Category Archives: Writing

The magic of writing conferences ~ Fact & Fiction

10 Friday Aug 2018

Posted by in Inspiration, SCBWI, Writing

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Magic Lamp

I waited way too long to attend my first writers conference. It’s my hope that this post will encourage other budding writers to take the formative step of attending a writers conference, and perhaps inspire veteran writers to keep coming back.

Writing conference reality check

Writing conferences are invaluable for connecting with people who share your passion. Writing is a solitary task, and meeting others who are on the same path is an affirmation that the struggle of words and stories is a valiant one. I always come away from a conference with a sense of kinship, that I belong to a tribe.

SCBWI LA Conference poster 2018

I had some strange ideas about writing conferences that held me back. So I was surprised when magic happened after I pushed past my fears and attended my first conference. Here’s a few things I’ve learned since then:

  • You don’t have to have a polished, ready-to-submit manuscript to attend a writing conference.
  • You can use writing conferences to workshop the first few chapters of a project, to get a barometer reading on the concept, voice, etc.
  • You can benefit tremendously from professional critiques in the early stages of a manuscript, getting feedback on concept, direction, and voice.
  • You learn the business of publishing at writing conferences, a must for anyone who is serious about following the traditional publishing path.
  • You form friendships with writers with which you can exchange constructive feedback, bolster one another through tough times, and celebrate each others successes. In short, friendships that last a lifetime.

The DOs

Books in flight

A few tips for a rewarding conference experience:

  • Seek out writing conferences in your genre. I write for young readers and just returned from the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators Summer Conference. The Romance Writers of America have their own conference, as do the Mystery Writers of America.
  • Have a goal and focus on those areas, such as craft, genre, or what agents are editors are looking for on their lists.
  • Be open to new ideas and ways of approaching your current work in progress.
  • Be open to suggestions for projects in age groups and genres you haven’t worked in…yet.
  • Listen with an open mind. Simple, yet so important for professional growth.
  • Introduce yourself to the people sitting next to you. You never know, they could be the best friend you’ve been waiting to meet.
  • Relax, absorb as much information as possible, and enjoy the experience.

The DON’Ts

The writing community is small, and industry professionals know one another. A few tips from real-life Conference Horror Stories, and how NOT to become the star of one yourself:

  • DON’T hunt down agents and editors and force your manuscript on them.
  • DON’T hunt down agents or editors at all, unless they previously requested that you do so.
  • Don’t expect to sell your current manuscript for six figures. It could happen, but that’s the exception NOT the rule.
  • Don’t be discouraged by suggestions and feedback from a professional critique. Instead, see them as positive ways to improve so you’ll be able to land your dream agent or book deal.

Most of all, join the FUN ~ Wild Things could happen!

SCBWI Los Angeles 2018 Summer Conference

“Artists and Writers Ball”

Wisdom of Richard Peck ~ Writing for young readers

01 Friday Jun 2018

Posted by in Middle Grade, SCBWI, Writing, Young Adult

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Richard Peck was an influential voice for me when I started writing for young readers, and with good reason. A Long Way From Chicago, coverHe was a National Book Award finalist TWICE, as well as claiming the Newbery Honor (A Long Way From Chicago) and Newbery Medal (A Year Down Yonder). Richard Peck was nothing short of a master and commander in the art of writing for young readers.

Before becoming an author, Richard Peck was a teacher. His classrooms were filled with the young audience he’d later write for. He admitted that, “Junior-high teaching made a writer out of me.” Peck may have left teaching, but he never stopped sharing his wisdom.

I was fortunate to have heard Richard Peck speak at a couple of Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) conferences. SCBWI even recorded a video Masterclass with Richard Peck on writing the novel for young readers too, that you can purchase for a reasonable price.

A Year Down Yonder, coverRichard Peck shared his wisdom on craft  through essays, as well. The essay he wrote on importance of beginnings—October/November 2006, Horn Book Magazine sparked a writing epiphany for me. In it he said, “The most important secret of writing . . . you are only as good as your opening line.”

At first I thought that was kind of harsh, so I did extensive research. I went to bookstores and libraries, reading ONLY first lines of books. As it turned out, he was right! The books with great first lines I took home and read.

Don’t confuse a great opening line with over-the-top drama, though. A great opening line shouldn’t be about shock-value. When done right, it sets the tone of the story, reveals character, conflict, and theme. It’s the promise of the premise…distilled into one line. Richard Peck would revise his first chapter 24 times (or more), well after he’d completed the manuscript, to make sure it was right.

A Season of Gifts, cover

Short stories comprised Richard Peck’s first published works, covering the gamut of comedy, tragedy, historical, and contemporary. In fact, his short story “Shotgun Chentham’s Last Night Above Ground” was the inspiration for his Living in Chicago series: A Long Way From Chicago, A Year Down Yonder, and A Season of Gifts.

Peck’s collection of short stories, Past Perfect, Present Tense includes insights and advice for aspiring writers, along with some of his own notes. In the introduction, Peck reminds us that “fiction isn’t real life with the names changed. It’s an alternate reality to reflect the reader’s own world.” He also warns burgeoning writers that “a short story isn’t easier than a novel.” In truth, short stories require a type of samurai self-editing that is not for the weak of pen or faint of heart.

Writing lessons learned from Richard Peck

  • Before you write a single word, know your audience. Who will want to read the story you have to write?
  • A story isn’t what is. It’s what if?
  • Fiction is never an answer, always a question.
  • A story, of any length, is about change. The characters can’t be the same in the last paragraph as they are in the first. If there’s no change, there’s no story.
  • The essence of the entire story should be encapsulated on the first page.
  • The first chapter is the last chapter in disguise.
  • The story’s beginning should answer each of the following questions with a satisfied “Yes”: Does it intrigue? Does it invite? Does it work?
  • Strong, colorful characters win over readers, like the quirky, audacious, and warm-hearted Grandma Dowdel in a Long Way From Chicago.
  • An outrageous comic outhouse calamity is often the reason a story is recommended, word-of-mouth over and over again. Memorable scenes create loyal audiences and inspire lifetime readers.

Story ~ Organic symbolism & the language of flowers and trees

08 Sunday Apr 2018

Posted by in Story, Writing

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Symbolism deepens the emotional core of a story, enhancing the three-dimensionality of characters and their relationships. It’s pure magic when done well, but it’ll ooze like a didactic plague if not.

Spring flowers, bouquet

An elegant way to weave symbolism organically throughout a story is through the use of flowers, plants, and trees.

Say it with flowers

It may surprise you that flowers have secret meanings. From Victorian times, and earlier in the Middle East, flowers were used to convey messages due to social mores that dictated suppressed feelings. Society’s stringent rules created a secret language of courtship, love, and friendship through the use of flowers.

For example, daffodils represent new beginnings, lily of the valley imply a return of happiness, bluebells stand for constancy and everlasting love, and tulips (especially red tulips) symbolize perfect love.

Evermore, coverThrough the secret language of flowers, you can layer added depth to a character’s feelings and intentions. But be aware that the colors of certain flowers carry their own significance.

Take tulips, for example, red tulips are associated with true love, while purple symbolize royalty, and white tulips are used to claim worthiness or to send a message of forgiveness.

Alyson Noel used red tulips to portray the quality of the love between the characters in Evermore: The Immortals series.

There are numerous resources for the hidden meaning of flowers. I’ve offered links to a couple of botanical codices below, and there are any number of web sites dedicated to the language of flowers.

Tell it with trees and plants

Tree and plant symbolism was woven through Egyptian and Celtic cultures, and is still influences us Wishtree, covertoday. If flower symbolism doesn’t work for the characters and theme of your story, trees and plants may be an option.

The maple tree is a symbol of strength and endurance. While the willow tree represents mystical powers and a spiritual alignment with the moon, because it thrives near water.

Katherine Applegate used a red oak as the main character in her middle grade novel, Wishtree. An appropriate choice, since the oak is a symbol of wisdom. To the ancient Celts, the oak also represented durability, purity, and constancy.

Stacey Lee weaves an expertly rich tapestry of botanical symbolism throughout her evocative coming-of-age novel, The Secret of a Heart Note. Mimosa is one of the two remaining aroma-experts (aromateurs), and she uses her mystical sense of smell to help others fall in love—while protecting her own heart at all costs.

At once, hopeful, funny, and romantic, Lee’s lyrical language brings the characters and plants to life. You might even catch a hint of the poetically rich aromas as they find their way off the pages and into your heart.

Botanical codices

red tulips

Creativity kickstart for writers ~ 5 super fun steps!

26 Friday Jan 2018

Posted by in Creativity, Writing

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January is International Creativity Month, a great time to remember where the magic happens in the creative process. If we’re honest, there’s two drastically different sides to writing fiction:

  • OC (obsessive compulsive)—the linear, orderly mindset required for tracking the details that make a novel rich and believable
  • Happy place—where stories start and creativity takes flight

Imaginative rocket made of school supplies

Getting lost in the necessary details

We have to think linearly, assess the plausible, and be orderly and organized in execution to write good fiction. As Mark Twain so adeptly explained, “Fiction, after all, has to make sense.”

Writing a novel requires tracking story structure, character traits and arcs, setting and world building details. And maybe more! JK Rowling created an overall spreadsheet for the Harry Potter series, as well as spreadsheets for each individual book. The following image is of Rowling’s hand drawn spreadsheet for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.

JK Rowling's outline for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Rowling’s grid outlines the chapter, month, chapter title, with an explanation of how that chapter relates to the over-arching plot of the book. There are columns for each of the book’s six subplots (prophecies, Harry’s romantic interests, Dumbledore’s Army, Order of the Phoenix, Snape and crew, and Hagrid) as well.

Remembering all the necessary details across hundreds of pages can bog down the heartiest of writers, especially when under deadline. Luckily, there’s a cure!

Creative rejuvenation

Creativity is innate to everyone. Much of what is perceived as “writer’s block” is temporary amnesia, we’ve forgotten the pure joy of having fun. When your creative fuel tank sputters on empty, try the following steps to blast your creativity into orbit:

  1. Do something silly, like running up the Down escalator, jumping on the bed, or having a food fight. Breaking up your routine with something random and unexpected, opens a creative doorway.
  2. Make a creative mess. A BIG one! Nothing breaks the bonds of orderly stuckness quicker than doing something that’s the total opposite.
  3. Skip. Everywhere. For an entire day! We stop skipping around the age of 10 or 12, but no one knows why. Scientifically that is. I think it’s because that’s the age we start forgetting how to naturally have fun. Skipping for an entire day will force you to remember what it was like to be naturally happy. Instant creativity is the result.
  4. Do something your 12 year-old self loved to do. For me it was rollerblading, but do whatever made you happy at that age. Again, it’s about tricking yourself into remembering what it’s like to be naturally happy. Then, the creative faucet turns on with firehose force.
  5. Give yourself permission to do NOTHING for an entire day. This is harder than it sounds. In our overachiever society, we’ve forgotten how to slow down and live in the moment. For more about this creativity enhancing practice, check out The Art of Doing Nothing, by Veronique Vienne.

Tranquil spa setting

The secret to getting published: Don’t give up!

31 Sunday Dec 2017

Posted by in Inspiration, Writing

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Writing your first book is a thrill like no other, a total high. Then the rejections come, and reality sets in. Fast. The thing is, rejections are part of the process. Get over it and keep going.

There’s no such thing as an overnight success

That is…unless you count the 10 years of hard work that came before. We’ve all heard the stories of the famous author whose success happened overnight.

The truth is, it didn’t. Successful authors put in years of work before ever getting published.

All that work was the foundation for the great books that lead to their success.

  • J.K. Rowling taught school and then was a researcher and bilingual secretary for years, all the while writing fiction on the side. She was unemployed and near poverty when she wrote the first Harry Potter novel, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.
  • Meg Cabot spent several years (!) rigorously submitting manuscripts before landing her agent. She got a book deal after that, but had to keep working at her job and New York University until her success with The Princess Diaries series.
  • Kate Dicamillo received something like 463 rejections before selling her first book. She went on to be one of six people to win two Newberry Medals—for The Tale of Despereaux and Flora and Ulysses—all because she didn’t give up.
  • Mary E. Pearson, author of the New York Times Bestselling series The Remnant Chronicles, admitted at an author event that she wrote five (!) novels that would never see the light of day, and that it took ten years before she sold the one that made her a published author.

The difference between a published author and an unpublished author is that the published author didn’t give up.

 

How to keep writing while dodging tornadoes

TornadosLife drops roadblocks and raves in our paths—like tornadoes dropping from the sky—forcing our writing onto uncharted detours. Who knew dodging tornadoes would be a valuable writing skill?

There are happy detours, and those filled with sadness and loss. Even life threatening, if you discover a loved one’s been framed for blackmail, and the Russian mafia comes after you when you publicize the crime across social media, looping in the FBI. It could happen. Tornadoes come in all shapes and sizes, all equally disruptive to our writing goals.

Whatever tornado you’re dodging right now…know you are not alone. Here’s a few things that kept me going when tornado dodging got tough:

  • Write something every day. Even if it’s only a note to remind you to write something better tomorrow.
  • Go to author visits. Invariably, you’ll hear the ordeal that published author went through to get their first book deal.
  • Read. Read. Read. It’s the next best thing to writing. You’ll be surprised how much you absorb on craft, especially when reading a variety of genres.
  • Watch TV series in your genre. It’s a great way to study story and character development.
  • Read author blogs that inspire you.
  • Read books on craft that help polish your writing weaknesses. We all have them. Most of us, more than one.
  • Remember what got you excited about writing. Revisit whatever it was that sparked the creative fire that set you on your writing journey.
  • Believe you’ll make it across the publishing bridge after the tornadoes pass. Because you will. As long as you don’t give up.

Rainbow Bridge

 

Santa writes back! ~ Get a letter from the North Pole

03 Sunday Dec 2017

Posted by in Holiday, Writing

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Yes, Virginia. There is a Santa Claus!

The United States Postal Service can help you prove it too. Santa can reply to your child’s letter from his workshop, complete with a North Pole postmark.

North Pole Postmark

How to get a North Pole postmark

You can make Santa and his workshop real for your child with a personal reply to their letter that includes a North Pole postmark. Here’s how.

  1. Write a letter to your child and sign it From Santa.
  2. Put the letter in an envelope and address it to your child.
  3. Add the return address SANTA, NORTH POLE.
  4. Affix a First Class stamp to the envelope.
  5. Place the complete envelope in a larger envelope with the appropriate postage (to cover the extra weight), and address to:
    North Pole Postmark
    Postmaster
    4141 Postmark Dr.
    Anchorage, AK 99530-9998

If you want to know how writing letters to Santa became a thing, you can read Alex Palmer’s A Brief History of Sending a Letter to Santa in Smithsonian Magazine.

Miracle on 34th Street

The mystery of depth ~ Creating characters we care about

29 Sunday Oct 2017

Posted by in Character, Story, Writing

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Agents and editors want stories that have characters they can care about, characters with depth. For the longest time, I had no idea how to accomplish this. I knew depth meant complexity, but how you created that quality in characters was a mystery. Then one day, while watching an episode of NCIS, the pieces of the character-depth-puzzle magically fell into place. Who knew Abby and Gibbs would be the key that unlocked this literary mystery?

NCIS -- Abby and Gibbs

1. Mix it up with multiple character traits

In a 2-dimensional painting, everything appears flat. You get the same effect with characters that only have one basic trait—bully, geek, mean girl, wimp, etc. To avoid flat characters, give them multiple traits of varying strengths.

I like the analogy of creating perspective in a painting. What’s in the foreground is mountains at sunsetmore intense and has greater detail. As should be the predominant trait of a character. With increased distance in a painting, objects become lighter and have less detail. Secondary and tertiary character traits should have less focus as well.

When Building a Better Character, reveal the traits over time as the character interacts with others and reacts to various situations.

2. Shake & stir: the good, the bad, and the ugly

Just as characters need a blend of traits to be believable, they must also display a variety of emotions. No one is perfect, and we wouldn’t like them if they were. Show their good side, so we like them, but don’t hold back on the bad and the ugly.

3. Peal back the layers

It’s human nature. The longer we savor an experience, the richer our enjoyment. This is why it’s important for characters to unfold and grow along with the plot.

Think of pealing back the layers of an onion. Each layer should reveal something unique and intimately real about the character. When we first meet someone, we get a superficial impression of who they are. It takes time, and a variety of experiences, before we get to know who they really are. It should be the same with our characters.

At a San Francisco South Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) Agents Day conference, former literary agent, Mary Kole explained how to explore a character’s inner life through interiority. Interiority is a combination of the character’s internal dialog and point of view. To learn more, check out her book on Writing Irresistible Kidlit: The Ultimate Guide to Crafting Fiction for Young Adult and Middle Grade Readers.

4. Pressure cook for change

diamond sitting on coalCharacter depth requires change over the course of the story. The Character Arc is a journey that forces the character to confront their frailties to become wiser and stronger.

All great stories are about transformation. To survive, the hero has to change by facing their greatest fear and overcoming it. Blake Snyder—in the popular story structure guide, Save the Cat!—called this The Dark Night of the Soul.

Joss Whedon (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) puts characters through hell—literally and figuratively. This pressure has the same effect as the pressure that transforms a lump of coal into a diamond. It smooths off their rough edges and makes them shine.

You take people, you put them on a journey, you give them peril, you find out who they really are. ― Joss Whedon

Humor ~ the secret ingredient that keeps kids reading

16 Sunday Jul 2017

Posted by in Humor, Writing

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Kids laughing and readingIf something is fun, we want to repeat the experience as much as possible. Reading is no different. It’s no surprise that for young readers, the key to keeping them reading is humor.

Marvin Terban, master of children’s wordplay and author of over 35 humorous books for young readers, explained the science of reading fun to a packed house at the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) Summer Conference in Los Angeles earlier this month.

Terban was a school teacher for decades, learning first-hand how to capture children’s interest 3 Latino children readingand keep them engaged. He was adamant:

“It’s no laughing matter if there’s no laughing matter.”

When children were asked what books they liked to read, this is what they said:

  • My favorite books are the ones I pick myself.
  • I like books make me laugh.

Recipes for laughter

“That’s great,” you say, “but what’s the secret to making children laugh?” You’re in luck! Terban shared a few of the ingredients from his recipe for humor:

  1. Use funny names, like Ralph Puken or Bob Booggensnot.
  2. Use funny words. Apparently the funniest words for young readers are: fart, poop, and underpants. In that order.
  3. Kids (and adults) laugh the hardest at the unexpected.
  4. The funniest scenes contain an element of sorrow.

Lin Oliver and Henry Winkler are also masters of writing comedy for young readers. Kids of all ages love their Hank Zipzer: World’s Greatest Underachiever series and Ghost Buddy series. At a past SCBWI conference, this awesome writing team shared a few of their secrets for writing comedy:

  1. Write what makes you laugh. If you think something is funny, someone else will think so too. Young readers know when humor is not authentic.
  2. Write from your own “most embarrassing” moments.
  3. You have to love the character you’re putting in comedic jeopardy, or else it comes off as being mean. You want your audience to laugh with the character, not at him.
  4. Specific details are almost always funnier than generalizations. For example: Principal Zumba has a mole. Or… Principal Zumba has a mole shaped like the statue of liberty that looks like it’s doing the hula whenever he talks.

Hank Zipzer and Ghost Buddy covers

Nonfiction fun ~ When the truth is more fantastic than fiction!

07 Wednesday Jun 2017

Posted by in Nonfiction, Writing, Young Adult

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Do you have a young reader who isn’t into fiction, yet wants books that are fun? Or perhaps there’s a summer reading requirement looming, and it’d be easier to hog tie the Hulk than to get your kids to read over vacation?

Well…put away the lasso and forget about the Hulk. Your kids will be begging for more, and you’ll want to read these books too. Yes. They’re that good! Thank me later.

kids reading

I discovered Steve Sheinkin’s work at a Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) summer conference a few years ago. Sheinkin is a master of finding the fun in history, and narrating the facts in an engaging voice and at a thrilling pace. If there were history books like these when I was in middle school or high school, it’s all I would’ve read.

Lincoln’s Grave Robbers, by Steve Sheinkin

This may sound like a crime thriller, because it is. But trust me, it’s not fiction. Someone actually stole President Lincoln’s body, and this fast-paced recounting of the events will have you on the edge of your seat, turning the pages until you’re done.

On October 20, 1875 Secret Service raid the Illinois workshop of master counterfeiter Benjamin Boyd and arrest him. Soon after Boyd is hauled off to prison, members of his counterfeiting ring gather and devise a plan to get Boyd back: steal Abraham Lincoln’s body from its tomb, stash it in a secret location, and demand as ransom, the release of Boyd—and $200,000.00 in cash. 

The action of this true crime thriller alternates among the conspirators, the Secret Service agents on their trail, and the undercover double agent moving back and forth between the two groups. Along the way, we get a glimpse into the inner workings of counterfeiting, grave robbing, detective work, and the early days of the Secret Service. The story races toward a wild climax as robbers and lawmen converge at Lincoln’s tomb on election night, 1876. [Jacket flap]

Bomb, by Steve Sheinkin

This story is close to my heart, because I graduated from a university that played an important—top-secret—part in the race to develop America’s atomic bomb. I didn’t find this out until long after I graduated, and I can’t say I’m proud of the fact. However, this book helped me to reconcile some of my feelings about the United States’ development and use of this deadly weapon. If not us, someone else would have done the same and with potentially more horrific results.

BombNo matter your viewpoint, this telling of the events leading to the creation of the first atomic bomb will keep you spellbound until the last page is turned.

In December of 1938, a chemist in a German laboratory made a shocking discovery: When placed next to radioactive material, a uranium atom split in two.

That simple discovery, dealing with the tiniest of particles, launched a cut-throat race that would span three continents. The players were the greatest scientists, the most expert spies, hardened military commandos, and some of the most ruthless dictators who ever lived. The prize: military dominance over the entire world. 

This is the story of the plotting, the risk-taking, the deceit, and genius that created the world’s most formidable weapon. This is the story of the atomic bomb. [Jacket flap]

Mark Twain and the Kitten that Played Pool

16 Tuesday May 2017

Posted by in Animals, Cats, Writing

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Twain’s softer side

Mark TwainThe name Mark Twain is synonymous with Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn—rough and tumble boys full of adventure, daring pranksters who were afraid of nothing.

In many ways, the characters an author creates are their reflection. But like Hemingway, Mark Twain had a softer side he hid from the world.

Like so many creative people, Mark Twain was sensitive and more than a little reclusive. People who knew him said he was most comfortable around animals, with a particular love of cats. According the Mark Twain’s daughter, Suzy…

The difference between papa and mama is that mama loves morals and papa loves cats.

Twain loved cats so much he had up to 19 living in his house at one time, according to one source. And that was just at his Connecticut home.

Mark Twain biographer, Albert Biglow Paine, revealed that Mark Twain even traveled with cats. Once on his travels, he missed his cats so much he rented a few local kittens for the summer. “He didn’t wish to own them, for then he would have to leave them behind uncared for,” Paine explained, “so he preferred to rent them and pay sufficiently to ensure their subsequent care.”

The kitten that played pool

It’s odd to think that an author as accomplished as Mark Twain suffered from nervousness about his writing. But he did. His cats helped calm him, as did playing billiards. Amazingly enough, there was one special kitten who did double duty by playing pool with Twain. For real. I am not making this up.

Kitten on pool table

When Twain took a break from his writing to blow off nervous energy, he’d pick up the kitten and tuck him into one of the pockets of the billiard table and the game began. The kitten swiped at the balls as they darted by, amusing Twain to no end. Rejuvenated by the kitten’s antics, Twain could then return to his writing.

Twain’s love of animals lives on

Generations of cats have called Nook Farm home—the famous author’s house in Hartford, Connecticut. Dozens of cats still live on the grounds of The Mark Twain House & Museum today, much as they did during the famous author’s lifetime.

When a man loves cats, I am his friend and comrade, without further introduction. ~ Mark Twain

Many of the staff members at The Mark Twain House are proud owners of Nook Farm cats, continuing Twain’s legacy.

Mark Twain’s love of cats lives on in his writing, as well. Cats stalk, slink, pad, and play their way through many of his best-known books, including The Innocents Aboard, Roughing It, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, and Puddn’head Wilson. If that’s not reason enough to read Twain, I don’t know what is. But I’m a hopeless animal lover too. What can i say?