RTW: Character Yearbook Superlative
This week’s Road Trip Wednesday on the YA Highway blog (their 137th Road Trip Wednesday, for anyone who’s counting) celebrates the yearbook superlative. The question for this week is: What yearbook “most” category (also known as superlatives) would your character win? Each participant in the Road Trip blogs their answer, then links their blog in the YA Highway comments. We all then visit one another’s blogs to see what everyone wrote. Sound like fun? That’s because it is!
For my regular readers, you are probably already aware of my current WIP. If you aren’t aware (or aren’t a regular reader), I have a tab dedicated to my WIP (see above). The main character of my WIP is a female teenage alien called Pearl. Yeah, it seems like I’ve been on this WIP forever, but it’s been slow going… what can I say? Life, work, family, and the blog have been tough to juggle. I really need to make serious progress with the WIP this month, so this RTW is timely. Talking about my characters usually lights a fire under my beee-hind to work on their story.
So, what yearbook superlative would Pearl get? Definitely: Most Likely to Marry an Earthian. As I said, Pearl’s an alien, and the high school she goes to has some unusual superlatives. This one is almost equivalent to our “Most Likely to Succeed” since the people on her planet consider Earth to be a very advanced civilization, and hence to marry someone from Earth (an “Earthian”) means you have met a high standard of culture and intelligence. However, awarding this to Pearl is a bit tongue-in-cheek since she isn’t actually all that bright. She loves Earthians, though, so the likelihood of her marrying an Earthian probably has more to do with her dogged determination than impressing an Earth man with her brain power. Her classmates would get a good laugh out of it.
Don’t forget to check out other responses to the Road Trip Wednesday question on the YA Highway blog today. And to all my fellow US readers:
Have I mentioned recently that I love how your Alien civ is actually less advanced that Earth? Love, love, love it. 🙂
Thanks, Emma! I may have mentioned before, but this whole story came about by bringing together that “what if” (i.e., what if there was an alien race that considered Earth to be the pinnacle of hi-tech, just like most of our sci-fi writers assume aliens are more advanced?), with the “what if a teenage alien accidentally turned up in Victorian London?” I just need to get on with writing the thing…! 😀
Hello Bruv… I have a question for thee. I quoth from the above article: ‘Yeah, it seems like I’ve been on this WIP forever, but it’s been slow going… what can I say? Life, work, family, and the blog have been tough to juggle. I really need to make serious progress with the WIP this month…’ My question is this, do you think that if you had more time you’d get more done or does having so many other commitments/responsibilities make you more focused to use the time you have effectively?
That is a very good question. It is the common assumption that given more time, we’d get more done. I think the truth is, given more time, I’d have greater opportunity to get more done. Whether or not I get stuff done actually has more to do with discipline than time. And I will be the first to admit that I need to stop being distracted by the bright shiny objects in my life. Not that there’s not a place for those things, but that I need to be sure writing has its place in my schedule, too. More time would make it easier to carve a spot for writing, that’s for sure.
Interesting… So do you actually schedule a block of time where you will do your writing?
Not specifically. I know some writers give themselves an hour or two every evening (e.g., “8-10 is writing time”), but I don’t know if I can do that at this point. Maybe I need to. At the moment, I’m trying to fit writing time in around everything else, which really isn’t a good way to build a potential career. I mean, I don’t treat my day job like that! 😀
Haha! Love it. 🙂 Now that would be one wacky yearbook, I’d wager. I can’t wait until this WiP is published and I can actually read it!
Thank you, Jaime! Yes… I can’t wait until it’s written… not that I’m not enjoying it, but I’ve been on it for a while. I should have the first draft done already. *sigh*.
Am ambitious alien. I love it! I do love Pearl already and can’t wait to see more from this WiP you’re working on.
Happy Independence Day!
Thanks, Robin–and I’m encouraged by people who say they look forward to reading this story. It gives me the kick I need to get on with writing it. 🙂
This sounds really really cool 😀 I remember that little bit you did with one of your characters from that WiP discovering some technology and I loved it!
Hope you finish it soon 😀
Thanks, Elodie! That was a fun story to write. 🙂
I just read the description for your WIP. I hope you finish writing it soon, because that sounds like something I would read 🙂
Thank you, Stephanie! I hope you are one of many that would be interested in it. I certainly need to get on and finish it. 🙂
Very interesting! I’m currently reading SHANGHAI GIRLS by Lisa See. Just started. The first-person narrator is also named Pearl. We’re in 1937 Shanghai, the “Paris of China” and I wondered, as I read your post, what superlatives Pearl and her sister May might receive. That remains to be seen as I try to finish it before Friday morning when it’s due back at the library, but I wonder if one of them would be “Most Likely to Marry…” something equivalent to an Earthian. 🙂 I’m very intrigued by your story!
I like the premise of my story–I really hope it lives up to its potential. I hate it when I read a book that has an awesome premise, but doesn’t deliver. Thanks for the words of encouragement, Sara. 🙂
Love the Earthians. Love Pearl is more determined than smart – sounds like I’d be going for her to triumph against the odds!
… and she’ll have some pretty major odds to deal with in her story! Thanks, Bec!! 🙂
Most Likely to Marry and Earthian = Most Likely to Succeed. Hilarious. It’s interesting how Earth is a more civilized planet than the Aliens. It’s usually another way around. Way to go!
As I mentioned above, that was a “what if” that had been in my mind when I came up with the idea for this story. I’m glad you like it. 🙂
That would be an interesting list of superlatives to see! I’d love to see the other equivalents for that school!
That list would also give you some insight into the values and priorities of the people, which would indeed be interesting to see. 🙂
Nice one! I love the reasons behind it. And I just read the summary and I love the premise of an alien in Victorian London. 🙂
Thanks, Rachael! I hope there are agents out there that agree with you… 😀
That sounds like such a fun story and it is great you came up with your own superlative! It is an interesting spin to make Earth the more advanced society since you usually see the alien worlds being the more advance, great twist,
That’s something that always bothered me about sci-fi novels or shows–Earth was always the primitive planet. We always assume that an alien society that could travel to Earth must be technologically advanced in every other way too. I wanted to challenge that premise. 🙂