Self- Image in The Hunger Games

Since publication, Suzanne Collins' THE HUNGER GAMES has been the subject of more than one parental tirade against the violence depicted therein. While this post isn't focused on that topic, the one thing I do want to say is that whenever I hear an adult ranting about any book my first question is, "Have you read it?" Haven't had a "yes" answer to that one yet.

Instead, I want to focus on something THE HUNGER GAMES gives teens without being preachy, without talking down to them, and possibly without them even knowing they've learned a powerful lesson.

How tired are you of effortlessly gorgeous female teen characters? How about the rich one with the designer everything who is torn between two ultra hot guys? Or the girl from the wrong side of the tracks that's hitting an 11 on the 10 scale and the guy on the right side of the tracks who falls for her? Are you sick of perfect skin, glossy hair and full lips? 'Cause I sure as hell am.

Katniss kicks ass across the board. Sure, she can kill people in fun and imaginative ways, but the first time we see her she's using her skills to fill the fundamental need of feeding her family, alongside longtime guy friend Gayle. Her love for her little sister sends her to the stage to take Prim's place in a contest where she knows the odds are against her and her life is at stake.

And what does Katniss look like? Well ... we're really not sure. She's got dark hair, and it's usually in a braid. Due to the fact that she's from the poorest area of a poor district and has to hunt her food we can assume she's probably not terribly clean all the time and might even *gasp* smell bad occasionally.

Once a handful of professionals get a hold of her Katniss cleans up and gains attention from the world, but guess what? Ultra-hunky Gayle and super-sweet Peeta were already in love with her, before she got a dress that caught on fire and became the de facto spokeswoman for world peace.

Hmmm ... what could have possibly attracted them to her in the first place? Could it be ... her personality!?!?

One of my favorite lines from the entire series comes from a scene in MOCKINGJAY when Katniss goes to see Peeta after he has been conditioned to despise the polished and public version of her persona, and he says, "You're not very big, are you? Or particularly pretty?" (p. 230).

Katniss even points out her physical shortcomings, in a refreshing non-self-pitying manner: "With my acid-damaged hair, sunburned skin, and ugly scars, the prep team has to make me pretty and then damage, burn, and scar me in a more attractive way." (p. 59).

Katniss has been through battles, bested her enemies, won over the world and had a guy on each arm the whole time.

And she's not "particularly pretty."

Good for her.

The Synopsis Sweats

I know the feeling.

You sweated bullets and cried blood for how long getting that ms together? Your tortured brain finally performed all the necessary contortions to produce a query that is written for results. And now... you get to write a synopsis!! Hooray!!

Ok well... not so much with the hooray. I've written a few synops and I'm not going to tell you that I secretly enjoy it, or that it's not as hard as it sounds. 'Cause I don't, and 'cause it sucks.

Here's the bad news: If you take the route that Mindy-of-the-past (the unagented one) took, then you'll choose to send your query only to agents that don't request a synopsis. And while that might sound attractive, it also seriously limits your playing field. (Note - Mindy's agent does request a synop, good thing I got over my synopphobia).

Here's the good news: I have never heard of a writer getting signed because they wrote such a hot-damn-awesome synop that the agent snapped them up like a toad with a three legged cricket.

The purpose of a synopsis is to show the agent that you've got a plot arc, character development, and pacing all figured out - without them having to read every single word of an ms they're not sure they're sold on yet. The purpose of a synopsis is not to torture you or make you stab yourself in the eye with a carrot.

Tips on writing a synopsis? There's lots of advice out there, but just like writing a novel, you'll find that some of it will work for you, and some won't. So I'll tell you how I do it, and you can take it or leave it.

First - Make sure that your story is edited before you write a synop. And I mean edited with The Bloody Hatchet of Adverb Gore.

Second - Edit it again.

Third - Write your synop as if you were telling your story to a friend. Just write it - have a brain vomit that includes the salient points in your ms. If you hit a point where you think, "Hey, wait a sec... if I move on to the next plot-moving point, it skips like, 50 pages." Then you need to -

Fourth - Edit your ms.

Fifth - Hack away at that synop. Are you aiming for four pages, but you've got five? Should be fine - just kill some extraneous "that's" and re-check your phrasing for the cheapest word count you can get away with and still convey your idea. Are you aiming for two pages, but you've got four? Well, haul that axe back out and take a hard look at those sentences you're leaving in to illustrate how awesome you are, but don't necessarily show forward plot movement. It's called "Kill Your Synop Darlings," and it's a game with a high body count.

So now what? Ask your betas to look at it, especially those who have read the ms in question. You'd be surprised how many of them will have some insight on how to improve it. Beta readers are useful across the board - synopsis, query, novel. Use them wisely. Use them well.

And then? Put it in the envelope, attach it to the email, and send the sucker.

Then refer back to the good news.

The Formula for Procrastination

Some random Friday knowledge for you, and good news - there is a formula for procrastination! It looks like this:

                                 (E)xpectation of success x (V)alue of completing the task
Desire to Finish =   ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                 (I)ndividual's sensitivity to delay x (D)eadline of the task

However, we don't have a cure for it yet. In a separate article, the researcher mentioned here stated that "continued research into procrastination should not be delayed." No word yet on whether or not that was an on-purpose funny.