April Pulley Sayre: Her Work Lives On

I am still reeling from the news of the recent death of April Pulley Sayre. April was a brilliant author and photo-illustrator, and an incredibly generous friend. She published over 70 books for young readers and adults, many of them nonfiction, nature-themed books. I wouldn't know where to begin to write a tribute that would do April justice. Instead, I'm writing this post to let everyone know that April's work in support of nature lives on, not only through her books, but also through the Fund for Nature she created with her husband, Jeff Sayre. You can learn more about their conservation foundation's goals on their GoFundMe page.  

April epitomized what it means to be a TeachingAuthor, which is evident in the Guest TeachingAuthor interview JoAnn Early Macken posted here in 2010. That post includes a writing exercise from April's book Unfold Your Brain: Deepen Your Creativity, Expand into New Arts, and Prosper as a Writer, Musician, or Visual Artist. I just discovered that the book was recently re-released on Amazon in both ebook and paperback.

I know April had other books in the pipeline, including Happy Sloth Day!, due out in 2022. You can get a sneak peak at the book's amazing photos and lyrical text on the Simon & Schuster website. There are also links to similar previews for some of April's other books at the bottom of that page.

This morning, I learned that we can still hear April's voice, too. In the video below, she reads Thank You, Earth: A Love Letter to Our Planet. Listening to it is both consoling and heartbreaking for me. 

(If the video doesn't work for you, you can watch it online here.)

At the beginning of this post, I described April as an incredibly generous friend. I mentioned in this blog post that we graduated together from Vermont College back in 2000. That post also includes a photo of our graduating class, known as the Hive. In many ways, April was our Queen Bee. She often provided insightful feedback on our works-in-progress. But even more, she encouraged and inspired us to be bold and brave in our writing and in our lives. 

We will miss her terribly. 

Carmela

Take My Picture Book Class From Your Front Porch!

Howdy Campers!  

My fabulous 2019 class with some of their favorite picture books
helps me celebrate my 20th year teaching in UCLA Extension Writers' Program

My 10-week Beginning Picture Book class begins Wednesday, 9/30/20 to 12/9/20 from 3-6pm PST. I'd love to see you in one of those friendly squares. If you're interested, sign up SOON, enrollment's limited. More info at the very bottom of this post.

Welcome to another...

I've been feeling breathless about teaching virtually (see Margaret's wonderful One Word poem on this topic) and yesterday my generous UCLA Extension Writers' Program colleague, Adam McOmber, who also teaches in the Vermont College of Fine Arts, administered virtual oxygen to me. As so many of you know, the amount of stuff to learn can be freaking overwhelming. But with Adam's help (and the help of my wonderful Program Rep, Ashley Griggs) I'm finally getting it.

Deep breath.

Today's WWW comes from an exercise Adam uses in his novel writing class, which is also a great prompt for picture writers and for poets, with a little tweaking.

photo of Adam McOmber by Ryan Bakerink

He gives each student one chapter of a book. After they've read it, he asks: what are three inspirations you got from this book?

===================================

For picture writers:

1) Read a picture book.

2) Write down three things in this book that might inspire a new picture book or inspire you to rewrite an existing manuscript in a completely different way.

====================================

For poets:

1) Read a poem.

2) Write down three things the poet does that might inspire a new poem or inspire you to rewrite an existing poem.

Try this!  And please let me know how it goes. I really want to know. 

~ UCLA EXTENSION WRITERS' PROGRAM PRESENTS~
Writing the Children's Picture Book

photo of April Halprin Wayland (and Steve, the guy who took her on her first date) by Sonya Sones

when? 10 Wednesdays, 3pm to 6pm PST, 9/30 to 12/9 (no meeting 11/11)

where? Anywhere!

Designed for beginning picture book writers, this fun, fast-paced course surveys the genre's breathtaking possibilities, exploring its art, craft, and publishing practices (what are editors looking for?). You'll compare a wide variety of picture book structures, characters, and themes, and learn how to use voice, poetic and muscular language, point-of-view, repetition, and more. Through a balance of lecture, writing assignments, feedback, and the 10 books you read each week, you'll gain a clear sense of your own writing strengths, the ability to give and receive valuable critiques, and knowledge of the submission process--all in a nurturing community of writers.
Instructor:
April Halprin Wayland is the author of seven picture books, including More Than Enough: A Passover Story (Dial), It’s Not My Turn to Look for Grandma! (Knopf), and New Year at the Pier: A Rosh Hashanah Story(Dial), named Best Jewish Picture Book and winner of the Sydney Taylor Gold Book Award. Ms. Wayland won the Myra Cohn Livingston Award for Girl Coming In for a Landing: A Novel in Poems and has won seven poetry awards from the SCBWI. She is a recipient of the UCLA Extension Outstanding Instructor Award in Creative Writing.
Our Students Say it Best!
“Not only is April some kind of genius of rhyme and language, but she is a fabulous instructor—clear, endlessly inventive, and no-nonsense. I have learned more than I thought possible and had a great time doing it."

"Every class the three hours flew by.”

"She presented a great combination of whimsy, encouragement and discipline that I thought was the perfect tone for beginners like me."

37609: Picture Book I WRITING-X 441.1; 3 Credits; Writers' Program: (310) 825-941writers@uclaextension.edu
                                           https://tinyurl.com/y5esk2xk  Enrollment limited.

posted by April Halprin Wayland, with the help of Eli and Monkey ~

Trying Something New: Syllable-Square IN ONE WORD Poem

Happy Poetry Friday! I share a link to this week's round-up at the end of this post, below the poem I wrote using a new form invented by my brilliant co-blogger, April Halprin Wayland! But first, I want to share another in our series of GRAB 'N GO WRITING EXERCISES.

When I first became interested in writing for young readers (many years ago!), I took a continuing education class on the topic at our local community college. I'd fallen in love with the picture books I was reading my young son and wanted to write some myself. I spent the first five weeks of the class working only on picture books. Then, as one of our last assignments, the instructor asked us to write in a different form or genre. I ended up writing the first chapter of a young adult novel. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed that assignment. I went on to finish a complete draft of the novel and applied to Vermont College MFA program with the intention of revising the novel for publication. That particular novel ended up in a drawer, but writing it helped me discover my novelist's voice and eventually led to the publication of my two novels.

So I want to give you the same exercise today: Try Something New! Write in a different form or genre than you're used to. If you're a picture book writer, perhaps try a short story or a chapter of a novel. If you're a novelist, you could try a picture book. But if that doesn't sound fun, then perhaps try a short story, or a different genre of novel. For example, if you typically write realistic, contemporary stories, you could try fantasy or historical. Whatever you decide, I'd love if you'd report back here on how the experience was for you.

My poem today is also the result of trying something new. April kicked off this series of GRAB 'N GO WRITING EXERCISES by introducing the IN ONE WORD poetry form she invented. Well, my poem today is in that form. As it happens, my current work-in-progress is a collection of poems in a variety of forms with connections to math. For example, I've written several Syllable- Square poems, where the number of syllables per line equals the number of lines. I first learned of this form from JoAnne Growney's Intersections–Poetry with Mathematics website. One of my favorite Syllable-Square poems is Growney's 5x5 "Counting the Women."

For today's poem, I decided to use April's IN ONE WORD form to write a Syllable-Square. For this form, you choose a core word, and then each line of the poem must end with words made from the letters in the core word. I chose the word MATHEMATICS as my core word. According to the Wordmaker website, you can make 420 different words from the letters in MATHEMATICS! That was rather overwhelming. So I started to choose words from the list that most appealed to me. The word mismatch ended up being the key that unlocked the poem for me. I've included a bit more of the poem's backstory (as April calls it) below. I also share a great poetry writing app I recently discovered.

The poem's backstory: After writing the first line, poetry and math, I new my poem would be a 5x5 Syllable-Square. I played around until I had a decent first draft I liked, then shared it with my dear April, who gave me some helpful suggestions. As I revised, I realized I wanted to make the poem more "mathy" by including words with math connotations. That's when it occurred to me to incorporate perfect (as in perfect numbers) and powerful (as in raising to a power). I initially hyphenated power-ful to make the connection clearer, but decided the line looked cleaner without the hyphen. In case any of you aren't familiar with the term, the last word, STEAM, is an acronym for Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics. Finally, I wanted a title that also consisted of 5 syllables, to match the lines of the poem. I couldn't think of anything clever so I initially used the first line "Poetry and Math." But then I realized that the poem was the result of "Trying Something New," which happens to have five syllables! 😊 I'd love to know what you all think of the end result. In particular, would you hyphenate powerful?

Now for the poetry-writing resource I mentioned: Not long ago, I discovered a phone app with tools that help with poetry and songwriting: Lyric Notepad. It's available for both Android and iPhone. One of its great features is the line syllable counter--it's caught my counting errors numerous times. The app also highlights words that rhyme, though the "near rhyme" function doesn't work that well, in my opinion. If you use it, just be careful to save your work elsewhere, too. I've lost revisions to poems even after I've "saved" them in the app.

For more poetry, be sure to check out today's Poetry Friday round-up by Tricia at The Miss Rumphius Effect. And if you'd like to see videos of STEAM poetry, be sure to visit the STEAM Powered Poetry site.

Posted by Carmela

A New Poetry Form ~ IN ONE WORD

Howdy, Campers ~ Happy Poetry Friday! (my poems and the link to today's host are below)

But first: May 29th is the last day to enter to win an author-and-illustrator-autographed copy of Amy Alznauer's book, THE BOY WHO DREAMED OF INFINITY, which has gotten starred reviews from Booklist, Kirkus and Publishers Weekly! Go to Esther's post and scroll to the end for directions on how to enter.

We TeachingAuthors generally post Writing Workouts on Wednesdays, but we figure you're blurry-eyed and zoomhausted. Some of you may be desperately looking for a ready-to-go writing exercise for yourself, your kids or your classroom.

Or, you've had two cups of strong coffee, read the whole newspaper including the real estate ads, weeded your entire yard, vacuumed, run 10 miles, made two loaves of sourdough, finished the 1000-piece puzzle and are now looking for something fun to do.

Either way, this round we're offering you GRAB 'N GO WRITING EXERCISES

And today, we're going to learn a new poetry form.

drawing (c) 2020 April Halprin Wayland all rights reserved

Or maybe it's a form I hadn't heard of before...so if you're familiar with it, I'm all ears!

First I'll show you my poem, using this form, then I'll tell you its backstory.

The poem:

IN ONE WORD

by April Halprin Wayland
."I feel we've been duped,"

he began, "our world's been upended,

you crept

into our lives so deep

we must prune

you, denude

you. And though we've been reduced,

we have also endured.

But I can no longer pretend.

This is unprecedented."

poem © 2020 April Halprin Wayland. All rights reserved

==========================

The backstory:

The word UNPRECEDENTED is in almost every sentence of every answer, every op-ed, every comment, every excuse right now. And frankly, I'm freaking tired of it.

And in the poem above, every word at the end of each line can be found in the word unprecedented.

The site Wordmaker finds all the words hidden within a longer word. It found 321 words in Unprecedented. 321! Of those, I choose 31 one to play with. And of the 31, I used 10 in the final poem.

How to write an IN ONE WORD poem:

1) Think of a word. Any word--one you've always loved, one that enrages you, that peaks your interest, or speaks to you.

2) Look it up in Wordmaker (to make it more challenging, don't look it up...find the words yourself)

3) Choose some words on that list...then use or toss them, one by one.

4) Write the poem as prose--in one paragraph.

5) Break the paragraph up into a poem so that each line ends with one of the words from your list.
6) NOTE: in 2021 I began to break rule #5 in one of two ways:

a) These days, the lines of my IN ONE WORD poems do NOT end with the words from my list. I bury the words within the poem so it makes more sense and reads better.

b) OR: I simply scoop up a bucket of words from those within my word. Not more than 20, usually less. I let myself play with those words any way I want to, in any order. SO MUCH FUN!

========================================

Okay, here's one more...it's today's very rough draft:
.

POEM-MAKING (title is from the book of the same name by Myra Cohn Livingston)

by April Halprin Wayland
.

It's a kind of art—

lit by air

and light. Kept in a vault,

it can only chase it's own tail.

So blow on it, gently—this is vital.

It's yours; invent your own ritual.

poem © 2020 April Halprin Wayland. All rights reserved==========================

The backstory:

For this poem, I choose another word that's used so often it's driving me bonkers: VIRTUAL.

Below are the 18 words I decided to play with from the 65 words offered by Wordmaker.
I used the six that I've crossed out: 

it, lit, air, art, rut, rail, tail, liar, vial, vail, rival, trial, vault, viral, vital, trail, ultra, ritual

One of the wonders of this form is that I can take a word that makes me sick and come up with a poem that's kind or glowing. 

I think I've invented a new poetry form! An IN ONE WORD poem.  What do you think?

update: Mary Lee, from the A Year of Reading blog, wrote a wonderful IN ONE WORD poem to "do the internal work of anti-racism"...and here it is...WOW! 

drawing (c) 2020 April Halprin Wayland all rights reserved

It sure is fun to play with. Try it!  And if you're feeling brave, share it with us!

Thank you, Carol, for hosting Poetry Friday today at Beyond Literary!

posted by April Halprin Wayland with a hug she wishes weren't virtual or unprecedented

drawing (c) 2020 April Halprin Wayland all rights reserved

Where Is My Creative Mind?

I keep telling myself, “Come on Gwendolyn. Show your creative side. Rewrite that last paragraph. Show some pizazz!  Pizazz? I let out a deep breath. My pizazz floats away disappearing in the warm April breeze along with any cool thoughts I might have had about my current work-in-progress.

I keep watching the news for updates. I think about my writing project. I watch the news. I think about my project.

What now? I need to finish this project. The deadline is somersaulting toward me with no brakes in sight.

I don’t turn off my TV. Instead, I tune in my favorite music station. It plays jazz music all day and all night. No voices. No commercials. Just soothing jazz. I get some of my best ideas while listening to jazz.

I talk to my writer friends who are extremely generous during regular times and even more so now with COVID-19 AND lockdowns on our minds.  We read each other’s work, offer comments that are on point. You ask yourself, “Why didn’t I think of that?” They bring out more of my creative self.
Pull out a manuscript in your “Not Quite Ready” file. With a new perspective, you may be able to zero in on what could turn it into a sale. Relax. Take deep breaths. Close your eyes and type or write with your favorite pen. Don’t judge your work. Don’t even read it. Just keep going. As I write this, I’m thinking to myself, “Gwendolyn, you need to follow your own advice.”

While Hubby fishes, I write  by the calming
waters of  Lake Draper in Oklahoma City.

I am one of those who stops typing more often than I should and reread, delete and add as I write. Maybe it is time I follow my own advice. After all, it seems as if I’ll have plenty of time for revisions. WOW! Just giving myself permission to write without worrying about the result makes me feel extra creative. Maybe I’ll try a different point of view. There is an old manuscript I want to bring to life.

Is there an idea or character you visit from time to time, but never seriously follow through with your plans for it? Then maybe this is your moment. You won’t know until you explore it fully.

Fill your computer screen with stories only you can write. Your creative mind is within you. Use it. I promise to do the same.

Posted by Gwendolyn Hooks

Wednesday Writing Workout: Six Brilliant Words

Today I'm happy to share a guest Wednesday Writing Workout from Illinois author Melanie Weiss that's perfect for National Poetry Month, which begins today.

Melanie and I connected last fall after attending an SCBWI-IL Food for Thought meeting. Melanie is a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University and worked as a journalist for newspapers and magazines for 20 years. She began writing her debut novel, Spoken, shortly after she became an “empty nester.”

Spoken received the Bronze Medal for Young Adult-Social Issues in the 2019 Readers' Favorite International Book Award Contest. Here's a one-sentence summary of the novel:

When high school freshman Roman Santi discovers the Spoken Word Club, it leads him on a journey of new friendships and finding the dad he never knew.

You can read more about Melanie at her website and follow her on Facebook.

Today, Melanie shares a Wednesday Writing Workout on using six-word stories/poems in the classroom, but the exercise is appropriate for writers of all ages.

Wednesday Writing Workout:
Six Brilliant Words
By Melanie Weiss

Flash fiction is a genre of fiction that involves telling a story using between 5 and 1,500 words. Today, we are going to focus on the smaller side of that scale, the six-word story:

Flat tire.
New job.
No job?

This example is just six short words but it says everything you need to know. Writing a six-word story can be fun for every age and makes an excellent creative writing assignment that encourages students to use precise, concise language. It's wonderful, isn't it, how six little words can be strung together to say something so much BIGGER?

Six-word stories are a great way to help students (and adult writers) get more comfortable with writing short stories and poems. Since April is National Poetry Month, this is the perfect time to work on six-word stories. They can be a starting point before moving into haikus and other forms of free verse poetry, such as spoken word poetry. Prompts for six-word stories are endless. You can find countless sources online, including these at Page Flutter and these art-themed prompts.

In the classroom, adding the six-word story to your curriculum offers students an interactive exercise in thinking creatively as they share these stories with their classmates. The stories are often goofy, usually fun, sometimes serious or head-scratching, but always entertaining.

I knew I had to work the six-word story into my young-adult novel, Spoken, because the novel takes place partly at a fictionalized version of Oak Park and River Forest High School in Illinois. Not only does the school have a robust Spoken Word Club, it's the high school Ernest Hemingway attended and graduated from in 1917. Hemingway has been credited with writing the first six-word story, though this is one of those myths that continues to live despite being debunked.

The weight of connecting six well-thought-out words cannot be denied. We ALL have it within us to unleash that power and create our own six-word masterpieces.

I thought it may be easiest to borrow from Spoken and allow the novel's Spoken Word Club Teacher Patrick Collins to explain:

     Mr. Collins walks in the room and strides up to the white board at the front of the classroom. He turns to us and bows slightly. “Today we will be writing flash fiction. Does anybody know what that means?”
     Mr. Collins points to a student in one of the front rows who has her hand straight up in the air.
     “It’s telling a story but with not a lot of words.”
     “Yes, that’s pretty much it, Gina,” says Mr. Collins.
     He turns to the whiteboard and writes:

     For Sale: Baby Shoes, Never Worn.

     “This has been attributed to Ernest Hemingway. One of the greatest writers of the 20th century. It’s an extreme example of a story packed into just six words.
     “Your mission today is to write just six brilliant words that tell a story. Think about the message you want to convey and what imagery you want to represent.”
. . .

     “Now let’s spend about ten minutes and I want each of you to write your own six-word story,” he says. “Make each of your six words shimmer, like a brilliant piece of art.”
     “No pressure, right Mr. Collins?” jokes Jordan.
     We bend over our desks, pens in hand, diving down into our thoughts. The room is pure silence except for the scribbling, the scratching out of phrases, a few toes taping.
     After the ten minutes, students start sharing their stories with Mr. Collins as he captures the musings on the whiteboard.

There are ways to stretch this assignment further. Students could illustrate their short stories. A student could pass the story to another classmate and that classmate could draw what the story is telling them. Take a look back on Carmela Martino's popular TeachingAuthors' post Getting to Know Me--Six-Word Memoirs, which offers students the opportunity to find a concise way to share who they are with their teacher and classmates.

The beauty of the six-word story is simple: One classroom, countless stories, students soar.

_____
 

Thank you, Melanie, for today's Wednesday Writing Workout. Readers, I hope you'll try this exercise on your own or with your students. If you do, please let us know how it works for you.

Posted by Carmela

Wednesday Writing Workout: Voice is YOU!

Good News!
In celebration of her newest picture book THE BOY IN THE BIG BLUE GLASSES (EK Books, 2019) award-winning Australian children’s book author Susanne Gervay has again gifted TeachingAuthors readers, this time with a Wednesday Writing Workout.

Those of us lucky enough to know Susanne know she is not just a children’s author. She was awarded the Order of Australia for Children’s Literature and the International Literacy Association’s Lifetime Literature Award for her body of works on social justice for children and nominated for the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award. Somehow she also finds time to serve as the Regional Advisor for SCBWI’s Australia East Chapter and New Zealand, which is how Susanne and I first connected. Children around the world know her for her I AM JACK series which prompted her first bully-related TeachingAuthors WWW in October of 2013 – “Read a Book. Stop a Bully.”

In her latest book, Sam doesn’t like his new glasses, no matter the benefits his family, friends and teacher bring to his attention. He does everything he can to lose those big blue glasses, except…they keep being found. In time, of course, Sam discovers wearing glasses isn’t all that bad and people like him just the way he is.

Susanne is the perfect person to be sharing a WWW about VOICE. Her Aussie accent is awesomely unforgettable, but so is she and the voice she’s brought to children’s literature and social justice world-wide.

Thank you, Susanne, for speaking out and up and to the world on behalf of those who can’t and for of course sharing your writing smarts today with our TeachingAuthors readers.

Here’s to making our voices heard – and – in honor of Sam, 20/20 vision!

Esther Hershenhorn

. . . . . . . . . . . . .

Voice is YOU!

Voice is your perspective of the world and life. It’s your humour and sadness and emotions. It’s how you view characters. It’s your writing tone.  It’s what gives your writing individuality, captures readers and makes the story unique.

Your voice is in every character, description, dialogue, every line and scene. It is the heart, within the story. But how do you achieve this?

Here are the opening lines of my chapter book I AM JACK:

“Mum, will you listen?” 
Mom’s talking to Nanna. She said she’d only be a minute. That’s such a lie. A minute means an hour in Mom time. 

How old is this character approximately? A girl or boy? What’s the nature of the character? What is his issue? What is the tone?
(Answer:  Jack is an 11-year old boy who is insightful about adults, impatient and has something he has to solve. He needs to speak to his mother about it, but there’s a block.)

So, how can YOU achieve VOICE?

• Read the start of successful books and ask questions.
• Can you hear and see the character?
• Do you feel the tone?
• Are you engaged?
• If you are, then the voice is effective.

For example, here’s the opening scene in the middle grade novel CHARLOTTE’S WEB by E.B. White:

 “Where's Papa going with that ax?" said Fern to her mother as they were setting the table for breakfast. 
"Out to the hog house," replied Mrs. Arable. "Some pigs were born last night." 
"I don't see why he needs an ax," continued Fern, who was only eight. 
"Well," said her mother, "one of the pigs is a runt. It's very small and weak, and it will never amount to anything. So your father has decided to do away with it." 
"Do away with it?" shrieked Fern. "You mean kill it? Just because it's smaller than the others?" 
Mrs. Arable put a pitcher of cream on the table. "Don't yell, Fern!" she said. "Your father is right. The pig would probably die anyway." 
Fern pushed a chair out of the way and ran outdoors. The grass was wet and the earth smelled of springtime. Fern's sneakers were sopping by the time she caught up with her father. 
"Please don't kill it!" she sobbed. "It's unfair."

Ask yourself:

• Who is Fern? What is her character?
• What is her reaction to her father’s ax?
• What is the issue?
• What is the tone?
• Do you like Fern?

Here’s the opening of my latest picture book THE BOY IN THE BIG BLUE GLASSES:

I don’t want glasses.
My parents say that I look very handsome in them.
I don’t want to look very handsome in them.
They make the backs of my ears hurt.
Grandma is surprised when she sees me.
“Who’s the handsome boy in the big blue glasses?’
“It’s me, Sammy.”
“It can’t be. You’re so handsome.”
Grandpa is very surprised too.
He asks who the Superhero with the glasses is.
“It’s me, Sammy.”
Grandpa smiles.
“Well, there’s a new Superhero in town.”

Ask yourself:

• Who is Sammy and what is his character?
• How old do you think he is?
• What is the issue?
• What is the tone?
• Do you like Sammy?

Here are a few Tips for Writing VOICE:

Read and be informed, but do not mimic another author’s voice. You need to find your own voice. This means risk uncovering your unique perception of character and story.

• Have a rant – write notes down – what you want to say. This can unlock the ‘you’ in voice, giving you a place to start, where you can play around with the tone, character, emotional engagement, until you feel your voice.

• The voice must be appropriate to your purpose, audience and context.
For example, in TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD by Harper Lee, the purpose is to reveal the impact of racism on justice. This is achieved through the voice of a little girl, Scout. The naivete of a child provides a unique and authentic voice that navigates the adult world, creating humour, satire, darkness and hope.

• When you write from 1st person, then it is the character’s voice with your unique view and presentation of that character.

• When you write from 3rd person, it is the author’s voice. The decision needs to be made as to what sort of perspective and tone you will bring to the voice.

• Voice is unique. When you read Steinbeck, Kate DiCamillo, Judy Blume, Roald Dahl, you recognise the work because it contains their voice and the essence of who they are.

“A writer's voice is not character alone, it is not style alone; it is far more. A writer's voice is like the stroke of an artist's brush; it is the thumbprint of her whole person - her idea, wit, humor, passions, rhythms.”  Patricia Lee Gauch
 

Wednesday Writing Workout: Befriending the Revision Monster

Today I'm happy to share a guest Wednesday Writing Workout from Illinois author Shirin Shamsi.

Shirin was born and raised in the UK to immigrant parents from Pakistan. She moved to the United States where she raised three wonderful human beings who are doing great things in the world.
Shirin always wanted to write stories in which her children would see themselves. Living on three different continents gave her a global perspective and she dreams of writing stories that inspire empathy. You can read more about her at her website and follow her on Twitter and Instagram.

Shirin's most recent book is the middle-grade novel Laila and the Sands of Time (Spork). Here's a brief summary:

Thirteen-year-old Laila, still grieving over her father's death, goes on their planned pilgrimage to Mecca with her aunt and uncle. While on pilgrimage, Laila is transported back in time to 7th-century Arabia. There she faces the dangers of the desert, takes on a disguise, and saves a baby's life. But will she ever return to her own time?


Here's Shirin's Wednesday Writing Workout.

Wednesday Writing Workout:
Befriending the Revision Monster
by Shirin Shamsi

I began writing Laila and the Sands of Time when my eldest daughter asked me to write a chapter book. At the time I considered myself a picture book author only.

The journey has been a long road. I learned much from it. I was a total "pantser" before and now try to be a plotter, so hopefully I am becoming a bit of both.

I feared revision before. In fact, I believe it was the fear of revision that made procrastination much more palatable to me. My fear of revision grew and grew until it became a monster.

Image by Stefan Keller from Pixabay

Let’s face it, if you love writing then revision is going to be your companion for the duration of your writing career. It has taken a lot of time, patience, and perseverance, but I now come to revision with the same excitement I bring to writing a rough draft. Revision and I are now best friends.
From the time I signed the contract for Laila and the Sands of Time to the moment when I held it in my hands, it took two whole years. During that time I went back and forth with my editor. Without my amazing editor, I feel my book would not have been as good. It was a learning process for me, being my first middle grade novel. I was impatient to see my story in print, but even when I thought my story was perfect, my editor made it shine. Our constant back and forth conversations and revision made my book the best it could be.

I feel so passionate about revision that I would like to share a few ideas here with you:

1. When you feel your story is complete, put it away. Let it rest.
2. When you read it again, ask yourself if every fact has been researched. For Laila, I had to research a lot about 7th-century Arabia. I feared getting the facts wrong.
3. Also ask yourself: Does everything make sense? Is every page interesting?
4. Each time you revise, approach your work with a new goal, such as word choice, tone, factual details, story arc, plot.
5. Go through each page to cut out the “widows” and “orphans” at the beginning and end of each page. It will make for a cleaner and tighter story.
6. Read your story as though someone else has written it. Does it still excite you? If your answer is “YES” then you are ready to share your story with the world.

Revision is a lengthy process. I think of it as excavation. We have to dig deep, cut through hard obstacles to get to our gem of a story.

Image by PaulaPaulsen from Pixabay

Good luck. Keep writing. Keep revising.
_____
Thank you, Shirin, for today's Wednesday Writing Workout. Readers, I hope you'll try her suggestions. If you do, please let us know how they work for you.

Posted by Carmela

Wednesday Writing Workout: Combining Poetry and Nonfiction, and a Book Giveaway!

Today I'm happy to bring you a Wednesday Writing Workout from nonfiction author and poet extraordinaire, Kimberly Hutmacher.

Kimberly is the author of 32 nonfiction books for children and 150+ articles, stories, and poems for magazines! Her latest is a series of three books on musical instruments, French Horn, Harp, and Djembe, to be released by Weigl AV2 Publishing in  2020. When Kimberly isn't working on a book project, she blogs for Poetry Friday at Kimberly Hutmacher Writes. She also contributes activities, crafts, and book recommendations to S.T.E.A.M. Powered Poetry, a site featuring inspiring STEAM-themed poetry videos for grades K-8.

To celebrate her appearance here on TeachingAuthors, Kimberly is giving away a copy of her book Your Nose Never Stops Growing and Other Cool Human Body Facts (Capstone Press) to one lucky TeachingAuthors reader.

Did you know the smallest muscle in the human body is located inside the ear? Did you know the average American shoe size has increased 2 sizes since 1970? Did you know tooth enamel is the hardest part of the body? Your Nose Never Stops Growing and Other Cool Human Body Facts is brimming with interesting and unusual human body trivia. The book is part of Capstone's Mind Blowing Facts Series. See the end of this post for instructions on how to enter to win your own copy! But first, here's Kim's Wednesday Writing Workout.

Wednesday Writing Workout:
Combining Poetry and Nonfiction

My two favorite writing genres are poetry and nonfiction. In my work, the two forms often collide. My nonfiction picture book, Paws, Claws, Hands, and Feet (Arbordale 2009) and my nonfiction series of books on time for Capstone Press are written in rhyme. Sometimes, I’m asked to write STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Math) poems for a curriculum or a testing company. Once in a while, I’ll write a STEAM-themed poem for a magazine. I contribute accompanying activities, crafts, and book recommendations to Heidi Bee Roemer’s S.T.E.A.M. Powered Poetry Vlog. Today’s Wednesday Writing Workout lets us stretch both our nonfiction and our poetry writing muscles. 

Step 1: Find and read a STEAM-themed article that interests you. Here are a few online publications you might find helpful:

• ScienceNews
• Scientific American
• Discover Magazine
• Science Daily

Step 2: Read the article again, and jot down some notes: key points, interesting words, descriptions of images that come to mind, questions you have about the topic and/or anything you might want to research further, etc.

Step 3: Write a poem based on what you’ve read. Your poem can be a feast for readers covering an entire process (Example: water cycle) or introduce readers to just a small taste of your topic (Example: evaporation). Your poem can be as long or as short as you like and it can be written in any form.

The following poem is an example of how I used this process for a Today’s Little Ditty Challenge at Michelle Heidenrich’s blog. Linda Mitchell challenged us to write a found haiku from any article on any subject that fascinated us. For this particular challenge, our haiku had to be made up of all words/phrases from the article. The article about spiders that inspired my poem can be found here on the News&Observer site.
And here's my haiku:

               Half as strong as steel
          Silk produced from spinnerets
               All done by instinct

       Copyright 2019 Kimberly M. Hutmacher

Remember, for this exercise,  there are no word, phrase, or form requirements. Just try to keep it on a STEAM topic.

Magazine publishers are looking more and more for STEAM-related content. Once you’ve written your poem and revised it to the best of your ability, you might consider submitting it to a children’s magazine for consideration. Click here for a list of possible markets.

Be sure to stop by the S.T.E.A.M. Powered Poetry Vlog to view inspiring STEAM-themed poetry videos. New videos and content are added every month. Be sure to follow and subscribe!

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A big THANK YOU to Kimberly for today's Wednesday Writing Workout and for providing a book for today's giveaway.

Readers, before you leave, be sure to enter our giveaway for a chance to win her book Your Nose Never Stops Growing and Other Cool Human Body Facts (Capstone Press).

To enter our drawing, use the Rafflecopter widget below. You may enter via 1, 2, or all 3 options. (Note: if the widget doesn't appear, click on the link at the end of this post that says "a Rafflecopter giveaway" to enter.)

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 a STEAM-related topic you enjoy reading.

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 RAFFLECOPTER BELOW. The giveaway ends December 18, 2019 and is open to U.S. residents only.

Posted by Carmela 

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.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Mini Post: Book Giveaway & Writing Workout!

.
Howdy, Campers!

This post will be short and sweet--'cause it's summer!

Last week I posted an interview with illustrator-author-poet-puppeteer-amazingness, Vincent X. Kirsch, who will personally autograph a copy of his newest picture book, HOW I LEARNED TO FALL OUT OF TREES for our Book Giveaway winner! To enter to win this wonderful book, go to the interview and scroll down.

And now, before the sun melts my flip flops, I'd like to present Vincent X. Kirsch's

Take an existing story you've worked on
and reverse the action,
telling it backwards,
starting with the ending first.

Some stories
work better backwards.

image from pixabay.com

See? I told you this was going to be short and sweet! If you try this exercise, let us know how it went. And don't forget to enter to win Vincent's newest book!

posted backwards by April Halprin Wayland, who loves this quote:
"Spend the afternoon. You can't take it with you." -Annie Dillard

image from pixabay.com

Wednesday Writing Workout: Poetry vs. Prose

Today I'm sharing a Wednesday Writing Workout (WWW) from Laurie Wallmark as a follow-up to my guest TeachingAuthor interview with her last week.

Laurie's WWW is related to her picture book Grace Hopper: Queen of Computer Code, illustrated by Katy Wu (Sterling Children's Books).

Laurie shared the following "behind the scenes" information about the writing of Grace Hopper:

"I originally wrote my Grace Hopper book in verse. The poem on the front end pages was one of these poems."

I included the poem Laurie is referring to in Friday's post. Here it is again, in case you missed it:

Laurie told me that when her Grace Hopper story didn’t work in verse, she switched to prose. That leads to today's Wednesday Writing Workout.

Wednesday Writing Workout: Poetry vs. Prose
by Laurie Wallmark

(Note: this exercise is addressed to classroom teachers, but writers can apply the same exercise to their own work.)

An interesting writing exercise for your students might be to have them write a poem about something that they did or that happened to them. This could be anything from sports to playing with a baby sister, singing on stage to being unfairly punished. Then, have them rewrite the same incident in prose. Here are some questions for the class to discuss after finishing the exercise:

• Which was easier to write—verse or prose. Why?
• Which used more words? Why do they think this was the case?
• Which told the story better?
• Which method allowed more emotional depth for the story?
• Did everyone have the same answers for the above questions?

___

If you'd like to get an inside peek at the work that went into the illustrations for Grace Hopper: Queen of Computer Code, see this interview with illustrator Katy Wu.

And if you haven't entered our giveaway of Laurie and Katy's newest book, Hedy Lamarr's Double Life: Hollywood Legend and Brilliant Inventor, you can do so on Friday's post.

Finally, remember to always Write with Joy!

Carmela

Picturebook Prompt ~ Dialogue is Sriracha Sauce

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Howdy, Campers, and welcome to another of our occasional Wednesday Writing Workouts!

 

Next Monday is the last class of this quarter for my Picture Book course...and on Saturday, January 26th, I begin my 20th year of teaching in UCLA Extension's Writers' Program. (HOW CAN THAT BE when I'm only 26 years old?)

We're trying something new next quarter: 10 Saturday classes beginning January 26th from 10am-1pm. (I'm already dreaming of less traffic on Saturdays! Please spread the word to your friends in the LA area: here's the link)

In last Monday's class, we talked about the use of dialogue in picture books and how much fun it is to read these books aloud. I learned early on that including dialogue is like pouring Sriracha sauce on oatmeal. 

image from Pixabay

My first book, To Rabbittown, written in free verse, contains no dialogue. But my second (The Night Horse), third (It's Not My Turn to Look for Grandma!), fourth, (Girl Coming in for a Landing ~ a novel in poems), and fifth books (New Year at the Pier) do.  

I needed a writing exercise to reinforce my lecture. Creating it was like putting together a two-piece puzzle.

image from Pixabay

Here's what inspired this exercise:

1) I heard an excellent presentation at SCBWI's conference in L.A. this August by the always wonderful Candace Fleming about how she wrote the multi-award winning book, The Giant Squid.  One of the things that struck me was that she chooses a word or phrase as her guiding light before she begins researching or writing any book. She calls it the Vital Idea. This isn't a new concept, but the way she presented it helped me understand how crucial this is. The Vital Idea she chose for The Giant Squid was Mystery. Every page, every verb reflects this idea.

2) My friend Ellen recently took an improv class. She reminded me that every idea in improv is answered with "Yes, and..." (For example, if someone is pantomiming and says, "I'm carrying my mother's alligator." the response must be, "Yes, and..."  It's never "No, but...").

So here's my DIALOGUE IS SRIRACHA SAUCE exercise:
1) come up with a Vital Idea (the guiding principle of the story).  

and

2) write a story completely in dialogue. 

A further suggestion, which you can take or leave, is to have one character always start by saying "Yes, and" or "No, but."

As my students settled down to write, I wrote, too. The Vital Idea I chose was: This world is not safe. (That was the first thought that came to my mind...which is just sad). Here's my very raw draft:

NEVER GO TO Z STREET
by April Halprin Wayland
.

A: Never go to Z Street: there are tigers.

B: Yes, there are tigers and lobsters with ginormous claws on Z Street.

A: Lobsters with ginormous claws?

B: Yes and poisonous carrots!

A: Poisonous carrots?

B: Yes and they kill you after six bites!

A: Couldn't you just not eat the poisonous carrots?

B: No—poisonous carrots sing to you and you can't help but sit down and lean against them and then they encircle you and all is lost.

A: All is lost because they make you eat them?

B: Yes.

A: They want you to eat them?

B: Yes.

A: Okay. Never go to Z Street: there are tigers and lobsters and poisonous carrots.

B: Yes and also there is a little kid with dangerous and sticky fingers who takes your hand and is forever glued to you.

A: Forever?

B: Yes, except when you're eating a poisonous carrot.

A: Okay, so: never go to Z Street, for there are

B: tigers

A: and lobsters

B: and poisonous carrots

B and a little kid with sticky fingers

B: like mine

A: forever glued to mine.

poem (or whatever this is) © 2018 April Halprin Wayland. All rights reserved

so...

DIALOGUE IS SRIRACHA SAUCE
.

if you

just use a

teeny bit

or if you use

too much
of it

poem © 2018 April Halprin Wayland. All rights reserved

Try this exercise, and if you have any suggestions on how to make it better, please let me know! 

April Halprin Wayland