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By Lara Herrington Watson
@lashwatson
for Cynthia Leitich Smith's Cynsations

As I finished writing my second YA novel, I worried that my writing was getting stagnant.

What if I was learning bad habits that I would repeat through all of my future novels?

In order to glean some knowledge about my writing, I completed grammatical analyses on the first chapters of works by some of my favorite authors (Jane Austen, Ernest Hemingway, Barbara Kingsolver, David Levithan, Rainbow Rowell, and J.K. Rowling), and on my own novel.

I calculated percentages of sentences that begin with a subject, adverb, etc. I also looked at percentages of sentence type used: fragments, complex sentences, etc.

Here’s what I learned:

When reading your manuscript straight through for errors, highlighting different parts of speech individually (nouns, verbs, adverbs…) is an excellent editing method. This is how I started the project, and while it didn’t teach me much about my writing, scanning it piecemeal made the text pop in a different way. I discovered a dozen small errors and typos that I and my writing group had not yet found (in the first 50 pages alone).

Simplicity is okay. Forty-five percent of all my sentences are simple. I start 63 percent of my sentences with subjects. At first I was sure this was too high. But these numbers are actually pretty average compared to my favorite authors.

Levithan had the highest percentages of simple sentences and of sentences beginning with subjects (65%), but his writing is still some of the most poetic, jazzy, and prismatic writing I’ve read. Maybe this is because of the many gorgeous participial phrases in the middle or at the end of his sentences.

Similarly, Rowell’s writing gets more interesting (lots of fragments composed of participial phrases) whenever the protagonist waxes nostalgic about his girlfriend. Much like Levithan, her fragments make seemingly small, subtle emotional steps that work.

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Austen had the second highest percentage of fragments (Blame Mrs. Bennet’s blathering about Bingley.). Austen also uses the smallest range of tools for sentence starters, yet she scores fairly high in her use of complex sentences.

Complexity is also okay. One myth among young writers is that long sentences are always run-on sentences. This is untrue.

Take Hemingway, who is surprisingly complex. Because of his reputation as a straightforward, clear writer, I expected him to score high in fragments, but he had the least of anyone: only 2.2%.

His complex sentences were also the most complex of any I analyzed. Compared to writers like Levithan and Rowell, Hemingway often covers more ground (years, literally) with longer, more complex, and exceptionally clear sentences.

Use a range of tools. As far as sentence starters, Rowling definitely uses the widest range of tools. It’s probably not a coincidence that her varied writing has captivated children and adults alike.

Don’t focus too much on statistics. Initially, I thought that the best writing would have the greatest variation. But some sentence starters and structures work better depending on the author’s voice and the novel’s contents; Hemingway and Kingsolver, for example, punctuate their long, complex sentences with short, punchy ones. This may not make the most interesting graph, but it sets their voices apart and makes for great fiction.

My sample size is admittedly small. I’m only looking at first chapters, and there’s plenty more to learn. But my brain hurts from too much data entry, and the boarding school from my third novel beckons.

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Chipotle Mexican Grill has recruited ten new writers to contribute pieces for its “Cultivating Thought” line.

Jonathan Safran Foer returns to serve as both curator and editor. The participants include Neil Gaiman, Aziz Ansari, Augusten Burroughs, Walter Isaacson, Amy Tan, Paulo Coelho, Carlos Ruiz Zafon, Barbara Kingsolver, Julia Alverez and Jeffrey Eugenides. The company’s cups and bags will feature short stories and illustrations.

Gaiman announced on his Facebook page that his piece focuses on “refugees and the fragility of the world.” Here’s an excerpt: “There are now fifty million refugees in the world today, more than at any time since the end of the Second World War. And at some point, for each one of those people, the world shifted. Their world, solid and predictable, erupted or dissolved into chaos or danger or pain. They realized that they had to run. You have two minutes to pack. You can only take what you can carry easily.” Follow this link to learn more. (via The Hollywood Reporter)

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Climate change is in the air, literally and figuratively, in people’s marches across the country, at the United Nations, and in cars with diplomatic plates all over New York City.

So what is the literary crowd thinking?

The New York Times posed the questions:

“What is your greatest worry about climate change? What gives you hope?” (more…)

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Oyster, the eBook subscription service that has been referred to as "the Netflix of eBooks," now has 500,000 eBooks in its lending library. New titles include: How Music Works by David Byrne, Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver, Telegraph Avenue by Michael Chabon, The Cider House Rules by John Irving and It Chooses You by Miranda July. This is huge growth for the company's catalog which counted only about 100,000 titles a few months back. The company raised $14 million in funding back in January and has since been expanding its publisher partnerships. The service launched kids books in February. The service allows users access to its entire collection of books for a $9.95 a month subscription fee.

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The title of a book is so important – and not many people have titles as consistently good as Gabriel Garcia Marquez (in my humble opinion) – and I suppose that is linked to the fact that not many people write as well as he does (again … in my humble opinion..)

Think of these:

Love in the time of Cholera

One Hundred Years of Solitude

Chronicle of a Death Foretold

The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World

No-one writes to the Colonel

Memories of my Melancholy Whores.

The General in his Labyrinth

Other titles I like, from other authors

Up in Honey’s Room – Elmore Leonard

The Poisonwood Bible – Barbara Kingsolver

Of Mice and Men – Steinbeck

And to think that I saw it on Mulberry Street – Dr Seuss

Death is a lonely business – Ray Bradbury

Dandelion Wine – Ray Bradbury

Things Fall Apart – Chinua Achebe

Looking for Transwonderland – Noo Saro Wiwa

OK I’ll stop now … but it is a hard thing getting a title right, and it does matter!

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I'm so behind blogging...so much to do, so much to say.


I have more pictures to post of my visit to Crestview and Indian Hills in Clive, Iowa, but I'll do that after finishing final grades....this is too time-consuming.

I do, however, want to mention that after Lois Lowry's live online booktalk through School Library Journal, I quickly ordered Gathering Blue (which I had started and never finished), Messenger, and her latest novel in the series, Son. 

Image lifted from Amazon, obviously:

I'm embarrassed to admit that I didn't know these four books were a series. Not having gotten far enough in Gathering Blue to see the connections (which were sort of magically aha-inspiring when I got there), I didn't know that an answer existed in the universe as to what happened to Jonas and Gabe at the end of The Giver, which I've read many times. I love that book so much, I even required it a few times when I taught Humanities Critical Thinking at SCC, in hopes that the idea of treasuring knowledge and learning might sink in.

So, in between grading and the frantic pace of December in a college, I did plow through the last three books. Lois Lowry is a master of character and what I would call magical realism. She creates a dystopian world but makes the characters so heroic and human, even with their gifts, that I couldn't put down any of the books.

Son was truly a crowning end to the series. It's an epic struggle of good-heartedness against controlling society and against evil (is there a difference?). In the Ceremony of "Twelves"--the ceremony where Jonas was named "Receiver" from the "Giver," Claire is named "Birthmother." Birthmothers' job is reminiscent of "Handmaid's Tale" by Maraget Atwood. When something goes terribly wrong with the birth, Claire is deemed unfit for her position in the community and cast out of the birthmothers' dwelling. In a new position, no one remembers to give her the daily pill that eradicates emotion and desire. Hence, she longs for the son she's never seen. The longing leads her on a quest that reaches the edge of the Community and beyond.  Gripping, chilling, delightful, tragic, and heart-warming. Worth every second of reading.

The novel is richer if you've read the whole series--or at least The Giver, but it's a stand-alone story if you haven't.

I wished for just a little more conflict toward the end of the book, even though the tension all the way through made me want to yell the truths at the characters (the only book in the series where dramatic irony pulls us along--we know much more than the characters in this story). So the wish for more conflict wasn't due to a lack of it in the book. It's just that the final "battle" seemed almost too easy...I wanted it to demand just a little more...but who am I to be in the least bit critical of a master storyteller like Lois Lowry????  The book was masterful, powerful, horrifying and wonderful.

Any fan of The Giver should read the entire series.

I think I admire her so much, and love her characters and stories so much that she may have moved up onto my pedestal with Harper Lee and Barbara Kingsolver Dennis LeHayne and Marguerite Henry and Lois Lenski and Carol Ryrie Brink and Mary Calhoun and Astrid Lindgren and Sarah Pennypacker: enduring, forever-favorite writers of stories I love.

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Flight Behavior
Barbara Kingsolver
448 pages
Harper
9780062124265
November 2012
Review copy

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Goodreads has opened up voting for the 2012 Goodreads Choice Awards, a contest in which readers can decide on the best books of the year. Books up for nomination include titles from Junot Díaz, Barbara Kingsolver, Damien Echols, Cheryl Strayed, Baratunde Thurston and many more.

The site, which now counts 12 million members, has nominated 15 books in each category and users are invited to vote on their favorites. The nominees are based on the number of ratings and average ratings on the site. Here is more from the Goodreads blog: “We analyzed statistics from the 170 million books added, rated, and reviewed on the site in 2012 and nominated books based on the number of ratings and average rating. A nomination is truly an honor because it comes straight from the readers!”

This opening round of voting lasts through November 12th. Readers will have two more chances to vote after this round.

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What book are you most excited about this year? Over at Library Journal, Barbara Hoffert has published her annual “BEA Galley & Signing Guide.” The handy resource will help you make sure you can find all the galley copies and authors you need at BookExpo America.

Check it out: “Because hunting through the aisles for the book or author you love can be a challenge, I’ve been tracking some of the show’s top titles, from large publishers and small, focusing on tote-away galleys from adult authors and key in-booth signings, always harder to pin down than signings in the Autographing Area. Plus, for the digitally inclined, I’ve embedded icons that will guide you straight to NetGalley—just another sign that those titles are hot.”

If you want to sample the books, Publishers Marketplace and NetGalley teamed up to create BEA Buzz Books, a digital collection of more than 30 samples of highly anticipated books–including excerpts from books by Junot Diaz, Barbara Kingsolver, Dennis Lehane and Neil Young. Follow this link to download the free consumer edition.

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 It was inevitable that a novel featuring my three favourite historic figures (Diego Riveira, Frida Kahlo and Leon Trotsky) should find its way into my supermarket basket. How glad I am that it did!


The Lacuna is a well-researched and beautifully written epic novel that captured my imagination and held my attention from its early pages. It combines modern and ancient Mexican history with modern US history and an anti-war message. It tells the life of Harrison Shepherd, an American boy growing up in Mexico, and later of his career and exile in the USA. His story is interwoven with that of famous artists Riveira and Kahlo, and the Bolshevik leader, Trotsky.


Chancing to meet Frida Kahlo in the market place one day, he offers to carry her basket, and not discouraged by her rather scornful reply, he follows her home – the start of a complicated life-long friendship and his first job in the Riveira/Kahlo home.


Shepherd makes himself indispensible as a mixer of the best plaster, a fine cook and a secretary. When the household takes in exiled Russian leader, Leon Trotsky, Shepherd becomes his main scribe and translator. His diaries give colourful descriptions of the vibrant personalities he lived amongst and of a life under constant threat of attack.

After Shepherd’s death, he makes his way to small-town American and establishes a new life as an author. He leads a reclusive life and tries as much as possible to be unnoticed, but his novels are overnight successes and draw a lot of attention from women (in which Shepherd) is not remotely interested) and from the media.

As McCarthy’s witch-hunt against Communism draws momentum, Shepherd comes under suspicion by his former association with Riveira, Kahlo and Trotsky and is drawn into an ugly legal battle.

Will he clear his name? You will just have to read this fascinating and entertaining story to find out.  Highly recommended.

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I was asked yesterday about my favourite writers. Very hard to narrow this down to one or two – in a way favourite books might be easier to answer. So instead of giving an answer of say four writers (which would make me think how could I have left out so and so) I said Barbara Kingsolver as her book The Poisonwood Bible is one of my all time favourites.

I left out Gabriel Garcia Marquez’ One Hundred Years of Solitude as that almost goes without saying – it is impossible for me to think of a more perfect book. And when you stop to think that the version many of us have read is a translation, it is even more incredible. I spoke to someone once who had read it in Spanish and he described it as musical. Which is exactly what it in in English. I reckon it would almost be worth learning Spanish to read it as he wrote it (not to mention that it would enable you to speak to millions of people scattered over our planet!)

As a favourite writer for children I had little hesitation in naming Dr. Seuss.  My children learnt to read with Dr. Seuss and laughed their way through the process. When I started reading up about his writing it made sense. It is in the da da dum, da da dum, da da dum, da da dum rhythm of it. Its proper name being Anapestic Tetrameter. Whatever its proper name is it has a very natural rhythm to it, it is easy on the ear but not easy to write. 

Cat in the Hat came about in the following way (thanks Wikipedia!)

In May 1954, Life magazine published a report on illiteracy among school children, which concluded that children were not learning to read because their books were boring. Accordingly, William Ellsworth Spaulding, the director of the education division at Houghton Mifflin who later became its Chairman, compiled a list of 348 words he felt were important for first-graders to recognize and asked Geisel to cut the list to 250 words and write a book using only those words.^[22] Spaulding challenged Geisel to “bring back a book children can’t put down.” ^[23] Nine months later, Geisel, using 236 of the words given to him, completed The Cat in the Hat.

Some achievement. Even today I read his books and they bring a smile to my face. What a gifted man – to have his way with words and an ability to draw like that, perfect.

‘Think left and think right and think low and think high. Oh, the thinks you can think up if only you try!’ 

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By Allen J. Wilcox

On making boy babies, and other pregnancy myths

In her novel, Prodigal Summer, Barbara Kingsolver celebrates the lush fecundity of nature. The main character marvels at the way her ovulation dependably comes with the full moon.

It’s a poetic image – but is there any evidence for it?

Actually, no. It’s true that the length of the average menstrual cycle is close to the length of the lunar cycle. But like so many notions about fertility, an effect of the moon on ovulation is just a nice story. The menstrual cycle is remarkably variable, even among women who say their cycles are “regular.” This is not surprising – unlike the movement of stars and planets, biology is full of variation. The day of ovulation is unpredictable, and there is no evidence (even in remote tribal cultures) that ovulation is related to phases of the moon or other outside events.

We humans are susceptible to myths about our fertility and pregnancy. These myths also invade science. One scientific “fact” you may have heard is that women who live in close quarters synchronize their menstrual cycles. The paper that launched this idea was published forty years ago in the prestigious journal Nature¹. Efforts to replicate those findings have been wobbly at best – but the idea still persists.

Another scientific myth is the notion that sperm carrying the Y male chromosome swim faster than sperm carrying the X female chromosome. It’s true that the Y chromosome is smaller than the X.  But there is no evidence that this very small addition of genetic cargo slows down the X-carrying sperm. As often as this idea is debunked, it continues to appear in scientific literature – and especially the literature suggesting that couples can tilt the odds towards having a baby of a particular sex.

Choosing your baby’s sex

Many couples have a definite preference for the sex of their baby. The baby’s sex is established at conception, which has led to a lot of advice on things to do around the time of conception to favor one sex or the other.  Recommendations include advice on timing of sex in relation to ovulation, position during sex, frequency of sex, foods to eat or avoid, etc. The good thing about every one of these techniques is that they work 50% of the time. (This is good enough to produce many sincere on-line testimonials.) Despite what you may read, there is no scientific evidence that any of these methods improves your chances for one sex or the other, even slightly. The solution? Relax and enjoy what you get.

When will the baby arrive?

Everyone knows that pregnancies last nine months – but do they? Doctors routinely assign pregnant women a “due-date,” estimated from the day of her last menstrual period before getting pregnant. The due-date is set at 40 weeks after the last menstrual period. You might think the due-date is based on scientific evidence, but in fact, 40 weeks was proposed in 1709 for a rather flaky reason: since the average menstrual period is four weeks, it seemed “harmonious” for pregnancy to last the equivalent of ten menstrual cycles.

So what are a woman’s chances of actually delivering on her due date?  Fifty percent? Twenty percent?

Try four percent. Just like the length of menstrual cycles (and every other aspect of human biology), there is lots of variation in the natural length of pregnancy. If the due-date is useful at all, it is as the median length of pregnancy – in other words, about half of women will deliver before their due-date, and about half after. So don’t cancel your appointments on the due-date just because you think it’s The Day – there’s a 96% chance the baby will arrive some other time.

1. McClintock MK. Menstrual synchorony and suppression.

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