Economy of Language

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Stacy Cantor    The “economy of language” is how one guest at the retreat summed up children’s picture books. Associate Editor Stacy Cantor of Walker Books for Young Readers, shown right, made us all think about just how tightly we must write for this kind of book. She suggests 300 – 1,000 words. She cited Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are at 338 words.

     As someone who’s used to writing news, I’m familiar with the techniques of slashing and burning copy. Stacy’s suggestions fit with news as much as picture books, but let’s focus on the latter here.

     She suggests authors introduce the characters and conflict early in the story, preferably on page one. Each sentence should progress the story, and repetition should be employed only if truly necessary. Lastly, keep in mind the mentality of the child and the creative license of the illustrator, who will tell half the story visually.

     Stacy showed an original manuscript of a picture book and the subsequent markings and revisions made before publication. That little gem was wonderfully illustrative; less is more.

A Story Primer

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Linda Sue Park     Pull out your English grammar book because it’s time to review story structure. Yay, yippie, I eat this stuff up! 🙂 Here we go…

     Speaking at the SCBWI-WI fall retreal, Newbery Award winner Linda Sue Park admits that she doesn’t really know her writing process. She says she reads so much that plot, for her, is innate; automatic. And she’s read enough and written enough to know good work when she sees it.

     So first, a bit on structure or, as Linda puts it, how to tell the story. There’s macro-structure, that is, the method used to tell the story; through letters (think C.S. Lewis’ The Screwtape Letters), poetry, etc. Then there’s micro-structure, that is, point of view, first or third person, past or present tense, etc. Linda makes a strong case against first person present (I run away) because it’s meant to showcase repetitive or recurring action, whereas third person is the traditional method of storytelling and one she calls the hallmark of good writing.

     Next, Linda gave great advice on voice. She finds it helpful to think of her narrator as a person instead of a disembodied voice with a motive to tell the story. That doesn’t mean the narrator must be reliable nor serious; (s)he could be comical or ironic. Linda nails this down before starting.

     Lastly, Linda spoke of scenes, defined as progress toward the quest or impediments blocking the way. Writing them in a sentence helps narrow them. Revisions are your friend.

     Honestly, I could have listened to her talk about story structure and writing for hours. Her writing is clear evidence that she knows her craft.

Rules of Writing Fantasy

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Jeff Miracola, Holly Black, Silvia Acevedo     It had been a really long time since I’d seen Holly Black, so it was great to see her again at the SCBWI-WI fall retreat this weekend. You all know of her, through her Spiderwick and Faerie Tales series or her other works. She’s hilarious and very friendly and was a big hit at the event.

     Holly presented her ten rules of writing fantasy. I won’t give them all here (let her reveal them to the world as she wishes), but I will point out one rule which really spoke to me: Fantasy needs to be rooted in a sense of place. To further explain, she continues, your world has to be real enough so as to allow a person to “walk” into it. She recommends knowing your world so thoroughly that you can detail a great deal more of it than what you necessarily include in your story. For example, what is the primary form of communication, transportation, business, etc, in your imaginary world? Furthermore, she emphasizes that both the fantastical and the real must be described equally to distribute their weight throughout the book.

     Holly also gave some funny anecdotes about her childhood. Apparently, her mother was quite convinced of the supernatural. Her mother’s childhood stories of playing in the attic with ghosts naturally made Holly a wee bit tense, especially living in the “creepy” house that they inhabited. The dangling branches of a large tree regularly scraped against her bedroom window, so, whenever forced to pass said tree, Holly would flat-out sprint past them. She confessed to her mother her fear that the trees would reach down and snatch her. “Don’t worry,” her mother replied. “That probably won’t happen.” Nice.

     Pictured here are my husband Jeff, Holly, and me. It was a good time.

Brevity

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     Remember that novel you read awhile back — the one with three, four, five (seemingly endless) pages describing a room/field/plaza/whatever? Guh. Yeah, you remember. That may have been the point where you put the thing down. Maybe you never picked it back up.

     That is exactly what can’t happen for the writer, and it was a danger mentioned several times at the retreat I spoke of in my last post. We’re talking about children’s books here. You know, shorter attention spans. Yes, adults too.

     So the warning was put out by people in the know; people like Newbery Award winner Linda Sue Park, who spoke so well about story structure and style that she will merit her own post. That’s coming, but for descriptions and internal monologues, she says she tends to limit herself to a few paragraphs because any more kills the action (progress) in the scene.

     Author and editor Ann Angel compared description to an actor on stage suspending the scene to address the audience directly, pulling their attention right out of the story.

     No doubt description has its place. How else would a reader understand the author’s world? The description’s got to have relevance, though, and can’t drag on forever. As I don’t wish this post to drag forever, I’ll end here. More on the retreat soon.

Retreat Business, Banter, and Brownies

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SCBWI-WI 2008 Pin, Designed by Michael Kress-Russick     Soooo good is time spent learning and laughing with other authors and illustrators! My husband and I are back from a fun and informative weekend in Racine at the Fall Retreat for the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators Wisconsin Chapter.

     The retreat is a chance to network, share, and critique. It’s an opportunity to learn of the business, changes, and trends. It’s an extended moment to laugh, meet colleagues, and make new friends. And there’s just too much to say it all here.

     Over the course of the next few days, I’ll post more about the SCBWI-WI event; who spoke, useful tips, and great moments.

     Notice the image above right? It’s the 2008 retreat pin designed by Michael Kress-Russick. Well done.

     And perhaps you’re wondering about the “brownie” part of this post’s title? Well, there was a fantastically well-stocked snack table, groaning under the weight of the many offerings provided by members. It was a happy place to hover — around a great group of people.

Commentating

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   We all have so many hats we wear on a daily basis: Parent (home manager, teacher, chauffeur), daughter/son, friend, along with the title associated with whatever work we do in or out of the home.

     Today I add the title of commentator to my repetoire. WTMJ-TV asked me to return to the airwaves to comment on a news topic of the day. I joined Anchors Courtny Gerrish and George Mallet and WTMJ-AM Host Jeff Wagner for two short segments. The first was about Republican Vice Presidential Candidate Sarah Palin’s comment on Democratic Vice Presidential Candidate Joe Biden. Check it out:

     The second segment was about Harbor 550’s imminent closing and TGI Friday’s dismissal of a musician who sang the Chicago Cub’s theme song. See that here:

     It was an interesting change for me, and it was superb to see my former colleagues at the station. Many thanks to those who watched and commented.

     By the way, how many commentators does it take to screw in a light bulb? The world will never know — commentators never shut up long enough to do it.

Yay, Me!

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     I was shocked to find out that I’d passed — unnoticed — the one-year anniversary of my blog; August 20, 2008. A milestone that slipped by uncelebrated.

     Until now. So I’m pleased to give myself a little pat on the back for a fun year of writing stories and blog entries and making strides in my writing career.

     And I’d like to thank you readers for riding along. It’s been fun, and I can’t wait to see what the next year brings.

Partial Manuscript Leaked

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Stephenie Meyer     As many of you know know by now, Stephenie Meyer’s next manuscript in the Twilight Saga has been leaked and distributed over the internet. Midnight Sun was incomplete, but planned to tell Twilight through Edward’s perspective. Meyer has chosen to post a version of the partial manuscript on her own website so that fans don’t “have to make a sacrifice to stay honest,” ie, they won’t have to choose to engage in copyright infringement to read their beloved stories.

     I won’t hide my disappointment in this whole affair. I wish the leak had never occurred, both so that Ms. Meyer’s creation could have followed its natural evolution and so that the rest of us could have enjoyed its fruition. I will encourage everyone, however, to just take a moment to think about what they’re doing before distributing items that they would have to pay for in a store. Not paying for items means the creators lose out on the joy of developing their artistic babies to the full and it means creators lose out on the money their creations would have drawn. Their works are their livelihood and their lifelong passions. True fans of creators would never want to deny them that. And before I sound like I’m on a high horse, I promise to examine my own behavior to ensure that I’m not inadvertently hurting creators, too.

     I’ve read the partial manuscript Meyer poster on her website and enjoyed it thoroughly. If you’re reading this, Ms. Meyer, I sincerely hope you’ll go back and finish it someday. I’d actually love to read the whole series from Edward’s perspective, but I recognize that’s probably asking a lot. In the meantime, I hope you don’t ever have to experience this sort of thing again.

     It will only hurt us readers again if she does.

Launch Party

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Crowd     I’m not sure if her husband really feels like a two-month road trip will be a punishment, but Lesley Kagen suspects he might feel that way by the end of it. Last night, Lesley began her book release tour with a launch party at the Harry W. Schwartz Bookshop in Mequon. Next, the pair will hit Illinois, Missouri, Tennessee, Virginia, Kentucky, Ohio, and Michigan.

     I had so much fun at the launch. First, it was packed with people who’ve either really enjoyed her latest book, Land of a Hundred Wonders, or were just catching on with her first, Whistling in the Dark. A very funny and emotional friend and bookseller, who’s very proud of her, introduced her, and then Lesley charged into a bit of her life story and how writing has been such a surprising and enjoyable success for her.

>Lesley at Podium     “I just did it,” she said, about writing her first novel, without regard to publication. “I didn’t think about it that much.” She’s glad she didn’t; finding an agent and navigating the publishing world can be a nightmarish proposition.

     And so she’s enjoying the reaction to her work immensely, especially talking with readers at book clubs and readings such as that.

Lesley and Silvia     She read from Chapter 1, which is a wonderfully rich description of character and world, and then took questions from the audience. There was several writers in the audience, myself included. Lesley was quick to tell everyone that she doesn’t write from an outline or plan of any sort; rather lets the characters react organically with each other. Of her characters, Lesley says, “When you get enough people together, somebody’s gonna start trouble.” So she sits back to let them do that until she’s got the necessary conflict for a story.

Land of a Hundred Wonders     Where there’s less conflict for her now is in the business end of publishing. See, now that her books are selling, Lesley’s got a lot more say in the final product. Go figure.

     She introduced the rest of her family members, whom she talks about often, and gave us readers something to look forward to: news that her next book is nearly half completed. Entitled Tomorrow River, it’s about two girls in Virginia. No other hints … boo hoo …

     So a fun time had by all. Wonders is an enchanting read. I’d recommend you pick up a copy, and if you’re anywhere around her tour sites, stop by to meet her.

Breaking Dawn

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Breaking Dawn     I adore Bella Swan. And I’m so sad to read the end of her story. Stephenie Meyer has said that Breaking Dawn will be the end of the Twilight Saga as told by Bella. Of course, fans are anxiously awaiting Midnight Sun, to hear Edward’s perspective, but still, there are real pangs, real angst with the final the end of Book Four.

     I realize there are people who haven’t finished it yet, so I won’t give out any spoilers. I will however, mention a few sections of the books that I just love (so stop reading now, if you don’t want to know). These sections just drip with visual descriptions. No specific lines quoted here, both because I respect Ms. Meyer’s copyright and because lines won’t read the same out of context.

     I love Twilight‘s meadow scene, the description of sparking diamonds. Such an image.

     Bella’s fear as she traversed New Moon‘s tunnel; the inky blackness and the grate’s finality. If that doesn’t paint a mental picture, I don’t know what will.

      In Eclipse, Bella and Edward’s reunion after her breakout is so tender; the sweetness of reunion.

     And Jacob’s realizing, in Breaking Dawn, that the pull he felt was gone.

     I sincerely wish I could go on and on in deep detail about the great scenes and superb lines in these books, but that would take another four books in and of itself. The books were meant to be enjoyed in their entirety, too, to be given justice.

     Thank you, Ms. Meyer, for a great series.