docenaholm.com

My 10-no 18-page paper on my greatest weakness

docena — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 21:21:48 +0000

Yes, I'm an overachiever. This was a great assignment. The short version is that each author I analyzed showed what the character was thinking in different ways. Imagine that. So, in my writing I've got to stay true to my voice, my character's voice, and dig deeper. My paper can be viewed as a pdf.

Connecting with Characters

The Big Writing Assignment, A 10 page paper for fun

docena — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 20:21:35 +0000

My next writing exercise from Finding Your Voice is to write a 10 page paper on my biggest writing weakness, identify authors whose writing is strong in that area, and analyze how they do it.

My biggest writing weakness–not by biggest human weakness (we'll save that for another day)–is that I don't show what's going on inside my character's head. I need to show what the character is thinking so the reader can connect with the character. The most common feedback from my rejections is that the editor or agent did not connect with the character. Almost every month at writing group, I'm asked to include more of what my character is thinking, her reactions and thoughts.

I've identified these writers and books to analyze:

Chris Crutcher, Deadline

Shannon Hale, Enna Burning

Carol Lynch Williams, the chosen one

Sydney Salter, Swoon at Your Own Risk

I will post my paper when it's done. I should learn a lot about how to show what my character is thinking.

Organic images exercises

docena — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 22:17:43 +0000

I'm learning to find my voice from Finding Your Voice by Les Edgerton and I'm going to put myself out there and post some of the writing exercises. I'm supposed to "create a line or three that gives a metaphor or image that could only "work" within the parameters of that environment and that environment only" (pg. 128-129).

1. You're writing a story from the pov of a nun teaching a history class in a parochial high school in Kentucky. The situation is, she's just caught Brenda cheating on an exam.

"Brenda. Your hand. Show it to me."

Sister Agnes stands over me like a fence post shadowing the prairie grass. I open my palm and wait for her wrath.

2. You're writing an article about lawn care for a magazine. You've interviewed dozens of experts and are focusing on some common mistakes lawn-care nuts make in caring for their pride and joy patch of Bermuda bent.

You can in fact over water Bermuda grass. The experts say your lawn will look mud hardened as if your neighbor dumped their car wash water onto your lawn so no one will know they wasted precious water for the sake of vanity.

3. You're penning your autobiography. You grew up on the hard-scrabble, mean streets of Gobbler's Knob, Michigan (population 303), and you're describing a Little League experience from your childhood.

If you didn't toe up and play, then you better show up and scream the corn flakes out of your guts cheering. Me, I played once and took that ball in the eye. Then hot-tailed it to first base swerving like Ms. Matkin driving down the street and swatting at Herman to pull his arm back in the car.

More Connections

docena — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 19:35:48 +0000

This past Friday and Saturday, September 10 and 11, 2010, I attended a writing conference in Boise. And I made connections. Connections with other authors, an editor, and an agent, connections with my own writing, and connections with my past. Wow! That's a lot for one conference to accomplish. With his storytelling skills and emotional presentation, Chris Crutcher dared me to confront my own emotions in my writing. In my 15 minute critique with Cheryl Klein and my first page critique with Cheryl and Jill Corcoran, I learned that the reader has to connect with the main character right from the beginning. A book is not all about plot. All these years I've been told to start right in the action which I mistook as throwing in lots of plot. I made the connection that even though I don't need the strong issues that appear in most of Chris Crutcher's books, there are children who need those books. I still need to craft books that connect with readers on an emotional, real level even if the issues aren't deep and dark. From Jill Corcoran, I learned that I want an agent who is as passionate about my work as she is about her clients. Thank you to Kelly Milner Halls who connected with my daughters and with me as a friend. She is lovely and genuine. Congratulations, Kelly, on landing a passionate agent, Jill.

Meet our Idaho stars. I knew them when…

docena — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 04:41:55 +0000

Three of my writing friends from the Treasure Valley will be speaking on a debut author panel at the "Writing With the Stars" conference this Saturday, September 11th at Boise State University. I first met Sarah Tregay during the Boise writing conference in 2006. She has faithfully attended a writing group and conferences since then. Now she's sold her first novel to Katherine Tegen Books/Harper Collins. I also met Amy Allgeyer Cook through our SCBWI writing conferences. She won a contest through a small press, marketed and prepared for the debut of her novel this summer, and then took matters into her own hands to release her novel, The Iron Bodkin. I met Laura Bingham when we were both tutors for Heredity at Ricks College in 1992. A couple of years ago she walked into our writing group with a fantasy manuscript and a determination to be published. She since has worked like crazy to market her YA fantasy, Alvor, complete more manuscripts, and acquire an agent. She's a writing and marketing maniac. During a writing class at BYU, my fabulous instructor, Ann Cannon, told us that if you have talent, determination, and discipline you will be published. That's what has made these three authors our Idaho stars. Talent, determination, and discipline.

Child protagonist triumphs

docena — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 20:50:09 +0000

When I first started attending a writing group, one of the rules I learned was: Always have the child protagonist solve the problem. Why? Because children like to read about children solving their own problems. In order for a child to solve a problem in a book, the parents and adults must be absent from the book. Let's look at some examples:

Harry Potter is sent to boarding school. The teachers offer some guidance, but don't solve the problems and often contribute to the conflict.

Katniss in The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins loses her dad to a mining accident, hunts food for her mom and sister, and then is sent into an arena with 23 other children. Adults interfere and send awful plagues to torment her and the other tributes.

Anidora-Kilandra in The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale is sent to another country to wed the prince. On the way she is assaulted by her lady-in-waiting and abandoned by her protectors.

Does the same rule apply in real life? Do children need to solve their own problems? Today was the first day of school for four of my five children. It's scary for me to send my children away to school. I can't be there to protect them, to answer their questions, to calm their fears. Last night, my nine-year-old daughter couldn't sleep because she was so unsettled about starting school. Should I just not send her? Then I was reminded today by my mother-in-law, who used to be a fourth-grade-teacher, that even teachers are scared of the first day of school. And both the teachers and the students live through it and triumph. Today when all four children return to me safely, we can review how they overcame the unknown and triumphed over the first day of school.

Cheryl Klein from Scholastic

docena — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 02:41:03 +0000

I'm looking forward to meeting Cheryl Klein from Scholastic. At the conference last year I met with Brian Farrey, the acquisitions editor for Flux. He said my book, A Kiss and a Curse, reminded him of A Curse Dark as Gold by Elizbeth C. Bunce. I read it and found out that the editor was Cheryl Klein.

Writing With the Stars SCBWI Conference

docena — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 02:33:16 +0000

I'm the conference coordinator for the annual SCBWI conference in Boise this fall. Join us for a great day.

Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators
Writing With the Stars: A Conference for Readers, Writers, and Teachers of Children's Literature

September 11, 2010, Saturday
Boise State University
1910 University Dr
Boise, ID 83725
Student Union Building, Jordan C Ballroom
8:30 am to 5:00 pm

Speakers:

Cheryl Klein, senior editor at Scholastic
Jill Corcoran, agent at the Herman Agency
Chris Crutcher, author, educator and family therapist known for his realistic fiction. Some of his books are Running Lose, The Crazy Horse Electric Game, and The Sledding Hill
Kelly Milner Halls, a nonfiction writer for young readers. Books include Dinosaur Parade, Saving the Baghdad Zoo, and Dinosaur Mummies
Amy Allgeyer Cook, debut novel The Iron Bodkin, September 2010
Sydney Salter, author of My Big Nose and Other Natural Disasters, Jungle Crossing, and Swoon at Your Own Risk, regional advisor for Utah/Southern Idaho SCBWI
Laura Bingham, author of Älvor
Sarah Tregay, debut novel Love and Leftovers will be published by Katherine Tegen Books/HarperCollins

Amy, Sydney, Laura, and Sarah are my writing friends from this area. Come and hear them speak.

To register and for more information:
SCBWI

Books versus Technology

docena — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 17:10:24 +0000

There's an ongoing debate about e-books and self publishing and the growing number of ways to be published outside of traditional publishing. Part of me wants to dig in deep and resist these changes. Can't we go back to the old way? I write a pretty good book. I submit it to a few editors. One likes it because the writing is beautiful and there's a lot to work with, but it's not perfect. Then I work with the editor to make the changes and it's a better book, a stronger book, and I've learned more about writing and revising in the process. Then the book is published. I attend a book event at a local bookstore and sign actual copies of my book. All my friends come and they tell their friends and it sells moderately well. Then I write another book and so on and don't have to worry about a web presence or linking or doing a book trailer. But technology marches on. We've had a friend who is a remarkable photographer do our family portraits for the last few years. They are beautiful, well done, professional. We get lots of great comments from people who see the portrait. But our photographer took a job teaching high school photography in another state because now with digital cameras and on-line technology and editing programs, everyone is a photographer. Many more people have taken up the hobby and the business of photography and can do it much cheaper than our professional photographer who went to college to learn the art. He's accepted that and moved on. What else can he do? And now I have friends who do beautiful work and many more people have well-done family portraits in their homes. That's how writing has become. With computers and access to editors and agents through the internet and conferences, there's a lot more writers and authors. A submission must be much stronger and compelling. There's also a lot more good books to read. This summer my children have gone through at least 100 books already and my teenage daughters want recommendations from their friends and more ideas for books to read. So I'll flow along with the tide of the technology and have my children help me improve at facebook and blogs and goodreads and bug my brother's for help with their technological savvy. See you in print, somewhere.

The Inbox

docena — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 21:38:35 +0000

One of the reasons I write and submit is to verify that I'm alive. Before e-mail submissions and queries, I'd check the mailbox every day for replies from editors. Of course, I wanted a positive letter of acceptance confirming my obvious writing talent and offering me loads of money. But even a rejection letter proved I existed and that someone had at least read my cover letter. Now I obsessively (yes, that's an adverb) check my inbox many (I don't even want to count how many) times a day to see if one of the agents or editors I've submitted to has acknowledged… (Sorry, had to check my inbox) I exist by sending me a reply.