One Story at a Time...

Picture credit. Bonus points if you can read this.

I have a hard time reading fiction while I'm intensely writing my own fiction. It's as though I can only carry one story at a time in my head.

Does anyone else have this problem? Or is it time to reformat the hard-drive in my brain, because I've clearly reached capacity?

Life, Liberty and Pursuit Giveaway

The Army Wives Saving blog is hosting a giveaway of my book, Life, Liberty, and Pursuit. Giveaway runs until 3/12, so hop over and enter if you're interested!

Writers who Review Books

This great post by Stacia Kane (via Beth Revis) talks about the tricky line that writers walk when reviewing books.

My official policy on Ink Spells is that I do not review books so much as recommend them. Which means I only talk about books that I can enthusiastically endorse. I see this as a win-win situation: I can help a fellow writer promote their awesome work, and I can connect kids with great books, which is part of what Ink Spells is all about.

Sometimes, this means I turn down a publisher's request for me to review their book, usually because the books are not appropriate for the "clean read" focus of Ink Spells for middle grade and Young Teens. But it also means that, as a writer, I never put myself in the position of having to say negative things (in public) about another writer's work.* There are plenty of reviewers in the world, and as Stacia puts it, you have to decide at some point if you are a writer or a reviewer.

I am definitely a writer.

*Note: I am always completely honest in my critiques, although I try to be kind as well, because I think that is the best way to help my fellow writers.

She also makes a point about your diminishing ability to "speak freely" once you become published, because you have become a public figure, and you do not want your random thoughts to keep people from buying your book. I'm familiar with this phenomenon already, having held elected office for four years. It's not so much that you can't be yourself, as you need to be your best self: the one who is generous and giving and non-judgmental. We all have our weak moments, where we want to rant and rail against the injustices of the world, or simply be snarky because someone rubbed us the wrong way: save these moments for your mom, or your husband, or your best friend. Put your best face on for the public, so that they will not be distracted from the main issue, whether it's your political stance or your fiction.

Some may disagree with Stacia's position on reviewing books. I think we each have to find our way in this crazy thing called the blogosphere. While aspiring writers are told, everywhere they turn, that they must blog, FB, and twitter, to have any hope of ever selling their books, and reviewing books seems like a natural way to generate interesting content, in the end we have to remember what we are: writers. The writing community is one of the most supportive I've ever had the pleasure of being a part of. In recommending books, rather than reviewing therm, I've found a path where I can support my fellow writers as well.

What path have you chosen?

On Being Funny

My Monday post was a terribly un-funny look at the raw guts of humor.

Now for the funny part....

In preparing to draft my humorous skits, I read some D*mnYouAutocorrect (warning: NOT PG) and paid homage to LOLcats. After I wiped the tears of laughter from my face, I got to work.

My first discovery was that I absolutely cannot write in screenplay format. Tried. Total kill to my creativity. So I wrote in narrative and then translated to screenplay format after all was done.

My second discovery was that I had to not over-think the comedy. I needed to just get in-character and go with it. I'm way too novice to do anything but intuit the funny.

Rough drafts are always ... rough. This was no exception. But when you're rough in comedy writing, well, you're just not funny. Or funny enough. Once the first draft was done, I put my intentional writer hat on and looked at how to amp up the funny-factor in my situations (since I'm really writing sit-com), rather than amping up the tension (as I would in a drama). And there was still a story to navigate - it had to have a beginning, middle, and end, even if it was told in 1 minute skits across an hour by 6th grade actors in front of a microphone. Yeah, no problem!

I looked for gaps between expectation and reality and made them wider. I looked for character contradictions and made them stronger. I gave characters mannerisms that would gather a chuckle and obey the rule that the funniest characters have a "humour" to which they are completely blind - an obsessive drive that they cannot perceive, but everyone else can. Which makes us laugh at them.

In the end, I just printed out the pages and handed them to Dark Omen, resident 6th grader and humor expert. He took it off into another room and read the script to his younger brothers.

There were giggles. I was happy.

Dark Omen, Mighty Mite, and I acted out the entire play for an audience of one (Worm Burner), and it got a few more chuckles. We timed it, to make sure we were within the 1-2 min time frame allowed for these snippets between the real acts of the variety show. We'll still have to trial run it past my fellow skit coordinator and her son, not to mention the Variety Show Committee for their approval.

But humor no longer terrifies me, and I have a good handle on screenplay formatting now.

Sometimes I think almost all writing is a leap of faith into the unknown. I'm just glad when I don't land in a pile of sharks.

p.s. Because you asked for it, here's a snippet from the script.

SET-UP: The Love Boat theme was determined by the Variety Show Committee, so I had to work from there. The story involves three arcs (crew, pirates, and stowaways) and their adventures in between the Golden Nugget variety acts on board the ship. This is the second skit, where the pirates are introduced...(formatting is different, because Blogger hates screenplays)

THE GOLDEN NUGGETS

A PLAY IN EIGHT PARTS

SKIT TWO

                  

(PIRATE1, who wants to steal the Golden Nuggets to get rich, sneaks onto the stage with PIRATE2, who just wants snacks and a cool pirate name. PIRATE1 is carrying a pirate hook in one hand, and PIRATE2 has a pirate bandana on.)

PIRATE2 (Stops and stands up straight from sneaking pose)

Wait a minute. Why do I have to be Smee, and you get to be Captain Hook?

PIRATE1 (looks exasperated)

Because we’re pirates! And pirates need pirate-y names!

PIRATE2

Why can’t I be Captain Sparrow? Now THAT’s a cool pirate name!

PIRATE1 (hushed voice)

Keep your voice down! We need to be sneaky if we’re going to find out where they’re keeping the Golden Nuggets!

PIRATE2

Ok, Boss.

     (pause)

I could go for some nuggets. I’m getting kinda hungry. Do you think they’ll have dipping sauce?

PIRATE1 (looks exasperated)

Not CHICKEN nuggets, you fool, GOLDEN nuggets!

PIRATE2 (looks disappointed)

Well, those won’t make a very good snack.

PIRATE1

They’re not to eat! They’re going to make us rich, rich, rich!

     (evil laugh)

PIRATE2

Ok, Boss.

(pause)

Do you think we can get a snack along the way? Maybe a smoothie? I like smoothies, especially strawberry smoothies. Big chunks of strawberries.

(looks blissful)

I really like smoothies.

PIRATE1 (shakes head)

Just follow me.

     (suddenly alert)

Shhh! I think I see the Captain! He must know where the nuggets are hidden.

PIRATE2 (quietly)

Aww! I could really go for a smoothie right now.

END SKIT

Writing Humor: Funny on Demand

Today I have to be funny.

Writing humor is hard, but kids (and adults) love it! I would say it's almost a requirement in children's books, to have at least some humor woven throughout even a serious story.

I'm no stand-up comedian, but I've been known to pull a laugh or two out of my kids. However, writing straight comedy is a zebra of a different stripe.

Today, I'm going to write skits for my kids' upcoming talent show. When I was asked to do this, I said, "Sure!" knowing full well I hadn't the slightest idea what I was doing. The kids are beyond excited, eagerly demanding roles and providing suggestions. For my part, I've sketched out some story lines, checked out the stage and placement of microphones, and wondered what my young talent will be capable of delivering on-stage. I knew not to underestimate them, but they still surprised me. When I provided my boys with a few Boy Scout skits, to get an idea of timing and duration of a page of written material, they were fantastically capable of delivering lines with great comedic timing.

I quietly realized there is an art to comedy, and I'm a novice at best.

Fortunately, story is at the heart of everything, and I do know something about that. And I had just finished reading Robert McKee's Story, where he talks a bit about humor in writing, and what makes it funny.

According to McKee, there are myriad subgenres of comedy: romantic, screwball, farce, black, parody, sitcom, satire. They vary by the focus of the comic attack (bureaucratic folly to teenage courtship) and the degree of ridicule (gentle, caustic, lethal). It was fascinating to see comedy described as a vicious attack - what, did you think it was funny? The one overriding requirement, to make comedy funny and not horrific, was this: Nobody gets hurt.


No matter how much the characters may scream and wail, in the end, Wily E. Coyote always dusts himself off for another go at the Roadrunner. McKee illustrated this with an example where two versions of a scene were screened for an audience. In the scene, a piano falls on a fluffy white Persian cat.  In one version, the little paw sticks out from underneath the baby grand: the audience roars. In the second, a small trail of blood leads away from the paw: the audience is deathly silent. Lesson: Don't hurt the cat.

Confident that I already knew not to kill fluffy creatures for my K-6 skit, I was more interested in what did work. According to McKee, all drama lives in the gap created between expectation and reality, but comedy uses this unexpected change to produce that strange thing we call laughter. Where drama says that under the worst of circumstances, the human spirit soars, comedy points out that in the best of circumstances, human beings find a way to make a mess of things. So, the comedy writer goes on the hunt for an institution filled with folly and launches a vicious attack, laying bare all the hypocrisy it contains, served up in tiny morsels of funny.

I had no idea there was so much anger in comedy.

I'm off to write something funny. Wish me luck. Or possibly send condolences.

Ink Spells talks The Familiars

The moment I saw this book, I knew my youngest son, Mighty Mite, would love it. Magic, animals, a cat on the cover ... it just doesn't get better than that in 7 year old land. The Familiars, by Adam Jay Epstein and Andrew Jacobson, is an adorable story about three animal familiars and their loyals, the young wizards they must rescue from the evil queen of Vastia. How can you not love a premise like that?

RL: 6.3 CSM: n/a Rating: G Content: Mild peril, lots of magical fun

Aldwyn, the alley cat that's passing as a familiar even though he possesses no magical abilities, is a charming character. One mis-adventure after another leads this street-wise kitty into troubles he never asked for, with friends he never imagined (a frog and a bird?), and a love for his loyal that he never thought he would feel for another human or beast. Aldwyn is endearing and young readers will immediately be swept up in his search to save his loyal, a boy named Jack. Along the way are wonderful lessons about honesty, loyalty, and believing in yourself.

I couldn't be more delighted with the messages and characters in this book. I love the high reading level as well, and yet it is aimed at fairly young readers. This makes it a perfect read for advanced readers as young as 5. Yay for books with Big Words!

I found this fun book trailer after reading the book, but I would have scooped the book up, based on the trailer alone.




On the book website, you can find your familiar and see the latest news, which includes The Familiars being made into a movie! That's one we'll be seeing, for sure.


The Familiars is also available on e-book, so load up your e-readers, hand it over to your advanced reading kid, and don't expect it back for a while.

Happy Weekend!

Hooking Kids on Science

When I was a kid - the age that I now write for - I was a science fiction addict. This was before the days of Harry Potter and YA, and most of my SF buzz came in the form of adult SF novels. Which is ironic, partly because I run a blog concerned about "age appropriate" reading material for advanced readers, and partly because back then all science fiction was considered "juvenile."

Well, SF has grown up (some might say aged) since then, and as Dark Omen plunges into those Young Teen (12-14) years, I find myself wanting to set him loose on my SF paperback collection, yet concerned about what he might find there.

Serendipitously, the SF publisher Baen comes to my rescue. I was researching small publishers to consider for my middle grade science fiction novel, and as I perused Baen's site, I found a list of Young SF! And there were all my favorites: Niven, Poul Anderson, Heinlein, Marion Bradley Zimmer, Pournelle . . . and a whole lot more that I didn't even recognize. While I'm sure many on this list are more Teen than Young Teen, it's at least been culled by some erudite SF editors as "suitable for an intelligent young reader."

Which is a great description of Dark Omen.

As a bonus, most are available as e-books, so I can load up the Nook and hand it to Dark Omen the next time he says, "Mom, I'm out of books again!"

Creativity - How Does It Die?

Creativity, vibrant and alive

This Ken Robinson video on TED talks about how education kills creativity. I believe children are born creative, but that creative spirit often dies a slow death from a thousand small cuts of criticism, or suffocates in an airless childhood where no time is allowed to simply be expressive. 


Much of my education (and I had a lot of it) was about discipline and rigor – two things that have a high amount of value in the world, which is why parents want these things for their kids. They are keys to being successful in our world. But, just as Sir Robinson says, in our current age of wonder and the future that is coming, kids will need more than just discipline.  More than just knowledge. They will need critical thinking skills and creative abilities to craft the solutions to problems that we can only imagine today.

When I visited a before-school writing club last month, one parent asked if I thought everyone was capable of being creative. I said yes – the kids all around us were knee deep in creative acts. She disagreed, saying she thought it was genetic. Some people were simply born creative. She held herself up as someone who was never creative. I told her every child is born creative; we simply forget as we grow up. I also said creativity was like a muscle that grows stronger the more you used it. I know this to be true, as I’ve experienced it first hand, rediscovering my creative spirit late in life, brought back from a long dormancy. She was unconvinced! But the creativity of the kids around us was undeniable.

I'm reading If You Want to Write, by Brenda Ueland, and it's wonderful how she describes creativity as love and generosity - a giving act of the spirit that takes in the world, interprets it, and is driven to share it back out to the rest of humanity. She talks about how this creative expression is a fundamental part of who we are, and who we're supposed to be in the world.


Near the end of my Ph.D. research, when I was at the heights of the mania that a single-purpose-driven project can bring, I distinctly remember proclaiming, "But I am MORE than this! I am a poet!" The dazed laboratory technician caught in my moment surely thought I was insane. Even I thought I was crazy, finally succumbing to the overload and stress that a dissertation inflicts on you. Because heaven knew I hadn't written any poetry since I was a child, and then it was undoubtedly bad. But I was expressing a truth in the only way my creativity-starved mind could at the time. A self-declaration: I am MORE than this one limited aspect of my being!*


Embrace the MORE within you. Let it grow and breathe in your children, the small ones who haven't been on the earth long enough to forget that they are BOUNDLESS. Allow yourself to create freely, and work and strive and achieve in the pursuit of that creative expression. It is not folly or imprudence or egotism, although creative people are not immune to foolishness or self-importance. Ueland also admonishes us to remember that creating Art is not simple or easy, not without hard work and striving and discipline. Van Gogh did not declare himself an Artiste, holding himself separate and above the world. This is pretentiousness. Instead, he so loved the world that he breathed it in, created his vision, and then painstakingly rendered it and sent it forth again into the world.


This is how creativity lives.


How do you nourish your creative spirit?


*Note: I strongly believe that creativity can be found in all pursuits, not just the arts. Even in Ph.D. research, although it may not have appeared so, to me, at the time.

Valentine's Day Book Signing!

Tomorrow, I'm signing books at Norma's Coffee Corner, Palatine IL, the local coffee-shop-of-awesome. I'm also giving away a Valentine's basket with a book, chocolates, and other goodies.

 If you're local: stop by and get a love story for your sweetheart or win a last minute Valentine's gift!

For everyone: Don't forget to enter Omnific's Looking for Love giveaway (see the sidebar)! Contest ends tomorrow!

Repeat Repeat Phrases Phrases

I stumbled (via Jody Hedlund and the Steve Laube Agency) across a cool tool that will help me weed out those repeat phrases, the ones I like to weed out if I can. (Ok, that was almost painful to type.)

The phrases you would repeat in reality tend to sprinkle through your MS, like hiccups that you never notice. As with Ninja Wordle Skills, the WriteWords Phrase Frequency Counter will help improve your writing, in this case by identifying two or more repeated words in your manuscript.

Two Words
The two-word option wasn't very useful, because saying "for you" fourteen times in your manuscript isn't exactly cause for alarm. However, fourteen instances of "deep breath" probably are (we're not in final draft form yet, so I'm not panicking. But still. Ugh.)

Three Words
The three-word option was a little more handy. Thirty phrases of "I wanted to" (along with 18 "I didn't want's") is probably an indication of some flabby prose, and ten instances of "like everyone else" is a bit startling, because I wouldn't have guessed that was anywhere in the whole story.

Four, Five, and Six Words
This is where it gets interesting. "The back of my throat" gets used way too often, and a truck shouldn't "lurch to a stop" more than once or twice in a story. I'm pretty sure that's a rule. But overall, I was surprised there weren't too many awful "hiccups" in my prose. Maybe the Ninja Wordle Skillz have taken hold.

What wacky repeats do you have in your MS?

p.s. Happy Weekend!

Building a Story

Three Act Story Structure

I've been thinking a lot about story structure lately.

The awesome Debbie Ohi (seriously, check out her art), who I met last summer at SCBWI-LA, reported back from the SCBWI-NY conference this month with words of wisdom for children's writers:
1) concentrate on story/characters
2) just get it written.

I've been doing a lot of both since the first of the year and have had several revelations along the way.

1) I'm not a bad storyteller. 
I'm not great by any stretch, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that my intuitive story-telling skills don't completely suck so badly that I need to give up writing and pursue some other vocation, possibly horticulture (note: I have a black thumb).

2) Form in fiction is like haiku. 
Haiku has very simple, but unbendable rules. However, within that stark structure, amazing beauty can come forth. (I won't subject you to my haiku. I may not be a bad storyteller, but I AM a bad poet. See my blogger-friend Tricia O'Brien for some lovely haiku.) Just like the rules of haiku, a well-structured story form can make the story SO MUCH BETTER. Intuition can only take you so far, and after that, it really helps to understand the form of storytelling.

3) Study the masters.
I knew this one already, but I experienced a perfect storm of masters recently, when I used two different Master Guides (Save the Cat! via Laura Pauling and Story) to analyze a masterfully told story (Hunger Games). It was like using the Rosetta Stone to decode an ancient Egyptian version of the Illiad. Actually, it was easier than that, but felt just as profound. The things that made Hunger Games have such a strong appeal became clearer to me, in a way that I could use as an author for my own writing. And holding my own story up for comparison was a humbling experience. I had to keep reminding myself about Number One above. This is the hazard of studying the masters, but I was ready for it.

4) It is a lot easier to fix a story than write it in the first place, but there are limits to what can be fixed.
Whenever I learn something new about writing, I immediately want to start over from scratch, with a new story, one that will have NONE of the flaws of my previous stories. This is, of course, crazy. I will continue to learn and intentionally want each story to be an improvement in craft. And many, many things can be fixed by small changes (a sub-plot slipped in), a one-room remodel (rewriting a chapter or two), or perhaps replacing the roof (that character? He needs to go). But some things require tearing down the walls to brass tacks, and at that point, it may be easier to write another story.

Which I most certainly will do, but not until I've remodeled the one I'm working on, turning those new writer's wrenches until they're shiny from use and warmed up for the next WiP.

What writer tools have you added to your toolbox lately?

E-books Sales for Kids Take Off

A great article in the NYTimes talks about a boom in e-books sales for kids and teens, possibly spurred by holiday e-reader gifts.

Ink Spells has been a long time* advocate for and predictor of e-readers as the wave of the kidlit fiture.

*approximately a year, which is 7 years in internet-time

This is what I had to say in November 2009:

I think teens and adults will lead the charge, but will children's books be far behind? Picture books will always be around, with their glossy pages and gorgeous illustrations, but how long will it be before the kids want their own nook? They'll curl up at night with their small screens, their own library of e-books just a finger-touch away.

I'm thinking a year or two, 2014 at the outside. 

I should have stuck with my first estimate of a year, because a mere 15 months later, e-books are 25% of all sales of teen books in January, picture books are showing up on iPads, and "tweens and teenagers (are) clustered in groups and reading their Nooks or Kindles together."

Rather than resting on my prediction laurels, I wonder how this will change the way children read. I'm not talking about screen-time (e-ink is no harder on the eyes than paper) or attention span (Angry Birds anyone?). One problem that a blogger friend is already facing is that children have access to books of any kind and number with the touch of a button. In order to protect your pocketbook, and the innocence of your son or daughter's childhood, you might want to keep an eye on the books that they download. But this easy access may break down a barrier that parents and publishers alike take for granted: the fact that children usually have gatekeepers to select their reading material.

I wonder if removing the gatekeepers, giving children essentially the world's library at their fingertips, will lead to more reading.

I think the answer has to be yes. Variety, after all, is the spice of life.

Although I let my boys roam the library and bookstore, looking for books in the children's section, those books have been pre-selected by librarians and bookstore owners. When children have access to the internet, to book blogs and Nooks, will they do more of their own decision-making? Will they seek out and try new things, or will they still rely on the adult gatekeepers to guide their reading?

I'll venture to predict that children will begin to drive their own sales, as they have the ability to search and find exactly what tickles their fancy. Given that the main reason kids stop reading is because they can't find anything they enjoy, we may see a sweeping increase in young readers. Publishers will start to market directly to kids, via an e-reader that has straight access to their eyeballs, just as sugared cereal manufacturers know to advertise during Dora the Explorer.

Is this good, or part of the e-pocalypse? I'm not sure, but I'm willing to bet an ice cream that it will happen whether we like it or not.

And this time, I'm sticking with my first instinct: it will happen within a year (ok, maybe two).

Writer's Knowledge Base + WINNERS

Thanks to everyone who entered the Readers are Smart Giveaway in celebration of YOU, my 300+ followers! The winner(s) are announced below...but first!

L'Aussie alerted me to a very cool resource for writers. Do you ever feel like there are so many awesome blog posts out there, and not enough time to read them? I DO ALL THE TIME. Do you ever gnash your teeth when you stumble across a writing issue, and remember reading a great post about it, but can't find it again to save your soul? Yeah, me too.

Elizabeth Spann Craig and Mike Fleming joined forces to create a search engine for writers and dubbed it the Writer's Knowledge Base. Sort of like Wikipedia for Writers, only it's really Google for Writers ... you just need to check it out ...

Here's an example:

I type Plotting and WKB comes back with:

Avoid 5 Plotting Mistakes (which is part of an 8 post series)

Plotting and Scheming

Plotting by the Seat of Your Pants

...and 669 more results.

When I try the same thing in Google, I get the definition of plotting in the dictionary, and 10 ways to tell if your cat is plotting to kill you. Intriguing, but not very helpful.

I think Writer's Knowledge Base is pure genius! It's my new best friend.

On to the winners!

Winner of the Book of Your Choice  is ... Shannon O'Donnell!

Winner of a 20 page crit from yours truly is ... Pk Hrezo!

Meanwhile, the fun continues ...

Season of Love Giveaway (Life, Liberty, and Pursuit plus candy!) goes until February 10th!

And Omnific's Lookin' for Love Webhunt (a full set of Omnific titles) goes until February 14th!

Happy Weekend!

Snowpocalypse

So, this happened...

There's a street out there somewhere.

Windowsicle.

The kids are ecstatic (SNOW DAY!), but there's not much to do until the world melts or gets plowed.

Don't forget to enter all the giveaways!

300th Follower Readers are Smart Contest - Win a book of your choice or a 20 page critique from yours truly

Omnific Publishing's Looking for Love Web Hunt - Win the entire Omnific collection of books!

Season of Love Giveaway - Win a copy of my book, Life, Liberty, and Pursuit and some candy for your sweetheart for Valentine's Day!

If you're in the Storm Zone, stay warm and safe! 

p.s. check out my shiny new Facebook button! (Thanks to Natasha for the nudge!)

FREE BOOKS! Omnific Throws a Giveaway!

It's the Season Of Love (Dark Omen! Cover your eyes!). On top of Monday's Smart Reader Contest, I have TWO MORE giveaways to share with you!

Firstly: The Looking for Love Web Hunt

I don't talk much about my book Life, Liberty, and Pursuit on Ink Spells (since my book is YA and all), but I wanted to alert everyone to a wonderful giveaway my publisher, Omnific, is throwing (here's a great review of Omnific!). All the instructions can be found at the website, but here's the skinny:

• Visit Omnific's Author's Websites (including mine!) February 1-14
• Find the Hidden Candy Hearts (one per website, each with a different saying. Clue: You'll have to find out more About Me to find my candy heart)
• Match the sayings to the authors, enter the form, and enter a drawing to win the ENTIRE Omnific eBook collection.

p.s. Omnific is also running their 1st Anniversary sale - buy a print book and get an ebook free! 

WARNING: Omnific is a Romance publisher, and while my book is one of three YA titles (yay!), most of their titles are Romance with a side of steamy, and are intended for adults.

Secondly: Season of Love Giveaway

For those that don't already know, my debut young adult novel Life, Liberty, and Pursuit is about a college-bound girl who falls in a pool, the navy recruit who saves her, and their struggle to decide between following their dreams and daring to love.

I'm giving away a copy of Life, Liberty, and Pursuit on my book website, along with some delicious Valentine's Candy for your sweetheart! So, if you have someone who would love a sweet love story and some sweeter candy, hop over to my book website to enter. Contest runs through February 10th (so I have time to ship your winnings to your sweetheart).