Any Story Can Be Fixed

I have blogged before about how much my girls love these Monster High dolls from Mattel.  After birthdays and Christmas, we are growing quite a collection.   My husband went on a business trip not too long ago and brought back Monster High dolls as a present for our girls.  That very day, my youngest proceeded to decorate the doll’s face with markers.  This is what she ended doing to the doll.

My husband and I were a little upset that she had altered the doll only hours after we had opened the package.  These dolls are not cheap.  My little daughter didn’t realize that the marker wouldn’t come off and tried to put on a brave front, but I could tell she really wanted me to fix the doll.

I tried everything I could think of.  Soap and water, rubbing alcohol, oxy clean, Mr. Clean’s magical eraser, and fingernail polish remover.  None of these products had any effect whatsoever on marker.  But I wasn't ready to give up.  At this point, I did what anyone would do when facing a problem they can’t solve.  I went to the internet.

Of course my daughter was not the first to mar the face of a Monster High doll with marker, and smarter people than me have found a solution, one I would’ve never come up with on my own.  Oxy-10, that over the counter acne medicine contains a bleaching agent, 10 % benzoyl peroxide that can be activated in direct sunlight.  Now this wouldn’t have worked if my daughter’s doll was any color other than white because it might bleach away the face color as well.  We were lucky.

I covered the doll’s hair with tinfoil and her eyes so that the sun wouldn’t fade away those colors, put Oxy-10 on the marker lines, and set the doll in a window for one week.  After a week, here is the result.

I was amazed how well the treatment worked, but clearly we missed a few spots.  So I repeated the process for another week, and the doll looked awesome.  

There are still some faint yellow marks, and we could’ve gone another round, but my daughter had been without her new doll for two weeks, so we decided it was good enough.  At some point, I might try another round.  But I was so pleased with how well this worked.  I really thought the doll was unfixable, but with a little research and a little time (well a lot of time for a five-year-old girl), we fixed her.

Now, what does this have to do with writing?

I know that a lot of first time writers are cautioned against getting stuck on their first book.  I’ve seen the warning many times on the internet to not get trapped into constant revisions, that you can learn more from writing a new story.  And I do think that that is good advice for some situations, but I also think that any story is fixable.  It might take a lot of time and effort maybe even a complete rewrite or two, but no story is beyond repair. 

I'm not the type of person who can walk away from a problem even if it is difficult or even seemingly impossible.  I don't like to be defeated by markers on dolls or a story that I just can't figure out how to end.  I know that any problem can be solved in some way.

If I know what is wrong with my story and if I have an idea of how to fix it and if I love the story and believe in it and am still excited about it, I’m not ready to give up.  It might take a lot of time, a lot of research, a lot of thought.  I may have to rewrite the entire thing maybe even more than once, but I don’t like to give up on something that I believe in.

I know not every writer is like me, that some writers are more instinctive and have a million ideas floating around in their heads and will probably learn faster writing a story once and then moving on to something new, and those writers need to do what is best for them.

But I think there are also writers like me.  Who have these stories that for some reason they feel really passionate about.  And it isn’t that they want to write stories, but that they want to write these specific stories.  I don’t think that these writers should give up on those stories even if they have horrible pacing or poor characterization or are anticlimactic or just don’t work for some reason.  These stories are fixable; all stories are fixable.  But only the writer can decide if that story is worth the time and energy to fix it.

~MaryAnn

The Key to Writing a Wildly Popular Novel

My sweet four-year-old daughter
desperately wants this for her birthday

This post will be short because I’ve been running around all day trying to find the perfect birthday present for my youngest daughter.  She wants this Monster High doll named Toralei Stripe (werecat), and apparently it’s sold out everywhere except on e-bay or amazon where they are asking $77 to $100 for this toy that is normally $20.  I love my daughter, but I just can’t pay that much, so please if anyone finds this toy for a decent price, let me know.   I really want to make my little brown eyes’ birthday wish come true. 

Anyway my adventure of trying to hunt down this doll, along with Trisha’s recent post, has gotten me thinking about how these toys, movies, books become so wildly popular.    I know it is the million dollar question, the secret formula that everyone would like to know, and here I am giving it away for free on the internet.    

So here’s my quick and dirty theory.

Concept-Something new and different, but still the same.

I can see why Monster dolls are so popular.  The concept is rather clever.  They are the children of the classic monsters like Draculaura (daughter of Dracula), Frankie Stein (daughter of Frankenstien’s monster),  Clawdeen Wolf (daughter of the wolfman), Ghoulia Yelps (daughter of zombies), Deuce Gorgon (son of Medussa), and even my favorite monster The Phantom of Opera  has a daughter, Operetta.  These monsters are put in a modern high school setting with clever word play like fearleaders instead of cheerleaders and creepateria instead of cafeteria.  The whole thing is pretty fun.

But honestly these dolls aren’t that far from the classic Barbie dolls.  These monster teens are all very beautiful and thin.  They all dress in stylin outfits with way too short skirts and way too high heels.  There are a lot of similarities to those Barbies I played with as a child and that are still on toy store shelves today.  So the Monster High dolls do have a unique concept (monsters in high school), but still shares many of the features as those classic toys that have successfully sold for years (Barbie dolls).  A little bit different, and a little bit the same.

Novel example:  Hunger Games.  Collins took the classic concept of Roman gladiators and twisted it by having them be children in a futuristic society. Also the strong romantic subplot and love triangle had already proven very successful in the YA market.

Theme-Needs to resonate with the readers

I believe that every story, no matter how shallow and inane it may seem, has a theme.  Some themes are complex and amazing and make us ponder them for days.  Some are very obvious and even trivial, but still every story has a theme. 

These Monster High toys are more than just dolls.  There is a much larger design behind them that is adding to their appeal.   My daughters love the Monster High website which has character bios, short videos, and games. I think there is a cartoon series on TV (not sure because we don't have cable), and I've even seen Monster High novels. From what I've seen, there seems to be a theme running through the whole thing about being inclusive and being okay with what makes you different.   Individualism is a theme that resonates with most Americans.  I think this adds to the dolls’ appeal.

These dolls do come in every skin, hair, and eye color imaginable, but all them are pretty, very thin, and hip which kind of detracts from that theme.  A little bit of conformity is going on there too.  So I guess the overall take home message is be yourself, but make sure you are pretty, thin, and stylish in the process.  I think that is as much depth as we can expect from these types of toys.

Novel example:  Harry Potter:  the themes of friendship and sacrifice resonate with most readers which I think contributes to its appeal.

Love-you gotta love it or no one else will

I’m a big believer in writing or creating what you are most excited about.  That passion slips into the text, and the readers can feel it as they read, almost like magic.

I really think the creators of the Monster High dolls had a lot of fun creating these dolls. If they didn't, it sure looks like they did. The way they worked monster elements into the characters' personalities and story lines is clever and funny, and I know I would've fun coming up with them.  But the creators didn’t slop through this.  They put thought and energy into the dolls creation and story lines, and it really shows.  I think this is one of the main reasons why these dolls are doing so well.  My girls definitely have been influenced by it.

Novel example:  Twilight-There is no doubt that Stephenie Meyers loved her story and her characters.  You can almost feel it on the pages.  I think that passion she had while writing it has played a huge role in why Twilight is so popular.  Write what you love and that love will shine through.

Those are my thoughts on how to write a novel that will shoot to the top of the best seller list.  I’m not going to ask for any portion of your sales when you hit it big using my amazing advice.  Just send me an autograph copy of your best seller and we’ll call it even.  J

Happy writing,

~MaryAnn