When to quit, generation gaps, and cell phones

The previous post about when it’s okay to give up on a book inspired a discussion amongst the readers at work.

From a coworker whose sister is a librarian:

“If you are under 50, you read 50 pages and if you are over 50, you subtract how many years over from the total of 50. A 55-year old would only have to suffer through 45 pages before getting to quit.”

Can we add a caveat of “barring any egregious errors”? For instance, I have been known to ditch books for forgetting basic geographical laws of physics (i.e., one does not fly from Denver to New Zealand through Europe, and upon arriving there in July, does not go hiking in the South Island in a tank top and shorts. It’s the dead of winter, and the country ain’t too far from Antarctica), and I’ve tossed them when otherwise contemporary stylish characters don togs that haven’t been in style since Reagan left office.

As inspired by Trish Millburn’s recent post,
, I’d like to urge all writers to think not only about what age their characters are, but when they were born. When did they go to high school? What informed their views of society and politics and sex? The Berlin Wall fell when they were in elementary school. They never lived in the Cold War. (in fact, their image of war looks like the desert). If they are in their late twenties, they listened to grunge in high school. If they are younger, they listened to boy bands, or hip hop. They never wore shoulder pads. They haven’t worn leggings since elementary school (unless you count to yoga class). They’ve always known about safe sex. The younger ones don’t remember when MTV just played music. The older ones watched Beverly Hills 90210, and the younger ones watched Dawson’s Creek. They all watched Friends. They all watched the Simpsons (the younger ones don’t remember a time when The Simpsons weren’t on TV). The younger ones had cell phones in college, maybe even in high school.

As I was writing, I had to think about these things a lot. I wanted to think that Amy was just like me, but she’s actually 6 years younger than me. She was born in 1985. And in those 6 years, a lot has happened, even to change the campus landscape where I attended school. The cell phone thing was definitely one of them. Having cell phones changes the way you tell a story, just as it changes the way you make plans to meet with people. It changes everything. I think it was Jo Leigh (sorry, Jo, about breaking your blog!) who recently said that The X Files couldn’t have been made now that there are camera cell phones (unless the FBI forbids them!). A friend recently told me that she threw out a book by a well-known chick lit writer who included a major plot point that revolved around a savvy Manhattanite finding a pay phone. How easily could that have been fixed if she’d included a mention of how the character’s cell was broken, or wasn’t getting reception, or the battery was dead? Scott Westerfeld’s novel SO YESTERDAY has a major plot point that revolves around the use of a cell phone.

One piece of technology — a whole new world. So, think about that — thinks baout where your characters come from, what is a part of their worldview, what technology would inform their lives. And keep it contemporary. This isn’t 1995, it’s 2005.

A writer friend of mine was recently discussing pulling one of her old manuscripts out of retirement, but I think any rom suspense manuscript that was written more than five years ago would have to be massively reworked. Google is everyday now. Cell phones are ubiquitous. How would that change how the story works?