Writing Tip Tuesday

Subject today?

Point of view.

Jumping out of point of view is a common writing mistake because it's so easy to do.

I love, love, love writing in first person point of view.

But the trick is to get into a zenlike mode and BE that character.

That means every single teeny tiny little thing in the story is presented ONLY through the eyes of the narrator.

Which means......

....unless the narrator (i.e., main character) is looking in the mirror....

....she can't see herself.

So that means, you can't write sentences like this:

My face grew red.

or

My forehead glistened with sweat.

The character can feel her face grow red or her forehead sweating.

But she can't see it.

So you need to write something more along the lines of this:

My cheeks burned.

or

I wiped the sweat from my forehead and stuffed the tissue back in my pocket.

See what I mean?

Things I Love Thursday

How can I not love this?

Writing by a fourth grade boy: a paragraph showing the setting of an attic in an old house--

Tip! Tap! was the sound he heard as he walked up the steps. He smelled the smell of the old things. He could taste the dust as he turned on the light switch. Click!

He saw the creepy boxes covered with cobwebs and spiders. "Eek!" he screamed as a giant bug slithered out of the smallest box and crawled toward him. Slowly, he walked backwards until the light flickered and then...blackness.

Writing Tip Tuesday

I've said it before and I'll say it again:

Resist the urge to repeat yourself.

This little snippet of advice applies to many areas of writing - words, scenes, plot elements.

But it also applies to characters, particularly secondary characters.

Each and every character in your story should have his own role and function.

Ask yourself if there is any one character who "repeats" another character - that is, serves the same function within the story.

Ask yourself: If I take this character out of this story, what will change? Will the story be affected? Will anybody miss him?

If not, it's probably time to murder your darlings.

Dorothy Canfield Fisher Conference

This past weekend, I had the honor of speaking at the Vermont Dorothy Canfield Fisher Conference.

Unfortunately, it was held at a place that had a really lousy view:

But I got over my disappointment and had a lovely dinner with members of the committees:

And I finally got to meet, play with, dine with, laugh with the amazing, Grace Worcester Greene, Youth Services Consultant for Vermont Public Libraries. (Thank you, Grace, for everything.)

Grace Worcester Greene (left) and me

AND, I finally got to meet the UBER talented author Kate Messner. (Kate, HOW do you do it all???)

Kate Messner (left) and me

Signing books with Kate Messner (left)

Me looking kind of stupid at the signing.

Me saying some really deep, intelligent and important things (like redneck jokes).

Me with some of the great kids who did presentations at the conference.

And I took some pics of some of this year's nominees for the Dorothy Canfield Fisher Award (I'm looking at YOU, Scattergood, Pyron, Knowles, Hunt...and others):

You can see the complete list HERE.

Many thanks to the Vermont gang who made that day so special.

Things I Love Thursday

I love school librarians who greet me like this:

Me with librarian, Roxanne Scott

And who makes sure the students have access to all of my books:

A big thank you to the students and staff of Hunnewell Elementary School in Wellesley, MA for making my visit there so special.

And thank you to Roxanne Scott for being such a great librarian. 

Writing Tip Tuesday

Today I turn the tipping over to Philip Martin, of Great Lakes Literary Agency.

Philip Martin is the editor of The New Writer's Handbook (which includes my short article on working with kids, "Show, Don't Tell.")

He offers the following advice on telling a fresh story:


The core of the writer's challenge is to tell a fresh story. As William M. Thackeray (Victorian novelist, author of Vanity Fair), summed it up: "The two most engaging powers of a good author are to make new things familiar and familiar things new."

But how? How to put a fresh spin on old and common themes?

As children's book author Morris Gleitzman says on his website:

"I don't think you can make emotions up, no matter how good your imagination is. (. . .) All we can do is use the emotions we all feel every day. Love, hate, hope, fear, excitement, jealousy, sadness, guilt, joy, anxiety, etc. The characters in our stories may be feeling them for different reasons to us, but they're the same emotions. (. . .)

"So part of the storytelling process for me is to find interesting and unusual reasons for characters to have the emotions that the rest of us experience every day for familiar reasons."

The key to the trick: "interesting and unusual." In a word: quirky.

Too many beginning authors prefer to create a familiar, likable character, someone who doesn't rock the fictional boat . . . while the ones we enjoy the most (think about it) are often the quirkiest, from Pippi Longstocking to Holden Caulfield to . . .

Find the character that swims against the tide, and you've got a core element of a good story.

For more about Philip Martin, visit The Writers Handbook Blog.

EVERY word matters

I recently started reading a book that grabbed me from the get-go with its distinctive voice:

Beholding Bee by Kimberly Newton Fusco

Distinctive voice is the one element that makes me fall in love with a book more than any other. (Character comes in second.)

So, I'm reading along...la la la....and then....

Screeeeech (That's the sound of brakes)

I came to a word that stopped me in my tracks. 

Or rather, I thought I came to a word that stopped me in my tracks.  

Here's what I thought I read:

Pauline knows I am talking about the old lady in the orange floppy hat.

The word that stopped me was floppy.

That was NOT the right word.

It didn't fit the voice of the writing.

But I shrugged it off and kept reading.

Before long, I came to this:

Pauline does not like me talking about the lady in the orange flappy hat.

FLAPPY hat?

Now that is the right word.  

Flappy fits in just perfectly with the voice of the writing. 

So I went back to the page where I thought I read floppy and guess what? The word was flappy all along.

Phew!

And isn't it amazing how much one little word matters?

  

Nancy Cavanaugh is in the house!

I’m always on the lookout for fresh new middle grade books and I found one! 

 

This Journal Belongs to Ratchet has a fresh story, a fresh character, a fresh format.

Eleven-year-old homeschooled Rachel Vance, aka Ratchet (because of her flair for fixing cars), yearns to go to school like the other kids in the neighborhood; to buy new clothes, not clothes from thrift stores; to have a “normal” dad, not a wild-haired grease monkey of a father with a passion for environmental causes, and most of all, to know if the contents of a mysterious box will tell her more about the mother she never knew.

Cavanaugh adeptly lays out the story through Ratchet’s writing assignments, using a variety of formats, including free verse poetry, freewriting, descriptive essay, list poetry, journal writing.

The story flows like a well-tuned engine – at a pace that will keep middle-grade readers turning the pages like  a double overhead cam V-12 and enough action to jumpstart their interest like a fresh spark plug. Okay, okay….my car engine references are lame, but Ratchet’s story is anything but.


 From the book jacket:

If only getting a new life were as easy as getting a new notebook. But it’s not.

It’s the first day of school for all the kids in the neighborhood. But not for me. I’m homeschooled. That means nothing new. No new book bag, no new clothes, and no friends – old or new.

The best I’ve got is this notebook. I’m supposed to use it for my writing assignments, but my dad never checks. Here’s what I’m really going to use it for:

RATCHET’S TOP SECRET PLAN
Project Goal:
Turn my old, recycled, freakish, friendless, motherless life into something shiny and new.
This year, I’m going to make something change.



And now, I’m pleased to introduce author Nancy Cavanaugh:

Nancy Cavanaugh

I loved the way you used the writing exercises to tell Ratchet’s story.  How did you decide which writing format to use for each chapter?
 
I’m a former teacher, so for us teachers, it’s easy to come up with writing assignments.  The difference this time was that I was the one coming up with the assignments, and I was the one who had to do the assignments.  Most of them are assignments I used while teaching, but I did eventually run out of ideas.  When that happened, I used one of my old language arts textbooks and checked out other writing textbooks from the library to get more ideas.  

As for deciding which assignment to use for each part of the story, I have to say the story sort of decided that for me.  It seemed that each part of the story was best told through a specific writing form, and this was really just something I figured out as I went along.


Which type of writing in the book is your favorite?


Though I love it all, I have to say that the poetry is my favorite – not because I think it’s better than the other writing assignments and not because I necessarily like poetry better than the other formats.  I like the poetry best because in most cases, I used poetry to tell the most emotional parts of the story.  Each word in the poetry seems packed with Ratchet’s passion, and that somehow makes the poetry more powerful.


As the wife of a car enthusiast, I related to the car repair aspects

of the story.  I read on your website that you have experience in that area.  Was it difficult coming up with car repair work that an 11-year-old could realistically do?

Well, here’s the thing.  I’m married to a former industrial arts

teacher.  He taught me how to take apart a small engine and put it back together again, and the two of us taught elementary and middle school students how to do the same thing.  It was great fun and super satisfying to see how capable kids can be when it comes to this kind of stuff.  When working on engines, what it really comes down to is understanding how they work, and kids are certainly capable of understanding that.  As a result, a kid like Ratchet would have no trouble helping her dad the way she did in the story.

 
I know that like most authors, you’ve probably put bits and pieces of your real life into your story, such as the car repair work.  Can you give us any other examples of how you’ve used real life tidbits and/or some that you tweaked a bit to fictionalize it?
  
The best example of that in this story is Ratchet’s father.  All of his “Good Lord” antics come from my Grandma Cavanaugh.  She used to always say, “The Good Lord says this . . . The Good Lord says that . . . .”  So I had fun using that part of her personality to make Ratchet’s dad the passionate person that he is.


I’m always interested to know:  a plotter/outliner or a go-with-the-flow kind of writer?

My ideas for stories almost always start with a character.  I think about who that character really is inside and what their problems might be.  As I do that, the character’s voice begins to emerge.  The character and voice come much easier than the plot.  When I have to determine the direction of the story and start figuring out the plot, the writing gets more difficult for  me.

 
What can you tell us about your relationship with your editor at Sourcebooks?
  
My editor is Aubrey Poole, and first I’ll tell you that she’s amazing!  Through lots of revision, she has done so much to make RATCHET the beautiful book that it is.  I’m so grateful for her vision of what the book really could be, and I’m thankful for her insights and her patience as we worked together to take the story to another level. 
 
Can you tell us anything about what’s next?
 
My next book, ALWAYS, ABIGAIL, will be coming in fall 2014 from Sourcebooks/Jabberwocky and will be another alternative format.  The entire story is told in lists, letters, and writing assignments, in which a girl named Abigail uses her language arts class’s Friendly Letter Project to cope with the worst school year ever – and in the process turns it into the best year ever.


A great classroom guide to This Journal Belongs to Ratchet is HERE.

Visit Nancy's website HERE

Read Nancy's chat with Augusta Scattergood HERE.

Read about Nancy at Smack Dab in the Middle HERE.

Things I Love Thursday

I love to read student writing like this:

From a 4th grade boy writing a paragraph showing setting:

Jack's feet danced as they touched the blazing sand. He looked to his left. There were picnic tables. He looked to his right. A barren lake was sitting there luring him to it. Jack sprinted to the docks. He dove ten feet deep and swam to the raft. Once there, he cannon-balled ten times. The sky was turning purple over the horizon.

"Jack! We have to go now," screamed his mom.

"On my way," he replied.

That wonderful day must come to an end. Now it was dark. 

Writing Tip Tuesday

From Rosemary Wells in an essay entitled: The Well-Tempered Children's Book (From Worlds of Childhood: The Art and Craft of Writing for Children; Zinsser):

Writing about anything is a mistake. The only books that work are those which fly through the air - the ones you let happen, not make happen.

Things I Love Thursday

I love getting letters like this from kids:

It was fun to meet you in person and it felt good that we got similar reading and writing report card grades. 

Also, it felt really good you called me an author during our library meeting. My mom was proud. If I become an author, I'll come to my old schools to inspire future authors, too.

Writing Tip Tuesday

Today's tip is short and to the point.

Once again, I quote from Jack Prelutsky, in Worlds of Childhood: The Art and Craft of Writing for Children (Zinsser):

Children love to be surprised.

Enough said.

Authors in April

30 years of Authors in April!

I had such a great experience there.

You can read about it and see lots of great pics here.

 

Things I Love Thursday

 I love reading student writing.


From a fourth grade boy writing a paragraph that shows the setting of summer at the beach:

As the sun melted my face, I tasted the grains of salt sticking to my shirt. I saw green mixing with the orange, red, and purple to form the horizon. I hear schools of fish jump out of the everlasting water. I couldn't resist the urge to pull out my fishing pole and throw the sandy worm into the unknown.

Dear Barbara O'Connor

Dear Barbara O'Connor:

I like to read books about animals and monsters. I like the book How to Steal a Dog because the kids are funny. 

I do have a wish. I wish you would have put a couple of monsters in it.