new posts in all blogs
Viewing Blog: Kirby Larson, Most Recent at Top
Results 26 - 50 of 811
Writing tips and inspiration for children's book writers
Statistics for Kirby Larson
Number of Readers that added this blog to their MyJacketFlap: 11
 |
| Katy Van Aken dreaming of her first year-end play |
|
Last week, my friend from Swayzee Elementary, Katy Van Aken, spelled out how she came to close the school year with class plays and how she and her students pulled it off. Today, we wrap up the interview with Katy with thoughts on the whys of such an undertaking. Tell us about the final results of this project.
SRO for all 3 performances! Our audience was packed with family members, students, and staff. On the last day of school, kids from my class and others borrowed books by the bagful for summer reading!
What do you think your students gained from this year-end activity?
‘Favorite Parts of Favorite Books’ empowered my students with confidence. They experienced a celebration of their interests and talents - many newly discovered! - and a journey filled with great reading, choices, higher level thinking, countless decisions, ah-ha! moments, creativity, ideas on top of ideas, teamwork, compromise, responsibility, and the joy of accomplishment. They invented, engineered, re-engineered, ad-libbed, cheered for each other, and laughed too hard to stand! Without a doubt, it took ALL of us to do this. It was a present to ourselves and our audience that took the entire school year to unwrap.
Why would you recommend other teachers try this activity?
The plays captured students’ energy and interests, keeping them fully engaged up to the last minute of the last day, applying the skills we’d worked on all year. Best of all, the plays generated a HUGE interest in reading!
What was the biggest surprise for you as this activity played out over the years?
When we began to work on the plays, students begged to come to school early, stay after, and work through recess. WOW!
What else would you like to tell the readers of this blog about these year-end plays?
Favorite Parts of Favorite Books, including scripts, practice, costumes, and scenery, can be adapted to any grade level or classroom. The plays can be presented one at a time to celebrate a unit, theme, or grading period. Have a ball!
Katy, THANK YOU!! I'm sure there are hundreds of teachers out there who will now consider adapting this project for their students!
Thank you dearly for this opportunity to share one of my classroom passions! Here are a few photos of my champions in action:
 |
| From Island, removing the bullet |
 |
| From Hattie Big Sky, Wolf Point train station scene |
Here are the books we’ve used. Several have been chosen more than once.
The Sign of the Beaver, Maniac Magee, Holes, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, Surviving the Applewhites, The Cry of the Icemark, The Game of Sunken Places, East, The Door to Time, Dragon Rider, The Elevator Family, The King’s Equal, Inkheart, The Palace of Mirrors, Crash, Just Ella, Island Book 3: Escape, The Name of This Book is Secret, The 39 Clues Book 6: In Too Deep, Kanines (a student’s novel based on the Warriors series), Wolf Brother, 39 Clues Book 1: The Maze of Bones, Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief, Hattie Big Sky, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, 43 Old Cemetery Road – Over My Dead Body, Magic, and all 5 books in the The Underland Chronicles: Gregor the Overlander, The Prophecy of Bane, Curse of the Warmbloods, Marks of Secret, Code of Claw
Thank you, Katy, for sharing in such an in-depth way. Your passion and enthusiasm illustrate what's GREAT about our nation's teachers.
Look what I got in the mail!
Author's copies of Scholastic book club's version of The Friendship Doll. This was the first cover designed for the book and I really, really love it. Check out Lucy's hair ribbons -- the illustrator painted one green and one blue, a small detail from the book. Impressive!
Join me in celebrating Julie Paschkis' delicious new book:
Here's what Kirkus has to say about it:
“Beautiful, kind, brilliant Ida… / always had her nose in a book.” So begins this lighthearted and airy tribute to the powers of love and persistence. Alphonse tries to be interesting, but he is unable to get Ida’s attention. He presents her with bouquets and butterflies and serenades her with guitar music, but still her eyes never leave the pages. He makes a cake, which turns into quite a production indeed. Paschkis takes a marvelous detour from her familiar style here. The pages are open, filled with white space and almost translucent gouache colors. Readers see Alphonse going to the ends of the earth for the ingredients: riding a horse up a mountain for apples, harvesting butter from the sun and sugar from clouds, climbing a tree to grab an egg from a nest, spooning salt from the sea and catching flour and baking powder from the sky. If all this weren’t enough to prove his love, Alphonse dives into the bowl himself to stir the cake! The smell of the cake baking eventually gets Ida’s attention, releasing a flood of butterflies and sunshine onto the final pages.
Sweethearts of any age will celebrate the joy of love and shared simple pleasures. (Picture book. 4 & up)
Be a sweetheart to yourself and get a copy. Right now!
The greatest good is what we do for one another.
Mother Teresa
Thanks to the internet, I have some very dear friends that I've never met. Katy Van Aken is one of them. Newly retired from teaching at Swayzee Elementary School in Swayzee, Indiana (in either a self-contained 5th grade or 4th/5th split), Katy reached out to me after reading The Fences Between Us. To borrow a line from Casablanca, that was the beginning of a wonderful friendship. For twenty-two years, Katy worked magic in her classroom, encouraging her students to be champions every single day. When she told me about her year-end class project, I was blown away. And I knew you would want to know about it, too. There's so much good information to share, that this Teacher Tuesday will be continued next week. So tune in then, too!
First, let's take a peek into Katy's past!
- Favorite school lunch as a kid: PBJ
- Best friend in grade school: Always the youngest, tallest, and skinniest in my grade school class, I was shy. My little sister Peggy was my best friend and still is.
- Times you were the new kid in school: My classmates and I were the kids in 2 NEW schools, each built closer to home.
- Teacher who inspired you to stretch: My 6th grade teacher, Mrs. Lois Fritch, expected great things and never stopped smiling at me.
- The one thing you always wished you could do in grade school but never achieved: Hit a baseball during recess! If a baseball had glued itself mid-air in the perfect spot, I still would have swung and missed, over and over... My sport was ballet.
Tell us a bit about books in your classroom:
Book talking = the heartbeat of our classroom culture. Along with talking about books, my students loved signing, commenting, and rating our classroom books inside their front covers to create reading histories and lasting recommendations; posting favorite words and quotes from books we read together or alone; and celebrating additions to our classroom library.
Do you have a favorite read aloud?
Among my favorites are Gregor the Overlander by Suzanne Collins and Island by Gordon Korman. When Gregor says, “Ares the flier, I bond to you,” we’re on our feet, repeating the pledge together! We’re knots of suspense in Island Book 3: Rescuewhen Luke’s working to remove the bullet from Will’s leg, “I don’t know what I’m doing in there! I might as well be using a pickax!”
Katy, let's dive in to the main reason I wanted to highlight you today: the year-end class plays. Tell us how it all came about.
Our plays were a natural extension of readers’ theater. Kids begged to perform. Who could say no to their enthusiasm, talent, and prior experiences? I knew my students would teach me all we needed to succeed. The annual class play was born.
During my first years, the plays were teacher-driven. My goals were simple: Plays must be tied tightly to curriculum. All students have nearly equal numbers of lines.
We performed favorite read alouds I used in science instruction: The Lorax, One Day in the Tropical Rain Forest, The Magic School Bus on the Ocean Floor, The Magic School Bus Meets the Rot Squad, Ranger Rick’s ‘The Defeat of the Dump Monster/Night of the Living Trash,’ and The Magic School Bus Inside a Bee Hive.
While I achieved my goals, I realized our plays had become teacher directed “crowd control.” I also realized I’d fallen in love with one of life’s greatest adventures -- children’s literature! I shifted gears to teacher as facilitator. Kid-driven ‘Favorite Parts of Favorite Books’ emerged as a 50 minute performance comprised of 5 mini-plays performed 3 times in our classroom on the day before the last day of school. All students are super-stars!!!
What are some key elements of planning for this activity on your end, as the teacher?
- Make a calendar listing all steps through show time. Introduce the play to students.
- Designate a place for students to record their book suggestions. Share often! Include scenes from your read aloud. Imagine together!
- Scavenge sheets of cardboard and boxes for scenery and props.
- Beg donations of clear and duct tape!
- Write a note home with dates and times so parents can get off work to help and watch.
- Arrange for parents to help with scenery and rehearsals. Arrange for chairs for the audience to be set up wherever you perform. We moved desks to the hallway and performed in our classroom.
- Create a daily task list for students to keep the project on time.
Key planning components for the students?
From the first week of school until the last week of March, my students read, shared, and imagined the possibilities, creating a list of books to be considered for our play. The list often grew to 75+.
Swayzee Elementary 2012 Play Program
Welcome Rap: All students
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix: the death of Sirius Black
43 Old Cemetery Road – Over My Dead Body: rescuing Seymour from the orphanage, Mr. Grumply from the nut house, and the attempted exhumation of Olive C. Spence
Hattie Big Sky: Hattie’s decision to leave home against Aunt Ivy’s wishes, meeting the Muellers in Wolf Point, and Hattie’s first peak at the claim shack
Commercial for Magic
The Name of This Book is Secret: the escape of Cass and Max-Earnest from Ms. Mauvais’s office, and their rescue of Benjamin as the evil Dr. L. attempts to use the brain sucking out machine
Island: scavenging for medicine at the deserted WWII infirmary, JJ’s call home for ransom $, removing the bullet from Will’s leg
Talk about the preparation for the plays.
There are as many ways to do this as there are classrooms and teachers. My students made 99% of the decisions and accomplished most of the work; however, this is notthe time to give up diet soda or M&Ms! Here are the highlights of what worked for us.
1. Decisions! From the class list, kids chose specific parts of 4 books, focusing on dramatic moments, action, and humor. Island was the 5th play, my anchor for the past five years because of our time frame, the 3-4 weeks after the final round of achievement tests. We had a script, scenery, a fake blood recipe, and a way to make it squirt during surgery. This play group helped other groups during work time.
2. Casting. Kids chose their parts. If more than one student wanted the same part, we pulled name sticks. Students viewed this as fair, and fair is everything in 5th grade! To make casting work out, we sometimes added characters or changed events. Kids could choose to act in more than 1 play if needed. All students move scenery.
3. Scripts. Each play group wrote their script with my help if needed. Plays were limited to 7 minutes and 4 connected scenes. Kids began learning lines. We wrote the rap using our original as a spring board.
4. Sets: We looked at our available stage parts and pictures of previous plays. Our center stage “big boards” were 2 sets of 2 4’x8’ sheets of cardboard glued to wood frames and hinged with rope. Similar sets made up our side stages. The insides and backs of our coat cabinets (on wheels) completed the stage. Everything can be moved easily.
5. Scenery: I explained the scenery system. We taped scenery to both sides of the sets, turned to change scenes. Kids used bulletin board paper to create remaining scenes. These were fastened in story order to the top wood frames, each rolled to the top separately and secured with string and slip knots. To change the scene, just pull the strings. Reset between performances.
6. Staging: Scenery, props, costumes, special effects, and music! We planned with lists and sketches, scene by scene like story boarding. Some scenery required research. When my girls needed help with Hattie Big Sky, Kirby sent them a picture of the claim shack she referred to during her writing. WOW!!! The girls googled Wolf Point historical pictures to see the train depot, and a parent enlarged them in his graphic arts studio. We also downloaded WWI music to my iPod. In Island, character JJ Lane used a cell phone to make a real call to his ‘dad’ (in the hallway) for ransom $$$. The orphanage and nut house in 43 Old Cemetery Road were 100% kid-imagination, while the graveyard scene was based on the book cover.
7. Scenery fest! We decided where to act each scene, center or side stage. I prepped by cutting/taping paper for the “big boards” and roll downs and cutting cardboard for stand-alones like the tombstones. Several parents helped each group. One of my amazing problem solvers figured out how to stabilize the arch needed in Harry Potter. Before we finished, everybody brilliantly helped everybody with everythingJ!
8. Rehearsal! We alternated practice time and scenery work. Before staging the coming, going, and acting, play groups practiced their lines alone, in their groups and group to group. I helped stage each mini-play and recorded it in diagrams to help us remember. The kids’ ideas and ad-libs made the show!!!
9. More Rehearsal! A week before show time, we rehearsed moving scenery and props only. (It takes 4 students to move 1 set of “big boards.”) We used Velcro on the floor to mark scenery positions. I added notes to my diagrams to keep with my scripts during the show.We rehearsed it all together adding in music and special effects. I’m too excited to sleep!!!
10. Move it! We performed in our classroom, so before dress rehearsal, we moved desks and everything else that wasn’t being used for the play into the hallway. We did our regular work with clipboards on the floor.
11. Dress rehearsal! The day before the show, we performed for the kindergartners using water instead of blood in Island.
12. Show Time! Room parents provided snacks and juice for in between performances. Kids will plead starvation! My math aide helped me reroll and slip-knot scenery. Students and parents took lots of pictures and video. My “emergency kit” of extra string, tape, and scissors was handy for any scenery and costume emergencies. I had to cut several strings when knots refused to slip, replacing the strings when we reset scenery.
13. Celebrate success! The kids loved watching the play video on the last day of school. We wrote thank you notes to parents, aides, and our custodian.
13. Save it! I stored all roll down scenery. It could be often be reused or renovated saving time and resources.
14. Reflection. I emptied my head/wrote down what worked and what I planned to change the following year. I also created a power point of the play pictures.
Katy, you make it sound like so much fun! And I know from the video you sent me and the photos, that it was a highlight of your fifth graders' lives! Next week, let's talk about the impacts on them, and why you'd recommend year-end plays to other teachers.
Okay, it's been out for a little while BUT we are just getting back to school here in the great Pacific Northwest so I think it's okay to give a shout out to Jennifer Holm for her latest novel "in stuff," EIGHTH GRADE IS MAKING ME SICK.
True Confession #1: Jenni and I are "Silver Sisters," having both been Newbery honorees in 2007. (Okay, so she's had like 97 other Newbery honors since then)
True Confession #2: May Amelia is one of my favorite characters in children's literature of all time. Jenni kills historical fiction. Kills it!
True Confession #3: I have a small "cameo" in this new book. I answer a homework question posed by the main character. Sadly, my snarky answer arrives at a really terrible time for Ginny. I felt terrible about that. Didn't know that was part of the story. But I do get emails just like the ones Ginny sends me, asking for homework "help" the night before some big assignment is due. (teachers: please rethink such assignments)
True Confession #4: Jenni's book touches on a disease I HATE: Colitis. Too many young people are having their lives undone by this crappy illness, along with its ugly stepsister, Crohn's disease. Five of my immediate family members battle Colitis/Crohn's. Hate. It. Big. Time.
True Confession #5: Even if there weren't True Confessions 1-4, I would adore this book. It is real, smart and full of heart. And real. Did I mention that already?
You need to read it. And you need to buy it. From your local indie bookseller, of course.
In the middle of every difficulty lies opportunity.
Albert Einstein
When your neighbor gives you a big bag of these
why not bake a few of these?
(Let me know if you want the recipe!)
I can't think of a better way to kick off my new blog feature, Teacher Tuesday, than with Colby Sharp. I met Colby at NCTE in Chicago last year where he kindly showed me how to post a photo to Twitter. Thanks to his patient tutoring, I was able to participate in the Nerdy Book Club Twitter chat about Hattie Big Sky recently. In addition to helping children's authors cross the street, technologically speaking, Colby is an evangelist for reading and books at Minges Brook Elementary, in Battle Creek, Michigan [the mitten state!], where he teaches fourth grade.
 |
| The very serious Colby Sharp |
I first asked Colby if we could get a peek at his past: - Favorite school lunch as a kid: Every single day of elementary school I packed the same lunch: two small bags of potato chips and a chocolate milk.
- Best friend in grade school: Cory P., I met him in first grade. We were great friends all the way through high school.
- Times you were the new kid in school: Middle school choir. I do not care to elaborate. It was not pretty. I have no idea what I was thinking.
- Teacher that inspired you to stretch: Mr. Bontrager. He was a student teacher while I was in fourth grade. He was the first guy teacher that I ever had. I remember thinking how cool he was. Everything he said and did was magical. I remember him playing sports with us at recess. It made me want to impress him in the classroom. I now play football at recess almost every single day at school with my fourth graders.
- The one thing you always wished you could do in grade school but never achieved: I really wish that I would have learned how to play a musical instrument. Not that I want to be a rock band or anything, I just think it would be cool to be able to rock out every once and a while.
Colby: I know FIG PUDDING is your favorite, first-of-the-year read aloud. Tell me how you came to know this book.I was introduced to Fig Pudding through Ralph Fletcher’s resources for teachers. One of the mini-lessons that he included called for me to read the "Tackle Box" chapter from Fig Pudding. I was hooked from there.What led you to choose it as a read aloud?I read it aloud because I want my students to see my cry while I’m reading. Many of my 4th grade students have never allowed themselves to truly get lost in a story and put themselves out there. I think it sets the tone for reading in our classroom. Tell us a bit about the read-aloud methods you use. For example, do you stop at the end of a chapter or at the end of an exciting or interesting scene? Ask kids to predict outcomes? I do a lot of modeling of my own thinking as I read. I want my students to see what goes on in the head of an “expert reader.” I don’t sugar coat it either. I let them know what is really going on in my head. If I get distracted and start thinking about lunch I tell them that. I then go back and reread the parts that I missed because I was distracted. We of course stop often and discuss, predict, connect, but I think my favorite part about reading aloud is having that shared reading experience. After reading Fig Pudding we can connect something from that book to almost any other book out there. If a student is reading Our Only May Amelia, I can talk to them about May Amelia eating her “Steaming Bowl of Sadness." If a kid is reading Ivy + Bean, we can talk about how Cynthia and Bean both struggle to get along with their siblings.
What happens in your classroom when you read this book aloud? The silliest thing that happens is my students beg their older siblings to tell them what a Yiddi-Yadda is. It is such a silly part of the story, but every student that comes back to visit in the fith grade asks if the class has figured out what a Yidda-Yadda is yet.
During the reading of this book, kids laugh, cry, think, grow, and learn. It really is a perfect read aloud. I think it brings us closer together and helps to develop a safe learning community together.
What else would you like to share about read alouds and/or reading FIG PUDDING aloud?
I think that every reading/English/language arts teacher/librarian should read aloud to their students consistently. Doesn’t everyone love being read aloud to?Great point, Colby! I know I love hearing a good story aloud. Thanks to your recommendation, I read FIG PUDDING last spring and now absolutely understand why you read it at the beginning of each school year.Thank you for participating and thanks for being such a TERRIFIC TEACHER! Learn more about Colby by visiting him at SharpReads or join Colby and other Nerdy readers at the Nerdy Book Club.
I always loved going back to school -- new footwear (brown and white saddle shoes), new pencils, new skirt lovingly made by my Auntie Lou. September spells hope, in my book, the kind of hope that only a ream of pristine lined notepaper can promise.
In the spirit of new, there are going to be some new things chez Kirby's Lane. I'm not going to tell you yet about the amazing plan I have for Tuesdays (for those of you jonesing for writing tips, head on over to Barbara O'Connor's blog), but you can continue to count on Thursday's Thought for the Day. But Friday! Friday!
Friday is now Friend Friday. And what better way to inaugurate Friend Friday than with a pickle.
Pickle: The (Formerly) Anonymous Prank Club of Fountain Point Middle School is Kim Baker's debut novel and you don't want to miss it. Kim has the best laugh of anyone I know and her heart is somewhat bigger than Mt. Rainier. She serves as the Western Washington SCBWI co-regional advisor and apparently stray animals find their way to her house sans GPS. She writes in a very cool converted shed and, though she didn't tell me this personally, Kim would be pleased as punch if every single one of you ran out and bought her new book. At an independent bookstore, of course.
Be not afraid of growing slowly, be afraid only of standing still.
Chinese Proverb
I must say I find television very educational. The minute somebody turns it on, I go to the library and read a book.
Groucho Marx
Thanks for hanging in with me over the summer. As August draws to a close, I'm wrapping up the Tuesday's Tips posts. . .and rethinking this blog. Let me know what kinds of posts might be most helpful to you!
In the meantime, please allow me to share my favorite misquote. For years, I was in love with these wise words from Russell Hoban's A Mouse and His Child: "You've got to take those daring leaps or you're nowhere." This sentiment spoke to my writer's heart and experience. Sometimes, simply sitting down at a blank page (or screen) is an incredibly daring leap.
I re-read the book recently and realized Mr. Hoban actually wrote, "You've got to make those daring leaps or you're nowhere."
I hope he won't send down a lightning bolt from above at my boldness, but I actually prefer my misquote. As a writer, I take daring leaps every single day but making those leaps? That's a different issue. Sometimes I fall short, barely reaching the cliff's edge, scrabbling for purchase on some scrubby shrub to keep myself from falling into the abyss. And sometimes, I do fall --- down, down, down. But sometimes, I clear the gap like an Olympic hurdler. The deal is, unless I actually take a leap, I won't know what kind of landing I'll make. That's what makes writing so awful. And so awe-full.
My next leap? A picture book. Who knew?
What's yours?
Having fun isn't hard
when you've got a library card.
Marc Brown, ARTHUR'S LIBRARY SONG
Write outside your comfort zone.
For me, that is poetry. Sheesh, am I bad at it! But I find that writing poetry-- no matter how awful-- helps me get to the emotional heart of a scene/situation. So, I will write a poem (often from the POV of my main character) to help distill the essentials of a story moment. Those few words serve as stepping stones for finding my way to the heart of a scene and, somehow, makes writing tough scenes less daunting.
For Hattie Big Sky, I wrote dozens of cinquains* to help launch the emotional plane of Hattie's story. Here's one example, created as I was thinking about why people would leave their established homes to homestead in undeveloped parts of the country (fyi: Circle and Glendive are Montana town names):
The Trip West
We rode
emigrant cars
on twelve dollar tickets
not to Circle or Glendive but
to hope.
Give it a go! It may work for you.
*Cinquains are a truly American form of poetry, five lines line. The first line contains 2 syllables, the second line 4 syllables, the third line 6 syllables, the fourth line 8 syllables and the final line 2 syllables. Thanks to Ann Whitford Paul for teaching me about this form!
A library is not a luxury but one of the necessities of life.
Henry Ward Beecher
Buddy up.
That's today's tip. You can interpret it anyway that makes sense to you but here are some ways I've enriched my writing life by buddying up:
- Meet a writing pal at a coffee shop and write simultaneously. This meet-up is not for critique purposes but to bask in shared creative energy. The one time I participated in NaNoWriMo, this was a trick I used many times to reach my daily word count goal.
- Buddy checks via email: My partner-in-crime, Mary Nethery, and I do this fairly often. One of us will email the other at the start of the work day, spelling out our own goals for the day, and asking about the other's. Even though Mary's thousands of miles away, just knowing she's at her computer at the same time I am inspires me to keep at it.
- Buddy brainstorming: a phone or in-person date where you and your buddy brainstorm about each other's works in progress. When I feel boxed in my a story plot, this is a huge help to me.
- Blog buddies: There are certain blogs I read for writing inspiration and ideas. I consider these bloggers my buddies even though we've never met!
What buddy systems have worked for you?
The harder you work, the luckier you get.*
Gary Player
(Samuel Goldwyn said,"The harder I work, the luckier I get.")
I love red licorice. I have been known to eat several handfuls in a sitting. Which I then regret. As delicious as that chewy sweet treat is, too much is not a good thing.
To my mind, vocabulary choice and licorice eating have something in common: a moderate approach is easiest to digest. I love delicious words like capricious or persimmon or navigate. But such words are best used sparingly in a manuscript. They're like fashion accessories: too many bracelets can distract from one's overall ensemble.
Please don't think I am advocating to "dumb down" a manuscript. I am a firm believer in the notion that literature can enrich the reader's vocabulary (the writer's, too, for that matter!). What I aim for is a cohesive feeling whole.Which means, as much as I love the word "copacetic," I might choose to use it only once in a novel. Or I might choose to use a synonym instead.
And that's just hunky-dory.
The most beautiful thing in the world is, of course, the world itself.
Wallace Stevens
3 X 5 note cards.
That's today's tip. Get yourself some of these. You can buy the plain white ones or the fancy colored ones. With lines or without. Just buy a pack of 50 or so.
Set a handful on your desk. Pick up the first card. Use a pencil or a pen -- your choice!-- and write down ONE thing your character might do in this story you're working on. Set that card aside. Pick up another one. Write down ONE thing your character might do in this story you're working on. Repeat process until you're bored, tired or it's time to walk the dog. What you should have in front of you is a respectable stack of potential scenes for your book.
Tomorrow when you sit down to work, pick a card. Any card. And write that scene!
You might not use it in the final draft but no writing is ever wasted.
I promise.
It is always the simple that produces the marvelous.
Amelia Barr
Cause and effect.
That's it. That's today's tip. Oh, you want me to elaborate a teeny-tiny bit? Oh, all right.
Grab a highlighter. A really bright and happy color! Now, read over your WIP and highlight the places where your MC is reacting to a story event. Now grab a different highlighter and highlight the catalyst for your character's reaction.
Oh, can't find the catalyst? Yeah. Been there. Done that.
We often need our characters to do something in order to advance the plot. But we forget to actually include the event/words/emotion that motivates them to engage in the reactive behavior. And we sorta hope our readers won't notice.
Well, our readers are sharp cookies. They will notice.
So make sure that every character action is matched with an identifiable catalyst for that action.
And that's probably the closest I will ever get to sounding like a scientist.
To have ideas is to gather flowers; to think is to weave them into garlands.
Ann-Sophie Swetchine
View Next 25 Posts
