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This Moose Belongs to Me and Baby Penguins Everywhere are new books with strong messages that contain craft moves we can teach young writers.

Ralph Tells a Story written and illustrated by Abby Hanlon (Amazon Children’s Publishing, 2012). It doesn’t matter if your five or twenty-five—if you’re in school, you’re gonna have to write.  And lots of times you have to write stories—stories about yourself.  Maybe it’s a daily journal.  Maybe it’s a “My Special Moment” essay.  Maybe it’s a descriptive narrative for a college composition class. Well, if you’re one of those kids who has NO IDEA what to write about and can’t think of ONE SINGLE STORY, then Abby Hanlon’s Ralph Tells a Story is the book for you. Ralph’s teacher always says, “Stories are everywhere!”  and the kids in Ralph’s class have no trouble finding them.  They write pages and pages and pages during writing time.  But Ralph can’t come up with anything.  Zero, zip, nada. So Ralph does what all smart kids do.  He stalls.  He goes to the bathroom.  He gets a drink.  He offers to help the lunch ladies.  And finally, finally, Ralph thinks of the start of a story. But then he gets stuck. Which is exactly when his teacher asks him to share his story. Luckily for Ralph, his classmates ask lots and lots of questions.  [...]

I’ve been tinkering around with the picture books I’m going to bring when I speak at WordFest later this month.  My presentation focuses on using recently published picture books as mentor texts to… Read More →

I’ve been trying to think through how to explain thinking in scenes to young writers in a way that makes it accessible. It seems they either write two scenes and call it done… Read More →

This is the full bibliography for my “To Plot or Not to Plot” series:

• Part 1: Terminology and the Difference Between Narrative and Story
• Part 2: Taking a Closer Look at Story
• Part 3: Got Plot
• Part 4: Types of Plot
• Part 5: Structure and Looking at the Whole
• Part 6: Defining Story Structure
• Part 7: Defining Plot Structure
• Part 8: Defining Narrative Structure and Conclusion

FULL BIBLIOGRAPHY OF WORKS CITED:

Anderson, M.T. “Two Theories of Narrative.” Lecture. Vermont College of Fine Arts, Montpelier, VT. July 2008. Sound Recording.

Ashmore, Calvin. “David Bordwell: Narration in the Fiction Film.” Icosilune. 16 Feb 2009. Web. 16 May 2011.

Atwell, Amy. “It’s All a Matter of Time: Exploring Linear vs. Non-Linear Story Structure.” Romance University, 5 Nov 2010. Web. 10 May 2011. http://romanceuniversity.org/2010/11/05/its-all-a-matter-of-time-exploring-linear-vs-non-linear-story-structure/

“Basics of English Studies: Story and Plot.” English Department. Albert-Ludwigs University Freiburg.  n.d. Web. 7 May 2010. http://www2.anglistik.uni-freiburg.de/intranet/englishbasics/Plot01.htm

Berg, Charles Ramirez. “A Taxonomy of Alternative Plots in Recent Films: Classifying the ‘Tarantino Effect’.”Film Criticism, Vol. 31, Issue 1-2, 5-57, 22 Sept 2006. Ebsco Host. Web. 6 May 2011.

Chea, Stephenson. “What’s the Difference Between Plot and Structure.” Associated Content. 16 Feb. 2010. Web. 7 May 2011. http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/2700073/ what_is_the_difference_between_plot.html?cat=4

Cowgill, Lisa. “Non-Linear Narratives: The Ultimate in Time Travel.” FilmmakerIQ.com, 17 Aug 2009. Web. 10 May 2011. http://filmmakeriq.com/2009/08/non-linear-narratives-the-ultimate-in-time-travel/

Da Vinci, Leonardo. The Last Supper. 1495-98. Painting. Art History: About.com. Web. 16 May 2011.

Doan, Lisa. “Plot Structure – The Same Old Story Since Time Began?” Critical Essay. Vermont College of Fine Art, 2006. Print.

“The Elements of Structure – Plot.” Dramatica Theory Book. Dramatica.com: A Wright Brothers Website. 1994-2009. Web. 7 May 2011. http://www.dramatica.com/theory/theory_book/dtb_ch_16.html

Freytag’s Pyramid. N.D. Graph/Illustration. Narrative Structure: Lit Blog. Web. 16 May 2011.

Gardner, John. The Art of Fiction: Notes on Craft for Young Writers. New York: Vintage Books (A Division of Random House), 1983. Print.

Klein, Cheryl. “Talking Books: The Essentials of Plot.” CherylKlein.com.  April 2006. Web. 7 May 2011. http://www.cherylklein.com/id18.html

Layne, Ron and Rick Lewis. “Plot, Theme, the Narrative Arc, and Narrative Patterns.” English and Humanities Department. Sandhi

...having the entire intellectual armamentarium of rhetorical devices at your beck and call is far preferable to having to limit yourself to tradititional narrative tropes, when writing about truly important matters. To me, that's just simple logic. 

—Samuel R. Delany

Yesterday I heard James Kofi Annan tell his story of child slave to business man to freedom fighter for the children in Ghana. Check out this CNN video for a taste of what I had the privilege of hearing first hand. His story moved me and compelled me to think about how I can use my corner [...]

Yesterday I heard James Kofi Annan tell his story of child slave to business man to freedom fighter for the children in Ghana. Check out this CNN video for a taste of what I had the privilege of hearing first hand. His story moved me and compelled me to think about how I can use my corner [...]

An eclectic little stack today. Click on the images to go to a link about the book. I’ve been enjoying books I can read a little here and a little there. This book,… Read More →

An eclectic little stack today. Click on the images to go to a link about the book. I’ve been enjoying books I can read a little here and a little there. This book,… Read More →

I’ve been working on a few sample minilessons to give my grad students next month when I start teaching “Children’s Literature in Teaching Writing.”  I’ve been making tweaks to the traditional minilesson structure… Read More →

Patricia Polacco has long been one of my favorite children’s authors. I’ve led author studies of her works with my former students in both reading and writing workshop. I have used books like… Read More →

I have been in a lot of different writing workshops lately. Just this week I’ve been in 13 writing workshops and have met with 13 different teachers in either reflective practice meetings or planning meetings. Therefore, I have SO MUCH I want to record. Which leads me to my current dilemma: what do I not [...]

When to use Narrative and when to use Scenes

Join us on Facebook for a discussion of scenes.
This is the great Show-Don’t-Tell debate. When should you take the time in a story to present a fully developed scene?

To understand this, let’s look at options.

Scene. First, is the fully developed scene that we discussed in SCENE 2.

Narrative summary. For a narrative summary, you leave out many of the details and just briefly tell events. This feels like someone just giving you highlights and may not include all the elements of a scene. It’s just getting you from scene to scene, while making sure you don’t miss anything important. It’s TELLING. So, don’t use it often. But when you want to compress the time line, skip briefly over events or speed up things, use a narrative summary.

Transitions. Another section of text might be a quick transition. It may have action, dialogue, thought or emotion, but it’s purpose is to get you from point A to point B. Often it’s narrative summary, but it can be much shorter. For example, you might start a follow-up scene like this: “Later, she went. . . “ Later is the transition and it’s a single word.

Featured Today in Fiction Notes Stores

Narrative summary and transition are important in moving a story forward. Well-developed scenes, though, are the meat of the story and where you’ll camp. You need all of these in your tool box, but you need to know when to pull out which.

It's Here.

Don’t waste all those free narratives right at your fingertips. They’re just waiting for you to weave them into a story.

Here’s how it goes:

1) First, cut and paste a screenful of status updates from your friends into your word processing program.

2) Then, get rid of all but the juiciest, most interesting ones.

3) Imagine a storyline in which these updates belong to your protagonist. Example below.

Names have been changed to protect the innocent, and permissions have been granted to publish these.

Here’s what I started with:

Ted Johnson might need some tequila. Some debt collecting agency calls me several times a day, looking for various Johnsons who don’t exist here. Today they are insisting my name must be Tequila Johnson.

Holly Schuster is up and operating off of 3 hours of sleep…but I got most of my work done…will be crashing this afternoon, for sure!

Tyler Hall talked for a long time with both of my sisters tonight, cried at a sad story on Biggest Loser, and baked a cake: what great (and free) therapy after a tiring day!

Samantha Rivera is making blueberry muffins and drinking coffee through a straw!!! (Yes, still!)

Here’s the beginning of my story:

She was up and operating after only 3 hours of sleep, having talked for a long time with both of her sisters  the night before. They couldn’t tell her what to do about the collections agency calling several times a day, looking for Stan.  What she felt like drinking was tequila, but the only thing at the office was stale coffee, cool enough to drink through a straw.

*This is a jumping off point to get your brain running—–not a suggestion to fictionalize your friends’ lives. Use more status updates to keep your story going, if you need them. Get writing!

0 Comments on The Facebook Writing Exercise as of 1/1/1900

Polonius: What do you read, my lord?

Hamlet: Words, words, words.

– William Shakespeare, “Hamlet,” Act 2, Scene 2

And so we come to #5 in Jane Yolen’s wonderful list of “10 Words Every Picture Book Author Must Know,” which she shared at the SCBWI Winter Conference a few weeks ago: Words.

Here are the three things Jane said about words – and I shall elaborate a bit on each.

1.  Pick them as carefully as a poet – Language is a fundamental part of children’s literature. Word play, rhythm, alliteration, parallelism, refrain, patterns, echoes, onomatopoeia – it’s all about being imaginative and creative with words.  Personification can be effective too – for instance, instead of “the leaves rustled in the breeze,” you might try, “the leaves whispered,” or “the leaves danced.”  Children’s imaginations are often fired by their senses, so incorporating what can be seen, smelled, tasted, heard, or felt to the touch is a powerful way to engage young readers in descriptive narrative.

Above all, look for juicy verbs.  Verbs are a writer’s best friend. They keep the story moving forward, and help us to show through behavior and action rather than tell through description.  Be as creative as you can be in your use of verbs. Keep a list of favorites – and always keep a Thesaurus handy to find better options for the ones that are common, tired, or overused.  Finally, remember that it’s all about economy with picture books. Three words, artfully chosen, will achieve far more than ten general, rambling ones.

2. Children love big words – don’t ‘dumb down’ your language. While we have to keep the age of our reader in mind in terms of what will engage and be relevant to them, we should never talk down to them.  Their focus may be narrow and their vocabulary limited, but their brains are like sponges, expanding with every drop of information we give them.  Using a sophisticated word here and there invites children to ‘stretch up.’ Whether they infer the meaning through association or context – using the surrounding words to understand the meaning of that one – or whether they pause to ask a grown up what a word means, once that meaning is absorbed it becomes part of the ever-expanding vocabulary and is unlikely to be forgotten.

3.  Words can be made up – just do so with care. Harry Potter, Winnie the Pooh, The Hobbit and virtually every book by Dr. Seuss all contain made-up words unique to their worlds and characters.  Shakespeare, in fact, made up thousands of words and phrases that have since become part of our everyday language. Most education scholars and child development specialists would agree that the creative use of words helps a young reader appreciate the power of expression. In seeing the rules of language being bent or challenged, children learn critical-thinking skills and develop their own imaginations. It’s important, however, to use this tool with care. Don’t overdo it, and make sure that if you are using invented words, their intended meaning can be clearly inferred by the reader.

I ran across a blog the other day that set me to wondering. Heaven knows it doesn’t take much sometimes, but this time was different because it concerned narration.

One of the things that has bugged me about that subject in the past several years is how the term is used. I remember the term”‘narration” as meaning a specific type of writing. The writing centered on the author telling a story from his/her own perspective, though not as one of the major players in the story.

Those types of stories are sometimes hard to find nowadays. At least they’re hard for ne to find. There are other types of narration to consider.

Probably one of the most famous narrative novels was “The Great Gatsby.” It was most definitely written through the eyes of a major player. It’s lure, at least for me, was the fact that while we saw the whole story through the narrator’s eyes, we also saw only memory. It acted as a memoir(fictional, of course,) novel, and commentary all rolled into one neat package for consumption.

At the other end of the spectrum is omniscience; also a type  of narrative which comes from the viewpoint of the cosmos telling the story to whoever will listen. Personally, I thoroughly enjoy this type because I get to know each major player in the story on a personal level through their thoughts.

When I was reading Laura Page’s blog about narrative, http://literarylegs.blogspot.com/2011/07/perfect-narrator-with-imperfections.html, I realized that I’ve been narrow in my view of the term and its use. Oh, I probably  already knew about my personal prejudice toward expanded definitions for the term. I admit to being in denial about encroaching changes in word usage.

Her discussion of narrative, however, allowed me view my own relationship with that writing technique. She spoke about characters with flaws that humanize them and make them more attractive. Now I’m wondering about all of those characters that have held me in thrall for so many years.

The late Janet Kagan drew characters that will live in my memory forever. Her SF book “Mirabile” is a study in how to write funny, memorable, and carry a reader to a place you want to live. Did the main character/narrator have flaws. I suppose she did, but they were so well woven into the stories she told that the reader would be hard pressed to pluck them out.

Elizabeth Moon’s “Deeds of Paksenarrion” is a framed series of books that follow  a young warrior through her trials to become a paladin and her first quest. Paks had plenty of flaws and she struggled with them on the pages, flaunting them before the reader so that all could witness her struggles and find strength within themselves to fight the good fight.

Whether light humor and mystery are on the plate with such writers as Susan Albert Whittig and the late Lillian Jackson Braun or an epic such as Jordan’s “Wheel of Time” series, some genres lend themselves naturally to flawed main characters that grab your by the throat and refuse to let go. Grisham and Patterson, too,  create characters that stick with the reader.

Literary novels, oddly enough, seem to hold a different kind of following and expectation. “To Kill a Mockingbird,” for instance, asks the reader to sit in a courtroom and witness drama unfold toward an end that, in many ways, satisfies no one but leaves the flavor of characters and story forever imprinted in one’s forebrain. The imperfections, as Laura calls them, come in both the setting, circumstances, social commentary, and the characters. A writer just can’t get more sweeping that in 296 pages.

I am learning to stretch my definitions and expectations of term usage. I know. It’s taken me long enough. It’s that Midwestern training I had so long ago. I’ve had to reframe my use of word poem this week, too. That experience left me ripe for this.

So, whatever fare

You know when you put something off so long that the problem solves itself? And by that I mean, melds with another problem so you just have one big problem? I meant to do a little post about my newly revamped website, and also to post on this poor, dusty blog more than once every six weeks.

In any case, I made a new front page image, based on that earlier painting and folding in illustration with design:


I'm super happy with how he came out, and have been circling the piece since, trying to figure out how to build off of it.

Okay, first problem/thing I procrastinated about solved! The other thing I wanted to talk about went live yesterday.

I have a new story in Twist Collective!

I've taken to describing this assignment as Illustrator Bait. It's a three-part narrative with a lonely peasant girl and magic and hand lettering and knitting. Take a look, but kindly click on the above link to see the pieces in context and read Daryl Brower's lovely story:








What was especially nice about this job was how smoothly I worked, compared to the last story I did for Twist Collective. Straight out of school, I was so nervous about messing up the paintings that I worked them half to death. I also managed to schedule a three-day interview the week before they were due, so I was both panicked and exhausted. On the (very) plus side, my fee for that job and the money I made selling the paintings paid for first, last, and deposit on the apartment I'm still living in today.

Alright, posting completed! In a fit of productive procrastination, I also reinvigorated my Etsy shop (yes, again), so the paintings are for sale there, among posters, notebooks, and cards. As usual, tell your rich friends.

Until next time (October?)!

Arguments about "spoilers" are [SPOILER ALERT!] tedious and annoying, and nobody who feels strongly about such things one way or the other will ever convince the fanatics people on the other side to agree with them, so such arguments are a huge waste of time and energy, and I have vowed [SPOILER ALERT!] to stay out of them for ever and ever and evermore, but now the film scholar David Bordwell has gone and made a fascinating blog post about [SPOILER ALERT!] how spoiler standards have changed and shifted over time and in various circumstances. Very much worth reading.

I often find the terms Narrative, Story, Plot, and Structure to be used interchangeably (on blogs, in articles, tweeted, and talked about), and personally, much confusion has ensued as a result. The following is an adaption of a critical essay I wrote during my past term at the Vermont College of Fine Art. My goal was to clarify each of these terms in order to feel empowered by the vocabulary and the craft concepts rather than confused. Hopefully this series will help others who find the concepts confusing as well. The series is a little long and best read in-sequence.  Enjoy!

To Plot or Not to Plot: Plodding Our Way Through the Terminology     (Defining the difference between Narrative, Story, Plot, and Structure).

At some point every writer is going to have to wade his or her way through plot and structure. Not to worry, information on these not-so-tiny topics is plentiful. It’s so abundant, in fact, as to be absolutely mind-numbing; particularly so when it come to the plethora of terminology. Is narrative structure and plot structure the same thing? The terms seem to be used interchangeably, but are they really? What if a writing teacher says “there’s no story”? Do they really mean there’s no plot, or is the structure the problem? The goal of this essay is to investigate the fundamental differences between the terms of narrative, story, plot, and structure, to help the writer obtain the proper vocabulary in discussing his or her craft, and to realize the options available. As Mark Twain so famously advised with writing: “the difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter, it’s the difference between the lightening bug and the lightning,” so too should we writers and educators discuss terminology with care. For the difference between narrative, story, plot and structure can be just as vast.

What the *bleep* is Narrative? Defining the difference between Narrative and Story:

When we talk about any form of storytelling, be it the written word, fine art, film or interpretive dance, the term narrative always shows up. Unfortunately this may be the hardest of all the terms to define because it’s the most elusive. The Random House Dictionary defines a narrative as “a story or account of events, experiences, or the like (true or fictitious).” This definition of a narrative is slightly misleading, as it directly states that narrative is a story, implying the words are interchangeable. But are they really? “E.M. Forester defines story as the chronological sequence of events” (Basics of English Studies), and with this definition gives the following example of a story: “The King died and then the Queen died.” If we look at the statement “The King died” alone we have a single event, an incident. There is no story until a second event is introduced: “the Queen died.” Therefore, at its base, a story is a sequence of at least two events. Is this also a narrative? Absolutely, everyone would agree that this is an example of a narrative story. The questions start to arise when we look at narratives that are not stories, which is where the elusive quality of the word hides.

Taking a look at fine art one encounters the term narrati