What makes us remember a character? Not what they're wearing, or the color of their hair, but "their quirks, their body language, their histories, their beliefs." How does a writer create vivid, memorable characters?


In "Tell Their Secrets" (NY Times, 7/13/13) Silas House gives examples of how to "shape your characters by revealing their deepest, darkest secrets. Show us what drives them, what makes them completely individual in this wide world. Tell us how they pine, how they tick."

A recipe for producing memorable characters? Perhaps.

Print it out. Reread often.

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Who doesn't love a good list? Certainly, Buzzfeed readers do. On any given day of the week, Buzzfeed offers lists of advice from Wizard Chic: 10 Ways to Look Like Less of a Muggle to the 25 Most Awkward Cat Sleeping Positions

• Did Buzzfeed miss any stages?
• Mashable certainly missed some quotes -- any favorites?
• How close did you come to Rory Gilmore's list? (Full disclosure - I scored a 78. Not even close.)

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Recently my son and I have been rereading the "My Father's Dragon" trilogy by Ruth Stiles Gannett. We read all three books several years ago and he loved them. As I was organizing my books in our new house, he spotted this old favorite and asked to read it again. I happily obliged.


As we are zipping through these much loved stories, it was amazing to me to look back at the copyright for the first book... 1950. How incredible to have written a book that stands the test of time and is still being read and loved 63 years later!

This made me wonder. What makes a book that kind of classic? "My Father's Dragon" was a Newbery Honor book, so it was recognized as being exceptional for its time. (And it really is exceptional. So wonderfully fun and funny!) But do all honored book withstand the test of time that well?

And of course as a writer I can't help but wonder, how long will children be reading the books I write? (63 years from now would certainly be awesome!)

What do you all think about classics? Which long ago books do you love? Which of today's books do you think have a chance of becoming modern day classics?

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"In media res." I've written on this several times, but in reviewing my own writing, I see again where a leisurely pace has resulted in a less than satisfying manuscript. The slow development of plot and character is no longer possible.

I'm always reading several books at once, and just finished Edith Wharton's autobiography. That made me pick up one of her very early novels, The Custom of the Country. Slowly, oh so slowly, she sketches her character, Undine Spragg. Delicately, oh so delicately she paints the Gilded Age scenery. This is a bit boring, I think, and then, POW, she drops the first brick of the plot and I MUST keep reading. But I'm on page 127.

If Edith were writing today, her book would begin where the brick was dropped. Backstory, all 127 pages of it, would fill in the gaps, inserted only where the plot couldn't be slowed down.

 I still find it immensely useful to read earlier works (I just finished reading Beatrix Potter books to the grandchildren) But whenever my writing strays toward that old fashion mode, I try to cut it off, albeit reluctantly.  I know I can't go there any more.

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                     The soul would have no rainbow
                            if the eyes had no tears.

Last week when in Jackson Hole nestled by the beautiful Grand Tetons, I picked up a book of Native American proverbs. This wonderful quote with its wisdom and rhythm, is the title.

Paging through the book I came across this quotation, pertinent to us all, particularly as writers.

                  Words are the voice of the heart.
                               (Tuscarora)

When I read this I thought of the focus of our writing for children and YA's and what part of heart do we want or need to convey to them. Then I thought of the anniversary this week of Dr. King's speech and remembered a book I read as a child of 8 to 11.

Marguarite De Angeli's  THEE HANNAH still flashes through my memory, scene by scene. Hannah is a little Quaker girl in Philadelphia at the time of the Civil War. She isn't happy that she has to wear plain dresses and hats while her friend who is of another church gets to wear pretty, flowered dresses of different colors. One day she is walking home when a desperate African American woman with her child who are hiding behind a house, calls to her and asks for help. Hannah tells her parents and they help the poor fugitive to an underground railroad station. The fleeing woman tells Hannah she knew she could rely on Hannah to help her because she recognized her dress as a Quaker. Suddenly Hannah understands the symbolism and her family's courage and heart in living what they believe and helping others. What a great book for children to see other children's conflicts and see how their courage does make a difference.

What a great goal to strive for - bringing help and understanding for heart and soul through the books we write.

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Farewell, Elmore Leonard, father of five children and 45 novels.  Glimpses of your hugely successful writing process will continue to inspire those of us struggling to find a fraction of your writer's life.

• Elmore Leonard talked about his approach to Bob Greene (Wall Street Journal): "When I get into the writing, I have a pretty good idea of who the main characters will be. But I still don't know exactly how the story will work. And something happens to me in almost every book: A character that, in my mind, may have been fairly minor turns into a major character. I hear him talking, and I realize: This guy is interesting."
• Elmore Leonard always wrote a scene from a single character’s point of view, then often rewrote the same scene from another character’s POV to see if it was more effective.  
• His use of dialogue is legendary.
• Though he started writing in the 1950’s, he ‘found his style’ after reading George V. Higgins’ classic 1970 crime novel The Friends of Eddie Coyle, with its prolific profane dialogue: “I read it and I changed my style somewhat…I started to use expletives where they belonged. I started to open my scenes with dialogue. Higgins set me free.”
• His 25th novel (Glitz) was his ‘breakthrough.’ In 1996 he said, “After writing anonymously” for decades, “I am what you call an overnight success.” 
• Elmore Leonard wrote every day, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. in longhand on unlined legal pads, ordering a thousand pads a year. 
• He stuck to his own rules, and did his best to teach the rest of us.  Mr. Leonard talks about his recent experience at a Santa Barbara writer's conference in an in-depth interview (well worth a longer look) with Anthony May (Contrappasso Magazine, Issue 2, December 2012): 

"I listened to the students, reading. And they all use adverbs, ‘She sat up abruptly.’ And I tried to explain that those words belong to the author, the writer, and when you hear that word there’s just that little moment where you’re pulled out of the seat. Especially by that sound, that soft L-Y sound. Lee. So often it doesn’t fit with what’s goin’ on, y’know. I mean, if a person sits up in bed, they sit up in bed. You don’t have to tell how they sit up in bed. Especially with what’s goin’ on.  

In this instance, she sat up in bed ‘cause she hears a pickup truck rumbling by outside very slowly and she knows who it is. So you know how she sat up in bed, y’know. And in her mind she’s saying, ‘It’s that fuckin’ pickup truck’. She knows it is. And then there’s another, say, half a page or so of inside the character’s head and the phone rings. She gets out of bed and feels her way over and almost knocks a lamp down. And she passes this stack of self-help books, on the desk, and picks up the phone. And I suggested to the young woman who wrote this, ‘Save the fuckin’ pickup, drop the fuckin’ adverb, and put it with the self-help books and it’ll say a lot more about your character.’ See, it’s little things like that. The contrast works better."

Writers for the TV show “Justified”, based on one of Elmore Leonard’s characters, so esteem Leonard's writing that they wear rubber wristbands stamped “WWED”: What Would Elmore Do?

In case you need reminding, here are Elmore Leonard's 10 Rules of Writing (originally published in The New York Times, July 16, 2001):

1. Never open a book with weather
2. Avoid prologues
3. Never use a verb other than ‘said” to carry dialogue
4. Never use an adverb to modify the verb “said”…
5. Keep your exclamation points under control
6. Never use the words “suddenly” or “all hell broke loose”
7. Use regional dialect, patois, sparingly
8. Avoid detailed descriptions of characters
9. Don’t go into great detail describing places and things
10. Try to leave out the parts that readers tend to skip.

Wise words, along with “If it’s not fun, you’re not doing it right.”

So... have fun, and ask yourself WWED?

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As I sit here on this rainy morning pondering what words of wisdom I'm going to lay on you, my lovely Paper Wait readers, I realize no matter what I say, I will most likely fall spectacularly short. Confession: at the moment I'm feeling a bit empty, maybe even melancholy.

This past weekend, my son went off to college for the first time.  And oh...so many feels.


I know this is a great thing.  An important transition. A LIFE moment. And I'm proud and thrilled for him.  I'm also sad. I hardly feel old enough to have a son in college - seriously, weren't we just filling up his Pokedex?  I miss him - the telltale grinding of the garage door opening as he loped in from school or the rustling sound as he rifled through the fridge or of his laughter ringing through the house.  Sometimes he'd walk in, completely zoned out in some podcast he was listening to and disappear until dinner and other times he would burst through the door, plant a purposely sloppy kiss on my cheek and ask how the writing was going.  His presence in our home was palpable.

So, too, is his absence.

Oddly, this LIFE transition coincides with one of my own writing milestones.  I just sent back first pass pages for THE PROMISE OF AMAZING.  First pass is one step closer to being completely finished.  It's proofing the typeset pages with a critical eye and making it perfect.  You would think at this point I'd be so over Wren and Grayson I couldn't deal with them again.  And part of me does feel that way.

The other part of me wants to make sure they are leaving the house with emergency money and clean underwear. (The Post-its represent places I'm changing things!)

As hard as it is to do it, for both my firstborn and my first book, letting go is an inevitable part of life.  It's not necessarily a bad thing; gut-wrenching, maybe, but it also opens up a door for new energies to come in.  My son will meet friends who will appreciate his uniqueness and his lovely, lovely laugh.  My characters will go out into the world and hopefully find readers who are captivated by them as much as I am.  Are either of those things guaranteed?

That's what makes letting go so exciting and terrifying.  But, if you listen long enough, there's something else in that silence after goodbye - the whispers of new characters.  New places. New and ever-evolving relationships.

It's time.

How do you cope with letting go?

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 Have you ever wondered why inspiration zaps your brain at certain times? Is it chance? Some scientists think not.

In a 2008 New Yorker article "The Eureka Hunt," Jonah Lehrer describes brain research that seems to explain the why of when insight and inspiration can strike.

"The insight process, as sketched by scientists Jung-Beeman and Kounis, is a delicate balancing act. At first, the brain lavishes the scarce resource of attention on a single problem. But once the brain is sufficiently focused, the cortex needs to relax in order to seek out the more remote association in the right hemisphere, which will provide the insight."

When is this most likely to happen?

 "The relaxation phase is crucial. That why so many insights happen during warm showers. Another ideal moment for insights, according to the scientists, is the early morning, right after we wake up. The drowsy brain is unwound and disorganized, open to all sorts of unconventional ideas. The right hemisphere is also unusually active. The problem with the morning, though, is that we're always so rushed and never give ourselves a chance to think. If we're stuck on a difficult problem, it's better to set the alarm clock a few minutes early so that we have time to lie in bed and ruminate. We do some of our best thinking when we're still half asleep."

I have one friend who has always said her best "writing thinking" happens in the shower and I often have new ideas when I wake in the morning. Now we know why.

Do you have "best times" for inspiration?

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Recently I had a lot of fun revising a manuscript. Well... it wasn't fun all the way through.

Basically here's how my revision process went...

I had a manuscript that I had done my very best job of polishing up as much as I possibly could. I promise. I really had.

But then I sent it off and got a (wonderful!) request to make it better. It didn't have enough of a narrative. (Eek! I've had that problem before!)

So I revised it and gave it more of a narrative. Which ended up changing up the rhyme scheme in a fun new way. Hooray!

So I showed it to a trusted reader who said it was good... but not good enough.

Yikes! How could I make it better!

So I went back to the drawing (errr... writing) board. I revised some more (and some more and some more). And my trusted reader liked where I was heading. But still not enough.

"Make it better" he told me.

"How?" I asked him.

"How should I know?" he told me. (Have I mentioned that my trusted reader is my husband? :o) )

But I pressed him. And eventually he threw out a crazy idea. 

"No way!" I thought. "How in the world could I do that?"

And then I thought again. How in the world could I not do that?

Of course, doing "that" wasn't easy. No it wasn't easy at all. Especially in a rhyming manuscript with a crazy (and fun) rhyme scheme. But it was worth it.

So I revised and revised and revised some more.

And finally I sent it to my agent.  Who loved it! Hooray!!!

And asked for more revisions. (Yep! :o) ) She challenged every time I took a (too) easy rhyme and challenged me to make sure my story arc was as strong as could be.

More revising! More hard work! More fun! 

Hard work to get every word as right as can be! Fun to see my manuscript getting so much stronger!

How does your revision process work?

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I am reading Edith Wharton's autobiography, A Backward Glance. It is rich with information on her development as a writer. Most interesting is her commentary on her critic, Walter Berry, who essentially "taught" her to write. I quote much of what she says in its entirety, as it is invaluable for both writers and critics.

About Walter Berry, she writes: "No critic was ever severer, but none had more respect for the artist's liberty. He taught me never to be satisfied with my own work, but never to let my inward conviction as to the rightness of anything I had done be affected by outside opinion."

Stuck with the development of a novel, she asked his opinion.  "He looked through what I had written, handed it back, and said simply: 'Don't worry about how you're to go on. Just write down everything you feel like telling.' The advice freed me once for all from the incubus of an artificially pre-designed plan, and sent me rushing ahead with my tale, letting each incident create the next, and keeping in sight only the novelist's essential sign-post; the inner significance of the "case" selected. Yet when the novel was done, I remember how meticulously he studied it from the point of view of language, marking down faulty syntax and false metaphors, smiling away over-emphasis and unnecessary repetitions, helping me patiently through the beginner's verbal perplexities, yet never laying hands on what he considered sacred: the soul of the novel, which is (or should be) the writer's own soul."

It is good to know that even one of America's greatest writers struggled to learn, and that the manuscripts she produced (according to a guide at The Mount, she wrote every morning in bed for four hours) all needed help from a sharp-eyed critic who respected what she was trying to say.

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Even though we've never met, Robin Constantine and I have been on the same page, so to speak, at the beach. We have been imagining characters from our respective novels (hers about to be published, mine a work in progress) on vacation at the beach. Since my novel also takes place in New Jersey, one would think that my main and secondary characters would also have familiarity with it. They don't. The absence of the Jersey shore experience among my New Jersey characters is, in itself, telling: Neither of them go for reasons related to their backgrounds.

However, while I was traveling through southern England last month and periodically writing, where did my second-most important character wind up? At another beach: Teignmouth, in the Devon region of England.



This, of course, is a less likely scenario than the Jersey shore, but imagining him all the way in Teignmouth, a Victorian/Edwardian English resort, freed me up to develop his personality. That was my goal as I was writing passages about him near the Teignmouth pier one morning two weeks ago.

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Recently I was researching material for a book set in medieval England and delved into what kind of books were in use then. This prompted me to review the history of book making from the writings of the ancient world engraved on stone tablets, progressing to text inscribed on papyrus in Egypt at the time of the pharaohs and parchment in Greece and the
Middle East to paper in China. The invention of the movable type printing press by Gutenberg in the 1400"s expanded phenomenally the manufacture of books and the distribution of knowledge. And then on to ebooks and the Gutenberg Project which encourages ebooks distribution and expanding information, knowledge and story.

Back in medieval England, books or manuscripts were hand written on parchment and
used by scribes and scholars in goverment, the church and business, as well as by students in universities. We stand in awe of these historic volumes in museums and libraries and prize their history, language, script and illuminations. Hopefully some of the books we work on and produce in printed form or in the eworld will survive to be used and enjoyed in the future, and maybe even occasionally some one in the future will look at them with a little awe. 

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Over on the OneFour KidLit YouTube channel this month, we are highlighting places our characters would go on vacation.  Since THE PROMISE OF AMAZING takes place in New Jersey, I didn't have to think too hard about where the teens in my book might venture on a sweltering summer day.  I had such a blast creating this video that I thought I'd share it here as well!
Where would your characters go on vacation?

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This is my kid. She's not interested in the shallows of emotion. She has never played dumb in her life. Intense, dramatic, deeply fulfilled--that's where she wants to live. And that's what The Laramie Project did for her.  (It was a great production, by the way--and I cried buckets.)

Wow, how could I have gotten it so wrong? And how could I have been tempted to censorship? Like a lot of parents, I just wanted my child to be happy.  Maybe the problem is, we get stuck on the definition of happiness.  Have you ever censored yourself when writing for children?  Do you censor your children? 

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Each year when we go to Maine, I take along a haiku for kids about sunset at the ocean. I've been fiddling with it for years - this metaphor about the setting sun as a basketball. Should the sinking sun be described as a slam dunk or a swish shot?

This year, you can help me decide.

Select from my choices, or, if you wish, rework the whole blasted thing.

1. Red basketball sun
sinks through the hot hoop of day,
swish shot to the sea.  OR: swish - into the sea.

2. Red basketball sun
drops through the hot hoop of day,
slam dunk to the sea.   OR: dunk - into the sea.

So answer the Help Wanted, please. If you do, you're hired!

Thanks.

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As I zeroed in on the ending of the second major revision of my WIP, I came to a terrible realization. My ending sucked.

First reaction: Overwhelmed. How can I fix it? It's too much work. Maybe I should trash it and start something new. Maybe I should go find some chocolate.

Second reaction: Find the chocolate and think things through.

Third reaction: Okay, I think I've got a new ending, but holy shit! It's too much work. New ending requires new stuff sprinkled throughout. Maybe I should trash it and start something new. Maybe I should open up a bottle of wine.

Fourth reaction: Open up a bottle of wine and get to work.

Here's what I did.

• Bought the biggest sheet of foam core I could find. 
• Printed out my chapter summaries from Scrivener's Corkboard (if you don't use Scrivener, the program has a virtual corkboard that lets you see your chapters at a glance.) 
• Found a ten-year-old glue stick in a drawer and glued my chapter summaries to index cards.
• Tacked my index cards to the foam core with color coded tacks for each plot line.
• Added post-it notes for each new chapter that needed to be written and each chapter that needed changes.

As much as I love Scrivener, I needed a bigger visual than its corkboard provides. Now I have a gigunda board in my office, and seeing those post-its makes the work feel manageable. The color coded tacks showed me where I dropped plot lines for too long and needed to sprinkle in some reminders. Right now, I think I need nine new chapters and changes -- some big, some small -- to 18 chapters. But I get to check off the post-it notes as I go along. That makes me feel like I'm in control of the work, rather than the work completely out of control.

Sometimes, old school totally beats technology.

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I had a great night tonight! Normally I don't focus my blog post on what a great night I had, but tonight it seemed appropriate because tonight I spent my evening...
with my wonderful former critique group!

It was so amazing...

*to get to see everyone in person again.

*to get to hear what is happening with everyone.

*to get to talk writing!

*to get to read a wonderful new manuscript from one of my former critique-group mates.

*to get to listen to my fellow writers wonderful critiques.

*to get to give a critique of my own.

*to get to participate in the wonderful back and forth flow of ideas that follows our individual critiques.

*and to hang out and talk some more with everyone afterward. :o)

Yes! That's why I love our critique group!

Do you have a critique group you love?  Please share!

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Happy 4th! Well, maybe. I just talked to my seven year old grandson who seemed a little vague on the details. A BOOK IS IN ORDER  said I, and I googled GoodReads for suggestions.

Humm. There are some old standbys, Sam the Minuteman and George the Drummer Boy written with the idea that kids understand things better from a little person's viewpoint. There are lots of books on the subject written from animals' points of view: mice, dogs, bears. Mary Pope Osborn has written on the subject, Happy Birthday America, and a popular book appears to be Wow America by Neubucker.  Commenters had good things to say about Jean Fritz's series on the Founding Fathers.

BUT, dear writers, my cursory survey on 4th of July literature indicates there is precious little out there for young readers. An understanding of the unique history of the United States is essential to coming generations. Let's get some new and interesting books on the market!

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As a child, when my parents took us places, sightseeing was nonstop. We weren't those "It's Tuesday, it must be Belgium," type people--they didn't rush us through places--but the whole day we were expected to be somewhere, on the move. I thought all people traveled like this.

And then, in my mid-20s, I made British friends..and traveled with them. They took longer hikes "walks" than my parents...but they would also stop for tea. Often. They didn't have to "be somewhere" every moment, or every day. They knew how to take breaks. I was amazed. And ever since then, I have traveled half like my parents, half like my British friends.

So, what does this have to do with writing?


Well, here I am, I just joined the writers group three months ago and started writing my novel in progress again--and here I go off on vacation as soon as school lets out. To Ireland and England--and visiting the same friends who taught me how to travel sensibly. With all the beautiful places to see, I am tempted to travel like my parents--squeeze in a lot and not stop. But what I really envision doing--making myself do, as a serious writer---is to stopping for tea, long and often...to work on the novel. Four or five two- or three-hour periods in a cafe in a 3-week period is reasonable. And I already know where. In Torquay (home of Agatha Christie, I believe). In Dawlish, close by. Once in Dublin, and once or twice in London. That's my goal. And I'm not taking my drafts. I'm a bit stuck to them now, and I think I need to leave them behind at home and move forward with my plot. In the back of my mind, the naysayer keeps saying, "But if you spend three hours in London writing, that's another museum/neighborhood you have missed!" But part of being a writer means writing--everywhere. Stopping whatever else you are doing, and writing.

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Happy Independence Day to the Paperwaiters and all our children's writers. I'm thinking of the incredible gifts that are ours as writers here on July Fourth when we celebrate liberty and freedom. As writers we celebrate freedom of speech especially, and thus to bring the best literature to children too.

We forget sometimes how we got here...and the Fourth helps to remind us

"Congress shall make no law...abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press..."                                                   
                           First Amendment- Bill of Rights

If freedom of speech is taken away, then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep, to the slaughter."
                         George Washington

"Where the press is free and everyman able to read, all is safe."
                                                                    
                         Thomas Jefferson


Happy Fourth and Happy Writing!

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Writing a book is a horrible, exhausting struggle, like a long bout of some painful illness.  One would never undertake such a thing if one were not driven by some demon whom one can neither resist nor understand. 

George Orwell, Why I Write (1947)

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Dearest Paper Waiters,

MY COVER!!!
a Rafflecopter giveaway

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