So, what else but writing sees you ask yourself questions like: If one of the teenage rocker girls in my novel wrote a book report on The Lord of the Flies, what would she say? And what else but writing would allow you to then spend an inordinate amount of doing the hatchet job that is her homework? (This, though it has no hope in hell of making the final draft):

Two Hundred words on Lord of the Flies by Val Swynerchuk.

For a book, it wasn’t bad. It showed good values without being too boring. This book shows how teens should deal with problems they face when stranded on an island. It also had a plot like something you’d dream up, but real too. I would recommend this book to people who read. It wasn’t bad, for a book. I learned something from it along with having to read it. It wasn’t entirely boring and it wasn’t completely stupid. Things in the book happen on real islands all the time… (Etc.)

Okay, that’s Val. Here’s Mel, the narrator’s sister:

Symbolically, it isn’t really an island of boys at all. Everything is a symbol, the island and everything on it and even the watch you are wearing is a symbol like you said, it is a status symbol, but it’d have to be less cheap. Symbolically, Jack is a guy, like most of them, but Ralf handles things more like a girl. Which is why Jack doesn’t listen to Ralf. And Simon is definitely symbolic of a nice girl. I don’t know what Piggy did wrong. Maybe in some places, its wrong enough to be Piggy. If the book has a message its basically that the world is a savage place and don’t let your dreams die, like John Lennon says in the song, everything could be better, and that’s saying a lot, just like Lord of the Flies… (Etc.)

Of course, in the latest edit, there’s basically no reference to Lord of the Flies. But, uh, I guess it’s important to know this sort of stuff about your characters anyway.