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KateMessner is the first to admit: writing with her students made her a mentor – and – a far better teacher. Her newest Stenhouse book, 59 Reasons toWrite, offers teachers 59 Mini-lessons to help them become mentors and better teachers, too, along with prompts, Teacher-Q’s and Author-A’s and daily writing warm-ups and assignments. Walking the walk is suddenly doable – for all writers, classroom teachers or not.
An outgrowth of her online summer writing camp Teachers Write, the book’s purposefully designed to get us writing every day, whether on our own or as part of a group. Chapters move from getting started to organizing our time and stories, through narrative elements such as characters, point of view, voice, mood, setting, plot and pacing, nonfiction and fiction needs and poetry to writer’s block, revising, critiquing and reflection.
Everything we ask of our students Kate and her “faculty” of award-winning authors ask of us.
It’s the luminous 52+ faculty members who both teach and inspire, underscoring how, when it comes to writing, we’re all in this together.
Again, walking the walk is suddenly doable, thanks to this insightful, comprehensive, hands-on text.
And who wouldn’t want to learn from talents such as Linda Urban, Donna Gephart, Jo Knowles, Shutta Crum, Jenny Meyerhoff and Barb Rosenstock, just to name a few?
I was especially taken with the honest Q + A – The Best of the Q-And-A Wednesday sessions from the online summer camp.
Again, notables truthfully responded to a host of questions, including those about intimidation, making and finding writing time, connecting with our characters, handling point of view, the passage of time and too much description.
Tools, short-cuts, exercises. The list of writing aids goes on and on. Think Writer’s Notebooks, three-column brainstorming, outlining, world building, selecting and using mentor texts.
“Write,” Kate tells her readers, “because you have things to say – arguments to make, stories to tell, poems to share – and no one else in the world has your unique voice with which to say them. And do it,” she adds, “for the young writers you hope to inspire. In making time for your own writing, you’ll be crossing a barrier, joining them as real, vulnerable members of a community of writers.”
I add my “Amen!” to my sincere thanks for following her Real Revision with yet another valuable Kate Messner writing book for those of us lucky enough to be “TeachingAuthors” and writers.
You’ll be adding your thanks, too, once you read, learn, write and share Kate Messner’s 59 Reasons to Write.
Esther Hershenhorn
Mal Peet was an award winning British author of young adult books, although he disliked being defined by his audience or by genre, who died at age 67 in March of this year. Although he seemed like a veteran writer, he only began his career as an author at the age of 52. Peet wrote over 100 easy readers with his wife, author Elspeth Graham, before writing his first novel for young adults, The Keeper, in 2003. He went on to write six more novels, The Murdstone Trilogy being his last. Peet's name was not unfamiliar to me and I always intended to review his books here before now. When I read the blurb for The Murdstone Trilogy I determined that this would be THE book by Peet that I reviewed and, it was only after reading (and listening to it) that I learned of his untimely death. The Murdstone Trilogy is a wickedly funny novel that skewers so many sides of the publishing industry, from literary agents and reviewers to literary awards and authors, as well as provincial British villages and the people who live in them. And, as I learned while reading reviews of The Murdstone Trilogy, Peet makes fun most of all of himself, his novels and the village he lived in. Although British reviews of The Murdstone Trilogy refer to it as Peet's first book for adults, the book is being published in here as a YA novel. I'm not sure I could think of the teenager who would enjoy this and get all the jokes, although there are plenty of them who have read enough of the phantasy genre to appreciate that portion of the novel and especially how Peet wraps it up...
Philip Murdstone is the protagonist of The Murdstone Trilogy. Like Peet, Philip is an author who shot to fame with the young adult novel Last Past the Post that "made Asperger's cool." Since then, as his agent puts it, Murdstone has, "in five lovely sensitive novels" said everything there is to say about "boys who are inadequate." Over lunch in London, during which Murdstone orders a Mexican Platter that consists of an "enormous square plate upon which, apparently, a cat had been sick in neat heaps around a folded pancake," his agent, the gorgeous, driven Minerva Cinch, urges Philip to try a new genre. Specifically, fantasy, or, even better, high fantasy, also known as "phantasy." Completely unaware of the phenomena that was Harry Potter and the new series, The Dragoneer Chronicles, that is sweeping the genre, Minerva explains this genre to Philip as "Tolkien with knobs on." She goes on to tell Philip the formula for writing high fantasy, which she "pinched out of the Telegraph. From a review of The Dragoneer Chronicles, actually." Armed with this formula and the knowledge that his total income for last year, from all five books, was "twelve grand and some change." As his agent, Minerva's share was "a measly eighteen hundred quid plus VAT."
Even though he lives the quiet life in Devon in the tiny village of Flemworthy, Philip knows that if he doesn't do something drastic Minerva will dump him and his career will be over. After the Ploughman's lunch and a pint of Dark Entropy at the Gelder's Rest, Philip wanders home, a bit hammered, stopping by the Wringers, the stone circle of Flemworthy where he blacks out. While unconscious, Philip hears a voice in his head narrating a story - a phantasy story. When he goes home and types it into his laptop, it flows from him in a continuous, powerfully voices narrative stream. Peet's send up of the real world of publishing are hilarious, but the fun that he pokes at the world of fantasy is almost more intriguing that funny. As with the names of the towns, pubs and patrons in Flemworthy, Peet does an excellent job building the fantasy world and the glimpses of it we see are rich and intriguing. Pocket Wellfair, a Greme who is Clerk to "Orberry Volenap, last of the Five High Scholars," has a mind of his own and inserts his point of view into the story that he is supposed to be recording for Volenap, the story that becomes Murdstone's book, Dark Entropy. The book becomes an international sensation, and Philip a literary celebrity. It seems he can do no wrong, say no wrong, even when forced into events (like speaking to a crowd) that he would have previously fumbled. Knowing that he needs to write a sequel, Philip tries to recreate his black out at the Wringers and instead finds himself face to face with Pocket Wellfair.
Philip's life becomes irrevocably, and increasingly, uncomfortably, intertwined with Pocket's as he struggles with his success and the demands of his public. He makes a Faustian bargain that he thinks he can get out of, making the last quarter of the novel tense and suspenseful. The ending seems only right, given the spirit of The Murdstone Trilogy (which is NOT an actual trilogy, in real life or the book, although Peet slips in one, final brilliant jab at the creative act of writing on the final pages) but, having quite a soft spot of my own for fantasy, I wish it had been a bit different.
Source: Review Copy and Purchased Audio Book
By:
Robin Brande,
on 5/15/2015
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I’m so excited by these books, I have to pass them along.
First of all, right now you can get for the incredibly low price of $20 this entire story bundle of writing books. I would have bought just one of the books on my own–the horse one by Judith Tarr, since I’m writing a lot of horse scenes these days for The Bradamante Saga and yes, I’d like to make sure I get them right–but then once I saw all the other awesome craft books in this bundle: SOLD. Because every writer can get better, and it’s such a pleasure to read a great craft book by authors who are experts in their field.
And speaking of authors who are experts in their field, the great young adult author Tom Leveen now has a new book out on writing dialogue. Before turning to novels, Tom spent many years in the theater as both an actor and director. I’ve taught writing workshops with him, and his tips for writing great dialogue are always FANTASTIC. Treat yourself to this book. You’ll learn a ton.
That’s it for now, gang. Happy Writing!
Wild Things! Acts of Mischief in Children's Literature is a behind-the-scenes look at the grown-up aspects of writing children's books written by three children's book specialists, Betsy Bird, Julie Danielson and Peter D. Sieruta, who passed away in 2012. Having been a fan of the blogs of Betsy Bird (fuse#8, which was picked up by School Library Journal a few years ago) and Julie
Brilliantly simple, supremely fun and, best of all, brought to you by the creative, compassionate folks a 826 Valencia, the San Francisco branch (and flagship location) of 642 Things to Write About: Young Writer's Edition!
642 writing prompts fill the pages of this book, which are mostly lined, but have the occasional unlined page divided into four sections with four prompts. Each
I’ve been chomping at the bit while I awaited my scheduled posting time, that’s how eager I am to share Dani Shapiro’s STILL WRITING: THE PERILS AND PLEASURES OF A CREATIVE LIFE (Atlantic Monthly Press, 2013) with our TeachingAuthors readers.
How did I ever miss this book when it released last November!
It’s a MUST book for every writer’s bookshelf that beautifully delivers the front flap copy’s promise: “Shapiro offers a gift to writers everywhere: an elegant guide of hard-won wisdom and encouragement for staying the course.” Part personal memoir, part meditation on the artistic process and part advice on craft gleaned from a twenty-year writing and teaching career, STILL WRITING inspires, encourages, informs and delights, and much like a children’s book, leaves the writer with hope.
When it comes to writing, Dani Shapiro bares both the good and the not-so-good. As a result, I closed the book and was once again reminded that – at least when it comes to my writing, I am normal.
I’m NOT alone. I’m not the odd-woman out. I’m not the only one struggling here.
Much like Anne LaMott did in her BIRD BY BIRD instructions on writing and on life, Dani Shaprio gave me permission to do what I cannot not do, i.e. write. I like how Shapiro divided the book and the creative process into Beginnings, Middles and Ends. Her insightful and instructive bon mots within each section never fail to speak the truth whether addressing topics such as Riding the Wave, our Inner Censor, a Corner (start small) or Building the Boat, Courage, Rhythm and Distance or Exposure, Risk, Tribe and Envy.
My three favorite quotes from STILL WRITING?
“The only reason to be a writer is because you have to.”
“My words are my pickax, and with them I chip away at the rough surface of whatever it is I still need to know.”
And, finally, these words Shapiro shared about approaching her Writing Workshops, which had the writing teacher inside of me weeping:
“We – this ragtag group of ten or twelve – are going to become a single organism. A collective unconscious. We are going to set aside our petty concerns and focus, instead, on the sentences in front of us. We will train our best selves – our empathic understanding, our optimism, our critical eye – to understand what each of us is trying to do. We are going to laugh, possibly cry, argue, roll our eyes. But we’re going to do it with respect, and even with love.” I can’t wait to begin each of my Summer Newberry Library Workshop sessions with relevant readings from this life-affirming/writer-affirming book. As an aside, I openly confess: I have a writer’s crush on Dani Shapiro. I’m taken with her smarts, her raw courage, her honesty, her talent, and most of all, her generosity in sharing all she’s come to live and know first-hand, as a writer, as a teacher, as a daughter, as a wife, as a mother, as a friend, all in the service of keeping her writers keeping on. I’ve now read her poignant, beautifully-written memoir SLOW MOTION: A Memoir of a Life Rescued by Tragedy. Her memoir DEVOTION: A Memoir and the novel FAMILY HISTORY top my book pile. I’ve also sent on links to Dani Shapiro’s blog to several of my students and writers. "There is only this moment,” Shapiro writes, “when we put pen to page.”
STILL WRITING will help you do just that. Enjoy! And do share your thoughts once you lose yourself as I did in Shapiro’s book and writing.
Esther Hershenhorn 
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When I reviewed Rainbow Rowell's stunning novel Eleanor & Park, there were so many things I wanted to talk about in relation to the book, in addition to the fact that
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Little Red Writing, written by Joan Holub and illustrated by Melissa Sweet, who has illustrated nearly 100 children's book and won a Caldecott Honor and a
By:
Carmela Martino and 5 other authors,
on 2/22/2013
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Howdy Campers, and Happy Poetry Friday!
PF is hosted by Sheri Doyle this week--thanks, Sheri! Poetry Friday hosting can be a big job, folks, so make sure you help Sheri put away the chairs and stack the dishes before you leave.
I'm continuing the
TeachingAuthors thread we're calling
Books We Recommend On Writing which
Esther began, reverently offering M.B. Goffstein's
A Writer...(which I, too, have on a golden altar in my bookshelf!) On
Poetry Friday, Carmela continued with her
top three books on the art and craft of writing poetry, and then Mary Ann offered
her favorite one or two books in three categories:
Inspirational Books,
Craft Books and
Craft Books for Kids. Jill gave us
three writing books packed with great information and inspiration, while Jeanne Marie focused on
books about plotting...and one on writing "Hit Lit."
I'm going to recommend one of Monkey and my favorite books on writing poetry,
POEM-MAKING ~ Ways to Begin Writing Poetry by Myra Cohn Livingston.
We like it because it's written for a ten year old--just about my level. For more on this book, read
Elaine Magliaro's really excellent review of it on The Wild Rose Reader--I couldn't review it any better.
Myra Cohn Livingston was the "Mother of Us All," as
Janet Wong writes. She was Poetry Mentor/Mother to me, Janet,
Ann Whitford Paul,
Sonya Sones,
Hope Anita Smith,
Alice Shertle, Kristine O’Connell George,
Deborah Chandra, Madeleine Comora,
Joan Bransfield Graham,
Tony Johnston,
Monica Gunning,
Karen B. Winnick,
Anita Wintz,
Ruth Lercher Bornstein and many, many other children's poets (Who am I missing? Let me know!).
I have
previously talked about two books I require in
classes I teach through the
UCLA Writers Program. One of the books is
Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott, about which several TeachingAuthors have waxed poetic in the past.
Here's a poem from that blog post inspired by Lamott's chapter on jealousy:
ANYTHING I CAN DO YOU CAN DO BETTER
or
CAN OF WORMS
by April Halprin Wayland
Varda once told us
we were all cans on a shelf.
.
Cans of chili, kidney beans, split pea soup.
I decided that I was a can of apricot halves.
She said that the shelf was only one can deep
but that it stretched out forever
.
so there’s always room
for one more.
“You don’t have to be afraid that adding another can
means
there isn’t enough room for you,”she said.
.
“You can even help a new can
onto the shelf next to you.”
.
And she never talked
about jealousy again.
.
poem (c) 2013 April Halprin Wayland. All rights reserved.
My brilliant teacher
Barbara Bottner taught me to write about my greatest fear...because chances are, we all share it.
Monkey is writing about his fear
of writing something stupid in a blog post.
Today’s
release of the hands-on how-to book for middle grade and young adult writers Writing Irresistible Kidlit (Writer’s
Digest) gifts Moveable Type literary agent and KidLit.com creator Mary Kole
with yet one more title: Teaching
Agent-Author.
Subtitled The
Ultimate Guide to Crafting Fiction for Young Adult and Middle Grade Readers, Mary’s
interactive book offers up a bevy of agent-learned tricks, treats and best of
all tools certain to help writers learn and hone their craft as well as their
world. She shares writing exercises,
candid commentary and a collection of book excerpts and personal insights from
bestselling authors and editors who specialize in the children’s book market.
Mary joined
Movable Type from the Andrea Brown Literary Agency where she distinguished
herself as an inventive and entrepreneurial agent. Her books include author-illustrator Lindsay
Wards’ When Blue Met Egg (Dial), Emily Hainsworth’s YA debut Through to You (Balzer
+ Bray) and Dianna Winget’s A Smidget of Sky (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt). KidLit.com was named one of Writer’s Digest’s
Top 100 Websites for Writers; over 50,000 readers visit the site monthly.
This being
Halloween, a favorite holiday of just about every children’s book writer and
teacher I know, I consider Mary’s answers to my questions both below delicious,
calorie-free Treats and writer-friendly Tricks, plural.
For one more
Treat, be sure to read below of our TeachingAuthor Book Giveaway of the 2013 Children’s
Writer’s & Illustrator’s Market (Writer’s Digest) which includes two of
Mary’s articles - “Crafting
a Query” and “Building Your Author Platform.”
(1) How did you become
a Teaching (Agent) Author?
I became an agent after reading for free at an agency to learn more about the
publishing business. But I've always been passionate about teaching others, so
I knew that I wanted to pass on what I was learning to writers. The publishing
business is often difficult to wrap one's head around, so I wanted to pull back
the curtain a little bit. I understand things better once I articulate them and
explain them to others, so the teaching aspect of my work has also been
invaluable to me.
(2) Why and how did
your book come to be?
I started out as a writer, so part of it was definitely yearning to be a
published author. But the book also became a personal challenge: Do I have
enough to say about the writing craft and can I say it in a way that it earns
its keep on my readers' writing reference shelves hope the answer to both
questions is "yes," of course, and I'm excited to see the reactions once the book is out in the world. Since I was doing a lot of programming and
teaching for Writer's Digest, publishing the guide with them was a natural fit
and the process of actually getting the book deal was easy. The process of
writing it, though, took a lot more stress and work, but I'm very happy with
the finished product.
(3) What are the Top
Three problems you note in manuscripts when you’re reading as an agent?
Beginnings are tough to do well, and I often notice that writers don't start
with a strong sense of the present moment and present action. A lot of
beginnings have tons of backstory and info-dumping and not enough conflict to
hook a reader in. In terms of character, writers can always work on motivation
and objective--a really strong reason for characters to be doing what they're
doing, and an overarching goal that they work toward in the story. In a prose
sense, I often find myself giving the following note: "You are saying
something fundamentally simple in an overly complicated way." Not
everything needs to be a showcase for Writing-with-a-capital-W. Sometimes
there's style in simplicity.
(4) What are the Top
Three writers’ questions you receive at www.kidlit.com?
Other than that, I've been answering writing questions on the site since 2009
and there are a lot of different concerns that writers have. I don't
know if I can pick the runners up in terms of popularity.
(5) Please share a
favorite Writing Exercise.
To really help writers individuate characters and think about voice, I like to
ask them to describe the same scene or landscape from the POVs of two different
characters. Think about syntax, word choice, what each character notices and
how. This often drives home the point that each fictional person is unique and
has a very distinct lens that should inform every choice that a writer is
making.
(6) You’ve worn so many
hats while residing in the Children’s Book World! Which do you love wearing the
best?
I'd love
to say "reader" but, to tell you the truth, there is no better way to
frustrate one's love of reading than to actually work in publishing, where you
are reading more than you ever thought possible and under time constraints. So
I'll say that my favorite hat is "cheerleader," because there's no
better feeling than believing in a project and championing it through to
publication.
Thanks, Mary Kole, for the opportunity to bring you and your
new book Writing Irresistible Fiction to
the attention of our TeachingAuthor readers.
Happy Halloween!
Esther Hershenhorn
P.S.
Trick or treat? You
bet! We’re giving away one copy of the 2013 Children’s Writer’s & Illustrator’s
Market (Writer’s Digest)!
You must follow our TeachingAuthors blog to enter our
drawing. If you’re not already a
follower, you can sign up now in the sidebar to
subscribe to our posts via email, Google Friend Connect, or Facebook Network
blogs.
There are two ways to enter:
1) by a comment posted below
OR
2) by sending an email to teachingauthors [at] gmail [dot] com with "Book
Giveaway" in the subject line.
Just for the fun of it, and since we’re offering a Writer’s Book, share your #1
chocolate Trick or Treat candy. J
Whichever way you enter, you MUST give us
your first and last name AND tell us how you follow us. If you enter via a
comment, you MUST include a valid email address (formatted this way: youremail
[at] gmail [dot] com) in your comment. Contest open only to residents of the
United States. Incomplete entries will be discarded. Entry deadline is 11 pm
(CST) Wednesday, November 7, 2012. Winners will be announced Friday,
November 9, 2012. Good luck to all!
Ten Reasons Why I Heartily Recommend WRITING YOUNG ADULT FICTION FOR DUMMIES
Deborah wears a variety of Children’s Book World hats – Novelist, Author, Former Editor with Harcourt Children’s Books, Independent Book Editor and Founder of DearEditor, a writers’ advice website, and she obviously donned each one to write this easy-to-understand, comprehensive, hands-on text. Her stated goal in writing the book was to give writers of young adult fiction the tools they need to tell their good stories well. Boy, oh, boy, did she succeed. So,
here are my 10 reasons why I heartily recommend Deborah’s book.(For the record, I could have listed at least 10 more.) (1) Deborah knows her subject matter from the inside out; she lives and breathes its content. Her editorial and experiential insights take the information to a new level.
(2)
0 Comments on as of 1/1/1900
Listen up, readers!
Today I shout THANKS! to those writers I taught and/or coached and/or read and took heart from who helped me survive an especially gray, cold and wet Chicago Spring. Their words and their Good News, whether emailed, snail-mailed, SKYPED or phoned in, helped me stay aloft these past three months.
How nice that in exclaiming my appreciation for these writers’ updates and continued connections, I’m also establishing a new TeachingAuthors feature -
THE SHOUT-OUT!, with the accompanying chosen image, the megaphone.
So,
I sincerely thank (in no special order):
Putnam finally released this Florida writer’s long-awaited first picture book, THE GINGERBREAD MAN LOOSE IN SCHOOL. Laura and I first met at the 2006 LA SCBWI Conference. She worked oh, so hard, revising and readying for quick purchase this original take on a much-loved story.
•
Steve Layne 
Illustrator Ard Hoyt is already at work on Steve’s next picture book, STAY WITH SISTER (Pelican Press, '12). Steve wrote the manuscript – a follow-up to LOVE THE BABY and SHARE WITH BROTHER, in my 2010 Fall Newberry Library Picture Book Workshop.
• Three soon--to-be-MFA-degreed writers –
Ellen Reagan of Deerfield, IL,
Helen Kemp Zax of Washington, D.C. and Chicagoan
China Hill.
Ellen and Helen are off to Vermont College this July; China begins her coursework at Columbia College this Fall. It was an honor to recommend all. I know when each is published, I'll say, "I told you so!”
•
Ricky Mickiewicz A Chicago writer and illustrator, Rick
Building on my last post about books that inspire reading, here are some of my favorite books that celebrate and/or support writing, for children and adults:
The Best Story by Eileen Spinelli
Author: A True Story, by Helen Lester
Spilling Ink: A Young Writer’s Handbook, by Ellen Potter and Anne Mazer
Ish by Peter H. Reynolds
The Boy Who Loved Words by Roni Schotter
The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster
Amelia’s Notebook by Marissa Moss
Nothing Ever Happens on 90th Street
And here are some of my favorite adult books about writing:
On writing in general…
The Well Fed Writer & The Well Fed Self-Publisher, by Peter Bowerman
Writing Down the Bones, by Natalie Goldberg
Bird by Bird, Anne LaMott
One Continuous Mistake: Four Noble Truths for Writers, Gail Sher
On Writing, Steven King
On writing for kids…
Writing Children’s Books for Dummies, Lisa Rojany Buccieri & Peter Economy
How to Write a Children’s Picture Book – Volumes 1 – 4, Eve Heidi Bine-Stock
How To Write A Children’s Book And Get It Published, Barbara Seuling
The Idiot’s Guide To Children’s Book Publishing, Harold Underdown
The Business of Writing for Children, Aaron Shepard
It’s a Bunny-Eat-Bunny World: A Writer’s Guide to Surviving and Thriving in Today’s Competitive Children’s Book Market, Olga Litowinsky
The Giblin Guide to Writing Children’s Books, James Cross Giblin
Take Joy, Jane Yolen
Picture Writing, Anastasia Suen
Writer’s Guide to Crafting Stories for Children, Nancy Lamb
Writing Fiction for Children: Stories Only You Can Tell, Judy Morris.
By:
Carmela Martino and 5 other authors,
on 12/3/2010
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Howdy and Happy Poetry Friday! There's a teeny tiny
Writing Workout and a not-so-teeny poem below!
A recent
School Library Journal article has inspired
TeachingAuthors to chat with you about the books that have most influenced us.
That article introduced us to
Bookprints. Run by Scholastic, its full name is You Are What You Read; it's sort of a FaceBook for readers.
Upon registering, I discovered a few glitches to Bookprints' wonderful universe. I couldn't figure out how to sign on as an author (help, anyone?) and, on strict orders of my financial advisor (aka my husband) I never give out my birth year.
So I signed in with a different birth year. I must say, I look remarkably young for a 109-year-old.
: ^ )The first thing it asks you (after rudely inquiring about your birth year) is to list the five most influential books in your life. Here is my list:
A Coney Island of the Mind by Lawrence FerlinghettiAs I wrote when listing my
five favorite poetry books, an older teen gave this one to me on my 13th birthday. I was thrilled she thought I would like these poems. I memorized the poem,
DOG and choreographed a dance about it for my modern dance class...I even wore my dog's collar! (Of course, those were the days I painted a flower on my cheek each morning to match my outfit...and painted
Twiggy lashes on my eyes.)
Yes, I've been cheating. I haven't done every single assignment in Anastasia Suen's incredible book Picture Writing: A new approach to writing for kids and teens. Even with my cheating I'm learning tons of useful things about my own writing.
This chapter on Nonfiction is jam packed with explanations of every type of nonfiction books imaginable. She gives detailed explanations for the various
I'm wading through Chapter two of Picture Writing: A new approach to writing for kids and teens--"Seeing Fiction."
At the beginning of the book Suen provides a suggested schedule for completing the book in 18 weeks. (You read that correctly. I said eighteen weeks.) Chapter two requires two weeks to read, complete the exercises, and write journal entries about my projects and progress.
In
It's no secret that I admire Anastasia Suen and her accomplishments in children's literature. But for some reason I kept postponing the purchase of her book Picture Writing: A new approach to writing for kids and teens. About six months ago I finally ordered one. The moment it arrived I opened the cover and scanned through the first few pages.
"Oh, boy! This is going to take some time!" I said
When I was a child one of our favorite family activities was churning home-made ice cream. Deciding which flavor to make was always a big deal. Everybody loved to eat the stuff. But I think I was the only member of the family who loved helping Daddy actually churn that delicious concoction. Oh, he did most of the churning for sure. My main job was to sit on the churn and keep it from wobbling
By:
Carmela Martino and 5 other authors,
on 6/4/2010
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Happy Poetry Friday! Poem and Writing Workout below.
Our blog topic is reading as a writer. I'm going to modify it and list some books I'm currently reading as a writing teacher.
You may remember that after ten years as instructor with the UCLA Extension Writers Program, I'm teaching a brand-spanking-new class this summer.
My vision is to make this class as playful as the theater games class I took years ago. No matter how tired my friend Steve and I were after a day in the corporate world, we couldn't wait to get to class.
What was so special about it that energized us? We were moving or we were mediating, we were reacting to smells or blindfolded, we were hugging or we were chasing each other, we turned into gorillas or bananas.
I want my picture book students to be equally energized. I want them out of their desks with exercises that get them stretching, walking, laughing, observing, closing their eyes, tasting, singing, crying, playing group games. I'll be covering such topics as point of view, dialogue, rewriting, publishing and more. Here are a few of the books I'm using:
Writing Workout The poet William Stafford wrote a poem every morning all of his life. Since taking the National Poetry Month Challenge to write a poem a day for the month of April, I'm continuing, inspired by the book, Early Morning--Remembering my Father, William Stafford by
Kim Stafford. Today part of a sentence Stafford wrote inspired me: "At a certain sound today I hear Father turn onto the gravel drive at supper time..." It reminded me of our dog, Eli, sleeping on his couch in the upstairs bedroom as I write.
1 Comments on We Interrupt This Regularly Scheduled Posting....to ask for more writing exercise ideas!, last added: 6/4/2010
Are you a book hound? I mean, are you always sniffing out great books to read?
I'm afraid I am. I've started a list of books I need to order right now. Ordering is easy. Paying for them is a little harder. Reading them all is, well...delightfully difficult.
Writing It Right by Sandy Asher
From the Query to the Call by Elana Johnson
Words of Comfort in Times of Loss by Cecil Murphey
What am I learning this week about writing?
I'm still picking my way through Sol Stein's Stein On Writing. Each chapter contains so much I want to incorporate into my writing. I've spent many hours this past week sitting and waiting. (My DH is in the hospital.) That means plenty of time for reading for me. I never, absolutely NEVER go anywhere without at least one book.
Today I want to
This week we've been on the subject of memoirs. Mary DeMuth mentioned a book Parting the Waters:Finding Beauty in Brokenness by Jeanne Damoff.
I purchased Parting the Waters more than a year ago but never read it. This week I plunged into it. Mary is right. The writing is clear, uncluttered and beautiful. The story is compelling to those of us who are Christians.
Damoff's memoir begins with a
Jane Yolen has been involved in children's literature forever. Her books have won many awards including the Caldecott Medal, an Honor Award, the Nebula Award, the Christopher Medal, the World Fantasy Award, the Mythopoeic Society's Asian Award, the Golden Kite Award, the Jewish Book Award, and others. She has been published via picture books, YA, poetry, short stories and nonfiction books on
I saw the title Take Joy:A Writer's Guide To Loving the Craft on the list and double clicked. Then I noticed the author's name--Jane Yolen. I usually mull over purchases for a while, but not this one. Without even reading the blurb I ordered it.
I admire Jane Yolen as an author. I admire her impressive body of published works. I admire her skill which I think is almost unequalled. I enjoy with
I tell my school audiences, Kindergarten through high school: our writer’s job is to notice the world. We use our five senses to:
see,
hear,
taste,
touch,
smell.
Raised antennae are the name of the game, to use anywhere, everywhere 24/7.
A (long) while back, at a McDonald’s Restaurant in Skokie, Illinois, I observed my then ten-year old son playing the restaurant chain’s first-ever Monopoly game.
I watched him place his latest earned game piece on our family’s close-to-full Monopoly game sheet.
And I heard him say,
“When we win the $10,000 I think we’ll all go to Hawaii!”
He spoke with such certainty, I could taste and smell the coconuts.
His zeal so buoyed me, I swerved to duck the waves.
A boy and a contest!
And not just any boy. A boy who went from A to Z with no stops in-between.
And that is how Howie Fingerhut came to be.
As for the story itself,
I immediately bought a marbled school composition notebook, the black-and-white kind, to hold my first scribbled thoughts.
I brainstormed for days, then weeks, then months.
I free-associated, webbed, clustered, supposed, wondered, asked “What if?”
The six Questions Words – WHO, WHAT, WHEN, WHERE, HOW and WHY - became my very best friends.
WHO might that boy be?
WHAT might be the Contest?
WHERE and WHEN might the story take place?
The HOW – i.e. the plotline? Well, that would come later.
The WHY behind the WHAT?
Hmmm………..
My WHO would need to tell me.
As for the story’s telling,
whoever my WHO was, I knew HE would do the telling, in a marbled composition book, like the one in which I wrote.
I always had my story’s opening line.
“Hi. My name’s Howard J. Fingerhut but everyone calls me Howie. I’m the author of the book you are reading.”
Thirteen years and many revisions later, each one guided by an interested editor or agent, Holiday House bought my middle grade novel,
The Confe$$ions and $ecret$ of Howard J. Fingerhut.At our first meeting, my editor Mary Cash complimented me on Howie’s voice. Then she requested I move the novel’s time period to the 21st century.
She also requested I drop Howie from fifth to fourth grade.
“Next,” I told her, “you’ll be asking for a plotline!”
5 Comments on So, What's the Big Idea?, last added: 1/21/2010
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LOVE this! I'll be a can of macadamia nuts!
The newest quote at my desk is from Wallace Stegner:
"...loyalty to the next adventure of writing is more important than any kind of 'success.' "
I love the title (who doesn't feel that from time to time?) and the long row of cans. It's such a great way to express the idea that there's always room for more. I'm going to be thinking about writing about a fear for a long time. I share monkey's fear for sure.
Thanks for this wonderful poem and for including Monkey in your post :). I'm a can of tomato soup!
Love this post. So good to face those fears, especially when they are put in such wonderful words. I think I'm a can of black beans, you can do so much with them, even make dessert.
Fabulous poem! I love the line:
"She said that the shelf was only one can deep
but that it stretched out forever.
so there’s always room for one more."
Being the youngest of 10 kids I like the thought of there always being room for one more...=)
What a sweet post, April, so reassuring. I have the second meeting of a new writing group this coming week & I think it will be wonderful to share this with them. More are joining us this time so I suspect they will be a little nervous. I have the Livingston book & have used parts of it with students. Perhaps I should take a look for me! Thanks for all your words!
Mary Lee, Liz, Jama, Bridget, Doraine and Linda ~ Monkey was a little bit astonished that the poem hit a harmonic chord for all of you. He is so excited, he is now writing a ten-book series.
xxx
I'd like to have Doraine's recipe using black beans for desert.
I'll be a can of pumpkin. I bought too many during the holidays, so every time I open the cabinet, they look at me, just like the blank page.
Thanks for always encouraging the writer in us.
Inspiring poem filled with wisdom! Love that little brave monkey, too.
Hmmm - I think I'll be a can of peaches.
Thanks, April!
I'm a can of spaghetti sauce. With mushrooms and lots of garlic. :-) I love this poem. Jealousy is such an unpleasant emotion to feel, and I really like this way of looking at it.
That's a darn good story poem. Nice metaphors. Enjoyed it!
Margaret, Sheri, Ruth--you can be whatever can you'd like...ha ha...
And hi, Charles...why aren't you watching the Oscars?!?!
xxx
Love your post and your poem, April. I think I'll be a can of artichoke hearts. :-)