Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Yearbooks: Oh the Horror (or Memories for a Lifetime?)

Tip of the Day: Check out this new website that Lisa belongs to -- Contemps!

On Sunday night I was working on my wip when I hit a brain dead zone. My eyes wandered the Writer Room and hit upon my high school yearbooks, books that had been buried under my bed until I moved this past May. I thought maybe if I jumped into some Deena-As-Teen moments from the past, I'd be reinvigorated for my writing.

I randomly pulled out my junior yearbook and flipped it open to the inside cover. Various patterns of handwriting covered the page, some entries signed with just a first name from a person who I can't recall. Other entries were from girls I still am friends with now, but whose promises of "I will never forget XXXX!" made me wonder, what the heck was XXXX?

In high school, everything that happens is so important. All moments are things to be remembered, cherished, and laughed about years later. We are so sure we will "never forget."

But then we do.

When writing teen fiction, that's something for me to recall. That the little things are important. That the "me" time, the small quiet moments between friends, mean everything. That a tiny wrong can lead to a big hurt. That perspectives are smaller due to the restriction of age.

Deena, Miss Subbing for Pubbing

2 comments:

Lisa Schroeder said...

You are so right, Deena! The little things *are* important.

And come on, now I really want to know what XXXX was!!! Are you SURE you don't remember?

Kate Fall said...

Funny, I was thinking about this very thing this week myself. I read through a diary I sporadically kept from 8th to 10th grade. It was horrifying. I must have been the most boy crazy person on Earth. One day I LOVED xx, the next week I HATED xx. And xx probably didn't know I was alive, but he did something very important regardless!