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So,
where do I weigh in on the value of
research when writing fiction?
Well,
for starters, I disagree with Sherman Alexie, a writer I greatly admire who so
generously offered his Top 10 Pieces of Advice for Writers in a recent
writersdigest.com blog:I don’t think
research is overrated.
In
fact, I’d say it’s under-rated.
I
know first-hand:digging up the concrete
details relevant to each of my imagined stories - for starters, the people, the times and
places, the weather and daily living of lives, allowed me to grow my characters
and puzzle out their plotlines, all while uncovering my story’s Truths.
We
all know 3 is the magic number when supporting an opinion, so I’ll gladly share
3 instances when research enhanced and enriched my stories, making the fictive
details incredibly credible.
I
could not have written my first picture book There Goes Lowell’s Party! (Holiday House) without traveling the
Ozarks courtesy of a host of books I met while reading my way through the 910 Section of the Wilmette
Public Library. (That’s right! I wrote a book set in the Ozarks in May without
ever setting foot there myself!) Shelves of books offered me maps to
read, photographs to study, land forms and water ways that could work their way
into my text. As for the rain proverbs (Section
398) that kept my plotline going – the skies growing red, the birds flying low,
the leaves tickling Lowell’s cheeks, I came to know them thanks to Ozark
folklorist Vance Randolph.My book’s
illustrator Jacqueline Rogers’ first request was for me to send on my primary and
secondary research.I also found a slew
of place and character names printed on maps of Missouri and Arkansas. By
the time Lowell’s kin made it to his party, despite rain and floods and mud
slides and twisters, my readers knew the wonder of familial love.
As for my delicious picture book CHICKEN SOUP BY HEART?
Well,
believe it or not, I read and cooked chicken soup recipes (Section 641) from
around the world.In fact, in its first
iteration, Rudie Dinkins was one of many multi-cultural characters who, so loved
by their afterschool babysitter, Mrs. Gittel, wanted to cook her chicken soup
when she came down with the flu.And to
counter my editor’s doubt that chicken soup could be sweet, as Mrs. Gittel
liked her chicken soup, I was forced to keep digging through cook books until I
came upon a Hungarian recipe.Readers
came to see the crucial ingredient – the reciprocity of love.
My
picture book FANCY THAT demanded time-travel, back to 1841and Berks County,
Pennsylvania (Section 900).Once again,
my Wilmette Public Library served as the World’s Best Travel Agent.Pippin Biddle, my story’s orphaned young
limner, who set his heart on earning his keep traveling about painting people’s
portraits, all to get his three sisters out of the Poorhouse, was a unique
combination of every single limner I read about in Jean Lipman’s comprehensive
book (Section 750).Fortunately, I was
earnest in my research; otherwise Pip would have returned at Thanksgiving, only
there wasn’t aThanksgiving yet; Pip’s dog would have been a breed (Jack Russell Terrier)
yet created.A Christmas return directed
me to Sections 248 and 249 of the Library, so I could read about the Germans who’d
brought Christmas to America in the late 1830’s, and Pip’s sisters could then save
the day with their wreath-making business!To my surprise, I’d written a book about hidden talents and how they
reside in each of us.
“Fiction
is a lie that tells the truth,” Stephen King wrote.IMHO, research helps the writer tell the best
lie possible.
Happy
Writing and Researching!
Esther
Hershenhorn P.S. Don’t
forget to celebrate NCTE’s Fourth Annual National Day on Writing Friday October
19 and Saturday, October 20. This
year’s theme is What I Write. Come
Friday and Saturday, tweet out your compositions of all sorts and post them to
Twitter using the hashtag #WhatIWrite,and
if space allows, #dayonwriting.
Since theNational Gallery of Writingopened on October 20, 2009, more than 3,300 gallerieswere created and nearly 33,000 writing contributionswere submitted. Whilethe
Gallery is now closed for submissions, it is a searchable archive and is a
great resource for you to use when involving others in writing.
P.P.S. Don’t
forget to enter our Guest TeachingAuthor Book Giveawayto win an autographed copy of Eileen Meyer’s Who’s Faster? Animals on the Move.
I finally found time to read your wonderful post, Esther. This will be great for sharing with students about the fictional 'lie' based on research, research, research! It's a challenge to be sure they understand that background bolsters the stories. Thank you very much! I loved hearing the examples.
Thanks, Linda, for sharing my post with your students. Reading maps and newspapers of a particular place, from a particular time, helps me immensely - with people and place names, but also,plot possibilities.
Fascinating how research enriched your fiction with detail and verisimilitude (such fun to be able to pop that word in). I just came across some notes I made a few months ago in the course of doing research for my WIP. Some background information I'd forgotten just triggered a great idea for a twist in the story. I can't wait to use it.
Our 4th grade team is working on a 4th grade project around Making a Difference in the World. We began this project last year and it was inspired by Amy Krouse Rosenthal. The project combines social studies (citizenship, economics, etc.). literacy and art. This year, we've changed a few things and added a few things.
Our 4th graders are busy creating products to be sold at our annual Art Show in March. Students are using art time to create their own products that will be marketable to the audience. I can't wait to shop! Last year, each child donated money earned to an individual cause--one that they cared about and had researched. We changed this a bit this year. Our entire 4th grade will be donating one cause for the money. But we wanted kids to know that money was not the only way to make a difference. We want the to understand there there are lots of ways to make a difference and raising awareness about an issue is one of them.
So, each child has been researching a cause that matters to them. These topics range from homelessness to distracted driving to foster care to pediatric cancer. Kids have spent the last several weeks learning about these issues and collecting information using diigo (more on that at another time!).
This week, kids will begin to create IGNITE-type presentations to educate others about these important issues. As a team, we decided on an IGNITE presentation for several reasons. If you aren't familiar with IGNITE presentations, they are similar to Pecha Kucha sessions but in Ignite, presenters use 15 slides and each slide is up for 15 seconds.The Ignite tagline is "Enlighten us, but make it quick." I love that and it seems that there is a lot to learn when given these parameters. This seems doable for 4th graders and it is an authentic genre. We knew that this format would support our teaching goals--research, nonfiction writing, visuals to support message, etc. We have noticed that although our students used keynote, the presentations are text, rather than visual driven. We knew that an assignment like this could really improve the way they thought about creating presentations of all kind.
One challenge was to find samples for the students. Since many of them were not familiar with Ignite presentations, we wanted them to spend time studying the craft of the format before they jumped in. Finding Ignite presentations (or PechaKucha) so students could get a feel for the type of work they would be doing was a challenge--many are geared to adults and not appropriate for children. However, we did find several that we used and the conversations around what was possible with these have been wonderful. One of my goals when it comes to digital writing is to collect great mentors for kids--pieces that writers can study as they think about their own decisions as writers. For this project, I found four very different presentations that have helped us think through decision making when creating this type of piece. Each of these four slideshows is very different and each opens up different possibilities for our stuents. The four we have focused on are:
This is a new format for me...I can see how it forces you to be concise in your thinking, and I love that you included templates for the planning process. Ihope you post samples of your students' creations as well, Franki - I look forward to seeing those!
As you said, this looks like such a good way for students to focus on the visual argument/information as well as the text. Like Tara, I'd like to see the student work. Thanks for telling us about this new way to create presentations.
The National Writing Project (NWP) celebrated why writers write for the National Day on Writing on October 20, 2011 by collecting essays from all different types of writers: fiction writers, scientists, memoirists, journalists, teachers, students, business writers, and more.
I subscribed to NWP’s RSS feed, and for several weeks new essays about writing were delivered to my Google reader. Learning about other people’s love for writing, hearing why they love it and why they continue to do it has inspired me and my own writing. Although the official National Day of Writing has passed, these essays are still available, and I hope they can inspire you and your writing, too.
In addition to submitting essays on why they write, writers participated in this event in the following ways:
• submitting and/or reading student essays on writing at figment.com
As the NWP website says, “Writing has been fundamental to human civilization since the first hieroglyphs, and it becomes more important everyday in our world that streams with emails, text messages, tweets, and blog posts. We are all writers, yet the why of writing is a topic of continual exploration.”
So let’s continue this dialogue and exploration on writing!
I write because it’s the best way to organize my thoughts and feelings. I write to explore different characters and situations. I write as a form of mediation. I write with expectations of connecting with other human beings. I write because I love writing.
WHY do you write?
8 Comments on National Day on Writing: Why Do You Write?, last added: 10/26/2011
I write because I must. I can't imagine what I would do if I COULDN'T write. And I truly cannot remember what I did with my time, BEFORE I wrote....and I only began writing about 10 years ago!
I write to build bridges and to dig ditches. To create connections and to create deeper understanding.
Roberta said, on 10/23/2011 7:16:00 PM
I write because I don't know how to do anything else. I have been writing since I was 5 years old. It defines me as a person. I am the only writer in my family. If I could not write, I would go crazy. Writing calms me.
I write because it's the best way for me to express myself. I am a shy person and most of the time I am quiet and aloof. Through writing, I can best describe my feelings and thoughts - from the most casual to the most sensitive.
Above all, I write because it is a passion I can never live without.
Today is the third annual celebration of National Day on Writing. To celebrate, the National Writing Project is hosting the “Why I Write” project.
Follow this link to learn more about all the activities. Writers and readers can participate by submitting essays on Figment.com, watching The New York Times learning center interviews, or reading blog posts at the Edutopia community.
Here’s more from the release: “The ‘Why I Write’ project aims to create a national discussion about the importance of writing by collecting essays from people, interviewing authors, collecting student essays and spreading the word throughout the country as one way to celebrate the National Day on Writing this week. On the National Day on Writing, people will tweet why they write with the hashtag #whyiwrite—with the goal of creating a trending topic on Twitter—and also post their musings about why they write on Facebook.”
Why do I write? Boy, what an easy topic. I can rip this blog off while watching Court TV and eating a tuna sandwich. Or so I thought. I had such lofty thoughts about The Muse and such. Yet, there was something vaguely familiar about them. And not familiar in a good way. Like in a plagiaristic kind of way. Then I realized who was being so philosophical in my head. Peanuts. Charles Schulz's Peanuts. Snoopy who fancies himself a writer (don't we all?). Linus, the thumb-sucking, blanket-dragging philosopher. And of course, Lucy the Critic. I have always been a huge Peanuts fan, but to admit they inspired me to write...well, then I'd also have to admit that I took my blankie with me to college. (Seriously.) Couldn't I at least claim Eudora Welty as my muse? She lived several blocks from my elementary school and I often saw her around town. I could. . .but it wouldn't be true. However, once I got over my writing pretensions, I found my artistic connection to Charlie Brown and all the rest. The daily Peanuts strips were among the first things I read as a child. I read the other comic strips too, but I never mused over them for days and weeks the way I did Peanuts. Somewhere around eighth grade (slow muser that I am) I figured out why Snoopy and Lucy and Linus seemed closer to me than most flesh-and-blood people. The Peanuts gang are small children. Schulz never says how old his characters are, but I assume they were somewhere in the K-2 range. What do kids that age do? Ask questions. Lots and lots of questions. So do the Peanuts characters. Oh sure, there is usually a punchline, but a lot of deep and even religious questions appear before the tree eats Charlie Brown's kite( again), or Snoopy steals Linus's blanket. When I re-read my third grade journal, I see that I was asking questions, and trying to find my own answers. This sort of soul searching evolved from simple question and answer format to the way I write today. I write to figure things out. (And I could have said that about 250 words ago.) Mostly, I use my stories and journals to work out the kinks in my own life. For instance, Jimmy's Star began as a journal entry in which I was trying to figure out why something that had happened to me at age eight still enraged me as an adult. Now understand that my original incident doesn't appear at all in Jimmy. But in my journal, I wrote my way through that eight-year-old's rage, and discovered the true name and nature of this emotion. Yankee Girl began as a not-very-good memoir, and ended up as a catharsis. After I finished that one, I truly felt as if I had toted bags and bags of memories and emotions and thrown them in the Dumpster. Those characters and events are based in reality, so it really was like taking out the mental trash I'd been hauling around for forty plus years. Why do I write? To figure out life (good luck with that one, MA!) To get rid of my own demons and to honor the beautiful spirits I've had in my life. In every one of my books, I am still trying to help five or seven or eleven-year-old Mary Ann understand why things are. The funny thing is that just as you know Charlie Brown will never get his kite to fly, I see the same questions asked and answered over and over in my work. Charlie and I have had a lot of kites consumed by that kite-eating tree, but we keep trying. Wondering. Hoping. Trying to figure it out. Posted by Mary Ann Rodman
3 Comments on "Oh Good Grief, Mary Ann", last added: 10/20/2010
I have been reading Peanuts and BC since the strips first appeared. When I spoke to a 5th grade class, I told them to read every day, even if it was the comics, because most are drawn in beginning, middle and end just like a story. Really, both strips, and the others I MUST read every day, make me smile, give me a lift, sometimes make me nod, "yeah, that's so true." Writing challenges me to think, go where my character wants to go...and get her back in better shape than when she started.
In honor of NCTE’s National Day on Writing, we Teaching Authors bring you a series of posts about our own reasons for writing.
Why do I write? I often say that I think better with a pen in my hand. Sometimes it acts like an extension of my arm and moves across the paper almost by itself. Thoughts pour out that I wasn't even aware of, as if I’ve turned on a tap that allows words to gush onto the page.
Sometimes my brain gets so overloaded that something has to spill somewhere somehow. Writing makes room for what I take in. My brain organizes the most urgent and/or relevant thoughts in ways I can’t always comprehend, and presto! They land on the page for me to sort through.
Sometimes I find scribbled notes in my own handwriting that I can’t remember writing.
Sometimes I write things that scare me because they are so surprising. I ask myself, Where did that come from? And sometimes what pours out is frightening because it’s so personal and so revealing. But a certain kind of strength comes from opening up and saying to the world, “This is who I am, this is what I believe, this is what I stand for.” I think my sister Peggy coined the phrase we used way back in college to describe that oxymoronic state: “invincible vulnerability.” The term has stuck with me all these years because even though it’s a difficult state to attain, I keep striving to reach it. Staying open requires honesty and attention, and the rewards justify the effort. Writing helps me not only discover what I truly believe but also express my beliefs. It helps me focus, pushes me to stretch beyond what I’ve grown accustomed to, beyond the easy route.
Why do I write? I write to remember and to uncover the truth—not only in stories but also in me. I write to learn and to share what I’ve learned, to collect information, to incorporate opposing viewpoints, to organize my thoughts. And a certain kind of joy—or at least satisfaction—comes from watching seemingly random concepts evolve and coalesce into a logical form.
I write for reasons that seem contradictory but connect in ways that make perfect sense to me. And for me, living a meaningful life means making connections: past to present, here to there, me to you.
Enter our Teaching Authors contest! Tonight (Friday, October 15) at 11 p.m. CST is the deadline to enter to win an autographed copy of Candace Ryan’s new picture book Animal House. For book giveaway details, read April Halprin Wayland’s October 8 interview. Good luck!
>>Sometimes I find scribbled notes in my own handwriting that I can’t remember writing.<< So glad to know I'm not the only one! :-) Thanks for a great post, JA. Hope your visits go well!
Ever since I was a girl, I've dreamed of living in a house with its own library. You know-- the kind of room wealthy people in movies always have, with floor-to-ceiling-built-in bookshelves and a rolling ladder to reach the top shelves.
The fantasy was inspired not only by my love of reading, but also by the fact that we had very few books in our house when I was growing up. (One of the few I can recall was a light blue softcover my father studied to prepare for his "citizenship" test.) For my working-class Italian-immigrant parents, books were a luxury we couldn't afford.
Then one day when I was around ten years old, a door-to-door encyclopedia salesman rang our front bell. You can imagine my amazement when the salesman managed to convince my father to buy a brand-new 20-volume set of the World Book Encyclopedia. I don't know how the salesman did it, but he was my new hero! And since my younger sister and brother were too young to read at the time, I considered the set mine.
As nerdy as it may sound, I loved reading those books. We didn't have the Internet back then, and a trip to the public library meant taking two buses each way. So having my own encyclopedia was indeed a luxury. I used it not only to research class assignments, but for recreational reading, too. I never read a volume from front to back as you would a novel. Instead, I flipped the pages until something struck me as interesting.
I tell students at school visits that my favorite volume was the letter "B," and it's true. As a girl, I pored over the color photographs of Birds and Butterflies from around the world. I studied the rules of Baseball and memorized the stats of many of the record-holders. (I believe Joe DiMaggio still holds the record for the longest consecutive hitting streak at 56 games.) I learned the hand signals for right and left turns on a Bicycle.
Those books held more than information for me. They took me places I could only dream of visiting. They introduced me to presidents, poets, and painters. They sparked my curiosity in mathematics and music.
As I grew older, I became more interested in reading fiction and drifted away from the encyclopedia. But every so often, I still went back to my old World Books. And every time, I inevitably learned something new and interesting from their pages.
I'm happy to say I still own that set of encyclopedia--you can see it pictured here:
Now, whenever I pull out the "B" volume, I'm reminded of how it felt to be ten years old and own not only one book, but a whole set of 20. I was the richest girl in the world!
* * * * *
This is the last in our series of posts for the National Day on Writing, sponsored by NCTE. I will be submitting this entry to the "A Lifetime of Reading" Gallery of the National Gallery of Writing. I hope you'll use the following Writing Workout to inspire your own contribution to the gallery.
Writing Workout
The first book I ever owned . . .
What's the first book you recall as your very own? Was it a picture book, a reader, a novel? Was it brand new, or a hand-me-down? Who gave it to you? What memories are evoked when you think about that book?
Post the title of the book as a comment here on our TeachingAuthors blog, then write a 250-500 word description, essay, or anecdote about the book. When you're done, I encourage you to submit your piece to the gallery called "A Lifetime of Reading," curated by Franki Sibberson and Mary Lee Hahn, who blog at A Year of Reading. You can read more about the galleryat their blog.
Happy writing! Carmela
5 Comments on The First Book I Ever "Owned", last added: 10/30/2009
I too loved our set of enclyclopedia. It was American People Encyclopedia and was a warm rich brown color.
I also loved these little magazine type books that one glued pictures into. I don't remember the name but I do remember the picture of a caterpillar very well.
And how many of us remember the dictionaries that we bought piece by piece from the grocery store. The book ended up almost a foot thick when it was done.
A hand-me-down, but I learned to read using this book when I was 4 (my 12-year-old sister was an awesome teacher). Because this book taught me the joy of reading, I felt it was MINE.
I now lead a tortured life of wanting to make all books MINE - but sadly I do not have the room or money. I am a frequent guest at our local library.
Charlotte's Web was my first book. I remember my 5th grade teacher, Mrs. Gross (who I thought was the most beautiful woman in the world) read it aloud to us everyday before school ended. I will never forget how she cried at the end - the first time I saw an adult shed tears in the presence of children. I bought Charlotte's Web at the Scholastic Book Fair that year and read it over and over. I still cry at the end...
Jeanne Marie Ford said, on 10/30/2009 6:17:00 AM
My first book was one of The Bobbsey Twins series. It was a Christmas gift from my grandmother. The grandmom who lived with us was functionally illiterate, but my the book-gifting grandmom was a Reader. (Yes, her tastes tended toward Danielle Steele, but she always had a book in hand.) My mother, who was emphatically not a reader, read me the whole Bobbsey Twins series. And for some weird, magical moment in my childhood, wherever we moved, every other girl my age was also reading them. (I think the series had been reissued around this time, and the books were also being sold in military PXs. Perhaps only fellow military brats read them, but I digress.)
I still own the whole series, and I can't wait to share them with my daughter! The original books in this series were, of course, published before my grandmother was born -- talk about speaking across the generations.
And Carmela, we had a 1967 Encyclopedia Brittanica set. (I was born in 1971.) I longed for the World Book! My mom (child of Italian immigrants) grew up with only a Dick and Jane book in the house. She is going to love your family story!
Thanks, everyone, for sharing your "first book" stories. Nina, I'm so glad to know I'm not the only encyclopedia-loving writer! Michelle, I think it's great that you wrote a blog post in response to my question. If others would like to read it, see http://michellesussman.blogspot.com/2009/10/eating-my-words.html#comment-form
JoAnn is unable to post today as planned, so we will continue our series in celebration of the National Day on Writing next week. Meanwhile, I want to remind everyone that the National Gallery of Writing is now open for viewing. I invite you to visit the Gallery called "A Lifetime of Reading," which features entries by members of the Kidlitosphere. And don't forget to contribute your own work, be it a story, poem, recipe, email, blog post, or even audio, video, or artwork, to the Gallery--NCTE's goal is to collect 100,000 pieces of "writing" by next June!
So get writing!
Carmela
0 Comments on National Gallery of Writing Now Open for Your Viewing! as of 10/23/2009 7:56:00 AM
A day in the life of a substitute school librarian:
Thank goodness all school libraries have a box (or in this case a shelf) where they keep all the random, lost, mislaid, unattached, displaced and abandoned mystery cords and connectors "just in case."
TWO minutes before my first class poured into the library where I was subbing today I found an acceptable power cord for the projector in that clutter. Hard to project your highly entertaining writing lesson without power!!! (Why the projector was missing the power cord to begin with is another mystery.)
Good thing that I am a bona fide, certified, sanctified, dignified, sanitized, applied and surprised if not somewhat fried, true-blue librarian -- able and ready to deal with any reading or library media emergency.
Splendid day.
Another benefit of the short story book, Noisy Outlaws, Unfriendly Blobs, and Some Other Things That Aren't As Scary, Maybe, Depending on How You Feel About Lost Lands, Stray Cellphones, Creatures from the Sky, Parents who disappear in Peru, a Man Named Lars Farf, and One Other Story We Could Not Finish So Maybe You Can Help Us Out, Stories by Nick Hornby, Neil Gaiman, Jon Scieszka, Jonathan Safran Foer and more. (Delacourt, 2005) is ... the "Other Story We Could Not Finish So Maybe You can Help Us Out" entry at the back of the book. Perfect for National Day on Writing.
Each period, a class of seventh graders set to work finishing Mr. Snicket's story with, mostly, quiet engrossment.
Best question of the day from a young gentleman who inquired, "Can I add zombies?" Answer: It is YOUR story.
Fibs "Have you tried Fibbing?" I asked when the the head of the English department at that campus lamented the lack of fun, inspiring, writing projects for the math and science teachers who were participating in the day of writing. She had not heard of Fibs so I was able to spread the word and send her towards GottaBook's Greg Pincus.
Puppets and other fantastical creatures The thing that continues to dazzle me about junior high kids is how they can be cool, aloof teens one moment and in the next are asking about and then talking to a 'dragon' with an utterly goofy smile on their faces. Honestly, the annoying creature (Dragon, not the student) is going to need his own Facebook Fan page if this keeps up. His ego knows no bounds at this point.
If I could I would leave him at home when I have a job, but you can't argue with a dragon at 6:30 in the morning so I just let him come along. I don't like it. His behavior is not reliable. Still, I am amazed that so many kids remember him though. I mean he doesn't even talk. He just smirks and muggs and--
I swear, they screamed and cheered when he came out today. It took us both quite aback. It was ridiculous. I 'heart' seventh graders.
4 Comments on Boots on the Ground, last added: 10/22/2009
What an awesome National Day of Writing project!!! And I am equally excited for the teacher who will now be teaching Fibs. She and her kids are going to have a blast together.
Happy National Day on Writing! Everyone should be . . .uh....writing. That's what I'm going to do after I post this. First, some links to celebrations of writing across the 'net.
At Kate Messner's LiveJournal, a gallery illuminating the revision process, featuring the marked-up, tagged, scribbled-on, and tear-splotched pages of several children's writers (including me.) I admire Kate's blog, because she always has such practical ideas to share with other teachers, students and writers, and this revision showcase is definitely one of them. (By the way, the teeny omission of the word "to" in the note accompanying my pages is all my doing, not Kate's. We're working on getting that . . . wait for it. . . . revised.)
Alas, only three can win, although all were awesome. In the end, the military judge ruled in favor of these three: Amber Lough, Marjorie Light, and Maribeth. Congratulations and please email me your address so I can get your signed copies to you. (Unless you'd like several weeks of boot camp and chow hall food instead.) Email to: [email protected] and please specify if you'd like the book inscribed to a particular person.
"I hear it's National Day on Writing.
Think someone will write about us?"
6 Comments on National Day on Writing Galleries and Jody Call Winners, last added: 10/23/2009
Yippee! I was so excited I emailed Sara to thank her, tell her how much I loved the book, etc...I hit send...and then realized I forgot to give her my address! My students (who are loving this book too) will be so excited to hear I won...perhaps we'll annoy the teachers nearby by singing out the jody call LOUDLY tomorrow in class! : ) Thanks again-Marjorie Light
Today is the first National Day on Writing! Not only is this day dedicated to encouraging writing, but also to recognize the varieties and abundance of writing that American Artists have produced. To get involved with this exciting event, check out the National Gallery of Writing, a digital archive of compositions that was just unveiled today.
Not only can you browse through pieces submitted by writers of all ages, backgrounds, and genres, you can submit your own writing on this site. Technology has allowed more and more people to communicate their ideas and creations with more speed and ease. As a result more people are expressing themselves creatively through the literary arts.
The National Gallery is an organized archiving system for people to share their works. In addition, be sure to tune into webcasts from 9 am to 8pm, which will share works and give tips and guides on writing.
Writing is a creative outlet though which the imagination is used as a tool to discover meaning. Internet technologies are drawing more and more people to express themselves in the literary arts. The National Day on Writing is a way to celebrate and promote this freedom of expression, while providing a means to share and experience the written arts.
A couple weeks ago, a school principal & teacher in California asked me where she could find pictures of real manuscripts from real authors going through the revision process to share with her students so they'd be more excited about revising. I didn't know of such a resource, but as a teacher, I absolutely loved the idea. As an author, I knew I probably had some writer friends who would be more than willing to help teachers by sharing a photo or two.
The result is here... a Revision Gallery with a collection of authors' notes and photos of their marked-up manuscripts. I thought today, NCTE's National Day on Writing would be the perfect day to share our stories.
The PowerPoint slides are below (as jpegs) for teachers who would like to save them & use them in the classroom, and the full presentation is also on SlideShare (though the conversion process distorted a couple of the images).
.
Thanks so very much to all of the authors who sent me photos of their marked up pages and words of revision wisdom for young writers. Your notes and pages were an inspiration to me, too. It really is quite a process, isn't it?
And teachers...feel free to save, share, post, download, link to, and use these images however you can to help your kids with writing and revision.
Happy National Day on Writing!
AUTHORS: If you'd like to add to this collection, feel free to post a revision note on your own blog or website with a photo or two of your marked-up manuscript. (If you write YA, please be sure to choose a page that's appropriate for younger readers, too!) Then leave a comment here with a link to your revision post, and our Revision Gallery can continue to grow!
And, especially today, October 20, our National Day on Writing as declared by the National Conference of Teachers of English.
TeachingAuthors joins other Kidlitosphere bloggers in submitting this, our third post, to The Gallery A Lifetime of Reading, curated by Franki Sibberson and Mary Lee Hahn, two teachers who blog at A Year of Reading.
Let’s hear it for Story, both written and read. It’s a technical wonder very bit as marvelous as any GPS; in fact, maybe even more so, to my way of thinking. Not only can story help pinpoint the reader’s and/or writer’s location in Life, determining where he is at any given moment; it can help illuminate where he’s been and might be going. Printed and bound, story is there for everyone to use, hand-held, heart-held, impervious to storms. Signal-sending story characters from time in memorial compute important date, cover to cover. No, not for me, the alluring, beckoning Gypsy-like voice of today’s GPS. No siree. I prefer the voices of my tried-and-true story favorites. For instance, the poignant heart-ful tones of Brave Irene, William Steig’s Heroine who braves wind, snow and cold, not to mention steep terrain, to deliver to the Duchess, (in the nick of time, of course!), the dress Irene’s mother had sewn for the ball. I re-read this classic picture book whenever I’m lost, accompanying Irene on her obstacle-strewn plotline. The burdensome box she totes provides her ticket out. Her foe, the wind, becomes her friend. Once again I pinpoint where I am on my journey. Once again I see where I’ve been and might be going. In honor of our National Day on Writing, let’s hear it for Story, the ultimate Global Positioning System!
Today was the third day of our cold, rainy long weekend here in Maryland. Desperate to entertain our restless preschoolers, my husband and I took them to the mall. Wonder of wonders, we discovered that our high-maintenance children are finally old enough to play quietly at the train table long enough for me to browse in the children's section! Before my blissful browsing time was finally cut short by my son's proclamation of "Ew, stinky diaper," I had amassed a big armful of books to buy with a big, fat gift certificate from my boss, and I am still on a big high. (Writer in bookstore, kid in candy store -- I am equally dangerous in both situations.)
This week we honor the National Day on Writing. Tomorrow is the official day of observation per resolution of the U.S. Senate (!), and I'm sure my English 101 students will be observably more thrilled about their classification essay assignment when I tell them of this momentous occasion. When (if) someone asks about the preposition (why 'on' and not 'of'?), I will have to admit that I am mystified. Anyone?
Like the fervent exercisers among us, there are those who can't start the day without committing their daily 500 words to paper. Then there are the rest of us (professionals and students alike), who have lots to say but might need some measure of encouragement/prodding to get through the whole sweaty ordeal to the Finished Product.
This day is for you (and me). As in a 5-mile run, endorphins and that elusive high may or may not materialize, but at the very least, completion of a writing exercise will provide immediate beneficial results.
Last night I was ellipticizing to The New Yorker (blissful apart from the elliptical part) and found not one but two articles about children's books. The first, nominally about Alloy Entertainment, essentially addresses the question of why kids read and why we write for them. The second article, possibly even more interesting to me as the parent of a "willful" child (and on some days, two), discussed picture books as mirrors on the parenting trends of our times and the messages they send to our kids (and to us).
My children's preschool held its weeklong book fair recently, and my daughter begged daily that we buy her a copy of A Bad Case of Stripes. She is a huge fan of the No, David series (natch), and at the end of the week, she was finally rewarded for her patience. I read her the book that night, and she was mesmerized until halfway through, when she became freaked out. "I don't ever want to read that book again," she declared. I put it away until she's a bit older and didn't think of it again for several weeks.
Meanwhile, I was browsing at the book fair in question when I got a call that there had been a staffing emergency at the community college where I'd previously taught. I happily agreed to cover a class already in progress, though the ensuing childcare juggling meant that Kate had to go to beforecare at her preschool on two days. These made for long days for a little girl and, while she ADORES her school and her teachers and was soon begging to go... at night, she started sleeping in our room. We were tired, we were cranky, and my back really hurt by the time 5 a.m. rolled around and we had 4 people and 1 cat in our (not king-sized) bed.
Kate now suddenly insisted that her room was scary and she "hated" it. I did the math and figured that she must have developed a bad case of clinginess due to the extra hours at school. Finally, on questioning about what was so scary about her room, one day she burst into tears and said, "We should have bought the The Star Wars book!" My exasperated husband explained that he had joked that he would buy her this instead of the book she'd been begging for for days. And suddenly it all made sense. She was petrified. It had all started at the book fair -- because, as she had already told me clearly, that book had scared her!
As I tell my students, words are powerful things (words like "liberal," "socialist," "fascist," "racist" -- how many of us reflexively cringe without really considering what they mean?). Stories and books, a compilation of carefully chosen words, are exponentially more so -- especially if we are four years old and already spend half the day in the world of pretend.
And so, bearing the sacredness of your mission in mind at all times -- write on!
Writing Workout
In an effort to help my students avoid cliches, I asked them to write about fall and avoid the following words: crisp, clear, clean, cool, colorful
I am teaching a class on writing college essays and scholarly papers, and one of my students wrote a lovely poem. I love fall! And I love teaching!
But first, as the West Coast representative of TeachingAuthors, I have an announcement to make. Something miraculous happened yesterday: it rained! Real “I’d better hide my book under my sweatshirt as I sprint to the car” rain! Usually when rain is predicted in Southern California, we roll our eyes and put on sandals, because by the time the storm comes panting down the coast to LA, it’s spent. All it has left is one pathetic cough of drizzle.
The last time I actually remember it raining substantially was February.
I just had to share that because the rain is gone now and though the sky is sparkling blue and the streets are scrubbed clean, I wonder if it really rained here or if I imagined it. I have it nail it down in words to know it happened.
Okay, back to our topic. I’ve written a poem to post on the National Gallery of Writing. You can, too. In fact, there’s another one of TeachingAuthors’ famous Writing Workouts below to get your juices going.
As Carmela wrote in the last post, the National Day on Writing, sponsored by the National Council of Teachers of English, is meant to celebrate all forms of writing. In conjunction with the event, NCTE has created a National Gallery of Writing, a digital archive of writing samples showing how and why Americans are writing every day. The Gallery will be unveiled on Tuesday, October 20th.
Teaching Authors will join other Kidlitosphere bloggers by submitting our posts to the Gallery called A Lifetime of Reading, curated by Franki Sibberson and Mary Lee Hahn, two teachers who blog at A Year of Reading. The details about their gallery and the process for submitting a piece of writing can be found in this post on their blog: http://tinyurl.com/nc4zga
TeachingAuthors offer no prizes if you post a comment on our blog this week, but we really, really want to hear that you’ve gone to the links above and hung up your own work of art—your own writing—in a gallery. Report in!
* * * * *
Years ago, when my golden boy was young, I went to pick him up from kindergarten and found the teacher and a few children reading a book under a tree. That’s when I took a lovely deep breath and s-l-o-w-e-d down.
Then I took out my notebook.
I found the rough draft of the poem I wrote and today I reworked it. Here it is. For you. For the National Day of Writing. For being outside. For yesterday’s blessed rain. For the holy goddesses of reading. For all of it.
1) Look at the ideas that Mary Lee and Franki of A Year of Readinglisted to get our juices flowing:
~ an anecdote from childhood,
~ a recent experience around books or reading,
~ a memory from school (good or bad),
~ a vignette about learning to read,
~ the impact of a particular book,
~ your life as a reader.
If the list doesn’t bring up anything, observe children reading or someone reading to them. Take notes.
2) Now—circle the topic that opens you up, that pulls you in.
3) Go outside or find a cozy spot and write as many ideas as you can about that topic. Cover the page. Write for ten minutes. Or more. Free associate. Keep your pen moving. Include vivid images, smells, textures—all five senses.
4) This is your compost, as Mary Ann calls it. Your rich soil.
5) Go now—work in your garden. See what grows.
April
drawings by April Halprin Wayland
2 Comments on Joy, joy, joy! Writing about reading ~, last added: 10/18/2009
What a lovely, evocative poem. I submitted to the Gallery, too---a blog post about reading books as a way to watch other writers at work---but I never thought to submit a poem. I hope you inspire many more poetic uploads to the Gallery!
U.S. Senate Declares October 20, 2009, as the National Day on Writing
On October 8, the U.S. Senate unanimously agreed to S.RES.310, declaring the importance of writing to the nation and declaring October 20 the National Day on Writing.
On this day, the National Gallery of Writing will go live, unveiling over 5,000 compositions in nearly 1,500 local and partner galleries. And this is just the beginning!
It's not too late for a last-minute submission before "go live!" And, of course, you'll be able to submit after October 20 all the way up until June 30, 2010.
We received many original and fun submissions for our latest giveaway contest in celebration of TeachingAuthor Esther Hershenhorn's S is for Story: A Writer's Alphabet. I have drawn a winner, but have yet to hear back from her. If she doesn't reply soon, I'll choose a new winner. Meanwhile, I'd like to share some other news.
First off, congratulations to our own TeachingAuthor Mary Ann Rodman. Her middle-grade novelJimmy's Stars was named a 2009 Children's Choice for grades 5-6 by the International Reading Association and the Children's Book Council. See the complete list of winners here.
And if you're thinking of using Jimmy's Starsin conjunction with a study of World War II, be sure to check out the wonderful online resourcesset up byUsborne Publishing, the book's UK publisher.
Speaking of wonderful online resources for teachers, our friends April Pulley Sayre and Gretchen Woelfle of the group blog INK: Interesting Nonfiction for Kids have announced the launch of a free online database of nonfiction books called the InkThinkTank. The database is designed to help teachers, librarians, and homeschoolers find the books they need to meet curriculum requirements in grades K-12. We've included a link to the database in our sidebar.
Our loyal readers may have noticed some other new features in our sidebar, including:
more links to reading lists, websites, graduate writing programs, and author/illustrator blogs
a new "search" function that allows readers to search for posts containing a word or phrase not listed in our subject index
a "Bookmark and Share" link that lets you quickly add our blog to social bookmarking sites like Delicious and Digg, and/or share our blog with your friends and colleagues
and, in addition to receiving our blog posts by email, as a Google follower, or via an RSS feed, you can now include it in your JacketFlap blog reader.
As always, if you know of other resources that would be helpful for aspiring writers or writing teachers, please let us know.
And now, for our "Sneak Preview:" In case you haven't heard, next Tuesday, October 20, is the National Day on Writing, sponsored by the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE).
Today people write as never before—texting, on blogs, with video cameras and cell phones, and, yes, even with traditional pen and paper. People write at home, at work, inside and out of school.
The National Day on Writing is meant to celebrate all forms of writing. In conjunction with the event, NCTE has created a National Gallery of Writing, a digital archive of writing samples showing how and why Americans are writing every day. The Gallery will be unveiled on Tuesday.
This Friday, October 16, we will begin a series of posts to commemorate the National Day on Writing. We will also join other Kidlitosphere bloggers by submitting our posts to the local Gallery called A Lifetime of Reading, curated by Franki Sibberson and Mary Lee Hahn, two teachers who blog at A Year of Reading. We hope you'll make plans to take part in the National Day on Writing, and post those plans here on our TeachingAuthors blog!
Carmela
2 Comments on Announcements and Sneak Preview, last added: 10/16/2009
"Yay!" for Mary Ann and Jimmy's Stars. Thanks for the heads-up on National Day of Writing. I will be writing. For sure. Probably about the man who yelled at me this morning after I said I wished he'd keep his dogs on a leash. What makes him so angry? Questions lead to stories.
Franki and I have started a Gallery for NCTE's National Day on Writing. Here is a description of our gallery:
A LIFETIME OF READING
Members of the Kidlitosphere are invited to submit stories from their reading lives. Your submission can be an anecdote from childhood, a recent experience around books or reading, a memory from school (good or bad), a vignette about learning to read, the impact of a particular book--anything about your life as a reader.
We are looking for a variety of short pieces (think blog post length) from anyone in the Kidlitosphere, including bloggers, authors, illustrators, readers of blogs, etc.
Our gallery is open to everyone who is a blogger, blog reader, author, illustrator, blog reader, blog commenter, etc.
We are excited to be hosting a Local Gallery as part of NCTE's NATIONAL DAY ON WRITING CELEBRATION! On October 20, the National Galleries will be open to the public. There are lots of great galleries that highlight the writing that we all do in our daily lives. Mary Lee and I will be curating a local gallery as part of the submission and we are inviting you to join us by writing a piece for the gallery.
Here is the description of our Gallery:
A LIFETIME OF READING
Members of the Kidlitosphere are invited to submit stories from their reading lives. Your submission can be an anecdote from childhood, a recent experience around books or reading, a memory from school (good or bad), a vignette about learning to read, the impact of a particular book--anything about your life as a reader.
We are looking for a variety of short pieces (think blog post length) from anyone in the Kidlitosphere, including bloggers, authors, illustrators, readers of blogs, etc.
We wanted the Kidlitosphere to be part of the National Day on Writing so we started a gallery that went along with the thing we do best--write about our reading lives. Everyone who is a blogger, blog reader, author, illustrator, blog reader, blog commenter, etc. is invited to submit a piece of writing. We hope you'll join us! You can visit our local gallery, "A Lifetime of Reading" to submit a piece and read about guidelines for submission.
Right now, it is empty, but we are excited about the possibilities--a place to share stories of our reading lives! We think the Kidlitosphere can pull together to create a pretty amazing gallery that celebrates the lives of readers!
4 Comments on Submit a Piece about Your Reading Life to our Local Gallery, last added: 8/23/2009
My
picture book FANCY THAT demanded time-travel, back to 1841and Berks County,
Pennsylvania (Section 900). Once again,
my Wilmette Public Library served as the World’s Best Travel Agent. Pippin Biddle, my story’s orphaned young
limner, who set his heart on earning his keep traveling about painting people’s
portraits, all to get his three sisters out of the Poorhouse, was a unique
combination of every single limner I read about in Jean Lipman’s comprehensive
book (Section 750). Fortunately, I was
earnest in my research; otherwise Pip would have returned at Thanksgiving, only
there wasn’t a Thanksgiving yet; Pip’s dog would have been a breed (Jack Russell Terrier)
yet created. A Christmas return directed
me to Sections 248 and 249 of the Library, so I could read about the Germans who’d
brought Christmas to America in the late 1830’s, and Pip’s sisters could then save
the day with their wreath-making business!
To my surprise, I’d written a book about hidden talents and how they
reside in each of us.
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Today is the third annual celebration of 
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Let’s hear it for Story, both written and read.
I finally found time to read your wonderful post, Esther. This will be great for sharing with students about the fictional 'lie' based on research, research, research! It's a challenge to be sure they understand that background bolsters the stories. Thank you very much! I loved hearing the examples.
Thanks, Linda, for sharing my post with your students.
Reading maps and newspapers of a particular place, from a particular time, helps me immensely - with people and place names, but also,plot possibilities.
Fascinating how research enriched your fiction with detail and verisimilitude (such fun to be able to pop that word in).
I just came across some notes I made a few months ago in the course of doing research for my WIP. Some background information I'd forgotten just triggered a great idea for a twist in the story. I can't wait to use it.