thing or another, I don’t actually care about the reader taking it that way. I’ve had people read one of my manuscripts and say, “Wow, (X) was such a great symbol for _______.” Annnnnnd it’s nothing I was aiming for when I wrote it.
And that’s cool.
Even before I started writing, I never cared as much about an author’s intent as I did about the meaning the reader finds. (This was a problem when it came to English class.)
So that’s what I’m going to keep doing.
The title of this post doesn’t mean my religion is going anywhere. It just means what we should already know:
That generalizations and labels stink.