Happy #10 to the 10th Power!

We’re celebrating our TENTH Blogiversary?

We’re celebrating our TENTH BLOGIVERSARY!

Honestly? When we first began blogging, the challenge of a once-every-three-week Monday morning post caused numerous angst-filled Sunday nights.
(1) I’m the Slowest Writer East of the Mississippi.
(2) I was a tad intimidated by my fellow MFA-holding TA’S.
(3) Uploading my post to the Blogger software, inserting pictures and links and praying the post would appear the next day had me hating Sundays.

But once I got the hang of it, say after 4 years? I was there! And it gladdens my heart that I’m still here. 😊
I’ve so loved sharing my teaching and authoring smarts, experiences and wonderings with our TeachingAuthors readers. I remain truly grateful for the honor and opportunity to help seed and feed our Readers.

Gratitude lies at the heart of my very favorite post – “Celebrate October 20th the Write Way: Write a Thanku!
I love the surprise this post created whilst I was writing it – i.e. The Thanku, an original poetic form, part thank you note/part Haiku. I also love the surprise of our readers’ warm response.  The poetic form eventually led to our blog’s annual Two Weeks of Thanks celebration. 

In my very first Thanku I thanked the writers I’ve come to know through teaching and coaching.  “Such storied treasures!” I wrote.
Since 2011, I’ve thanked, in chronological order: my Children’s Book World, my students, my Carioca grandson, my fellow TeachingAuthors, my Chicago Cubs and my mentors Bernice Raab and Sue Alexander.

This year? I’m thanking YOU, our Readers who keep all of us - veteran and former bloggers alike, keepin’ on!

                      THANKU TO YOU!

Here’s to our Readers!

Fans, Feeders, Fuelers all.
True storied treasures.

With immeasurable gratitude to both my fellow TeachingAuthors and our loyal Readers,
Esther Hershenhorn

…..

And now, drum roll, please, as we announce the winner of Cheryl Klein’s THE MAGIC WORDS, our 10th Blogiversary’s Giveaway, personally autographed by the author at last weekend’s Marvelous Midwest SCBWI Conference: Michele H.!
Congrats, Michele!
And thanks to all who entered and shared Good Wishes, favorite posts and Kind Words!

                               Back row, left to right: Jill Esbaum, me, Carmela,                

                               JoAnn; Front row, Cheryl Klein

My Favorite 99th Revision!

Happy Tenth Anniversary!

Carmella began the celebration of our   TENTH blogiversary at  TeachingAuthors! In honor of this momentous milestone, we'll be giving away a signed copy of The Magic Words: Writing Great Books for Children and Young Adults (W.W. Norton) written by book editor and author Cheryl B. Klein. You'll find the giveaway instructions here!

We are looking at our favorite posts of these last ten years, and I have to admit, I love them all, written by every one of the TAs. I found them all inspiring, informative and relevant to the ongoing adventures of writers who teach writing to children, teens and adults. But perhaps the most relevant discussion, from my post of Feb 2017,  centers on revision. I'm currently taking the Revising and Re-Imagining Your Novel or Chapter Book online workshop, offered by Harold Underdown and Eileen Robinson. This is my second time around, and I continue to learn new strategies on how to dig deep into your story, looking at what ails it, and how to -- as Cheryl Klein states in her book on what makes for a good story -- "take readers on wonderful outward adventures and stirring inward journeys."

"I want to be sucked into this imaginary world and believe these characters and their actions are real, and I want the flow of language to be like water to a fish -- transparent, so I see right through it to the action, and so immersive that I take it for granted." -- Cheryl B. Klein, The Magic Words

Remember that old marching song:

99 bottles of beer on the wall
99 bottles of beer
Take one down, and pass it around,
98 bottles of beer on the wall.

Its repetitive melody helps you find your rhythm when hiking trails or jumping ropes. It’s an ear worm that keeps you steady when the task at hand seems monumentally tedious. It diverts your attention from the monotony to the goal. That’s what I feel when I revise. When I finish a first draft, breathing a sigh of relief and accomplishment, I move on to the first revision. Only to discover another plot hole. A character acts out of character. First person slips into third person. Or worse, the history is wrong.

I write a blend of historical fiction and American fantasy, blending the folklore that captures the American identity with a unique form of fantasy that – I hope – captures forgotten times and personalities in American history. My first book, Big River’s Daughter (2013), begins in December 1811, when a series of earthquakes shook the Mississippi River basin. It shook so hard, the river ran backwards. It changed the landscape. Language is as important as the history during this time. In true rough and tumble fashion, the heroes of tall tales mocked and defied convention. Annie Christmas and Mike Fink – two important characters in the book – used language as wild and unabashed as the circumstance and landscape that created them and the protagonist, River. If the language isn’t correct, not only to the time and place and character, it’s time for a second revision.

98 bottles of beer on the wall, 98 bottles of beer…

The historical details are particularly important, whether it is the day the river ran backwards or a day during the Civil War. Historians work within a broad spectrum of data-gathering, dairies, journals and other volumes of primary sources. Planning and plotting resemble postnotes arranged in rainbows, Venn diagrams and flowcharts, all in the quest for accuracy. The process of writing historical fiction, like researching history, is neither straightforward nor risk-free. My second novel, Girls of Gettysburg (2014),  focused on Pickett’s Charge during the Battle of Gettysburg. No other time in American history has been so researched, even down to the number of bullets fired during the charge. Historical fiction makes the facts matter to the reader. If you get those details wrong…

97 bottles of beer on the wall, 97 bottles of beer… 

Even after a manuscript is done, it's not truly done. My dear Reader (what some might call a beta-reader, but I call her Clara) and I have a process. After so many rejections, we review the story, and look for possible revisions. For all the blood, sweat and tears – no tall tale here! – spilled during the writing of the manuscript, a manuscript is more likely to get rejected than not. Recently, I revised one rejected manuscript, taking it from 150 pages to 175 pages, refining character,  language and plot while expanding on the historical context. During this process,  I have to keep reminding myself, revising is when the real writing begins. This is when the real story emerges, the one that needs to be told. 

Now I’m revising another historical fantasy manuscript. The original was an experiment into the contemporary. After several rejections, it became apparent that the experiment didn’t work. With this book, I venture into the wild, wild west, taking on its fantastical landscapes and lore. Think The Reluctant Dragon meets American Gods.

96 bottles of beer on the wall, 96 bottles of beer…

Historical fiction is one of the hardest sells today. As one agent warned me, western themes are harder still. The original manuscript was 150 pages, and I have to get it to 225 (for many reasons, one of which is the conventions our hoped-for editor prefers)...

95 bottles of beer on the wall, 95 bottles of beer…

You know what? I hate beer. And this morning, I hate revision even more. It’s hard, hard, bloody hard work.  It makes me dizzy-eyed. And there’s no guarantee that after all that blood spilled, sweat poured, and tears cried, and there’s been plenty of each, I’ll even be offered that coveted contract. So why do it anyway?

Indeed. Instead of spending all those hours writing, typing, outlining, researching, deleting, cutting, pasting, I could bake a pie. I could eat a pie. I could give my cat a bath. I could learn a new hobby, plant another garden, or two, or three…

Wait. Pause. Take a breath.

True enough, I have enough gardens. And I have enough hobbies, which mostly centers on books and more books. And my cat would not let me live to see another day if I dared give him a bath. And I haven’t had a baking oven for close to a decade.

Besides, this character, for all her flaws, is getting really interesting. If I could just…

Fine. Back to work.

94 bottles of beer on the wall, 94 bottles of beer…

Don't forget to enter our giveaway!

Bobbi Miller

Book Giveaway To Celebrate Our TENTH Blogiversary: The Magic Words by Cheryl Klein!

Yes, you read the title of this post correctly--we're getting ready to celebrate the TENTH blogiversary of TeachingAuthors! In honor of this momentous milestone, we'll be giving away a signed copy of The Magic Words: Writing Great Books for Children and Young Adults (W.W. Norton) written by book editor and author Cheryl B. Klein. You'll find the giveaway instructions at the end of this post.

Our Tenth Blogiversary is actually on April 22, 2019. We're starting the celebration early because we've invited our former TeachingAuthors to participate in a special series looking back at our favorite posts over our blog's history. As it turns out, that series will feature TEN posts, starting with this one. You'll hear from the six current TeachingAuthors: April Halprin Wayland, Bobbi Miller, Carla Killough McClafferty, Esther Hershenhorn, Mary Ann Rodman, and me, Carmela Martino, as well as our "retired" TAs: Jeanne Marie Grunwell Ford, Jill Esbaum, JoAnn Early Macken, and Laura Purdie Salas. TEN TeachingAuthors in all! (If you're new to our blog, you can read bios of the current and former TAs on our About Us page.)

I have to say, I was having a terrible time choosing just one from the over 200 posts I've written as my "favorite." Should I pick a post I especially enjoyed writing? Or should it be one that seemed to resonate most with readers? Finally, I "cheated" and looked at the blog statistics to find which of my posts has had the most page reads. Turns out, it was one from our very first year of blogging! On August 12, 2009 I shared a post called "Getting to Know Me--Six-Word Memoirs" that is still among the top 5 most-viewed TeachingAuthors posts of all time.

That post was not only fun to write, it also led me to incorporate a new activity into the summer writing camps I teach. The post includes a Writing Workout intended "To engage students in thinking about their lives and to show them how to write concisely." This exercise has proven to be a great hit with my young students. Even reluctant writers can manage to find six words to describe themselves, and often quite eloquently.

When I introduce the topic in my camps, I share the example of one of my own six-word memoirs:

Published author who enjoys teaching writing.

I also share examples from other students their age, like these:

I love soccer, so so much.

I am growing. I am learning.

I wish I had a panda.

The young writers catch on very quickly!

We've written about 6-word memoirs here on TeachingAuthors several times over the years. You can read more about them in posts grouped under the tag Six-Word Memoir.

I loved that one of our TeachingAuthor readers shared my August 12, 2009 post with her 7-year-old daughter who came up with this as her 6-word memoir:

"I like to draw...a lot!" 

Seeing the ripple effect of our posts has been part of the joy of writing this blog and has helped keep me at it all these years. Thank you, readers, for your continued support and response!

Image courtesy of Pixabay's qimono

And, speaking of your support, I have a special request:

We'd LOVE to know some of YOUR favorite TeachingAuthor topics. You don't have to look up the actual post, but we'd appreciate if you would share a comment about a favorite or helpful topic we've addressed. Or, if there's a topic we HAVEN'T addressed that you'd like us to, please share that.

And now, here are the Book Giveaway Instructions:

To enter our drawing for a chance to win The Magic Words: Writing Great Books for Children and Young Adults by Cheryl Klein 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. In your comment, please mention a favorite or helpful topic we've addressed here on our blog, or a topic you'd like us to address in the future.

(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 April 26, 2019 We've extended the deadline to
May 7, 2019! The contest is still open to U.S. residents only, though.

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.

Don't forget to visit today's Poetry Friday round-up hosted at Carol's Corner.

Finally, remember to always Write with Joy!

Carmela

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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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