Write On! Teen Writing Conference

Way back in the end of June, I attended the wonderful Write On! Teen Writing Conference at a local bookstore. Here are some of my thoughts on the experience.

First of all, I loved all the sessions I went to. The first one, which was run by a local improv teacher, was not one I was super excited about. I am not a huge fan of doing any acting type stuff (or really even talking) in front of a bunch of people I don't know. It ended up being my favorite break out session of the day however, since that was not how it went at all. She (the woman leading) taught us a bunch of great exercises for coming up with everything from plots to characters to settings. We practiced them as group games, which were very nonthreatening, and then she helped us adapt them for personal use. We then practiced writing using each of those techniques.

The second breakout session I went to was a bunch of short writing exercises. He would give us a prompt to write from for 60 seconds (such as "As a writer, I have learned," or "I noticed"), and then he would ask each of us to read a sentence or two that we wrote. We would then briefly discuss each person's writing, or the idea they were talking about. At first this made me nervous, but everybody did it, and sometimes we would have a wonderful, well written,  very articulate observation on life or writing, and sometimes it would be "I noticed an oddly large quantity of apples on the trees for so late in the year." (That was a real sentence I wrote that hour. :)) He made us all come out of our shells a little, and I wrote some pieces I really liked.

The third breakout session I attended was by Nick James, whose book, Skyship Academy: The Pearl Wars, I reviewed here. It was interesting, and he had some good ideas about how to show and not tell, but there was nothing earth shaking in that session. :)

I'm going to end this post with a quote the second breakout session leader gave us, which I really liked, and found thought provoking. Let me know what you think about it in the comments.

It's better to have failed as a novelist then to have succeeded as anything else.

                                            - George Orwell

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Skyship Academy: The Pearl Wars - Nick James

Today I am reviewing Skyship Academy: The Pearl Wars by Nick James. I have decided to do something a little different today in my review format. Along with my typical characters-plot-writing review, I am going to add a brief summary (probably just the one on the Amazon page), plus section about who I recommend (or don't recommend) this book for. Warning: some parts of this review are slightly spoilery, though nothing too big is revealed.

Summary (from Amazon.com)

A devastated Earth's last hope is found in Pearls: small, mysterious orbs that fall from space and are capable of supplying enough energy to power entire cities. Battling to control the Pearls are the Skyship dwellers—political dissidents who live in massive ships in the Earth's stratosphere—and the corrupt Surface government.
Jesse Fisher, a Skyship slacker, and Cassius Stevenson, a young Surface operative, cross paths when they both venture into forbidden territory in pursuit of Pearls. Their chance encounter triggers an unexpected reaction, endowing each boy with remarkable—and dangerous—abilities that their respective governments would stop at nothing to possess.
Enemies thrust together with a common goal, Jesse and Cassius make their way to the ruins of Seattle to uncover the truth about their new powers, the past they didn't know they shared, and a shocking secret about the Pearls.

My Review

As usual, let's start with characters. There were not really any characters that I loved in this book. The two main characters (Jesse and Cassius) were both well developed, unique characters, whom I just did not like. It is important to note, however, that they can still be terrific characters if they are unlikable. My problem lies with all the other characters. I felt that none of the other characters were that well fleshed out, even the villains, and the supporting characters who were important parts of the story. 

I liked the plot more than I thought I would. The ending was almost cheesy, but somehow managed to avoid that title. I don't have a whole lot else to say about the plot other then that it flowed pretty well, and kept up with the characters well (expect a post on this topic sometime in the future).

On to writing. For the most part, the writing is strictly middle rating. It was pretty good, and I often stopped noticing it altogether. The one thing that I disliked about the writing was that it often shifted back and forth between first and third person, and between present and past tense. When I had the opprotunity to talk a little with the author at a teen writing conference I was at (expect a post later this week), he mentioned that choice he made. He said that he did it to help created unique identities for Jesse and Cassius. When Jesse is narrating, it is in first person present, but Cassius's chapters are third person past. As I thought more about it, I realized that this aspect I did not like was a huge factor in my favorite aspect (the unique qualities of the main characters).

Who Should Read It?

This is a good "boy book" more then most YA books, so I would recommend it to most preteen and maybe teen boys. If you are looking for a fun, quick, interesting summer read, I highly recommend checking this book out. Don't go into it with super high expectations and you won't be disappointed.



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