Next among the children’s/YA authors that I’m featuring in the Games & Books & Q&A series is J. Anderson Coats. J. is the author of the YA novel The Wicked and the Just (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt), set amid the English occupation of medieval Wales. Published in 2012, the book was ranked among the year’s best YA fiction by both Kirkus Reviews and the Young Adult Library Services Association.
CB: What do you remember about the first video game you ever played?
JAC: Playing Nintendo was a way to hang out with my older brother and develop a common vocabulary. The better I got, the more he treated me like a peer instead of a pest. We bonded over Karnov and Contra.
CB: What games did you play the most when you were a kid? What did you love about them?
JAC: I played a lot of Super Mario Bros. 2 and 3, and hours and hours of Dragon Warrior II. Dragon Warrior was a quest game, and you had to travel around talking to people and gathering items and interpreting clues. It reminded me of reading a great story, only you got to participate.
CB: What role do games play in your life today?
JAC: Games are a big part of how I connect with my teenage son. He doesn’t want to do things like bake cookies anymore, but he’s usually up for a game of Civilization V. And I’ve been known to play Civ V or Medieval Total War when I’m stuck on a scene or a plot point in a book I’m working on. It’s good for morale to succeed at something, even if it’s razing your opponent’s city to the ground.
***
I expect to continue this series through the October publication of my book Attack! Boss! Cheat Code! A Gamer’s Alphabet. If there’s anyone in the gamer or kidlit camp that you’d love to see me feature in upcoming posts in this series, please drop me a line or tweet at me or just leave a message in the comments.
The bulletin board above my desk holds all sorts of treasures:
- Irene Latham's Plot is a Verb postcard
- a flyer from my first author event
- a photo of a statue erected to honor pioneer women
- two quotes from J. Anderson Coats
- a silly VIP name tag from my 2007-2008 fourth graders (they gave me a "most likely to be a famous author" award)
- a great last name -- Folkenflick (any NPR listeners recognize this?)
- an anonymous, kind response during a First Pages reading session at SCBWI-MI 2004
- a card Schwartz and Wade sent along with my very own copy of May B.
- a song called Why Do We Hunger For Beauty? that always makes me cry
- a faded purple 3x5 that holds May B.'s original plot line
- a picture of me as a mid-grader
- pins for various books and debut author groups
- a tag from a Caroline Rose jacket...too fun to throw away!
- a heart necklace on a yarn chain
- a portrait by my nine-year-old
and my latest addition, four words
Sheila O'Connor shared after attending a writing workshop. They're what all writers need:
- endurance
- patience
- commitment
- passion
Today's guest, J. Anderson Coats, has dug for crystals, held Lewis and Clark’s original hand-written journal, and been a mile underground. She writes historical fiction set in the middle ages that routinely includes too much violence, name-calling and petty vandalism perpetrated by badly-behaved young people. J lives within walking distance of the Puget Sound with her husband, teenage son and a cat with thumbs. You can find her on her Website, on Facebook, Twitter, or her Blog.
Analyzing What You Read to Improve Your Writing
by J. Anderson Coats
Keeping a log and analyzing the books I read made a big difference for me in making the transition from writer to author. In January 2010, I began picking apart every book I read into its constituent elements. Plot, character development, narrative arc, setting, dialogue. I picked apart what worked and what didn’t. I noted where I stopped reading and why. I explicitly lined out how I thought the writer was using specific elements of craft and what the effects were.
And then I applied them.
My log is a crappy composition book I bought for $0.59 when school supplies were on sale. Keeping a paper log does three things for me:
1) It makes the log easy to maintain; I just keep it with whatever book I’m reading.
2) It allows me to be completely honest in a way I would not feel comfortable with if I were posting my comments online.
And, most importantly:
3) Carefully analyzing and recording exactly what’s going on in another person’s work crystallizes my understanding of that element of craft. Just thinking about reveals or backstory and recognizing their utility is great, but for me, committing the mechanics to print makes it useful. In other words, writing it down makes it stick.
As I read, I note down problematic aspects of a text or elements that I think are particularly well done, sometimes along with a comparison of other books that come to mind. When I finish with the book, I usually write out summaries of what the author did well (in an "Advantages" section) and things that didn't work for me ("Drawbacks"), then my overall impression of the work as a whole and to what sort of reader I might recommend it. ("Someone who loves high-school hierarchy stories" or "Someone who likes snarky heroines.") If a book is particularly awesome, I put a star next to its entry in my log.
How do you read? Are you as careful in your analysis of published work as you are when beta reading for fellow writers?
Research is one of my favorite things!
Available 4/17/2012
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Andrea Mack said, on 4/18/2012 3:58:00 AM
Oh I love this. I need to get me an inspiration board... hmm.
Beautiful. Love everything. And how true are Sheila's 4 words?!
I love your inspiration board!
It's funny. I never planned to make my bulletin board be an inspiration board, but that's what it has become.
What a lovely board! I need to get me one of these.
I know.