On Beginnings: WAKE by Lisa McMann

Yesterday, I blazed through Lisa McMann’s YA paranormal, WAKE (Simon Pulse, 2008). It’s a fun, fast-paced, gripping read about a girl who gets sucked into others’ dreams—which turns out to be problematic when students nap during classes.  

This book is worth checking out, though, because of the author’s unique (and successful) approach to the book’s beginning. Know how you’re “not supposed” to dump backstory in the opening chapters? McMann does exactly that—and makes the reader love every second of it.

The book opens with a scene in the present:

December 9, 2005, 12:55 p.m.

Janie Hannagan’s math book slips from her fingers. She grips the edge of the table in the school library. Everything goes black and silent. She sighs and rests her head on the table. Tries to pull herself out of it, but fails miserably. She’s too tired today. Too hungry. She really doesn’t have time for this.

And then. 

And then we’re pulled into the dream with Janie. The first chapter covers six minutes in just over two pages of text.

The next chapter is titled “Where It Begins” and it takes us through Janie’s dream experiences from age eight to the present. Backstory, presented in a series of scenes titled with dates and times. Twenty-four pages of it before we return to present-day Janie on the first day of school, August 30, 2004.

Why does it work? I think it’s because McMann adopts a style that reads almost like a series of incident reports: terse, but so packed with compelling information that it draws you ever onward. She writes in present tense, lending immediacy to every page. The third person narrator feels just distant enough to add to the incident-report feel of the book.

This style choice lets McMann pack key stories from Janie’s past into a relatively short amount of space. Sure, she presents a ton of backstory in the second chapter, but she does so by flashing the reader through one intense scene after another. The short scenes continue, resulting in a book that (for me) was surprisingly difficult to put down.

Check it out!

:) Cheryl

Getting Unstuck Without Coming Unglued: a Woman’s Guide to Unblocking Creativity

For us creative types, feeling creatively “stuck” is one of the worst sensations in the world—and definitely no way to start off the new year. In previous posts and on Twitter, I talk quite a bit about ways to pull yourself out a rut, generate new story ideas, and inspire creativity. And most of the time, for most people, that’s enough to jump-start your writing and get you moving.

When you’re in a rut too deep to climb out of, though, it might be time to bring in the tow truck—and that’s what Susan O’Doherty does in her book Getting Unstuck Without Coming Unglued.

O’Doherty doesn’t offer a list of writing exercises or “creativity sparkers” in her guide. Instead, she draws on her background as a psychotherapist to explain what’s know about creativity and it’s development. She uses this information to craft a series of writing exercises designed to help the reader figure out the source of her own creative blocks—and how to overcome them. 

I didn’t come to this book as someone who feels creatively blocked, but as someone interested in the art and science of creativity. In fact, I often have the opposite problem: too many projects that I want to pursue simultaneously. Nevertheless, I found that I benefited immensely from the book’s exercises. They might be designed for women who feel stuck in their creative lives, but I believe they can provide anyone—male or female—with insight into their creativity and insight into areas where they might feel stuck.

Wherever you are on your writing journey, Getting Unstuck has something to offer you. And if you *do* feel stuck, in writing or elsewhere in life, it’s a must-read!

:-) Cheryl

Reading With an Eye for Craft: Ballad by Maggie Stiefvater

I just tore through a terrific fantasy novel, Ballad: a Gathering of Faerie by Maggie Stiefvater. This tale touches on two of my favorite fantasy concepts: the world of Faerie in the modern day and how music might interweave with magic. I expected to love this book. What I didn’t expect was that I loved it so much I had to go through it a second time, taking notes.

I’m embarking on the first rewrite of my own most recent fantasy novel, and Ballad turns out to be a perfect book for me to study. In it, Stiefvater weaves together a remarkably complex plot using three different point-of-view characters. One of those characters “narrates” only in the form of unsent text messages—a few pages of thoughts sprinkled through the novel that lets the reader know what’s happening in her world. It’s a terrific idea, and absolutely perfect in this book. The other two characters have such distinct voices that I never lost track of who was narrating. 

She manages to take the reader through two fully developed character arcs while methodically unfolding a plot that would be difficult to follow in less skilled hands. She doles out clues and information piece by piece, until everything comes together at the story’s end into that delightful “ah-ha!” moment when it all makes sense.

If you love contemporary fantasy such as Cassandra Clare’s Mortal Instruments series, Emma Bull's War for the Oaks or Charles de Lint’s novels (Jack the Giant Killer is a personal fave), you’ll find Ballad a delightful read.

And if you’re a fellow fantasy writer, you’ll love checking out the details of her world-building, story pacing, and character creation. This book definitely merits two reads, because the first time through you’ll be too caught up in the story to pay attention to craft—and her craft is worth studying.

:) Cheryl

P.S. She has a pretty fun website, too. Check it out!

P.P.S. Back to that rewrite….

Building a Platform a la Christina Katz

I finally got around to reading Christina Katz’s latest offering, Get Known Before the Book Deal: Use Your Personal Strengths To Grow An Author Platform…and yep, it’s just as good as her last book, which I discuss here.

It answers some of my long-standing questions about platform, such as:

1. What the heck is platform, exactly? In practical terms.
2. What does platform mean for a fiction writer—and is it still important?
3. If I write for kids, does it make sense to build a platform that’s read primarily by other adults? And not just adults—adult writers.

For the answers, you have to read the book for yourself.

Although much of this book is targeted for writers of nonfiction, this book is also a great resource for the fiction writer. It discusses how to identify your niche as a writer; how to identify your audience; and, most important, how to get yourself in gear and start building a platform that works for you.

This is the kind of book to buy and put on your shelf for reference. Full of practical advice and questions (yes, you have to do some work to get the most out of this book), Get Known takes you from platform novice to platform savvy in a fun, fast-paced read.

:) Cheryl

Theory and Practice

As I write this, my younger son sits upstairs taking his fifth chess lesson. The lessons were a birthday gift, one he's been asking for for more than a year. Finally we succumbed. This very nice chess champion (Paul) now comes to our home once a week to discuss the theory and practice of chess with our ten-year-old (who can whup the pants off everyone else in the house!)

I've been sitting in on some of these lessons. The idea is that I'll learn some of my son's tricks, so I'll be able give him a bit more of a challenge when we play. It's kind of fun, learning about chess tactics, discovered attacks, pinning and forking pieces, how to calculate force...there's this whole other language for chess and how to think about the game. But Paul's first and most important lesson didn't involve any special chess language, but rather, the theory of learning:

To become a better chess player, you need two things. You need to know tactics (learned by doing chess puzzles and practicing the different techniques) and you need to practice. Practice one without the other and your game will improve slowly, if at all.

Wow. That's wisdom that applies to writing or, no doubt, to any kind of learning. The practice of writing is important--it helps me become more fluent at putting words to the page. But sometimes, especially as we become more advanced as writers, I think we forget that we need to keep honing our technical skills as well.

Practice and theory: how do you put the idea into practice? Well, if you want to use simile or metaphor in your writing, spend a week doing simile or metaphor exercises. If you want to hone your ability to vary sentence structure, rewrite a passage from your work using a passage from someone else's work (one that displays great variety in sentence structure) as an example. If you want to improve your ability to write dialog, work through the exercises in Tom Chiarella's Writing Dialog.

Right now, I'm absorbing a great book about writing techniques, Spunk & Bite: A Writer's Guide to Bold, Contemporary Style, by Arthur Plotnik. I say "absorbing" because this isn't the kind of book you plow straight through. It's the kind of book that you peruse slowly, trying out the techniques along the way.

It reminds me of my son's book of chess exercises, only for writers. So if you feel your writing might benefit from improvements in tactics as well as straightforward practice, pick up Spunk & Bite, Writing Dialog, or one of the other great writing books out there. And brush up on your writing skills as a foundation for improving your overall writing game!

:) Cheryl

Book Thoughts: Writer Mama (How to Raise a Writing Career Alongside Your Kids)

I've been reading a fun book this week: Writer Mama: How to Raise a Writing Career Alongside Your Kids, by Christina Katz. It's a good enough resource that I'm going to purchase my own copy ASAP.

At first glance, Writer Mama is geared more toward writers who are just starting their freelance careers--but it contains plenty of inspiration and information no matter where you are in your writing career. With ideas for everything from gathering ideas, audience identification, contract negotiation, finding time to write, and dealing with home life, it's the kind of read you can pick up whenever you need a little motivation boost or a handful of ideas to tackle the latest obstacle in your writing life.

Plus, Katz relays all this information with humor and sympathy for the ups and downs faced by writing mothers.

I don't have little kids underfoot anymore, but each stage of parenting brings its own unique challenges. Christina Katz's book is a dense package of tools to help me integrate my parent and writer selves, so I'm better at both. I'm glad I picked this one up!

:) Cheryl

What is Cheryl doing right now?

Who all out there is on Facebook or MySpace or some other networking site? I'm on Facebook, and it's cool in some ways and a huge time sink in others. Man! I turn around for a few minutes, and I'm kidnapped or poked or tagged in a photo or someone wants me to send a flower to save the rain forest...

I haven't decided how much of it is a "useful" use of my time, but it's definitely fun. And it lets me keep in touch with people I might not otherwise contact quite so frequently--like the folks from the writing retreat I just attended. Pretty cool.

But back to what I'm doing right now--I'm READING! And rewriting, but in between rewriting binges, I now have a pile of books to devour. Yesterday I raced through R.A. Nelson's Breathe My Name. Today, I'm reading it again, to absorb the great voice and language use. Here's a taste:

"See?" Momma says, holding up the jar with the crawdads. "Everything knows about fear."

And it's true. I've seen spiders, the smallest spider you can see, little bitty red ones smaller than a freckle--they run like crazy if you put your finger down next to them. Their fear is as big as any fear in the whole world.

...Momma is good at scaring things.

And here's another favorite passage, a spider metaphor that R.A. Nelson carries and develops through the entire story:

Maybe that's what she always was. Only none of us knew, because she kept it hidden. And through everything, all the times she was kissing us or playing games with us or being the queen of our pretend kingdom, really she was a spider underneath everything, just itching to break free. And every night the stiff little spidery hairs were coming to the surface, and she had to be careful to pluck them off each morning so that no one would suspect she was really a spider.

As a writer, I sometimes forget to let my characters see the world through metaphor and whimsy. That's my assignment for tonight: to take a passage and rewrite, letting my character make sense of her world with a type of understanding that moves beyond the ordinary.

Thanks for the inspiration, R.A.Nelson!

:) Cheryl

Staying Motivated: Writing Books

As a writer with a full life (and schedule) one of my favorite ways to fill my motivational tank is to read a particularly inspiring writing book. Here are a few inspirational favorites:

Bird by Bird, by Anne Lamott: This is one of those books I read over and over. I love Anne Lamott. She's real. She talks about good writing days and bad writing days and about writing piles of exceptionally mediocre melodrama in a way that makes me feel like I'm doing okay. Her thoughts on the writing life encourage and inspire and leave me feeling warm and thankful for the gift of writing.

Take Joy! by Jane Yolen: Jane Yolen is an inspiration in her own right. I mean, look at the breadth of styles and stories she's crafted over the years! This collection of essays gives us a glimpse into her creative life. Some tackle writing craft; most tackle the hows and whys of writing. It's a fun read, and so encouraging that it's another I read and re-read.

On Writing, by Stephen King: This book is a combination writing memoir/writing craft book. I love hearing the story of Stephen King's pursuit of the writing life--it makes my obstacles seem like mere roadbumps. This book left me inspired to write, but also inspired to write whatever the heck I feel like writing. I probably won't edge into the horror genre, though. I'd get nightmares from my own stories....

Gotta go--I've developed a sudden, urgent need to reread some books!

~Cheryl

The 12 Secrets of Highly Creative Women: A Portable Mentor by Gail McMeekin

If you're looking for inspiration along the writer's road, The 12 Secrets of Highly Creative Women is a great source.

Author Gail McMeekin interviewed 45 highly creative women from a variety of fields--artists, painters, CEO's, writers, small business owners, designers--to discover twelve traits they held in common. She dives into each secret in detail, using examples from the lives of these very different and inspiring women.

What I like about it:

• The wonderful women she interviews have inspiring stories to share!


• ...and these 45 different women harness creativity and integrate it into their lives in many different, personal ways. This isn't a "one-size-fits-all" solution manual


• McMeekin uses a series of "Challenges" in each chapter to help the reader explore the topic as it applies to her own life


• It goes beyond the standard inspirational book, in that the ideas and exercises can help a writer out of many different ruts along the road

I borrowed the book through interlibrary loan several months ago, and have referred to my notes so many times since then that I should just buy the book. When I'm stuck, I look back at the "Mastering Challenges" section; when my writing feels flat, I pick up an exercise from the "Engaging Your Creativity" section. McMeekin calls the book a portable mentor. It doesn't quite measure up to my local critique group, but it's as great a mentor as a book can be.

Maybe I'll promise it to myself as a reward for the next risk I take--like sending my book out again!

~Cheryl

Thursday's thing to love...other writers!

Sticking to the conference theme, one of my favorite speakers at this year's RMC-SCBWI conference was Elizabeth Rusch (http://www.elizabethrusch.com/.) She gave talks on writing for magazines, on using interviews to craft terrific nonfiction, on marketing books through magazine articles, on the editor/author collaboration and on obtaining meaningful feedback from child audiences. I enjoyed her first talk so much that I rearranged my schedule to come back for more!

Liz's recently-published nonfiction book Will it Blow? Become a volcano detective on Mount St. Helens (Sasquatch Books, 2007) was a must-have addition to my collection of great nf books. She takes a unique twist on the standard volcano book, opening with a memo from the Department of Volcanic Investigation:

"Your mission, if you choose to accept it, is to predict a Mount St. Helens eruption. It's not enough to catch Mount St. Helens red-handed. To protect the public, you must sniff out what kind of volcanic trouble is brewing...."

The book is chock-full of information collected under fun headings, such as YOUR MISSION, THE SUSPECT, PRIOR OFFENSES, and KNOWN DISGUISES.

My goal, as a nonfiction writer, is to find those incredibly cool, unique twists on subject and presentation. Creative nonfiction is the art of crafting story from facts. If you want to read a great example of creative nonfiction, check out this book. It's a great book for the nonfiction writer to study--not to mention a downright fun read. Thanks, Liz!

Thursday's thing to love...

...about being a writer: great books. Have I mentioned that I love books? I love the way they feel, the way they smell, the way they make me race through to find out the end of a great story (a la Harry Potter) or read slowly to savor the beautiful writing (a la The Bookthief.) I love....


Ahem. Sorry. Didn't mean to get carried away there.


Today, I want to tell you about a particular book: By the Sword, a nonfiction picture book written by Selene Castrovilla. It tells the story of Benjamin Tallmadge, a not particularly famous young man who lived and served during the Revolutionary War. Castrovilla's book paints a picture of the war through one man's story: the story of Benjamin Tallmadge and his beloved horse, Highlander.


I read this book because I am currently working on a project I hope to sell to the publisher, Calkins Creek, the history imprint of Boyds Mills Press. Carolyn Yoder, also history editor for Highlights for Children, is editor for the imprint.


In this book, Castrovilla does exactly what I want to do in my writing. She draws a fascinating story out of a primary source--Benjamin Tallmadge's personal memoir--and brings the story to life without compromising historical accuracy. I'm also trying to draw an exciting story out of a rambling journal and a few other primary sources. She takes the story of someone who isn't particularly famous, and uses it to tell a larger truth about the Revolutionary War. I'm also trying to tell the story of an ordinary young man in such a way that it tells a larger truth about life in frontier America.

How does she do it? First, she tells a very specific story with a beginning, middle, end, and specific events in between. That sounds simple--but it's not always that easy, especially when you have a pile of research material six feet deep! It took a great deal of artistry--and discernment--to choose exactly what scenes to portray in a story that spans several days (with several weeks' worth of backstory.)


Second, she brings each scene to life with vivid sensory detail: the feel of the musket against Benjamin's shoulder, the boom of cannon fire, the flash of muskets. Since present nonfiction-writing frowns on creating quotes for historical characters, she doesn't invent dialog; instead, she writes Benjamin's thoughts, emotions, and physical sensations in such a way that it reads like dialog. She writes questions that seem to create a window into Benjamin's mind, questions like "How could they even survive?"


If you're a writer of nonfiction for children, this is a great book to check out. Castrovilla sifts through her own six-foot-deep pile of research material (I'm guessing at the 6-foot part, but she definitely did her research!) to tell an exciting story that gives a snapshot of life during the Revolutionary War--in 32 pages. Besides, it's a great read!


:) Cheryl