By: Anne Bustard,
on 1/1/2013
By: Jan at Adventures in YA Publishing,
on 1/1/2013
Happy New Year, Everyone!
We wish you all the very best of everything in the coming year and want to take this opportunity to say thank you for all your support and friendship in the past!
To celebrate the beginning of 2013, we have a special Character Bucket List post from Beth Revis.
In the Across the Universe series, there are two main narrating characters, Amy, who was born on Earth and cryogenically frozen for a centuries-long journey to a new planet, and Elder, a young man born on the ship during the journey.
With the last book of the trilogy, SHADES OF EARTH, these characters have both had personal experience with death, and were definitely thinking about the things they wish they could do for their bucket list!
Amy Martin’s Bucket List
1. See my parents’ faces again
2. Get off the ship and feel real dirt between my toes again
3. Punch Bartie in the face
4. Re-establish communication with Earth and find out what the heck’s been going on since the ship left
5. Make a real home with my real family
Elder’s Bucket List
1. Prove to everyone—including Amy (and myself)—that I’m a good enough leader.
Whether or not these characters achieve anything on their bucket lists (or if they actually change what they really want) can be found out in SHADES OF EARTH!
ABOUT THE BOOK
SHADES OF EARTH
Available January 15, 2013
(And we'll be giving away a signed copy here on the 11th!)
Godspeed was once fueled by lies. Ruled by chaos. Now it’s time to come home. But life on Centauri-Earth is far from perfect. Threats from the planet and from within the colony are tearing them apart, although Elder and Amy do all they can to keep it together. Because if the colony collapses? Then everything they have sacrificed–friends, family, life on Earth–will have been meaningless.
BUY SHADES OF EARTH on Amazon
VIEW SHADES OF EARTH on Goodreads 
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Beth Revis is the author of the NY Times Bestselling Across the Universe series, published by Razorbill/Penguin in the US and available in 17 countries. The first book in the trilogy, Across the Universe, is a “cunningly executed thriller” according to Booklist, and the second book, A Million Suns, was hailed by the LA Times as “a fast-paced, action-packed follow-up.” The final book of the trilogy, Shades of Earth, will be released in early 2013.
Beth's website
Beth's Blog
Beth's Facebook
@bethrevis on Twitter
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By: Sarah McIntyre,
on 1/1/2013
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By: Kristi Holl,
on 1/1/2013
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Remember that our “31 Minutes for 31 Days” challenge starts today! Get the new year off to a great start.
*************
And now, Stage 4 for making dynamic changes in your writing life! (First read The Dynamics of Change, Stage 1: Making Up Your Mind, Stage 2: Committing to Change, and Stage 3: Taking Action)
You’re well on your way to achieving your major 2013 goals at this point, and you’ve probably begun several new good writing habits to support your future writing career. This is great!
You don’t want to be a quick flash that’s here today and gone tomorrow though. You want the changes to last. You want to continue to grow as a writer and build your career. But…you know yourself. The good writing habits never seem to last.
Until now.
In order to keep going and growing as a writer, you need to do two things:
First let’s talk about setbacks. They come in all shapes and sizes for writers. They can be mechanical (computer gets fried), emotional (a scathing review of your new book), or mental (burn-out from an accident, divorce, or unexpected big expense). Setbacks do just what they sound like: set you back.
However, too often (without a plan), we allow a simple setback to become a permanent writer’s block or stall. Setbacks are simply lapses in our upward spiral, or small break in our new successful routine, a momentary interruption on the way to our writing goal.
Warning: without tools in place to move beyond the setbacks, they can settle in permanently instead. Use setbacks as a signal that you need to get back to basics. Setbacks–or lapses–sometimes occur for no other reason than we’ve dropped our new routines. (We stopped writing before getting online, we stopped taking reward breaks and pushed on to exhaustion, we stopped sending new queries each week…)
Count each day of progress, and don’t be so hard on yourself. I used to make myself “start over” when trying to form a new habit, and it was more discouraging than helpful. For example, if my goal was to journal every morning, I’d count the days. Maybe I managed it five days in a row. Five! I felt successful! But if I missed Day 6 for any reason, I had to start over the next day at Day #1.
I don’t do that anymore. It doesn’t help. Now, if my goal is to develop a new habit, I still keep track, but I keep going after a lapse or setback instead of starting over. So if I were trying to develop a journaling habit, and journaled five days and then missed a day, I would begin again on Day #6.
I would count all successful days in a month, which motivates me to try to reach an even higher total number the next month. This works with words and pages written and other new writing habits you want to start.
In order to recover from setbacks, think ahead. Ask yourself what types of things might cause you to go off course or lapse in your goal efforts. Prepare ways to cope ahead of time and have your plans in place. (Sometimes that’s as simple as always traveling with a “writing bag” of paper, pens, a chapter to work on, a craft book to read, etc. so that you can always work, no matter what the delays.)
Coping plans have this basic structure (according to Neil Fiore’s Awaken Your Strongest Self):
“When __________ [potential distraction] occurs, I will say ______________ [inner dialogue] and I will do _______________ [corrective action].”
When my best friend calls to talk during my writing time, I will say to myself, I’m working and need to call her back at lunch time and I will let the answering machine pick up.
When company comes for a week, I will say to myself, It’s fine for me to take one hour each day to write, and I will close the door to my office (or bedroom) and write before breakfast for one hour.
Mental toughness–grit to persevere–is the other ingredient you’ll need if you want to maintain the changes you’ve made in your writing habits. Scientific studies have clearly shown that repeated affirmations and mental rehearsals create new neural pathways in the brain making success easier and eventually permanent.
Speaking daily affirmations aloud has been proven to help you “retrain your brain” into healthier lines of thinking. Make the affirmations to deal specifically with your own writing issues. For example:
I encourage you to make your own list of positive affirmations pertaining to any area of your life where you’d like to see change. (And yes, I use them myself, broken down into several categories: spiritual life, health, writing, children/grandchildren, and my marriage.) I guess I have a lot of areas where I want to rewire brain patterns!
Use the affirmations to help you make changes–and then cement those changes in place. It’s time we stopped yo-yoing up and down and created stable, permanent writing habits.
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By: Marc Tyler,
on 1/1/2013
Welcome to the 75th anniversary of Superman, AKA 2013.
Tomorrow I will announce related news on Boys of Steel: The Creators of Superman, and today I am thrilled to finally be able to reveal that my friend Brad Ricca has a Superman book of his own coming out this year.
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By: Mo Willems,
on 1/1/2013
Let's start out by wishing you a happy and healthy new year in 2013. The next twelve months will be jam-packed with celebrations and changes including new and exciting projects I can talk about (and those I can't just yet). Much of the year will center around the Pigeon's 10th birthday celebrations; DON'T LET THE PIGEON DRIVE THE BUS! was published in April of 2003 which launched a crazy
By: Ingrid Sundberg,
on 1/1/2013
I’m a graphic designer in my day job, and I have a background in art and illustration. It’s natural for me to think visually. In fact, I think visually before I think in words. This might seem odd for a writer, but in many ways it’s an asset.
One of the great things about writing is that you are painting with words. You are doing your best to build images in your readers minds. As readers we build character and world with an author. Before the movies ever came out, we co-created our own visions of what Middle Earth looked like, or Hogwarts. This interchange is an intimate and beautiful experience, and one of the great joys of reading.
So how do we paint those images for our readers?
Of course this has to do with language. Words. Which ones do we pick and how do we use them. But I want to talk about the step before we use language. The part where we visualize, dream, imagine.
What’s interesting about dreaming, however, is that it’s often vague. When we write, we want to be specific. We want rust-flecked candelabras, and fraying coat tails, and honey as thick and dark as blood. Details make a world real to the reader. So how do we dream up something concrete within the unlimited space of our mind?
I like to make collages.
I make dozens of collages to help me better understand and develop a character. I use collages to track down an emotion in a scene, or visualize a setting. The cliche says that a picture is worth a thousand words…so if you create a collage of pictures, you might find yourself with an abundance of words and details to weave into your language.
Let me show you a few of these…
The following collages come from three entirely different projects and each was created to help me access a different aspect of my novel.
1. Setting Collages
I’m doing a significant amount of world building with my current WIP, and I’m trying to decide how the world looks by collecting images that have a texture, color, or feeling that resonates with the one I’m trying to design. None of these images are actual locations in the book, instead I’m inspired by the details – abandoned shelves of books, the quality of light as greenery overtakes a cathedral, or the possibility of a round Rosetta window staring down from above. Much of this will never end up in the book, but it does help me to create an aesthetic for the world.
2. Character Collages
I created this collage as a character development exercise to better understand how my protagonist sees her own mother. I began to notice that the character has a color palette and even textures that relate to her: wool, tan colored wood, morning light on hard-wood floors, delicate threads, soft feminine curves, etc. To the right, is a word list, which is the second part of this exercise. Here I’ve explored words that reflect how my protagonist views her mother. But often, I will also create a word/imagery list based on what I see in the photos (i.e. splinter, fuzz, shell, rust, golden light) which all become words I might use when describing the character on the page.
3. Emotion Collages
I was having trouble accessing the emotion in one of my scenes. It was a difficult scene (as you can imagine from the collage), and I think I was protecting myself from actually feeling the moment with my character. So I created this collage to help me feel it. I would look at this collage while writing the scene, and I also created a word list from these images to help add intensity to the writing. Things like dirty meat and hairy stomachs already make my skin crawl – so I tried to use similar words/images in the scene (that were appropriate for the scene – metaphors, etc.) in order to get the reader’s skin to crawl too. (This technique relates to my previous post on the unconscious effect of image systems, motifs, and liaisons in writing).
If you find you’re having trouble with a scene, understanding a character, or really want to see the detail in a landscape, think about creating a collage to help you.
Get visual!
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By: Cat Bauer,
on 1/1/2013
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| Basilica di San Maro |
By: Steph Bowe,
on 1/1/2013
Woo, first post of 2013! Memes, you guys. I haven't done a meme since 2009. I'm not entirely sure what a meme is. This one seems kind of arrogantly titled. But Will Kostakis and Sue Whiting both tagged me, so here we are!
By: Anne Bustard,
on 1/1/2013
By: wako_bill@hotmail.com,
on 12/31/2012
I bought a book a few years back based purely on the fact that lots of boys were furtively buying it. A lot of boys who weren’t what you’d call avid readers, that is. The phenomenon piqued my interest. What was it about this book that made word spread of it among secret boy channels? Could it deliver what they hoped? More importantly, would its anticipated benefits be enough to get them to read it, a reasonably hefty book, from start to finish?
Given that I was buying it for product knowledge reasons and that it wasn’t the most relevant or appealing book for me, I subsequently shelved it with a plan to get around to reading it just as soon as I’d tackled my Pisa-like tower of to-be-read tomes.
I finally read the book over this holiday break not because I’d make it through the other books, but because yet another guy did a you have this?/you know about this?/what the?! double take when he saw it on my bookshelf. Huh, I thought, there’s clearly something in this book they don’t want me to know.
The book is Neil Strauss’ bestselling The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pick-Up Artists. It seems to be a finely scoured bible for guys on cracking the code to meeting girls*. I can see why the guys were a little nervous I had the book, but I was more than a little dubious this book would contain the bulletproof answers they were looking for.
The Game is surprisingly good, but not at all what I’d expected. It’s more memoir than instruction manual. It’s more cautionary tale than do this and you will win (although the guys I’ve put this to have been genuinely mystified—they didn’t see that side to it at all). With a graphic novel feel, it’s also incredibly cleverly designed and clearly catering to boys’ tastes. Images of dice denote the chapter numbers. Crosshair-like targets and strong, solid black lines frame the page and page numbers. Quotes writ large in white text on full pages of black ink break up the chapters (and yes, I’m wondering about the printing costs). These quotes are weighty, too, including some profundity from such greats as Fyodor Dostoevsky.
The tale unfolds this way: Strauss becomes a pupil of pick-up artists (PUA). There’s a bunch of different methods or schools of thought and he samples lots before finding and honing the ones that work for him, at which point he becomes a master pick-up artist (MPUA). He charts his progress as well as of those he meets, and at one stage lives in a house full of pick-up artists in LA.
There’s an entire PUA language (in case you hadn’t already noticed). The Game helpfully provides a glossary (and it’s likely you’ll need to refer to it, with all the acronyms and initialisms the book contains making it hard to stay across them).
An ‘AFC’ stands for an ‘average frustrated chump’, i.e. a stereotypical nice guy who struggles for pick-up skills. An ‘AMOG’ is the ‘alpha male of the group’. To ‘sarge’ is to pick up women (or to try to). To ‘FMAC’ is to ‘find, meet, attract, close’. To ‘peacock’ is to dress outrageously to draw attention from women, e.g. wearing a cowboy hat or a loud shirt. To ‘neg’ a woman, is to deliver an ambiguous statement or seemingly accidental insult to a beautiful woman to demonstrate a lack of interest in her and to, arguably, bring her down a peg or two. ‘Chick crack’ is that which appeals to most women but few men, e.g. tarot cards, personality tests.
Contrary to perhaps most girls, I was down with most of The Game. My one sticking point was the negging, which is not cool. Girls’ confidence is in the red at the best of times without guys further undercutting it with such statements as ‘Is she always like that? How do you live with her?’ or ‘Nice shoes. They’re the third pair I’ve seen a girl wearing this week.’ I put this to a friend of mine who said I was misunderstanding it, then conceded he mightn’t think negging was so great if girls negged him.
The Game was plenty amusing, though. When Mystery, one of the main guys, decides to move out of the house he also decides to sell his bed. His selling point, which includes listing the girls in chronological order: ‘I’ve only slept with ten girls on it so it’s very clean.’
One ‘opener’ made me laugh, mostly because I have an ongoing My Little Pony joke with some friends. Do you remember the show? the guy asks. He was trying to remember if they had special powers. Cue girls chatting to him about the much-loved cartoon. Another opener I like involves a guy saying that their friend just bought new puppies and wants to name them after an ‘80s pop duo. Do they [the girl they’re targeting] have any suggestions?
There were also a few moments that appeal to me as a writer. One of the other PUAs who’s a little strange is a lot like a rival pretends to be Strauss as an in. It doesn’t always work. ‘Let me tell you something,’ Strauss tells him. ‘I’ve been writing for over a decade, and it hasn’t gotten me laid once. Writers aren’t cool or sexy. There’s no real social proof to be gained by hanging out with a writer.’
I have to say, though, that as writers go, Strauss is very cool. He has a talent for finding and writing about the fascinating quirks of life and in publishing subsequently bestselling books (not to mention writing for the New York Times and Rolling Stone. I mean, kudos). He’s most famous for The Game, but I’m currently ordering up his other titles here on Boomerang Books; in addition to his story-sniffing skills, I enjoy his style of writing. These books include Jenna Jameson’s How to Make Love Like a Porn Star, Motley Crue’s The Dirt, and Marilyn Manson’s The Long Hard Road Out of Hell, Dave Navarro’s Don’t Try This at Home, Everyone Loves You When You’re Dead: Journeys Into Fame and Madness, and Emergency: This Book Will Save Your Life.
There also seems to be a second book (or a book that comes in a boxset with The Game) called Rules of the Game. I’m not sure I’m that enamoured with the PUA lifestyle to want to read it, but when it comes to book reading, I never say never. I think I’d be more interested in the boardgames, though, apparently called Who’s Got Game? The Game with Benefits.
One guy friend told me I should now watch pick-up videos on YouTube. I tried, but only watched moments because I found them cringeworthy, not to mention a little creepy that the guys were filming themselves picking up girls. It’s this need to catalogue, to prove, to share these pick-up successes that people smarter than me have already noted. In the New York Times (AKA the publication Strauss himself writes for), Alexandra Jacobs, for example, wrote that The Game is the mens’ version or antithesis of The Rules and that Strauss ‘does come to perceive one curious thing about the PUAs: They seem far more interested in spending time with fellow PUAs, amassing, refining and discussing the game, than actually getting to know women. Call them SLBs (scared little boys)’.
I find it interesting that many (if not all) of the PUAs self-destruct in some way in Strauss’ book and that, despite one PUA arrogantly saying that he’s ‘starting to feel like I’m hunting rabbits with a howitzer’, the PUAs seem to struggle to find and maintain a real connection with a girl.
‘The problem with being a pick-up artist is,’ Strauss writes in the book, ‘that there are concepts like sincerity, genuineness, trust, and connection that are important to women. And all the techniques that are so effective in beginning a relationship violate every principle necessary to maintaining one.’
Tellingly, none of Strauss’ PUA techniques are what help him attract the girl of his dreams and he writes that while those techniques helped him meet plenty of girls, they never prepared him for how to keep one.
But that point didn’t wash with the guy friends I put it to. Cautionary tale? they puzzle. No. Pick-up manual. Maybe that’s my girl perspective at work. And my hope that no guy has ever or will ever run the game on me as Strauss’ book dedication alludes:
[This book is] dedicated to the thousands of people I talked to in bars, clubs, malls, airports, grocery stores, subways, and elevators over the last two years. If you are reading this, I want you to know that I wasn’t running game on you. I was being sincere. Really. You were different.
*It should be noted that this book that assumes heterosexuality and involves guys chasing girls. I’m hazarding a guess that the techniques may work under other circumstances.
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By: Carrie Jones,
on 1/1/2013
By: Candy Gourlay,
on 12/31/2012
by Maureen Lynas As you embark on another year of creativity, all fired up with the Slushpile wish lists, I thought I'd offer up some gems of advice from the people who know what it takes to stay on the creative pathway of bumps and potholes. Authors and illustrators must show determination in the face of so many things - the learning curve, rejection, the learning curve, the state of the
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By: BOBBEE BEE THE HATER,
on 1/1/2013
1. Depression
2.Anxiety Disorders
Anxiety disorders are the most common mental health problems that occur in children and adolescents. Generalized Anxiety Disorder: symptoms include exaggerated worry and tension everyday events.
8. Manic Depressive Illness
Tourette’s Syndrome (TS) is characterized by repeated, involuntary movements and uncontrollable vocal sounds, known as tics. Affecting approximately 100,000 Americans in its full blown form, TS generally emerges during childhood or early adolescene. Although the basic cause of TS is unknown, current research suggests there is a genetic abnormality affecting certain neurotransmitters in the brain, and that varying environmental factors, possibly including infections, modifies the clinical expression of the disorder. Symptoms of TS are seen in association with some other neurological disorders, particularly OCD. Researchers are investigating the neurological similarities between OCD and TS to determine whether a genetic relationship exists. In most cases, Tourette Syndrome is not disabling, symptoms impair patients, development proceeds normally, and there is no need for treatment. However, some effective medication are available in the rare instances when symptoms interfere with functioning. Children with TS can generally function well at home and in the regular classroom. If they have an accompying learning disability or other disorder, such as ADHD or OCD, they may require tutoring, special classes, psychotherapy, or medication.
Welcome to the Teens!
Last year was definitely a pre-teen time for Puppicasso and me. Many new creations, activities, and attitudes were realized — but our offline life got in the way of our blogging life. And since the world didn’t end, he decided to resume his predictions. So, the first part of this year will be a cleaning house and catching up on the life of Pupp.
The motto of this year will be, “Always put one paw in front of another, and go forward no matter what.”
One small paw for Pupp…
… one giant leap for Puppi-kind.
We wish you a Happy 2013! Enjoy this Millennium’s entry into puberty — hormones will rage and change will be the constant!
Puppicasso wishes to extend a special shout out to Neil Armstrong for use of his likeness and spirit… he is missed.
By: Anne Bustard,
on 1/1/2013
Jan. 1, 1911-Sept. 4, 1986
By: Christina Farley,
on 12/31/2012
It's here! 2013. The year my YA, GILDED, will launch into the world. I'm beyond excited. I don't even know how to tell you other than pages and pages of exclamation marks which would be annoying and you'd never want to visit my blog or read my book again. So I won't succumb you to that.
Instead, I'm excited to tell you that the The Lucky 13ers are celebrating 2013 by having an awesome contest to kick off the new year. And I'm participating. One lucky winner will win a giant swag pack from 20 debut authors! Check it out here.
Or you can head over to the MiGs where we're talking about our writing goals. I've a long list that I'm hoping to acheive. Wish me luck.
And if you get a chance, you can vote for GILDED on any of these Listopias over on Goodreads.
So what are you most excited about for 2013? It's going to be a lucky year and I'm wishing you all the luck that this upcoming years has to hold.
By: Elizabeth O. Dulemba,
on 1/1/2013
By: tanita davis,
on 1/1/2013
What would it mean to livein a city whose people were changingeach other's despair into hope? --You yourself must change it. --what would it feel like to knowyour country was changing? --You yourself must change it. --Though your life felt... Read the rest of this post
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By: LuAnn Schindler,
on 1/1/2013
By: Aline Pereira,
on 1/1/2013
Click on event name for more information.
Exhibition of Artworks from Jeannie Baker’s Innovative Picture Book, Mirror~ ongoing until Jan 2013, Blacktown, Australia
Reflections… On the Work of Jeannie Baker~ ongoing until Jan 2013, Blacktown, Australia
17th Annual Family Trees: A Celebration of Children’s Literature~ ongoing until Jan 1, 2013, Concord, MA, USA
23rd Annual Children’s Illustration Show~ ongoing until Jan 13, 2013 Northampton, MA, USA
Appleton Museum of Art Exhibit: Sendak & Co: Children’s Book Illustrations Since Where the Wild Things Are~ ongoing until Jan 20, 2013, Ocala, FL, USA
Exhibits of Winning Entries from the 2012 Growing Up Asian in America Contest~ ongoing until Feb 2013, USA
Nami Island International Illustration Concours for Picture Book Illustrations~ submissions accepted until Feb 15, 2013, Korea
Tall Tales & Huge Hearts: Raúl Colón~ ongoing until Mar 29, 2013, Abilene, TX, USA
Skipping Stones Youth Honor Awards Celebrating Multicultural Awareness, International Understanding and Nature Appreciation~ submissions accepted until June 25, 2013, USA
The Marsh Award for Children’s Literature in Translation Winner Announced~ United Kingdom
2012 Cybils (the Children’s and Young Adult Bloggers’ Literary Awards) Shortlists Announced~ Jan 1
Modern Language Association Annual Conference~ Jan 3 – 6, Boston, MA, USA
SCBWI Metro New York Event: What Libraries Are Looking For In Children’s Books~ Jan 8, New York, NY, USA
National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature Walter Dean Myers at Central Library~ Jan 8, Fort Worth, TX, USA
The Carle Museum Presents: The Caldecott Medal: 75 Years of Distinguished Illustration~ Jan 8 – June 30, Amherst, MA, USA
2nd Annual One Book Two Book – A Celebration of Children’s Literature~ Jan 11 – 13, Iowa City, IA, USA
11th Annual Hawaii International Conference on Arts and Humanities~ Jan 11 – 14, Honolulu, HI, USA
Penguin Young Readers Group Presents: John and Hank Green: An Evening of Awesome~ Jan 15, New York, NY, USA
Children’s Literature and Social Justice~ Jan 15 – Mar 19, Portland, OR, USA
Chapter & Verse’s (A Book Club for Adults Discussing Children’s Lit)~ Jan 17, USA
No Name-Calling Week~ Jan 21 – 25, USA and Canada
Jaipur Literature Festival~ Jan 24 – 29, Jaipur, India
ALSC (Association for Library Service to Children) Events at the ALA Midwinter Meeting~ Jan 24 – 29, Seattle, WA, USA
Yabun 2013: Celebrating Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Cultures~ Jan 25, Sydney, Australia
American Library Association (ALA) Midwinter Meeting~ Jan 25 – 29, Seattle, WA, USA
YALSA Events at ALA’s 2013 Midwinter Meeting~ Jan 25 – 29, Seattle, WA, USA
24th Annual Zora Neale Hurston Festival of the Arts and Humanities~ Jan 26 – Feb 3, Eatonville, Fl, USA
Family Literacy Day~ Jan 27, Canada
SCBWI Eastern PA Event: Picture Book Day with Australian Author Christopher Cheng~ Jan 27, Philadelphia, PA, USA
2013 ALA Youth Media Awards Press Conference~ Jan 28, Seattle, WA, USA
The Literature Centre (formerly Fremantle Children’s Literature Centre) Exhibits and Programs~ Fremantle, Australia
Dromkeen National Centre for Picture Book Art Exhibits~ Riddells Creek, Australia
Books Illustrated Events and Exhibitions~ Middle Park, Australia
International Youth Library Exhibits~ Munich, Germany
Tulika Book Events~ India
International Library of Children’s Literature Events~ Tokyo, Japan
Newcastle University Programme of Talks on Children’s Books for 2011-2012~ Newcastle, United Kingdom
Seven Stories (the National Home of Children’s Books in Britain) Events~ Newcastle Upon Tyne, United Kingdom
Discover Children’s Story Centre~ London, United Kingdom
Arne Nixon Center’s Children’s Literature Book Clubs for Adults Events~ USA
Events Sponsored by The Center for the Book in the Library of Congress~ USA
The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art~ Amherst, MA, USA
The National Center for Children’s Illustrated Literature Exhibits~ Abilene, TX, USA
Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators Events
By: Ingrid Sundberg,
on 1/1/2013
I’m a graphic designer in my day job, and I have a background in art and illustration. It’s natural for me to think visually. In fact, I think visually before I think in words. This might seem odd for a writer, but in many ways it’s an asset.
One of the great things about writing is that you are painting with words. You are doing your best to build images in your readers minds. As readers we build character and world with an author. Before the movies ever came out, we co-created our own visions of what Middle Earth looked like, or Hogwarts. This interchange is an intimate and beautiful experience, and one of the great joys of reading.
So how do we paint those images for our readers?
Of course this has to do with language. Words. Which ones do we pick and how do we use them. But I want to talk about the step before we use language. The part where we visualize, dream, imagine.
What’s interesting about dreaming, however, is that it’s often vague. When we write, we want to be specific. We want rust-flecked candelabras, and fraying coat tails, and honey as thick and dark as blood. Details make a world real to the reader. So how do we dream up something concrete within the unlimited space of our mind?
I like to make collages.
I make dozens of collages to help me better understand and develop a character. I use collages to track down an emotion in a scene, or visualize a setting. The cliche says that a picture is worth a thousand words…so if you create a collage of pictures, you might find yourself with an abundance of words and details to weave into your language.
Let me show you a few of these…
The following collages come from three entirely different projects and each was created to help me access a different aspect of my novel.
1. Setting Collages
I’m doing a significant amount of world building with my current WIP, and I’m trying to decide how the world looks by collecting images that have a texture, color, or feeling that resonates with the one I’m trying to design. None of these images are actual locations in the book, instead I’m inspired by the details – abandoned shelves of books, the quality of light as greenery overtakes a cathedral, or the possibility of a round Rosetta window staring down from above. Much of this will never end up in the book, but it does help me to create an aesthetic for the world.
2. Character Collages
I created this collage as a character development exercise to better understand how my protagonist sees her own mother. I began to notice that the character has a color palette and even textures that relate to her: wool, tan colored wood, morning light on hard-wood floors, delicate threads, soft feminine curves, etc. To the right, is a word list, which is the second part of this exercise. Here I’ve explored words that reflect how my protagonist views her mother. But often, I will also create a word/imagery list based on what I see in the photos (i.e. splinter, fuzz, shell, rust, golden light) which all become words I might use when describing the character on the page.
3. Emotion Collages
I was having trouble accessing the emotion in one of my scenes. It was a difficult scene (as you can imagine from the collage), and I think I was protecting myself from actually feeling the moment with my character. So I created this collage to help me feel it. I would look at this collage while writing the scene, and I also created a word list from these images to help add intensity to the writing. Things like dirty meat and hairy stomachs already make my skin crawl – so I tried to use similar words/images in the scene (that were appropriate for the scene – metaphors, etc.) in order to get the reader’s skin to crawl too. (This technique relates to my previous post on the unconscious effect of image systems, motifs, and liaisons in writing).
If you find you’re having trouble with a scene, understanding a character, or really want to see the detail in a landscape, think about creating a collage to help you.
Get visual!
By: Anne Bustard,
on 1/1/2013
By: Darcy Pattison,
on 1/1/2013
Wisdom, the Midway Albatross, the subject of my 2012 picture book has returned to Midway Island and laid a new egg. She was banded by Chandler Robbins on December 10, 1956 while sitting on an egg and presumed to be a minimum of five years old. That makes her at least 62 years old–and she’s going to be a new momma. Wow!
Wisdom and her mate prepare to begin their first shift of incubation, Photo credit: Pete Leary, USFWS
Read more about alternate publishing. Read more about how to write a children’s picture book.
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Happy New Year, Beth and Jan! And everyone! Great bucket lists. I am so looking forward to Shades of Earth!
Happy New Year! I really enjoyed reading Amy and Elder's bucket list. Congrats on your upcoming book, Beth :)