Teachers & librarians – Feel free to ask your questions in the comments. Published author guests have volunteered to drop in and respond when they can.
Guest authors – Thanks for joining us today! To answer questions, just reply to the comments below.
And just a reminder…if anyone would like to order personalized, signed copies of any of my books for kids, check out this post with info – or just call The Bookstore Plus at 518-523-2950 before my signing there on July 2nd.
Welcome to Tuesday Quick-Write! Got your keyboard or pencil ready? Today, Julie True Kingsley joins us with a writing prompt on character development…
Finding The Character Within
Today we are going to work on finding the character within. Let’s get started. First, close your eyes. Try to envision a well-rounded, complex, flushed out character. Give yourself a few minutes.
How’d you do? I bet your character is kind of flat, not really that well rounded yet. Perfectly normal! Okay, bail on this idea of trying to pull a character out of thin air. I have a better idea. Today, we will do a multi-mixed media guided writing.
Okay, let me take a step back. I am a former fourth, fifth, and seventh grade (writing) teacher. For the last couple of years, I’ve been teaching communications at a college in Maine. Here, I learned something amazing– simply incorporate mixed media into a writing lesson and you end up with the most creative stories, seemingly effortlessly.
Did I mention that I’m writer too? The kind of writer that’s still in the trenches, flushing around trying to get my manuscript perfect, and currently on submission playing the waiting game. How does this approach help my writing life? Before I start a writing piece, I find the true characters within with a keen eye to mixed-media tools (Think of the Imperial March when Darth Vader appears in Star Wars, notice how they use music to heighten character. It’s genius!). Once you start doing this your own story will unfold like a movie simply because our brain is trained to link music to a specific emotion. Isn’t that what reading is about, having an emotional connection to character? So, why not embrace this idea. Let’s start right now.
Step One:
Pull out your magazines and look for faces that you find interesting (You could also do a Google Images search or use Pinterest). What faces call you? Pick one.
(Teaching Note: I make students pull a picture from a paper bag)
Take in the photo. What do you notice about this person? Give the person some traits. Start with physical traits (So easy!), now look deeper. What do you think this person is feeling? What makes the person’s heart tick? Secrets? Yes, they are there. Find them. Dig deeper. Learn more. Push yourself here.
Step Two:
Find songs that match your character’s inner and outer character. Play around with this. You Tube is your friend. Go find that song that represents your character.
(Teacher note: Depending on the age group you teach you might need to frontload different styles of music and have them choose between a few specific choices. You know your kids, do what they do they can deal with.)
Yes, Trudy is a closet head banger who loves heavy metal! Deep down, she’s rocker. If only everyone knew the real her!
Imagine if I chose this song: Summer Girls by LFO: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1dfEf1qOt4 She’s a completely different now, isn’t she? Maybe a tad less interesting. Maybe a whole lot more mainstream. Maybe she wants to move to California, bleach her hair blond, and learn to skateboard. Does she love Justin Beiber? Yeah!
(See how these song changes this character and really sets up who a story of where Trudy could go.)
Step three:
Start this character’s story. Go on, try a half a page. Keep the music on. Put the beat into your story. See what happens. If you are motivated try numerous songs. Notice, how does your sentence structure changes with the beat of the music? Does the beat find its way into your words?
Okay, I can’t stop listening. This is an irresistible lesson (Must turn off LFO).
Remember this is prewriting, but dig in. Notice how it affects writer’s voice. I encourage you to break my rules. Maybe your character has dual personalities. Maybe different times of the day bring on a changing mood. Play with this. And remember, writing should be fun. I can’t wait to see what you all come up with! Enjoy!
Note from Kate: If you have a work-in-progress and a character you’ve already met, try this for your character-in-progress instead of clipping from a magazine. Music can tell you a lot about who your character really is!
Good morning, campers! Can you believe we’re diving into Week Four? The winner of Friday’s book giveaway from Katy Duffield is Kimberley Moran! Please email me (kmessner@katemessner dot com) with your address so Katy can send your books!
Before we kick off the new week, just a couple quick notes… I’m away this week with limited Internet access (curse and blessing that it is) so even though all our posts are scheduled to go, I’ll be around less than usual in the comments. I’ll still be cheering you on from afar, though!
If Teachers Write has made you hungry for more online professional development, Stenhouse is kicking off its free Summer Blogstitute this week with some great guest posts from its authors. Check it out here.
And if you’re interested in ordering personalized, signed copies of any of my kids’ books…I have this book signing coming up in Lake Placid July 2nd. They’ll send books to far-away friends, too, so you can call The Bookstore Plus at 518-523-2950 if you’d like to order anything.
Today’s Monday Mini-lesson is courtesy of Ruth McNally Barshaw, author of the hilarious and illustrated Ellie McDoodle series. She’s inviting us to explore the connections between art and writing!
Art Literacy is the concept, now borne out by studies (see some background and research links at http://www.picturingwriting.org/), that the act of creating art improves subsequent writing. When you draw – even doodle – it changes your thinking so that richer writing results.
The best part is you don’t have to be a trained illustrator to do it. This works for everyone. Surprisingly, stick figures work just as well as the most beautiful, intricate painting.
When you sit down to write, first draw or create art – any kind of art. It can be abstract or figurative. It can be paper or fabric collage, sketches, painted, doodled.
You can make paper, marble it, collage it.
Or you can get a head start on your manuscript by drawing a character and using callouts and labels to list traits.
Here’s a spread from the first Ellie McDoodle book where Ellie uses this method for characterization:
Here’s a page from my sketchjournal, drawn when I was 16, where I do the same:
(And that’s where I got the idea for Ellie to do it)
This also works for scene building and novel plotting.
I used it while working on a novel last year. I hit writer’s block, didn’t know what should happen next, and found that revisiting previous scenes helped unlock the door to the next scene. Drawing was the key:
While this trick works for quick sketching, it also works for more detailed art. Here’s a drawing I created while exploring characters for last year’s novel. The act of drawing told me information I hadn’t previously thought of, for each of the characters:
If you want to get to know your character better, draw him or her. Add description as callouts.
If you want to figure out what should happen next in your story, draw what just happened. Then start a sketch of what could happen next.
And if you want to write better, draw first.
I’m on deadline right now for the fifth Ellie book, Ellie McDoodle: The Show Must Go On; these techniques are helping me get the writing done on time.
To use this idea with students:
-Have them draw storyboards of their work. Or their fellow students’ work. Or stories they have read.
Storyboarding is used in advertising for developing commercials, and in filmmaking. Limiting them to 6 or 8 small boxes for the entire story prevents minutia or perfectionism from creeping in. It solidifies pacing and focuses cause and effect. (Illustrators storyboard their picturebooks, one box per page. I do this, but I also storyboard my novels.)
-Tell them to close their eyes. Visualize the character they want to write about. Then draw what they see in their mind’s eye, their imagination.
-To add depth to the drawn character, add callouts to describe various personality and physical traits. Brainstorm negative as well as positive traits, for a more rounded character. Next they write a story using what they have drawn.
Thanks, Ruth! Such a fun workshop today… now is everybody ready to get working? Ready… Set…write! Draw!
Shall we celebrate another week of writing with a book giveaway? I think that’s what we’ll do…
Guest author Katy Duffield has a copy of FARMER MCPEEPERS and a copy of CALIFORNIA HISTORY FOR KIDS: MISSIONS, MINERS, AND MOVIEMAKERS IN THE GOLDEN STATE.
One lucky winner will receive BOTH books – to enter the drawing, just leave any comment on today’s blog post before 11pm EST Saturday night, and I’ll draw a winner’s name to be announced on Monday.
And finally, before we get chatting in the comments, some of you have asked about ordering signed books for yourselves or your classrooms or maybe summer birthday gifts. I have a book signing for my new mystery, CAPTURE THE FLAG, on July 2nd, and The Bookstore Plus in Lake Placid has offered to take phone orders for personalized, signed copies of any of my books for kids. Give them a call at 518-523-2950 if you’d like to order any of my books for kids. (Let them know you’re part of Teachers Write; I have a special inscription for you guys!) You can read about all of my available picture books, chapter books, and novels here. I’ll sign books on July 2nd, and the bookstore will mail them out that week. Shipping’s free on orders over $50 and reasonable on smaller orders, too. If you’re enjoying Teachers Write and would like to support my books, this would be a great way to do that AND support a great indie bookseller that was instrumental in helping one of its local libraries recover from devastating flooding in Tropical Storm Irene.
My editor at Scholastic has some extra uncorrected advance reader copies of CAPTURE THE FLAG, too, and she’s offered to send those to the first 40 people who call the bookstore to order CAPTURE THE FLAG. So if you call and order that book, and you’d also like an ARC, please email me (kmessner@dap.kgv.mybluehost.me) with your address right after you place your order. (Please don’t ask the bookstore what number you are when you call, though…it confuses them. I promise to put an update on the Facebook page when those 40 ARCs are spoken for.)
Now…how’s it going this week? Are there topics you’re wondering about that we haven’t talked about yet?
Welcome to Tuesday Quick-Write! Got your keyboard or pencil ready? Today, guest author Miriam Forster talks about the magic of the unexpected – and flipping your story!
Miriam Forster learned to read at the age of five, wrote her first story at the age of seven and has been playing with words ever since. Her debut novel, CITY OF A THOUSAND DOLLS is being published by HarperCollins. In her daily life, Miriam is a wife, a terrible housekeeper and a dealer of caffeine at a coffee shop. In her internal life, she imagines fight scenes, obsesses about anthropology, nature shows and British television, and reads far too many books. Learn more at her website: http://msforster.blogspot.com/
One of the things that sparks a good story is the conjunction of unlikely elements. And one of the best ways to create that spark is to take an essential aspect of your story and flip it. That’s what today’s prompt is about.
Step One: Pick your favorite fairy tale.
Step Two: Flip all the genders.
(If you’re using these prompts to help a work in progress, try flipping the gender of one of your primary characters instead.)
Step Three: Write a paragraph or two from a flipped character’s perspective.
This also works with plot, (What if the princess from Sleeping Beauty was cursed to stay awake for a hundred years?) and setting. (What would a Snow White tale look like set in Alaska? What if Rapunzel took place in Australia?)
Flipping is a great writing exercise because it instantly opens up the story possibilities and gets your brain thinking outside the box. More importantly, flipping is just plain fun.
Ready…Set…Flip! Be sure to stop back and let us know in the comments what you discover today.
Wednesday is Q and A Day at Teachers Write! Virtual Summer Writing Camp, so if you have questions about writing, it’s time to fire away.
Authors are always welcome to drop by and answer questions (you never quite know who you’ll run into here!) But today’s official author volunteers are Jennifer Brown, Barb Rosenstock, Jean Reidy, Erin Dealey, and Julia Devillers. They’ve promised to be around to respond to your questions today, so please visit their websites & check out their books!
Teachers & librarians – Feel free to ask your questions in the comments. Published author guests have volunteered to drop in and respond when they can.
Guest authors – Even if today isn’t a day you specifically signed up to help out, feel free to answer any questions you’d like to talk about. Just reply directly to the comment.
I’ve done hundred of virtual author visits, and I’m running a virtual writing camp for teachers this summer, so why not a virtual book signing for my new mystery for kids, CAPTURE THE FLAG?
Monday, July 2nd is one day after CAPTURE THE FLAG’s birthday, one day before my birthday and two days before America’s (cue the fireworks!) so it seemed like the perfect day to celebrate with a book launch event at one of my favorite independent bookstores, The Bookstore Plus in Lake Placid, NY. Of course, if you live nearby, I’d love to see you there in person (it’s from 4-6pm), but the fantastic folks at The Bookstore Plus have arranged for far-away friends to order personalized, signed books, too. Here’s how…
If you’d like to order personalized, signed copies of any of my books for kids, call The Bookstore Plus at 518-523-2950.
Let them know which books you’d like to order, how many copies you want, and how you’d like them signed. They have a form to write everything down. If you’re part of the Teachers Write community, please let them know that, too (I have a special inscription for you!) They’ll take your order, I’ll sign your books on July 2nd, and they’ll ship them out that week. Shipping is free on orders over $50 and reasonable on smaller orders, too.
Here are the books they’ll have available. You can click on titles for more information.
CAPTURE THE FLAG – Mystery/Adventure – best for ages 8-12 (Hardcover – $16.99 – Scholastic)
EYE OF THE STORM – Science Thriller – best for ages 10-14 (Hardcover – $6.99 – Walker/Bloomsbury)
SUGAR AND ICE – Figure skating novel – best for ages 8-12 (Paperback – $7.99/Hardcover – $16.99 – Walker/Bloomsbury)
THE BRILLIANT FALL OF GIANNA Z. – School novel – best for ages 8-12 (Paperback – $6.99/Hardcover – $16.99 – Walker/Bloomsbury)
OVER AND UNDER THE SNOW – Nature picture book – best for all ages to share aloud – (Hardcover – $16.99 – Chronicle Books)
SEA MONSTER’S FIRST DAY – 1st day of school picture book – best for ages 3-7 – (Hardcover – $16.99- Chronicle Books)
So…if you’d like to order signed books for yourself, or your classroom or library, or for a summer birthday present or hostess gift, or back-to-school surprise — or just because summer is for reading — call The Bookstore Plus at 518-523-2950. And if you do live nearby or you’re up for a drive in the mountains, I’d love to see you in Lake Placid on July 2nd!
Welcome to Tuesday Quick-Write! Got your keyboard or pencil ready? We have two guest authors and a huge range of prompts today – so if time is tight, choose on and bookmark the rest for a rainy day.
First, guest author Sara Lewis Holmes is here to talk about poetry and inspiration (even for those of you who might not think you’re poets!) Sara is the author of two middle-grade novels, Letters From Rapunzel and Operation Yes. She studied physics at UNC-Chapel Hill, government at the College of William and Mary, and writing at home. You can read more about Sara at her website: http://www.saralewisholmes.com/
“Clear Thinking about Mixed Feelings”
What Poetry Can Do for You…Even If You’re Not a Poet
One morning, I woke up with the phrase “Potato chips don’t go with coffee” in my head.
What a ridiculous, trivial idea.
So, of course, I reached for my pen and notebook and wrote it down. Then I wrote another line. And a few more. Until I “accidentally” wrote this poem:
Potato chips don’t go with coffeeMy alarm alarmed me with those words.
I told you this, exactly—and you said:
Led Zeppelin doesn’t go with mashed potatoesand I said:
that’s not the same thing!And you said:
you’re alarming me, my sweet, raw potato.
That may not be the most amazing poem I’ve ever written, but I like it. Why?
Because it speaks to how and why we might approach poetry.
We write poetry in response to the things that set off alarms inside us. The moments when we are vibrating with wonder, or fear, or heartbreak. Poetry is most definitely FEELING.
But we also write poetry to examine things more closely; to cry out: that’s not the same thing! To logically parse a silly thought until it reveals something we didn’t understand when first we were alarmed. Poetry is most definitely THOUGHT.
Perhaps that’s why I love Auden’s definition of poetry as “clear thinking about mixed feelings.”
So, can writing poetry help you think more clearly about your mixed feelings—whether or not you consider yourself a poet? Can it help you write fiction? Non-fiction? Memoir? I think so.
Let me give you an example.
I grew up Catholic, so I know what a credo is. Literally, it means “I believe” and it’s a statement of those things you believe in. Many writers earnestly think that this is where they should begin: with what they believe, with what they know for certain, with just the facts, please. I know I did. I wrote many a persuasive essay in school, and I was damn good at it. I could argue the leg off a table, as they say.
But one day, I heard several people toss off the phrase “I don’t believe in…” and they weren’t talking about theology. They were discussing topics like wearing synthetic socks, or eating a big breakfast, or buying things online, or giving a child a binky.
When I did a Google search on the phrase, some things that turned up after “I don’t believe in…” were: polls, the death penalty, failure, God, love, atheists, first grade, hell and walled gardens. (Hmmm. That last one intrigues me.)
Then, for my own amusement, I began to riff on the phrase, “I don’t believe in…”
I wound up writing a poem (you can see it here) not so much about particular beliefs or non-beliefs, but about how complicated our personal creeds are. How and why did we draw those lines we won’t cross? What are our exceptions? If we had to explain ourselves, could we do it?
Those last three questions—which I never would’ve stumbled across without writing this poem—could, if well tended, grow into a variety of writing projects: a memoir about my Catholic upbringing; a young adult novel about a particular moral line the main character has crossed (Sara Zarr’s stunning Story of a Girl, for example); or even a biography of a person whose logical discoveries are at odds with his beloved’s faith. (I’m thinking of Deborah Heiligman’s non-fiction book, Charles and Emma, about the Darwins.)
In Madeleine L’Engle’s book, Walking On Water, she talks about belief this way:
“The artist, like the child, is a good believer. The depth and strength of the belief is reflected in the the work; if the artist does not believe, then no one else will; no amount of technique will make the responder see truth in something the artist knows to be phony.”
Ferreting out the phony is exactly what poetry is designed to do.
Poetry allows you to explore anything you’ve left unexamined up until now, to go to the core of yourself—and to honor both your irrational thoughts and your mixed feelings about what you find.
This is true whether you write poetry for publication—or just because you can. Or even if you’d rather read poetry than write it. That’s okay. (May I suggest two great books? Jeannine Atkins’ novel in verse, Borrowed Names, in which there is some amazingly beautiful and clear thinking about mothers and daughters, history, and choices. And Joyce Sidman’s poetry book for younger ages, This is Just to Say, which explores mixed feelings with humor and grace.)
Finally, I’d like to draw your attention to someone who’s not a poet, or even a writer, but a visual artist: Claudia Tennyson, who carries on the traditional Japanese practice of repairing cracked ceramic vessels—not with invisible glue or carefully matched paint—but with gold filigree, which makes the cracks “visible instead of hiding them.” She believes the mending process “increases rather than depreciates the value of the vessel.”
Could there be a more perfect metaphor for writing? We are not covering up the cracks that we find; not even truly fixing them, because, often, that’s beyond our power. But we can say: Look. Look right here. I believe this is important.
Today’s fun stuff:
1) Tell me about a time you didn’t reject the first silly thought or phrase that came to you—and what happened afterwards. Write a poem about it if you wish.
2) When you have a free evening, find the recent documentary, Louder Than a Bomb, which follows four teams of students as they prepare for and compete in a Chicago poetry slam. Need a quick jolt immediately? Here’s seventeen-year-old Adam Gottlieb performing “Poet, Breathe Now.”
3) Begin a “commonplace book.” This is simply a notebook into which you copy poems you want to keep nearby. You can do this by hand, inking in the lines, or do what I often do: print or make a copy with your computer, and paste it in. Or do both—no rules! Try reading from this commonplace book before you approach your regular writing time, and see if it puts you in the right frame of mind to be both open and clear.
4) To explore your mixed feelings, write a credo. But do it slant, as Emily Dickinson would advise. Start with “I don’t believe in…” and see where your intrepid words take you.
A former English teacher, Joy is the author of the DREAMING ANASTASIA series (Sourcebooks), which blends paranormal romance with historical fiction. The second in that series, HAUNTED, is out now, and the final book of the trilogy, title TBA, but currently ANASTASIA FOREVER, is due in Fall 2012. Another paranormal – about a sixteen-year-old stoner turned guardian angel – THE SWEET DEAD LIFE – is set in Houston and slated for May 2013, from Soho Press. Joy grew up in Chicago but now lives with her family in Houston where she writes full time and frequently get into wild rumpuses and other mischief. She is not a fan of the Houston summer but does love cowboy boots, going to the rodeo, and the coffee drinks at Empire Café.
Getting to know your characters is crucial. This means more than just the surface things like hair color or height. It means knowing what they like and what they don’t. What’s in their closet. How they talk and how they perceive the universe. Once you understand these things about your characters, their voices will shine in your writing.
So today, think of the main character in whatever you’re working on. Writing in that character’s voice, answer these two questions: How do you see yourself? How do others see you?
Note from Kate: If you don’t have a work-in-progress, feel free to write this piece in the voice of one of your students or friends, a celebrity or politician, a fictional character from your favorite book, a character you make up today, or…as yourself. Feel free to share ideas on either or both of today’s mini-lessons below. Our guest authors will be visiting later on to respond to any questions.
Hi there! Did you have a good weekend? I hope so! Before we get down to writing today, let’s announce the winner of our Friday book giveaway!
Congratulations, Gayle Kolodny Cole! You’ve won a signed copy of SEE YOU AT HARRY’S by Jo Knowles. Email me your name and address (kmessner at kate messner dot com) to receive your book. And Jo’s Monday Morning Warm-Up for the day is here!
Today’s Mini-Lesson Monday post features two guest authors — Jody Feldman and Rosanne Parry — who are going to talk about how and where to get ideas for writing projects. So it’s a choose-your-own assignment week; feel free to work on the assignment that resonates most with you, or combine ideas from both to generate some ideas this week.
Jody Feldman blames her 7th grade English teacher (justly or not) for turning her away from writing, yet the world mysteriously led her back. She is the author of The Seventh Level and The Gollywhopper Games. Coming: Gollywhopper 2 & 3 (HarperCollins/Greenwillow). You can find her at www.jodyfeldman.com and she’s @jodyfeldman on Twitter.
MINING IDEAS FROM THIN AIR
When I was a kid, I originally concluded I was incapable of Important Thoughts. Being naturally competitive, though, I didn’t let my internal conversation stop there. I learned how to mine ideas from what often seems to be thin air.
Because it’s as simple (and as difficult) as opening your eyes and ears and instincts, and consciously noting what’s happening both around you and inside your mind, I offer four suggestions – practices I’ve integrated into my everyday life.
1. Extend your dreams. Even if it means setting your alarm several minutes early, lie in bed and hold on to that semi-sleep state. Grab an image from your mind. Assign it to a character. See what new ideas evolve while you’re still hazy.
2. Reading a new book? Pause right in the middle of the story. How would you end it? Is your ending satisfying? Dig deeper. Think of another road to travel. Is your ending different? Try building a separate story around it.
3. Go to a public place. Observe. Watch that guy use a tissue after he sneezes. Imagine, instead, if he wiped his nose on his sleeve. On his bare arm. On a napkin from his lunchmate’s tray. What if he sneezed out fire? Or was propelled upward? Let your mind run with the possibilities.
4. Get in touch with your mini adrenaline rushes. What makes your ears perk? What raises your creative antennae? Go to any bookshelf and look at the titles. Which words stir your insides, have you wondering about the story? Visit any museum – art, history, science. What objects stop you? Make you take a second look? Follow those thoughts.
Brainstorm:Generate a full page of plot ideas with that noun at the center of yourthoughts. Need a boost? Add in a second word.
Dive in: Let your noun kickstart a piece of writing. The word generator, for example, gave me expansion. My first, raw thought:
Whenever Parker caught sight of the Four Springs Expansion Bridge, he always gasped a little.
Funny. Now I want to know why.
Speaking of expansion, for an expanded version of this mini-lesson, email me, jody@jodyfeldman.com
———————–
Guest author Rosanne Parry’s titles include SECOND FIDDLE, HEART OF A SHEPHERD, and DADDY’S HOME. Rosanne was born in Oak Park, IL and lived just a mile or so from the childhood home of an author named Ernest Hemingway. I moved away from Oak Park when she was five and grew up in Portland, Oregon, where she lives now. When she’s not writing, she likes to play the violin. She can also juggle, and is learning to tango, but cannot throw a frisbee to save her life.
STORY HUNTING
Thanks Kate for the invitation to join summer writing camp! I’ve been eagerly following along as my deadlines allow and enjoying the conversation immensely. It makes me miss teaching full time.
But here’s what I don’t miss—giving a writing assignment and hearing a high-pitched wail from the back of the room, “But I can’t think of anything to write!!!” The distress that accompanies the lament is absolutely genuine, but it can take a lot of teacher energy to get that doubting writing to give his or her story a try. But to be fair, most adult writers do quite a lot of (hopefully internal) wailing before choosing a setting, characters, and plot for a new story. Part of the answer lies in believing you have good ideas. I do a workshop for kids called Story Hunting to help them generate a bank of story ideas to draw on. This is a variation of that workshop geared more for adult writers of fiction and memoir.
The idea is to generate a bank of story ideas to draw on in future writing projects, so don’t worry about having a story in mind for everything on the list. Generate the list and then let it spark story ideas over time. The important thing is to generate more ideas in the bank than you will ever use. It takes the pressure off because you aren’t looking for one perfect idea, just a whole bunch of ones that are personally appealing and can be combined in ways that make for a story only you can tell. Pull out a pencil and find a blank page in your journal. If you don’t get to ten ideas in a category, leave yourself some space and come back to it in a few days. If you’re on a roll, you are more than welcome to go beyond ten.
Setting Bank
1. List ten places that you have lived in your lifetime. It need not be 10 different towns. Different places in one town are fine. Summer camp, visits to grandma, college dorm, basic training—they all count as places you’ve lived
2. List ten places to which you feel a strong emotional connection. The emotion can be positive or negative. Either is powerful. (it’s okay to have repeats in the bank. That can tell you something useful about where your heart lives.)
3. List ten places you’ve visited on vacation or places you’d love to visit in your lifetime were money and time no object.
4. List ten places from which your ancestors or in-laws come.
5. List ten books or movies that have settings you’ve found particularly captivating. (you may want to include a brief note about what attracted you to the setting.)
Here is your “bank” of 50 setting seeds which are likely to be fruitful in your own writing. Use them as a jumping off place for deciding where to set your next story. For example, I listed Paris under #2 and #3 so I made it the setting for part of Second Fiddle. The combination of emotional connection and first hand experience made it easy to write about with both warmth and realism.
Character Bank
6. List ten jobs whether paying or volunteer that you’ve done in your life.
7. List ten famous people, historical or contemporary, that you would love to share a meal with.
8. List ten ethnicities, religions, tribes, cultural groups, gender or sexual orientations, or political philosophies that are represented in your extended family.
9. List ten people who can make you laugh.
10. Complete this sentence ten times. “I’ve always wanted to _____ like ____________. For example, Dance like Gene Kelley.
Here is your bank of 50 character seeds. None of them is a fully developed character but used in combination, they can help you develop a rich and complex character that is likely to resonate with you. For example, I have always wanted to be able to rope a calf from horseback like my college roommate could. And many years ago I met a Quaker midwife who told me that once during a particularly difficult labor and delivery she had a vision of the Virgin Mary helping her. She didn’t convert to Catholicism or anything, but she did gain an insight into a religious experience that had previously felt very foreign to her. I drew on my friendship with a ranch girl and this intriguing blend of Quaker and Catholic experience to craft the characters in Heart of a Shepherd.
Thanks, Rosanne and Jody, for these GREAT ideas to generate more ideas!!
Last week, I wrote a bit about critique groups — and after I blogged, a whole bunch of super-smart writers popped in to offer tips and leave comments about how their critique groups work. If you haven’t already read that post, you should go check it out before you continue reading here.
Now…does a critique group sound like something you’d like to try? If the answer is “no” or “mmm…not right now,” that’s totally fine, and you can skip the rest of this post or come back to it another time. But for those who do feel like this is something you’d like to do, I thought we’d use today’s post to start the process of setting up some groups. Here’s what I suggest…
If you’d like to start a critique group where you live, or an online group, leave a comment here with the following information:
Your name
Where you are in your writing life: (beginner, long-time poet, working on 1st novel, agented nonfiction writer, etc.)
What you’re working on now or what you most want to write: (YA fantasy, MG mystery, picture book biographies, professional books, poetry, etc. Or you can say not sure – a little of everything.)
Where you live if you’re hoping for an in-person group, or just “Online” if you think connected via email will work out better. Or share both if you’re open to either of those.
(Remember that in-person critique groups actually go someplace to meet and eat brownies and drink coffee once or twice a month, while online groups do all their critiquing and commenting via email or Google docs or something like that. Sometimes, they eat brownies while they do this, too. Just not in the same city.)
If you’re intrigued by all this, but you’re not the kind of person who likes to start things, then you can just hang out and see if anyone posts a request for critique partners in your city, or if anyone who shares your passion for memoir is looking to form a group. If you see a comment from someone you’d like to chat with about forming a group, then reply to it and figure out how you’d like to continue the conversation (email, Facebook, etc.) to work out details. Then I’d suggest you arrange to swap just a few pages of something for a sample critique, so that you can see how it works out and figure out if you’re compatible in this way. (You can read this piece I wrote for Stenhouse to get ideas on how to offer good feedback.)
Please don’t get stressed about this ,okay? If no one answers your request right way, it doesn’t mean you’re a bad writer or that you smell like onions or anything else. Give it some time, and if this doesn’t work to connect you with someone like-minded, we’ll find another way.
Once you’re connected with a maybe-critique-buddy, try it out. See how it goes. And understand that this is not a perfect science. Critique groups have fits and starts, growing pains, and bumps in the road, so it may take a few tries before you connect with someone who is the right match. It’s worth it, though. You’ll get great feedback on your writing, you’ll learn a lot from critiquing your partners’ writing, and you’ll come away with some ideas that you can share in the classroom or library with kids who are trying to help one another improve their writing, too.
Ready to round up some critique partners? Fire away in the comments! Remember that the point is to find one another here and then trot off to email or Facebook or Google to talk amongst yourselves and decide how you want your group to work. There’s a good number of authors planning to visit for Q and A Wednesday this week, so if you end up with more questions about critique buddies, be sure to ask for their thoughts.
Miriam Forster learned to read at the age of five, wrote her first story at the age of seven and has been playing with words ever since. Her debut novel, CITY OF A THOUSAND DOLLS is being published by HarperCollins. In her daily life, Miriam is a wife, a terrible housekeeper and a dealer of caffeine at a coffee shop. In her internal life, she imagines fight scenes, obsesses about anthropology, nature shows and British television, and reads far too many books. Learn more at
