I’m Learning

When I signed in this morning, I remembered that I forgot to write Friday’s follow-up post on pleasure reading. So, today is a bonus two-part post!

Last Monday, I asked about reading for pleasure. Mostly because I was feeling a little guilty about reading some juvenile fiction…for fun. Since then, I’ve read two more books in The 39 Clues series, two Judy Blume Fudge books, one Lucy Rose, an A to Z Mystery, a new YA novel called You Are Mine by Janeal Falor, and a book of knock-knock jokes (that one was mostly for Mister).

When I’m reading, Husband usually asks, “How’s the book?” And I usually launch in to some plot element that I wasn’t sold on or a character description that was magically perfect. Which leads him to asking, “Can’t you read just for fun anymore?”

My answer? No.

One of the best parts about writing for kids is that when I’m reading, even for fun, I’m learning. Kind of like when kids are reading. Or singing or playing or even sleeping. But, also just like kids, I prefer when I don’t feel like I’m learning. When I can read kidlit and have a little fun (like with The 39 Clues or You Are Mine) while I’m learning, I’m more open-minded. I learn more than when I do if the lesson is pushed on me.

I guess that is why they advise writers (like in this article)  not to preach in picture books.

That leads to this week’s question. I’d like to know:

What hidden lessons did you learn from your favorite picture books?

If you need help remembering some of your favorites, check out this list of the 100 best-loved children’s books. I look forward to your comments!

 

Juvenile

I walk in to the library and go straight to the hold shelf. I pick up the book I requested on using dreams to write fiction and put it in my bag. Then I head to the “juvenile” section.

I pull a couple of new mysteries off the shelves and bag them with my writing book. Then I go for what I really came for: books 3 and 4 in the 39 Clues series. Last week, I read the first book in the series to learn about mysteries. I’m reading the rest because I enjoy the books. Not that I’d admit that to just anyone.

I walk to the self-checkout counter, silently rehearsing the lie I’d use if asked. ”I’m checking out these books for my daughter.” I don’t have a daughter, but some how that seems easier to say than “I’m a children’s writer” or “you know, they’re just suspenseful.”

I have a moment of slight panic when one of the books won’t scan, but it works on the second try. Soon, I’m on my way. I sling the bag into the front seat, resisting the urge to crack the binding before I drive home.

Have you had a pleasure read lately? What was it? How was it alike/different from what you usually read?

 

Not Normal

So I tried something new this week. Water Pong Wednesday. And it flopped. Granted, I think I chose too hard of a challenge. As much as I love palindromes, it is hard to come up with them off the top of your head! I would like to try another Water Pong Wednesday next month, because I do think it could be fun, but I’ll just have to choose a better challenge. Thanks salsanpeeps (otherwise known as Husband) for thinking of the palindromes. You win! And Mary, the Keep Calm and Paddle On (answer: KAYAK) magnet is yours if you’d like it.

If you’re curious, here are the five-, six-, and seven-letter palindromes (if not, scroll down for the Friday post on discovering new characters):

Five-

civic

kayak

level

madam

radar (this one actually has an interesting history, starting as an acronym, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radar

refer

rotor

sagas

sexes

shahs

solos

tenet

Six-

pull-up

redder

Seven-

deified

repaper

reviver

rotator

Now on to the response to Monday’s post.

My characters introduce themselves to me. Sound nuts? It probably is. And I love it. Here’s how it works:

Usually while my hands or my brain is busy with something else, I’ll hear an unmistakable voice from somewhere inside my own head. I rush to grab something to write on and with and write furiously. I try not to think or move, except for my hand on the page. I’m not even sure I breathe until the character is “finished.”

My first character, Mabel, introduced herself in a college course. I wrote this in the margins of my class notes:

Sometimes there are rules.  They aren’t written down or hung on the wall, but you still have to follow them.  One is not using your school scissors to cut someone’s hair.  Also, girls like pink and dolls.  I don’t follow that rule.  I don’t follow most rules actually.  I’ll tell you more about that later.

I am a tomboy, and you can spot a tomboy from a mile away.  I’m always the one in what some moms would call play clothes: comfortable pants with room to move around; layered shirts for hot and cold control; tennis shoes ready for a race at a moment’s notice; and never, ever any tights.  The tomboy uniform helps me do things like move with lightning fast speed, hit a home run, or climb a tree.

I held on to this introduction for three years before trying to write the story. So even after the character is introduced, the hard work isn’t done. In fact, I’m still revising this story.

After I wrote Mabel’s book, I was afraid that her voice might be the only one I’d ever hear. Then Biz came along. Here is her introduction: 

My name is Elizabeth, but as long as I can remember, everyone has called me Biz. Not Liz or Izzy or Beth. Just Biz. My mom says it fits because I’ve always been busy and Biz sounds like busy. I try to tell her that doesn’t work because busy is B-U-S-Y and Biz is B-I-Z. She tells me I’ll understand what she means someday. I don’t know when someday is but I’m already tired of waiting. Someday my slightly used little sister will be old enough to do more than drool in my books. Someday I’ll be able to ride the bus to school like a normal kid and I won’t have to vacuum the ants off my sister Marcy’s front seat before I get in. Someday, if I’m lucky, I might get to use my brain to do something more than just ace history tests. But it isn’t someday. It’s just Tuesday and I’m just Biz.

I think Biz is becoming the main character of a mystery I’ve been taking notes on and finally just started (I’m 139 words in! Only tens of thousands more to go!)

And just last week, another character introduced herself. As I told my husband, she is a tough one (I deleted her profanity for the sake of the blog):

It is bad enough that I’m a teenager with a baby sister. It’s worse that she was born nine months from my birthday. Exactly. Like I can’t count. I can just picture my parents being all like “aww remember when she was conceived and now she’s a young lady.” Puke. What’s even worse is that my mom thought the occasion would be a good time to have “the talk.” Yeah. That talk. About eight years too late, I think. And she kept using words like “beautiful” and “holy”. She wouldn’t last ten minutes in the back of the bus.

This was the first character whose introduction came more in the form of question and answer. I still have a lot of questions to “ask” her and I have no idea what her story is, but I think she’s got a lot of potential.

It amazes me that all three of these voices, and all three of these characters, came from me. And, at least in the case of Mabel so far, that I can keep “hearing” the unique voice for the duration of an entire manuscript. Maybe I’m not normal. Then again, maybe I am.

F. Scott Fitzgerald once said: “Writers aren’t exactly people … they’re a whole lot of people trying to become one person.”

And E.L. Doctorow said: “Writing is a socially acceptable form of schizophrenia.”

Well, at least if I’m not normal, then I’m in good company.

Related Links:

An interesting pondering about writing and voices from Vivienne Courtoise: http://viviennecourtoise.blogspot.com/2011/10/i-hear-voices.html

A guest post from Susan Bearman on the Write it Sideways blog on harnessing the voices: http://writeitsideways.com/hearing-voices-maybe-youre-a-writer/

 

 

 

Introducing: Water Pong Wednesday

Blogging has been going pretty smoothly. The Monday prompt post, responses and polls during the week, and Friday follow-ups have gotten me into a pretty good routine. That can only mean one thing…It’s time to mix things up!

Introducing Water Pong Wednesdays!

The idea is not my own:

A very smart lady I know started water pong Wednesday in her office to have a little more fun. She sends out an email in advance letting the players know the prizes and when it will be played. At the time of the game, each player gets three shots at sinking a ping pong ball into a cup of water at the other end of a table. Each successful shot earns a raffle ticket for one of the prizes. A player doesn’t have a good arm? No problem. Three misses earns one raffle ticket for a group of “loser” prizes.

If we could get together, we’d probably use something other than water. And we’d probably turn it in to something writing-related.Well, I think we can do it! At least the second part, anyway. I’ve decided to make Water Pong Wednesdays a part of the blog.

How it will work on the blog:

About one Wednesday a month, I’ll post some fun prizes, both for the ”winning” pool and for the “losing” pool. I’ll also post a multi-part word game or riddle. Each “player” competes by posting a brain-determined (no search engines, please) answer in the comments. I will respond to each correct answer, and once a riddle is answered correctly, credit can no longer be earned for that riddle. Each player can get credit for up to three correct riddle answers, that will count as three separate entries for the “winning” pool prizes.

Players who don’t get any correct answers or join water pong too late can leave a comment for a credit toward the “losing” pool (but this in no way indicates that you’re a loser:)). Winners of both prizes will be announced in the usual Friday post.

This Round’s Prizes:

Winning Pool- A book of palindromes by Jon Agee. “Agee has put both his dry sense of humor and artistic talents to wonderful use in this book of word play. As if the clever palindromes (sentences reading the same both backwards and forwards) weren’t enough, the accompanying artwork adds another dimension, turning the somewhat absurd phrases into downright funny cartoons. This book will make readers think, laugh, marvel, and try to make palindromes of their own.”

Losing Pool- One “keep calms and paddle on fridge magnet” (a hint to a riddle answer, perhaps?)

And Finally…Today’s Water Pong Wednesday Riddle:

In 1907, A. C. Pearson wrote:

A turning point in every day,

Reversed I do not alter.

One half of me says haste away!

The other bids me falter.

Did you get what Pearson was referring to? Take another shot.

Did you get it the second time through? The answer is ….

noon! Half of the word (on) “means haste away” and half (no) “bids me falter.” Get it? Pretty clever, no?

Well since noon is a palindrome, or a word that can be read the same forward and backward, and I happen to have an admiration for palindromes, this week’s Water Pong Wednesday Riddle Is:

Name a common palindromic word of five, six (excluding repeats like tut-tut), or seven letters!

Post up to three answers in the comments for up to three chances to win! Can’t come up with any palindromes? Post a comment anyway for a chance to win a different prize!

 

Another Voice

“I got another voice,” I tell Husband while plugging my laptop back in on the desk.

“What?” he asks.

“I got another voice,” I repeat. “Another character introduced herself to me. And she’s a tough one.”

“Oh, so you don’t mean a physical voice?” he asks, sounding relieved.

“No…but sort of,” I reply. I’m sure that didn’t help. He must think I’m nuts.

So far all of my characters for my longer stories have introduced themselves to me (I’ll share more about how this happens on Friday). I feel very lucky to discover characters this way, but I also want to know if anyone else is a little nuts like me. So, the prompt for this week is:

How do you get an idea for a new character? What do you do after you get the idea?

 

Balance

As I talked about in the last post, I’m missing one of the important credentials necessary to becoming a writer. Namely, that I wasn’t an avid reader as a child.

It wasn’t that I didn’t like to read when I was young. I just liked being outside and being active more. In fact, I read a lot more in the summer when I could read outside and I had more time, without the obligations of school, to also be active.

My friend and critique partner, Kelly, also shared her experiences of not being an avid reader:

 I was not an avid reader. My parents did not read to me (at least not during the years I can remember, which is ages 3 1/2 and up). They never took me to the library until I was in high school (and even then I made them take me because I had book reports to do). I didn’t even go to preschool, so no outside influences to introduce me to amazing titles. Before kindergarten, I loved my Dr. Seuss books because that’s all I had. When school finally started, I felt quite lost/behind during library class (which I’m pretty sure didn’t even start until first or second grade). The library was super foreign to me, and I’m actually old enough that I learned to read with Dick and Jane texts (blech). I think I finally discovered Judy Blume in about 5th or 6th grade, and then in high school I discovered Agatha Christie. So, I guess I can truthfully say that Dr. Seuss, Judy Blume and Agatha Christie rescued me in terms of liking reading … but no books “changed my life,” and I most certainly was not “an avid reader growing up.” It’s nothing short of a gift and a miracle that I can write, quite frankly.

That’s some serious stuff. I know now that not being a year-round reader definitely had an influence on me, too. I’m a terrible speller. And I’ve noticed my vocabulary is a little stunted compared to the vocabularies of those who were avid readers. But I also think I have some traits to make up for those faults.

One of those is that I was a writer first. I talk about my introduction to writing in other areas of this blog. I’ve also always had the drive to write when I’m upset or something goes wrong. Writing my feelings or recounting events seems to help me make sense of things. Writing, for me, is a need.

I’ve also always enjoyed learning. No, really. I did. And do. Not all learning (ahem, math), but I liked learning about things that interested me. Some history (when it was taught in stories rather than rote memorization of dates), current events, science, language and culture introduced me to a lot of neat stuff.

My need to write and learn helped me make up for not always being an avid reader. But, I also think that not being an avid reader had its perks.

Yes, perks.

When I wasn’t busy with reading, I was busy with other things: dancing, religious education classes, running, playing outside, pretending, and (briefly) girl scouts. I can see all those experiences coming out as material for my writing.

I do think it is important to be a reader for so many reasons. I’m certainly encouraging that with Mister. But I also think living is important. Rather than just reading, I think it is the sum of a person’s experiences, and the responses to those experiences, that makes him or her a writer. Like most things, it seems to be a good balance of things that makes a good writer. 

Related Links:

Author Aimee Carter tells her own reluctant reader story: http://www.teenlibrariantoolbox.com/2013/02/true-confessions-of-reluctant-reader.html

The advantages to being an avid reader: http://www.bestcollegesonline.com/blog/2012/04/09/your-brain-on-books-20-proven-benefits-of-being-an-avid-reader/

Tips for parents of kids who don’t like to read: http://www.supernanny.co.uk/Advice/-/Learning-and-Education/-/4-to-13-years/Help.-My-child-doesn’t-like-reading.aspx

 

Non-Avid Reader

I sit in the ballroom with 998 other writers at the winter SCBWI (Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators) conference. I eagerly await the inspiration and writing wisdom to come.

Then the speeches start. And while speaker after speaker says things like “I think we all were avid readers growing up” and “I think we all have one book that has changed our lives,” I slink down in my seat. I don’t want anyone to know that those statements just don’t apply to me.

“Do you have a ‘one book you’ve read that changed your life’?” I ask my critique partner on the way to the airport. 

She tells me she doesn’t have just one.

I wonder if something is wrong with me. Can a non-avid reader expect to write? Along with a healthy dose of inspiration, I’m taking home the seeds of self-doubt.

What perceived shortcomings do you bring to writing? How do you make up for it?