The Recipe for Lost & Found

Posted by Raven M on 7:51 AM in

Yesterday I did the recipe for a YA Paranormal Romance, and it looks like I got a few takers. Hopefully (if you write one) your PR will turn out to be a hit, and agents will eat it up and someday your little book will be on the NYT list. Okay, I stop.

But on a serious note, I have been thinking about my own WIP a lot. I was reading it yesterday, and I just started fangirling over it, because even though there are A LOT of plot holes and scenes that really don't make sense, there are scenes that are beautiful and wonderful and...yeah.

There were just some paragraphs I couldn't believe I wrote, and well this novel wouldn't been written if I didn't extract inspiration from all over.

So, without farther ado, here is the

RECIPE FOR LOST & FOUND

1 book by Sarah Dessen (preferably Dreamland)
1 outrageously good movie (yes, I'm talking about The Clockwork Orange)
A gaggle of bands + singers from across the pond
Three (technically two) love interest
A main character who is not your average Bella Swan
A small paranormal element

1. Dreamland was an amazing book. I read it a long time ago, but even now it still sticks with me. When I came up with the idea for Lost & Found, I used the relationship between Caitlin and Rogerson to mold Kipling and Kendall's relationship. Rogerson deals drugs, and abuses Caitlin just like Kip does, but I feel that the abuse in L&F is way more intense than it was in Dreamland. While reading that book, I kept thinking that this can't be all an abused girlfriend goes through, and I wanted to explore this 'abuse' a little bit more in my novel, and that is exactly what I did.

It was hard writing those angry, tense scenes between Kip and Ken because they aren't even in a romantic relationship, though Ken really wants to be in one despite the fact that he abuses her. I know I talk a lot about how I think there should be more strong female leads in YA, and I know that you might be thinking "WTF, why does she love a boy who abuses her?" Well, even though Ken is a lot stronger than her aunt who had raised her, I wanted Ken to be clueless when it came to dealing with boys, because she has no males in her life, and the relationship she has seen first-hand is the one between her aunt and her verbally-abusive boyfriend, Ray. Throughout the story, Ken changes, and with change comes her strength, the realization that she shouldn't take mess from any man.

2. The Clockwork Orange is one of those movies that really made my eyes sore, in a good and bad way. Not only was it very explicit and crazy and weird, but it made the creative juices in my head flow. Um, Lost & Found is a book about teenagers who are neglected by the adults in their lives, they are teens who feel like they should be able to take what they want, when they want it. Basically, if they could do so, they would run the world. That is how Kip feels, and because of that mentality, The Clockwork Orange is his favorite movie. (Okay, I know that's not essentially what that movie is about, but if you dig deep into it, you'll find some sense of morality.)

3. Music is essential to any novel I write. It's essential to this novel because Low (one of the said three love interests) is a singer and songwriter. I love American bands and singers, but musical acts like Coldplay, The Script, Richard Ashcroft, Adele, Keane, and a whole lot more make something in my heart fly. Their voices, the lyrics, especially the lyrics, are beautiful and they just fit.





4. Ah, how I LOVE love interest. They make the world go round. There are three in mine, but tis is a lie, because Kip isn't a LI, technically, even though Ken has this weird crush on him. Though, I'll admit Kip can be a real charmer when he wants to. Um, but the other two candidates for Ken's heart is Low, who is sweet and caring and everything she doesn't like a.k.a Lowell Fitzgerald a.k.a Kip's little brother, and Ellis Vega, the sexy *fans self* hot painter who thinks that Ken is {SPOILERS}. More on that later. But the three male leads in this story are pretty sexy, and I had nothing to do with that. They just knocked on my door one day with their smoldering eyes and said "Put us in your novel" and I was all like "Why should I do that?" and they were all like "Because we want you to write us" and they said that in such a smexxy way that I couldn't resist.

5. Kendall isn't like any character I have ever read about before. She just showed up one day, and I've been with her ever since. Lost & Found is really her story, and she is the one telling it. I am just her devote vessel in which she uses to get the words out. I love how she starts off being "lost" not in the sense that she physically can't find her way but emotionally she doesn't know who she is or what she wants. Towards the middle of the book, she catches a glimpse of the person she has to be in order to survive, and to save a girl who isn't meant to be "lost" It is when she realizes that she can be strong, that she is essentially found, hence the title of the book.

If you read this entire post, then here are some virtual cookies.

Now you know what my novel is about.

There's a lot more to it, but here's where I got the inspiration, and now that I'm rewriting it, I hope the next draft will be better than the last.

Now it's your turn: What's the recipe for your novel?