Need Characters?

Need Characters?

Attend your Summer Reunion!

If you are a writer holding an invitation to a reunion, what are you waiting for? RSVP YES!

Not only will you reconnect with old friends or family, but your attendance will be rewarded with a surprising roster of characters to add to your writing power!

I recently attended the staff reunion of a wonderful camp I worked for when I was a teenager. Those were the years in which we ran along the brink of life, deciding the biggies: what we wanted to do with our lives, where we would attend college, what values we stood for, who we wanted to love. They were exciting summers of goofy, spontaneous fun and deep conversations. Together, we enjoyed endless days of lakeside fun and evening songs to guitar-playing around bonfires.

A gold mine 

At the reunion it was a personal thrill to see those beloved faces and hear voices that remained familiar even after three decades of absence, but as a writer, it was a gold mine. When you see people daily, or yearly, changes are not so obvious. At a reunion, however, you have a clear picture in your mind how people were “back then” – and your writer’s mind can easily conjure the stories that might have happened "in between" when you see them in the "here and now." There were many surprises; those "most likely to succeed" weren't necessarily the ones who did. 

Personalities did not change; we slid into our old personas and friendships with very little difficulty (aided by the fact most of us didn't bring our kids!) What changed most was everyone's level of self-confidence. We had made those big, tough choices and knew ourselves pretty well, by now, even if lives were still in stages of transition or challenged in different ways. 

As a writer, I was fascinated by everyone's life choices. Most fascinating to me was how the common ground we had shared at camp remained a driving force in our lives. The smallest moments shared back then--even specific jokes--were recalled. It made me realize that every interaction we have with others might have a long-lasting impact that we cannot possibly imagine. 

Brainstorm your cast of characters

The next time I plan the cast of a new novel, I plan to think about where those characters have been, and where they want to go. Even if the story doesn't cover that long range of time, just knowing characters that well will help add details and depth to the book.

 Did you glean any new characters from your reunion trip?

On Butterbeer

Quick. Name something that exists on planet Earth solely because someone—a writer— dreamed it up. 

One yummy example is Harry Potter’s favorite drink, butterbeer. On tap and wildly popular in Florida, a butterbeer can foam your lips courtesy of a JK Rowling-approved recipe. After reading a scene in the books or visiting Hogsmeade in the movies with Harry Potter and friends, who doesn’t crave a butterbeer moustache of their own?

People intuitively know a good thing when they see one—or read about one. Does your book contain any powerful objects? Are you creating symbols? Or simply cool character props? How can you tell the difference?

Harry Potter was an orphan without a friend to his name until he joined Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. His new friends reached for butterbeer whenever there was a social gathering, a weekend day off, a Quidditch win to celebrate, or a need for private conversation. Consider the butterbeer itself. It is a frothy, butterscotch-like drink, warming hands and the hearts of friends. Friendship and love ultimately gives Harry the strength he needs to defeat the villain Voldemort. It is my guess that JK Rowling designed, with great intention and purpose, thick blizzard and stormy weather conditions for student trips to Hogsmeade. By contrast, this spotlighted the warmth and comfort of butterbeer and, by extension, the important theme of friendship. Butterbeer is a powerful prop. No wonder fans make the trek to Orlando to taste it. Who doesn’t want (and need) those comforting qualities?

Consider your story’s objects:

            How necessary is the object to the scene? To the overall story?

            Are your scenes cluttered with objects? Can any be given more significance?

            Does the object represent anything else going on? Does it symbolize a theme?

Finally, is your prop grounded in humanity, no matter how fantastical its name or function? Characters come alive when they need to do things such as eat, drink, love, sleep, clean, communicate, travel and defend rights just like us. Your characters will leap off the written page and resonate with readers!

            

Lifting out of Tragedy

When the faces of tragedy are twenty angelic 6 and 7 year old babies and their six heroic school faculty, such as the world has seen from Sandy Hook Elementary School in my home state of Connecticut, our hearts bleed for them. Nothing can turn back time to help those 20 children in that terrible moment. Our prayers and gifts and wearing their school colors of green and white seem tokens only, insufficient to lessen the heavy load of grief born by all who have heard this news.

As a writer, I am reflecting back only a month or two to a conference in which I heard author Bruce Coville discuss a spiritual lack among today's kids and the responsibility children's authors have to lift them to a mountaintop. His words were, "Our work has the potential to change the world in ways we can't imagine." A ripple effect that comes from an author's character or story or single line in a book impacting a child's life in unimaginable, better ways. To paraphrase Coville's ideas, our work as children's writers is to honor and celebrate children in a way today's world simply has failed to do, a world in which media hound them as consumers and celebrate violence. Like Obama said in his vigil speech to the devastated community of Newtown, Connecticut, this must stop. Writers of literature for children have the opportunity and responsibility to lift our children, to challenge them to higher ideals, and to cause each to feel valued, treasured, and with an assurance that their life has meaning.

Think of a time in your life when you felt alone, or lonely in a crowd, or plain old disagreeable with everyone in sight. How many times did you turn to a book to fill that empty space? A book that made you feel that someone understood what you were going through? A book that took you out of your sad/angry/hard place and put you in a fantasy to escape for a while? A book whose main character became a best friend when you were sorely lacking in one?

A book doesn't solve the problems of the world by any means, but as Bruce Coville so eloquently pointed out at the Rutgers One-on-One plus Conference in October this year, even single lines in one can truly be a life-changer. He mentioned a reader telling him years later that a line or two from a single page out of a science fiction story he read as a young student caused him to seek out the Peace Corps as a career years later. 

We don't know what sparked this terrible tragedy, but I pray that those responsible for developing products for children be aware that they are shaping precious little lives with every detail. God bless those who are suffering from this and all-too-similar tragedies.

How to Choose the Best Writer Conference

Wee Willie Writer runs to a workshop

Uptown and Downtown never does he stop,

Tapping on an editor, crying through her tears,

“Won’t you look at mine, please?

I’ve worked on this for years!”

As my teenage daughter puts it, writing workshops exist for people like me to meet other “crazy obsessed writers.” Okay, I’ll admit I am in the danger zone of listening to the voices in my head and trapping them on paper. But a writing conference is valuable beyond the friendly camaraderie. It can be a key to vaulting your writing from habit to career. I have attended conferences of several different styles; each has benefits and drawbacks.

Questions to consider before signing up:

1.     Do you dream of one-on-one attention from a top editor or agent?

Consider the face-time you actually get. Is it a pricey extra? You might get a thoughtful critique on pre-submitted work—or a quick minute to pitch an idea. Is there mingling time or meals with editors/agents included? Research to avoid disappointment or unnecessary cost.

2.     Want to make friends with new fellow writers? Want to learn from published authors?  

If you crave being around people who “get” you as a writer, tap into the energy of a large networking conference. If you want to learn from experienced folks, consider a small, selective program requiring a writing sample for admission.

3.     Do you have a specific genre or interest group? Do you have specific needs (such as writing better dialogue or how to plot a novel?)

Christian writers, mystery and crime, children’s, romance and historical, to name a few, offer conferences/monthly meetings. Check online for session titles and faculty. Will your specific goals be addressed?

4.     Want alone time to actually write?

If a quiet house is your impossible dream, consider a writing retreat center or vacation destination in the company of other writers. 

5.     How much time can you commit? How far from home can you travel?

One-day workshops, weekend conferences, a week-long immersion or exotic retreat . . . there is a writing conference that fits you and your time/budget constraints.

“The agent will make me a star!”

Ahem. Reality check. Writers do break into publishing from conference connections, but most writers gain valuable constructive criticism. Armed with thick skin and your best work, you will hone your skills. 

Which writing conferences have you enjoyed? 

An Idea a Day?

It's kinda like breakfast . . . important every day, breakfast is the first order of business that gives you the energy to keep on keepin' on. Here's the challenge: Could you come up with a brand-spanking new picture book idea every day for a month? If you take author Tara Lazar's "PiBoIdMo" challenge, you will fill your hopper with ideas that can be fleshed out the rest of the year.

In October, thousands of writers gear up for NaNoWriMo, the "National Novel Writing Month" in which novel writers combine Luke Skywalker- and Darth Vader-like forces to bang out 50,000 words in a month. Many succeed, and bestselling books have been polished out of those rough diamonds.

Kiddie picture book writers have PiBoIdMo"Picture Book Idea Month, the brainchild of author Tara Lazar (www.taralazar.com).

A few weeks ago, I heard Tara give a creative and encouraging keynote speech ago at the Rutgers University Council on Children's Lit One-on-One Conference. Afterward, Tara told me she had no idea PiBoIdMo would be as wildly popular as it has become. "Maybe ten followers?" she guessed she'd have, but kid lit writers everywhere are eating their extra Wheaties in November and thanking Tara when the idea mills in their heads are miraculously cranking at full speed.

I tried PiBoIdMo for the first time in 2011 and was amazed at how those rusty October wheels started turning right on schedule, on November 1st. I saw fun picture book potential in the most ordinary, everyday kind of places and events. It was like the dusty film had been wiped off my glasses, and I ended the month excited about several of the ideas.

Try it and let me know how it goes for you!

Digital Age: Friend or Enemy?

Shooting from the Hip

When the topic of digital publishing comes around, do you throw your hands in the air and run out the back door to let out a primal scream? Do you wax poetic about the feel-goodness of paper pages and the happy weight of a child on your lap, heads together in page-turning bliss?

Me too.  Recent events, however, illuminated the creative usefulness and the “it-isn’t-going-away-ness” of the digital age. I mean the word “Illuminated” literally. On vacation, my family stumbled upon a cave shrouded in darkness. The kids wanted to go in. A dialogue with my husband went like this:

“It would’ve been a good idea,” I mused aloud, “to bring a flashlight.”  

My husband whipped his hand to his hip faster than any cowboy managed a gun in the Wild West.  He said, "Hey! I can use the flashlight app I put on my smart phone!”

 

In seconds, we had a good look at the dirt in the cave. Not much there. Palpable excitement, however, came from everyone rushing to see the cool feature on the smartphone.

   On another occasion this summer, I watched my niece and nephew, both under 4, cuddle up with their dad --and an iPad.  Typical of their generation, these tots seamlessly moved between technologies as new as e-readers and as old as a box of crayons.

If you write with an audience of children in mind, like I do, it would behoove us to become as acquainted with technology as our growing population of readers.

To see what the hoopla is about I bought an e-reader. While not my favorite way to read, an e-reader has one HUGE advantage for writers: With a click, I've spent money on books. It's just too easy.  

Truth be told, people respond to nifty, new ways of doing the same, old things. With digital publishing comes vast potential for new ways to get our words into the minds of readers—because isn’t the connection with readers our ultimate goal?

Turn Up the Heat and Win BIG

Turn Up the Heat and Win BIG!

One of the best ways to spend a summer afternoon is watching a sailing regatta. Lovely and peaceful, there is nothing quite like a fleet of colorful spinnakers billowing over sunlit waves, cool breezes kicking through the summer heat. As a bonus, no engine noises mar the view.

If you tally up the bruises afterward, participating in a race might be more akin to tackle football. My brother-in-law returned from two E-Scow regattas in one week proclaiming “My bruises got bruises!” With a wide smile, this sailor showed off his thighs streaked with multiple marks in shades of purple. Beaten up by a boom, apparently.

This sailor’s pride in accomplishment got me thinking as a writer. Main characters need “bruises on their bruises” to bring their challenge to a satisfying conclusion.

Are you too easy on your characters?

Beginning writers tend to love their characters too much and hesitate making their situations awful. Readers identify with characters and live through them: How would that character deal with something that, in real life, would be too scary to face?
Real writing fun starts when you dig holes deep enough to make your characters show their stuff. From the first pages, plant seeds—personal qualities—that will eventually help him or her save the day. One of my main characters wants to learn how to whistle just like her father. She works hard at it, puckering over and over. Perhaps your character has an uncanny ability to communicate with animals or throw his voice. A girl’s hair-braiding skills can be employed to rope-weaving. That whistle turns into a life-saving signal in the book’s climax.
No matter how outrageous the situation, your characters’ challenges will be met in a way that is believable if you have planted the seeds to their success early on. Your readers will root for him or her to jump figurative or literal chasms.

Is your villain nasty enough? Has he/she/it gone soft?

Think of any villain you love to hate. My current favorites are the actors on ABC’s Once Upon a Time series. Lana Parilla plays Snow White’s Evil Queen. Her colleague, Robert Carlyle, plays a delightfully devious Rumpelstiltskin. Both seek to fulfill their own agendas at any cost. Sparingly, authors can use superlatives to add weight. If Voldemort was merely trying to give Harry Potter a bad day once in a while would his triumphant end be worth reading thousands of pages? As the darkest wizard in generations, with a name people feared to speak, Voldemort was a worthy opponent for the good vs. evil quest.

Your readers deserve the toughest nemesis you can dream up. Victory over a true villain makes it worth the effort to bang up your character with a boom.

Pile bruises on the bruises!
Your readers will forgive you—and enjoy the ride.