new posts in all blogs
Viewing: Blog Posts Tagged with: art prints, Most Recent at Top [Help]
Results 1 - 25 of 67
How to use this Page
You are viewing the most recent posts tagged with the words: art prints in the JacketFlap blog reader. What is a tag? Think of a tag as a keyword or category label. Tags can both help you find posts on JacketFlap.com as well as provide an easy way for you to "remember" and classify posts for later recall. Try adding a tag yourself by clicking "Add a tag" below a post's header. Scroll down through the list of Recent Posts in the left column and click on a post title that sounds interesting. You can view all posts from a specific blog by clicking the Blog name in the right column, or you can click a 'More Posts from this Blog' link in any individual post.
Writing is all about choices - a story is made or broken by what the author chooses, how they choose to convey it, and even the ways holes they leave behind. Whether conscious or not, the very act of writing involves making millions of tiny choices, and they all matter.
Which is why it's often super interesting to step back and pin down some of those choices, and take a minute to understand why we made them, and what other options might be. So read through the articles below (indeed, any of those in our archives), and take a moment to think about those choices, and how they might be questioned to make something bigger.
Read more »
I love using mentor texts in the classroom, and students find them incredibly useful as exemplars for their own writing. But how many times have I asked, "Do you remember when we saw examples of this technique in one of our mentor texts?" only to be met with blank stares. Or worse, a student will say, "I remember in one of our picture books the author did this thing where she said something in a way that was cool and can you help me find that book?"
So this year, in an effort to maximize our investment in mentor texts, I began to create
Mentor Text Display Cards. For each exemplar text we study, whether it be a picture book, poem, article, or excerpt from a novel, I've posted a simple letter-size display card listing the book title, author, illustrator, genre, theme, notable text features, and a text excerpt (see example below). On a bookshelf adjacent to this display, I've shelved all of the mentor texts we've already read, as well as those I intend to use.
With just seven cards posted, already I've seen several benefits:
- During free reading time, students will return to these texts since they're familiar and meaningful.
- Students struggling to recall text features or literary devices will look to these cards for help.
- Students now make discoveries of their own in their independent texts, and some have even suggested picture books and excerpts for future sharing. This, in itself, is remarkably revealing, because some students are pointing out features and literary devices that haven't been formally introduced through our other texts.
- The collection of cards serves as clear evidence of our classroom goal to create a common culture of literacy.
While I created
the first few cards, I see no reason why future cards can't be made by students themselves. The blank prototype card I've provided is easy to duplicate and edit. After reviewing
the cards I've shared, you may also decide that what I've chosen to illustrate on my cards doesn't quite serve your purposes, so I welcome you to customize them as you see fit.
Looking to the future, I see some other uses for these cards:
- Printed out, these cards can be inserted in the books they reference. That way, even if you choose not to use a book in a given year, a student can still benefit from the information the card provides.
- Individual cards can be saved as pdf files, and these can be digitally stored for student access. My own teacher website has an index that would work well with this concept.
- I chose to post my cards chronologically, since students will remember a book that was read "a long time ago" (two weeks ago!) and find it easier to reference in the cards are posted by occurrence. But I can also see posting cards closer to those shelves that they might reference. So my New York's Bravest card might be posted adjacent to the Tall Tale section of my class library, and my George Bellows: Painter with a Punch card might be located near the biography section.
- As students read their own picture books (see the biography book reports here, for example), they can create their own display cards to illustrate the "take-aways" of their individual texts.
Via Google slides
I've provided you several cards to get started (all the books on these cards have been featured on this blog), including a blank prototype for editing online, as well as a blank that can be printed out if you prefer students to create a card using paper and pencil. I'd love to hear your ideas for these cards, as well as ways you plan to customize them for your own classroom.
.jpeg?picon=2691)
By: LAURIE WALLMARK,
on 8/12/2015
Blog:
Just the Facts, Ma'am
(
Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags:
theme,
Add a tag
Hi folks, I am writing a summer long series. It's called Publish and is in conjunction with my TEENSPublish workshop at the Ringer Library in College Station, Texas. The tribe is working hard. We had a committee meeting this week about the title of our book and here it is: A New Generation: TEENSPublish 2015 Anthology. We also picked a trim size for our book. Now on to the topic.
This week we dove into theme. I think some of this will relate to any creative life. We created word clouds through Wordle.net. First we wrote a list of topics. These topics were used to create our cloud. The word cloud image has to be posted somewhere and stared at on a regular basis as you create your work. In other words, don't mess with theme while you are writing. Be aware of it but don't touch it. You will end up on the road of didactic and moralistic. Avoid at all cost.
We talked about how theme works. You take a topic and then you say what the author is trying to say about that topic. Here are two examples. In Star Wars, a topic is destiny. The road to destiny will show up when your pining for it, it won't be what you expected, it will rip you away from everything you have ever known, it will be harder than you ever dreamed, and it will be better than you ever expected. In Finding Nemo, a topic is fatherhood. A father will go to the ends of the earth to save a beloved son; nothing will stand in his way.
Finally I mentioned some of my theme tricks. I drop quotes around to inspire me as I work on a book. I put them in junk drawers, tape them to the bottom of lamps, and tuck them between the pages of my favorite books, and when I stumble on them, I think about them. I also pick out a list of inspirational songs and play them before or while I am working. I also chose inspirational images and then stare at them when I get stuck. These activities feed my theme. I don't know how and I don't want to know. The journey of writing a book is saying what you want to say and it something of a mystery, just like you.
I hope you enjoyed this little trip into theme. I hope you never think about and create it anyway. Dig into your soul and you will share what your theme. I will be back next week with revision.
Here is doodle for you:
\
A quote for your pocket. This is some inspiration for one of my books.
“The past is never dead. It's not even past.” William Faulkner.
I love theme. For me, it is the hub of the wheel around which the story turns...after you write a compelling story and discover what that theme is, that is. That's why I'm so happy to welcome author Claire Caterer to the blog today with her excellent insight on why theme matters and how to judicially weave it into our stories.
As another Harry Potter fan, I've known Claire on Twitter for a while and am so glad she gave me an excuse in this post to include some Potter gifs! Her new book, The Wand and the Sea, releases in just a few days. Be sure to check out her giveaway for it at the end of the post!
Thoughts on Theme, a Craft of Writing Post by Claire M. Caterer
Hands down, this is the best question I’ve ever gotten from a student during a school visit:
How do you decide what your theme is going to be?Bless those students! They learn all the right terms—character, setting, plot, denouement, and yes, theme. So they want to plug all those things into their stories. Just tell me where to put the theme, they say, and I’ll install it.
I’d like to say I had a crackerjack answer ready for this kid, but I stammered out some lame version of what I later thought hard about and decided to write down here. I have the feeling that kid will never read this, but at least he got me thinking.
How do you decide what your theme is going to be? Short answer: You don’t.
What the Heck Is a Theme?Theme is the Big Idea of your story. It begins with a broad idea like
unrequited love,
corporate corruption, or
good vs. evil. From there, the theme boils down into a statement or idea that the author is trying to make about that broad idea: Better to Have Loved and Lost Than Never to Have Loved at All. One Person Can Bring Down a Bad Company. Standing Together Against Evil Is Worth the Sacrifice. You get the idea. You might want to check out this handy list of
100 Common Themes here.
Why All Themes Sound Like ClichésThemes are universal truths that everyone can relate to. Take
Coming of Age, for instance. Everyone reading a COA book has either come of age, is going to come of age, or is in the throes of it as we speak. That doesn’t make it a bad theme; on the contrary, that makes it something your reader is sure to understand. The trick is to put your own twist to it. Have you ever thought about
Gone with the Wind as a coming-of-age story? Scarlet grows up from a bratty, spoiled teenager to a grown woman who figures out some serious stuff. She may not ever face the popular clique in her twenty-first-century high school, but a lot of the lessons are the same.
Can You Have More Than One Theme?Absolutely. Complex stories come at you with lots of different issues. In the
Harry Potter series, a weak, good person takes on a supremely powerful evil force. (Same theme as the David and Goliath story, by the way, and
Star Wars, and about a thousand others.) There’s some coming-of-age-ing going on too. There’s Professor Snape’s character arc, which is a Sacrificing All for Love theme. And several others as well.
The Trouble with ThemesAll writers want their work to mean something, but if you’re looking for the theme while you’re writing, you’re doing something wrong. And if you decide what the theme is going to be
before you start writing, you’re really doing something wrong.
Example: I’m going to write the story of Racism in the Deep South. Really? I’m already bored. It’s not that stories of racism can’t be interesting (
The Help,
To Kill a Mockingbird), but if you begin with that broad paintbrush, you’re likely to write something clichéd. Racism in the Deep South will have you trotting out all the well-worn tropes: the belittlement of some good-hearted but proud black woman; a girl getting pelted with tomatoes as she walks into an integrated school; a young man is threatened by a gang of whites. These things did happen and continue to happen, but with that giant billboard of THEME blinking in big neon lights over your computer, you’ll have a hard time making them unique.
Plot vs. ThemePlot is closely related to theme, because once you summarize the plot, you often see the theme emerge. Corporate Corruption Nearly Proves the Downfall of a Young Idealistic Attorney (
The Firm). Theme? It’s Okay to Break a Few Rules to Bring Down the Bad Guys. (Also known as The End Justifies the Means.) But again, if you come up with that tagline or summary
first, you have to force characters and situations and settings into that mold. And in thinking up your characters, you’ll have to find the Evil Corporate Hotshot, the Idealistic Young Attorney, the Spunky Girlfriend Who Plays the Role of Conscience—ugh. I’m bored again. These are archetypes, not people.
So, What Do You Do?Instead of searching out a tagline, plot summary, or theme, try writing a story about people first. Everyone’s different, and I know some people start with plot or setting, and I can’t argue with that. But character had better be close behind, because the best plot in the world can’t save a story peopled by cardboard cutouts. If readers can’t identify and engage with the characters, your big, deep theme won’t mean a thing to them. In fact, they probably won’t get far enough in the book to figure out what the theme is.
Find something compelling about
your character in
your story. Are you writing about someone who doesn’t fit in? That could be boring and faceless unless your character is Katniss Everdeen (
The Hunger Games) or Harry Potter or Charlie from
Perks of Being a Wallflower. Come up with that person, and even if the theme is common—the Lone Hero Makes a Stand or Good Conquers Evil—the story will be powerful.
So … How Do Decide What Your Theme Is Going to Be?You don’t. Your theme picks you. You write the most honest, real, go-to-the-gut story you’ve got in you. You people it with complex characters. You put them in impossible situations. Then, when you’re all done, look around. The theme will emerge out of the story like one of those
Magic Eye 3D pictures.
And Then What?You can just leave it alone, but you can also play up your theme once you see it coming out in bits and pieces. You might play with symbolism, or plant foreshadowing that echoes the theme. Is that wand symbolic of Harry’s power? What happens when it breaks and he doesn’t have it anymore? Does it further his Coming of Age, or does it impede it? Spin out those threads to see where they lead. Don’t dress up your theme billboard in neon lights—no reader wants to be blinded by the Big Theme—but you might put a small spotlight on it here and there. Bring it into high relief in places, and then back off.
Let the theme arise naturally out of the people and their situation, not out of your brain. All life events have themes if you look for them, and your story, after all, is just that: A life. Or many lives. Leave the theme-chasing to the lit scholars and fifth graders. They’ll find it if your story resonates.
ABOUT THE BOOK:
A year has passed since Holly, Ben, and Everett discovered a fantastical realm called Anglielle, where magic is outlawed and those who practice it are hunted. Now, on their return, they find their friends imprisoned and the alliance scattered. Ruthless King Reynard and the sorcerer Raethius are determined to find the very Adepts they exiled in the first place—but why?
It’s up to Holly and the boys to sail to the Isle of Exile and find the Adepts first, but that means enlisting the help of the Water Elementals and a pirate captain with a private agenda. Everett is obsessed with a mysterious locket with a mind of its own, and somehow, no matter where they go, a sinister black-sailed schooner appears on the horizon. With no one to teach her, can Holly master Elemental magic in time to save the Adepts of Anglielle?
Amazon |
Indiebound |
Barnes & Noble |
Books a MillionABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Claire M. Caterer lives in the suburbs of Kansas City, where she spends most of her time writing down the adventures of her imaginary friends. She loves chocolate, dogs, and occasionally, chocolate dogs.
The Wand & the Sea is a sequel to her first novel,
The Key & the Flame.
Website |
Twitter |
Facebook |
Goodreadsa Rafflecopter giveaway -- posted by Susan Sipal,
@HP4Writers
Oh, my gosh. The Saving the Planet & Stuff storyline involves Michael discovering that a major store chain has been selling insulation with mold. The Earth's Wife, the magazine he's working for, has the opportunity to blow this story sky high, but the new managing editor has kept the story from publisher Nora Blake because he wants to take The Wife in a different direction. Michael finds himself in a dilemma that involves one of the book's major themes--how do we decide what is the right course of action, the right thing to do?
Well, just now I read that Home Depot is phasing out toxic vinyl flooring from its stores! Now moldy insulation that causes hallucinations isn't toxic flooring "linked to a laundry list of ailments." Plus it sounds as if Home Depot is acting pro-actively in requiring the the chemical in question no longer be used in flooring it carries while the company in Saving the Planet & Stuff doesn't. But except for all that, I see a parallel. It's there! I'm not hallucinating. (Well, not much.)
Man, what luck that I republished Saving the Planet & Stuff a mere two years before this happened so everyone can ooh and aah over how prescient I was, huh? Also, what luck that I still haven't replaced the flooring in my kitchen. When I go shopping, I'll be checking out the chemical content of those vinyl squares I'm looking at.
Every Day Is Earth Day
Environmentalists have specific interests. They are interests that not everyone will appreciate. I am not a particularly serious environmentalist, yet I had a bit of a rep with my older son's first grade teacher because I wouldn't send disposable items into school. Little Will volunteered to bring in spoons for Ice Cream Sundae Day in the spring. "But your mother will want to send real spoons instead of plastic," Mrs. F. objected. "I'll fix it," Little Will promised. And he did, because I felt guilty about making problems for my child. Then I felt guilty because, sure, I could have made my kid hand out stainless steel spoons, pick them up after they were used, and bring them home dirty in one of the grocery bags I save to reuse. I wouldn't have made him wash them. I would have done that. Instead, I bought plastic spoons and sent them directly into the transfer station with just a brief stop in a first-grade classroom.
It's hard to have fun, even with your family, when you believe everything you do matters so very, very much. That's a point made in the following excerpt from
Saving the Planet & Stuff.
"Aren't golf courses already environmentally friendly?" he asked. "You know, green grass and no buildings. And I bet those little golf carts get terrific gas mileage."
Nora rolled her eyes. "Golf courses are ecological disasters—all those chemicals to kill weeds. Plus, they're a terrible drain on the water table. But one of my daughters-in-law plays golf with her parents, and I have a grandson who is on his high school golf team. I could play with them, if I knew how. Golfing is just awful, of course, but my kids and grandchildren don't want to go on wildlife tours with us or visit native craftspeople or travel to the desert to view lunar eclipses. We have nothing to do together. And it's amazing how quickly you run out of small talk about drilling for oil in national parks." She sighed. "We need to do a multigenerational eco-recreation article for The Wife. Other people must be having these problems."
No one I know, Michael thought.
"There isn't anyone in your family who wants to take the alternative-energy tour with you? Your kids don't want to visit strange worlds?" he asked. "Because a windfarm has got to be a really strange place."
"Their idea of visiting strange worlds is walking through those foreign pavilions in Epcot at Disney World," Nora said sadly.
"Oh, those are good."
A guilty look flashed across Nora's face. "I went golfing while we were on this last vacation. Just once. My son and daughter-in-law took me along when they went to play with her parents. Now, of course, I didn't really know what I was doing because I'd never done it before, but I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it. It was like going for a walk with friends on a nice day, but at the same time playing a game."
"Yeah, I think that's what golf is supposed to be."
"Then we went out to lunch. I wish I could find a golf course with a vegetarian restaurant. At least if there were a restaurant at a golf course that wasn't involved with destroying other life-forms … well, maybe that would help to make being there seem less wrong."
Michael stared at her. "Being at a golf course is lame and uncool, but it isn't wrong. Wait. What am I thinking? Of course being lame and uncool is wrong."
Nora gave him a patient smile. "If we want to see changes made in our world, we can't support and use the very things we want to change. What reason would there be to change them?"
Michael shrugged. "Microsoft changes Windows every couple of years even though tens of thousands of people use it just the way it is. And I bet Bill Gates doesn't refuse to use Windows while his employees are working on it."
"I suppose change can come from the inside," Nora said thoughtfully.
"Or not at all, because golf is just a game."
Nora laughed. "Nothing is just a game," she said as they got up and started to clear the table together.
Environmental Theme
I've said here before that I'm not sure what an environmental theme is. "Climate change" isn't a theme, to me. It's a topic. The same with "the environment" or "the rain forest." In my humble opinion, theme needs a verb.
Saving the Planet & Stuff has more than one theme. But its environmental theme is that environmentalism is hard. Environmentalism is a lifestyle that requires thought and choices every single day. Michael doesn't become a big-time environmentalist as a result of his experience with Walt and Nora. But he comes to understand what their lives have been about.
I get so happy when I find new early chapter books that are perfect for our transitional readers. I learned about
Tales of Bunjitsu Bunny from Donalyn Miller and it's been on my stack for a while. I wanted to get it to the classroom but wanted to read it first. It was a very quick and fun read.
Isabel is best known as Bunjitsu Bunny. She was the best Bunjitsu artist in her school. After we meet Isabel, always in her red Bunjitsu uniform, we read lots of stories about her. Each short chapter is a stand alone chapter starring Isabel and some of her friends. Each chapter is 5-8 pages long and each tells a story with a lesson.
The stories are perfect for transitional readers because the lessons in each story and the humor are all accessible to kids 6-8 years old. It's a great book for first graders who are strong readers and need something they can relate too. It is also great for 3rd graders who will catch some of the subtle humor.
I may use this book later this winter when we start working on theme. Each story has a pretty obvious theme of its own and it would be a great book to start the conversation with when we really dig into theme.
A fun new book that I am glad I made time to read!
Before we roll-out our fabulous lineup of bloggers with great craft of writing tips for 2015, we thought it might be fun to look back over our 2014 craft posts and highlight some of the best tips that we found to be fresh and useful. The ones below come from the first half of 2014 and cover aspects from Character Development to Worldbuilding to Prologues. We hope you'll find a snippet that speaks to you and then click the link to read the full article. And remember the blog labels! Follow
Craft of Writing to read more great craft articles than could be mentioned here.
Finally -- don't forget our new monthly
Ask a Pub Pro column where you can ask a specific craft question and have it answered by an industry professional. So,
get those questions in! Or, if you're a published author, or agent, or editor and would be willing to answer some questions, shoot us an email as well!
Craft of Writing: Best Craft Tips from 2014, part A
Character Development:
Whenever writing a character, always keep one question foremost in mind: what is this character’s motivation? What does this character want? Characters drive stories, and motivation drives character. So that basic motivation should never be too far from the character’s thoughts. What does this character want and what is he or she doing in this scene to get it? It’s almost a litmus test for the viability of a scene. If your character isn’t doing something to get closer to what he or she wants, then you should be asking yourself if the scene is really necessary.
(from
Using Soap Operas To Learn How To Write A Character Driven Story by Todd Strasser on 2/11/14)
Plot Element (A Ticking Clock):
 |
| from sodahead.com |
The clock is mainly a metaphor. You can use any structural device that forces the protagonist to compress events. It can be the time before a bomb explodes or the air runs out for a kidnapped girl, but it can also be driven by an opponent after the same goal: only one child can survive the Hunger Games, supplies are running out in the City of Ember....
Only three things are required to make a ticking clock device work in a novel:
-- Clear stakes (hopefully escalating)
-- Increasing obstacles or demand for higher thresholds of competence
-- Diminishing time in which to achieve the goal
(from
The Ticking Clock: Techniques for the Breakout Novel by Martina Boone on 5/20/14)
World Building (Details):
Whenever you have an opportunity to name something or to get specific about a seemingly random detail in your story, do it. Don’t settle for anything vague or halfway. Be concrete. You never know when one of these details might come in handy later. They’re like tiny threads that you leave hanging out of the tapestry of story just to weave them back in again later.
(from
Crafting A Series by Mindee Arnett on 1/28/14)
Editing:
“Write without fear
Edit without mercy”
Your first draft should be unafraid. Personally, I’m a planner, but you don’t have to be; I know published authors who aren’t. The important thing is that you embrace the flow of creation and let the story and its characters live. Don’t judge at this point. Write until it’s done.
Once you have that first draft in place, set the story aside for a few weeks, then take off your writing-hat – with all its feathers and furbelows – and don your editing-hat instead. The hat your inner editor wears is stark. No-nonsense. Maybe a fedora.
(from
Edit Without Mercy by L.A Weatherly on 1/7/14)
GMC:
Even less likeable characters are readable and redeemable so long as they are striving for something they desperately care about. One of the basic tenets of creating a powerful story is that the protagonist must want something external and also need something internal one or both of which need to be in opposition to the antag's goals and/or needs. By the time the book is over, a series of setbacks devised by the antag will have forced a choice between the protag's external want and that internal need to maximize the conflict. The protagonist must react credibly to each of those setbacks, and take action based on her perception and understanding of each new situation.
(from
Use Action and Reaction to Pull the Reader Through Your Story by Martina Boone on 5/2/14)
 |
| from pixshark.com |
Theme:
Theme is important when writing. It can be one of the things that puts the most passion into your work. What is it you are really trying to say with this book? You don’t have to know before you start writing. Heck, you don’t even have to know while doing the first revision. But as you go over your manuscript again—and again—you will see things popping out at you. Tell the truth. Dreams matter. Work together. Listen to your own heart. Those are the things that make us fall in love with literature. Once you begin to notice these repetitions (or if you know what you want to say from the start) the real fun begins, because you begin to see all kinds of beautiful ways to make it evident. Symbolism and dialogue and imagery.
(from
Write What You Love and Stay True To Your Passion by Katherine Longshore on 6/20/14)
Story Structure:
On Prologues:
The point I’m trying to make is that you should always strive to be confident in every page, to the point where you should never need a crutch like a prologue. Instead, the beginning needs to be amazing. Not necessarily adrenaline-filled, not necessarily action-oriented. Just damn good. Every page of your book should be, at the very least, strong and interesting writing, and your opening should have the tangible hooks of the ‘problem’ we feel in this book, even if they are only tugging ever so gently. If you have a prologue its worth examining the real page one and making it stronger, finding your real beginning, having faith in your book and your writing. If it doesn’t hold up, prologue or no, the book won’t work.
(from
An Agent's Perspective on Prologues by Seth Fishman on 2/24/14)
On story structure and finding the heart of the story:
As a novelist, I have to be both mother and master of my imagination. Story structure is what both of those roles rely upon—structure nurtures, protects, rules and drives the raw imagination. Months into working on Willow, the other characters began to want to have voice in different ways that the original epistolary form would not have allowed. Although I was confident in the characters, I had to also have confidence in my ability to tap into my imagination and structure it so that the soft, intangible electric energy of the original idea or the heart of the story (what Turkish author Orhan Pamuk calls “the secret center” of the novel) are bolstered and illuminated. Structure is always what I go back to when I’m feeling panic or insecurity.
(from
Wonder Woman's Invisible Jet of Creativity by Tonya Hegamin on 3/28/14)
-- Posted by Susan Sipal
By:
Darcy Pattison,
on 11/12/2014
Blog:
Darcy Pattison's Revision Notes
(
Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags:
character,
voice,
Plot,
theme,
setting,
Novel Revision,
revise novel,
online video course,
stronger novel,
Add a tag
NOW AVAILABLE! 30 Days to a Stronger Novel Online Video Course
The course is now live on Udemy.com!
Each day includes:
- A quote that inspires
- Short, practical instruction from Darcy on a specific topic
- A simple “Walk the Talk” action to take
Over the course of the month, you’ll receive the entire text of Darcy’s book, 30 Days to a Stronger Novel (November, 2014 release).
We can’t guarantee that you’ll end the month with a publishable novel; but we can guarantee it will be a STRONGER novel.
We can’t guarantee a publishable novel; but we can guarantee a STRONGER NOVEL!
Sign up now and receive $5 discount. Use this code: 5OFF30Days
VIDEO COURSE TABLE OF CONTENTS
- Watership Down with Armadillos: Titles
- Search Me: Subtitles
- Defeat Interruptions: Chapter Divisions
- Scarlett or Pansy: The Right Character Name
- My Wound is Geography: Stronger Settings
- Horse Manure: Stronger Setting Details
- Weaklings: Every Character Must Matter
- Take Your Character’s Pulse
- Yin-Yang: Connecting Emotional and Narrative Arcs
- Owls and Foreigners: Unique Character Dialogue
- Sneaky Shoes: Inner and Outer Character Qualities
- Friends or Enemies: Consistent Character Relationships
- Set Up the Ending: Begin at the Beginning
- Bang, Bang! Ouch! Scene Cuts
- Go Away! Take a Break
- Power Abs for Novels
- White Rocks Lead Me Home: Epiphanies
- The Final Showdown
- One Year Later: Tie up Loose Ends
- Great Deeds: Find Your Theme
- The Wide, Bright Lands: Theme Affects Setting
- Raccoons, Owls, and Billy Goats: Theme Affects Characters
- Side Trips: Choosing Subplots
- Of Parties, Solos, and Friendships: Knitting Subplots Together
- Feedback: Types of Critiquers
- Feedback: What You Need from Readers
- Stay the Course
- Please Yourself First
- The Best Job I Know to Do
- Live. Read. Write.
Discount Code
Sign up now and receive $5 discount. Use this code: 5OFF30Days
In our Early Theme Adopters series, we focus on bloggers creating great-looking sites with the most recent additions to our Theme Showcase. Today, let’s visit some of the sites that are already using Illustratr, a stunning, modern theme perfect for portfolio sites and blogs alike.
Hi folks, beautiful springtime is here in College Station, Texas. Blankets of bluebonnets, evening primrose, and Indian paint brush are splashed all over the county like a color-crazed artist needed to spruce up the dull browns and greens. So uplifting.
I begin my April Showers series. This is all about what waters my creative soul. I'm going to discuss the juice of some recent reads. First up comes enrichment from Conrad Wesselhoeft's new book Dirt Bikes, Drones and Other Ways to Fly (HMH). Here's a short synopsis from Amazon: Seventeen year-old dirt-bike-riding daredevil Arlo Santiago catches the eye of the U.S. military with his first-place ranking on a video game featuring drone warfare, and must reconcile the work they want him to do with the emotional scars he has suffered following a violent death in his family.
This is one kinetic read. Here are two techniques in this book that will open your eyes as you create your own work.
1. Leverage language. This is something that Wesselhoeft always does and this book is no exception. Here in the middle of of bruising narrative, high flying action, and heart-rending despair is a peppering of poetic beauty. Phrasing elevates this story --- "book of Job lousy year," "Something rises in me -- something halfway between a fist and a sob" and "the thing about a journey -- it pops you into focus and sweeps the mess of your life under the rug if only for a brief time." Shy away from bland word choice as you create your works, and you will add brilliance to your stories.
2. Say something. Dirt Bikes... is stitched together with references to Mozart, Rossini, Martin Luther King, Buddha, Paul of Tarsus, Marcus Aurelius, Emerson, to name a few, and more obscure voices, like John Gillespie Magee, from his poem "High Flight."
- For I have danced the streets of heaven,
- And touched the face of God.
Wesselhoeft is circling the idea that "Character is forever." Our choices will scar the world or uplift it. He digs deep into the idea of oversoul from Emerson. Oversoul is the river voices from each soul running together to make an ocean of soul stuff. Wesselhoeft uses many voices within this story to reflect this. Climb on the shoulders of giants as you write and say something. This is the oversoul of fiction.
I have at least a dozen pages of notes of the lessons I learned while reading this book. I hope you realize that you are in the battle of literacy as you create your books. Do whatever it takes to widen the world, to stir up empathy, and a develop a continuing legacy. Use choice language and consider
Rodin's "Thinker" at the gates of hell. Be that thinker at the gates. Write stuff that will make a difference.
Thanks for dropping by! I will have more showers next week.
Here is a doodle. "The Wind"
And finally a quote for your pocket.
What lies behind us, and what lies before us are but tiny matters compared to what lies within us. Ralph Waldo Emerson.
The Artist and the King
by Julie Fortenberry
Alazar Press, due out April 7, 2014
review copy provided by the author
Daphne is an artist, but her art -- an honest portrait of His Crabbiness -- does not please the king. Daphne's punishment is to wear the picture, rolled up, as a dunce cap, instead of her beloved red artist's beret.
Almost immediately upon donning the dunce cap, Daphne's Art kicks in. She begins to add decorations to customize the cap. "Soon she was getting compliments." And she began to sell the hats. They became all the rage.
Which enraged the king.
He banished all dunce cap wearers to the wilderness. Even his own daughter, who threw the extra cap she was carrying at his feet and walked with the others into the woods.
Daphne goes back to rescue the flung cap and discovers the king crying. They share a moment of apology and self-realization, then discover that the cap was intended as a gift to the king from his daughter. Together they bring all the villagers back from the woods, and Daphne is given back her beret.
In the current (March/April 2014) issue of The HornBook, the final essay (Cadenza) is "Reading Picture Books 101" by Robin L. Smith. I'll walk you though her seven steps with The Artist and the King.
1.
Look at the cover. The cover illustration of The Artist and the King lets us know it's a windy day. This is absolutely necessary for the plot development.
2.
Take the paper jacket off and see whether the board cover is different. Nope.
3.
Now examine the endpapers. Plain blue.
4.
Peruse the title page. The story actually starts here (I love books that do this)! Daphne is painting a picture of His Crabbiness, and the villagers who are her audience are appreciating her art.
5.
Read the book all the way through without reading the words. Pay attention to page turns, white space, and pacing. This is a fascinating way to read a picture book -- thinking about the design process, movement in the illustrations, artistic decisions made by the illustrator. The story absolutely is told coherently through the pictures in this book!
6.
Read the book with the words. Think about how the words and pictures work together. There are two places where the words in the illustrations interact with the words in the story. I might not have noticed that if not for this list of steps! When read on its own, the text has a nice flow, with long and short sentences and accessible vocabulary peppered with words perfectly chosen for the story: regal, mockery, banished.
7.
Go back and check every gutter. Now that's something I'm SURE I've never done, but how smart to make sure that the art matches up across the gutter and that nothing important gets lost there where the left page turns into the right. In The Artist and the King, when the gutter is not used to divide the pages into separate scenes, there is very intentional movement from one page to the other across the gutter. Fascinating!
These seven simple steps make me want to dive into a study of picture books with my students! One savvy reader noted recently that hardly anyone reads from the picture book shelf in my classroom. This may be a way to get some buy-in from fifth graders who are "too cool" for picture books!
The Artist and the King will definitely have a place in my classroom library, as well as in a study of picture books, and in our discussions about theme. Three cheers for a character who stays true to her passion, her art, and who helps the unfair and crabby king to soften up and be more accepting!
We release beautiful new themes every week. In our Early Theme Adopters series, we focus on bloggers who are using the most recent additions to our Theme Showcase. Today, let’s visit some of the blogs that are already using Sorbet, a vibrant, inviting theme.
Whether it's a business-friendly design or a minimalist look you're after, this week's crop of new themes delivers the goods.
Middle graders learn about these common literary themes in their language arts class.
http://networkedblogs.com/U7o9l
I'm in the midst of a big revision right now, and I'm doing things a little differently. I had two influences.
The Plot Whisperer
In
The Plot Whisperer Martha Alderson writes about making sure that scenes include dramatic action, character development, and thematic significance. I'm working with a chart to keep track of those three elements in each chapter. What about material that doesn't relate to any of those things?
Some Disappointing Reading
For several years, one of my sons and I have been slowly making our way through a beloved fantasy series. I gave him the next volume last year for Christmas. He passed it on to me earlier this year with the comment, "It's not very good."
I finally started reading it a few weeks ago, and I have to agree with my offspring's assessment. Right away I could tell what was bothering me about the book. There was lots of clever, even amusing, material that didn't relate to any story. It didn't deal with the dramatic action and character development Alderson wrote about, and that early into the story I had no way of knowing if it had anything to do with thematic significance. This somewhat random wordiness made the book slow reading. It was difficult to tell just what the narrative line was, so I had little desire to follow it. In fact, I've put the book aside.
What Does This Mean For My Project?
Taking the two influences together--Alderson's contention that dramatic action, character development, and thematic significance be included in every scene and my reading of a book with scenes that included a lot of material that didn't relate to any of those things--led me to become hyperaware of material in my manuscript that had nothing to do with action, character, or theme. What I'm finding is that a lot of that material no longer seems necessary. It drags down my reading. So it's being cut.
Right now I'm not missing it.
Photographer Clare Porterfield is adrift. Her husband has gone back to work, but she just doesn’t see the point. All she can think about is the death of their daughter.
Then she is asked to put together an exhibit in Galveston. Who better to do the job than a local girl made good in the world of photography? Clare makes her first trip back to the island since she left as a young teen.
There she settles into a guest room in her mother’s home. Galveston is languid in the heat and she eventually explores not only the historic photos that will form the exhibit but also the island itself.
Throughout The Drowning House (Nan A Talese/Doubleday, 2012), author Elizabeth Black vividly depicts the island. Her writing is poetic and stately.
As a writer reading this novel, I knew there had to be more to it. Yes, the novel is set in Galveston. Clearly that means that there will be time spent on description, but the space given to the setting told me that there was more to it than that. There had to be a larger reason.
And that reason is why fiction writers need to read The Drowning House.
In describing the sites, Black goes into Galveston's history—founded by pirates who preferred to be called privateers and nearly wiped out by a hurricane in 1900. Pre-hurricane, alcohol flowed freely and fed debauchery of all kinds. Post-hurricane, tourists often take part in behavior they would never admit to back home.
In this way, Galveston reflects the people who live there. The tourists aren’t the only ones in denial. There are things that go on in Galveston homes that no one talks about and, at one time, Galveston was Clare’s home. There she met Patrick, the love of her young life. Again roaming the streets and beaches of Galveston, Clare sees these as an adult that she hadn't noticed as a child.
This novel could be set nowhere other than Galveston. The setting reflects not only the themes of the story but also foreshadows what Clare discovers about her family and even herself.
As if this masterful use of setting isn’t enough, there are other reasons for writers to pick up The Drowning House. As I said before, Black’s descriptions are poetic. They are languid and elegant even when the meaning behind the item is terrible.
Black’s use of backstory and detail are also masterful. She feeds the reader bite sized bits of information. Here is something from Clare’s past. Here is a bit of Galveston history. These treats keep you reading as Clare unravels the mystery of her childhood.
I know I’ve been sketchy about the plot. With a book as suspenseful as The Drowning House, I refuse to reveal the deep dark secret. You will have to find out on your own.
Because, bit by bit, as you read, you will definitely learn about setting, about theme, about description and so much more.
–SueBE
In addition to writing for the Muffin, SueBE is teaching the upcoming WOW! course, Writing Nonfiction for Children and Young Adults.
*****BOOK GIVEAWAY*****
You're in for a treat. We also have a hardcover copy of
The Drowning House: a Novel by Elizabeth Black to give away! Just enter the Rafflecopter form below for a chance to win!
a Rafflecopter giveawayGood luck!
I've used the same set of picture books (
including these books about names) to start the school year for several years now. It's not a bad set, in fact, it's a GREAT set, but I challenged myself to pick 10 different picture books to start this new year in a new position, and to think about what I'll be saying to my students (through these books) about my hopes for them, and for our year together.
1. Choose kind.
Little Bird
by Germano Zullo
2. Make friends, not enemies.
Enemy Pie (Reading Rainbow book)
by Derek Munson
3. Be faithful to your friends.
Otis
by Loren Long
4. Work hard to solve your problems...but don't forget to think about what your solution might do to others.
Stuck
by Oliver Jeffers
5. Live in this moment. Be present.
You're Finally Here!
by Mélanie Watt
6. Be yourself. No matter what.
Naked Mole Rat Gets Dressed
by Mo Willems
7. Be persistent. Believe in yourself. Follow your dreams.
Learning to Fly
by Sebastian Meschenmoser
8. Know yourself. Be yourself. Follow your dreams. (And a special note to myself: make sure your "dance academy" has room for everyone.)
Brontorina
by James Howe
9. Make memories, because memories make stories.
Roxaboxen
by Alice McLerran
10. The world around us is amazing, awe-inspiring, and diverse. It is there for us to notice, learn about, and appreciate.
The Beetle Book
by Steve Jenkins
Thank you to Cathy, at
Reflect & Refine: Building a Learning Community, and Mandy, at
Enjoy and Embrace Learning for sponsoring this 10 for 10 Picture Book event for the third year. Be sure you hide your credit cards and then go look at all the fabulous lists!
I've been thinking of giving a copy of one of my books to a therapist who is working with our ill family member, to give her an idea of what said family member was like decades ago. Except, of course, she wasn't like the woman I wrote about in this way and that way and a couple of other ways. So what would I say to the therapist when I give her the book? "Except for A,B,C, and D you can see what she was like back in her thirties, but she wasn't really like that a couple of decades later"?
I just read this post by Karen Russell at The Orion Blog. Russell is the author of Swamplandia, which I've been thinking about reading because it's an adult book with a child main character, and I'm always interested in how that happens. What's the difference between an adult book with a child main character and a children's book?
But that's not the point today.
Russell begins her post with Whenever I’m asked about the ratio of the real to the fantastic in my work, I will shamelessly plagiarize Flannery O’Connor, who said, “The truth is not distorted here, but rather a distortion is used to get at truth.” I struggle with this whole idea of "the truth" of fiction. I'm more interested in theme and story then some concept of the truth of fiction. But I like this idea of distorting the truth of a writer's experience to support theme and story.
So perhaps I will give the book to the therapist with a note that the reality of our lives was distorted to support the story.
Stuckby Oliver Jeffers
Philomel Books, on shelves Nov. 10, 2011
review copy provided by the publisher
The blurb for this book on
Oliver Jeffers' website reads:
"A tale of trying to solve a problem by throwing things at it."
Floyd's kite is stuck in a tree, so he throws his shoe at it to get it down. His shoe gets stuck. Then he throws his other shoe and it gets stuck, too.
The sequence of the rest of the things Floyd throws at his problem starts off reasonable and veers decidedly to the ridiculous when he throws the kitchen sink, an orangutan, an ocean liner, the house across the street, and a whale...among other things. (Isn't that the way it goes, when you start throwing things at a problem?)
I can't really tell you about the end without taking all the fun of it away from you, but I will tell you that you're likely to have hope for Floyd's problem-solving ability, which will immediately be dashed, and yet, against all odds, there will be success...although you'll want to wring Floyd's neck in the end.
Kids will love this book. For them, it's a funny story of unintended consequences.
Adults will consider sending this book to their elected officials. Except for the fact that doing so would seem an awful lot like throwing a shoe...
By: Adventures in Children's Publishing,
on 9/20/2011
Blog:
Adventures in YA Publishing
(
Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags:
Theme,
Add a tag
A scrupulous writer, in every sentence that he writes, will ask himself at least four questions, thus: 1. What am I trying to say? 2. What words will express it? 3. What image or idiom will make it clearer? 4. Is this image fresh enough to have an effect?
~ George Orwell
If you've read any of my previous posts, you'll probably have noticed that I frequently recommend literary agent Donald Maass' books among the best resources for a wide variety of techniques. That's why when I came across a conference call workshop opportunity with him, I jumped on it. And he didn't disappoint. Of course he shed new light on the subject of microtension, which is a whole other topic in itself, but he also came up with the best tip I have ever heard on theme. I sat down and thought about it, and here it is--embellished a bit, of course, because I'm a drama queen and Donald Maass isn't.
Are you ready? Are you sitting down all cozy with your cup of tea and your WIP?
Good.
Now think of one scene in your WIP, just one. The one scene that you would keep if someone locked you in a room with a shredder and withheld food and water and the new season of Vampire Diaries until you shredded every other scene in the only existing copy of your manuscript.
Have you got it? Excellent.
Next, consider what you adore about that scene. Why does it speak to you? What emotion, phrase, or idea do you take away or want your reader to take away?
Chances are, THAT'S the emotional heart of your book, the glimpse of life truth your story is really all about.
Theme is a nebulous thing. It's much easier to define plot, the cause and effect that connects events into a pattern. As writers, it's our job to show plot in a way that the reader sees and understands. But theme in fiction, the meaning behind that pattern, is different for every reader.
By its nature, theme can't be obvious. At its best, it's open for interpretation, thought, and discussion, an echo left to resonate long after the book itself is read. We can't present theme directly. Sometimes we have trouble grasping it ourselves. We know what our characters want and the obstacles that may keep them from achieving their goals. We know they must struggle with conflict on every page, from their antagonists and within themselves. We know their life histories, their thoughts, their emotions in every scene. But do we know what they take away once the last word is written? What they will do when the story action is over? What philosophy or life view will carry them through whatever will come next?
Discovering that truth, that echo, is the part of writing that I love best. Once I know it, I can start layering in the richness and complexity that makes me fall back in love with my book after all the months wanting to hurl the computer across the room. The minute I grasp, I can go back and follow the trail of symbols and clues my subconscious left scattered in the manuscript like breadcrumbs, and see where I need to add something, or delete something, or sharpen something. It all comes down to knowing the heart of my story.
And that, just as Donald Maass said, is in that one scene that I would never, ever cut.
What about you? Can you think of a scene like that in your WIP? Past WIPs? How do you develop theme? And is it your favorite part of the story?
Let me know your thoughts! I've got a copy of Jennifer Brown's BITTER END for a random winner.
Happy plotting,
Martina
P.S. -- Want more on theme? Here
I've been thinking about how we writers use words, and what those words memorable. What fixes a passage, or a character, in a reader's mind?
I've decided it comes down to details and generalities, and that there is a place for both of them in a book. A need for both of them.
Details bring life to a scene, but maybe it is the generalities in a scene that connect it to the reader's life. Connection. That's what it all comes down to, isn't it? The ability to cut right through the crap of verbs and nouns and the occasional shining adjective and show with piercing clarity a problem, or a thought the reader had on the edge of her tongue or in that place that Kipling called the back kitchen of consciousness.
Consider these opening passages:
"My small Southern hometown is beautiful in the haunting way an aging debutante is beautiful. The bones are exquisite, but the skin could use a lift. You could say my brother, the architect, is Ivy Spring's plastic surgeon.
I shuffled through a relentless late-summer downpour toward on eof his renovation projects... our home. I couldn't care less about the weather. I was in no hurry. My brother might know what to do with feng shui and flying buttresses and other architectural things, but with me? He had no clue."~ Myra McEntire, Hourglass
"The other ship hung in the sky like a pendant, silver in the ether light cast by the nebula. Waverly and Kieran, lying together on their mattress of hay bales, took turns peering at it through a spyglass. They knew it was a companion vessel to theirs, but out here, in the vastness of space, it could have been as tiny as a OneMan or as immense as a star--there were no points of reference."~Amy Kathleen Ryan, Glow
"Good girls don't walk with boys. Even good boys--and Zenn is the best. He strolled next to me, all military with his hands clasped behind his back, wearing the black uniform of a Forces recruit. The green stripes on his shirtsleeves flashed with silver tech lights, probably recording everything. Who am I kidding? Those damn stripes were definitely recording everything."~ Elana Johnson, Possession
"It starts with a crack, a sputter, and a spark. The match hisses to life.
'Please,' comes the small voice behind me.
'It's late, Wren,' I say. The fire chews on the wooden stem in my hand. I touch the match to each of the three candles gathered on the low chest by the window. 'It's time for bed.'
With the candles all lit, I shake the match and the flame dies, leaving a trail of smoke that curls up against the darkened glass."
~ Victoria Schwab, The Near Witch
What do these passages have in common? Metaphors. Similes. Images painted in words. Detail that lends authority. We have a very specific view into each of these worlds, not a with a generic town, or a generic boy, or even a generic match. The specificity in each of these openings lets us trust the narrator. We know immediately that we're in good hands, preparing to hear the truth rolling out in the guise of fiction, and--perhaps most importantly--that we've never heard truth, this truth, stated in quite this way.
Look at these:
"Aunt Prue was holding one of the squirrels in her
Or maybe the two go hand in hand. I'll get back to you on that.
Check out Figuring Out Theme at Routines for Writers in which a writer/blogger struggles with theme.
For what it's worth, I've heard that some (many?) writers aren't aware of theme until after they finished a work. That is definitely the case with me and my early books. I think now that that's probaby a mistake, particularly for children's/YA writers. There are specific themes that help make a book a children's book rather than, say, an adult book that simply has a child main character. Therefore, I think those of us who are truly setting out to write children's books should be working with them.
NOTE: I am posting less because of your more positive family events--weddings and holiday weekends. Plus this year I'm reading a lot of Terry Pratchett's adult books, giving me less reading to post about. I have a little less material.
.png.jpg?picon=4257)
By: Diana Hurwitz,
on 4/22/2011
Blog:
Game On! Creating Character Conflict
(
Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags:
conflict,
fiction,
writing,
motivation,
characters,
plot,
craft,
theme,
boundaries,
Add a tag
Boundaries can be geographical, social, psychological or physical. No one likes having their boundaries violated. Cross them and you create conflict. This post will address psychological boundaries: the lines that are drawn that separate one person from another. Blur these lines and things get messy fast.
Characters adopt behaviors, coping mechanisms, verbal warnings and body language to defend psychological boundaries. Psychological boundary violations are often very subtle and complicate relationships between protagonists and antagonists, siblings, lovers, parents, children, friends, coworkers and teammates.
Relationships are supposed to bring people together. In healthy relationships, boundaries are flexible. We grow and adapt to allow the other person in, but keep the self intact. We give in only so much and will only go so far. We allow the other person into our personal space. We allow them to touch us. We give them access to our deepest thoughts and feelings. If someone uses that access to harm us, it is betrayal of the highest order.
Most of your characters would be hard-pressed to vocalize what their boundaries are, but feel violations all the way to their core. Boundary violations can inspire heated arguments, divorces, revenge plots and serve as motive for murder.
A woman who tries to get too close too fast will unsettle Bob. He will either decide that she is up to something or that she is emotionally unstable. If he is at first flattered by the attention, he will soon realize that he should have been more wary. Such is the stuff of many a horror story. Romances thrive on love at first sight and sex with a stranger, but that is rushing intimacy. In real life this scenario typically does not end well. That level of intimacy implies connections that haven't been formed yet. It is forcing a character to trust someone they don't know with their health and welfare. It is a boundary violation that runs rampant throughout modern fiction. It's also a plot hole, especially when it happens because "the script calls for it."
A character who offers too much personal information too soon will make Bob suspicious. This is effective as a plot complication. However, if a character enters the story and shares way too much personal information for no reason apart from delivering information, it becomes a plot hole. Readers will be irritated by it, unless they relate to the situation because their own boundaries are fuzzy.
Readers sense boundary violations in your story. They won't necessarily stop reading to shout, "Their boundaries are off!" Rather, they stop reading because they don't like the characters or think the plants and payoffs aren't realistic. I have tossed several books aside because the protagonist fell on either extreme end of the unhealthy boundary spectrum. This is often true in Thrillers where the protagonist runs around shooting people in a display of badass. Protagonists without conscience don't feel particularly heroic to the reader. They may still root for him
View Next 25 Posts
.jpeg?picon=3220)
.jpeg?picon=893)
Hm, every time I read these posts, I drool for a beautiful minimalist theme! But I chose my themes partly because navigation and interaction for visitors was transparent. I haven’t chosen many swoon-worthy themes because I feel that in the balance, visitors, especially from outside WP, won’t be able to navigate the site on account of the ‘hidden’ menus, though I realise they’re hidden to showcase the work. Am I completely wrong about this?
With Illustratr, your primary menu can actually still be visible near the header if you want it that way (that’s how the featured bloggers here use it). As for ‘tucked’ / hidden menus on other themes, it’s really a personal call — some visitors might find those less intuitive to find and use, though it’s also true they’ve become quite common of late.
Illustratr keeps popping up everywhere I look lately. Love the different looks you can get.
Would love to see a theme specifically geared for flip books.