Doing it right

I hereby present Hampden Meadows Elementary School with the School-That-Knows-How-to-Do-It-Right Award.

Librarian Jane Austin could have written this post.

She did everything right.

The result?

One of the best school visits ever.

The kids were smart, funny, engaged, polite, friendly, interesting, interested, creative and PREPARED.

The teachers were 100% on board with the program.

Jane later wrote to me: "The children loved meeting you and hearing about your books. They learned so much from you about improving their writing. At 3:00 yesterday I was inundated with requests for all of your books."

Improved writing and excitement about reading?

Mission accomplished.

High five, Hampden Meadows!

Ms. Ginalski's class

Ms. Bailey's class

This is for the birds

Winnie the Pooh and Wizard of Oz birdhouses!

Eschew this

Remember my Eschew Obfuscation refrigerator?

Check out Jennifer Thermes's blog today.

(Is it Thermes'? Thermes's? Oh - heck, how about "the blog of Thermes." You get the point)

Great advice

From author John Dalton:

Pay close attention to the best, truest, most articulate and elegant writing in your manuscript. These five-star passages will show you how to remedy the other passages that are problematic or merely mediocre.

Bunny envy

The Easter Bunny (aka my husband) brought the dogs a bunny.
One bunny.
Two dogs.

Phoebe triumphed:

Step away from the bunny:

Matty was not a happy camper:

So the Easter Bunny went out and bought another bunny.
Phoebe triumphed again:

And again:

And again:

And again:

There was no happy ending to this sad bunny story.
Two bunnies.
Two dogs.
But always one bunny looks so much better than the other.

So the bunny now lives in a drawer.

Writing Tip Tuesday

Good dialogue.

You need it.

Mastering good dialogue involves having a good ear and a good voice. But there are a few simple tips that will contribute to writing good dialogue.

• Good dialogue shows.

• Good dialogue includes beats.

• Good dialogue uses speaker tags effectively.

• Good dialogue helps move the story forward.

Good dialogue shows.
It shows emotions. Let the words that are spoken show the character's feelings.

Example:

She was puzzled.
vs
"Huh?" she said. "I don't get it."

Good dialogue shows personality traits.

Example:

She was such a bossy girl.
vs
"I'm the only one who makes up the rules to this game and only me. You got it?"

Dialogue can (and should) be used to show a whole host of story elements - setting, weather, motivation, backstory, relationships to other characters, etc.

When you're tempted to write narrative - to tell the reader some backstory, to tell the reader where the characters are, to tell the reader how the character feels about another character,

STOP

Try dialogue instead.

Next week: more dialogue

No comment

Just in from Publishers Weekly:

Danielle Steel to Do Children's Book for HC
By Rachel Deahl -- Publishers Weekly, 3/24/2008 1:42:00 PM

HarperCollins has acquired world rights to Danielle Steel's The Happiest Hippo in the World. The world-famous romance novelist, who has penned 88 adult titles, is not a complete stranger to the genre, having published the Max and Martha kids' books with Delacorte in 1989. The new title with Harper, about a baby hippo that's green instead of the standard gray, is slated to hit shelves in fall 2009. The book will be illustrated by Margaret Spengler. Kate Jackson, senior v-p, associate publisher and editor-in-chief of HarperCollins Children's Books, brokered the deal with Kate Schafter of Janklow & Nesbit.

My Easter

Ham?
Lamb?
Who needs 'em.
I'm talkin' raw bar!

And a giant chocolate boat was pretty cool, too.

Spring?

This is spring?

Egg memories

I love decorating the Easter Egg tree because each of the ornaments evokes memories - the same way that Christmas tree ornaments do.

My favorites, of course, are the ones made by my son when he was little.

Quote of the Day

Writer Martin Amis says:

Get to the end, and then worry. But get to the end.

Jessie's Mountain

Kerry Madden and I have a lot in common.

We write children's books.

We love the Smoky Mountains.

We have been to the Cross Garden in Prattville, Alabama.

I loved the first two books in her Smoky Mountain (Maggie Valley) trilogy: Gentle's Holler and Louisiana's Song.

I just finished the third and (sniff sniff) last book of the trilogy: Jessie's Mountain.

Honestly, it was like visiting an old friend. I have grown to love and adore the Weems family of Maggie Valley. Kerry is a master of characterization - each and every member of that family is unique - from annoying little Jitters to grumpy old Grandma Horace to my favorite: the ever resourceful Livy Two.

I love Livy's feisty spirit and her observations about the people she encounters on her trip to Nashville to pursue her dream and save her family: the woe-is-me lady, Mr. Fancy Mustache Clerk, the devil-dog man.

Kerry's love of the mountains and her respect and admiration of the good-hearted mountain people is evident. She draws on her personal experience in her beloved mountains and takes us right along with her in her stories.

AND, you gotta love an author who writes this in her Acknowledgments:

When I first began to write Gentle's Holler, the first of the three Smoky Mountain books, I wrote it snappy, sappy, and sent it out lightning speed, hoping for a book deal yesterday.

Don't you just love that?

Now we gotta all start nagging Kerry to write more stories about the Weems.

You can find out more about Kerry here.

To the dump, to the dump, to the dump, dump, dump

In the town where I live, there is no garbage collection.

You have to take your trash to the dump yourself. (It's offically called the transfer station, but everyone calls it what it is: the dump.)

But as dumps go, it's a pretty cool dump.

There's one section referred to as the Duxbury Mall, where people leave "good" stuff that you can take: rusty bicycles, moldy wicker rocking chairs, 30-year-old blenders, dusty fake Christmas trees. You name it, you can find it. (My son once got a bizarre wagon/scooter combo that the kids in the neighborhood referred to as "the Demented-mobile.")

In addition to the Duxbury Mall, there's a trailer called the Duxbury Book Exchange!

You take books and leave books. It's awesome!

Now, granted, they aren't always the greatest books...

This is the children's section.

Now, granted, they aren't always the most current books. This one is from 1954.

Every time I go there, I worry that I'm going to find one of my books.

Soup greetings

Look what Jama Rattigan did for me today! Is she cool, or what?

Writing Tip Tuesday

Let's talk about talking.

Dialogue, that is.

Knowing how to write dialogue is one of the best tools you can have in your writer's toolbox and, in my opinion, one of the easiest to master because it's very specific and concrete - unlike those big ole scary things like structure and pace and plot.

No doubt about it, good dialogue is critical to children's books.

• Sections with no dialogue = narrative. Too much narrative bores young readers and slows the pace. Dialogue adds white space and breaks up the narrative.

• Dialogue helps show the story. Narrative tends to tell the story.

• Dialogue brings the characters to life.

• Dialogue quickens the pace.

• Dialogue moves the story along.

• Dialogue contributes to voice and style of both the writer and the speaker (i.e., the character).

I think that part of writing good dialogue can't be taught. It's a talent, an art, an EAR - much like writing voice. Sometimes a writer has it and sometimes she doesn't. Sometimes she has it but hasn't honed it, discovered it, experienced her dialogue voice yet.

That skill can be sharpened by listening - really listening - to real people talking - and by reading good dialogue.

Remember that post from last week? The quote from Alison Smith about focused reading? I think that's a great way to study good dialogue - to read a book you love and focus only on the dialogue.

Another part of writing good dialogue that can't really be taught is mastered by knowing your character. Nobody can teach you to know your character. You have to know your character. If you do, you'll know how he talks.

But there are also part of creating good dialogue that can be learned - some simple, concrete, easy-to-master techniques.

So - next week - some tips on dialogue.