Writing What We Know

July 15, 2014 / still a dreamer / 17 Comments

This started out to be about three aspects of writing what we know, but I see that it would be a ridiculously long post. So I’ll divvy it up and start with a fairly recent example. I received a lovely personal response from an editor at one of the publishing houses represented at an NJ SCBWI event. I am very appreciative to receive such a thoughtful and detailed reply, although, of course, I wish it were better news. She complimented me on tackling a difficult subject, but found it a bit melancholy and added that quiet stories were not selling much in the picture book market these days. Happily, she was also very encouraging about my writing and my pursuing it.

This is where writing what we know comes in. What I know – one of the things, anyway – is about animals and their ability to affect us profoundly, both personally and through literature and imagery. This particular picture book story has a wonderful magical element to it and healing on several levels. While I don’t see it as melancholy, it still behooves me to pay attention to the perception and opinion of one who lives and breathes children’s books. But what stops me is the “quiet story” part.

I like quiet stories. I like funny stories, too, but I also like something that touches the heart and soul in some way, something that’s real, that’s a reflection of what children go through in their young lives. I get that kids like funny and action-filled, but what about the other aspects of a child? Are we no longer looking to feed that as well? Are our increasingly fast-paced and digital lives crushing the inner lives of picture-book age kids? (OK, maybe that’s extreme, but then again …)

As writers, we certainly need to be aware of the trends in the industry and what the market is looking for, otherwise we can be twirling about in our own stew of ideas that will never get published. At the same time, we need to consider what “writing what we know,” (the advice we are always given by editors and agents), actually means and where it fits in what’s being published. It’s a challenge to all of us. So I look at the body of work I have to date. Maybe it’s time to let some of my stories go; maybe I haven’t sent them out often enough and/or to the right publisher/agent who will appreciate a particular “quiet story.”

So where does the rubber hit the road? Where do writing what we know and what’s being published intersect?

Stieg Larsson – The Millennium Trilogy

June 15, 2014June 16, 2014 / still a dreamer / 4 Comments

What a writer! Oh, my. Talk about books you cannot put down.

I just finished The Girl Who Played with Fire, not all that much later after reading The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo*. Is it any wonder Larsson won so many awards? He was truly a masterful writer. Not only does he have that whole end-of-the-chapter-page-turning thing going on big time, but he is able to effectively flip back and forth into different places and characters’ situations in rapid succession, never losing, but rather only building, the momentum of the story.

The fact that the names of the characters and frequently referenced locations are all Swedish and unfamiliar to the English-speaking reader still does not slow one down. Larsson periodically goes into paragraphs of description, such as in his providing the background of each member of the murder investigation team under Bublanski in The Girl Who Played with Fire, but that doesn’t seem to slow you down either. The information proves to be relevant later on in the story, but in the hands of a lesser writer, such descriptions might leave one meandering and lost down some other path. Larsson’s twists and turns keep you turning the pages and reading far later in the night than you should.

His characters are engrossing, particularly, of course, the main character, Lisbeth Salander, a brilliant computer hacker with a profoundly painful past. She can be violent, yet is at the same time, highly moral, and always complex and challenging. Mikael Blomqvist, the investigative journalist, is also compelling in his own way, but more so, I believe, in his relationship to Lisbeth. The trilogy is classified as crime thrillers/murder mysteries, and, of course, this is true, but for me, I also found them fascinating character studies.

Sometimes we have to be in the mood for a certain kind of book – I don’t always feel like reading a crime thriller any more than I do any other genre. But if you are in the mood, these are books you will not easily put down. I was lent the first two by my neighbor, but for the third, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest, I will need to go to the library in town. Starting Monday morning, I am committed to being home for the tree people to come at a currently unspecified time to remove a very large and threatening dead branch high up on an older spruce next to my home. Start a new book? Wait to get to the library? All life’s decisions should be this enticing.

* The movie version of this book with Rooney Mara and Daniel Craig is also outstanding, in my opinion.

Learning from Others’ Writing

May 29, 2014 / still a dreamer / 3 Comments

I hate giving up on a book. When I’ve chosen one to read, I really want it to be terrific, so when it continues to disappoint, well, even I give up the ghost. But I realized, much as we can learn from fabulous writers, we can also learn from those who still have more to learn, (myself certainly included.)

A book I picked up recently at the library sale lured me in – great title, fabulous cover art, subject matter strongly appealing to me, and what seemed like an intriguing storyline. But each time I picked it up, I just couldn’t get into it. I finally gave up about 1/5 through. I wondered, what wasn’t working and how could it help me be a better writer?

First, voice. The novel was supposedly told by a 12 year old girl, but the voice was clearly that of an adult woman saying she was a 12 year old girl. Never once did I feel like I was reading a story written by a 12 year-old, so it just didn’t ring true. As children’s book writers, we know how tricky voice can be and the importance of feeling that we’re reading the age group targeted.

Next, character development – I wanted to like this kid, but I just couldn’t really connect with her emotionally. The same went for the other characters; they weren’t able to pull me into their worlds. The characters seemed flat, and sometimes stereotypical, whether adults or tweens. Is it possible that the author wasn’t able to deeply feel her own characters? Or just had difficulty expressing what they felt? She was very capable of describing emotions quite well. This is a huge challenge in writing – to have our readers feel what our characters feel, but when it’s not there, we just feel left out.

Focus – I think there were too many characters and story lines and not enough space to write in depth why things were happening with them, the reasons that would make me care. I felt a little pulled all over the place. As we know, a really good author can juggle multiple story lines and then weave them all together for an astounding ending – we’ve all read these books – but I didn’t see that happening here.

So I write this post certainly not to bash another author, who I leave nameless, but to share the difficulties in making our writing ring true and in writing the stories that have readers coming back for more, looking forward to the moment when we can get back to our book. I want to be aware when I write, not only what I need to do, but of the pitfalls I want to avoid.

So then I picked up The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. One might say there is far too much detail to remember, family names to keep track of, and yet … I can’t put it down. How did Stieg Larsson do it? I’m keeping my eye on that, too!

I’ll tell you one thing. He knows how to end a chapter and make you want to turn that page!

Shadow of Night

May 15, 2014July 24, 2014 / still a dreamer

Deborah Harkness is on the top of my list right now for being a simply brilliant writer. I just finished Shadow of Night, her second in the All Souls Trilogy, and am as spellbound as I was when I finished A Discovery of Witches, her first.

What blows me away, aside from the sheer endurance it must take to write a nearly 600 page novel, is the fact that Harkness sets most of this book (which, although it begins in modern day France and New Hampshire), in Elizabethan times — in England, Prague, returning to the Blackfriars in England, and finally a return to France in the present day.

When one of the two main characters, Matthew DeClermont, a centuries-old vampire and modern day geneticist, time walks back to 1590 with the last of the Bishop witches, Diana Bishop, we see him as Matthew Royden. Royden, a spy for Queen Elizabeth, actually once lived and was a member of The School of Night, which also included Christopher Marlowe, Sir Walter Raleigh, George Chapman, Thomas Herriot and the Earl of Northumberland. Part of the author’s genius is writing a story that integrates all the above-mentioned, plus others who lived at the time, with fictional characters against a backdrop of historically correct time and place. It is simply amazing. Some of the characters are witches, daemons and vampires; some are human. In the back of the book, Harkness lists all her characters with an asterisk next to those who actually lived in Elizabethan times, (including Shakespeare, though he didn’t belong to the School of Night.)

Harkness’ characters, whether human or creature, are rich, complex and utterly believable. I don’t know if her novels fall under the category of urban fantasy or perhaps fantasy, but I can tell you, she is hardly riding the coattails of anyone who has created tales in the popular vein of vampire mythology. She is in a category all her own. Although I have highly praised Deborah Harkness’ talents, I have not revealed the story line of the All Souls Trilogy, and for this I suggest, if interested, you read more about the two novels published so far. You can find a concise summary of Shadow of Night here and of Ms. Harkness’ first novel, A Discovery of Witches here. About the latter, goodreads.com says, “Debut novelist Deborah Harkness has crafted a mesmerizing and addictive read, equal parts history and magic, romance and suspense.”

Like so many good novelists, Harkness demands your full attention; the novels are challenging, but so very worth the journey.

What Treasure! Finds at the Annual Book Sale

April 27, 2014April 28, 2014 / still a dreamer / 4 Comments

Armed with nothing more than a mere paper list and 2 canvas bags, I prepared to do battle in the County Fairgrounds Grange Building, to find hidden treasure at the Annual Library Book Sale.

And find treasure I did!!

On my list were several broad categories … first I was looking for a particular chapter book series for my friend’s son, then books on model trains for another friend and particular cookbooks for another friend and myself. But then … I had a list of MG and YA novels and adult fiction strictly for my own reading pleasure. Some of these were Newbery winners or honor books that I’d been trying to find for awhile, others were books gathered from the 100 book bucket lists from an earlier post, some recommended by friends. What would I find?

3 hours and a terribly aching neck later, I did quite well. Let’s take a closer look.

At left we have the known writers up top and books on my list below. The top 3 are among my favorite authors – Patricia Briggs, fabulous writer of urban fantasy and the Mercy Thompson series with Raven’s Strike, Alice Hoffman with Incantation which in theme seems to be along the line of recently enjoyed The Dovekeepers, and Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal Dreams which I’ve been wanting to read for some time, and found quite unexpectedly.

Another Jerry Spinelli MG classic, Milkweed, and Almost Home another MG by Joan Bauer of Hope Was Here, plus a healthy kitchen book by another fave of mine, Dr. Andrew Weil, and the only book of Nicholas Evans, of The Horse Whisperer fame, that I haven’t read, The Divide. Below them, books I’ve had on a list for awhile – YA Schooled by Anisha Lakmani, and MG The Underneath by Kathi Appelt and Crispin, the Cross of Lead by Avi.

I also found the next book after The Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls’ Half Broke Horses about her grandmother Smith whom we met in her memoir. I am so impressed by Walls’ writing that I was hoping to find this book and The Silver Star but am real happy about at least getting one of them. The Liars’ Club by Mary Karr is another much-praised memoir, and Water for Elephants also has gotten rave reviews if I can get through what I hear is a fair amount of brutality to the elephants. They could lose me there; we shall see.

And on to the lucky finds … I was looking for The Giver by Lois Lowry, but found instead Gathering Blue, perhaps dark, but intriguing, as may be the collection of short stories by Neil Gaiman, Smoke and Mirrors. The Te of Piglet is a companion to the Tao of Pooh which I already own and love – a can’t miss for me. Shanghai Girls by Lisa See seems to have the flavor of Memoir of A Geisha which was outstanding, and The Red Leather Diary is a book I remember reading about being excellent some time ago. A surprise and hopefully another treasure.

I was first introduced to The Whale Rider as a movie about the New Zealand Maori tribe, specifically Kahu, a girl who should receive this sacred honor by lineage but which is only bestowed upon boys and men. It was excellent and I was thrilled to stumble upon the book by Witi Ihimaera. I am trying a sci-fi book by C.S. Lewis, Out of the Silent Planet. I am not generally a sci-fi fan, but this sounded great. I also found The Hearts of Horses by Molly Gloss, The God of Animals by Aryn Kyle and Horses and the Mystical Path by three McCormicks, because what would my (reading) life be if not inclusive of animals? (And yes, 2 cookbooks are in that pile, too!)

Today I feel rich, very rich. I didn’t find a bunch of the books on my list, but am more than happy with what will keep me engrossed for quite some time. The ones I couldn’t find? They’re on a new list under a magnet on my fridge, and whenever I am so inspired, I can toddle on over and pick them up from my local library, where I’ll also sit and soak up picture books to feed the writer and illustrator within.

Oh, and not to mention I am waiting for my inter-library loan of Deborah Harkness’ second book The Shadow of Night. Sometimes it seems crazy that something so simple can bring such happiness, but such a good crazy!