Out & About, And More on Short Stories

This has been a busy month for me, with various events to help launch my new novel, Playing by Heart (Vinspire Publishing). Last Friday, Oct. 13, I spoke at the Fall Conference of the Wisconsin Chapter of the Catholic Library Association on the "Story Behind the Story of Playing by Heart." Tuesday evening I hosted my first ever Facebook Launch Party. The party was a ton of work to plan but great fun. I laughed out loud at times, especially during Game #3. (If you want to see why, you can read the discussion for yourself.) Tuesday was also the day my guest blog post on "Pulling a Novel from the Drawer" was published on the terrific Cynsations blog.

And just last night I gave a presentation to the SCBWI-IL LaGrange-Naperville Network on the topic of "Working with Small Presses." That presentation was based on the research I did for my article of the same name in the brand new 2018 Children's Writer's & Illustrator's Market. I still have three more events scheduled in the next ten days, including a signing at the amazing Anderson's Bookshop in Naperville Saturday, Oct. 28 at 2 p.m. If any of you are in the area, I hope you'll stop by.

Also, before I get to today's topic, I hope you won't mind if I share a small request. My new novel, Playing by Heart, is included in this year's SCBWI Book Stop. I'd love for you to stop by my page and post a comment to help me qualify for some great prizes. (Comments have to be posted by Sunday, 10/22.) While you're there, you can see the lovely video my publisher made for the book.

Now for today's topic: Short Stories. Because of all the busy-ness, I haven't had time to really think about my post for today. I'd actually been looking forward to this topic because I'm trying to write a short story for an anthology and I've been having a tough time with it. Part of the problem is that I went to set it in the same world as my novel Playing by Heart, featuring some of the same characters, but I don't want to have any "spoilers" for the novel.

In the September edition of my Creativity Newsletter, I shared about trying to get back into a fiction-writing mindset after being away from it for so long. I talked about reading a book that had been sitting (unread) on my shelf for ages, Movies in the Mind: How to Build a Better Short Story, by Colleen Mariah Rae. The book contains some interesting exercises, such as one in Chapter Two called "Nightly Recap" that asks you to do the following at the end of each day:

". . . lie in bed with the lights out and recall as vividly as you can as many details as you can. No paper, no pencil--you're just doing this in your head in the dark. Think through what you saw, smelled, tasted, touched, heard, and felt during the day. . . .
      Flesh out the details. Don't just say to yourself that the wool sweater worn by the person sitting next to you smelled pungent--stretch. Where in your nose did you smell it? Did it jab on both sides behind the tip of your nose? Details!"

Rae goes on to say that doing the "Nightly Recap" develops a "writer's repertoire" of material to draw from. As I said in my newsletter, I believe this exercise can help other types of creative work besides writing. I'd argue that paying attention to details this way feeds the creative part of our brain.

I noticed that doing this exercise regularly caused me to become more observant throughout the day. My mind seemed more "tuned in" to the sensory details around me. Unfortunately, these last few weeks I've been so exhausted by the end of the day that I've zonked out before even starting this exercise. I hope to get back to it when things settle down again, just as I hope to get back to working on my short story.

Meanwhile, I'd like to share a couple of articles that may be of interest to short-story writers. The first, "How to Write a Short Story from Start to Finish" by Joe Bunting links to a second article he wrote listing "Top 100 Short Story Ideas." I didn't find the latter helpful for my purposes. Do let me know if it helps any of you. Also, if you have any recommendations for books on the art of writing short stories, please share them in the comments.

And special congratulations to our own TeachingAuthor Carla Killough McClafferty on having a story featured in the brand new collection, 30 People Who Changed the World: Fascinating Bite-Sized Essays from Award-Winning Writers--Intriguing People Through the Ages: From Imhotep to Malala edited by Jean Reynolds. I can't wait to read it!

Don't forget: Today's Poetry Friday! This week's round-up is hosted by Leigh Ann at A Day in the Life.

Just saw this morning that today is also the National Day on Writing. When I think about #WhyIWrite, the first thing that comes to mind is that I can't NOT write. It's part of who I am. Does that make sense to anyone of you?

Remember, always Write with Joy!
Carmela

PS: Forgot to say: Congratulations to Judy S. for winning our giveaway of Playing by Heart. For all those who didn't win, stay tuned. We'll be having another giveaway soon!

The True Where and What of My Truthful Fiction

So, where do I weigh in on the value of research when writing fiction?

Well, for starters, I disagree with Sherman Alexie, a writer I greatly admire who so generously offered his Top 10 Pieces of Advice for Writers in a recent writersdigest.com blog:  I don’t think research is overrated.

In fact, I’d say it’s under-rated.

I know first-hand: digging up the concrete details relevant to each of my imagined stories - for example, the people, the times and places, the weather and daily living of lives, allowed me to grow my characters and puzzle out their plotlines, all while uncovering my story’s Truths.

We all know 3 is the magic number when supporting an opinion, so I’ll gladly share 3 instances when research enhanced and enriched my stories, making the fictive details incredibly credible.

I could not have written my first picture book There Goes Lowell’s Party! (Holiday House) without traveling the Ozarks courtesy of a host of books I met while reading my way through the 910 Section of the Wilmette Public Library. (That’s right! I wrote a book set in the Ozarks in May without ever setting foot there myself!)  Shelves of books offered me maps to read, photographs to study, land forms and water ways that could work their way into my text.  As for the rain proverbs (Section 398) that kept my plotline going – the skies growing red, the birds flying low, the leaves tickling Lowell’s cheeks, I came to know them thanks to Ozark folklorist Vance Randolph.  My book’s illustrator Jacqueline Rogers’ first request was for me to send on my primary and secondary research.  I also found a slew of place and character names printed on maps of Missouri and Arkansas.  By the time Lowell’s kin made it to his party, despite rain and floods and mud slides and twisters, my readers knew the wonder of familial love.

As for my delicious picture book CHICKEN SOUP BY HEART?

Well, believe it or not, I read and cooked chicken soup recipes (Section 641) from around the world.  In fact, in its first iteration, Rudie Dinkins was one of many multi-cultural characters who, so loved by their afterschool babysitter, Mrs. Gittel, wanted to cook her chicken soup when she came down with the flu.  And to counter my editor’s doubt that chicken soup could be sweet, as Mrs. Gittel liked her chicken soup, I was forced to keep digging through cook books until I came upon a Hungarian recipe that utilized sugar.   Readers came to see the crucial ingredient – the reciprocity of love.

My picture book FANCY THAT demanded time-travel, back to 1841and Berks County, Pennsylvania (Section 900).  Once again, my Wilmette Public Library served as the World’s Best Travel Agent.  Pippin Biddle, my story’s orphaned young limner, who set his heart on earning his keep traveling about painting people’s portraits, all to get his three sisters out of the Poorhouse, was a unique combination of every single limner I read about in Jean Lipman’s comprehensive book (Section 750).  Fortunately, I was earnest in my research; otherwise Pip would have returned at Thanksgiving, only there wasn’t a Thanksgiving yet; Pip’s dog would have been a breed (Jack Russell Terrier) yet created.  A Christmas return directed me to Sections 248 and 249 of the Library, so I could read about the Germans who’d brought Christmas to America in the late 1830’s, and Pip’s sisters could then save the day with their wreath-making business!  To my surprise, I’d written a book about hidden talents and how they reside in each of us.

“Fiction is a lie that tells the truth,” Stephen King wrote.  IMHO, research helps the writer tell the best lie possible.

Happy Writing and Researching!

Esther Hershenhorn

P.S.
Don’t forget to celebrate NCTE’s Fourth Annual National Day on Writing Friday October 19 and Saturday, October 20.
This year’s theme is What I Write.
Come Friday and Saturday, tweet out your compositions of all sorts and post them to Twitter using the hashtag #WhatIWrite, and if space allows, #dayonwriting.

Since the National Gallery of Writing opened on October 20, 2009, more than 3,300 galleries were created and nearly 33,000 writing contributions were submitted. While the Gallery is now closed for submissions, it is a searchable archive and is a great resource for you to use when involving others in writing.

P.P.S.
Don’t forget to enter our Guest TeachingAuthor Book Giveaway to win an autographed copy of Eileen Meyer’s Who’s Faster? Animals on the Move.

THANKUs! Poetry Friday! And National Day On Writing!

x
Howdy, Campers!
~
I'm having the final word, I'm wagging the tail on TeachingAuthors' topic of the National Day on Writing, which was Wednesday, October 20th.
~
My very smart mother-in-law always said, "It's not your birthDAY...it's your birthMONTH."  I believe I speak for all six of us at TeachingAuthors: it's not National DAY on Writing but National LIFETIME on Writing!  (I'd like to quibble about why they chose to use the word "on" rather than "of"...i.e, National Day OF Writing.  I'd like to, but I won't.  Not today, at least.)
~
Ah...writing.  Mary Ann wrote a brilliant piece on actual pen-and-paper letter-writing. I agree with her--there are some things that demand paper and stamps, like thank you letters.
~
If you don't know what to say in a thank you letter, why not write a thanku?  I love, love, LOVE Esther Hershenhorn's invention of the thanku.
~
It's tougher to write a thanku than you'd think.  It's a haiku with a built-in topic, right?  Just three measly lines.  HOW HARD COULD IT BE?  I thought I'd pull one out of the nearby dog dish in five minutes.

HA!

THANKU FOR ALL YOU DO FOR ME.  LOVE, YOUR DOG #18

by April Halprin Wayland~
When you whistle, I

come. You smell divine—not as

good as dirt, but close.
or..
THANKU FOR ALL YOU DO FOR ME.  LOVE, YOUR DOG #23
by April Halprin Wayland~
I love licking your
hand.  It tastes great!  Not as good
as cat poop, but close.
~
Groan!

WRITING WORKOUT--THANKUs

Esther already explained how to write 'em and then encouraged you to write your own and post them at the National Day on Writing.
~
It never hurts to repeat a lesson--it's all about practice.  It took me four years of taking classes from Myra Cohn Livingston--four years of practice--before I understood and could hear poetic meter.

So...let's write more thankus--haikus that thank someone.  Then share yours with the person you are thanking.  Or with a child.  Or maybe, with a stray blogger...or six. (If I can show you THOSE thankus...you can certainly show us yours!  And now that I think of it, neither of those are real thank you notes except for the titles.  Okay.  So, show us yours!)

Remember to write with joy!  And happy...

Poetry Friday is sponsored today by my close, personal, 

never-met-her-in-flesh-and-blood-but-I-adore-her-friend,
Jama Rattigan at her fabulous food/words/poetry/photography blog, Jama's Alphabet Soup.

poems and drawing (c) 2011 April Halprin Wayland, all rights reserved

National Day on Writing: Hoping for the Unexpected

If you're one of our regular followers, you know we're currently featuring a series of posts in honor of the Third Annual National Day on Writing, which will be celebrated here in the United States tomorrow, October 20. Here's an excerpt from the official website explaining why the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) founded this event:

"In light of the significance of writing in our national life, to draw attention to the remarkable variety of writing we engage in, and to help writers from all walks of life recognize how important writing is to their lives, NCTE established October 20 as The National Day on Writing."

Last year, when I posted on the actual day of the Second Annual National Day on Writing, I blogged on the topic of "Why I Write." My answer then had to do with having an inner calling to write, as Padgett Powell says, "in the closet of my soul." But that's not the only reason I write. The April 2011 issue of O, The Oprah Magazine, included a quote from former U.S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins that captures another of my reasons. Collins says:

"The hope for the unexpected is so essential to my process. I wouldn't start a poem if I already knew the ending. The pen is not just a recording device; it can also be an instrument of discovery."

I share Collins' "hope for the unexpected." For me, writing, especially fiction writing, is an adventure. I never know where a story will lead me. But I always learn something in the process. Even when I've plotted out a story and know the ending, I often encounter surprises along the way. And when I'm struggling with a piece and don't know where it's going, hoping for the unexpected is what keeps me at it.

After this post goes live, I plan to also publish it to the National Gallery of Writing. I encourage all of you readers out there to also celebrate by submitting a piece of your own writing. If you need help finding a topic, see the Writing Workout below. And if you're looking for other ways to celebrate tomorrow, visit NCTE's page on getting involved in the celebration.

Speaking of celebrations, I'd like to acknowledge a couple of milestones here on our blog: Welcome to our 400th Google follower: Soma Mohapatra! She happened to join us the day after our 400th post, which was Jeanne Marie's kick-off of this series about the National Day on Writing. A HUGE THANK YOU today to all our readers!      

Writing Workout:
In Honor of the National Day on Writing  

For this Writing Workout, you will create something to contribute to the National Gallery of Writing. The gallery accepts all sorts of submissions, including "electronic presentations, blog posts, documentary clips, poetry readings, 'how to' directions, short stories, memos, audio and video clips."

Need a topic? Here are four ideas for you:

1. Read Jeanne Marie's post about her young daughter's love of writing, and then write your own blog post (aka "essay") on the topic "Why I Write."
2. Read Esther's post on writing a "thanku," and JoAnn's response, then write your own "thanku."
3. Read Mary Ann's post about how she misses receiving handwritten letters. Then write a handwritten letter (or if your handwriting is as bad as mine, type and print the letter, then sign it) to someone you've fallen out of touch with. Be sure to send it the low-tech way, via snail mail.
4. Reflect on the above quote from Billy Collins, then write about a time when your own writing has led to "the unexpected."

When you're done, submit your piece to the National Gallery of Writing, then come back and share a comment here about your experience.

Have a happy National Day on Writing tomorrow!

And happy writing every day!
Carmela

Here's to the Pen and Postage Stamp

    Notice:  I wrote this last week, knowing I would be out of town over the weekend. How was I to know that Ben Stein would do a commentary on this very topic on CBS Sunday Morning this week?  It's the first time that Mr. Stein and I have been on the same page (pun intended) on a topic, although we didn't say exactly the same thing.  I just wanted to mention this in case you also are a fan of Sunday Morning.

    Now, on with the blog.

    I heard recently that the average American receives one piece of actual written mail every six weeks. Obviously, someone else is getting my one letter. My mailbox is filled with bills, junk mail and catalogs.

     This is opposed to my email box which is filled with messages from friends, relatives and former students( most of whom found me through Facebook), bills, spam and scams. Don't get me wrong. I am have reconnected with more old friends and students than I can count, to say nothing of dozens of cousins. This is all good, because I am a real phonophobe. I will do anything to avoid speaking on the phone. (I consider a cell phone an emergency tool, not a means of basic communication.) Before email, I would literally write notes to friends who lived in the same town, to avoid the phone. Now I can shoot off an email to my next door neighbor (or editors) without being thought weird.

   While I can keep up with a ton of people via email, I miss real, handwritten letters, even from people with horrible handwriting.  One of my earliest memories of my mother was of her sitting at the kitchen table, once a week, to "write letters to the family." Mom had seven siblings, a mother plus in-laws that expected a weekly letter (and vice versa). At our house, there was Wash Day, Ironing Day, Baking Day...and Letter Writing Day.

    Mom disliked writing, the way she disliked cooking, ironing and sewing. She think she wasn't very good at these things, but they were chores, and chores had to be done. She would write a first draft letter in pencil on cheap tablet paper. She would recopy them on her "good" linen stationary using a fountain pen. (I can still see the blue and yellow box that contained the jar of Scripto ink, that I was never ever allowed to touch.) She wrote so many letters on "writing day" that they didn't fit into our wall mounted mailbox for the mailman to collect. Writing day ended with a trip to the corner mailbox. (Remember them?)

    Opening the mailbox each day was like a surprise treasure chest. Long before I could read script, I recognized my grandfather's beautiful steelplate handwriting, the crabbed scrawl of my arthritic grandmothers. Best of all were the letters of my favorite aunt. She was the only one who typed, so I could actually read what my cousins were doing, as opposed to my mother giving me digest versions.

   Letter writing has a long history in my mother's family. Fortunately, my grandmother was something of a literary packrat and kept everything anyone ever wrote her. The family's letters from World War II formed the basis of Jimmy's Stars. We have her letter of acceptance to Vasser, the letters she wrote as a newlywed to her own grandmother.

    Slighly less highminded are the letters I saved from my college roommates and boyfriends that we wrote over summer vacations. Still, they are so evocative of a time and place in a way that emails are not (even though I do have a file of emails, 10 to 15 years old). The stationary (Holly Hobbie, Ziggy, the Peanuts paper my boyfriend and I favored, neon colored paper with neon colored ink that were almost impossible to read), the nicknames, the concerns, the just day-to-day-ness of what we wrote--"I saw One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and thought of you"--no further elaboration!--speaks to me across time and brings that person back to me.

   Through all the years that rejection letters filled my mailbox in depressing number, I kept writing my books and stories. However, if I wanted to feel real satisfaction, I would write a letter...to a cousin, an
aunt, even my parents. (This was in the days before long distance calling plans.) For one thing, the return letter did not include the words "your work does not meet our needs at this time." A letter always met the recipient's need somehow.

   While I didn't draft letters the way my mother did, I do remember considering, pondering each word before I committed it to my Snoopy paper. Maybe that's the difference. It's easier and faster to write on a computer...without a lot of pondering. Perhaps we are the worse for it.

     There are still things that I feel I have to send by snail mail...condolences and thank yous, letters to children who write me, my very extra special friends and relatives.  And if I ever could find her snail mail address, I want to write to the teacher who made me want to be a teacher.

    So just for today, go Luddite; sit down and handwrite something to a friend, relative or teacher, put it in an envelope, stamp it and mail it. Yes, I know it takes more time. But you know what? Somewhere, someone is getting my "one-handwritten-letter-every-six-weeks." Possibly because I haven't written any lately.

Posted by Mary Ann Rodman

National Day on Writing, a Family Reunion, and a Thankyu

While we Teaching Authors discuss the NCTE’s National Day on Writing, I’m packing for an annual Weekend on Writing—the SCBWI-Wisconsin fall retreat—and also remembering last weekend’s wonderful family reunion in gorgeous Door County, Wisconsin.

As I thought about a topic for this post, I scanned the NCTE web site, which is full of helpful ideas (Do take a look!), and was reminded that “The act of writing generates ideas.” (See Writing is a tool for thinking.)

I loved Esther’s poetry form invention, the Thankyu, so I decided to try writing one for my cousins:

sharing stories, songs
faces glowing in firelight—
laughter echoes on

Okay, it's a work in progress, but I have to pick someone up from the airport, and her plane is early—can you imagine? Off to the retreat!

This week's Poetry Friday Roundup is at Fomagrams. Enjoy!

JoAnn Early Macken

Celebrate October 20th the Write Way: Write a Thanku!

Once again, we six Teaching Authors join writers everywhere in celebrating NCTE’s October 20th National Day on Writing.

Which prompts this Teaching Author to invite writers of all ages to celebrate, too – by contributing an original piece of writing to NCTE’s digitally archived National Gallery of Writing.

You could try writing something easy, like, say, a Thank You note.
The writer of a Thank You note knows his audience; he knows the purpose of his words; writing in first person allows his voice to ring true.
Also noteworthy: according to a recent study at Kent State University, people who composed short letters of gratitude reported a significant increase in their overall happiness.

Or, you could try writing something short, like, say, a haiku.
The three-line poetic form is so very doable. The first line has 5 syllables, the second 7, the third 5. Together the three lines paint a picture often associated with nature, but not always
Bob Raczka wrote Guykus.
Andrew Clements wrote Dogkus.
Last April, the American Library Association created Twaikus, or twittered haikus.

Even better, though?  You could write something easy and short.

You could write an original Thanku!

(I know, I know: it’s not even Friday! I apologize sincerely to my fellow TeachingAuthors and stellar poets, April and JoAnn.)

Googling “gratitude-themed haikus that go by the name Thanku” revealed none exist…

’til now, that is.

And the Good News is: a heartfelt Thanku can make (at least) two people happy – the writer and the reader.

Here’s the Thanku I wrote for My Writers - those I teach, those I coach and those who visit our TeachingAuthors blog.

             My teacher’s heart kvells*
             like any Jewish Mother’s.
             Such storied treasures!
            
                *rejoices

Why not try your hand at writing this original poetic form, then post your three appreciative lines at NCTE’s Gallery of Writing.

Happy National Day on Writing!

Esther Hershenhorn

The National Day on Writing: Why I Write

We Teaching Authors are kicking off a series of posts to celebrate The National Day on Writing on October 20th.

The event's official website includes a section of famous authors' testimnials on the subject of  "Why I Write."
Because we as teachers spend an inordinate amount of time trying to motivate our students to do the same, this is an important question for most of us.

My daughter is in first grade, and her class is starting a school newspaper (!).  The teacher recently had a guest photographer and journalist from our local paper talk to them about the process.  Everyone in Kate's class signed up to be either a photographer or a writer.  Kate said, "Most kids wanted to be photographers.  But I picked writer.  Because I love to write!"  But when asked why, the best she could articulate was, "Because it's fun!" 

Indeed, I have observed that the ability to write with some fluency has opened up new worlds for my daughter.  Our house is full of notes and signs and cards and lists -- favorite candies; things I like to do; things my roly poly needs if I keep him in a cup in my house.  Today my four-year-old went to school with a note taped to the front of his shirt.  I want to save every scrap of paper (I've been taking pictures of them) -- such a wonderful snapshot of this precious time in our lives. 

Kate decided the other day to start a science journal.  She was so eager to get home to work on it that she did not want to do anything else after school.  Here is an excerpt:

Of course you will note that her handwriting is atrocious, her spelling is poor, and she seems to have little idea as to where to put a period.  However, I really don't care. Reading this gave me such a clear idea of her hopes and dreams -- from little acorn to tree to tire swing. 

Writing helps us dream -- and dream big.  My daughter, as I have mentioned before, is a worrier.  When someone suggested that she journal about her worries, she was delighted.  Doing so has helped her crystallize her fears and even consider how she might make them go away. 

Writing can be therapeutic for us all.  When we are struggling with problems and we pour them out in a facebook or message board post, an email to a friend -- sometimes just "saying it" is all it takes to unburden ourselves and feel better.

Writing is like talking, only in some ways even better -- because we have the ability to edit, to say EXACTLY what we want the world to hear.  Having others read and respond is the natural and important culmination of the process, which is why a student newspaper or a mash-up or a blog is truly an awesome tool.

I was volunteering in my daughter's classroom the other day, and the teacher had each student make lists of their interests in order to generate writing ideas.  Every time they have an assignment, they look at the list.  (One student had a gem, claiming to be an expert at 'being bored.')  The teacher is working with them on enticing beginnings, interesting conclusions, and good supportive details in the middle -- in other words, exactly what I'm doing with my college students.  

Somewhere along the way, sadly, so many lose their passion.  I hope my daughter is not one of them.  I hope I'm not one of them.  Thanks to all of you for being part of the nurturing community that keeps us all going.    Happy writing to all!    --Jeanne Marie

Why I/We Write: Last But Not Least

I’m a veritable caboose today, bringing up the rear: the last TeachingAuthor to close out our two weeks’ worth of Why We Write posts.
Learning where my fellow TeachingAuthors’ hearts lie didn’t surprise me.
At the end of each post, I found myself borrowing Leslie Helakoski’s delicious Big Chickens (Dutton, 2006) refrain, declaring,
“Me too!”
“Me three!”
“Me four!”

Like JoAnn, I think better with a pen.
Like Mary Ann, I write to figure out life.
Writing serves as my life preserver, as it does for Carmela.
April’s “What if’s?” and Jeanne Marie’s need to remember are staples stored in my writer’s cupboard.

I can’t imagine a day in which I don’t write something – a letter, a blog post, manuscript comments, a grocery list.

Years of writing across all formats, across all genres, enabled me to uncover and recover the first person singular pronoun “I.”
I found me….and the voice I’d closeted long-ago.
Now I speak loud and clear, on the page, often to the world.
My ordered words express a mind-set, a heart-set, a viewpoint – all mine.
Sometimes, I am the only one listening.
Other times, listeners come a-knockin’ at my door.

This past week, children’s book author Jacqueline Jules, the Coordinator of North Arlington, Virginia’s Nottingham Elementary School’s Exemplary Project, emailed to share her students’ S is for Story-based stories posted to the National Gallery of Writing on October 20.
The principal, Ms. Pelosky, with the help of Exemplary Project PTA funds, had purchased my book as a welcome back gift for every K-5 Nottingham student as a way to commemorate a new year of the Exemplary Writing project.

Could there be a better closing to end our Why We Write posts?

The Nottingham’s students’ National Gallery of Writing stories offer Show, Don’t Tell proof of why we six TeachingAuthors choose to write.

Esther Hershenhorn

P.S.
Hurrah!  We have two (count 'em) Show, Don't Tell items of proof.  Sit A While blogger and TeachingAuthor reader Callie Feyen emailed to thank us for inspiring her Why I Write post and pass along the link.

Why Write? Why Indeed! Happy Poetry Friday!

xxxxxxxxxxxx
In honor of NCTE’s National Day on Writing, we Teaching Authors continue to bring you a series of posts about our own reasons for writing.  We started with JoAnn Early Macken's take on it, then Mary Ann Rodman and Carmela Martino spoke up. Below is my attempt to explain/confess/explore in a poem why I write. 

And speaking of explore, be sure to explore the NCTE web site!
About the Initiative  xxx Tips for Writers  xxx   National Gallery of Writing

WHY WRITE?

by April Halprin Wayland

I can spy half a mile from my leafy retreat        
to the ocean-licked sands 

where the scribbler birds tweet.   

“Tell me why do you write?” someone yells up at me
I lean on a branch to consider the question.       
then climb even higher to give my confession.   

New ideas are a little like dandelion wisps           
It’s here that I catch those exciting “what ifs”    
then I blow on them all as I open my fists.       

I hold on to just one…the rewriting’s begun       
I’m lost in a fog—I don’t want to be found.       
Then I read it aloud and listen for sounds.               

When I finally have something—what thing? I don’t know—
I break off a twig and I poke in two holes       
then I wave my new words that say, “I did this—me!”   

So—why?         
Why indeed?                

A sensible question—if you’re not up my tree.               

I know it's corny, but writing really is a magic carpet..

poem and drawing (c) April Halprin Wayland

Happy National Day on Writing!

Today is the second annual National Day on Writing. Sponsored by the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE), it's a day to celebrate writing in its many forms. Why? According to the NCTE flier:

"Because we, as a nation, are writing like never before—through text messages and IMs, with video cameras and cell phones, and, yes, even with traditional pen and paper. Whether it is done in a notebook or on a blog, writing, in its many forms, has become daily practice for millions of Americans."

As part of the celebration, we TeachingAuthors are addressing the question: "Why do I write?" In the series kickoff post, JoAnn shared how she writes "to remember and to uncover the truth—not only in stories but also in me." Then on Monday, Mary Ann described how she writes "to figure things out." I write for the same reasons. But when I thought about my answer to the question "Why do I write?" the first thing that came to mind was a quote from novelist Padgett Powell:

"I knew I was supposed to be a writer; I had made that declaration in the closet of my soul." 

When I first read these words, they struck an immediate chord in me, in part because my earliest writing was done in a closet. Literally. I was around 12 or 13 years old at the time, and struggling with the turbulence of adolescence combined with family discord. Something deep within told me I needed to write, but I had to do it in secret. Since I shared a room with my younger sister, I had very little privacy. So after she fell asleep at night, I sat on the floor of our bedroom closet with the door shut, writing under the light of a bare 40-watt bulb. I wrote page after page, trying to make sense of my feelings and my life. Writing became my life preserver.
 

Over 25 years after my closet-writing days, I came across Padgett Powell's words in Susan Shaughnessy's Walking on Alligators: A Book of Meditations for Writers. Like books of spiritual meditations, each page of Walking on Alligators contains a quote followed by several paragraphs of reflection. At the bottom of each page, Shaughnessy shares a suggestion for action or a question to ponder.

In her reflection on Powell's words, Shaughnessy says:

"You don't 'become a writer' because others say that you have written well.
You become a writer when you tell yourself that this is what you are.
If you have fundamental self-honesty, you will then write. You will carry out the activity you have linked with your deepest identity."

And that is, at least in part, why I write: because it is an activity that I have linked with my "deepest identity." What started out as a way to deal with adolescent angst has evolved into a creative outlet for me. I admit that there are times when I get frustrated with the publishing world, and consider giving up fiction writing. But I can't imagine living without writing. It's too much a part of me.

What about you? Why do you write?

Writing Workout

Celebrating National Day on Writing

Why not celebrate today by writing your own piece in honor of the National Day on Writing? Then contribute it to the National Gallery of Writing. Perhaps you'll share your own essay on "why I write." Or you can submit a story, poem, recipe, email, blog post, even audio, video, or artwork. See details here for instructions on submitting your piece. After your done, please come back and post a comment about it.

 

Blogosphere Buzz

• Want to keep the celebration going? Check out the National Day on Writing Live Webcast today between 9:00 a.m. and 8:00 p.m. EDT. The event "will highlight local celebrations and compositions from the National Gallery of Writing. A wide range of authors and writers will be featured during the webcast."
• In an interesting coincidence, blogger Catherine Denton also talks about Padgett Powell's quote this week on her blog, Winged Writer.
• This week, Newbery-medalist Sharon Creech talks about how she uses her writer's notebook on her blog, Words We Say. She even shares photos of her doodles!
• Our thanks to blogger Christie Wright Wild for honoring the TeachingAuthors with the "The One Lovely Blog Award" on her Write Wild blog today.

Happy National Day on Writing and Happy Writing!

Carmela

"Oh Good Grief, Mary Ann"

     Why do I write? Boy, what an easy topic. I can rip this blog off while watching Court TV and eating a tuna sandwich.
    Or so I thought. I had such lofty thoughts about The Muse and such. Yet, there was something vaguely familiar about them. And not familiar in a good way. Like in a plagiaristic kind of way.
     Then I realized who was being so philosophical in my head. Peanuts. Charles Schulz's Peanuts. Snoopy who fancies himself a writer (don't we all?). Linus, the thumb-sucking, blanket-dragging philosopher. And of course, Lucy the Critic. I have always been a huge Peanuts fan, but to admit they inspired me to write...well, then I'd also have to admit that I took my blankie with me to college. (Seriously.)
     Couldn't I at least claim Eudora Welty as my muse? She lived several blocks from my elementary school and I often saw her around town. I could. . .but it wouldn't be true.  However, once I got over my writing pretensions, I found my artistic connection to Charlie Brown and all the rest.
     The daily Peanuts strips were among the first things I read as a child.  I read the other comic strips too, but I never mused over them for days and weeks the way I did Peanuts.  Somewhere around eighth grade (slow muser that I am) I figured out why Snoopy and Lucy and Linus seemed closer to me than most flesh-and-blood people.
     The Peanuts gang are small children. Schulz never says how old his characters are, but I assume they were somewhere in the K-2 range. What do kids that age do? Ask questions. Lots and lots of questions. So do the Peanuts characters. Oh sure, there is usually a punchline, but a lot of deep and even religious questions appear before the tree eats Charlie Brown's kite( again), or Snoopy steals Linus's blanket.
    When I re-read my third grade journal, I see that I was asking questions, and trying to find my own answers.  This sort of soul searching evolved from simple question and answer format to the way I write today. I write to figure things out. (And I could have said that about 250 words ago.)
      Mostly, I use my stories and journals to work out the kinks in my own life.  For instance, Jimmy's Star began as a journal entry in which I was trying to figure out why something that had happened to me at age eight still enraged me as an adult. Now understand that my original incident doesn't appear at all in Jimmy. But in my journal, I wrote my way through that eight-year-old's rage, and discovered the true name and nature of this emotion.
      Yankee Girl began as a not-very-good memoir, and ended up as a catharsis. After I finished that one, I truly felt as if I had toted bags and bags of memories and emotions and thrown them in the Dumpster. Those characters and events are based in reality, so it really was like taking out the mental trash I'd been hauling around for forty plus years.
    Why do I write? To figure out life (good luck with that one, MA!) To get rid of my own demons and to honor the beautiful spirits I've had in my life. In every one of my books, I am still trying to help five or seven or eleven-year-old Mary Ann understand why things are. The funny thing is that just as you know Charlie Brown will never get his kite to fly, I see the same questions asked and answered over and over in my work. Charlie and I have had a lot of kites consumed by that kite-eating tree, but we keep trying. Wondering. Hoping. Trying to figure it out.
Posted by Mary Ann Rodman
  

Invincible Vulnerability

In honor of NCTE’s National Day on Writing, we Teaching Authors bring you a series of posts about our own reasons for writing.

Why do I write? I often say that I think better with a pen in my hand. Sometimes it acts like an extension of my arm and moves across the paper almost by itself. Thoughts pour out that I wasn't even aware of, as if I’ve turned on a tap that allows words to gush onto the page.

Sometimes my brain gets so overloaded that something has to spill somewhere somehow. Writing makes room for what I take in. My brain organizes the most urgent and/or relevant thoughts in ways I can’t always comprehend, and presto! They land on the page for me to sort through.

Sometimes I find scribbled notes in my own handwriting that I can’t remember writing.

Sometimes I write things that scare me because they are so surprising. I ask myself, Where did that come from? And sometimes what pours out is frightening because it’s so personal and so revealing. But a certain kind of strength comes from opening up and saying to the world, “This is who I am, this is what I believe, this is what I stand for.” I think my sister Peggy coined the phrase we used way back in college to describe that oxymoronic state: “invincible vulnerability.” The term has stuck with me all these years because even though it’s a difficult state to attain, I keep striving to reach it. Staying open requires honesty and attention, and the rewards justify the effort. Writing helps me not only discover what I truly believe but also express my beliefs. It helps me focus, pushes me to stretch beyond what I’ve grown accustomed to, beyond the easy route.

Why do I write? I write to remember and to uncover the truth—not only in stories but also in me. I write to learn and to share what I’ve learned, to collect information, to incorporate opposing viewpoints, to organize my thoughts. And a certain kind of joy—or at least satisfaction—comes from watching seemingly random concepts evolve and coalesce into a logical form.

I write for reasons that seem contradictory but connect in ways that make perfect sense to me. And for me, living a meaningful life means making connections: past to present, here to there, me to you.

Reminders
Be sure to explore the NCTE web site!
About the Initiative
Tips for Writers
National Gallery of Writing

Enter our Teaching Authors contest!
Tonight (Friday, October 15) at 11 p.m. CST is the deadline to enter to win an autographed copy of Candace Ryan’s new picture book Animal House. For book giveaway details, read April Halprin Wayland’s October 8 interview. Good luck!

Out and About
Today, I’ll be visiting Wilson Elementary School, Grant School, and Mead Public Library in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, to speak about writing and poetry as part of the Sheboygan Children’s Book Festival. See the web site for details and the schedule of exciting events.

JoAnn Early Macken

The First Book I Ever "Owned"

Ever since I was a girl, I've dreamed of living in a house with its own library. You know-- the kind of room wealthy people in movies always have, with floor-to-ceiling-built-in bookshelves and a rolling ladder to reach the top shelves.

The fantasy was inspired not only by my love of reading, but also by the fact that we had very few books in our house when I was growing up.  (One of the few I can recall was a light blue softcover my father studied to prepare for his "citizenship" test.)  For my working-class Italian-immigrant parents, books were a luxury we couldn't afford.

Then one day when I was around ten years old, a door-to-door encyclopedia salesman rang our front bell. You can imagine my amazement when the salesman managed to convince my father to buy a brand-new 20-volume set of the World Book Encyclopedia. I don't know how the salesman did it, but he was my new hero! And since my younger sister and brother were too young to read at the time, I considered the set mine.

As nerdy as it may sound, I loved reading those books. We didn't have the Internet back then, and a trip to the public library meant taking two buses each way. So having my own encyclopedia was indeed a luxury. I used it not only to research class assignments, but for recreational reading, too. I never read a volume from front to back as you would a novel. Instead, I flipped the pages until something struck me as interesting.

I tell students at school visits that my favorite volume was the letter "B," and it's true. As a girl, I pored over the color photographs of Birds and Butterflies from around the world. I studied the rules of Baseball and memorized the stats of many of the record-holders. (I believe Joe DiMaggio still holds the record for the longest consecutive hitting streak at 56 games.) I learned the hand signals for right and left turns on a Bicycle.

Those books held more than information for me. They took me places I could only dream of visiting. They introduced me to presidents, poets, and painters. They sparked my curiosity in mathematics and music.

As I grew older, I became more interested in reading fiction and drifted away from the encyclopedia.  But every so often, I still went back to my old World Books. And every time, I inevitably learned something new and interesting from their pages.

I'm happy to say I still own that set of encyclopedia--you can see it pictured here:

Now, whenever I pull out the "B" volume, I'm reminded of how it felt to be ten years old and own not only one book, but a whole set of 20. I was the richest girl in the world!

* * * * *

This is the last in our series of posts for the National Day on Writing, sponsored by NCTE. I will be submitting this entry to the "A Lifetime of Reading" Gallery of the National Gallery of Writing. I hope you'll use the following Writing Workout to inspire your own contribution to the gallery.

Writing Workout

The first book I ever owned . . .

What's the first book you recall as your very own? Was it a picture book, a reader, a novel? Was it brand new, or a hand-me-down? Who gave it to you? What memories are evoked when you think about that book?

Post the title of the book as a comment here on our TeachingAuthors blog, then write a 250-500 word description, essay, or anecdote about the book. When you're done, I encourage you to submit your piece to the gallery called "A Lifetime of Reading," curated by Franki Sibberson and Mary Lee Hahn, who blog at A Year of Reading. You can read more about the gallery at their blog.

Happy writing!
Carmela

Living Inside the Story

     From the time I taught myself to read, I have been an obsessive reader. My mother used to joke that the first time she saw me without a book was at my wedding. (Little did she know that one of the things that worried me the most that day was knowing that I didn't have a "good book" to take on my honeymoon!)
    As a child, I was an undiscriminating reader. I read in the book aisle at E.J. Korvette's while my parents shopped. I borrowed books from friends, relatives, the neighbors. I read newspapers left in busses and cabs. Cereal boxes. Anything.
     Finding reading material when I was in elementary school was not that easy. Public libraries in the 'burbs were either non-existent or meagerly stocked. I never knew that schools were supposed to have libraries until I moved to Mississippi in the fifth grade. There was the school book club catalog, but once you'd ordered the five or six books you wanted to read, that was it for the year. A book store was an exotic destination, found only "downtown" in large cities.  I spent a good chunk of my day finding books to feed my habit. (Yes, this does sound like something from Intervention.)
     It was during those years, that I found the four books that formed me as a reader, a writer, and as a person. I didn't just read these books. I read them to shreds. I climbed inside them and lived there for weeks at a time. And when I finished the 515th reading of one of these books, I would read it again. And again. They have followed me to college, into marriage and motherhood, and are on my shelf today.
      Three of these titles are Charlotte's Web, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn and The Diary of a Young Girl. The fourth was the first to show me how writing could transcend the printed page and become a part of my life. This was a religious experience for a fourth grader.
     Fourth grade stunk on ice as far as I was concerned.  I had managed to run afoul of my teacher the first week of school, and things grew progressively worse as the year wore on. My saving grace was the classroom copy of Depend on Katie John by Mary Calhoun. As an adult, I can see how the fourth grade me could identify with the tomboyish-always-in-a-jam Katie John.  What made the book memorable was that it made me laugh out loud.
     Unfortunately, this happened during arithmetic.  I was supposed to be listening to my teacher explain the intricacies of long division, not reading a book tucked under my open math text. This didn't happen once; it happened over and over until my teacher confiscated the book, for the rest of the year.
    I felt as if I had lost a friend. Not just a friend, but one who could always cheer me up and make me laugh. If fourth grade had been a long slog so far, without Katie John, it threatened to turn into a death march. Losing the book certainly didn't improve my attitude toward my teacher. My school day was already an eight-hour tightrope walk, trying not to tick off The Teacher. Without Katie John, I found it hard to keep my balance.
     Life took a turn for the better when my father gave me my own hardcover copy of Depend on Katie John for my tenth birthday. I didn't know that regular people could own hardcover books; I thought they were something special only for libraries and schools.
     "Don't take that book to school," my mother warned. She didn't have to worry. No way would I risk my precious book and friend falling into the clutches of The Evil-Math-Loving-Book-Hating Teacher. I really did depend on Katie John. That book was the flotation device that kept my head above water until the end of fourth grade.
    I had always loved books, but the power this book held for me was something magic. How did this Mary Calhoun person put those words together in a way that made me laugh every single time? Even though I had been writing for several years already, I began to wonder could I ever be that kind of writer? One who could make a kid laugh, could create a character more real to me than my best friend?
     I have spent my life so far, trying to live up to the challenge of Mary Calhoun and Katie John.
     And speaking of reading...
  
What I've Been Reading
Adult memoir: Mennonite in a Little Black Dress by Rhoda Janzen; The New York Regional Mormon Singles Halloween Dance by Elna Baker; Half-Broke Horses by Jeannette Walls (technically this is fiction, but it reads like a memoir)
Adult non-fiction: The Most They Ever Had by Rick Bragg
YA fiction: Almost Perfect by Brian Katcher; The Sister Wife by Shelley Hrdlitschka; The Sniper by James Riordan; Love is the Higher Law by David Levithan, Flash Burnout by L.K. Madigan. The Goodbye Season by Marion Hale; Liar by Justine Labalestier, Crossing Stones by Helen Frost; Death on the River by John Wilson; Going Bovine by Libba Bray
Graphic novel:  The Storm in the Barn by Matt Phelan
Middle grade non-fiction:  Marching for Freedom by Elizabeth Partridge; Eleanor, Quiet No More by Doreen Rappaport
Picture Book: You and Me and Home Sweet Home by George Ella Lyon; Subway Ride by Heather Lynne Miller; Crow Call by Lois Lowry

National Gallery of Writing Now Open for Your Viewing!

JoAnn is unable to post today as planned, so we will continue our series in celebration of the National Day on Writing next week. Meanwhile, I want to remind everyone that the National Gallery of Writing is now open for viewing. I invite you to visit the Gallery called "A Lifetime of Reading," which features entries by members of the Kidlitosphere. And don't forget to contribute your own work, be it a story, poem, recipe, email, blog post, or even audio, video, or artwork, to the Gallery--NCTE's goal is to collect 100,000 pieces of "writing" by next June!

So get writing!

Carmela

Write? Right!

Write? Right!

And, especially today, October 20, our National Day on Writing as declared by the National Conference of Teachers of English (NCTE).

TeachingAuthors joins other Kidlitosphere bloggers in submitting this, our third post, to The Gallery A Lifetime of Reading, curated by Franki Sibberson and Mary Lee Hahn, two teachers who blog at A Year of Reading.

Let’s hear it for Story, both written and read.
It’s a technical wonder every bit as marvelous as any GPS; in fact, maybe even more so, to my way of thinking.
Not only can story help pinpoint the reader’s and/or writer’s location in Life, determining where he is at any given moment; it can help illuminate where he’s been and might be going.
Printed and bound, story is there for everyone to use, hand-held, heart-held, impervious to storms. Signal-sending story characters from time in memorial compute important date, cover to cover.
No, not for me, the alluring, beckoning Gypsy-like voice of today’s GPS.
No siree.
I prefer the voices of my tried-and-true story favorites.

For instance, the poignant heart-ful tones of Brave Irene, William Steig’s Heroine who braves wind, snow and cold, not to mention steep terrain, to deliver to the Duchess, (in the nick of time, of course!), the dress Irene’s mother had sewn for the ball.
I re-read this classic picture book whenever I’m lost, accompanying Irene on her obstacle-strewn plotline.
The burdensome box she totes provides her ticket out.
Her foe, the wind, becomes her friend.
Once again I pinpoint where I am on my journey. Once again I see where I’ve been and might be going.
In honor of our National Day on Writing, let’s hear it for Story, the ultimate Global Positioning System!

Esther

(A quick addendum: NCTE is holding an all-day webcast today in honor of the National Day on Writing. To take part, see the link on their page.)

Celebrate!

Today was the third day of our cold, rainy long weekend here in Maryland. Desperate to entertain our restless preschoolers, my husband and I took them to the mall. Wonder of wonders, we discovered that our high-maintenance children are finally old enough to play quietly at the train table long enough for me to browse in the children's section! Before my blissful browsing time was finally cut short by my son's proclamation of "Ew, stinky diaper," I had amassed a big armful of books to buy with a big, fat gift certificate from my boss, and I am still on a big high. (Writer in bookstore, kid in candy store -- I am equally dangerous in both situations.)

This week we honor the National Day on Writing.  Tomorrow is the official day of observation per resolution of the U.S. Senate (!), and I'm sure my English 101 students will be observably more thrilled about their classification essay assignment when I tell them of this momentous occasion.  When (if) someone asks about the preposition (why 'on' and not 'of'?), I will have to admit that I am mystified.  Anyone?

Like the fervent exercisers among us, there are those who can't start the day without committing their daily 500 words to paper.  Then there are the rest of us (professionals and students alike), who have lots to say but might need some measure of encouragement/prodding to get through the whole sweaty ordeal to the Finished Product. 

This day is for you (and me).  As in a 5-mile run, endorphins and that elusive high may or may not materialize, but at the very least, completion of a writing exercise will provide immediate beneficial results.

Last night I was ellipticizing to The New Yorker (blissful apart from the elliptical part) and found not one but two articles about children's books.  The first, nominally about Alloy Entertainment, essentially addresses the question of why kids read and why we write for them.  The second article, possibly even more interesting to me as the parent of a "willful" child (and on some days, two), discussed picture books as mirrors on the parenting trends of our times and the messages they send to our kids (and to us).

My children's preschool held its weeklong book fair recently, and my daughter begged daily that we buy her a copy of A Bad Case of Stripes. She is a huge fan of the No, David series (natch), and at the end of the week, she was finally rewarded for her patience.  I read her the book that night, and she was mesmerized until halfway through, when she became freaked out.  "I don't ever want to read that book again," she declared.  I put it away until she's a bit older and didn't think of it again for several weeks.

Meanwhile, I was browsing at the book fair in question when I got a call that there had been a staffing emergency at the community college where I'd previously taught.  I happily agreed to cover a class already in progress, though the ensuing childcare juggling meant that Kate had to go to beforecare at her preschool on two days.  These made for long days for a little girl and, while she ADORES her school and her teachers and was soon begging to go... at night, she started sleeping in our room.  We were tired, we were cranky, and my back really hurt by the time 5 a.m. rolled around and we had 4 people and 1 cat in our (not king-sized) bed. 

Kate now suddenly insisted that her room was scary and she "hated" it.  I did the math and figured that she must have developed a bad case of clinginess due to the extra hours at school.  Finally, on questioning about what was so scary about her room, one day she burst into tears and said, "We should have bought the The Star Wars book!"  My exasperated husband explained that he had joked that he would buy her this instead of the book she'd been begging for for days.  And suddenly it all made sense.  She was petrified.  It had all started at the book fair -- because, as she had already told me clearly, that book had scared her!

As I tell my students, words are powerful things (words like "liberal," "socialist," "fascist," "racist" -- how many of us reflexively cringe without really considering what they mean?).  Stories and books, a compilation of carefully chosen words, are exponentially more so -- especially if we are four years old and already spend half the day in the world of pretend.

And so, bearing the sacredness of your mission in mind at all times -- write on!

Writing Workout

In an effort to help my students avoid cliches, I asked them to write about fall and avoid the following words:
crisp, clear, clean, cool, colorful

I am teaching a class on writing college essays and scholarly papers, and one of my students wrote a lovely poem.  I love fall!  And I love teaching!