Our characters

This is terrific advice.

Surprise me

I never thought I'd mention Harry Potter and The Karate Kid in the same post.

Of all the talk within the children's writing community about Harry Potter, there is one I remember the most. A speaker at the Mid-Atlantic SCBWI conference (I think it was Bruce Coville) said the biggest draw of the series was that there was a surprise on every page. They were never just jelly beans, or portraits, or even bathrooms. In the world Rowling created, even the most mundane objects or activities were surprising.

The world was wondrous.

In a much smaller way, The Karate Kid remake surprised me. When I saw Mr. Han working on a car, I expected to hear"Wax on, wax off." I never did. There were the obligatory training montages, but one was punctuated with the young hero flexing and posing in front of his mirror. Nothing huge, but another small, funny, surprise.

(That the movie surprised me at all is incredible. This post is being written by someone who remembers trying to balance on one foot before delivering a brutal, match-ending kick. I also remember seeing half the playground trying to do the same thing during one second grade recess. We considered ourselves successful if we didn't fall down in the attempt.)

I knew what was going to happen in the remake. I knew all the plot points it needed to hit. Yet in many small ways, the movie didn't do what I thought it would- and so it kept my interest.

I'm in the middle of rewrites, and I keep coming back to the importance of surprising the reader. No conversation, description, or character should be just what the reader expects. That's easier said than done, but it forces me to dig a bit deeper into whatever I'm writing. It's also a way to measure the effectiveness of what I've just written. I feel that I can move on when something unexpected is revealed, even if it's a small something.

What about you? What books surprised you in big or small ways? How do you keep your own writing fresh?

And did you ever try that kick after watching the first Karate Kid?

Last Lines in Kid Lit

I love Sporcle. Today they posted a quiz about last lines in children's books. I scored 11 out of 20, which was still in the 90th percentile. Please, please, someone do better than I did!

Getting in and then getting out

I'm going to see "The King's Speech". The movie is about King George VI, the younger son who never thought he'd be king. Hitler is conquering Europe, and the UK needs to hear from their king. George can't speak without stammering, yet he is expected to speak to his country in a radio address. (It can't have helped that Hitler was an amazing orator.)

The trailer captured me. I think many of us write because we can't get the words to come out right the first time.

Or the second.

Or the third. But I digress...

I read this article about the movie today, and in the article was a link to an interview with Colin Firth who plays King George. He says that as an actor, his job is to get in and get out: to understand his character's dilemma, but not concentrate on expressing it. Rather, he should focus on the character's determination to get out.

He argued that if an actor concentrates too much on portraying the problem (in this case, stammering) then the audience sees an actor trying act. But Colin's goal is to pour his energy into portraying his character's struggle against the dilemma. The actor's effort should be towards portraying the fight, not the enemy.

He said it enables the audience to connect with the character. Few people want to follow a character whose energy is spent getting into his personal hell. But an audience is willing to walk with a character fighting his way out of one.

I've been banging my head against the wall with revisions. I have so much to do, precious little time, and even less creativity. But Colin's point made sense to me as a writer. I'm working to figure out the tension that pulls my MC through the story. That's huge. But once I clarify that dilemma, I need to go back to my MC's fight against it.

And speaking of fights- I need to go wrestle my own dilemma into submission. I'll let you know how it goes...

Mid-Atlantic SCBWI Fall Conference

This was my second time to this wonderful conference and, like last year, I was not disappointed. Ellen Braaf, the regional advisor, gives everyone a warm welcome. You immediately feel right at home. Being elbow to elbow with a hundred or so other like-minded writers for a whole day was just as inspiring the second time. This conference is high energy and high quality.

First in the queue of speakers was author Kathy Erskine. She presented GREAT writing tips. Using “great” as an acronym for her five elements of good writing. An agent panel followed her. We all love to hear what agents are looking for. Chapter books and books for boys were mentioned quite a bit. One of their recommended website was http://absolutewrite.com/. The website is for all types of writers. It has how-to articles, interviews and a business section. Andrea Tompa, Editor at Candlewick Press, compared revising your writing to wood carving. You get the big picture first then carve away to the details. The keynote speaker was author Lisa Yee. She had us in stitches. Winner of the Sid Fleischman Humor Award, she could be a standup comedian on the side. There was also a book buyer panel. What an interesting idea to hear the perspective of the buyers. The panel included a public librarian, school librarian and owner of an independent children’s bookstore. The conference ended with an editor’s question and answer session. All in all many worthwhile speakers and panelists plus good food and company.

Dropbox Anyone?

I'll confess right up front that I'm terrible about backing up my documents. I was using a memory stick for a while but only remembered to do it once a month or so. Then there was the emailing-novel-to-myself phase. I remembered to do that about twice a month. I checked out some of the online services that you pay for (mozy, etc), but I'm so cheap I just can't stand paying for things if I don't have to. (Actually, I think they offer 2 gigs free now.)

But still, I thought there must be another way.

I just discovered dropbox. I'm not terribly tech-saavy, so this may be old news, but I'll share anyway. You go to dropbox, download it, and a folder will appear on your computer. Anything you put in this folder can be accessed from any computer connected to the internet.

They market dropbox as a way to organize your files across multiple computers, phones, etc, but all of the files you drop in your dropbox folder are also instantly uploaded to the internet. So, if your computer breaks and your phone bursts into flames, you still have access to your files via "cloud computing."

Now, when I sit down to write, I open Chapter 18 from the dropbox folder and work on it. When I hit "save," the doc is saved not only on my computer but also on the internet. I don't have to remember to back up. I don't have to do anything special. I'm loving it.

So, what do you use to back up your writing and how do you like it? Ever tried dropbox? Have concerns I haven't thought about?

Repeating relationship

I just finished reading an interview with Dan Harmon, the creator of the show Community. Both the interviewer and Dan talked about having "every relationship between every character different".

Now that's interesting.

For those of you who don't watch Community, it's a show with a large cast, and it would be so easy to have repeating relationships: multiple friendships between characters based on common interests, several mentoring relationships, or attraction between peers, etc. But it isn't that way at all. I should take more time to describe the show, but I'm going to move straight to writing.

I realized- in a blinding flash of insight- that it's easy for me to do that with the secondary characters in my MS. I might have several pairs of characters that relate the same way towards each other. Guess who's going to go back, look at all the relationships she's created, and make sure she's not being lazy with how her characters relate to each other?

One of the things that pulls me further into a story is surprise. Shouldn't the way my characters interact be surprising as well? (Not surprising as in: "Golly, Jane, I had no idea you enjoy roller derby in addition to your work CPA." Instead, the surprise should come from a weak person exhibiting strength, or from discovering a stoic character has a well developed sense of humor.

My story will be so much stronger if a character is strong with one person and vulnerable with another. That's the way we really are. I have people I'm cheerful around, and a few who will know if I've had a bad day. I might be serious with one person and never have any substantial sort of conversation with another.

Yes, the concept of non-repeating relationships is pretty basic, but it stood out to me. Had anyone else ever thought of that before?

Objectification of writers

I don't know about you all, but after this week, I needed a blog post like the one I found tonight:

Offended by Rank Objectification of Writers

Apparently, some folks had twenty reasons why writers were great folks to date. I'm a writer, and I'd say I'm fairly date-able (on good days ... if you give me enough warning). However, these folks gave all the wrong reasons for dating a writer.

Enjoy! And if you have any thoughts/anecdotes on dating writers or just being one, please share!

Can you relate to Beaker?

You know the first thing I thought when I saw the video? This is what I do to myself sometimes. I swear there are times when I can feel the barbs pop up around me.

I am not saying that we shouldn't work on our craft. We should. Always.

However, there's a big difference between "I need to tighten the last three chapters" and "What am I doing? I'm embarrassed to even read this."*

This video was a good reminder for me: the best way to end up burnt out and weeping over my computer is to pay attention to the harpies. We gain the strength to improve when we refuse to listen to them.

Sometimes ... that means telling our own self to shut up.

Now let's go give Beaker a hug.

*I was sitting at Barnes and Noble, hammering out the first draft of a scene and praying that no one could read over my shoulder.

Manuscripts ... and a surprising lack of theme music

You know that moment in the movie Little Women when Jo finally finishes her manuscript? The one when she ties the papers together with string and tucks a crimson flower under the bow?

I did not have that moment.

I spent my moment in the foyer of the Post Office...

pulling apart a shopping bag...

so I could use the brown paper to wrap the box...

that held the manuscript...

that I had to mail to Harold Underdown.

It's been a crazy few days. School starts next week, and I am up to my eyes in planning Algebra.

Was my manuscript lying lovely and pristine, all printed up, waiting to be mailed out and begin its life with my mentor in the Nevada SCBWI Mentor Program?

Oh no. I'd just gotten back from Chautauqua. So of course, I kept revising and patching and and putting in completely new parts. I still haven't done as much revision as I would have liked on this MS. It's a complete read, but it's not a good one yet, especially the last third. That really bothers me- never mind that this whole program is about, you know, REVISION.

So when I got the word that it was time to mail the MS, I had some cleaning up to do that kept me up till the wee sma's.

I finished the cleanup today after work. I searched my MS for ???. (That's my placeholder for when I can't find the right word or for names I have yet to choose.) Then I replaced each ??? with a word, any word. I felt like that little Dutch boy plugging the leaky dike.

Off to Kinkos. Ten minutes later, I had the full MS in a box. I then grabbed an excedingly dull pair of store scissors and began hacking at the box so that there wouldn't be two inches of clearance between the papers and the top of the box.

Across the parking lot to the Post Office. They have an automated mailing machine that looks like something out of the Jetsons. I needed to wrap the box, hence the wrestling match with the brown paper shopping bag.

About the time that I centered the lopsided Kinko's box on the ragged brown paper, I thought of Jo and her flower. I also wondered whether it was horribly disrespectful to Mr. Underdown to send a MS in brown paper that hadn't even been cut with scissors.*

Suffice to say, there was no moving theme music.

But here's the truth. It was still pretty amazing. I've never seen my entire MS printed out. I've never mailed it to someone who wanted to read it. Do you know how cool it was to write "Harold Underdown, New York, New York" on that brown paper package?

I don't think there will be much theme music or flowers in my writing career. I foresee a lot of scrambling and a lot of chaos.

You know what? I'm good with that. I think most of us who write are.

So ... I'd love to hear about your writing moments. What are they like?

*I did fold down the edges, though, so it shouldn't look too bad.

First Pages Critiques

I just entered the James River Writers conference First Pages Critiques. It's my favorite part of the whole 2 day conference. They have actors read a submission, then the panel, usually editors and agents, say whether they would keep reading past the first page or not and why. You get a green card or a red card from each person on the panel. They do about 20 submissions, but time really flies. The actors do a really great job bringing these pages to life.

I won't tell you which story I sent the first page of, since it is supposed to be anonymous. Of course, any Slushie who attends the conference with me (in October) will know and recognize it. Hopefully I will get at least one green card!

Who am I kidding?? What I am hoping is that an agent on the panel will say, "Not only would I keep reading, but whoever wrote this, please see me after the panel."

Let's not go too far though. Asking to read the whole manuscript may be too big of a dream, since I only have a few pages written.

Back to hoping for a green card....or two....

Come to think of it, they don't read every one they receive. Fingers crossed they even read it...

Hanging out with the cool kids

There's a saying that if you can't be interesting yourself, find interesting friends.

I have taken that advice to heart.

The first interesting person of my acquaintance is our own Michelle. She is in the 2011 Children's Writers and Illustrator's Market. Carmela Martino* wrote an article about group blogs and asked the Slushbusters a few questions. Not surprisingly, Michelle's quote made it into the article ... that made it into the book (p. 69!) ... that we just bought from Barnes and Noble!

How cool is that?

The other interesting person I'll soon be acquainted with is...

Harold Underdown

Yes, Harold Underdown!!!

I was accepted into the Nevada SCBWI Mentor Program. Harold Underdown will be my mentor for six ... entire ... months.

Hear those squeals of joy? I'm just hoping that I can pull myself together soon.

*You should definitely swing by Teaching Authors blog.

I Write Like....

Someone I know recently sent me to this website, I Write Like….

You enter in a sample of your writing and the site tells you what famous writer you most write like.

I’m not to willing to swear on this site or attest to its accuracy. But I thought it would be fun and possibly enlightening…

I entered 8 different writing samples of my own writing -- pretty diverse choices.

Apparently I Write Like:

George Orwell
Cory Doctorow
Cory Doctorow
James Joyce
Kurt Vonnegut
Cory Doctorow
Robert Louis Stevenson
Cory Doctorow

Well, obviously I’d better go and read some Cory Doctorow…or maybe I’ll go type in some Jane Austen to that site and see what happens…..bruhahahhhahahhaa…..

Check it out and let us know who YOU write like…..

Wow

Boy, are those Spinellis smart.

We had a barbecue today, and while everything was being prepared, Jerry and Eileen Spinelli talked to us. (How amazing is that!!!!) They asked each other the questions they hear most often and then answered them.

My favorite takeaway was about ideas. You know I hate the concept of ideas equaling stories. I am convinced that good books are all about the execution of an idea- not the idea itself.

However, Eileen made an excellent point about why new authors especially focus on finding ideas. It isn't that they don't have ideas.

It's that they don't trust them. They're not sure it's a good idea. They're not sure it's grand enough. But Eileen said writing is not a case of capturing grand ideas so much as "the ability to pull the grandness up out of an ordinary day."

So take a second look at a few ideas that you have. Maybe they're ideas for new stories, or maybe they're ideas about how to make your current work in progress better. But give them a chance. Give them something cool to drink and sit down and chat a while. You might discover your ideas aren't so bad after all.

Let us know: how do you treat your ideas? What do you do with them? Have you found it easier to trust yourself the more you write?

This has helped me...

I'm in the middle of huge revisions on my MS. I've lots of time to work now that school is out.

But more important than that, I have a deadline. I applied to be part of the Nevada SCBWI Mentor Program. Program participants are matched with a mentor who will work with them for six months (six months!) to get their MS on track.

I'll know by August 1 if I've been accepted. If I am accepted, I'll have to send my mentor my MS within a week of the notification.

So, I've been hauling though my MS, revising the new second half that I wrote last year. This is not a pruning, polishing sort of revision. This is digging in, up to my elbows, so I can extract gems from the rough draft and arrange them in some sort of compelling order.

I'm halfway through, but it's been exhausting work. Several times I've finished revising a chapter and not been able to tell whether it's been an improvement. I'd lost my vision, which is a big part of revision (six letters, by my count).

My tendency is to push on through, to show the MS who's boss, but Steph mentioned a piece of advice that Alisha Niehaus gave her: if a scene is giving you trouble, write a few scenes past it, and then come back to it.

Yes, it is ridiculously simple, but it has been saving my bleary-eyed self. When I get tired, I lose perspective of what's working, what's necessary. Every time I've worked a few scenes ahead, it's given me a better idea of what needs to happen to set up the scene I've moved ahead to. Then I'm able to return to the difficult scene, weed out the unnecessary, and emphasize what's working.

So, for those of you who are working hard, who (like me!) will be as pale at the end of this summer as you were at the beginning, consider skipping ahead when you hit a wall. I'd also love to hear any other tips you might have for tackling a difficult stretch of writing.

Camp 3 (Sunday morning) at the SCBWI Mid-Atlantic Novel Revision Retreat

We woke early in the Big Meadows campground despite our late night s’more party (lol! ended by 10 PM). The clouds hugged the Blue Ridge Mountains, or so we thought. Within half an hour the sky was clearing and the day turned sunny.

Over breakfast we talked about what a great party it had been. Though only three of the participants at our writing retreat attended, among them was Alisha Niehaus, Senior Editor from Dial Books for Young Readers.

In her Last Chapter session, Alisha mentioned the standard elements of tying up the narrative and emotional arcs. But also how authors can create a little mystery by opening doors for their characters in the final chapter. This engages the reader’s imagination at guessing what will happen next. Alisha suggests your think of the last chapter as a playground where you and the reader can have a little fun.

Other tidbits gleaned from Alisha on writing: salt heavily with pungent verbs and lightly with peppery adjectives, coming of age is often your focus, and your plot should move the characters through their emotional arc by building events and challenges.

I was very glad I attended the retreat and would recommend it. But I personally suggest you camp. It adds flavor to the retreat.

Camp 2 (Saturday afternoon) at the SCBWI Mid-Atlantic Novel Revision Retreat

My two fellow campers and myself sat through the downpour, happily dry in the Big Meadow Lodge but with worries about our campsite. The storm tracked along the Blue Ridge Mountains and put it directly over our tents which were comfortably snuggled among the trees of the Shenandoah National Park. But who could pull themselves away from the second craft session on First Chapters to the futile task of saving our camp? Our tents were staked down, so no threat of Wizard the Oz II. Fellow Slushbuster Stephanie, the engineer amongst us, had strung up a tarp over our picnic table the day before. It withstood a very windy night so we hoped it could survive this summer thunderstorm.

Again Alisha Niehaus, Senior Editor from Dial Books for Young Readers led the session. Her advice on what needs to be in your first chapter came in three pitches: show who the characters are emotionally, plant a seed of where the plot will take the reader and create a clear and unique voice. Hit all three and you’ll have the bases loaded.

On the matter of voice, she described it as heart, made from melding together the voices of the author and characters.

As examples Alisha used two novels she edited, showing the before and after rewrites. This was a real treat of the s’more variety. The two books were Savvy by Ingrid Law and The Sky is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson. Her edits included changes in plot to build more tension, scaling back characters so as not to overshadow the main character, creating other characters and, of course, grammar corrections.

Camp 1 (Saturday morning) at the SCBWI Mid-Atlantic Novel Revision Retreat

The three happy campers awoke to a beautiful day along the Skyline Drive only to discover the showers were coin operated. A mad scramble for quarters ensued. After showers and breakfast around the picnic table we headed for the Big Meadows Lodge for the start of the craft sessions.

“Visualizing Your Novel: Mapping Narrative and Emotional Story Arcs” was first at bat. Alisha Niehaus, Senior Editor from Dial Books for Young Readers led the session. All of the sessions were well thought out, expertly presented, and allowed time for writing exercises and discussions about writing problems and solutions. Alisha hit a homerun. She plotted a typical narrative arc, which of course looked like an ever-increasing mountain range while the emotional arc was a smile with happiness on one axis and time on the other. Juxtaposition the two graphs over top of one another and you have a slightly askew, gaping mouth complete with jagged teeth. (After all, she called it visualizing your novel.) She suggested you use events and roadblocks (narrative) to get the main character through the emotional arc. Two things to consider: what events will build and how the events could make the character grow. She reminds us to make the reader frustrated. This will involve them more deeply in the story. The classic plot she stated is to move your characters on a journey outside their comfort zone in order for them to mature.

SCBWI Mid-Atlantic Novel Revision Retreat – Base Camp

Recently I attended the Novel Revision Retreat sponsored by SCBWI Mid-Atlantic chapter. It was like going to camp with 20 of your best friends. Nineteen participants plus Alisha Niehaus, Senior Editor, from Dial Books for Young Readers converged on Big Meadows off the Skyline Drive in the Shenandoah National Park.

The Big Meadows Lodge has a rustic look from a bygone era, much like a New Deal WPA work project with its hand-hewn logs. From its great room there are stellar views of the Shenandoah Valley below. This was where our retreat began on Friday night with a get-to-know-ya session.

Three of us (myself, Caroline, and fellow Slushbuster Stephanie) opted to camp. The campground is located adjacent to the lodge. This turned out to be a bonus when Alisha came to our s’more campfire party. My long-time friend and tent mate Caroline suggested the party. Alisha jumped right on it. Turns out as a kid she camped with her family in her home state of California.

Some of the purists insisted on real sticks for roasting their soft, white puffs of pure sugar. They wanted nothing to do with the new-fangled metal prongs, which looked like miniature pitchforks. But all strived for a toasted golden brown confection. The flame-broiled mishaps occurred but were quickly discarded into our bonfire.

Once the s’mores hit the stomachs talk turned to writers, good books and just about any topic you could imagine. This went on for hours. No, we did not end with campfire songs but we were three happy campers.

Stayed tuned for details about the craft sessions in next three blogs.

13 to Life Blog Tour with Shannon Delany

Welcome to Shannon Delany's Start Your Day with Serial Tour! Shannon's debut novel (and first in her YA paranormal series) 13 to Life started as a winning cell phone novel written in serial segments. During the tour you can read bits of the book in order. Miss a day? Hop to Shannon's blog and check the link to the blog tour calendar in her sidebar. (Our bit of the story is at the end of the interview.)

There will also be a contest* that will close at the end of the tour. Winners get a bunch of stuff.

So much good stuff! Okay then, let's dive into the interview:

I was intrigued that 13 to Life began with the Textnovel.com contest. What was it like, writing with such immediate feedback? Do you miss that sort of feedback now?

I enjoyed the feedback I got (and the participation of people in some of my polls which challenged me to bend to what the public hoped for next in the story). When I need feedback now I call on my CPs and Betas and occasionally post snippets on Twitter. I want to get back to Textnovel.com, though--it's a great site.

That brings us to the next question. How do you get feedback on your current projects?

My husband, CPs and Betas are great about giving feedback to me with my current projects. Everyone but my husband does an NDA and then gets email attachments to read and make comments on. And my CPs and Betas ROCK!

Has there been a particularly helpful critique? How did it strengthen your writing?

All of my CPs and Betas are very different in what they bring to a critique. I had one CP who was great at grammar. Robin is tremendous about looking at the feel and mood and romantic elements, while Carla and Annette are terrific about scoping out the humor and overall pacing. My husband and father are more about the story's flow and how it (literally) sounds as they listen to it read by a robotic voice while they're on the road. Their motto is basically: If it sounds great read by a robot, it should sound even better when people read it themselves. My agent, Stan Soper, also reads and makes suggestions. I have a great team really.

What sort of books did you read as a teen? How have they influenced your writing today?

I was a sci-fi, fantasy and mythology girl. I loved Anne McCaffrey, Mercedes Lackey, Robin McKinley, Shakespeare and Andre Norton. I think reading them helped me understand voice and character (The Ship Who Sang and The Hero and The Crown were awesome) and the depth of a world--without having to reveal all of the world's depth in the very first book (hint, hint).

You've blogged about how you never thought you'd never write about werewolves, even though it's turned out to be "enriching". So I have to ask, what made you write about werewolves in the first place?

Frankly, I was seeing a sea of vampires and (although they're awesome in lots of ways) I have a great respect and fondness for wolves. And the legends of werewolves have as rich a history as vamps (easily). I wanted to know where the werewolf heroes were and so I wrote some myself.

Your website biography says that you began writing in earnest when your grandmother fell ill. If it's not too personal, what did you write? Were you writing with the intent of getting published?

I was only a kid then, so I was writing about unicorns and volcanos erupting. I dreamed of being published as a kid (and first got published when I was still in 8th grade) but wasn't serious about it.

It's totally off topic, but you raise heritage livestock in upstate New York. I'd love to know more how you ended up in such unique work.

I like to believe I'm a relatively independent thinker and the idea of being self-sufficient (our animals and land produce a variety of products for us) is very appealing to me. Going back to more traditional breeds of livestock (and plants) is also a bit of a fascination for me--there are reasons certain breeds have lasted this long and (although I'd NEVER say it's easy work) farming's good and grounding. There's nothing better to check your attitude as an author than to have to scrape manure off your boots before you come in your front door. ;-)

(Love it. Nothing like manure to ground a person.)

And now... the promised 13 to Life snippet.

13 to Life: Chapter 3, part V (used with the author’s permission)

He blinked at the challenge and before he could speak, the bell rang, four hundred students leaping up from scattered tables and rushing towards three sets of doors. I allowed myself to be swept away by the mob, drifting and dodging along and keeping my head low as I raced through the corridors and took stairs two at a time.

More about Shannon and her series can be found at http://ShannonDelany.com and http://13toLifeSeries.com.

*Shannon's hosting several contests during the Start Your Day with Serial Tour. The big contest will award one lucky winner with a royal amber pendant, pietersite jeweled bookmark, stuffed wolf, 13 to Life mousepad, pen, tote, signed poster, personalized copy of 13 to Life and both of the 13 to Life pins. All you need to do is comment at 13 of the blogs hosting Shannon during her 30 day tour. Everyone who does so will be entered into a random drawing. Winner may be international.

Inspiration and Depression

Since I write for children, I've lately been consumed with reading nothing but MG and YA novels. After a full year, I decided it was time to read something for adults. Enter Michael Chabon and his book, the Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay.

This is an amazing book! I feel I am in the hands of a master.

He uses words like crepuscular, gelid, furcate, hirsute, revenants, and spavined, half of which I had to look up. (I won't say which half.)

As I'm reading, I'm thinking this is what I'm striving toward, this is superb writing. And then in the very same breath of thought, "Who am I kidding?" I can drool over the language all I like, but I'm never going to write like this. I'm having conflicting emotions. Awe and inspiration on the one hand. Defeat and depression on the other.

He did win the Pulitzer after all, and I'm just trying to finish my novel and get it published, so I suppose I should lighten up. Still, it's nice to see the possibilities and to dream...

...about one day using words like verisimilitude, aquiline, and chary in my own writing some day.

Woo-hoo for Elana Johnson!

Terrific news!

One of our followers, Elana Johnson, has a book deal! Her YA novel, Control Issues, has been acquired by Simon Pulse.

So please, everyone, swing by her awesome blog and congratulate her!

Yay! Chocolate all round!

Take a break! How well can you...

... name children's books by synonym?

I found a great game today. You're given a list of title synonyms and expected to enter the real title. So The Feline in the Fedora would be The Cat in the Hat.

The only drawback is that you must enter the title perfectly- correct spelling, everything. But it was a pleasant diversion and I think you'll like it.

If you want, come back here and let me know how it went- how many correct in how long. I won't share my score- I discovered the game in the middle of a task and had to stop (the game- not the task!) and ran out of time.

Enjoy!

Books to Treasure

I have a new baby and a three year old. (And there's my wonderful husband, too.) They're the first grandchildren on both sides of the family, so they're getting spoiled with way too many toys. I've started telling people that if they absolutely must buy things for my kids (and sometimes you just gotta), they should get books.

But there are a lot of not-so-great books out there, ones that I get sick of reading. What can I say? I'm picky about my children's literature.

So, I'm creating a list of books I want my children to have, books I loved as a child, books they will treasure for years, books they will save for their own children.

There are the picture books: Goodnight Moon, Blueberries for Sal, Where the Wild Things Are.

And then there are ones for as they get older. Beautiful, illustrated, hardcover editions of Winnie the Pooh, Alice in Wonderland, the Chronicles of Narnia, the stories of Hans Christian Anderson, and on up through Beverly Cleary, Charlotte's Web, A Little Princess, and the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

Oh, the list goes on and on. But I need help. Which books would top your list? Quick, before we get another toy that makes horrid bleeping noises. We need more books!

How did I forget to post this?!?

I've decided I'm going to blame every bit of idiocy that I can on that fact that I've been a bit busy lately. (And believe me, there's been a lot of idiocy.)

Ready?

Here goes. Our good friend (and chocolate lover) Steena Holmes is hosting a OMG blog contest with Stina. There are prizes including a query critique, a first pages critique (by Michelle and I) and ...

chocolate!!!

I apologize for the failing to point you towards the contest earlier, but hope I've mentioned it in time for you to still take advantage of it. You have till May 3.

First Page Friday, sort of....

Hi everyone! A while ago, I sent a submission to Nicola Morgan's Submission Spotlight.

Guess what posted today?

So if you have some time, run on over to her post and leave your feedback. It's going to be a crazy day at work, but I can't wait to read all the feedback when I get back...

In the meantime, if you want to contribute to our own little first page posts, see our rules here.

Need a laugh?

You have to check these out. They're the 2009 winners of the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest.

For those of you who don't know, Edward Bulwer-Lytton had a way with words. He coined the phrases "the pen is mightier than the sword" and "the great unwashed". He wrote The Last Days of Pompeii.*

He is probably most famous, though, for the first line in his novel, Paul Clifford:

It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents—except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the housetops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness.

Now isn't that proof that you can't win them all? You might write lines that linger in culture and novels that are still in libraries. Snoopy might plagiarize you!

And ... you might also write a first line so heinous that it spawns a contest where folks try to write equally heinous first lines.

First lines you should go read. Here. Now. And don't forget the grand prize winners from the past twenty-six years.

If you're feeling particularly cheerful, please come back and paste your favorite first line in the comments section.

*Facts lifted shamelessly from Wikipedia.)

Relax

Hear that? That's the sound of me taking a deeeeeeep breath.

It's been one of the those months. I've been crazy busy at work. I have some upcoming projects, and I've been worried that I might screw them up.

I haven't had time to write as much as I'd like, and I wanted to have all this work finished by Chautauqua.

And silly as it sounds, we lost a follower today.

I am all about discipline, pressing through, and being committed to one's goal. However, I think it's very, very easy to mistake uptightness for passion.

Uptightness leads to ulcers, deep disappointment with myself and my perceived lack of progress, fear about the future, and a feeling that somehow ... some way ... I should be doing more. A lot more.

It involves copious amounts of chocolate that one is too nervous to even enjoy.

Passion, on the other hand, allows me to pour myself into my writing and write with abandon. Not compulsion. Not fear. Not a need to prove myself. It reminds me that I started blogging because of the awesome folks out in cyberspace (and you are awesome!). Not because I was trying to win a popularity contest.

(Passion also involves lots of chocolate, but you're relaxed enough to taste it.)

It's pretty easy for me to be kind to others. With myself? Not so much, sometimes.

I'm guessing that I'm not the only one who struggles with this. So ... here's a reminder to all of us to be gracious towards ourselves.

I feel better already. : )

p.s. Please, please don't think I'm complaining about losing a follower! (I didn't even try to figure out who it might have been.) I only mentioned it because it made me realize how silly I'd been. I've been so worried that person might wander back and think I was ragging on him/her...

What do you hear?

I've been driving a lot lately. The school I work at is nearly 20 miles away- and then I've been providing homebound instruction after that. More driving!

Thank goodness for books on MP3 player. (Your local library might have a few Playaways. Check. Them. Out.)

But I digress.

You know how you're always told to read your manuscript aloud when editing? Well, listening to other books has been eye-opening as well. Here's what has stood out to me:

Passive verbs are boring. Really. A bunch of passive verbs* sounds boring. The language is vanilla, but it often goes hand in hand with similarly constructed sentences. They all have "he/she/they - is/was/were" pattern. It's mind-numbing to listen to sentence after sentence like that. After a while, I'd end up fixing the sentences.

Aloud. To an empty car: "'The water sparkled.' Okay? Not 'The water was sparkling.'"

Aren't I glad no one was watching me.

Don't spend too much time describing your character's internal state. In one story, the author would occasionally give a physical description that showed what the character felt. And then he'd tell us what the character felt. And tell us again. Of course, this much-described emotion occurred during tense parts of the novel. So instead of finding out what happened next, I had to listen through several more sentences about the character's inner state.

I confess that such mistakes led to excessive eye rolling, an occasional pound on the steering wheel, and loud pleas to the author to just tell me what happened next, already.

Repeated words. I don't always notice if I read the same word in a paragraph.** But I sure notice when I hear it again and again. This also applies if only one word is used in a specific situation. Someone might always be referred to as foreboding, or mysterious, for instance. Time for a thesaurus, folks. If I know the word the author is going to use before I hear it, that word is waaaaaaayyy overused.

I've loved listening to books while I drive. If you're curious, I never stopped listening because of the above mistakes. I think it was partially because the plots were interesting, and partly because I was a captive audience.

None of the mistakes are new to me (or you, I imagine). However, it's one thing to tell or be told about those mistakes. It's different when you experience them. I don't want anyone who reads my story to have a similar reaction.

I'd love to know whether you read your manuscripts aloud and if that helps you. What do you notice? And if you do listen to books, are there any aspects of the writing that rub you the wrong way?

* any form of "to be": is, are, was, were, etc.

** My fellow Slushies would point out that I don't notice if I write the same word repeatedly.

Alot of laughs

I found this link over at the Pub Rants blog. Enjoy the much needed humor- and the introduction to the Alot.

And if you feel like it, come back here and share your language/ grammar peeves in the comments section. Extra points if you provide an explanation that allows you to be civil when you come across the mistake. (I like the eagle/no caps explanation myself.)

We're going to Chautauqua!

Exciting news!

Michelle and I both applied for scholarships to the Highlights Writers Foundation Workshop in Chautauqua, New York.

We found out this week that we're both going! There was a bit of drama in the whole process. I found out a while ago that I'd been awarded a scholarship. But Michelle didn't hear anything for weeks.

And weeks.

She discovered Friday that her e-mail notification had been sent 12 days ago; she just never got it.

As you can imagine, there was rejoicing all round, as the picture clearly shows.*

Now I know there are some Highlights alumni (hi, Tess and Fran!) out there- and perhaps even some folks who will be attending this year. Please identify yourselves! And I'd love to hear any comments you have about the whole experience.

*I'm the tall one, and Michelle (like all grammar experts) is the cool one with shades.

First Page Friday, #5

Yay! We have more first pages! Many thanks to Steena of Chocolate Reality for contributing them. We do ask, given the name of her blog, that you eat chocolate while working on your critique. (Or at least think chocolately thoughts.)

It's a rough, I know, but sometimes you just gotta do what needs to be done.

And on that note, here are Steena's first pages.

Megan's hand rested against the closed door. The silence coming from inside the room cried out to her, calling her with its lonely song. Today she would give in to its haunting melody, embrace it and pray she would never hear it again.

As she twisted the handle, she closed her eyes knowing the sight would break her heart. Tendrils of light spread along the carpet and crept up towards the ceiling. The soft pink curtains were open, the sunlight engulfing the room with its welcoming warmth. I keep them closed. She eased her way into the room, one step at a time, her toes sinking deep into the Berber carpet while keeping her gaze fixed on the open window ahead of her.

Princess decals decorated the rose colored walls, pictures of Cinderella, Ariel and Belle intertwined with stickers of sparkling crowns, steeple castles and framed crayon drawings. A sad smile settled on Megan’s face as she viewed the pictures her four year old drew with loving detail. Her favorite frame held a picture of a castle, complete with a queen and king, both wearing extra large crowns over their poufy hair while they held hands with three tiny little princesses. The last picture her daughter had drawn, right here in this very room.

Megan reached the bed and set her hand upon the wood frame as she closed her eyes. She could hear Emily's squeals of delight when, at the age of two, she found her princess bed in her very own princess room. Soft white sheers hung over a handmade wood frame. They draped across the top, where tiny little stars had been ironed onto the sheers, and they hung over the ends, and down the sides. Soft pink fabric encircled the side pieces, creating an opening on either side of the bed for the little princess to enter at will. In the evenings Emily would ask for the curtains to be drawn. She felt safe inside her bed. Megan wished she were there now.

Her hand caressed the white coverlet as a single tear wounds its way past her cheek. Megan climbed onto the bed, her body weary and curled in a ball, wishing the pillow still smelled of baby powder. She closed her eyes, wishing she could imagine her daughter lying beside her, but the image seemed distant. She pictured Emily's tiny body snuggled up against her chest. Megan's arm ached to hold her, her hand wanting to smooth her baby's soft blond hair. The curly hair of a stuffed lamb met her fingers instead. Megan pulled it close, bringing it to her face. Her tears soaked its fur as silent sobs shook her body.

Process and Emotion

I’ve been thinking about the role that my emotion plays in writing.

Now I’m not the overly emotional type when it comes to writing. I’m horribly pragmatic about it. So pragmatic that few things irritate me more than folks asking about Process with a capital P.

(This is different from process, which just means, how do you get your thoughts on paper?)

But there are those who mean Process. And that irritates me because Process implies glamour, genius, and weekly dates with your Muse who gushes about your prose and how you surprise even her.

Capital-P Process is a horrible concept because writing is really just ... writing. It isn’t glamorous and you rarely feel like a genius. In fact, you learn all the ways in which you are far from genius. Your Muse arrives only after you’ve been pounding out dreck for quite some time, hoping to discover the heart of a scene.

Even then, she’s a little tetchy and asks for a cup of coffee because you can’t expect her to look at your work until she’s had a bit of caffeine.

The process (lowercase p, mind you!) of writing isn’t always euphoric. As Nathan Bransford blogged, it's often more about willpower than anything else.

And yet...

I’m learning that the best part of my stories are the ones that engaged me on a deep emotional level. I know I’m on the right track when I’ve gone over a scene a million times, and hit the point where I care.

We all have those scenes that wrote themselves and just sing. But I also have just as many scenes- scenes necessary to the story- that are easy to leave at good enough, at merely well-written. I’m learning to do some unglamorous digging until I find that one aspect that moves me to curiosity, anger, or compassion.

Because, really, if I was bored writing the scene, why won’t a reader be bored reading it? Yes, writing is about the process of getting (and keeping!) your butt in a chair. But the point of that work is capturing scenes that speak to the heart and mind.

Writing should never be an choice between work or emotion. It should always be about both.

So what about you? What role does emotion play in your writing? How do you keep at it day after day until things are just right? I’d love to know how you do it. It’s amazing all the different ways we get our stories on the page.