Writing Tip Tuesday

Setting.

You need it.

Duh.

But I have two things to comment on with regard to setting.

1. Don't get so caught up in the story that you forget setting. That's easy to do. I know. I've done it.

But the reader will appreciate a little reminder once in a while.

Key words here: once in a while.

You don't need to shove setting down the reader's throat - but a little sprinkled here and there serves to keep the image of the setting in the reader's mind while other stuff is going on.

Remember the weather.

Remember the smells.

Remember what time of year it is (so...what are people doing, seeing, hearing, etc.)

2. If you don't have a VERY clear image of the setting in your mind as you write, the reader won't either. AND - that image must stay consistent throughout the story (unless the weather changes, or whatever.)

Here's what I do to help with that - I DRAW the setting.

Now, bear in mind that I am the WORST artist ever. I'm talkin' stick figures here, folks. So my drawings are embarrassingly pitiful. But they are for my eyes only (although I did send one to a copyeditor once and could practically hear the snickers....).







Personal experience:

In Me and Rupert Goody, I drew a sketch of the inside of Uncle Beau's store. I needed to see where the old couch was, where the cash register was, where the door to his room was, etc.

In Taking Care of Moses, I drew a sketch of Randall's neighborhood - where his house was, where the church was, etc.

In How to Steal a Dog, I sketched the town - where the school was, where Carmella's house was, where the abandoned house was, etc.

In my upcoming novel, Greetings from Nowhere, I sketched the motel, numbering the rooms and marking which characters were in which rooms, where the swimming pool was, where the flagpole was, etc.

Those little sketches were a valuable tool to keeping the setting consistent and for helping me to remember to drop in some references to setting from time to time.

They helped me see if the movements of the characters were logical and if all the action "works."

They are also much appreciated by copyeditors (even if they snicker).

A shout out

I just had a great conversation with Ms. Townsend's 4th grade class way down in Valrico, Florida at Alafia Elementary School.

I've never had a speaker-phone conversation with a whole class before!

It was like doing a school visit without having to get out of my jammies. (But, of course, I did, as you can see...)

The students had so many interesting and insightful comments and questions about Fame and Glory in Freedom, Georgia.

So a big shout-out to Ms. Townsend and her students (and the media specialist and her daughter):

Great job, y'all!!

Thanks!

Advice from the trenches - Part 4

In addition to doing one-day-get-in-and-get-out presentations, I also do writing workshops of two or more days.

Here, then, is some advice on conducting writing workshops (learned from my time in the trenches):

• Send a written information sheet to the contact person prior to the workshop. On the sheet, clearly outline what you will be doing and if there will be any homework assignments. This gives teachers a chance to prepare for the day, especially the homework load.

• Let the kids know very clearly what they can expect from the workshop. (Today we will be talking about blah blah. ...You will have some homework tonight....Tomorrow when I come, you should have finished blah blah, etc.)

• I always announce from the get-go: "I don't expect that everyone in this class loves to write. Maybe you do, but I bet there's someone in here who doesn't love to write. But that's okay. For this workshop, I'll be with you every step of the way. I won't leave anyone in the dust...and hopefully, you will enjoy it. But no matter what, you can say goodbye to your worries about writing." You'd be surprised how many kids have a look of utter relief on their faces at this permission to not like writing. (And I'm proud to say I've had kids tell me that they thought they didn't like to write - but they really had fun in the workshop. The ultimate!)

• Most teachers will beat you to this, but if not, have the kids clear everything off their desks except what they will need for the workshop. This alleviates distractions.

• Before asking a student to help hand out any worksheets, paper, etc., check with the teacher. Often the class has designated helpers for the day and there may already be an official paper-giver-outer. Kids take those things seriously, you know.

• Before you say the word "highlighter" - tell the kids to sit on their hands. Trust me, the mere mention of the word sends 25 kids diving into their desks immediately.

• When orally brainstorming examples of writing exercises, be prepared to hear dirty underwear and dog poop. In fact, be mentally prepared to hear anything.

• When it's time to orally share student writing, ask the teacher to help you call on students to share. This gets the teacher involved in the workshop. But the best reason for doing this is that the teacher knows the students and knows which ones may need to be drawn out.

• When sharing work out loud, make sure the students know you probably won't have time for everyone to share, but you will do your best.

• Announce, "This is the last one" when you are calling on the last student. This saves 25 kids from continuing to wave their hands wildly.

That's it, folks!

Lisa Graff

I just discovered author Lisa Graff's blog.

That girl is funny!

Check out her beauty secrets project. It's hilarious.

Publishers Weekly blog

Interesting post on hand selling from Alison Morris.

How do I look in my new crown?

Sarah Miller has made me Temporary Empress of the Universe.

But to her I say: Temporary?

Ha!

Dinner with Robin

I had dinner last night with illustrator Robin Brickman. You might remember Robin's beautiful snowflake for Robert's Snow. She is also part of Zade Educational Partners, so we manage to catch up with each other from time to time.

Advice from the trenches - Part 3

More advice on school visits:

• Announce at the beginning of your presentation that you will save the last ten minutes or so for questions and instruct the kids to save their questions until the then.

• During Q&A time, be sure to repeat the question that is asked so that everyone can hear. (I HATE it when people forget to do that....) If kids didn't hear the question, they won't care as much about the answer. If they don't care as much about the answer, they are more likely to squirm, fidget, poke the kid next to them, or fake a great burp.

• When you are asked "How much money do you make?" - turn it into a math problem (e.g., What is 10% of $16?) Trust me, that kid will never ask that question again and the next author to visit that school will thank you.

• The same goes for the "How old are you?" question. Give them the year and make them do the math.

• Let the kids know when you are approaching your last slide and nearing the Q&A period. This perks up the antsy kids and they will sit up and pay attention in anticipation of asking a question (or finally getting to go to recess).

• Include a few examples of your revised manuscripts with your visuals. Teachers will appreciate it and the kids will feel sorry for you.

• When you are finished with your presentation, tell the kids to please stay seated until they are dismissed by their teachers. Otherwise, you might have a chaotic stampede of sorts.

Part 4 of this post tomorrow....

Hot off the press!

Look what the mailman brought me today!

Advice from the trenches - Part 2

More advice on school visits:

• School visits are hard work. Make it easier on yourself by staying in your comfort zone when you need to. For instance, I prefer not to eat lunch in the teachers' lounge. I'm tired of talking all morning and hate the thought of feeling pressure to make small talk. I need quiet down time. My solution is go outside for a walk.  The walk really helps my energy level and the quiet time recharges me. But then, that's just me.

• If you go outside the building at lunch time, you will probably find yourself locked out. Most schools nowadays lock their buildings after the morning arrivals and require that you be buzzed back in. Don't panic. Ring the buzzer, which is usually located within plain site of the door. Someone from the office will do a quick fingerprint scan, run an FBI check, and buzz you back in (unless your morning presentation was particularly crappy or you failed the FBI check).

• Most schools are stretched for money, so they want to get as much out of an author visit as possible. "How I Became a Writer" isn't always enough. Try to add something to your presentation that teachers can use in the classroom - preferably some concrete writing tips for the kids.

• Since I do so many school visits, it would be too costly to take bookmark give-aways for each student. Instead, I take a template of a bookmark, personalized for each school and with my autograph. Teachers or volunteers can then make copies for the students. Many schools copy them on colored cardstock and even laminate them. The kids love them.

• The signed bookmarks also help ease your guilt when you turn down a request for an autograph. Trust me, if you say yes even once, you'll find yourself with a mad mass of kids shoving teeny weeny scraps of paper under your nose when you only have five minutes before your next presentation. And if you sign a few but say no to the others, you will feel like a schmuck.

• I also take templates of worksheets that reinforce one of the writing techniques I brainstorm with the kids. I know, I know...some folks shudder at the word "worksheet." But I personally like them (I'm anal like that). They give teachers something useful for their classrooms and adds another layer to a program that might otherwise be your usual "how-I-became-a-writer-and-how-I-get-my-ideas" kind of presentation.

Part 3 tomorrow....

In other news...

Phoebe is recovering from yet another medical procedure.

None of my pets came with a warranty.

This is Phoebe after hip surgery at 10 months:

Matty with a marrow bone stuck on his lower jaw (which had to be removed under anesthesia with an electric cast cutter):

Charlie after the neighborhood bully cat won the fight:

My pets also did not come with good-behavior guarantees:

Advice from the trenches - Part 1

I've done a lot of school visits over the years. Like anything else, I've learned some things the hard way. For anyone new to school visits - or anticipating doing them - I thought I'd pass along some of the more nitty-gritty advice from the voice of experience:

• Always follow up with your contact person one last time just prior to the day of the visit to remind her of arrival time and equipment needs.

• Ask about any parking problems you might anticipate. (Some schools have funky parking lots with sections reserved just for teachers or with gates that lock after a certain hour. Urban schools sometimes have limited parking and nightmarish street parking.)

• When you see the sign that says Buses Only 2:30 to 3:00 - do not park there if you are doing an all-day visit - unless you want to be waiting for thirty minutes while 25 school buses load 1248 kids before you can leave.

• Keep an energy bar, trail mix, Snickers, apple, Twinkies - whatever - in your bag. You never know what you can expect for lunch. I've had everything from potluck lunches prepared by parents to a pear and brie panini to nothing.

• Bring your own water - but don't store it with your laptop unless you have really good insurance.

• Always check in at the office first. Sign the visitor book. If there is a visitor's badge or sticker, be sure to wear one.

• Don't be surprised if the receptionist in the office doesn't know who you are or why you are there. That information isn't always related to others. Make sure you have your school contact name with you so you can tell the receptionist who is in charge.

• Leave plenty of time to set up any technical equipment in case something goes wrong - but make sure your contact person knows you will be arriving early so someone will be there to meet you. (Trust me on this one. It's a bummer to arrive 30 minutes early and there is no one there to help you get started setting up.) It's also a good idea to request that your contact person alert the office receptionist that you are coming early.

• Bring your own extension cords and power strips (with your name on them), batteries, adaptors, etc.

• Have Backup Plans A, B, C, and D in case something goes wrong with technical equipment. I bring my own laptop and projector, but I also have the presentation on flashdrives and on "the cloud" or Dropbox.

• Bring duct tape or gaffer's tape to tape down cords. Trust me on this one - you will have 200 kids walking over your cords and the odds are one of them is going send your computer or projector crashing to the floor (and you'll need that really good insurance that you wish you had).

• Some schools prefer that you not use the students' restrooms and that you use one designated specifically for adults. Ask.

Part 2 of this post tomorrow....

Writing Tip Tuesday

Two more tips about character:

1. The character must be active in the story.
2. The character should change or grow.

These are about as basic as you can get with a tip, but I have a couple more comments to make about each that are important to remember.

1. The character must be active in the story.

It's important that you don't get caught up in just letting the story happen to the character - letting the character just exist with the action swirling around them - letting the character just observe the story.

The character should be ACTIVE in propelling the story forward - in making the story happen - in altering the direction of the story.

Motto for the day:

The character should drive the story forward.

BUT....

...the character's actions should revolve around the central question or problem.

Personal experience:

When I first had the seed of an idea for Moonpie and Ivy, the "story" was a girl who is abandoned by her mother. Oooo-kaaaay....and? The story is what? Um.....

I realized very early on that Pearl (main character) needed to be instrumental in driving the story forward. She had to DO something. The story couldn't just happen to her.

Thus was born: her relationship with Moonpie and her reaction to it, her acting out (stealing) to gain attention or to demean Moonpie, her quest to understanding the meaning of family, etc.

2. The character must change or grow.

This is Children's Writing 101. But sometimes writers forget that this change or growth should not be TOLD.....

....It should be SHOWN.

The reader should witness the change - not just be told about the change.

In case you're wondering

I've prepared a few posts about school visits entitled Advice From the Trenches - in four parts.

I hope to post the first one on Wednesday.

Part 2 got published prematurely (by mistake) - so I deleted it and will repost later in the week - after Part 1.

If you use a blog reader, it may have picked up that Part 2 post - but the original is no longer available for viewing until I repost it later in the week.

Sorry about that.

Are you smarter than a fifth grader?

And can you write better than a fifth grader?

I just finished up a month-long residency with fifth graders who wrote biographies of someone they interviewed: a parent, grandparent, neighbor, teacher, etc.

As many times as I've done this, you would think I would no longer be surprised by the quality of the writing.

But I still am.

I came away with pages and pages of examples of knock-your-socks-off writing produced by those kids.

Here are some examples of opening lines written by fifth graders:

1. This was a FIRST DRAFT, following a discussion about trying to show setting, particularly seasons:

Fiery leaves were blowing in the crisp cool wind. Smoke rose from fireplaces and the smell of turkey filled the air. While most people were putting the finishing touches on the table and drinking apple cider, a baby entered the world.

[Note: She even spelled "fiery" correctly without looking it up!]

[Second note: When I read this to a few people later in the residency, they thought she must have written that at home. But I saw her write it class right before my very eyes.]

2. Once again, showing seasons:

The snow was beginning to melt and the bears were waking up.

3. An opening line that shows setting and hooks the reader (i.e., why not the Johnson family? What are they doing?):

Cars honked, travelers wandered, and everyone was outside enjoying the summer in NYC, but not the Johnson family.

4. A great hook for a first sentence:

Jan had a little secret.

5. Showing setting - both time and place:

The leaves were just beginning to change and fall off the trees outside the White House.

6. We brainstormed ways to start a bio with action. One way was to find information in the interview about what the person liked to do - hobbies, interests, sports, etc. - and start with that. Here's a great example of that:

The small fingers of a second grader glided over the smooth white keys of a piano.

[Note: This also gives the reader information about the age of the subject - what I refer to in the workshop as a "time marker."

7. This kid wanted to show that his subject grew up in an apartment building:

The neighbors on the floors above came down to see their newest neighbor.