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Many of my writer and creative-type friends have just drifted into their REM states when I get up in the morning. The sun hasn’t even opened one eye, but I stumble down the stairs to feed my cats and open my laptop.
It’s for a pretty simple reason, really. Time.
I’ve been doing this for several years now. I guess I’m trying to stomp on the popular refrain of busy people: There are only 24 hours in each day. Here’s my trick. Getting up before everyone except my cats adds minutes and hours to my day. No, I don’t have a plutonium-filled DeLorean in my garage (unfortunately!), but I am adding minutes and hours to my writing day.
It’s the way I have to do it. I teach first grade, and there’s something I learned forever ago from my mom who taught six and seven-year-olds before me: they take more energy than you thought existed in your mind and body. It’s a wonderful, satisfying type of exhaustion, but it leaves very little for the end of my day.
But if I didn’t carve out that writing time, I’d be a different kind of exhausted – the cranky, shuffle-around-mumbling kind.
And it’s true, unless you are meeting Dr. Emmett Brown and Marty McFly in the parking lot of the Twin Pines Mall, you’re going to have to give up something to create your own writing minutes and hours. It might be sleep or a kind-of-favorite TV show. It could be your surfing time (and I don’t mean on the beaches of sunny California).
It might be a little uncomfortable at first, like a little pinch or a scrape-your-knee-and-need-your-mother-to-blow-on-it way, but you can push through it. You should push through it.
Because when you do, you are left with a book . . . or a poem . . . or a song. And that’s worth every bit of it.
“Oh, it is interesting, the creative process. Where was this story before I wrote it down? I don’t know. It certainly wasn’t in my head.” --Gore Vidal
I think the idea process is the part of writing that I love most.
I like to go to a worn, well-traveled area and sit still with my notebook. Train stations can be perfect for this kind of brainstorming and idea-mining, because of the combinations and variety of people. There will be those who are actually going somewhere, and those who are biding their time, wishing for a destination.
Then I listen -- I mean really listen – to voice inflections and accents, to tones and volume. What is that woman in the corner worried about? What is that young man on the steps so excited about? What is making that couple on the bench so angry? And that woman with the cell phone imbedded in her cheek . . . what is the person on the other end saying?
I’ll try to notice quirks and facial expressions, body language and eye rolling. Then I’ll ask myself, How can I use this?
How do I know if that person or that line is worthy of a story? It hangs around in my head for a good while….it’s that phrase I can’t stop thinking about. It makes me wonder, or smile, or cringe, and I have to write it down.
One thing that is important for me is to keep myself open to new ideas –not just at the brewing, beginning stages of a story or book, but throughout my writing. This is what starts to round out my characters as I go, and what fills up my story, as a whole. Even after I have that initial motivating idea, I try to keep the brainstorming going.
We take notes on what we see and hear and audition them on the page. Trying out new ideas takes risk and guts, because you can’t leave them floating around in your head. You have to be willing to take it one step further and put them down on the page.
I know next to nothing about basketball, but when March Madness hits, I see people scrambling to predict who will win. They even put down money to back their frenzied calculations.
It can be like that with that first idea when you are writing. It explodes in a mad frenzy of possibilities. All we want is that big win at the end. And we want to get to the end. As soon as possible. Now. Do not pass Go. Do not pause to collect the two hundred dollars.
When we are first getting our story down on paper, it may be fragmented. As my writer friends know, I am a fan of working in coffee shops, and I use coffee shop analogies freely and often. So . . . imagine a busy coffee shop—in a big city. You have just moved to the neighborhood and you are visiting it for the first time.
There is a lot going on, but a great deal of it is just a thin surface layer. You go into the coffee shop and the customers are all your characters, major and minor. You see them—you might see what they are wearing, but you really don’t know anything about them yet. 
You hear bits and pieces of conversations, but you aren’t interacting with anyone but the barista or the guy at the counter.
You are seated in a corner by yourself, trying to make sense of all that is going on around you. People are on their laptops, not paying any attention to you. People are in pairs and groups, having their own conversations. You are excited about being in this new place, but you really aren’t comfortable yet.
The next day, things get a little more familiar. You notice some people from the day before. Someone gives you a recognizing nod. You start to notice how the customers are interacting with each other. You sense the tension between the couple by the window. You notice the woman off to the side appears to have slept in her clothes. You start to wonder about their stories.
Each day, each revision, you add another layer.
You may think you have your story down pat—especially if you are an extensive note taker or an outliner. I heard about a writer, who wrote her entire novel in her head while she was gardening. Finished the entire thing. Then she went home and put the words down on paper. We all want to be done. It’s human nature to want to see a job through to the end. It is the best feeling in the world to type THE END. But for a writer, the first time you type those words, it usually just means the beginning. It’s the beginning of your layering process. The beginning of your revision.
I used to hate it. But I look forward to it now. It means my words are turning into a real story. So don’t get sucked in by the March Madness. Slow down and enjoy the ride.
In February we are given a day of possibilities at the beginning, with an extra day at the end during a leap year. My challenge for everyone this month is to combine Groundhog’s Day where anything can happen, with that gift of an extra day, and write without caring what anyone else thinks. Write with abandon. Write as if you have all the time in the world, because you sort of do. You have that extra day, that anything-can-happen day.
But here’s the only rule:
Write What Only You Know.
Annie Dillard said, “A writer looking for subjects inquires not after what he loves best, but after what he alone loves at all. Strange seizures beset us. Frank Conroy loves his yo-yo tricks, Emily Dickinson her slant of light….”
She also asks the thought-provoking question, “Why do you never find anything written about that idiosyncratic thought you avert to, about your fascination with something no one else understands? Because it is up to you. There is something you find interesting, for a reason hard to explain. It is hard to explain, because you have never read it on any page; there you begin.”
You can make something interesting to your readers because of your own fascination with it.
What are the everyday things that intrigue you?
Think about sitting in a restaurant or in a train station, or on the subway. What makes you give a person a longer-than-usual look? Why are you drawn to that person? Is it their distinct, unusual beauty? Maybe. But more likely it’s something else—because you are a writer. Maybe they have a bald spot on the side of their head that they are trying to cover. But it’s not a man’s comb-over. It’s a woman’s. You take it one step further, because you are a writer.
What foods are you drawn to?
What places fascinate you so much, you want to stop your car—even though it might not be a convenient or a safe place to stop it?
You take the everyday--something you encounter or pass each day, and point it out in your writing.
Chances are, you have no idea why you are drawn to certain foods or people or places or events. You just are. But that draw is your key. You write about it, and you make these fascinations your readers’, as well.
(Remember, you’ve got that extra day here. You can take your time.) Dare to take the mundane and sneak it to the forefront. But do it as only you can do. Forgive me for massacring a line from “Field of Dreams”, but … If you write it, they will read.
It’s not that bad, right? Some people just want to do it and get it over with. Some look forward to it eagerly. Adding details to our writing is like decorating for the holidays. Once you immerse yourself into it, you are hooked – and so will be your readers.
C.S. Lewis said, “Don’t say it was ‘delightful’; make us say ‘delightful’ when we ‘ve read the description. You see, all those words (horrifying, wonderful, hideous, exquisite) are only like saying to your readers, “Please will you do my job for me.”If you add the right detail, just a tiny word or two, you can make the reader laugh, or cry, or catch their breath.
Finding those perfect details isn’t as hard as it sounds. Try to notice the little things around you. What is that man doing in the car next to you? Is he texting? Is he weeping? Is he picking his nose?
When you add details to your story, it becomes personal. It goes from being any old story to being personal. That’s when it becomes real.
Maybe you are writing about the lady next door taking her garbage out in the morning. Get nosey with those characters. Ask yourself those impolite questions. What’s in that garbage and why does she have to take it out every morning? What’s that stain on her robe? Are her curtains open or closed, and how come she keeps her curtains closed in the daytime?
Try to notice those little details—I call it thinking like a poet. My favorite poets use very spare language to make the story come to life in the poem. They make every word count. They pay attention to subtle things, like the way someone’s voice goes up or down a little when they say certain things. Or the way their voice catches.
Don’t be afraid to channel Gladys Kravitz. Spy on those people in their stories. What’s out front of the house? Why are all those cars in the driveway all of a sudden? What’s going on over there?
Is there a death? A birth?
The cars are coming and going at all hours of the night. Are they drug dealers?
Don’t be satisfied with just steps. Make them creak.
Don’t be satisfied with just a classroom. Jazz it up. Put some contraband in there. Make someone throw up or want to throw up.
Details can be deceptive, too. They can trick us—they can trick the reader. You can drop a tiny detail in and see if the reader notices—a bit of foreshadowing.
I leave you with some holiday cheer from Mark Twain: “The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and lightning-bug.”
Now get back to your decorating!
Annie Dillard says, “ . . . spend it all, shoot it, play it, lose it, all, right away, every time. Do not hoard what seems good … give it, give it all, give it now. Something more will arise for later, something better.” This wisdom has become one of my favorite recipes for writing.
I love this, because I am guilty of saving my writing. But really, for what am I saving it? A perfectly good idea can end up like back-of-the-refrigerator food--something that was perfectly good on Saturday, but ended up getting stashed away and wasted by next Friday. I have a million little notebooks—I always have one going, as do most of the writers I know. But if a good line comes to you—or a great character idea—or some fantastic setting details, find a way to put it in right now. Don’t let it disappear forever into the pages of your journal; get it down on a page of your book.
H.G. Wells had another great writing recipe. He said, “If you are in difficulties with a book, try the element of surprise; attack it at an hour when it isn’t expecting it.”
I am a big proponent of writing at the same time everyday. It may just be a mind game that I play with myself, but I truly believe that my body and mind get used to this 5:00 a.m. time. The words automatically start trickling out after I’ve had my first few sips of coffee. The routine of it all works for me. However, we have all gotten to a point in our story where either we, or the story feels stagnant. So try again. Try it at 5:00 p.m., instead. If you are too tired at this time, because your first writing time of the day was at 5 a.m., go for a walk. Let the ideas start to flow. Do what makes your mind wander to your story. Walking, running, riding your bike, cooking, baking, knitting…be open to it, and your characters might just start talking to you.
It's easy, right? Just treat your readers with your tricks. We beat ourselves up and rack our crazy writer brains trying to come up with the latest wowing trick.
Writer, Merrill Markoe says she struggles with her tendency toward “contrarianism”.
“If I know there’s something I’m supposed to be doing or saying or wearing, I feel compelled to resist—particularly with creative endeavors like writing. If I see an obvious punch line or plotline driving toward me, I can’t help but make a sharp left turn into the unexpected. I don’t like to replicate what I’ve seen done before—I don’t like to give people what they expect. I think it’s my job to come up with a surprising angle or add some personal twist.” –Merrill Markoe
She made me think about how some people are trying to follow the market and write what they think is “hot” or selling right then. Of course we all want to sell our work, but if we aren’t writing from our gut and our heart, it shows in our work. It ends up feeling derivative. We need to make our work our own, with our original, distinctive voice.
In comedy, I think one of the reason’s that David Letterman has had such success, even early on in his career, is that he felt a strong rapport with his audience, making them feel as if they were in on the joke.
As a fiction writer, that’s exactly what you are doing. You are making the audience feel as if they are in on the story. –You are sucking them in without their even knowing it, from the very first page—even the very first line.
Nobody likes to feel as if they are on the outside, looking in, and not a part of things. Remember how you felt as a kid, or even as an adult, when you were at a party, or on the playground, and you weren’t included in a conversation. Or you felt as if you had entered in the middle or towards the end and you didn’t have the details to jump in. Sometimes, the people were doing that on purpose, hoping that you would go away, or wanting to control the group, giving them the upper hand. When this happens in a story, the reader never gets a chance to connect with the characters, and may, in fact just put the book down.
One of the ways you can include your readers in your story—letting them feel as if they are “in the know”—is to give them things to which they can relate. You have to dig deeply in order to do this. This doesn’t always happen for me until I’m heavily into my revision process. Again, you have to climb into the minds of your characters—not just your main character, but all of your characters—and figure out how they would feel and react to each situation in which you put them. What you are shooting for is for your readers to think, “I’ve felt like that, too. That’s just like me, or that’s just like when I …”
So dig to the bottom of that plastic pumpkin. That's where the best treats are hiding out--waiting to be discovered.
I believe it was the brilliant John Irving who said, “You don’t initiate a story until you know how you’re going to end it. You don’t start a dinner party conversation—‘A funny thing happened on the way to LaGuardia’ –and not know what happened in LaGuardia."
I used to use the “fly by the seat of my pants” approach. Sometimes it worked—just by fluke, I think. But more often than not, I would dig myself into a hole and get stuck. Now I think I tend to agree with John Irving. I try to tell myself the story. I don’t like to tell other people the story, because, maybe it’s just Irish superstition, but it feels as if it loses some of the magic for me when I talk it out with someone. I’ll write little notes to myself –when I do it that way, it’s as if the story unfolds on its own. As soon as I have a general idea of where it's going, then I start to work—and I work out technicalities and logistics along the way.But the big, meaty question I try to remember to ask myself is, What has to happen? If you have an impulsive character up on a rocky ledge, or if you have a nervous, self-conscious character fumbling in a mud pit, what absolutely has to happen? I don't always know, but it's always an adventure to see where this question takes me.
Sit.
Write two words.
Get distracted by something shiny.
Two more words.
Cross them out.
Write three more.
Sneak peek out the window.
Stop. Sniff the air. Is that charcoal with a hint of cheeseburger?
Lean closer to the window.
Shut the window and duct tape yourself to your chair.
Five more words.
Cross out three.
Write eight more.
Is that a sentence you see?
Give the sentence a friend or two.
Don’t stop now.
You have a page.
The window has darkened. The charcoal is gray.
But you’ve done the work.
Now celebrate.
Unpeel the duct tape.
Eat some
chocolate.
See what Walter White is up to.
Sleep.
Wake up and repeat.
Paula Danziger definitely had it right. She knew how to create a truth-telling world. This is the draw-you-in-immediately-make-you-laugh-sob-and-wet-your-pants-all-at-the-same-time kind of telling the truth.
Wonderful to read, but not so easy to write.
But once you actually get down to adding that emotional layer--once you are actually laughing, sobbing, and wetting your pants while you are typing, it's going to be the most satisfying kind of work you can do.
My editor, Reka Simonsen, used to say to me, "Dig Deeper."
So that's my challenge for you this week. Think of things that make you cringe and write down exactly what you are feeling. Then give that feeling to one of your characters. Drum up that embarrassing moment--you know which one. Then pass it on to one of your characters. Go ahead. You got this.
“If you’re silent for a long time, people just arrive in your mind.” --Alice Walker
With your first few lines, you are inviting your readers into the lives of your characters. You want your readers to feel as if they’re eavesdropping and somehow getting privileged information that no one else has. You’re allowing them to sneak into the house with you --to hide in the corner or to be a fly on the wall.Now you as the writer need to be the fly on that wall. Listen to your characters. What are they saying to each other? Are they angry? Afraid? --Maybe even terrified? And, of course, ask yourself why?
What are your characters worried about? Has someone in the room caused those worries?
What does your character truly care about? It has to at some point in the story seem almost unattainable. Almost.
I leave you today with a quote from Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav: “Many people believe that stories are told to put people to sleep. I tell mine to wake them up.”
Lewis Carroll once said, “What is the use of a book without pictures or conversation?”
As middle-grade and young adult writers, we owe our readers those pictures and conversation. They are the toughest audience around. Right around third grade, they start to form very strong opinions. Each day in my third grade class, I would get a round of critiques, with their observations, all of their up-and-downs. They would watch to see what I had on my desk, what I’d put around the room, how I might be reacting to the fact that Owen is taking all the razor blades out of the pencil sharpeners, and Anna has brought her cell phone to school and is showing it off in the cubby room.
Kid readers see and hear and feel everything with the sharpness that hasn't yet had the edges buffed or smoothed. So it is our job to make them see and hear and feel every last bit of our story. We have to provide the pictures and conversation. We have to drop those kids into our book from the first page, from the first sentence, or they are going to turn around and leave. Remember, we’re not there to teach; we’re there to entertain.
They need an equal amount of action, description, and dialogue. Not one word should be there that doesn’t drive the story forward. Give them something to wonder about on the first page. Give them someone to worry about or cheer for.
Novelist Andre Gide said, “The poor novelist constructs his characters; he controls them and makes them speak. The true novelist listens to them and watches them function; he eavesdrops on them even before he knows them.”
So today, go do a little eavesdropping. Watch, listen, and wonder. Color a few pictures.
I have always been partial to anything that is broken-down and decrepit or unusual, because such things always spark a story for me. I can't help but imagine: Who lived there? What went on in that place over the years?
Some people feel that in order for a place in a story to feel authentic, it has to be a very familiar place -- a place the author has experienced in great detail. But I don't necessarily agree. We can add details in a such a way that it becomes real and familiar.
And I think that setting is very subjective. We experience setting in the same way that we experience people. We all see and notice different details around us. Think about giving someone directions, for example. Some of us will deliver what I call the MapQuest version, using strictly mileage and left and right turns, while most of my writer and illustrator friends will use color, shape, and landmarks.
The details of settings add emotion to the story, because we can actually have strong emotional reactions to places, especially when we have our own history there. Certain elements may spark vivid memories, both good and not so wonderful--your childhood home, for example.
The setting is the holder of the large details, and more importantly, the tiny, sharp details of the character's world. The writer is coloring the picture for the reader. I always hope that my reader will feel as if s/he is eavesdropping -- as if s/he is a fly on the wall of the setting. Your unique setting allows the reader to crawl into your story.
My invitation to you writers out there: Notice a detail of a place as you are out driving or walking. It stands out to you in some way, but you may have no idea how or why this is. You do know that you can completely picture your character there. Write it. Do it now. See where it takes you...
I am cross-posting over at Smack-Dab-In-the-Middle today ... and I am looking at the frozen New England tundra of my back yard, with serious doubts that anything will ever grow there again. I'd much rather think about growing characters. I can't make the dirt-streaked snow melt, but I can do whatever I want with my characters.
E.B. White said, "Don't write about man. Write about a man."
I love that quote, because it reminds me that a well-drawn character takes a story to a completely different level. If a reader does this well, she can make her reader laugh, or cry -- or both.
By creating real characters, a writer can bring out raw emotion in the reader. I'm not only talking about realistic fiction, either. I'm talking about creating a character so real, that without even noticing, the reader invites that character into his life. Well after he has put the book down, he is quoting the character, or saying things like, "That sounds like something Bilbo Baggins would do." ...or..."I'm more of a Gryffindor than a Hufflepuff."
So to create real characters, you have to go out and look at real people. Eavesdrop and study mannerisms and quirks. Don't keep to yourself. (Change out of your pajamas and get out from behind that computer screen.) You need to mingle--to be nosy. You need to talk to strangers. Strike up a conversation with the least likely person. I'm not asking you to go chat up the meth dealer on the corner, but talk to someone who you think is the least like you.
Then write down what those strangers say-- and not just what they say, but how they say it. How do they stand, sit, move? What are they doing with their hands?
Write it down. All of it. Take a piece of one person, and a phrase from another. Add. Water. Prune. Your characters are beginning to grow...I can't wait to meet them.
Beware!
Watch out!
Heed my warning!
We can always exercise a little caution in our lives. But can we be too cautious as writers?
Sometimes we need to ignore the caution flag and step out of our comfort zones.
I'd be willing to bet that you have at least one idea that's been lurking around in a back out-of-the-way mind cavern. It may have been stashed away eons ago, because it's a little out of the ordinary or too away from the mainstream. Maybe someone tried to convince you that nobody was buying/reading (blank) right now.
Ignore the soothsayer's warning and uncover that idea. Peel off the layers and let it grow into a story. It's hung around for so long for a reason, don't you think?
Amira, just twelve years old and in the midst of civil war-torn Sudan, wants nothing more than to learn to read and write and to attend school. I fell in love with little Amira from Andrea Davis Pinkney's first word in her stunning new novel, THE RED PENCIL.
I was reminded of how words and teachers have made me who I am as a person, as a third-generation teacher, and as a writer.
I most likely wouldn't be here if my grandmother hadn't been allowed to stay in school. She was born to a family of several children and would have been required to quit school early on and help on the farm and care for her younger siblings. An education wasn't considered important for a girl.
She was born without fingers on her left hand. Her father thought she would never marry. He knew she would need to be able to support herself, so she was allowed to go to school. She graduated and became a teacher. She and the man who would become my grandfather wrote long letters back and forth before they were married. He had lost one of his legs when he was run over by a cart in Ireland.
I wish I had those letters, but I was lucky enough to have my grandma in my life until I was twenty. I loved that hand of hers, especially when I was a little girl. Instead of holding my hand, I held hers. It fit perfectly in my kid-sized hand.
I remember exactly what her watch looked like on her narrow wrist. But what I remember even more clearly is her voice. She couldn't carry a tune at all, but she sang out loudly from the church pew. I can remember the rise and fall of that wonderful voice as she recited her favorite poems to me. Poems she'd learned in school.
Thank you, Grandma, for teaching me the power of letters and words. And thank you, Andrea Davis Pinkney, for the power of The Red Pencil.
"It has been like hacking away at a freezer with a screwdriver." --Amy Poehler (on writing her book, YES PLEASE)
Resolve is not only the perfect blog theme for the beginning of 2015, it is also the ideal theme for writing, especially in the verb sense of the word.
It means to sort something out, to fix it, to straighten it and find a solution. It means to decide firmly on a course of action or to figure it all out.
As writers, and as human beings in general, we are constantly trying to step over that slippery puddle that has the word, FEAR hidden beneath that thin layer of precarious winter ice.
So . . . I CHALLENGE YOU THIS MONTH. Whether it's your novel, your first marathon, that mysterious stain in the upstairs bathroom . . . maybe it's that dream job you've been dying to make your own or that intimidating volume of Proust you've been wanting to tackle . . .
Get your resolve on and make it happen.
I leave you with one more Amy Poehler quote (because I kind of want to be her when I grow up):
"So let's peek behind the curtain and hail the others like us. The open-faced sandwiches who take risks and live big and smile with all of their teeth. These are the people I want to be around. This is the honest way I want to live and love and write."
Writers can harvest ideas at the drop of a pick axe, right? As soon as we sit down and touch our fingers to the computer keys, those brilliant ideas just spill out onto the page like giant raindrops . . . right?
Yesterday, I gave a mini workshop on grabbing onto ideas and putting them into a story.
I explained that you must make the reader fall in love with your character from the very first second, so that they will cry right along with your character when bad things happen, and cheer for them until the very last page.
A woman sat in front of me, listening intently, with a pained expression on her face.
Great, I thought. My talk must completely stink, and she'll be heading for the door at any moment.
But she finally raised her hand tentatively. "I have lots of ideas," she said.
"Do you write them down?" I asked. "What's the idea that is closest to your heart?"
She hesitated for a moment, then went on to talk about her characters and her setting.
"Does your character have a problem?" I asked.
The pained expression soaked into her face again. "I don't want to give her too much of a problem. I would feel too bad for her."
"It will keep your reader turning the page," I explained.
Then, as if the Writer Fairy had cast her magic wand, in walked my friend and author-extraordinaire Eric Luper. "You have to do it," he said.
We tag-teamed the poor woman, trying to convince her that the worse things got for her character, the more her readers would want to--and have to turn the page.
I hope she is home today feeling truly bad for her character. I hope she is crying sloppy tears as she harvests her ideas and makes her character's situation almost untenable -- almost. Then I hope those tears become joyful ones as her character climbs out from under the heavy rock pile.
Now I'm going to go and try taking my own advice. The character in my WIP had better be prepared, because things are going to get ugly . . .
I have a love-hate relationship with things that are strange and creepy. I am both intrigued and terrified in a can't-quite-pry-my-eyes-from-it way.
The dark always held the top spot on my kid fear list. When I was five, my dad tried really hard to dispel it. He took me out to the front yard and pointed out all the familiar landmarks. "See." He nodded at our maple tree by the curb. "That's the same one that's there when it's light out, isn't it?"
But I wasn't going to be fooled. Those tree branches were spiky in the dark. And what was that moving in the top leaves??
I clung to him so tightly, he probably still has reduced blood flow to his arms.
Being afraid of the dark and having a longish list of ThingsIAmModeratelyTerrifiedOf is like a badge of honor for a fiction writer.
Many of us writer and artist-types, if we are willing and able to admit it, have items on that childhood list that quite smoothly carried over into adulthood. For example, how many of you still . . .
. . . (casually, of course) check behind the shower curtain before you brush your teeth at night?
. . . take more than the required leap to get into your bed?
. . . wonder if that Trick-or-Treater at your door dressed like a character from The Walking Dead might actually be a real zombie whose only day to roam the neighborhood freely is October 31st?
The fact is, we are looking for the strange and creepy. We yearn for it in a way, because we are on a quest for the hidden story behind just about everything . . . the what might be. The possibilities are endless.
So all of you scaredy pantses out there be proud. There's a novel waiting for you . You just have to venture out into the strange and creepy dark and grab it.
My cousin talked me into it on an unsuspecting Seattle summer evening a year ago.
It truly did sound like a good idea -- an adventure -- safer than bungee jumping and way more enjoyable than that thing that everybody seems to be doing; the run through the muddy jungle where you get electrocuted and chased by zombies.
My cousin took me out to her car and lifted up the back hatch to show me. It was shiny and looked like something Batman might keep in the Bat Cave.
"See my new bike?" She said it slyly as she so smoothly sunk her lawyerly hooks in. "You have one, right?"
Then she stood back and let the sparkly newness surround me, biding her time before she settled into her matter-of-fact voice. "We should sign up for the STP," she said.
Before I could fly back to the East Coast and pump up my tires, I had agreed to it. Two hundred three miles over two days from Seattle to Portland. The closer it gets, the farther that distance seems.
And then she fell. My cousin had a nasty crash on her new BatBike and she's out of the ride.
But I have a plane ticket and training under my belt and a shiny new BatBike of my own. I can't stop now. My Summer Fun will continue.
Because look at what waits for me at the finish line in Portlandia:
And the Mothership:
And they'll all be there, too:
Today is my day to post over at Smack-Dab-in-the-Middle, so to save you a click, I'll be cross-posting here:
I am a definite fan of book trailers. In our digital media-rich world, it's important to use anything we can to get kids to pick up a book.
The strangest thing happened yesterday. I was getting to work on this month's Smack Dab blog post which happened to be about book trailers (!), when I saw a tweet from library media specialist, Lori Kirtley, with a link to a book trailer that she and her fourth graders had done for my first book, ALSO KNOWN AS HARPER. It took serendipity to a whole new level. Seriously, what are the chances of that happening?
I direct messaged Lori to get permission to post it, so here it is:
Book Trailer for ALSO KNOWN AS HARPER
Thank you, Lori!
In making the video for my second book, A FINDERS-KEEPERS PLACE, I called upon cheap child labor, also known as my daughter, Holly. She has a cameo in the video, but she may not appreciate my telling everyone. Also, she may be huffy about her paycheck which is apparently still "in the mail". Please click below:
Book Trailer for A FINDERS-KEEPERS PLACE by Ann Haywood Leal
What do those words have in common? I can't say! I want to, but I am of Irish background, and something very terrible could happen if I give too much away.
 |
| Holly Schindler |
Something I can say, is that I was thrilled to be asked to blog hop with the wonderful Holly Schindler. Please check out her blog HERE.
Here are Holly's questions for me:
1. What am I working on now?
I am a little superstitious about giving too much away (must be the Irish in me!). I am actually working on two things right now. The first is a middle-grade novel with an unusual setting. It has been both the most difficult thing I've ever written and the most fun. The second is also middle-grade, and I'll only give away two words:"escape" and "lost".
2. How does my work differ from others of its genre?
Hmmm... very good question. My first two books have been realistic fiction about pretty serious subjects. Of my two current works-in-progress, the first probably pushes the realistic part of realistic fiction, and the second includes a lot more humor.
3. Why do I write what I do?
I am on a constant quest to write the book that would make my twelve-year-old self race to the shelf in the library. I would love to give my readers that same urgent "can't-wait-to-get-my-hands-on-it" urgency.
4. How does my writing process work?
I usually start with a setting ... then I wait for the characters to show up. I try to drop myself right into the setting and imagine what might have happened there. Who lived there, and what might have gone wrong?
Please don't forget to visit some of my fabulous author friends at the next stops on the tour:
Jolie Stekly: www.cuppajolie.blogspot.comJolie Stekly is a freelance writer and novelist, teacher, fitness instructor, and former SCBWI co-regional advisor of the Western Washington chapter. She now directs the fall retreats for the region. Jolie is a member of "Team Blog" for the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators and was awarded SCBWI's 2009 Member-of-the-Year.
Deborah Lytton: http://deborahlytton.blogspot.com
Debby Lytton is a writer and actress who grew up in front of the camera, beginning her career at age six when she was discovered by a Hollywood agent. Her acting credits include five years on the hit daytime soap opera Days of our Lives as “Melissa Anderson." Debby is also an attorney and most importantly, a mother of two.
Debby's debut novel JANE IN BLOOM (Dutton Children's Books) was honored by the Missouri Association of School Librarians with Third Place in the Truman Awards (2011-2012) and was chosen by Chicago Public Library as one of the Best of the Best Books of 2009. JANE IN BLOOM was also selected by the Kansas National Education Association for the 2010 Kansas State Reading Circle Catalog.
Going up the wobbly path at Smack-Dab-in-the-Middle today...
http://smack-dab-in-the-middle.blogspot.com
It will happen without warning to the true book believer.
Don't be afraid...just take a look by clicking HERE.
I am blogging over at Smack-Dab-in-the-Middle today. I'll give a word list preview:
*ambulance
*prison
*police car
...come on over and see what's going on! http://smack-dab-in-the-middle.blogspot.com
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