Middle Grade Mondays: Why So Many Orphans and Dead Parents?

Okay, so it’s time to admit that my vacation is officially over and my blog needs some serious attention. Hello!

I want to thank the Kea’au Library, Kea’au Elementary, Kamehameha Elementary, and the Ballard Mother Daughter Book Club for having me as a guest in the last few weeks. What a pleasure!

Something I brought up at the Book Club was that I had recently looked back over the last several MG books I had read and noticed the preponderance of orphaned protags (or protags with at least one dead parent). This came up when a friend of mine had told me her daughter was glad that both of Brigitta’s parents were alive because she was tired of dead parents.

These are literally the last eight MG books I have read:

HERE LIES THE LIBRARIAN: orphaned protag
MOCKINGBIRD: deceased mother (and brother)
HOW TO DISAPPEAR COMPLETELY AND NEVER BE FOUND: deceased father
THE NIGHT FAIRY: orphaned protag
INVENTION OF HUGO CABRET: orphaned protag
MYSTERIOUS BENEDICT SOCIETY: orphaned protag
MAGICIAN’S ELEPHANT: orphaned protag
SEARCH FOR WONDLA: orphaned protag

orphaned boy searches for lost sister

Off the top of my head, even more orphans come to mind. HARRY POTTER, ANNE OF GREEN GABLES, WISE CHILD . . .  and I am currently reading NATION by Terry Pratchett (a fabulous YA read), which features, you guessed it, an orphaned protagonist.

There are some great books on that list. I’m not criticizing the books for having orphaned protags, I’m just noticing this phenomenon.

There are multiple reasons for this. It could force the character to grow up faster, give them more responsibility, leave them isolated and wounded and more vulnerable . . . or just get the parents out of the way so that the protag can have her adventure.

I think a bit of “isolation” is necessary for the protag as she or he comes of age. She needs to feel alone enough to have to DEAL with the dilemma of the story. The parents need to be out of the way if the protag is going to have an adventure, and that separation could be final, self-induced, or situational. In my case, Brigitta’s parents are alive, they’re just turned to stone for most of the book, so they’re not much help. lol.

(NOTE: Gabrielle Prendergast mentions in the comments that this is basically the definition of Coming of Age. We come to our own, who we are, separate from our parents)

I heard a publisher say that MG stories are about trying to “fit in” (as opposed to YA stories which are about standing out and making your mark). I think that’s where the struggle comes from, because at that age we’re figuring out who we are as individuals and feeling awkward about whether this new person will be accepted by others.

For those young readers like my friend’s daughter, I started thinking about  middle grade authors who had managed to keep both parents alive and cultivate that feeling of isolation the protag needed.

In Harriet the Spy the parents are alive, but wealthy and busy and leave Harriet in the care of her nanny.

In Habibi the protag is lifted out of her element in America and dropped into a foreign country, so she’s isolated by her fish-out-of-water status.

In The Phantom Tollbooth Milo takes off into an alternate reality where his parents don’t exist. But he’s also a latch-key kid and comes home to an empty house.

What other MG books can you think of in which BOTH parents are still alive, and married (i.e. no absent parents), and how does the author give them this sense of isolation or manage to send them on a quest without them?

Weekend Writing Workout (For Those of You Whose Weekend Starts on Monday)

I am officially on vacation until Jan 18th, but didn’t want to leave you empty handed. Middle Grade Mondays will return on Jan 23. In the meantime, be sure to check out the other regular Middle Grade Mondayers HERE.

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So (big pat on back), I finished the final rewrite of The Ruins of Noe for my publisher. Literally, a few days before I was done, something dawned on me. Something I can’t believe I hadn’t noticed during the seven rewrites of the story.

When writing, I often refer back to the HERO’s JOURNEY, which is a great resource when writing fantasy adventure. As a matter of fact, I once used it as my outline for a screenplay.

frrom screenwriting.4filmmaking.com

The Hero’s Journey always begins with the “Call the Adventure.” The hero (or heroine) is presented with a challenge. It can come in the form of a message (news, letter, phone call, email, dream, etc) or a situation (temptation, loss, crime, ultimatum, etc).

Most of the time we have what is called a “reluctant hero.” The hero doesn’t just jump into gear, make a plan, and rush to save the world. She is being asked to face her greatest fears and/or the unknown. This is when we set the stakes for our hero’s inaction. And for readers to really care about our hero, the higher the stakes are the better. In the case of my first book, the stakes are the lives of everyone in the White Forest.

There is a great deal of satisfaction when our hero overcomes this reluctance and makes the decision to take up the challenge. The hero’s doubt also makes him/her more empathetic to us, because who does not have doubts, fears, and insecurities? We want our hero to OVERCOME these as part of his/her arc.

So what did I find missing during my rewrite?

I had Brigitta’s “refusal” to the call (Brigitta is full of all kinds of doubt), but I didn’t actually put in the moment when Brigitta makes the decision to take up the challenge. Granted, your hero can unconsciously make the decision, or be forced into action for having no other alternative, but I wanted Brigitta to make a conscious decision to go on the journey. She does so when she realizes the stakes are too high for her to refuse.

YOUR WORKOUT:

Set your timer for 5 minutes. Start at the top of the page with the following startline: My protagonist refuses the Call the Adventure because . . .

Write, don’t stop, don’t edit, don’t cross out.

When the timer stops, Set your timer for 7 more minutes. Start with the following line: The stakes are so high that if my protagonist refuses the call . . .

Write, don’t stop, don’t edit, don’t cross out.

When the timer stops, Set your timer for 10 more minutes. Start with the following line: When my protagonist finally accepts the Challenge she does so and then . . .

Write, don’t stop, don’t edit, don’t cross out.

Read your exercises, make notes, highlight what makes sense.

See you soon!

Young Adult Faeries & Fantasy Giveaway Hop

Congratulations to Sarah AKA Identity Seeker. She is the winner of a copy of Brigitta of the White Forest. Thanks for playing everyone!

I’ve never participated in a Giveaway Hop before, so this is pretty exciting. But it’s faeries, right? So how could I pass that up.

This particular hop runs through January 12th and is co-hosted by I’m a Reader, Not a Writer and VVB32 Reads

There are 124 blogs participating, so that’s a lot of chances to win books. It might take 7 days just to enter all of them, so start now, pace yourself, and enter some each day. The list of all participating blogs is below.

I’m giving away a signed and hourglass stamped copy of Brigitta of the White Forest (you can even pick what colour you’d like the autograph). If you already have a copy and you would like to win a copy of the sequel The Ruins of Noe, you can enter for that instead, but you won’t receive it until April when the book is released (though I would try my best to sneak it to you before it goes public).

THREE CHANCES TO WIN!

1) MANDATORY: in the comment section below tell me if you were a faerie would you be an EARTH, AIR, FIRE, or WATER faerie? (leave a way for me to contact you if you win)
2) Bonus Entry: go like Brigitta of the White Forest on Facebook (and let me know in your comment below that you did s0)
3) Second Bonus Entry: check out one of my previous posts and leave another comment (and let me know in your comment below that you did s0)

I couldn’t get the Rafflecopter widget to work on my blog (the javascript wouldn’t take), but I will find some kind of random generator to pick the name.

Make sure to LEAVE a way for me to get in touch with you, either through your blog or an email.

Enter more contests below! Good luck!

1. ~I Am A Reader, Not A Writer (Int)

2. vvb32reads (Int)

3. ~BookHounds (Int)

4. ~BookHounds YA (Int)

5. ~Uniquely Moi Books (Int)

6. Lady Readers Bookstuff (Int)

7. Letters Inside Out (Int)

8. ~Amanda Marie @ BookLove101 (US)

9. Some Like It Paranormal (Int)

10. ~Krazy Book Lady (Int)

11. ~StuckInBooks (Int)

12. Where Fantasy and Love Take Flight (Int)

13. ~Bookworm Lisa (Int)

14. ~Jennie @ My Cute Bookshelf (Int)

15. ~BTween Prose (US)

16. ~you are the unicorn of my dreams (Int)

17. Reader Girls (US)

18. The Guardian Legacy (US)

19. Dani @ Refracted Light YA Book Reviews (Int)

20. ~Hannah @ In the Best Worlds (US)

21. The Happy Booker (Int)

22. BookStacksOnDeck (Int)

23. T. L. Clarke (US)

24. ~Sweeping Me (Int)

25. ~To Read or Not To Read (US)

26. Kobiso (US)

27. Sason and Pobi (US)

28. Makobi Scribe (Int)

29. Passion for Novels (Int)

30. ~The Non Reluctant Reader (Int)

31. ~Living, Learning, and Loving Life (US)

32. ~Live To Read ~Krystal (US)

33. ~MJA Ware – The Missing Word (US)

34. ~Beckys Barmy Book Blog (Int)

35. ~Books for Me (US)

36. ~The Purple Brick Road (US)

37. ~Manga Maniac Cafe (US)

38. Elle Strauss “writing otherworldliness. . . ” (US)

39. ~Cheri Schmidt, author of YA Fantasy Romance (US)

40. Starcrossed Reviews (Int)

41. ~BookSpark (US)

42. ~Whats Beyond Forks? (US)

43. Proud Book Nerd (Int)

44. ~The Accidental Novelist (Int)

45. ~A. L. Davroe (US)

46. iWriteNetwrok (US)

47. Candas InkBlast (US)

48. ~Pen to Paper (Int)

49. primrose musings (Int)

50. ~Me and Reading (Int)

51. ~Lalas Books (Int)

52. Procrastination Station (US)

53. The Daily Harrell (US)

54. ~Little Library Muse (Int)

55. Watched (US)

56. From the TBR Pile (Int)

57. Angels, Demons, and Portals. Oh, my! (US)

58. ~Living, Loving, Laughing, Reading (US)

59. A New Kind of Ordinary (US)

60. Good Choice Reading (US)

61. Amethyst Daydreams (Int)

62. My keeper shelf (Int)

63. GirlsPWN (US)

64. ~Burgandy Ice @ Colorimetry (US)

65. ~Bonnie Gets A Say (Int)

66. ~Chocolate Chunky Munkie (Int)

67. ~Dr. Stravagantes Traveling Book Circus (Int)

68. ~Lost In The View (US)

69. Books Obsession (US)

70. ~Hippies, Beauty, and Books Oh My! (Int)

71. ~My Reading Room (US)

72. ~Mommy Adventures with Ravina (US)

73. ~Runaway Bridal Planner (US)

74. My Sentiments Exactly! (US)

75. ~My Inner Muse (US)

76. JeanBookNerd (Int)

77. ~Shortie Says (Int)

78. ~Imaginary Reads (Int)

79. ~YA Between the Lines (US)

80. ~A Diary of a Book Addict (US)

81. ~jennifersmusings (Int)

82. ~Bookish Sarah (Int)

83. ~Van @ Short and Sweet Reviews (Int)

84. ~Laurasmagicday (US)

85. ~Mostly Reviews (Int)

86. ~World of Samar (US)

87. Read for your future! (US)

88. ~Tattoogirl Reads (US)

89. ~A New Kind of Ordinary (US)

90. MyLadyWeb Womens History and Women Authors (Int)

91. ~Devyns Thoughts (US)

92. My Life With books (US)

93. The Windy Pages (US)

94. Child of Yden (Int)

95. Ink, Paper & Imagination (Int)

96. ~Asterias Blog (US)

97. ~Karen Amanda Hooper (Int)

98. ~Beckoned By Books (Int)

99. ~Bella Street Writes (US)

100. Rats and More (Int)

101. For Those About to Read. . . (US)

102. ~Epic YA Reads (US)

103. Dianas Amazing Book Adventures (US)

104. ~The Great Raven (Int)

105. ~In Between Writing and Reading (Int)

106. Lena Coakleys Blog (US/Can)

107. ~The Night Bookmobile (US)

108. ~Gypsy Mama Logs (US)

109. Amaleen Ison – YA Author (Int)

110. ~Sher A Hart & Share Fantasy Books (US)

111. ~Reading by Kindle Fire (US)

112. Rainy Day Ramblings (Int)

113. ~Minding Spot (US)

114. The Book Monsters (US)

115. ~Chirenjenzie (US)

116. ~Aaron Pattersons ~ The Worst Book Ever! (US)

117. ~Odyssey Rios@ TheReaderLeader (US)

118. ~Snowdrop Dreams of Books (Int)

119. JDField (US)

120. ~Sophia @ The Book Basement (US)

121. Tales from the Crypt (Int)

122. ~Simplyinfatuated (Int)

123. Reading, Writing and the World of Words (US)

124. Under the Hat (Int)

MGM: When a Middle Grade Series Becomes a Young Adult Series (plus writing exercise)

(For those who want to skip straight to the writing exercise, it’s at the bottom of the post)

We saw it happen with the Harry Potter series. In book one, Harry is 11 years old. That’s 6th grade. I remember the first book carried a lot of humour. It was  whimsical. Little Harry is more interested in magical candy than snogging a girl.

But by the time we get to the end, it’s a dark bloodfest with some serious snogging. This makes complete sense to me. What matters to a 6th grader is much different than what matters to a 12th grader. If you recall what it’s like going through high school, there were probably some dark and scary times. I know I experienced a lot of emotional turmoil.

For those kids who read along as the series was published, this was a very personal journey. Harry grew as his fans grew and they all lost their innocence together. What a magical experience that must have been for them.

But now all the books are out in the world. On Amazon, Harry Potter is listed in the description as “for ages 9 and up” for ALL the books in the series. Really? If you were taking the 7th book as a stand alone, would you give it to your 9-year-old?

(as a side note, this is an interesting description because rarely are books listed for “X and up.” They are usually very specific about age groups for children’s books)

When I was at the SCBWI Conference last summer I asked an editor at a large publisher about this phenomenon. If one is writing a middle grade series, “is it all right” or “what happens if” the characters grow older and suddenly they’ve stopped playing hide-and-seek and are now into young adult shenanigans. (Okay, so I didn’t use the word “shenanigans”)

All she said was, “Yeah, that happens.” She didn’t say it was wrong to do, but she did imply that it was a bit of an issue for publishers.

The reason I asked her is because I’m coming up against the same issue with my own series. Originally I was going to follow my young protagonist up until the point when she became a mother herself. I have since changed my mind and decided to only have her age a few years. However, something I find harder to address is that the story is getting darker as I go deeper into it and I’m already afraid I have isolated my youngest fans.

Are there any other series where this holds true? Where it starts as a MG read but creeps into the YA category as the series continues and the MC ages?

I only read the first 2 books of Diary of a Wimpy Kid, but I started to wonder if Kinney had written a book for every year of school and the summers in between, wouldn’t that mean the MC was 15 at the end of the story? Does this ever become an issue?

For a list of more Middle Grade Mondayers, CLICK HERE

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TODAY’s WRITING WORKOUT

Inspired by this idea of “what matters” to your protagonist. . .

Set your timer for 5 minutes. Start at the top of the page with the following startline: The most precious person in my protagonist’s life is…

Write, don’t stop, don’t edit, don’t cross out

When the timer stops, Set your timer for 7 more minutes. Start with the following line: My protagonist hurts/disappoints this person when . . .

(if that startline doesn’t work for you, try My protagonist can’t bring herself to tell this person that . . .)

When the timer stops, Set your timer for 7-10 more minutes. Start with the following line: My protagonist redeems him/herself when . . . (or My protagonist reveals the truth when . . .)

Read your exercises, make notes, highlight what makes sense.

 

Holiday Writing Workout ~ Don’t Say It With Dialogue

Oh my, I now have a complete author crush on John Green. Any writer puts video of mating goats on his blog and whose fans are “nerdfighters” and booktour is called the “Tour de Nerdfighting” is up there in my world. As well, he has a non-profit giving and lending org called The Foundation to Fight World Suck.

I’ve always had a fondness for smart funny guys. And I used to be into anagramming, like the protag from An Abundance of Katherines, although I did it on paper, not in my head. I’m no prodigy (Mod Pig Irony).

Not only is Green super at creating messy characters, he is also fantastic at dialogue. Funny, witty, real dialogue.

One of my favourite scenes in Abundance of Katherines reminded me of a writing exercise I used to do that involves only writing in dialogue.

In the scene the protag (Colin) and his new friend (a girl) end up in a pitch black cave together. They can’t even see their hands in front of their faces. The scene is written ENTIRELY in dialogue. No description. Not even any dialogue tags (i.e. he said, she said). Even their silences are written as dialogue (“. . .”). It’s funny, it’s tender, it brings that fabulous teenage tension – you know, when you might like someone new but aren’t sure or don’t know if it’s a good idea.

Oh, yeah, and there’s a jar of moonshine in the cave.

“Do you want to drink it? The moonshine?”
“I never really drank before.”
“Color me surprised.”
“Also, moonshine can make you blind and what I’ve seen of blindness so far hasn’t really impressed me.”
“Yeah that would suck for you if you couldn’t read anymore. But how often are you going to find yourself in a cave with moonshine? Live a little.”
“Says the girl who never wants to leave her hometown.”
“Oh, burn. Okay I got the bottle. Talk to me and I’ll come over to your voice.”
“Um, hello my name is Colin Singleton and it’s very dark and so you should come over here to my voice except the acoustics in this place are really w– oh, that’s me. That’s my knee.”
“Hi.”
“Hi.”
“Ladies first.”
“All right . . . sweet holy shitstickers, it tastes like you’re washing down a bite of corn with a pint of lighter fluid.”
“Did it make you go blind?”
“I have absolutely no idea. Okay, your turn.”
“AkhhhhhhEchhhAhhh.Kahhh. Ehhhh. Wow. Wow. Man. It’s like French-kissing a dragon.”
“That’s the funniest thing you’ve ever said, Colin Singleton.”
“I used to be funnier. I kinda lost all my confidence.”
“. . .”
“. . .”

The conversation goes on and the cool, clever, funny exteriors give way a little and they reveal some things about themselves to each other and a few more awkward moments. But before long they’re back to cool, clever, and funny. Why?

There is something underneath good dialogue called subtext. Much of Colin’s clever wit hides what’s really going on for him. If you were to rewrite this entirely “on the nose” as they say, it would look more like:

“Hi, it’s dark. I kinda like you and you kinda make me nervous. Let’s have a drink.”
“You make me nervous, too. You’re quirky and cute, but I’m afraid of girls because they always dump me and break my heart. Wow, that’s a strong drink.”

YOUR ASSIGNMENT:

This is the first assignment this week that it’s important to do in its entirety. Also, please HAND write this exercise, just like the others.

Pick a scene between 2 characters that either:
1) You’ve been avoiding
2) Is a confrontation that needs to happen
3) Is a vital turning point in the story
or
4) In which one character reads flat, undeveloped, and uninteresting.

Set your timer for 5 minutes. Start at the top of the page with the following startline: Character A doesn’t want Character B to know . . .

Write, don’t stop, don’t edit, don’t cross out.

When the timer stops, Set your timer for 5 more minutes. Start with the following line: Character B doesn’t want Character A to know . . .

NOW, set your timer for 10 – 15 minutes and write a “scene” entirely in dialogue (no descriptions, no actions, not even any tags). Remember the things your characters don’t want each other to know? Well, have each character do whatever they can NOT to let the other character know this thing. Start with Character A or B asking “What are you doing?”

People don’t talk on the nose. They question, cajole, demand, evade, react, defend, etc, etc. Think TACTICAL maneuvers.

Write, don’t stop, don’t edit, don’t cross out.

Holiday Writing Workout: Yay Mess!

So, I wrote a blog post yesterday and it disappeared. Blipped out of existence just like THAT (snaps magic fingers). Strange. Perhaps something was trying to tell me to get back to my rewrite.

This is part of my mini-series: Holiday Writing Workout – for those working on a post NaNo hangover or who just want to keep the motor running through the holidaze.

I liked the exercise inspired by book post from Monday, so I decided to explore that again.

Right now I’m reading John Green’s An Abundance of Katherines. Just kick me in the shins this minute for waiting so long to pick up one of his books.

I love, love, love the relationship between the protagonist and his best friend. Green writes the American YA version of Nick Hornby’s books (High Fidelity, About a Boy), methinks. Both have the uncanny ability to create romantic comedies that DUDES can like. I’m seriously going to sneak this book into my husband’s reading stack.

Green also does one of the things I SO appreciate as a reader: he makes his characters messy.

Let’s say for all intents and purposes, that everything you write is for me. I’m begging you – please, please, please do not make your characters infallible and perfect. Do not make your MC’s boyfriend willing to wait 7 years for her while he fights the monsters away, his golden locks cradling his angel face and his heavy romantic sighs rippling through his chiseled body while he helps old ladies carry boxes of puppies across the street. Just don’t.

Flawed, wounded, and carrying baggage. That’s interesting. That’s what makes them real.

MAKE YOUR CHARACTERS MESSY

Make them BRING ABOUT THEIR OWN UNDESERVED MISFORTUNE

(those are links to previous entries on messy characters for your reference. i’m very passionate about this topic)

YOUR WORKOUT:

Set your timer for 5 minutes. Start at the top of the page with the following startline: When my protagonist looks in the mirror he/she sees (or thinks)…

Write, don’t stop, don’t edit, don’t cross out.

When the timer stops, go to the center of that exercise, pull out the middle line, use that for your next start line, and write for 7 minutes more. Repeat for 10 minutes.

Now go back with a highlighter or another colour pen and mark the things that make sense to you.

Use this exercise on ANY character you’d like to develop more.

Holiday Writing Middle Grade Monday Workout (or something like that) with Harriet the Spy

This is going to take some skill. I’m attempting to make my Middle Grade Monday entry and my Holiday Writing Workout somehow coalesce into a kind of genius new writing exercise via a book review.

I haven’t had much time to read lately, but an NPR mention of a lesser known Louise Fizthugh novel called Nobody’s Family is Going to Change (now on my reading list) reminded me about one of my favourite MG books when I was a kid. Harriet the Spy.

I loved this book so much I started my own neighborhood spy route – albeit nowhere near as risky as Harriet’s. I never snuck into a stranger’s house and besides, I’m pretty sure no one in my middle class neighborhood had a dumbwaiter I could hide in.

from Fizthugh’s bio on GoodReads:

Fitzhugh’s best-known book was Harriet the Spy, published in 1964 to some controversy since so many characters were far from admirable. It has since become a classic. As her New York Times’ obituary, published November 19, 1974, states: “The book helped introduce a new realism to children’s fiction and has been widely imitated”.

Harriet is the daughter of affluent New Yorkers who leave her in the care of her nanny, Ole Golly, in their Manhattan townhouse. Hardly the feminine girl heroine typical of the early 1960s, Harriet is a writer who notes everything about everybody in her world in a notebook which ultimately falls into the wrong hands.

Harriet is very much a Tom Boy, and in my teenage years I began to question Harriet’s sexual orientation, even though there was no intimacy of a sexual nature in the story at all. And I didn’t find out until recently that Fitzhugh herself was a lesbian.

As someone who has kept a diary since she could write, I completely understood the absolute horror when Harriet’s classmates read her journal (I was then so afraid of someone reading my old diaries that I went back and crossed out all the names of boys I’d had crushes on). Harriet becomes the outcast of her entire 6th grade. Even the “unpopular” kids are a part of a club they start. Not only is Harriet the only one in the class who is not a member, the club is specifically about catching spies, namely her.

ISOLATION

One of our greatest fears and anxieties when we are young is not belonging. Of being isolated from our friends. And there is nothing meaner than an ex-best friend, and nothing scarier than an ex-best friend who has a gang of buddies to gang up on us.

When I do character work I always think about the wounds that shape those character’s lives. Today I’m specifically thinking about the wound of isolation.That’s a deep chasm that extends into adulthood.

If we are writing a Middle Grade or YA story, the story itself might be about this wound of isolation and how we overcome it. Laurie Halse Anderson’s Speak addresses this really well.

If we are writing adult literature, that wound of isolation can haunt our protagonist, creating a barrier between him/her getting what he/she wants (or needs).

WRITING WORKOUT:

Set your timer for 5 minutes. Start at the top of the page with the line: The wound of isolation that shapes my character’s life happens/happened when . . .

Write, don’t stop, don’t edit, don’t cross out.

When the timer stops, go to the center of that exercise, pull out the middle line, use that for your next start line, and write for 7 minutes more. Repeat for 10 minutes.

Now go back with a highlighter or another colour pen and mark the things that make sense to you.

For a list of other MIDDLE GRADE MONDAY writers, CLICK HERE

Holiday Writing Workout (a.k.a. get yr motor running for the new year)

It’s not the 12 Days of Christmas; more like the day before and the 6 days after.

For those working on their NaNo rewrites (or any writing for that matter), I present a workout activity each day (except Christmas) to end 2011 with a bang and rev up for a new year of writing. Today’s workout focuses on what to do when you get stuck.

“THINKING” ON THE PAGE

Anyone who has taken a writing workshop from me knows that I am a big on working thing out on the page. Sometimes during a timed writing exercise in one of my classes I’ll look up and see a frozen someone with a pained expression on his face. It’s the look of someone trying to find the right words before he gets them down.

This just happened last week and after class I told the boy I noticed how much he was struggling during the timed exercise. He said, “I just couldn’t think of anything to write about.”

That’s because he was doing it backwards. That’s like waiting for the water to emerge before turning on the faucet.  Write first, don’t think. When you put the pen to the paper, and keep it there, the answers work themselves out.

And the more spontaneous writing you do, the easier it will come.

I use the following exercise whenever I’m rewriting and I get stuck (which means that I use it almost every day). I use it if there’s a conversation that needs to reveal something important, a confrontation that needs to take place, a mystery, a question, an answer . . . any time I’m not sure where I’m going or how to fix some story issue.

You should definitely have a writing/rewriting notebook. Don’t only write into your computer. I believe writing by hand is essential for this to work.

I put the TITLE of the issue at the top of the page and put a box around it so I can refer to it later. Looking back in my rewrite notebook, titles include things like: Why Does Ondelle Keep Knowledge from Brigitta? How Does the Purview Work? What Does Mabbe Want? Elders’ Traits and Personalities.

It doesn’t matter what you title the entry, just make it something obvious so when you go looking for it, you can find it again.

This is not a timed exercise. In this exercise, you write until the answer comes. But Danika, you ask, how do I know the answer will come? Because you will write until it does. Sometimes it only takes 5 minutes until the light bulb goes on. Sometimes it takes 20 because and I circle around it like a hawk until it appears.

I don’t cross anything out, although I may write on the page “No, I don’t think that’s the answer, but what if…” Think of it like talking to yourself. I ask myself questions. I leave a blank space if I can’t think of a name or still need one. I write a frustrated remark if I’m feeling frustrated. I quickly underline something I really like so I can find it later (or make a smiley face) and move on.

The thing is not to stop. And if you get stuck within this, start asking yourself WHAT IF? What if’s are a great way to brainstorm. Just keep starting sentences with “what if.”

Since I’m working on a series, if I have some fabulous insight into something that happens later in the series, or I decide I want to save for a later book, I add it to a different section after the exercise is over. I have nifty tabs at the back of my notebook for further books in the series.

I do this quickly and try not to get distracted by it. But it’s important to catch these future ideas as they come and put them some place where you can find them.

Go for it and have a great holiday.

Middle Grade Mondays

So, so, so behind on my rewrite. No Middle Grade Monday analysis for me today, but we all know this is generally a slow week in the Blog-0-Sphere.

Please visit the very dedicated and diligent MGMers who did post today. And happy holidays.

- The hit I SURVIVED series with Shannon O’Donnell

- Pam Torres With RACING THE MOON. Click HERE to read her review.

- Deb Marshall with SCARY SCHOOL (author interview and a giveaway)

- Gabrielle Prendergast champions THE IRON MAN.

-Anita Laydon Miller with MAN IN THE CINDER CLOUDS

Weekend Workout: More This is a Story About

My virtual friend Miriam Forster is debuting as a published author and her final rewrite is due at the end of the month.

If you have ever been through this process, you will fall in love with her when you read HER POST about what it’s like having your child book leave the nest. She hits it on the nose when it comes to the difficulty of that final rewrite before it’s out of your hands.

The thing is, it’s never perfect. You could go on tweaking your manuscript forever. At some point, you just have to let it go. I’m telling this to myself as much as you b/c my final rewrite is also due at the end of the month and I’ve been petting the pooch for the past week. Perfectionism feeds the procrastination monster at my house.

When it gets like this, it’s time to go back to, you got it, This is a Story About . . . Oh, no, you say, not again. But did you really do it the last time I asked you to? Be honest.

Here’s something Miriam’s post reminded me to tell you, though. Your story is not about a girl who climbs a mountain to get a magical sword to slay an evil emperor. That’s just what happens in your story. That’s not what it’s about.

What it’s about is something more universal that can be told in myriad forms. From Miriam’s post:

. . . despite everything, all the changes and reworking and reimagining, I still see the story I sat down to write four years ago. A story about love and expectations and forgiveness and freedom and how human beings snarl them all together like a tangled kite string. A story about what happens when there are no good choices, when you pick the best path you can see and it still turns out to be wrong. The heart of the story is still there, still beating.

That’s a story I want to read. It doesn’t matter if it’s historical fiction or future fantasy or a western or steampunk. I don’t know what it’s like to be a bomber in WWII or a future miner on the moon, but I do know what it’s like to face impossible decisions.

The things that happen in your story are wrapped around what it’s about. And if you know what your story is about on this deeper universal level, the character’s decisions and the obstacles in their way won’t become random events. They will feed what it’s about.

This is my 6th rewrite of Ruins of Noe and I’m still using this exercise.

It's not just something I tell you to do!

Here’s the exercise from earlier this week.

And here’s a few tips:

1) Do all three writings, 5, 7, and 10 minutes. Each time you will go a little deeper and sometimes the aha doesn’t come until that 3rd exercise. I was really excited b/c in the 10 minute version I figured out a small scene I needed to insert as a moment of bonding between 2 characters.

2) Start with short sentences and start each short sentence with the line This is a story about . . . I call this “winding myself up.” When the ideas start to flow, then I forget about the punctuation and just go. When I get stuck or pause too long, I go back to short sentences with my start line.

3) Start with what it’s really about: revenge, justice, dealing with lost love, guilt, forgiveness, etc. Don’t second guess if something comes out that sounds wrong or unexpected. These are all simply ideas to explore. You’ll know when one lands.

Here’s a sample from my 5-minute version:

This is a story about a young girl who is forced to grow up before her time. This is a story about a girl having her first crush in the middle of upheaval in the world. This is a story about tumultuous transition. Change is always difficult. Change is difficult even for those who are supposed to be wise and in charge. This is a story about a women and a girl who grow closer through adversity. This is a story about sacrifice, a woman who sacrifices herself for the good of the world. This is a story about endings and beginnings. The Ancients know this would be difficult for the faeries, but it’s time to let go. Like parents letting their imperfect children out into the world. You can only give them so much, teach them so much, protect them so much – - eventually, you must let go. Etc. Etc.

Have a great weekend!