Dinner and Perseverance

The Richmond Children's Writers and friends had dinner with a visiting author: Lynda Mullaly Hunt, author of One for the Murphys. She was in Richmond doing some author visits, and we had the good fortune of spending an evening with her.

First of all, have you read One for the Murphys? If not, put it on your to-be-read pile right away. And make sure you have tissues handy. One for the Murphys is an honest look at a girl who finds herself living with a foster family for the first time while her mother is hospitalized. Good stuff!

Lynda told us an interesting story. She had been working on her manuscript (the original title was "Clip") for many months and was beginning to feel discouraged. She had escaped to a Dunkin Donuts shop to write, and it wasn't a good writing day. She had to struggle to get the words out, and what did come out wasn't that great. She was seriously considering scrapping the whole project.

As she walked out to the parking lot on her way out, she passed a car with the a customized license plate. It read, simply, "CLIP." She took it as a sign that she needed to persevere, which is exactly what she did. Her book was published by Penguin in 2012, and it has done very well.

Every writer I know has felt like giving up. I was about two-thirds of the way through Freakling when seriously questioned the worth of going on. I had convinced myself that the story was too strange, that no one would ever "get" this story, and that it wasn't marketable. I was ready to forget about the whole thing. Then I read Patrick Ness's The Knife of Never Letting Go--the strangest book I'd ever read, but I loved it. If that book is marketable, then maybe my story has a chance, I thought. It was a slim chance, but enough to keep me going. I finished writing the book and by the following year, an agent found the book not strange but original, and signed me as a client. Soon, I had a book contract for Freakling, and--interestingly enough--it was with the same publisher and the same editor as The Knife of Never Letting Go. Crazy!

Our message to you is to keep writing! Keep trying new things. If one thing doesn't work, try it a different way.  If one project stalls, put it on the back burner and start something else. Must. Keep. Writing!

To show how serious we are about this, we're hosting a giveaway. The prize is two books, both signed by the authors. The winner will receive One for the Murphys and Freakling (newly available in paperback!).  Login below to Rafflecopter and enter by following us on Twitter/Facebook and/or sharing the giveaway with your friends! (NOTE: Login information is used to verify valid entries and to contact winners. Your personal email WILL NOT be shared or stored).

Good luck and don't give up! a Rafflecopter giveaway

Thinking Like a Writer, Part 1

Where do you get your ideas?

This is by far the most common question that authors get. Kids ask me this question at school visits. Adults ask this question when I visit book groups. Writers ask this question to other writers at conferences. While the universal answer is something along the lines of “ideas come from everywhere,” I believe there is a lot to learn from thinking about how ideas come to us and what we do with them when they show up. Here’s my first tip for thinking like a writer:

Writers observe.

Observing means paying attention to what is going on around you. Engage with the world. Notice new things. What can you see today that is unexpected? What breaks a stereotype? What is unexplained? What draws your interest and why? Question. Think. Muse.

Pay attention to random thoughts that your subconscious mind interjects into your awareness. Why did your brain make that connection at that moment?

Be a people watcher. Why do people do the things they do? What is body language conveying? What do actions during a tense moment reveal about a person’s character?

Become an ardent eavesdropper. Conversation is happening all around you. Listen. What does each person want from the conversation? What is the context? What is the subtext? Fill in the gaps with your imagination.

Ways to practice observing:

-          Challenge yourself to notice one new thing with each of your five senses in a 24-hour period.

-          Practice observing as you read. Try to notice an interesting turn of phrase, a fresh word choice, pleasing word flow or a catchy cadence. Aspiring fiction writers can take notice what the writer is doing with plot and characters. What is it about the writing that holds your interest? How did the writer do that?

-          Be aware of when you are feeling creative. Is there a certain time of day where your brain is open to creativity? In the shower? Just before you fall asleep? Taking a walk outside? As a writer, that is something you’ll want to know about yourself.

Visit Lana's website for Thinking Like a Writer, Part 2.

Author Skill Set: Story Sense

"The universe is made of stories, not atoms."

                    -Muriel Rukeyser

Storytelling is probably the oldest form of entertainment on the planet. Stories play significant roles in the human experience: It's how we learn, share, persuade, plan, dream, communicate, and make sense of the world. Indeed, the human experience IS story.

As technology has evolved over the years, new forms of storytelling have emerged. Books, radio, recordings, movies, video games, and electronic media each offer a new way to experience story. Whatever medium a storyteller chooses, a strong story sense is essential. Story sense, in my head, means this: the ability to create a satisfying story arc with a beginning, a middle, and an end.

Many people have an innate sense of story, but I believe it is something that can be learned as well. There are many books about the theory of story structure, which are quite interesting. However, it comes down to that critical word, satisfying.

As I wrote my first novel, I rearranged the sequence and the pacing and the order of the scenes many times. I kept asking myself, "Is this the right way to tell this story?" Even after reading said books regarding storytelling theory and structure, I wasn't sure. When I changed the question to "Is this a satisfying way to tell this story?" I was able to feel confident about the choices I had made about my story structure.

What are your thoughts about story sense? How is it strengthened? How is it weakened? We'd love to hear from you.

Author Skill Set: Creativity

I aspire to the be a writer who is constantly improving, pushing myself to take risks, see things a different way, and learn from the incredible people and world around me. In my attempts to do this, I've made a list of ten skills that I want to work on. The first (though the order is not important) is creativity skill. I define it this way: the ability to recognize, combine, and develop good story ideas.

Every author event that I've attended, someone asks the question, "Where do you get your ideas?" and the answer is always some variation of the concept that ideas come from everywhere. 

It's true. Story ideas, like interesting pebbles, are all around us, just waiting to be collected. Creativity skill comes into play as we learn to recognize them, pick them up, and know what to do with them. The idea for my novel came from a friend of mine who told me that she never visualizes anything when she reads. She might hear the dialogue and the sounds in her mind, but she never forms any mental images. I was astounded. I thought every reader visualized like I do. I still think most readers do, but since then I've met others who don't visualize. 

I began to think about this over and over.What other tasks might a non-visualizer have trouble with? Taken to the extreme, could the inability to visualize be considered a handicap? What kind of society would pose problems for a person who can't visualize things? That led me to conceive of a world in which telekinesis (the ability to move things mentally) was commonplace, which in turn led to the characters and plot of my novel which will be released Fall of 2012. 

One of the things I do to exercise creativity skill is to keep an idea box. Anytime I see something that triggers a story idea, I write it down or draw it or cut it out and put it in the box. The box is not organized at all, just a jumble of snatches of things. When I need an infusion of new ideas, I go through the mess in the box and invariably find something that sparks a new direction.

What do you do to sharpen creativity?