March 21, 2012

How Goode It Can Be

For the last eight weeks, I’ve been workshopping my first two teen novels, How Good It Can Be and The Love Quad at the SF Writer’s Grotto. The amazing Laura Goode, author of Sister Mischief (watch the In the Stacks video book review) taught the class, called Coming of Age on the Page. Incidentally, she’s currently producing a film she co-wrote called Farah Goes Bang, which is pretty damn exciting.

I’ve rewritten both of my novels from 3rd to 1st person (a total of 138,500 words) and about to begin a page by page revamp. I’m making the Emma Saffron character’s personality into a more completely fictional one, because although it is true she’s somewhat inspired by my own experiences in high school and college, none of the events happened the way they do in the books (she works at a coffeeshop and as a deejay). Both books are going into a fresh framework, in an attempt to tell the story in style that’s entirely new.

Thanks to Laura and everyone in my workshop for an extremely valuable experience that’s really taking these books to the next level. Learn more about other classes offered here.—Michelle