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After 111 years of publication, "Variety" has come up with a theory about why people enjoy animation.

The post ‘Variety’ Figured Out Why People Watch Animation: Terrorism and Mass Murder appeared first on Cartoon Brew.

Today’s blog post is part of our Stories For All Project series, focused on sharing the latest announcements and impact stories about our effort to put diverse, inclusive books into the hands of kids.

Today’s guest blogger is Melissa Spradlin, Executive Director of Book’em in Nashville, TN.

Having the right book at the right time can make a difference in a child’s life – sometimes forever. That is why having a variety of books to choose from is so important to our program.

Every day I work with Book’em in Nashville to make kids and teens owners of books, helping them discover the joy of reading.

Our public schools serve over 80,000 students of different ages and different backgrounds. They represent more than 100 different countries, many different ethnicities, races and languages.  They are creative, giving, curious, caring, amazing kids.

Because we have such a diverse population, it is extremely important to showcase diversity in the books we have available for our children. You never know what book might turn a child into a reader, but books that speak to their experience get enthusiastic readers  even more excited and inspire  readers who are a bit more reluctant.

Being able to choose from a variety of diverse books allows our kids to see themselves represented in ways they can relate to. It also helps broaden our students’ horizons and pave the way for a more inclusive future.

We are grateful that First Book’s Stories for All Project™ has allowed us to provide diverse, inclusive books to the children we serve.

The post The Right Book at the Right Time appeared first on First Book Blog.

Today, I’d like to answer a question from a reader.
Shena asks, “I’m writing a story and I have five people who are carrying on a conversation with each other. How do I go about stating each person’s line without constantly using, he said, he replied or using the person’s name to say this person said after the sentence without it being an overkill of redundancy?”

Thanks for the question! You’re right to be concerned about repeating speech tags too often. It’s really a balancing act: on one hand, you don’t want to repeat too often, but neither do you want the reader to get lost. You have limited options, however, and you’ll have to work hard to keep this conversation interesting.

Speech Tags

Speech tags are the “he said” and “she said” that often accompanies dialogue. Notice that when you use HE or SHE, they are pronouns and will refer to the person immediately preceding. That’s important. The pronoun antecedent must be the right person. In the case of five people talking, you’ll probably need to use the character’s name often.\

James said, “Get lost.”
Jim said, “No way?”
Jill said, “Why?”

In the example above, notice that the job is even harder when character’s names all start with the same letter. Make sure your novel is populated with characters who have unique names that stand in contrast to one another. Not Jill and Bill, because they rhyme. Not James, Jim and Jill because they all begin with the same letter and are all one syllable. Instead, choose something like this: James, Brianna, Marguerite, Ally, and Bob.

Actions in the Midst of Dialogue

Dialogue rarely stands alone, though. When you add actions to dialogue, it’s sometimes called beats. This isn’t the same as action beats in a scene, but instead just means the small actions that are interwoven with dialogue. Sometimes those are the same, but sometimes not.

Dialogue beats are the small actions. Scenes demand actions, not just interior thoughts. What are your characters doing? Changing a light bulb.

James took the light hub out of the package and said, “Get lost.”
Reaching in, Marguerite gently took the package from him and said, “No way.”
Ally stuck out her lip in a pout. “Why?”

Notice here that Ally has an action, but has no speech tag. Sometimes, you can just omit the speech tag, if a character does something right before or after the dialogue and it’s clear that it’s this character speaking.

This still sounds boring, though. Part of that is because we repeated the structure too exactly in the first two sentences. They have an “action and said,” structure, which doesn’t really work here. Vary the structure of your sentences, sometimes putting the dialogue first, last, or even in the middle of the action.

Bob shook his head in disgust.
James tore open the light bulb package and snarled, “Get lost.”
“No way.” Marguerite’s voice was soothing and gentle. She took the torn cardboard from James and patted his shoulder.
Ally stuck out her lip in a pout. “Why should I get lost?” She hesitated and added, “I don’t want to.”
Bob grunted, “Why? Isn’t it obvious?”
“James is just upset,” Brianna said, “But that doesn’t mean he should get his way.”

Notice the variety here.

• There are some actions without dialogue.
• Dialogue occurs at the end, the beginning or the middle of the dialogue.
• After some dialogue, there’s a longer section of actions.
• I’ve used two substitutes for “said”: snarled and grunted. I don’t like using very many substitutes. Many writers explain that “said” disappears and readers don’t notice it. If you use an alternate word, it should add something important to the story.

Character Tics and Tags

Finally, it’s possible to use character tics or tags to good effect. Perhaps, poor Ally stutters. And James has a high pitched voice.

Bob shook his head in disgust.
James tore open the light bulb package and whined in soprano, “Get lost.”
“No way.” Marguerite’s voice was soothing and gentle. She took the torn cardboard from James and patted his shoulder.
Ally stuck out her lip in a pout. “W-w-why should I get lost?”
“Especially you!” James squeaked.
“W-w-why?”
Bob threw up his hands. “Why? Isn’t it obvious?”
“James is just upset,” Brianna said to Ally, “But that doesn’t mean he should get his way.”

You can start to see how dialogue can be enliveded with actions, sentence variety and small characterizations. You can devise many more ways to distinguish one character from another and use those traits in creating interesting dialogue. Try varying the character’s typical word choices or dialect. Within a larger conversation, too, you might have one character addressing another, as in Brianna’s aside to Ally and Marguerite’s intimate moment with James.

What’s your favorite way to keep complicated dialogue straight, yet keep enough variety to be interesting?

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The kindergarten class in Room 9B was an odd class.
The kindergarten class in 9B was odd.

Which sentence is more effective?
What is the most important work in the sentences?

Odd. It’s an important word because it distinguishes this class from all others. The next sentence of my picture book 19 Girls and Me tell the reader that this class has “19 girls and one lone boy.”

My point here is that sentences can be structured to emphasize—or deemphasize—anything you choose. Where do you want the reader to pay attention?

When you read a sentence you remember or pay attention to the end of the sentence the most. The second best position for memorable information is the beginning of the sentence. When you bury a word or phrase in the middle of a sentence, it is less memorable.

In my picture book, WISDOM, THE MIDWAY ALBATROSS, I wanted to emphasize that when an albatross first migrated, it doesn’t come back to land for years. Look at the difference in these two sentences. The first emphasizes the time a bird flies. The second emphasizes that the bird soars.

She soared for five or six or seven or eight years.
For five or six or seven or eight years, she soared.

It’s a subtle difference, but an important one for me, because I find it totally amazing that for years, she does nothing but fly. I wanted the reader to feel that same amazement. I also used soar, instead of fly because it more accurately captures the bird’s movement of flying on the thermals. There’s no wing flapping here because she has a special elbow joint that locks into position, keeping her wings outstretched. That’s soaring. Not flying.


You can also, though, use the technique to hide information in plain sight. Writing a mystery, you might choose to put a specific clue into the middle of a sentence. What if a bag of donuts was an important clue? Which sentence would you choose to use and why? Do you want the reader to remember the donuts or not?

Picking up the bag of donuts, she wheeled her bicycle onto Broadway and headed toward the river.

She wheeled her bicycle, donuts balanced on the handlebars, onto Broadway and headed toward the river.

Making for the river, she balanced donuts on the handlebars and wheeled her bicycle onto Broadway.

She wheeled her bicycle onto Broadway and headed to the river, donuts safely stashed in her bicycle’s basket.

She wheeled her bicycle onto Broadway and headed to the river, her bicycle’s basket full of hot, fresh donuts.

Interesting, is the use of the passive construction for the purpose of emphasis. Usually passive constructions are frowned upon because they make the action seem once-removed. But a passive construction is useful to push words to the end of the sentence for emphasis.

The street woman pushed a noisy shopping cart.
The squeaky shopping cart was pushed by a strange street woman.

To emphasize the shopping cart, use the first sentence. To emphasize the street woman, use the second—a great use of passive construction.

I've started creating editorial cartoons. Well, I've always done this, but I've started submitting them to the Variety for publication. First one appeared Friday, September 21, 2012 with Zaldy's editorial here.

Fans of the popular “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” series will have to wait until late May for the final installment, “The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest,” but they have something new to be excited about.

Variety reported that the film rights to “Dragon Tattoo” have been sold to Sony to produce a film based on the bestselling book. Although there has already been a film released in Sweden last February that made almost $100 million dollars across Europe, this will be the first American film based on the first trilogy.

The film will be c0-produced by the trusty Scott Rudin with the makers of Swedish film, Yellow Bird Films.

Over at MTV’s blog, they speculate who will play the tough, tattooed computer hacker turned sleuth Lisbeth Salander, who has been called “one of the most compelling characters in contemporary fiction.”

According to MTV, their choice is clear:

She is “a pale, anorexic young woman who had hair as short as a fuse, and a pierced nose and eyebrows… She was a natural redhead, but she dyed her hair raven black… She had a wide mouth, a small nose, and high cheekbones that gave her an almost Asian look.” And of course, she has a dragon tattoo (among others). With that in mind, here are our top three picks for Lisbeth:

Shannyn SossamonIf I were to leave my duties as your faithful blogger and take up a career as a Hollywood casting agent, my No. 1 pick for this role would be Shannyn Sossamon. Best known for her early ’00s roles in “A Knight’s Tale” and “40 Days and 40 Nights” this exotic brunette is a perfect physical facsimile of how I imagine Lisbeth to look.

Samaire ArmstrongAnother young starlet who’s just the right mix of delicate and dangerous is “Dirty Sexy Money” and “O.C.” actress Samaire Armstrong. Plus, with stints on T.V. crime shows like “NYPD Blue,” “Numb3rs” and “CSI: Miami,” she’s no stranger to a little detective work.

Kate MoennigWe loved Kate Moennig as tough-as-nails (with a heart of gold) lesbian Shane McCutcheon in “The L Word.” Pretty yet androgynous, we hope Kate would consider a hiatus from her role as Dr. Miranda Foster on the medical drama “Three Rivers” to step into Lisbeth’s well-worn combat boots.

Kristen Stewart of “Twilight” fame is a name that will probably pop up, although she was great in “Adventureland,” she has never come off as a “tough girl.” We will have to wait and see. Feel free to weigh in on who you think should be cast.

Joel and Ethan Coen are working on an adaptation of the classic western True Grit by Charles Portis for their next project. According to Variety, their adaptation of the 1969 picture will hew more closely to the Charles Portis book on which it is based. In the book, a 14-year-old girl, an aging US marshal, and another lawman track her father’s killer through Indian country. While the 1969 version focused on Wayne, the Coens’ version will highlight the girl’s point of view.

Variety's review of Stardust is at http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117934304.html?categoryid=31&cs=1&nid=2562#

Sprinkled with tongue-in-cheek humor, fairly adult jokes and some well-known
faces acting very silly, this adventure story should have particular appeal to
fans of "The Princess Bride," but in any event will never be mistaken for a
strictly-for-kids movie.

The best thing in the film, Pfeiffer shows great comedic timing, and her metamorphoses -- as Lamia careens from flourishing beauty to horrible crone -- show considerable courage, as the actress manages to be funny regardless of what state of decrepitude she's in. It's not a very admirable character, after all: Lamia turns people into goats and goats into people, and she and her sisters foretell the future by hacking up animals and reading their entrails. They're not the most in-demand dinner guests.