A Reason to Care

A good story gives the reader a reason to care what happens to the characters.  The story causes the reader to recognize feelings and situations, phrases and conversations. They feel personal and familiar, even if the story is a fantasy or if it takes place in another part of the world.

In The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck the main character Wang Lung’s desire for wealth and status clashes with his simple respect for the earth and his adherence to old Chinese traditions. The reader feels his desires and hopes and frustrations, and experiences his mistakes.  The reader cares what happens to him and his family.

"But Wang Lung thought of his land and pondered this way and that, with the sickened heart of deferred hope, how he could get back to it. He belonged, not to this scum which clung to the walls of a rich man’s house; nor did he belong to the rich man’s house. He belonged to the land and he could not live with any fullness until he felt the land under his feet and followed a plow in the springtime and bore a scythe in his hand at harvest."

In Hemmingway's The Old Man and the Sea the reader hears Santiago's inner thoughts and dreams. The reader witnesses a three day struggle with a marlin, the largest fish of his career.  The struggle reminds the reader of every difficult thing he has endured, and those feelings make Santiago's struggle feel personal.

"He no longer dreamed of storms, nor of women, nor of great occurrences, nor of great fish, nor fights, nor contests of strength, nor of his wife. He only dreamed of places now and of the lions on the beach. They played like young cats in the dusk and he loved them as he loved the boy."

Vision

The author's vision is the central theme of the story, or the idea that motivates the author to tell the story.  Everything in a novel is there by choice.  Each element of the plot, each character adds to the whole.  It could have been left out, or it could have been told in a different order, or said in a different way.  The decisions of the author are based on the story in his head, combined with all of his life experiences and all of the books he has read. At each moment in the author's life he is unique.  He brings unique experiences, emotions and vocabulary to the writing process.  Several authors may write about a theme, such as lonliness, struggling with poverty, or trying to win approval.  But each author will tell their story uniquely, based on the author's vision.

When you read a novel you are getting a glimpse into the author's vision.  Some novels will resonate with you so much that you submerse yourself in the book and you don't want the book to end.  That shared experience between the author and the reader is powerful.  It contributes to the feeling of one-ness in the human family.  It is a strong motivator for the reader.  He may search for quite some time before he finds another book that speaks to him in the same way.  But he will keep searching, because it was a good feeling he wants to repeat.

If you are a writer, you must tell your story using your vision.  It must be authentic.  If you can do that, there will be readers out there who will find your story and fall in love with it.

A Little Tale

 

Dear Mom

 

We have something to tell you.  It's about Jinks.  He has been naughty. He dropped his mittens in a mud puddle.  He is hiding under the bed.  Can we have his pie?

 

 

Sincerely

 

Jingle and Jangle

 

Three little kittens they lost their mittens,
And they began to cry,
Oh, mother dear, we sadly fear
Our mittens we have lost.
What! lost your mittens, you naughty kittens!
Then you shall have no pie.
Mee-ow, mee-ow, mee-ow.
No, you shall have no pie.

The three little kittens they found their mittens,
And they began to cry,
Oh, mother dear, see here, see here,
Our mittens we have found!
Put on your mittens, you silly kittens,
And you shall have some pie.
Purr-r, purr-r, purr-r,
Oh, let us have some pie.

The three little kittens put on their mittens,
And soon ate up the pie;
Oh, mother dear, we greatly fear
Our mittens we have soiled.
What! soiled your mittens, you naughty kittens!
Then they began to sigh,
Mee-ow, mee-ow, mee-ow.
Then they began to sigh.

The three little kittens they washed their mittens,
And hung them out to dry;
Oh! mother dear, do you not hear,
Our mittens we have washed!
What! washed your mittens, then you’re good kittens,
But I smell a rat close by.
Mee-ow, mee-ow, mee-ow.
We smell a rat close by.^[1

Aiming High

This about achieving your dream.  Maybe you want to be an artist, a really good gardener, or a writer.  Aiming high is the only way to get there.  What would it look like to you to be successful?  Can you picture it?  Can you fill in the details?  The more clear this is to you, the more real the image is to you, the better.  Because you need to be sure about it in order to get there.

 

 

 

For a writer, success for you may mean finishing a project you have started.  It may mean a certain level of income.  It may mean orgainizing your bits and pieces, quotes and character sketches into a usable file system.  Be clear about what you want to achieve.

So what if you are struggling?  What if you don't like what you are producing? What if you have left your art form for awhile and you want to start up again?

The best advice I have for you is, don't worry. There is a time and a season for everything.  If you want to create, you will.  During the dry times in between projects your subconscious mind is gathering material from which you will start to produce again. 

Wonder

I wonder about things.  I try to learn something new every day.  It keeps the brain cells firing and gives me something to write about.  Research and browsing are not mutually exclusive.  Entertainment can also be enlighteneing.  Learning about the world we live in is fascinating.

 

Today's subject is camels.

 

 

True or not true about camels:

 

 

1. The hump stores water
 
2. Camels can drink 40 gallons of water at one watering
 
3. Camels don't sweat
 
4. Camels lie down to sleep
 
5. Camels can kick in all four directions with each of their legs
 
6. Camels are fussy eaters
 
7. Camels can close their nostrils against the wind
 
8. Camel coat keeps them cool in the hot sun
 
9. Camels chew tobacco so they can spit
 
10. Camels bond with their caregiver
 

 

 



 

 

 

 

1. F 2. T 3. F 4. T 5. T 6. F 7. T 8. T 9. F 10. sometimes

The Gift of Story

If you could sit down with someone from history, what would you ask them?  I believe you would want to know their story.  If you could talk to the ancestor who left home and travelled to a new land, I think you would ask them to tell you that story.

Your story is just as priceless to your friends and family.  How will you capture and preserve your story for them?

Binder - you can add pages of any size.  A flexible way to save your writings, concert tickets, theater programs, pictures.

Blank Book - use it to jot down your ideas, write poetry, record your dreams, or express gratitude.

Artists Sketchbook - tell your story visually with your own drawings and paintings.

Photos - save them in a book, save them online, or make a slide show or a video of a baptism, vacation or birthday.  Be sure you write down who, what, when, where so others will know why you saved that picture.  It is sad to have a box of photos and not know who any of the people in them are.

Audio recording - maybe you are better at talking than writing.  Get a little digital recorder and start telling the story of your life.  A few minutes a day will add up to a beautifully preserved story.

Any way you choose to share the gift of story, you can be sure it will be priceless!

“After nourishment, shelter and companionship, stories are the thing we need most in the world.”
Philip Pullman

Observation

Writers must be very observant.  This is not my strength, sadly. But every skill can be strengthened with practice, even observation.  One of the best things you can do to improve your writing is to use the character's senses, all of them, as often as possible.  Sometimes I like to create a little scenario and try to write the scene including all five senses.  This is part observation and part imagination, but it strengthens the use of all five senses.

Here is an example of a scenario.  Would you like to try writing about this scene?

 Let's say a character fell into a cold river.  He has been rescued and is suffering from hypothermia, trying to warm up near a campfire.  Try to describe his experience using all five senses. How would you describe the ache from nearly frozen feet?  The scent of the fire?  The colors of the fire that are so hypnotizing?  The sound of voices of his rescuers, muted because of the water in his ears?  Does he still hear the rushing river?  Can he hear his own heartbeat? Maybe he tastes blood in his mouth.  Maybe he has the bitter taste of black coffee in his mouth.  Even if you have not experienced this yourself, combine observation and imagination to make it as real as possible.

Having fun yet?  Maybe you are ready then for this challenging writing prompt. What if a character did not have the use of one of his senses?  His other senses might be even more sensitive.

Family Read Alouds for Winter Nights

It gets dark so early this time of year.  It's time for playing board games, making popcorn balls, baking cookies and reading aloud together.

Here are some of my favorite family read alouds.  Some can be read in one sitting, and some will take a few nights to complete.  I hope you enjoy one or two of these books on a cold winter night.

Polar Express by Chris Van Allsburg
How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss
Owl Moon by Jane Yolen
Bear Stays Up for Christmas by Karma Wilson
The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis
Tuck Everlasting by Natlie Babbitt
How to Train Your Dragon by Cressida Cowell
The Saturdays by Elizabeth Enright
The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren

What is your favorite family read aloud? 

A Story About Becoming

 

What are you becoming?

 

I visited an exhibit at the art museum yesterday.  It was called "Becoming Van Gogh".  The exhibit showed the progress of his short career as a painter.  Having already failed at several other careers, he decided at the age of 27 to be an artist.  So he began to teach himself to draw. Using a flat carpenter's pencil or charcoal he copied drawings from a book.  He drew them many times, trying to learn to draw the human figure.  Later he began to experiment with color, but his colors were very somber.  After moving to Paris he started to immitate other artists use of color, so his colors became bolder.  He experimented with colored yarn, laying complimentary and analagous colors of yarn next to each other.  He experimented with impressionism and pointelism.  All of these years of experimentation lead him to his own unique style.  His unique brush stroke is long strokes of color, like pieces of yarn, with directional movement to create drama in the painting. His unique use of color is placing complimentary colors next to each other to create movement. The style we know as Van Gogh's style took nearly ten years to develop.

 

So the point of my story is this.  We are all becoming.  Those impulses to create something, be it music, art, inventions or writing, are the beginning of what will become your unique expression of emotions and vision.  The process of becoming is as important as the product.  So I wish you well in your creative journey.  Don't worry about the pieces you don't really like. Just keep doing what you are doing until the great pieces begin to emerge.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cow story

It started with a sandwich.

You know that chicken sandwich restaurant chain that uses cows in the advertisements?  Somehow that cow image got stuck in my mind.  The image reminded me of some funny children’s books featuring cows.  Is there anything better than the laughter of a child?  No, not really.  So grab a book or two from this list, a couple of glasses of milk and your favorite young person.  Enjoy!

When Cows Come Home by David L. Harrison

The Cow Loves Cookies by Karma Wilson

Kiss the Cow by Phyllis Root

The Cow that Went Oink by Bernard Most

The Cow Who Clucked by Denise Fleming

Moo Moo Brown Cow by Jakki Wood

Cows Can’t Fly by David Milgrim

Poetic License

Special licenses are sometimes necessary to the success of a character or a story. James Bond has a license to kill.  Sherlock Holmes has a license to invade the privacy of others in order to investigate a crime.  What is poetic license? It is the liberty an artist takes to alter normal rules of behavior or physics or practices to create the desired effect in the story.  A poet may re-arrange the normal order of words to make the phrase comply with the rhyme scheme or have the appropriate rhythm.  A novelist my introduce elements that seem impossible according to the laws of physics but make sense on some scientific level and that make the story work.

Appropriate use of poetic license requires the writer to be aware of the normal conventions of speech, grammar and natural laws.  A science fiction writer employs real science knowledge and introduces a plausible scenario for the desired literary effect.  A writer who includes the dialect of a certain region must understand both the rules of mainstream grammar and the special rules of the dialect.  If not, the dialog will sound wrong to the reader's ear and offend native speakers of that dialect.

Some examples of poetic license can be found in old sayings that imply situations that cannot literally be true such as:

When hell freezes over

I am starving

She is older than the hills

I have butterflies in my stomach

These are figures of speech.  They are literary devices that convey emotion and meaning although to take them literally would be very confusing.

Another example of poetic license is the use of dialect, such as these phrases from Huck Finn:

"that ain’t no matter" and  "it warn’t no time to be sentimentering"


We as readers grant this poetic license to writers when they use it skillfully and it enhances our experience.  We can also rescind the license if it sounds false or fails to be reasonable enough.  We are often required to suspend disbelief and immerse  ourselves in the story but if the writer has not created a believable variation on the rules we fail to reach that level of trust necessary to suspend disbelief.  

Two Sides to Every Story

Every story has a protagonist.  This is the person who has a goal or problem that is central to the story.  This is the person who the reader usually identifies with.  The reader hopes for success for this character because we believe his cause is just or he is in the right.  We, the readers, want this person to win love or a treasure and live happily ever after.

Every story also has another side. This is the antagonist.  This character may not be a bad guy.  This character stands in the way of success for the protagonist.  This character disagrees with the protagonist.  He may even think of himself as a hero, believing his cause is just and that the world will be a better place if he succeeds.

Let's look at a familiar story to explore the idea that the antagonist could be in the right, could be the hero of his own story.

In the story The Three Little Pigs there are three protagonists, three characters that the reader hopes will succeed with their story goal or problem.  The three little pigs each build a house and want to live happily ever after in their house.  They did not make an equal effort to build their house, which is the tragic flaw for two of the pigs.

The antagonist in this story is the wolf.  He finds the three houses and manages to eat two of the pigs who did not build a strong enough house.  How could he be a hero in his own story?  He is obviously hungry. What if he has been on a long journey and is trying to get home and is nearly starved when he finds the first little pig's house of straw. We would cheer for him when he gets a well deserved meal, wouldn't we?

New Story from An Old Story

 

 

Here is a way to get yourself going if you are experiencing writers block.  Try to make a new story from an old story.Start with a familiar story and then do one or more of the following:

• Change the setting, a new place or a new time
• Modify one or more of the characters, give them a tag such as a cute habit or phrase
• Modify the story problem
• Tell the story from the antagonists point of view
• Tell the story from the point of view of a minor character

 

Have fun with your new story!  It is OK to change things to create a new story of your own.  Use your story wisdom to know what to keep and what to change.

 



 

 

 

 

 

Delicious Words

 

A good writer can create a sensory experience with delicious words. Carefully chosen similes and metaphors evoke a response almost as real as an actual experience. You can hear the approaching train, or the crashing waves or the frightened heartbeat. You can see the colors of tropical flowers or green eyes. You can taste the roasted fowl, ripe peach or fresh bread. The right adjectives can make you salivate. Here are some phrases from great writing that illustrate delicious words:

 

"Human speech is like a cracked cauldron on which we bang out tunes that make bears dance, when we want to move the stars to pity."
Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert

 

 "A sickly light, like yellow tinfoil, was slanting over the high walls into the jail yard."
 A Hanging by George Orwell.

 

“A hot wind was blowing around my head, the strands of my hair lifting and swirling in it, like ink spilled in water.” The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood.

 

“The other was fair, as fair as can be, with great masses of golden hair and eyes like pale sapphires.” Dracula by Bram Stoker.



“The water made a sound like kittens lapping.” The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings.

 

“The unhappy Hook was as impotent as he was damp, and he fell forward like a cut flower.” Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie.

 

Now, how would you describe these pancakes with delicious words? 

 

Adjectives: Rich, buttery, airy, golden, savory

 

Simile: warm as a sleeping baby

 

Metaphor: He devoured the flapjacks as quickly as they came off the griddle, and they comforted him, filling his belly with the promise of many such mornings to come.

 

 

 

 

Story Culture

Have you ever been somewhere that made you feel out of place?  A place where you don't understand the language or culture?  I tried to capture that feeling of amazement and confusion with the fantasy children's novel I am currently working on.  My character is a tiny human boy (Tom Thumb) who has been separated from his family.  He is staying in a gnome village, and it is very strange to him.  I am working on ways to show the cultural markers such as the type of humor and the odd habit of identifying mood through the sense of smell.  I also have shown the kind of diet and food preparation for the gnomes, their village life, their games and recreation, their work and passions, and talents.  These are ways to show the story culture.

 

  This is a scene that shows how Tom is getting to know the gnome culture.

 

The gnomes were good-natured and had an easy manner with each other. But Tom did not understand their sense of humor. Many times he didn’t realize someone had made a joke until he heard the others laughing. He noticed that gnome humor was seldom directed at someone else. Most often when they made a joke, it was at their own expense. They were both confident and humble. It was so confusing.

He was certainly a curiousity to the gnomes. They were fascinated by both his small size and his human ways. They just couldn’t get over his tiny fingers and toes. They sniffed him, interpreting his moods by the way he smelled. No one apparently thought this was rude. It was a gnomish way of learning about someone. Tom bathed at least once a day hoping they would stop sniffing him. Jon said bathing didn’t make any difference. He still smelled like a human. A human who within one hour was nervous, curious, giddy, offended, disappointed, sad, and proud. It was smelly fascination.

 

 

 

Life is Gnarly

This month I have been participating in nanowrimo - a month of intense novel writing with the goal of writng 50,000 words in 30 days.  Nanowrimo offers pep talks throughout the month to inspire creativity and help writers find their voice.  One of the pep talks this month was from Scott Westerfield.  I want to share some of the ideas he wrote. Life is full of gnarly details. Scott Westerfield says the world is much more complicated than we imagine.  We think too simply.  We need to realize that the world is messy, relationships are stormy, and there is far more variety in nature than we realize at first look.  Did deeper when you are crafting your story world.  Look for the unique and interesting details that make the story richer and more true to life.

 

 

 

Try these exercises to get you started:

 

Take a 15 minute walk in a natural setting.  Notice the scents.  Does the air smell like rain is coming?  Has someone started a wood fire to take away the morning chill?  Notice the living things around you, from insects to birds and mammals.  What are their activities?

 

Examine one of your relationships.  What annoys you about this person?  What quirky habbits does this person have?  What is one sad event in that person's life?  What is a simple pleasure you have shared with that person?

 

Get into the gnarly.  That is story gold.



Tickled

Do you enjoy a good laugh?  The power of story takes you away from your problems and gives you a glimpse of some other, funnier world. Here are some books that I think are funny.  Some are for adults, some are teen graphic novels and some are for kids.  Take your pick.  You’ll be tickled.

The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith
Precious Ramotswe starts her own investigation business in Botswana. Precious investigates several local mysteries, including the search for a missing boy.

 Bossypants by Tina Fey
Full of wit and indescribably funny. Fey’s bio reads just like a skit from Saturday Night Live, in the voice of Liz Lemon. Down to earth and light hearted, a biography many can relate to.

I Didn’t Ask to Be Born (But I’m Glad I Was) by Bill Cosby
Quick reading and funny. From humble beginnings to household name, Cosby delights readers with his tales from five decades in comedy.

Library Wars: Love & War Series by Kiiro Yumi
Iku has dreamed of joining the Library Defense Force ever since one of its soldiers stepped in to protect her favorite book from a government trying to rid society of books it deems unsuitable.

 

Fake Mustache by Tom Angleberger
Campy and energetic, Fake Mustache follows Casper, an unusual 7^th grader with birthday money and a plan. Only his best friend can stop him from taking over the world with a hypnotizing fake mustache and man-about-town suit.

Creepy Carrots by Aaron Reynolds
Jasper the bunny believes the carrots that grow in Crackenhopper Field are creeping up on him. He sees their menacing shapes everywhere.

How to Be Friends with a Dragon by Valeri Gorbachev
Simon’s sister teaches him many rules about being friends with a fire-breathing dragon. Don’t try to scare him. Be careful how you wake him up.

 

Curious

What makes you curious?  Do you wonder about science and technology? Do you ponder how the human brain works and why people behave in certain ways?  Do you love languages and the evolution of words?  A writer must be curious.  But we are curious about different things.

One of the members of my writers group was talking yesterday about what you can learn about your health from your excrement.  I know that does not keep me awake at night but for her it is fascinating.  She claims that as a hypochondriac she needs to know how to observe her body, her symptoms, and all clues that give her insight into her state of being.  She is curious.

Another friend is fascinated with the behavior of a pet bearded dragon.  Why does he bob his head?  Why does his throat turn black sometimes?  Will he continue to grow forever or will he reach adult size and stop?  She asks a lot of questions at the reptile shop.  She reads everything she can find about bearded dragons.  She spends quality time with the dragon.  She is curious.

I like to observe the way people behave, their facial expressions, how much they say or do not say about themselves. I enjoy making note of a turn of phrase someone uses frequently.  I pay attention to what people find funny, and of course that is different for everyone.  I work in an environment that gives me experience with people from a variety of cultural backgrounds.  This is wonderful stuff for a writer.  I am curious.

Why do women go to the restroom in pairs?  Why do some people avoid eye contact?  Why does that child hesitate to speak?  Why does that boy push others around?  I have questions in my mind all the time.

What are your questions?

Getting Stuck and Getting Out Again

My writers group met for a write-in last night.  We are all working on fiction for nanowrimo.    It is an intense month of writing with the goal of getting 50,000 words completed in 30 days.  So, we are all making progress, but we have all experienced problems with writing ourselves into a problem.  That is our characters get into trouble.  We cannot always dictate what our characters will do, after all.  We get them started and some time in the next few pages they get minds of their own.  We, as authors, often talk about getting stuck and getting out again.

The power of story is example of how we all get stuck sometimes due to decisions we make or the actions of others.  Human nature is survival.  It is awesome, really, the way people get stuck and get out of trouble again.  So drawing on our observations and our personal experience, we share our wisdom with our characters and help them get out of trouble.  They might get caught in a terrible snowstorm when they should have had the sense to stay at home.  They might be tempted to get something for nothing, and that never works out well.  They might struggle over love or friendship.  We console them and help them to make the best of it. 

Have you ever been stuck and had to think of a way to get out again?

Funny Folktales

Bedtime is a great time to read or tell folktales with children.  These stories have been handed down for many generations.  If you have a good repertoir of folktales you and your little one will have something to look forward to every evening.  Whether you are in the mood for an adventure story, a scary story, or a funny story, there are lots of  folktales for you to choose from.  I hope you will try storytelling.  There is something magical about telling a story in your own words, with your own expressions and style.  You may want to listen to some storytellers tell a folktale to help you understand what storytelling is all about.

Here are a few of my favorite folktales that are very funny and easy to tell.

Gingergread Man
Bremmen Town Musicians
Chicken Little
The Emperor's New Clothes

Do you remember a favorite story from your childhood?  Do you still know it by heart?

Bremmen Town Musicians

Friend or Foe

The novel I am working on currently requires a variety of foes.  I'm about to send my characters in search of a mythological creature who lives in a waterfall and can, for a price, teach them how to play the violin.  The creature comes from Scandinavian folklore.  In my story, one of my characters has an aching desire to be a good musician but is a little short on talent.  He hears the story of the Fossegrimen and decides that is the only possible way he is going to learn to play the violin.

Now the Fossegrimen is not an evil creature.  But it represents a trap many of us fall into.  It represents a quick and easy way to get what we want.  So is the Fossegrimen a friend or a foe?

I'm working on that chapter next, so I will let you know.

Is it stealing?

The best storytellers in the world steal their stories.  Well, not exactly.  Is it stealing to use a source story and craft your own version?

Shakespeare used historical and literary sources as references for his plays.  The Taming of the Shrew was based in part on an annonymous ballad known as A Merry Jest of a Shrewede and Curste Wyfe.  Opera composers Verdi, Gounod, and Benjamin Britten have based their work on Shakespeare's plays. 

Do today's writers steal their stories too? There are a number of popular fiction writers these days that base their work on Greek mythology. The Lightning Theif by Rick Riordan, Discord's Apple by Carrie Vaugh, Abandon by Meg Cabot, Troy by Adele Geras to name a few. Fan fiction amateur writers base their work on popular culture television series, movies or books. While this is technically copyright infringement, some authors welcome fanfic as long as it is shared freely.  Fan fiction writers need to understand, however, that not all authors will overlook it or welcome it.

Who hasn't seen a movie that was based on a book?  Patriot Games, Twilight, The Notebook, Bridget Jones Diary and Minority Report are examples of these.  The screen writer collaborates with the novelist to create visual storytelling that may or may not stay true to the original work.

So how do you steal a story without really stealing?  It is legal to start with characters or places first introduced in works of fiction no longer under copyright.  You can browse the Project Gutenberg list for books in the public domain.  Folk tales are also in public domain, available for you to play with.

Take the basic story or character and ask questions.  "What if" is always a good place to start.

What if two unrelated characters met?

What if the character's story world change forever?

What if a most valued posession was lost or taken?

What if this character were transported to another place or time?

Now go have fun with it.  Steal something and make it your own.

Power to Motivate

At our staff training day the keynote speaker shared stories with the power to motivate.

Over 30 years ago, when her business was new, the owner of the business confessed to her staff that she was NOT a morning person.  And yet, their business required that they arrive at work pretty early in the day.  The business owner is an energetic and very positive person, but everyone has their needs, right?  She confessed to her staff that she needs coffee in the morning to get going, but she absolutely hates to make coffee.

One of her staff members took it upon herself to do something unselfish for the company. Every work day for over 30 years she has arrived at work early.  Each day she makes a pot of coffee.  When the boss, and others, arrive, there is fresh coffee to greet them.  This gesture has made mornings very pleasant.  She makes a contribution that helps her co-workers look forward to mornings and arrive at work motivated to do their best.

Each member of the team contributes to the whole.  We are all creative.  We all have ideas. We all have energy.  Sometimes we need to be reminded that just by doing some simple act of service we can make a difference for our team, and for our customers.

I hope you will think about how you make a difference for others around you.  What acts of kindness have you done for your family or for your co-workers?  What creative ideas have you implemented for the better? 

Anything Is Possible

A good story illustrates that anything is possible.  It is all the more powerful when the story is true. At lunch today I was talking to someone about the fitness challenge we had at work a couple of months ago.  It was a pretty simple program of tracking your exercise and your veggie intake.  We shared some great examples of how this simple program changed lives for the better.

One person grew up in a family that never ate dinner together. She ate TV dinners and fast food for most of her life.  She was not accustomed to any kind of exercise or activity that used body strength, so she didn't have a good body image.  While participating in this fitness program she made one small change.  She started taking ballet lessons.  For the first time she felt at home in her own skin, and she enjoyed the challenge of learning the positions and a few steps.  She signed up for just a 6 week introduction to ballet, but she enjoyed it so much that she has continued with dance lessons.  She now says ballet is her favorite creative activity.

Another person benefited from the fitness program by recording fruit and veggie intake.  At first she said she couldn't participate. She had stomach staple surgery and had very strict rules to follow about the amount of food she could eat.  But after realizing that the portion size could be adjusted to meet those requirements, she decided to give it a try.  Eating small amounts of food is good, but eating foods with colors like green, red and yellow is important, too. She started including more fresh, healthy foods in her diet and she lost some more weight.  She also discovered that she liked more kinds of vegetables than she ever thought.

Sharing these stories about real people making changes for the better is very inspiring.  It makes us realize that anything is possible, and that real people succeed when they put their mind to something. That is the power of story.

Essential Reading

I am writing an original fairytale for Nanowrimo (National Novel Writing Month).  It is my second middle grade novel. Although the characters and plot are my own, the story is based on a very old fairytale.  I have always been fond of fairytales. I believe that fairytales are essential reading.  Apparently I am not alone in my conviction that fairytales should not be forgotten. Melissa Taylor's Imagination Soup blog lists 8 reasons why fairy tales are essential to childhood.  Here are just two reasons of my own:

Fairytales are imbued with old values and ideas that are still as valuable as ever

Fairytales show us that any problem can be solved and that help will always be given

So please go to your bookshelf.  Find a fairytale collection that you have neglected.  Dust it off and open it again.  You will be drawn into the story again, just as you were years ago.

Here are just a few of the fairytale books on my bookshelf.

The Jack Tales collected and retold by Richard Chase
Treasury of North American Folktales edited by Cathareine Peck
Celtic Myths and Legends by T.W. Rolleston
Cinderella Tales from Around the World by Ila Lane Gross
Italian Folktales by Italo Calvino

So have fun re-reading them.  I've got to go make some progress on my novel.

Revealing Clues

When crafting a story I have to find a way to let my characters learn certain facts that will lead them to the next step towards their goal.  There are several ways to reveal clues.  Sometimes I stumble upon these methods in the process of writing and sometimes they are something I plan into the story.

Objects - finding a photo, a keepsake, or a written record such as a newspaper article or a journal

A Boastful Character - usually the antagonist or an associate of the antagonist brags about their plans

A Guiding Character - someone in authority or with more experience gives the protagonist an idea about where to look next

An Event - A celebration, a storm, or even a death may show the protagonist something important

Read to Your Baby

My friend is having a baby today.  I am so happy for the new family.  The best advice I can give the new parents is that it is important to read to your baby even when he is very little.  Let they baby hear your voice. Let the baby hear the sound of our beautiful language.  The baby's brain is developing rapidly.  By the time the baby reaches his first birthday he will have learned all the sounds necessary to speak his native language.  In this case, maybe two languages. The more stories you read aloud to your infant, the more words he will be exposed to.  He will understand spoken language better.  He will pick up new vocabulary so much faster.  The baby will become familiar with the way we express emotions with our voices.

What should you read?  Read books that you like.  Read books about everyday experiences of eating, getting dressed, going for a walk, and visiting the zoo.  Read books with rhyme and repetetive phrases.  Read funny books.  Read books about how much you love your baby.

Here are some of my favorite books to read to your baby.

Where is Baby's Belly Button by Karen Katz
Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown
A Kiss for You by Joan Holub
Guess How Much I Love You by Sam McBratney
Brown Bear Brown Bear What Do You See? by Bill Martin Jr.
I'm A Little Teapot by Iza Trapani
Bear Wants More by Karma Wilson
Papa Please Get the Moon for Me by Eric Carle
Ella Sarah Gets Dressed by Margaret Chodos-Irvine
Owen by Kevin Henkes
Millions of Cats by Wanda Gag
1,2 Buckle My Shoe by Anna Grossnickle Hines

The Meaning of Story

A story starts with a chain of events.  It follows a character or several characters, showing what happens and showing their choices and reactions to the events of the story. One event leads to the next event until the end.  How do you know when you are at the end?  There is a resolution to the conflict. Without a conflict, there is no story.

The conflict is what gives the story meaning. It is what makes the events important enough for the reader to think about and invest some time in reading. A story is the way we make sense of things that happen in our own lives and in the lives of others.  A story is the way we derive meaning from life experiences, and we are always seeking meaning.

A good story surprises and delights.  It takes us to an understanding that is true but unsuspected.  It makes us ponder and even question our values.  It shows us the other side of an idea by allowing us to see things from a character's point of view, a character that is unlike ourselves or sometimes more like ourselves than we realized.

A story uses many devices to convey meaning.  The setting of the story, the habits and desires of the characters, their tools and skills, their choice of phrase, their station in life, all convey meaning.

I am participating in Nanowrimo - or National Novel Writing Month.  I am coaching a few writers who are also attempting to craft 50,000 words of fiction in a month.  the act of writing fiction rapidly can cause some surprises.  It can bring out ideas and values, conflicts and resolutions that the writer didn't even realize were imbedded within.  As we work on our novels, some of us like to start things in motion and then just let the story unfold without knowing where it will lead.  Others prefer to outline and plan their story.  When they start a scene they already know where it is going and this helps them get past writer's block.

Are you working on fiction too?  How do you get started?

If you like to start with an idea and see where it leads, then you are a panster, flying by the seat of your pants.  You might find inspiration, jot down ideas in a notebook, but you don't plot in advance.

If you are a plotter, you like to outline your story.  You know where you are going when you begin your story journey.

Either way the writer begins, he is still creating a story with a beginning, a middle and an end.  And if he is a true storyteller, he finds the meaning of the story.

Memorable Characters

National Novel Writing Month brings out the inner storyteller in many people.  Fondly known as "nanowrimo" this yearly event encourages writers to focus for 30 days on a new fiction project and complete 50,000 words before November 30th.

I am coaching some writers for nanowrimo this year.  One of our exercises is creating memorable characters.  A tool I used with the writers is this character generator.  The generator gives you the gender of your character, a strong trait for your character, a weakness, and a prized posession.  It is a good place to get ideas and practice thinking about how to make characters unique.  This exercise stimulates imagination and is a starting place.  The ideas my writers talked about were so interesting that they could grow into characters they will really use in their novel.

When I am developing my characters I write a description. I include their physical traits such as hair and eye color, height and weight.  I include some memorable tags such as nervous habits, phrases they use often, or a unique laugh.  I write out a bit of their back story, the life events that shaped them into the person they are when the story begins.  I write down the thing they want most and their strong beliefs.  For main characters this description can be several pages long.  For minor characters it can be short. By the time I have written these descriptions I know them well enough to put them into my story and watch what they will do as the story develops.

The most memorable characters are multi-dimensional.  They have flaws, they make mistakes, they have doubts about themselves.  They may be both generous and thrifty. They may be physically strong but have cripling fears.  Derek Berry writes "if a character can make you both laugh and cry, that may well be the gauge of how well you can relate to him or her."  Derek warns writers about giving characters quirky traits.  They only work out well if the traits play a crucial part in the story.

I have 50,000 words to write this month and I've only just begun.  Are you signed up for nanowrimo?  Go for it!

Create A Story World

As an author, it is important for me to know the place of my story.  I create my story world based on  food, culture, geography, economics, language and traditions of the region about which I am writing.  My middle grade novels are set in Appalachia. Since they are retellings of folktales they have elements of fantasy, but they are told in the real world environment of a mountain village.

To get a feel for the place I looked at many photos like these.  I saved quite a number of photos of the region in a board in Pinterest so I can refer to them often.

 

 

 

 

 

I also read as much as I could about the traditions, employment, and cultural history of this area.  The Museum of Applachia and the Language of Appalachia website were very valuable.  I also read a few books, fiction and non-fiction, set in the region.  This helped me get acquainted with the people, culture, pace of life, phrases, habits, and economy of the place. For the process of writing my books I wanted to make this place my home.  I have a real fondness for Appalachia and I hope it shows in my writing.

Danger Equals Excitement

Happy Halloween. I am not interested in horror or occult, but I do enjoy a good dangerous situation.  Danger equals excitement in my writing.

I am working on my second middle grade novel and there will be lots of danger in it.  I think danger is essential to a good story.  Putting my characters in harm’s way and watching them figure out how to get out of trouble is so rewarding for me.  The characters are always stronger after the experience of finding their way out of trouble. 

Dangers from my first middle grade novel include: exposure to severe weather in the woods, hunger, wild animals, getting lost, teenage bullies, and fighting mythological creatures

Dangers from my second middle grade novel include: getting lost, wild animals, a flood, injuries and broken bones, becoming an orphan, and fighting mythological creatures

Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure.  The fearful are caught as often as the bold.
Helen Keller
 

Tales About Pets

My daughter's sweet kitty passed away this weekend.  She was a gentle, introverted and beautiful cat.  Although she was very shy, often hiding away when visitors came to the house, when someone did coax her to come out and be social she purred at the slightest bit of attention.  Pets give unconditional love and lots of affection. We will miss our little fur ball.


Pets have a place in literature, too.  Here are a few of my favorite books about pets for children and for adults.  Some of these books are about the process of saying good-bye to a beloved pet. If you have lost a pet I recommend that you start with the Tenth Good Thing About Barney. And please think about my daughter's little kitty, too, as you read it.

The Tenth Good Thing About Barney by Judith Viorst

The Owl and the Pussycat by Edward Lear

Because of Winn Dixie by Kate DiCamillo

Sounder by William Armstrong

Pete the Cat: I Love My White Shoes by Eric Litwin

Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss

The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein

Marley and Me by John Grogan

Travels with Charlie in Search of America by John Steinbeck

Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats by T. S. Elliott

The Cat Who Could Read Backwards by Lilian Jackson Braun

Novels I Read Again and Again

Kids really enjoy hearing a favorite story over and over again.  But I don't think I have outgrown that yet myself. Here are a few novels that I think are worth reading again and again.  Some are relativley new, some are classics.  I have a few gothic, a few historical, and a few fantasy on this list. Have you read any of these?

Rebecca

Stonyhold

Poisonwood Bible

Remarkable Creatures

The Thirteenth Tale

Harry Potter series

Pride and Prejudice

The Good Earth

Secret Life of Bees

Outlander

Of Mice and Men