I confess: I clip articles almost daily from printed newspapers and magazines delivered to my address.
(Home-delivered newspapers? How about THAT for dating myself?!)
Article-clipping is a Family Thing.My mother clipped. My sister still clips. My nieces and cousins do too.
Recipes. Advice columns. Interviews. Book reviews. Movie write-ups. Funny cartoons. Touching quotes.
Oh, and death notices and marriage announcements.
In other words, anything and everything that when sent says, “I saw this and I thought of you!”
I and my family’s current generation of women use – with great optimism, the U.S. Mails to share our clippings.
The younger generation sends link-bearing emails or attached scans.
For obvious reasons, many of the articles my family sends on to me pertain to writing, children's books and authors. Those clippings have a pile all their own, a pile I, the Happy Clipper add to often. I call it My Writer’s Pile and it’s totally separate from my Story Ideas Pile.
Sometimes when I’m clipping an article, or truthfully, unevenly tearing out a section of a page, I have no idea WHY.
The piece or item simply spoke to me and I think, “I bet I could use this someday.”
Sometimes, though, I know the recipient instantly– a fellow writer, a former student, a school class I’m about to visit, or even my TeachingAuthors readers.
Thinking Spring, I titled this post “A Writer's Potpourri of Clippings."
In checking the correct spelling and definitions, however – “a mixture of flowers, herbs, and spices that is usually kept in a jar and used for scent” and “a miscellaneous collection,” my eyes slipped down the page to discover the word’s 1749 origin – the French words - “pot pourri” for “rotten pot.”
Which got me thinking…
I often liken the writing process and that of growing a story (as well as a career) to the process inherent in maintaining a compost pile and its clippings.
Maybe magic of sorts is going on within My Writer’s Pile and I don’t even know it!
Toss the following three clippings into your Writer’s (Compost) Pile and see what happens.
FLORAL NAMES FOR BABIES
HAS BECOME A BLOSSOMING TREND
By Nara Schoenberg, Tribune Newspapers – March 4, 2014
“Plant-based baby names for girls overall are on the rise, and 10 previously low-profile botanicals – Lily, Violet, Willow, Hazel, Ivy, Olive, Dahlia, Juniper and Azalea – have risen rapidly. These 10 fast-rising names were given to a total of 19,500 baby girls in 2012 – more babies than received the No. 3 girls’ name, Isabella (18,900), according to data from the Social Security Administration."
I sent the original of this article to Cousin Jane in New Jersey whose first-born granddaughter is named Violet – after - I scanned and filed the article on my computer’s Hard Drive.
FYI: apparently there’s no parallel botanical trend in naming boys although the nature name “Canyon” has had recent traction (No. 1,462).
Naming characters is any writer’s job!
(Photo courtesy of Morgue File/mirabbi249-37-0)
WRITTEN IN INK
An eclectic blog uncovers the tales behind strangers’ tattoos
By Lauren Morrow, O Magazine - April, 2013
I loved reading about and visiting illustrator Wendy MacNaughton’s and writer Isaac Fitzgerald’s blog Pen & Ink which reveals “the often hilarious, sometimes poignant stories behind these permanent remnants of our fleeting opinions, passions, and phases.”Apparently I wasn’t alone.
I haven’t used the idea or passed it on – ’til now.
Don’t you wonder sometimes, when you see an inked dolphin peeking out above a neighbor’s collar, “Why a dolphin?”
Or just what tattoo you might choose, if you haven’t already, and you want to break loose?
A character’s tattoos are a great way to come at knowing your Hero and knowing your Villain.
MIXED-MEDIA MAVENS
Artists’ book celebrates the
freedom and craft of art journaling
By Heather Schroering, Tribune Newspapers – April 20, 2014
Another two-partner idea – this time by Jenny Heid and Aaron Nieradka: scrapbooking with more layers and textures.
When speaking to Young Authors, I advocate Journaling every chance I get.I liked the fun idea this article suggested of adding Ephemera – such as handwritten letters, maps, vintage photos, fabric, movie and concert tickets, old game pieces, you-name-it.
I bet kids would like it too!
And instantly they’d SEE the value of concrete details.
I also think it’s yet another way for writers, young and old, to come at knowing their characters – and that’s why I scanned this article and emailed it to two of my writers.
For the record, and though a Luddite at heart,
I do actually read newspapers, journals and magazines online daily and find myself more and more (sigh) cutting-and-pasting, copying and/or scanning and emailing myself links to fascinating articles.
I hate to waste an interesting idea!
Esther Hershenhorn
Today we have an extra-special Wednesday Writing Workout, provided by the terrific teacher and amazing author, Kathi Appelt!
In case you're not familiar with Kathi's work, she is the author of the Newbery-honor winner and National Book Award Finalist The Underneath, as well as the highly acclaimed novel Keeper, and many picture books. She is a member of the faculty at Vermont College’s Master of Fine Arts program and occasionally teaches creative writing at Texas A&M University. Kathi has two grown children and lives in Texas with her husband.
We invited Kathi to be our guest today to celebrate last week's release of her new middle-grade novel, The True Blue Scouts of Sugar Man Swamp. (What a gorgeous cover!) The book has already garnered starred reviews from Booklist, Kirkus, PublishersWeekly, and School Library Journal. That's right--FOUR starred reviews! Several reviewers have referred to this novel, set in a Texas swamp and filled with a great cast of characters (including humans and critters), as a "rollicking tale." Here's a brief description:
Twelve-year-old Chap Brayburn, ancient Sugar Man, and his raccoon-brother Swamp Scouts Bingo and J'miah try to save Bayou Tourterelle from feral pigs Clydine and Buzzie, greedy Sunny Boy Beaucoup, and world-class alligator wrestler and would-be land developer Jaeger Stitch.
I can't wait to read it!
If you'd like to know more about Kathi and her work, check out
her website. And be sure to read through to the end of this post, where I ask Kathi about the connections between today's
Writing Workout and
The True Blue Scouts of Sugar Man Swamp.
Kathi Appelt's Wednesday Writing Workout:
Whirled P’s
I’m often asked where I get my ideas, and one day while
doodling at my desk, it occurred to me that most of my stories start with
something I’ve found in the letter P, particularly People, Places and
Pets. Those three are the most Popular
when it comes to digging into my idea file.
The more I thought about it, the more I realized that the
letter P, which looks rather like a half-eaten Popsicle on the Page, is chock
full of idea generators.
Here are a few besides the three I mentioned above:
Problems
Personalities
Parents
Peers
Puddles
Paradigms
Politics
Pleasures
Pandemonium
Peculiarities
Pains
Possibilities
Presents
Props
Psyches
Phantasies
Persuasions
Pickles
Predicaments
Plops
Well, the list goes on and on, but you get my drift. As an exercise, then, choose one of the “Big
Three” (People, Places, Pets), and then write a story using at least one of the
other P’s on the list.
Example: People and
Present might lead to a story about the time my step-mother gave my sister a
pair of boots that had the stars and stripes on them. They were uglier than ugly and my sister was
heartbroken. But she also didn’t want to
hurt my step-mother’s feelings, so she wore them anyways. It was a true predicament.
Another example:
Place and Props might lead to a poem about my kitchen window and the
hummingbird feeder that I keep in the tree just outside it.
Final example: Pets
and Puddle could be the perfect setting for a story about a kitten who tries to
leap a big puddle OR a puppy who leaves a puddle on the kitchen floor.
There aren’t any hard and fast rules here.
So, take those P’s and stir them up, whirl them (as my
friend
Liz Garton Scanlon suggests). And
see what happens. I’ll bet something
Phantastic shows up.
_____
Definitely place comes to mind. When I was in college, I lived in deep, swampy East Texas where I encountered all sorts of wildlife, including the poisonous sort. And of course PIES! Pies are central to the story. Then there are the pricker vines, the pine trees, and the paisanos.
So, lots of P's.
Well, Readers, I hope you're inspired to whirl a few P's of your own. If so, please let us know what you
Produce.
Happy Writing!
Carmela
x
Howdy Campers--Happy Poetry Friday! And thank you, Liz Garton Scanlon, for hosting Poetry Friday this week!
Did you know that March is Music in the Schools Month? Well, it is! In fact, today's TeachingAuthors poem is actually a song written by our guest singer/songwriter who brings music to schools all over the country. x
Hmmm...music in the schools...I remember Mrs. Priday, an older, potato-shaped woman with orange-ish hair, who played piano and joyfully taught us to sing at Franklin Elementary School in Santa Monica, CA. And Richard Wagner, the Leonard Bernstein of Santa Monica schools, who lit a fire inside us when he turned on the
William Tell Overture and let us put our heads down on our desks to listen.
And
Sherman Plepler gave me private violin lessons once a week (during the school day!) in the musty basement of Franklin School.
Ahhh...the golden age of music in the schools. But, hark! You can still find fabulous teachers using music in these days of
school budget guillotines.If you're lucky enough to be a fifth grader in my friend Allison Ho's classroom in Gardena, CA, you'll learn about heritage and different cultures through Broadway musicals. Allison opens her students' eyes to the world of arranged marriages ("Tradition" from
Fiddler On The Roof and "You Are Beautiful" from
Flower Drum Song), two cultures ("Farmer and the Cowman" from
2 Comments on March is Music In Schools Month! And Happy Poetry Friday!, last added: 3/14/2011
What a fun exercise! Can't wait to read your new book as well Kathi
A perfect parade of ideas, all purpled and positive to make my brain popcorn!
LOVE this, Kathi. Fun to try with writing workshop kids, too. Oh, the Possibilities!
My students will love this exercise--and I will, too, when we're looking for inspiration.
Congratulations on all the stars-I can't wait to read your book and figure out who all those characters are!
I offer plenty of thanks, Kathi, for your Whirling P's WWW.
I'm sharing this with my writers, PRONTO, and printing it out for me!
Your Fan Esther
Thanks for stopping by, Beverley and Suzanne. And Suzanne, I love the idea of "brain popcorn." :-)
What a *playful* formula for generating ideas, thank you! And interestingly, I checked "The True Blue Scouts" out at the library just this week before coming across this post--can't wait to get started on reading it :-)