Writing Scents (ha)

The best smell ever: a rundown bait & tackle shop on the lake. I caught a whiff of it on the wind just now and it’s absolutely blissful.

An aroma of rubbery fake worms mingled with real ones, the dampness of a minnow tank bubbling gently with its green algae coated sides, earth and dust, an open jar of beef jerky on the counter, and the whisper of penny candies that sit uncovered in wooden display boxes by the aged cash register. I'm with my dad. The clerk wears a black apron. From its pocket he pulls a crisp little paper bag, no bigger than my reaching hand, and winks at me. My dad talks to him about who's catching what, where, and the ones that got away, but that would've certainly broken the state's record, as I fill the bag with carefully chosen sweets. I pick them up, two fingered, each individual one lifted out with the precision of a jewel thief. You're not supposed to touch the ones you’re not taking because you will get you germs on them.
I chance 3/4 of a bag. My dad usually lets me get 1/2. He doesn’t seem to notice as he pays for the bait, the candies, and two cokes. I feel guilty as we're walking to the door and lift the bag up to him saying, "I picked some out for you too, Daddy." He looks delighted and says, "Thanks, Bub." Then I feel guilty for lying, but I know in my heart that I'd have given him more than half of them if he’d asked. It is our day. The two of us out with the boat, alone.
I don't remember anymore of the flashback; how many fish we caught, how long we stayed, if we shared the candy and talked about outdoorsy things, I only know that it all blew past with the breeze in a matter of seconds and then it was gone, along with my father. I miss him. I'm glad he stopped by today, even if it was just for a moment. Where did the years go?

Research: Devil in the details

Devil in the details- What exactly does that mean?

The Stand In Queen

After being disappointed by the info on Google, I recently went on a research trip to Stirling Castle. I am writing about the 15-1600s in my twisted YA fairytale, and realised I had no idea what container they would put honey in - glass, wood, crockery? So with this one pressing question in mind, I threw caution to the wind, or rain as it was, and set out for Stirling. Going somewhere you've never been, and have barely researched, alone, on a cold rainy day, some may say is unwise. Some may be right. I managed to find the castle, paid admission, grabbed my blue tour-talkie (which was frustratingly always telling me about some fabulous place in the castle where I was not) and a map, and stormed the gates. Then I walked back to the gates and had a better look at the map and realised if I turned it upside down I could maybe figure out where I was. Confident I was on my way to ye olde kitchen, off I went. Nope. I was actually on my way to the inner cort. On the second try I ended up in the bed chambers of the queen, well not The Queen, but the old dead queen, who as it turns out was apparently 6ft 2 (how in the world I know this but have no idea what her name was, is beyond me) so perhaps I should call her the tall old dead queen, but I won't. Just like my advenure, I seem to be digressing- back to the story. Now, lost in plain sight, I thought that if I just kept going, I would eventually see everything and have an undisputed wealth of knowlege for which to spew out upon my WIP (how exciting). Not so.

Very High

High Court

The Kitchens

 I came through a vault and around a sharp corner, only to come face to face with a very high height. I don't do heights. Not at all. Back-tracking, I finally made my way to the castle kitchen and I was delighted to find that it was filled to the rafters with a tour group, and, more importantly, the all elusive TOUR GUIDE! Just what I needed! I quickly put my camera around my neck, and joined the group. Ready to learn all I needed to know about 15-1600s food, cooking, recipies, baking, and food storage, I got out my notepad and pen and waited patiently for the rest of 'my' group to file through the door. Once the buzz of voices quieted down, the tour guide began.

Little Demon Head

 In a foreign language. Really? There I stood, wet, cold, harrassed, and trying in vain to match his unknown words to ones I actually knew by phonetic sound comparison, which wasn't really working out too well for me. As 'my' groupees laughed at some clever tour-guidish brogue, I snaked my way through them taking zillions of pictures in the damp poorly lit rooms of the previously hallowed palace kitchens. What? Closing time? I stalked back to the gate, past the ticket booths, and into the parking lot. Realising I could hear voices, I flicked on my phone. No voices there. I kept walking, thinking I'd finally lost my mind with the stress of it all when I realised I had unwittingly stolen the very unhelpful tour-talkie. Being the fine upstanding citizen I am (though not officially a citizen of this particular country), I went right back and handed it in. They were not amused when I laughed about getting halfway down the hill with it. In fact, they were not a lively bunch there in the ticket booth. Security aproached, wheather to kick me out, or to put me in jail, or just to get out of the rain I don't know- I didn't stick around to find out.

The Devil

I finally arrived back home exhausted, hungry, and already thinking I should really PLAN a trip to the castle at some point. I flopped down in front of the computer, and, thank you sweet Jesus, there loading off my camera and onto the screen were brightly illuminated, very informative pictures of not only the whole kitchen, but loads of cool things that I had managed to capture on my roundabout way through the castle. All my questions were answered, from clothing, to food, and daily life right there in the small details of the pictures. And to my surprise, on the carved sand stone detailing of the building, was none other than the devil.

De-familiarizing your work: Falling in love all over again

Today, Candy Gourlay (see her site here & buy her great book here!) asked me an excellent question concerning editor Cheryl Klein's list that I wrote about on my last blog post: here

"So which one would you recommend to a writer who's a total newbie, and which one to a writer with one book under her belt?"

This was my response, which I'm posting because it REALLY helped me through revisions last month.

De-familiarizing your work is some of the best advise on the list. Whether you are just starting out, or have been writing for a while, stepping away from the familiarity of your book always helps you see things that you didn't before.

When I was working on revisions for The Life and Times of Cara Grimes, there were parts I had memorized. I didn't know it at the time, but when I read the final version of chapters one and two out loud at critique group, I actually started to read the old parts that were in my head, even though I had the corrected page right in front of me.

No wonder I had such a hard time seeing what needed work. I think sometimes we become old friends with our book and don't want to confront them about our problems. I mean, we're getting on fine, why go and upset things? After all, trying to fix it will cause me a lot more work and I'm almost finished. Believe me, this is crazy talk! We should never think of our work as 'good enough'. In today's market we just can't afford to!

So, I have said all that to say this. Fall in love with your work all over again, by going back out on a first date. Remember the good impressions we wanted to make. Remember how excited we were. Remember how it felt to fall in love only this time do it from a fresh new angle ;)Spice up the relationship. You will not only love your book more in the end, but (and maybe more importantly to some) an agent or editor just might fall in love with that book along with you!

Editor Crush: Cheryl Klein

As some of you may know, I recently attended the SCBWI Inernational Winter Conference 2012 in New York. While there, I attended several workshops and lectures. Although I learned a lot at every one of them, I must say that the one at the very top of my list was run by the Executive Editor at Arthur A Levine Books (scholastic), Cheryl Klein. She said revision was really re-visioning your novel, which really struck me. I took notes and would like to share some of them with you today, as I think everyone could benefit from her wisdom.
www.cherylklein.com
http://www.arthuralevinebooks.com/

http://cherylklein.com/buying-second-sight/

 
She started with this:
Revision = (Re)Visioning
Three main goals of revision are to create more:
REALITY - creating a world with real humans:be honest, what emotional effect are
you going for
CLARITY - of language and theme
TRANSPARENCY - prose is like a window and our final step is to polish that window

To revise well you need:
Courage, love, hard work, chocolate, and alcohol

Cheryl's 21 revision techniques (mostly in her words, but not verbatim):
VISION
1) Know how you work best - you do not have to and probably shouldn't do all of these things
2) Take time off from the project and work on something else at that time
3) Before you look at the manuscript again, write a letter to a sympathetic friend describing:
a. The books core, why you wrote it, what drove you, what scared you
b. What you wanted to do with the book, or wanted the book to do
c. Briefly what the story is
d. What the book is about in a larger sense
e. All the things you love about it
f. What you suspect needs work
4) Compressing #3c, write the story in one sentence
5) Expanding #3c, write a flap copy (blurb)
6) Create stuff:
a. Look at your word frequency
using Wordle
or http://www.writewords.org.uk/word_count.asp
b. Make a collage or playlist about your novel (to keep you focused while you work on it)
c. Use touchstones (words, pictures, or mascots) for your desk/wall that represent and remind you of a main character, feeling, or idea of you novel
d. Make a 'pinterest' here board for your book (or make things on a cork board that help you envision your book's ideas in a tangible way)
EXAMINATION: DE-FAMILIARIZE YOUR WORK
7) Change the font, print it out, and read the entire manuscript on the page before making any revisions (but take notes as you go)
8) List the ffirst 10 things each significant character says or does (include internal narration for POV characters)
9) Run the plot check list: HERE
a. Is your inciting incident actual action? How close can you get this to the first page?
b. Where are the turning points in the story?
c. Work backwards from the climax: do at least 3 plot developments support it?
10) Picture book writers: make a dummy book HERE
11)Chart Plotting (for tracking info in a manuscript)
a. Character-Oriented: Make a spreadsheet of significant characters down the side, then make
along the top, his desires conscious or unconscious, strengths, obsticals to the desire, 3 actions is achieving desire, overall contribution to the Plot/Protaganist
b. Story-Oriented: Plot and subplot across the top and chapters down the side, write developments in each plot in every chapter, At the bottom- justify each plot's existance in relation to the other plots and themes
have a look at this:
http://stuffyoushouldread.posterous.com/j-k-rowlings-plot-chart-for-her-harry-potter
12) Novelists: bookmap/outline the action of the book scene by scene
a. What do the characters want in this scene?
b. What is the conflict of this scene?
c. Where is the climax of this scene? Emotionally how does the scene build that climax?
d. What change takes place in this scene and how does it deepen/advance the plot/characters
13) Mini-map: for each scene provide a 1 or 2 sentence summary for the action as a quick reference
14) Compare the vision that you articulated in #3-5 with the results in 7-12, compile a to do list of things you want to accomplish in a revision (don't be afraid to think big)
 ACTION
15) Have a deadline for completing each stage of revision, and a reward for yourself for each one
16) Work large to small (fix the major areas first then go back and fix the niggley bits)
17) Once you have the big stuff where it needs to be:
a. Highlight: action, internal monolog, dialog-  check for consistancy (only for a few scenes)
b. Highlight: each character's dialogue each in a different colour, then read through each colour to check for consistency in voice, check one is not overwhelming the others
c. Cut adverbs, telling (instead of showing) uses of the words 'feel', 'felt', dialog tags other than 'said' should be removed or used very minimally, passive voice should be cut, and cut out/kill unhelpful babies
18) Check the first line of your book for the hook, and every last line of each scene/chapter for emotional resonance
19) Read the book aloud (into a recorder) or have it read to you
20) Copy everything
21) Don't let perfect be the enemy of good
 And my scribbled notes at the bottom were:
What are the things that make your character go in a diff direction and how does that impact
Write a synop from the enemies point of view? Balances out and makes characters equally round
moderation- nothing is 100% wrong (take chances and see how they work out)
* sometimes things can be used, but not redundantly (like all caps, then saying 'he yelled')

Last lines
* you want it to hold a specific tone at the end of the chapter to allow it to resonate to the next chapter
o Figuring out what it is, what you want it to be, and what it should be
o Requires loving the characters, the audience, and yourself, and a lot of effort and hard work
o The truth you know is the one that will get you published
o Though, it is a money making business
o If you can do both skilfully you are there
- Reality
Tell the truth to yourself
Don’t be afraid to go there
* Clarity
o Purpose story line
Transparency
o transparent prose

Learning events throughout the past year: Picture Books

 Last year my New Year's resolution was to learn. I'm proud to say that I have learned a lot this past year. Therefore, I've decided to devote a few blogs to some conferences, industry insight, and advice I received throughout the year, as it may be interesting to you.

I went to a Northern Ohio SCBWI picture book conference in May and can highly recommend all their events if you are in the area.
Web page here with photo of the conference organizer and SCBWI RA Victoria Selvaggio
http://www.nohscbwi.org/about.html

I'm not a picture book writer myself, but I have some very talented friends who are, so I thought I'd try to learn more about the process and what is involved. Here is a very general summing up of the entire conference through my observations and findings for those of you, who like me, are curious and don't know much about writing for this age group. The first thing to remember is that the basic formula for writing a great story is the same for all age groups, it's just the fine tuning that determines which group will enjoy the story the most. So let PB 101 commence!

 What is a picture book?

Audience is the utmost importance in a picture book. Consider how more text usually means an older audience. According to booksellers, most 7-9 year olds are now reading chapter books (sometimes easy chapter books, other times more advanced, but nonetheless, chapter books). If you are writing for two and three year olds, observe them. You will quickly find that they will not sit through a long book no matter how cute the pictures, or engaging the story is. 

When I was doing weekly reading to the early preschoolers at Braefoot Nursery in my village, I had to bring books that were roughly 800 words or less. If we did something fun in between stories, like the 'get the wiggles out dance', or pretending to be whatever animal was in the book I'd just read them, then I could get them to set through three... on a good day.

The meat of a picture book

• A picture book consists of a 32 page spread with 27 -28 of those being text and or illustration
• The first 2- 3 pages should set up:
• Setting
• A brief of surroundings as experienced by the main character
• This will be mostly decided by the illustrator, but it's the writer's job to give them clues* in the writing
  *please don't try to dictate to them what they should draw unless you MUST put in a side-note for something that is very important to the whole storyline only- illustrators know what they are doing in most cases and they have the full support of the publisher that hired them to do the job, so don't get stressed out that they won't 'get' your book, because if that's the case them maybe you need to rewrite it in the first place
• Remember that as in other age groups you are still balancing the old adage 'show, don't tell' so use the characters' senses when possible
• The setting influences what the characters say and the actions they will/won't take and the ability to do so
• Characterization
• Names can tell us a lot about the character, so take some time to choose the right ones
• As in other age groups, show who they are through actions and dialog, as opposed to giving a block of 'catch up' text because each word is a commodity in a picture book
• Issue
• What is the main problem for the character and why it's an issue for them
• Establish the struggle quickly, as there is no time to waste (or, again, no words to waste), and make the reader feel it
• Action
• With each changing action, the illustration will usually change
• Decide what will happen when, why, and on what page
• It's helpful to make a dummy book out of folded paper (I had always thought this was only for illustrators, but it really helps you to gauge how your text might fit into the book and how you might be able to tighten things up)
• a good site for information on dummies is here http://www.yellapalooza.com/tutorials/dummies.html 
• Plotting
• Everything your character makes happen will be a part of the plot line of the book
• The actions of these plot sequences are what the illustrator will use as plot points for the next picture
• Note that the illustrations will write a second, complementary, story into your book
• Different plot climaxes
• Decide what kind of plot you are wanting to display
• In a circle plot the climax won't be as intense as in a stair step plot
• Climax
• This is where the main character's problem should be thick and fast
• Think about increasing the pace/suspense and beef it up to give it dimension, as everything is coming together at this point
•  Ending
• What did they learn through their varied growth within the story?
• Let the reader come to their own conclusions about this without it having to be spelled out for them, lead with the experiences of the main characters and don't preach, as kids at this age love to discover things for themselves and are far smarter than we give them credit for
• Has the story changed the reader as well as the character? Has it given them a reason to look at things in a new, or different way? If not, why?
• Senses- leave them out at your peril
• Draw out memories and experiences of the reader by using the old five sense standbys to help them connect in a tangible way
• Use as many of them as you possibly can in as many different ways as you can:
• smell, taste, feel (temperature, texture, pain, etc), hear, see (but leave poetic license for the illustrator)

AND, most importantly, the right hand page should demand to be turned!
Good luck and happy writing.
Please comment with other views ;)