…apologies for radio silence.
Real Job has taken priority and swallowed my social life and writing career in giant Moby Dick gulps.
But I shall be back!
With a write up on Comic Con I’ll be attending this weekend and the continuing of the 52 Brilliant Ideas thinghy. Wordz are my power!
*shazam*
Building up your repertoire of random facts will ensure that you are a hit at any party. Out comes things like: did you know that the Spanish newt, when confronted with an enemy, can make its RIBS puncture it’s skin…and then use those ribs to attack whatever it is that’s threatening it? No? Well, now you do. Please invite me to your next party, I’m a barrel of laughs.
Research isn’t really just being stuck in a library trolling through stacks and stacks of encyclopeadia or factual books. Research is also all about your imagination and logical thought and sometimes even illogical thought.
Gordy in Chapter 10 of Writing Bestselling Children’s Books mention how his teacher reprimanded him in school for writing down these wild flights of fancy and called them a waste of time. How awful and numbing is that? I for one am chuffed that Gordy didn’t bother listening to said teacher and continued with his writings! I am glad that none of us listened to teachers who have told us not to daydream, to write excessively and waste our time with words. How much poorer would we all be without stories?
But, I digresss from tonight’s topic. Research is important…but it’s more important not to let on that you’ve done a month’s worth of research on closed underground stations. I think the key thing is to think iceberg: only the tip will show in your writing, unless you are writing a conspiracy-heavy book a la Dan Brown in which you need a bit more exposition and explaining.
The coolest thing about research is that if done well, you secretly manage to teach kids and others something new and different, without them realising it.
What if you’re writing fantasy? Surely that doesn’t need research? Actually, you probably need more research than you may expect. Your world has to be real, it has to make sense. There are laws of science and physics and common sense that need to be in place. Your fantasy world inhabitants need to be people your readers can relate to or at least should be able to recognise. Even when using a pseudo-medieval setting, you have to be realistic and not unexpectedly bring in modern weapons or slang. It’s a bit like acting, I think: you have to stay in your role.
Good advice on page 43 of Writing Bestselling Children’s Books: If you get a true sense of the world that you’re writing about then you’ll be able to create a story that transports your reader to a new place and time.
And I’m afraid that’s all I have for now.
** This is not part of the Writing Bestselling Children’s Books musings, that will come later on today.
This is about general ruminations about faery tales and it was brought on by a wonderfully thoughtful and eloquent blogpost on Katherine Langrish’s website – Seven Miles of Steel Thistles. This is the utterly fascinating and fantastic blogpost here, which prompted this prompt. But I daresay, my eloquence is zot compared to Katherine’s and it really is more a musing.
In her final paragraph, Katherine says:
They are so far from the stereotype of the fairytale princess that one has to ask how it arose, and to wonder whether late 19th/early 20th century editorial bias – to say nothing of rewriting – had anything to do with choosing more ‘properly behaved’ heroines for children’s anthologies?
Firstly, I am so incredibly pleased to have stumbled across this blog. I love fairy tales and have loved them since I was very tiny when my dad told me African and South African fairy tales and fables which he in turn had been told by his parents. My mum, being from English stock, had no business for fairy tales at all. She created them herself, through her various hobbies and art projects. I also had a steady staple of stories from Disney via their various movies growing up. But I have to admit that I never liked the idea of a passive heroine. Someone waiting to be rescued. That really rankled. Which is probably why I liked Ever After so much, the movie starring Drew Barrymore in which she saves the prince from the gypsies by carrying him away on her back. Or when she gets all feisty with the prince because he stole their horse.
I also think this is why I’m loving the Fables graphic novels so much. In particular 1001 Nights in Snowfall. There are several stories contained in this volume and one in particular spectacularly tells the back story to why the Big Bad Wolf was so bad…or where Sherezade came up with the idea of entertaining the Caliph with 1001 stories to secure her own life. It also puts a very interesting spin on Snow White and the Seven Dwarves and how she takes her revenge on them once she’s married Prince Charming.
I really think that reworkers of fairy tales, people like the Margo Lanagan, Midori Snyder, Ellen Datlow, Robin McKinley and Holly Black, to name but a few, deserve a lot of credit. In particular Margo Lanagan who has received a vast amount of negative as well as positive commentary on her recent novel, Tender Morsels, that in return had me thinking: when did people stop remembering those original and very scary stories that were hardly ever very pleasant and not at all meant for kids? And why aren’t the girls feisty anymore?
As much as I love Enchanted, the movie, I do think that our heroine really should have been a much wiser person, although she grows wonderfully throughout the movie.
I suspect that I need to do a lot more research into and about fairy tales, their origins, their various hidden meanings, the whole package. Because more than anything else, like history, I find fairy tales (which hardly ever seemed to have fairies in them!) very interesting and worth the time and effort to delve into. And yes, I do quite fancy having a whole bookcase dedicated to research on fairy tales. Just don’t tell my husband.
Portrait of Alien by Goktug Gurellier
Well, you know the adage for adults: women are from venus, men are from mars? Well, kids are actually a completely different species, entirely. Are they even human?
Kidding, of course. In Chapter 9 if Gordon’s Writing Bestselling Children’s Books, he encourages us to spy on these odd aliens from another world. Like we people watched in an earlier chapter, this time we kid-watch. Like Bill Odie’s Springwatch, only more dangerous.
As Gordon says: don’t fool yourself into thinking you can write for kids without having anything to do with them. Speak to your own kids, or if you don’t have your own, speak to friends’ kids or kids in your family, nieces, nephews, cousins. Figure out what they like reading, who they are reading, things they want to read. Don’t assume because the trend right now is for paranormal teen novels, it’s something everyone is reading and therefore you need to be writing that.
I was very fortunate last year to be able to spend an afternoon with a group of Year 7′s at a local school here in Beckenham. And you know what that taught me? Don’t underestimate your readers. These kids were rabid readers – they loved books and authors. Even the boys who hung out at the back, afterwards came up to me to ask me if I’ve read any books by Michael Morpugo, what did I think of them, what non-fiction books I read and have I read any books on war? What will I be writing? What should they be reading next? My questions to them was: what do you like reading? Action and adventure was quite high on their list, they liked Alex Rider but didn’t like the Young Bond all that much because they didn’t quite “get” the fact that it was written in an “older time”. They loved the books I showed them, Alexander Gordon Smith’s Furnace books, Gone by Michael Grant and The Dread Pirate Fleur by Sara Starbuck. I read from each of these books for them, explained to them what the authors were doing when they writing it and how important reading was because it’s something you can keep quietly to yourself or you can share it with your friends. But more importantly that reading lets you get out in your head and go on adventures, even if you never have the chance to leave your own house, you get to travel to Bolivia, America, Europe or Russia.
I think this made them realise to some extent that reading wasn’t just something your teachers wanted you to do. My friend Sarah, who is the librarian at this school, was really pleased with my chat to the kids and I was even more chuffed with the feedback I got from these kids. Their enthusiasm was amazing. I was there to share with them some books I’ve loved and wanted to recommend and they didn’t have to buy anything. They could interact with me as Liz, the geek, and probably saw me as this weird hybrid of themselves and an adult and treated me as a mate.
It was a truly wonderful experience and even if I never get to do it again, I’ve taken something away from that day with me. That if you can get a bunch of kids to listen and to talk to you about their passions, their interests, your little book of ideas will be crammed full of characters, thoughts and stories.
Leading on from that, new publishers Nosy Crow did this fantastic list of things kids, especially boys, are still interested in seeing in books in a survey. I had to laugh because, most of these things are things I’ve either written about myself or are things I love reading about. I’m sure that makes me a weird hybrid-boy-girl person. Or maybe I’m the alien?
Here’s the list of things Nosy Crow lists on their website that boys are still interested in:
Here, in descending order of popularity, is the list of things and places that boys who participated said they thought were cool:
Isn’t this a fantastic list? Check out the lovely people from Nosy Crow‘s website and in particular, this write up about the above-mentioned survey.
Happy alien watching!
** More information about the artwork I’ve used in this post can be found here:
Title: Portrait of Alien
Author: Goktug Gurellier
Software: Maya, mental ray, Mudbox, Photoshop
Portfolio here
**This was supposed to have gone live yesterday, Sunday. I need to figure out why it didn’t, so apologies!
Ah, we all play that game. The “I remember when” game. My dad was very good at it, hamming it up for all he was worth: “I remember when I was a kid, we didn’t have shoes to wear and had to walk all the way to school in the snow (it hardly ever snowed in South Africa) in the winter and you should count yourself lukcy that your shoes only have holes in them.”
Okay, so maybe I’m being tongue in cheek here, but we’ve all had it from parents and we do it ourselves.
So why not use that “I remember whens” to remember what it was like when you were a kid for real? Remember that all-consuming first crush? That dreadful lie you told your parents so that you could go and meet up with your friends? The money you secretly nicked to go and buy that toy you wanted from the shop?
You may not remember a lot of your childhood…I of course remember being the perfect angel, studious and quiet and never ever throwing tantrums and refusing to go put on clean clothes or pick up after myself. I was the perfect child. <- this is a lie. Blatantly so. Unless of course you want to believe me then this is of course, true facts.
But I digress, you may not remember a lot of your childhood, but what you do remember, you no doubt remember vividly? I remember the day my mum took me to a poodle pedigree breeder to choose my very first dog. It had to be a poodle because I was allergic to dog hair. I remember seeing this tiny bit of fluff that was as big of my palm and I scooped it up and ran out the door with it. That was my first dog – Wowi. He had a huge pedigree and a complicated name and he was my BFF for many years. I even taught him to steal money from my dad’s wallet. Yep. My dad was aware of this, of course and let it happen. Wowi never stole anything smaller than a R20 either. *happy days*
I also remember a bully trying to throw around his weight when I was in creche. I must have been around five years old. I biffed him on the nose and got sent home and my mum had to go and talk to the creche ‘cos they said I had anger management issues. Until my mum showed them the bruises I got from the bully before I punched him as he was pinching and kicking kids smaller than him. I distinctly remember the feelings of anger and helplessness at the time and so when my mum stood up for me, it was as if the world suddenly became a brighter fairer place.
Exploring feelings and situations like these can be used to flesh out your characters, making them real and solid to your readers. I love picking up kids books and reading them and recognising myself in some of the characters depicted. And that, I think, is very important, especially for younger readers – finding someone to identify with, to realise what they are going through does happen to others too.
So, the next time you are at a loss what to write down, remember way back when, and channel those situations and emotions. You never know if that spark may start off something altogether much bigger.
No, I am not kidding. I’ve seen it with my nieces and nephews, especially when they were younger.
They can immediately tell when adults are getting bored with something and then they descend like a flock of angry seagulls. They can also tell when someone is faking it. Their BS metres are very sensitive. So don’t try and do it when you are writing something for them, i.e. if you have zero interest in ponies or dogs or kittens. It’s not going to ring true. You may fool one or two adult, but you won’t fool the kids.
Find a subject or a plot that you are so excited about you want to stand on the rooftops and shout about it. One of the bits of advice from the LBF from Carole Blake specifically was: your enthusiasm, from the covering letter to the manuscript, should show. It will help create a feeling of breathlessness when an agent picks it up and it’s all they can think about, so that when they try and sell it on to a publisher, that excitement should show and carry that manuscript forward and into bookshelves and hopefully to bestseller-dom!
Also realise that if you happen to be lucky and you get published writing about something you really aren’t all that fond of, that the lie you’ve just written, will be something you have to live with for the duration of your book’s life. If you get a good deal and you head off to various school events and library events, there you are, continuing that lie, but your heart really isn’t in it. Can you imagine how that would feel? And what happens if you are asked to write another book or come up with a syopsis for a series…?
Okay, so, ignoring writing something you’re not interested in, what do you want to write about? Look at your hobbies, your interests. If you do some kind of martial arts, if you do fencing or if you are a boxer, what better than an underdog story a la Karate Kid? Dressmaker or fashionista? Look at the massive success of Threads from Chickenhouse – a wonderfully told story, making readers aware of where their garments come from. If you are a movie fan, how about writing something to do with the industry aimed at kids? Or if you are a movie genre fan, why not look at writing horror – case in point, the massively successful Witchfinder by Bill Hussey. He got the tone and situation just right and in fact, it freaked me out massively yet I loved it. And so do the kids. The enthusiasm and knowledge of the subject comes through. And it’s contagious.
Chapter six in Writing Bestselling Children’s Books asks us to be careful when we write books, in a fit of nostalgia whilst remembering our favourite books when growing up.
The reason to this caution is simple: the books we read when we were younger are vastly different to what is currently on the market for kids and for adults. So make sure not appear dated in your language, set-up etc. You may think it’s the most amazing thing ever, but honestly, if an agent or editor thinks it’s target audience won’t pick it up, you can forget about it.
Once more this advice comes down to research and becoming au fait with what is currently commerically available on the market.
So, rethink that novel you’re thinking of writing (especially if it’s heavily influenced by a favourite kids’ book / is a homage to one) and if you feel you can’t stand to let it go, then update it dramatically to be more modern, and see where it goes. Or, as one of the excercises mentions: take a scene from your favourite classic novel and rewrite it in a contemporary fashion for a young audience. See if it works. It may very well do so. This could be your chance to give an old classic a modern spin. But do remember to check permissions and copyright etc. as it may become tricky later on.
Happy writing!
In Writing Bestselling Children’s Books Chapter 5 deals with “Finding Harry” – the title made me giggle, but actually, this is a pretty serious article.
Basically, we are told be aware of what’s going on around us because most things can be used as fodder for writing. The odd snippet of conversation, a new name you stumble across in a book or newspaper, newspaper headlines, objects from fleamarkets or second hand shops…
It all serves to set the creative synapses sparking. I suppose this links in with that dreaded “where do you get your ideas from” question so many writers get asked by interviewers. I think I saw someone mention on twitter they were asked that question and promptly replied: “the supermarket” to which the interviewer asked: “oh, which one?”
Which in itself can be fodder for a story.
Most writers I know are good at watching people and the world go by. Sitting in a cafe or somewhere similar, you just draw into yourself and look and observe. The world spins you by and you are shown a whole range of interesting characters, situations and sound-bites.
I like watching people. Not in a weird obsessive way, but generally. Especially groups of friends. When watching the interaction between people it’s sometimes really easy to discern the inevitable “hierachy” in groups. Spotting things like this, it’s important to note how the “alphas” react and who the loners are and how they interact, if at all.
It’s important to observe things like this, because it helps build your characters when they interact with groups of people in your story or with their friends.
So that’s ogling people. What about headlines from newspapers?
All three genuine articles grabbed off http://ca.news.yahoo.com/odds/archive.
Writers are probably wrongly called writers. We should be called writer-observers, I think. But don’t observe too much – remember to write!
I ingested Chapter Four this morning and the gist is: don’t be scared of starting to write. It also addresses the question how to start writing.
I’ve had the terror, I’m sure most writers have had it. You stare at that pristine white page on your computer screen or in your notebook and you think to yourself: What I’m about to write has to be amazing. Insighful. Pullitzer prize winning stuff. I don’t waste my time being mundane, by writing normal stuff. Be fantastic all the time. Get that opening sentence right the first time round.
Wrong!
I forget who said it, but I recall reading it over at the Deadline Dames but basically, you have to give yourself permission to suck.
Very few people – unless you are a savant, probably – get to sit down and write this amazing opus the very first time around. And at first draft it was perfect and it got an agent and sold. Personally I think this is how non-writers think writers work. They do not realise that there are several drafts of the same novel. I have a friend who has gone through 13 drafts of the same novel. 13!
So yes, start somewhere. Write down a character description. Or write a background for your character / where they live/ go to school / who their friends are / what their hobbies are. Just sort of doodle on the page if you don’t have a “concrete” way to start. Also, don’t agonise over that first line. Put anything down…you can always change it later. Because you are the boss. Don’t forget that!
Note: The picture I’ve used above is from a website called Contextual Bias - and I’m linking to the article it came from because randomly, it ties in with what I’ve written here. This weird synchronicity happens sometimes – I take it as a sign that the ‘Verse is smiling on a particular endeavour.
In Chapter 3 in Writing Bestselling Children’s Books Gordy highlights the necessity of knowing the age-group you are writing for. These can be broken down into:
Best way to figure out what age group you are writing for, is to visit your local bookshop that has a decent amount of kids’ books on display or a large library with the same. Where does your story fit into? Find books on the shelves that are similar in type to what you have in mind – check them out. Maybe, if you have the chance, speak to kids (if they can speak) and ask them what they like about these books that they read. Importantly, check with librarians too – these gatekeepers are an untapped source of amazing knowledge. I just laughed re-reading this, thinking how wrong this advice can go – encouraging people to stalk others in bookshops and libraries – hopefully this will never backfire on me! Just be sensible, okay?
If you know your age group you are aiming for, things fall in place:
All of the above will no doubt be dealt with in other chapters of Writing Bestselling Children’s Books! But for now, I’m off to start my day.
