Two Books I Learned from this Year: Multiple Narrators by Mary Ann Rodman

We're currently talking about One Book I Learned from Over the Past year. I know, I know...it's supposed to be one book, but why confine yourself to just one?  I've read a ton of middle grade fiction this year, and lot of them had multiple POV's. 

Maybe it's a subconscious thing. My long festering WIP has multiple (three) POV's. Perhaps the Universe is nudging me, with all these excellent examples of how to juggle different narratives. 

The Blackbird Girls by Anne Blankman takes place during the Chernobyl disaster. Eleven-year-olds Oksana and Valentina find themselves evacuating to Leningrad alone...no parents, no teachers. Additionally, the girls are sworn enemies. The chapters alternate each girl's POV, in third person limited. A third voice from 40 years in the past occasionally shows up.  Her identity isn't learned until the end of the book. In addition to the effects of a nuclear meltdown, Blankman takes on anti-Semitism, child abuse (mental and physical), religious beliefs and living in the Soviet Union. Heavy as these topics are, Blankman handles them in an age-appropriate manner. Even though the three main characters are girls of the same age, each has a distinctive voice and personality. 

Erin Entrada Kelly's Those Kids From Fawn Creek dropped me into a familiar locale. For many years, I taught in a small, isolated school like Fawn Creek, a place where everyone is either related, or has known each other since birth. A town where no one ever leaves, and no one new moves in. Not until Orchid Mason arrives in the 7th grade, throwing the school's well-established social order askew.. Orchid is a mystery girl who has been all over the world, so how does she wind up in Fawn Creek, Louisiana? The eleven other 7th graders speculate through the alternating perspectives of main characters Greyson, Dorothy and Janie. (There is also a chapter where each of the boys in the class has a short section weighing in with their thoughts about Orchid and girls in general.) Additionally, of the three main characters, each, at some point, is also an unreliable narrator. Who is telling the truth? What is the truth? Can anyone ever know? 

Having read these two books in the same week, my long dormant WIP characters are stretching and yawning, waking up after a long pandemic's nap. I think they're ready to come out and play. 

So am I.

Posted by Mary Ann Rodman

How AIN'T BURNED ALL THE BRIGHT Changed Me

Howdy, Campers, and Happy Poetry Friday! (My poem and the link to PF are below)

TeachingAuthors is officially back from our 🌞Summer Break🌞, and I'm kicking off a round we're calling One Book I Learned From Over the Past Year.  

I've changed the prompt slightly for today's post to: One Book From the Past Year That Changed Me.

So many books, so many ways to respond to this prompt!  But lemme tell you, the book that BLEW. MY. MIND this year (thanks to my beloved book club) is the collaboration between author Jason Reynolds and illustrator Jason Griffin, AIN'T BURNED ALL THE BRIGHT (Simon & Schuster)

Let's start with this two minute segment of a Washington Post video interview, in which Jason Reynolds tells us that his initial manuscript was three sentences long. 

So you're thinkin' picture book, right?  

Well. Kinda. It did win the Boston Globe/Horn Book Award in the PICTURE BOOK category. But...is that fair to the picture books?  

Kirkus calls it ILLUSTRATED POETRY.  For 12-18 year olds. (Unfortunately the Boston Globe/Horn Book Awards don't have a poetry category ~ for shame!)

How to describe this book? Let's start with its physicality. 

It's 384 pages: the size of a fat YA. Each page is shinier and thicker than you'd expect. The cover alone is hefty. All I'm sayin' is don't put this in your kid's backpack--it's a frickin' brick of a book. 

What about the content?

It's poetry. It's story. It's despair. It's hope. It's family. It's wild and wonderful illustrations that sometimes make no sense and sometimes make the whole thing explode.

It's S-P-A-C-E to absorb a poem with double page spreads that sometimes are just black. 

It climbs to a crescendo page by page. 

It's metaphor, it's simile: 

• "my sister talks to her homegirl through the screen of her phone like it's the screen of the front door," 
• the father tries "to keep the cough from coming through/like trying to mute the blues trumpet in his throat," 
• "worry is worn like a knit sweater/ in summer/ and can't nobody breathe/ in a knit sweater in summer/ a turtleneck wrapped around/my whole family/our necks caught/in a tunnel/of too much/going on"

Again:

This book 

BLEW.

MY.

MIND.

And, Honey, I ain't the only one. 

School Library Journal: ⭐starred review. 

Kirkus: ⭐starred review.

Booklist: ⭐starred review.

Publishers Weekly: ⭐starred review.

Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books: ⭐starred review.

Horn Book: ⭐starred review.

Shelf Awareness: ⭐starred review.

Bookpage: ⭐starred review.

BOOKPAGE: "Dynamic and visceral, Ain’t Burned All the Bright artistically portrays the claustrophobia of the summer of 2020 from the perspective of a young boy."

KIRKUS: "Artful, cathartic, and most needed." 

SLJ: "For everyone who has felt the weight of grief and fear or the comfort of love and family in the last two years, this is a must read."

Jason Reynolds says, “It isn’t about the art illustrating the language, it’s more so about the language and the art being in conversation with one another.” 

Jason Reynolds and Jason Griffin

photo credit: Dayo Kosoko

Before my book club meets, I will sometimes put post-its on one or two pages I want to discuss.

And then there's this:

Want more? Take a deep dive into a ton of resources on S&S's site. That's the end of my review...

...which takes us back to the initial question. 

Answer: I am taking more chances when I write. F'rinstance:

HOW THIS BOOK CHANGED ME

by April Halprin Wayland

It said,

Malia, Min, Morgan, Manosh, Whoever:

You.

Be.

You.

 

Like a flame but not a flame because the flame’s

already that hot.

Like lightning but not lightning because lightning’s

already claimed that shine in the sky.

Like your step-mom’s burst of laughter but not her burst because

 

well, by now you know why.

 

Rip across a page!

Or settle down in softness.

Listen, sing, speak up, don’t speak up,

cut through the cloud or

ride it

 

because, Babe,

the you 

inside you

is dyin’ to shout. 

It's not too late.

Open 

the gate.

Let 

it 

out.

poem (c)2022 April Halprin Wayland, who controls all rights.

And finally, I'll send you off with the one minute book trailer of AIN'T BURNED ALL THE BRIGHT.

Thanks for being here, and thanks for being you.

And thank you, Elizabeth, of UNEXPECTED INTERSECTIONS for hosting today!

posted with affection by April Halprin Wayland with occasional snores from nearly-13-year-old Eli, who, after a full day playing with younger pups...is being Eli.

BRAVE THE PAGE: Any Writer’s Fuel – Young or Not - for NaNoWriMo and/or Simply Writing a Novel!

I know, I know. I can read the small print.  NaNoWriMo’s BRAVE THE PAGE’s subtitle clearly reads: “A Young Writer’s Guide to Telling Epic Stories.”

And if indeed, you are an elementary, middle school or high school writer planning to participate in NaNoWriMo in 13 days, or if you teach and/or work with and/or encourage such young writers planning to do the same, this book will not only guide and get you and/or your NaNoWriMo participants to the November 30 Finish Line; it ensures you’ll all keep keeping on in the 12 months that follow - revising, editing, submitting, connecting.
I offer an enthusiastic Thumbs Up to the authors, Rebecca Stern and Grant Faulkner, for delivering on their promise.
BRAVE THE PAGE (Viking, 2019) is a must-have/must-read book for any Young Writer planning to experience NaNoWriMo.

But here’s the thing. 
BRAVE THE PAGE succeeds so well at informing, inspiring and encouraging young novelists, it’s a must-have/must-read resource for writers of any age, of any kind of story, NaNoWriMo-engaged or not.
I’m raising all five hand digits to wildly High-Five each author twice!
BRAVE THE PAGE proves the truth that when an adult needs to learn and understand a particular subject matter, say, how to write a story, he or she should begin by reading a relevant children’s book. 😊

So, a few FYI Facts concerning NoWriMo, pronounced na-noh-rye-mo, the annual, Internet-based “creative writing project” that has taken place every November since 1999.

• The goal for each participant: to write a 50,000 word manuscript. Writers, called “Wrimos,” intentionally focus on quantity vs. quality so they’ll have a first draft from which to work in subsequent revisions. 
• The NaNoWriMo website offers resources, encouragement, tips and connections to a supportive community of writers.  Twenty-one Wrimos participated in 1999.  Today NaNoWriMo boasts 798,162 active novelists and 367,913 completed novels.

NaNoWriMo’s Young Writers Program offers a bounty of resources for the under-18 young writers and the K-12 educators who encourage them. For instance, writers can use an on-site writing space, Young Novelist Workbooks and Novel Notes for brainstorming, character sketching, research, etc. There’s also Camp NaNoWriMo. And young writers can indeed alter their word count – 1,000 words a day or even 20,000.

BRAVE THE PAGE is the latest offering from the Young Writers Program.  The NaNoWriMo-experienced authors know first-hand the writing process, the elements of story, a writer’s inner story and journey plus a whole host of tools that concretely instruct and guide. As important, they know their audience of young writers and how best to reach (and teach) them.

The Table of Contents scaffolds the content perfectly:

• An introduction in which award-winning author Jason Reynolds likens writing a story to the experience of moving – “Pack, load, journey, unload, unpack. That’s a novel.” - plus a warm and grounding welcome to NaNoWriMo and its participants.
• Part 1: GET READY
• Part 2 GET SET
• Part 3: WRITE!
• Part 4: NOW WHAT?

The meaty, timely issues and questions presented within each of the four parts are truly those of any writer, young or once-young.

• Where do ideas come from?
• What kinds of writers are there?
• How does one create a writing routine?
• How does one plan a story?
• How best to recruit characters and plot a plot and build a story’s world?
• How best to begin?
• What can be done when doubts and fears appear?
• Oh, and what about what follows when the end is reached? How to edit and revise? How can writers keep writing?

All of the above, and then some, are answered and addressed by (1) several of today’s beloved children’s book authors (John Green, Marissa Meyer, Jennifer Niven, Daniel Jose Older, Danielle Page, Celia C. Perez, Scott Westerfield), especially in their affirming Pep Talks, (2) by numerous NaNoWriMo-experienced young writers and (3) via referenced children’s books familiar to all.  For instance,

• From a Pep Talk by Marissa Meyer as to how to begin, “Write down the things you already love about your story. Or, start a list of what you like in other novels. Brainstorm challenges your  protagonist could encounter. Create a story playlist. Visualize success.”

• “Set your word-count goal to something a bit longer than any story you’ve ever written before, but don’t overreach….Remember, you can always change your word-count goal halfway through story. – Simon, age 11

• On Third Person Narrators: “The narrator tells us the thoughts, feelings and actions of one or more character, using the pronouns he, she, and they. Number the Stars, by Lois Lory, is an example of a book told in the third person.

Fortunately, the authors included the Dare Machine, “a magical machine” of sorts from the Young Writers Program website that puts forth prompts, tips and exercises.  In Part 1, the Dare Machine helps the writer begin; in Part 2, it helps the writer develop characters, create settings and figure out a plot.  In Part 3, it helps the writer move the story forward.  Part 3 also breaks the month down, and thus the writing – into weeks 1 through 4.  And again, it does so purposefully and concretely.

     For instance, concerning that Inner Editor who resides inside all writers,

     “Close your eyes and picture that person.
       Now draw that person.
       Not take that picture and throw it a going-away part!
      Then put that picture somewhere out of sight until you finish your draft.”

BRAVE THE PAGE provides a Writer’s Lair, a safe place to assess progress, and that all-important Rear View Mirror to assist with reflection.

And finally, I especially love how BRAVE THE PAGE encourages writers to find a mentor – a favorite book – that’s available 24-7, for free.

No matter our age, each of us has a story worth telling…and the right to tell it.  But that blank page can be oh, so scary when we’re gathering the courage to tell our stories to the world, especially if we’re new to the writing process.

Thank goodness all storytellers now have BRAVE THE PAGE to guide their writing.

And, thanks to Jama's Alphabet Soup for hosting today's Poetry Friday.  BRAVE THE PAGE  is certain to serve up a whole lot of  delicious food for thought.

Happy story-telling to writers of all ages!

Esther Hershenhorn
P.S.
Be sure to enter our Book Giveaway for Gwendolyn Hooks’ ONA JUDGE OUTWITS THE WASHINGTONS

Book Giveaway and Release of my book, ONA JUDGE Outwits the Washingtons - An Enslaved Woman Fights for Freedom

One of the most exciting days in an author’s life is Book Release Day! It’s a time for parties with your critique group, friends, museum staff, librarians, and family. Those are the ones who helped you along the way. They gave you space to write, read your first attempts, answered your research requests and encouraged you to keep writing.

Then your author copies arrive in your mailbox.

Hurrah! Its book release fun time!

(See below for details of how to enter our giveaway to win your own autographed copy!)

Capstone Editions released Ona Judge Outwits the Washingtons – An Enslaved Woman Fights For Freedom just in time for the Oklahoma Technology Association-Encyclomedia Conference. I introduced Ona to the world of teachers and librarians. Some knew Ona’s story, others did not. I never tire of sharing her with the world. She is a wonderful example of someone determined to live life on her own terms.

A new fan at EncycloMedia.

Ona was born on George Washington’s Mount Vernon plantation. Her mother was enslaved and her father was a white indentured servant from England. When Washington was elected president, Ona was one of the enslaved people who accompanied the family to New York and later to Philadelphia. She was Martha’s personal servant and attended to her needs at home and also accompanied her on visits to friends like Abigail Adams. Ona was allowed a small amount of freedom to explore Philadelphia on her own.

Why would she want to be free? She had more freedom than most Black people. She was allowed to run errands on her own, attend the circus, and was given a small amount of money to buy presents for her family on Mount Vernon. But it was not enough for Ona and she ran away. 

She was soon recognized in her new hometown of Portsmouth, Massachusetts and President Washington sent people to return her to Mount Vernon. Ona refused.  Despite several attempts, the Washingtons never succeed. Her life wasn't  easy. She was always considered a runaway. But Ona was firm. She would decide how to live her life.

Illustrator Simone Agoussoye & Author Gwendolyn Hooks at ALA

Sometimes as I write, I find myself stuck. I can’t find the perfect combination of words. They refuse to flow. During some of those moments, I wondered if I was doing justice to Ona’s story. Am I the person to write it? 

It certainly required a lot of research. I couldn’t have done it without the librarians on the other end of Ask A Librarian on the Library of Congress website. Mary V. Thompson, a Research Historian at the Fred W. Smith National Library for the Study of George Washington never seemed to tire of my constant emails.  

To relax during some of my dark moments, my sister and I took the Heartland Flyer from Oklahoma City to Fort Worth to visit my daughter. Then we hopped on the Texas Eagle to Longview, Texas to visit our niece. I love reading on the train, looking out the window, and thinking.

We took a side trip to the Tyler Museum of Art. The paper exhibit began to clear my head. Amazing creativity! 

During another of my down moments, my son called. He is a Marine pilot and had just returned from a six-month deployment. He always calls when his plane lands and he's home again. He said, “I’m  “Portsmouth, New Hampshire.” I got so excited and upbeat.  It was a sign. His phone call unleashed my writing spirit. It said – Get back to your computer. Young readers need to know this brave young lady.

I listened to my spirit and ONA JUDGE OUTWITS THE WASHINGTONS-AN ENSLAVED WOMAN FIGHTS FOR FREEDOM is now out in the world.

"The attention-grabbing text and unique illustrations will make this a welcome addition for all history collections." - School Library Journal

Posted by Gwendolyn Hooks. Please leave comments.

Carmela here to share the details of how you can win your own autographed copy of Ona Judge Outwits the Washingtons: An Enslaved Woman Fights For Freedom (Capstone Editions).

To enter our drawing, use the Rafflecopter widget below. You may enter via 1, 2, or all 3 options.

If you choose option 2, you MUST leave a comment on TODAY'S blog post or on our TeachingAuthors Facebook page. If you haven't already "liked" our Facebook page, please do so today!

In your comment, we'd love if you would share either the title of a picture book biography you'd like to recommend or the name of a person who would make a good subject for a picture book biography.

(If you prefer, you may submit your comment via email to: teachingauthors [at] gmail [dot] com.)

Note: if you submit your comments via email or Facebook, YOU MUST STILL ENTER THE DRAWING VIA THE WIDGET BELOW. The giveaway ends October 18, 2019 and is open to U.S. residents only.

P.S. If you've never entered a Rafflecopter giveaway, here's info on how to enter a Rafflecopter giveaway and the difference between signing in with Facebook vs. with an email address.


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THE PROPER WAY TO MEET PAUL B. JANECZKO

.
Howdy, Campers, and Happy Poetry Friday! (Be sure to visit this week's Poetry Friday host, Michelle at MoreArt4All)

Today's post is about Sadness and Celebration.

SADNESS

Many of you know Paul B. Janeczko died on February 19th. Paul was an original, he was a force of nature, and he was funny. He was also the author of more than fifty books, including poetry anthologies, novels for young readers, books of his own poetry, nonfiction, and guides for teachers. The loss is a big one in our poetry community.

Here's Publishers Weekly obituary, Cynthia Leitich Smith's post in memory of Paul, and a wonderful spine poem by Heidi Mordhorst.

Oh, Paul...

Paul's wife captioned this one, "Keep smiling"

I met Paul in 1996 through a mutual friend, super librarian and library activist Richard K. Moore. Paul showed up on the porch of the TeachingAuthors treehouse twice: when I interviewed him in 2015, and the following week, when he shared an exercise he used in school writing workshops. My poems are in six of his anthologies.

Though I only saw Paul a few times in person, we corresponded about politics, poetry, the weather and our families. I learned a lot from his sunny emails (signed pbj), especially stop being so uptight and enjoy the frickin' ride. (Paul would have phrased that more poetically or funnier.) I will miss those emails.

CELEBRATE!

THE PROPER WAY TO MEET A HEDGEHOG and Other How-To Poems (February 2019, Candlewick Press) is beautifully illustrated by Richard Jones--please look at a few of his luscious illustrations here.

Something to celebrate? I should say so! It's gotten three starred reviews (from Publishers Weekly, Booklist and Kirkus)!  Kirkus says: "The engaging artwork nudges the poems into the foreground, giving them ample room to breathe. The collection closes with "How to Pay Attention," just two lines that are almost a sacred offering. "Close this book. / Look." Young people lucky enough to find this miraculous collection in their hands will indeed look."  

That four word poem is mine :-)

I wrote my other poem in this collection after my husband and son gave me a shiny white bike for Hanukkah. I named her Bird. I didn't understand her brakes. Oh, what a wonderful, hairy-breezy first ride...until I had to brake fast to avoid a car. Bird was aptly named: I flew over her handlebars--oy! That's how "How to Ride a New Bike" was born.

HOW TO RIDE A NEW BIKE
by April Halprin Wayland

Reflector?

Head protector?

            Let’s ride!

Quick quiz, Cycling Whiz:

when car turns in a flash,

how won’t you crash?

            Brake hard!

            Brake fast!

You won’t last.

You’ll fly

past handlebars

seeing stars.

Next guess?

(Less mess, please)

Feather brakes slow

bike doesn’t throw me

so I touch ground

safe and sound?

Yup. You’ve got guts—

A plus!

poem (c)2019 April Halprin Wayland. All rights reserved.

There are 46 poems in this collection (many by several likely posting links on today's Poetry Friday blog). Here they are, listed in order of appearance: Charles Ghigna, J. Patrick Lewis, Elaine Magliaro, Allan Wolf, Marilyn Singer, Christina Rossetti, Calef Brown, Monica Shannon, Rebecca Kai Dotlich, Karla Kuskin, Douglas Florian, Irene Latham, Marjorie Maddox, Kwame Alexander, April Halprin Wayland, Anne E. Jordan, Robert (Bob) Louis Stevenson, Margarita Engle, Ralph Fletcher, Charles Waters, Martin Garden, Nikki Grimes, Steven Withrow, Helen Frost, Pat Mora.

In Irene Latham's wonderful post on this collection, the dialogue between Irene and poet Allan Wolf is filled with affection, both for poetry and pbj.

What a loss to our community; what a lovely, final book you leave us to savor, Paul.

Posted with love by April Halprin Wayland

Giving Thanks for Readers!

Even though Thanksgiving Day was yesterday (here in the United States), we TeachingAuthors like to share our gratitude all month long.

This year, we're discussing some of the writing-related things we're grateful for. Today, I'd like to send out a HUGE THANK YOU to those who buy and read our books! And I want to express my special thanks for readers who make time to post reviews on Amazon, Goodreads, Barnes and Noble, etc. Thanks to all of you, Playing by Heart recently passed the 50-review milestone on Amazon! I shared an image celebrating that event on Instagram earlier this week:

I've read that having 50 Amazon reviews is an important milestone because it's a trigger for Amazon's algorithm to suggest a book to other readers. It's also a requirement for certain types of advertising. Of course, the reviews are also helpful for readers considering whether to purchase a book.

I have to confess that I haven't been the best about posting reviews myself. But now that I know they can really make a difference to a book's "discoverability," I'm trying to be more conscientious about reviewing books I enjoy. I encourage all of you to do the same: a review needn't be long to be effective. A sentence or two is enough.

Thanks again to all of you who read our books and blog. May you all have plenty to be grateful for in this Time of Thanks-Giving!

Don't forget to check out something else I'm grateful for: the weekly Poetry Friday roundup hosted today by Irene Latham at Live Your Poem. While you're there, be sure to enter to win a wonderful new book of haiku from former TeachingAuthor Laura Purdie Salas!

And remember to always Write with Joy!

Carmela 

   

A STORY GENIUS BOOK GIVEAWAY TO CELEBRATE YEAR #8!

Today marks the 8^th Blogiversary of our TeachingAuthors story!

What better way to celebrate eight by thanking you, our Readers, with a Book Giveaway of Lisa Cron’s STORY GENIUS.

In my Two Thumbs Up review that follows, I share Lisa’s insistence that if a story is to help the reader navigate his world, the writer must fully know his characters:  their wants, their needs, and the why’s behind them, but also their worlds and what they rightly – or wrongly -  believe.

Here’s hoping that in thinking about our Readers in similar fashion, we’ve not only eased your travels these past eight years as you tell your stories. Here’s hoping we’ve been both your arm and umbrella as April so beautifully described in her April 21 poem “Taxi Waiting.”

I offer my sincere thanks, too, to my fellow TeachingAuthors “villagers” who’ve kept me blogging, teaching, authoring and keepin’ on since April 22, 2009: Jill Esbaum, Jeanne Marie Grunwell-Ford, JoAnn Early Macken, Carmela Martino, Carla Killough McClafferty, Bobbi Miller, Laura Purdy Salas, Mary Ann Rodman and April Halprin Wayland.

Help us blow out our “One-is-for-Good Luck” candle by entering the Book Giveaway that follows my TWO THUMBS UP review.

TWO THUMBS UP REVIEW: STORY GENIUS by Lisa Cron (Ten Speed Press, 2016)

Author and Story Coach Lisa Cron has done it again, offering the TeachingAuthor in me an eye-opening, thought-provoking look at STORY vs. WRITING.

You got that right: STORY vs. WRITING.  As I often tell my students and writers, there’s the story, and then there’s the way we choose to tell that story to our intended audience.

STORY GENIUS takes that truth to a whole different level, making the case and showing readers that fully knowing and investing in a character’s BACK STORY before his current story ever begins enables the story – i.e. the external plot – to write itself.

The note I stuck to my desktop years ago says it all: “It’s the story, stupid!”

Forget pantsers, Lisa Cron advises - those writers who hope to discover story by writing blindly to the end.

Forget plotters.

Forget recommended unsuccessful first drafts.

Even forget external structure models.

When seeking to tell your story, remember only: stories begin “in the middle,” in medias res, and you can’t have an after without a before.

STORY GENIUS underscores what Lisa Cron considers the two parts of writing a story – two parts I came to think of as two halves: the protagonist’s Inner Story and the External Gauntlet that spurs the protagonist’s inner struggle.

In the first half’s six well-organized chapters that build upon each other, she shows us how to dig deep to learn a protagonist’s inner workings.  We move from an idea to the phrasing of a What if? question to our story’s Who, Why and Worldview, in which our protagonist’s burning desires and misbeliefs are plumbed and explored.  Finally we reach the When that brings our protagonist to an offer he can’t refuse – i.e. the point in the middle where the storytelling begins.

It’s in the second half that STORY GENIUS’ blueprint system emerges, allowing for a “scene-by-scene progression that begins with a now-known opening.

Scene Cards are the vehicle, noting the cause and effect of the external plot and what Lisa Cron calls The Third Rail or internal plot, the piece our brains crave.

Think: What happens?  What are the consequences?

Think: Why it matters? What’s the realization?  And so?

I found the chapter on Subplots (The Secret to Layering) especially helpful, putting forth subplots as “an integral story layer that, once exposed, sheds light on the surface meaning.”

That exposure, of course, comes from digging deep in the first half.

Throughout STORY GENIUS, “What to do” exercises follow each teaching point, inviting us to try our hand.

But even better, Lisa Cron offers a pure “Show, Don’t Tell” example of each point by sharing her friend Jenny Nash’s step-by-step evolution of her novel from the first inkling of her idea to actual scenes.

Lisa Cron is an engaging Narrator and indeed, TeachingAuthor. She knows personally, from years of story coaching and writing, the obstacles we confront when trying so hard to tell our good stories well. In STORY GENIUS, she shares real life situational examples that comfort and console while offering concrete examples from contemporary and classic books, movies, tv and plays that illuminate her teaching points.

WIRED FOR STORY, which you can read about here, WOW-ed me in unexpected ways. STORY GENIUS is the perfect sequel, building on Lisa Cron’s neurologically-based story tenets.

You can read more about Lisa Cron, her books and how to subscribe to her newsletter here.  

Happy storytelling!

Esther Hershenhorn

. . . . . . . .

OUR BLOGIVERSARY BOOK GIVEAWAY!  

Now for some celebratory gift-giving!  To enter our new drawing for a chance to win a copy of Lisa Cron’s STORY GENIUS, use the Rafflecopter widget below.  You may enter via 1, 2 or all 3 options.

If you choose option 2, you must leave a comment on today’s blog post below or on our TeachingAuthors Facebook page.  We’d love to know, by the way, what topics and themes you’d like us to feature in upcoming posts. If you haven’t already liked our Facebook page, please do so today!  If you prefer, you may submit your comment via email to: teachingauthors [at] gmail [dot] com.

Email subscribers: if you received this post via email, you can click on the Rafflecopter link at the end of this message to access the entry form.

Note: if you submit your comments via email or Facebook, you must still enter the drawing via the widget below.  The giveaway ends May 5, 2017 and is open to U.S. residents only.

P.S.  If you’ve never entered a Rafllecopter giveaway, here’s info on how to enter a Rafflecopter giveaway and the difference between signing in with Facebook vs. with an email address.

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A Must-have Book (PLUS Book Giveaway) for Storytellers!

I’ve been writing for children since 1977 and teaching writers since 1996!

My writing room’s shelves, desk and window sills boast enough books on writing-related topics to rival the stock of any Writer’s Bookshop.

Craft. Process. Story. The writer’s life. Writing for children. The ins and outs of publishing.

From Aristotle to Zinsser, with Lamott and McKee in the middle, each title stands ready to help me do my job.

I’m happy to report, and with total confidence, there’s not one book on my shelves like Matt Bird’s THE SECRETS OF STORY (Writer’s Digest, 2016).  It’s a must-have book on craft both smart and practical, Thumbs-up deserving - not only because of its eye-opening approach to storytelling, its thoughtfully-focused content, its sensible organization and the author’s personal writing style, but especially because the book delivers its subtitle’s promise - “Innovative Tools for Perfecting Your Fiction and Captivating Readers.”

The Good News is: those innovative tools can be yours simply by entering our Book Giveaway.  Be sure to read the details at the end of this post.

Matt Bird’s bona fides includes an MFA in Screenwriting from Columbia University, years of screenwriting and a long-running successful blog on storytelling, COCKEYED CARAVAN, recently renamed THE SECRET OF STORIES. 

He offers the heart of this comprehensive book up front and early, on page 2, in fact: “Tell the story that would win you over, even if you didn’t want to hear it.”

And then in three Parts laden with common sense and cathartic Aha’s (Writing for Strangers, The Ultimate Story Checklist and Getting from Good to “Good Lord, This Is Amazing!”), he shares the means to the end - a good story told well.

Bird believes audience satisfaction is the name of the game.  “You have to embrace your audience,” he writes. “They are the only reason to write anything.”  Listening to our audiences is key, he tells writers; it’s what allows us to build identification between our hero and our audience. Fortunately, his Thirteen Essential Laws of Writing for Strangers show us how to listen.

By the time I reached Law #4 - AUDIENCES DON’T REALLY CARE ABOUT STORIES; THEY CARE ABOUT CHARACTERS, I’d put aside my yellow highlighter,

read to #13, then typed up all thirteen and emailed them to several of my writers and students.

And so it went as I – eagerly! - read through Parts II and III, cornering pages, underlining previously-recognized Truths, bracketing paragraphs, starring key words, writing in the margins and the top and bottom of pages to restate in my words what Matt Bird presented.  And all the while I kept thinking of my stories as well as my students’ and writers’ stories and how we now could perfect them, and thinking of how I’ll retool my SpringUniversity of Chicago Writer’s Studio Workshop - A Facilitated Children’s Novelists Writing Group, thanks to the book’s checklists.

How’s this for one of Matt Bird’s head-bobbing, comforting Truths: “Writing is not one big talent.  It is a discipline consisting of several distinct skills, each of which must be individually mastered by writing every day, day after day, for years, as you slowly get better.”

He then goes on to list the seven skills he believes writers need to master – Concept, Character, Structure and Plot, Scene Work, Dialogue, Tone and Theme.  One by one, chapter by chapter, he breaks down each skill according to definition, common misconceptions and the relevant questions that need to be asked.

It’s those relevant questions we must ask and answer if our storytelling ever is to satisfy our audience, the questions that by book’s end become handy-dandy tools.

For example, in underscoring the importance of creating compelling characters, how do we get our audience to believe, care and invest?  Matt Bird shares question after question we need to ask, making sure his illustrating examples drawn from familiar movies, tv shows and novels facilitate and serve our understanding. 

He does the same for structure (The Challenge, the Easy Way, the Hard Way, the Climax) and Scene Work (The Set-up, Conflict and Outcome), sharing relevant questions, each brilliantly exampled.

In his Preface, Matt Bird reveals that he hopes his book is “useful, illuminating and most, of all, fun.”  With this audience-member, he realized all three.

I can’t recall the last time I sat with a book on the craft of writing as fully engaged as I was reading THE SECRETS OF STORY and I think I know why.

In writing his book, Matt Bird thought about and embraced his audience of storytellers; he’d listened to their needs and worked hard to satisfy them. 😊

Writing in a lively, honest-to-the-bone style, he bravely put himself into the mix – his screenwriting studies, his unexpected illness, his life experiences, and best of all, his disappointments.  Even though THE SECRETS OF STORY is a work of nonfiction, how could I not believe, care and invest?

“If you really value your audience,” he writes, again up front and early, “you’ll never have to choose between audience satisfaction and writing from the heart, because the two will be one and the same.”

For the record, I personally am ignoring Matt Bird’s Final Rule, which is to ignore everything he said in the book’s previous 330 pages.  Way before that point, he’d written so convincingly, his Rules had segued and become the beliefs every storyteller needs.

Make time to visit Matt Bird’s blog.  Check the resources listed on the right side of the page, especially The Ultimate Story Checklist.  

To learn more about the author, click here to read his September 19, 2016 interview at the Blabbermouth blog.

IMHO: THE SECRETS OF STORY belongs on every writer’s bookshelf.

Happy storytelling! Happy checklisting!

Esther Hershenhorn

………………………………………………………………………………….

Now, to procure your copy of Matt Bird’s THE SECRETS OF STORY, enter our Book Giveaway and perhaps you’ll be the lucky winner.  Use our Rafflecopter widget below.  You may enter via 1, 2, or all 3 options.

If you choose option 2, you must leave a comment on today’s blog post below or on our TeachingAuthors Facebook page. If you haven’t already liked our Facebook page, please do so today! If you prefer, you may submit your comment via email to: Teachingauthors[at]gmail [dot] com

Email subscribers: if you received this post via email, you can click on the Rafflecopter link at the end of this message to access the entry form.

Note: if you submit your comments via email or Facebook, you must still enter the drawing via the widget below.  The giveaway ends March 29, 2017, and is open to U.S. residents only.

[Carmela here: the above end date is a typo. The giveaway ends March 31, 2017.]

P.S. If you’ve never entered a Rafflecopter giveaway, here’s info on how to enter a Rafflecopter giveaway and the difference  between signing in with Facebook vs. with an email address.

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A Book (PLUS Book Giveaway) for Every Children’s Book Writer!

No matter where you are on your Writer’s Journey – still thinking about writing for children and thus refusing the Call to Adventure, half-way past the First Threshold and revising your story or in the throes of a Supreme Ordeal while readying your manuscript for submission, I’ve got the perfect guide book to keep you moving forward:  Cheryl Klein’s THE MAGIC WORDS (W.W. Norton, 2016).

As luck would have it, you can have it!  Simply enter our TeachingAuthors Book Giveaway at the end of this post.

For those new to writing for children, Cheryl Klein’s credits as executive editor at Arthur A. Levine Books/Scholastic Inc.  guarantee writers the kinds of insights, techniques, exercises and reflections that are essential when placing the right words in the right order – “the magic words,” she says, that allow our books to change lives.

And not just our readers’ lives, but our writers’ lives too.

Knowing how this editor of award-winning books views her life’s work and passion speaks volumes for all she shares in THE MAGIC WORDS.

“I think of my work as an editor as being a mechanic for stories:  I take books apart, examine their component pieces, and help my authors assemble them again as more elegant and polished machines. My writing for writers, from this point of view, is the instruction manual that comes with the cars — how I articulate the instincts and knowledge about fiction I’ve gained over fifteen-plus years of working with writers and their books.”

Chapter by chapter, Cheryl Klein mines her years of editorial experience to clearly and thoughtfully instruct and show writers how to use and develop their gifts to craft a strong (and personally meaningful) story concept told in an appropriate format for their intended audience – a story that builds bonds between readers and characters, that keeps those readers engaged and turning the pages, that speaks to them with truth and thus is worthy of publication.

Each chapter offers Exercises, well-known referenced titles and concrete examples from esteemed authors such as Lisa Yee and Trent Reedy, all to support the stated take-away – The Power of Plot, for example, Seven Ways to Look at a Scene, Fundamentals of Voice, or Twenty Revision Techniques. Informational Asides, Book Map instructions and Checklists for Character, Plot and First Pages add to the content.

Together, the chapters underscore the 5 qualities this editor deems essential to magic-making:  good prose, rich characters, strong plot construction, thematic depth and powerful emotion, for both the reader and the writer.

A Recommended Reading List is also included.

Readers close the book smarter about story, craft, genre and format possibilities, children’s book literature and publishing as well as smarter about themselves as writers.

My all-time favorite chapter?  Chapter 16 – Perspective and Polishing.  Readers are offered the first scene of a YA novel, followed by Cheryl Klein’s annotated notes, followed by author Morgan Kass’ revised draft, followed by Annotations Part II. Talk about Show, Don’t Tell!  This eye-opening chapter should be compulsory reading for every writer of fiction. 

Speaking of which, I’ve now added THE MAGIC WORDS to my Recommended Reading lists for my University of Chicago’s Writer’s Studio and Newberry Library Workshops.

Why not see for yourself?  Click HERE to read an excerpt from Chapter 2 – Experience and Emotion -  Cheryl posted August 28 pre-publication.

MARY POPPINS creator P.L. Travers wrote, “We are all looking for magic…But indeed we have to wave the wand for ourself.”

Thank you, Cheryl Klein, for helping us wave our wands.

Happy Magic-Making!

Esther Hershenhorn

. . . .

AND NOW FOR OUR BOOK GIVEAWAY!

Use the Rafflecopter widget below to enter to win a copy of Cheryl Klein’s THE MAGIC WORDS (W.W. Norton).  The giveaway is open to U.S. residents only and ends September 26.

You may enter via 1, 2, or all 3 options.

If you choose option 2, you MUST leave a comment on TODAY'S blog post below or on our TeachingAuthors Facebook page. If you haven't already "liked" our Facebook page, please do so today! 

(If you prefer, you may submit your comment via email to: teachingauthors [at] gmail [dot] com.)

Email subscribers: if you received this post via email, you can click on the Rafflecopter link at the end of this message to access the entry form.

Good Luck!

P.S. If you've never entered a Rafflecopter giveaway, here's info on how to enter a Rafflecopter giveaway and the difference between signing in with Facebook vs. with an email address.

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