Do you ever type up someone else’s picture book or a chapter from someone else’s book? I do. I find that just reading a selection, even reading aloud, doesn’t get me into the language and rhythm patterns as well as typing the text does.

My intent with this exercise isn’t to mimic the selected text, but to study something about a particular genre, publisher, target audience, etc. Then, I can break any of the “rules” I’ve uncovered because I understand better why the author made this set of choices about words, sentences, rhythm patterns and reading levels. Now – off to writing.

Revise with confidence.

I am almost sad and depressed today. Why? Because I’m looking at the wrong things. Writers of picture books or novels must remember to pay attention to their work, not the audience’s appraisal of their work.

The Audience is Always Late

The audience is always late to the party. When I sold The Journey of Oliver K. Woodman, it was three years before a reviewer ever saw the book. It received starred reviews from Kirkus and BCCB. It was an Irma S. and James H. Black Picture Book Award Honor Book. In fact, I have a file that lists the awards this book won. And it will be released in paperback in February!

In reality, when I sold the book in 2000, I was an “Award-Winning Author.” It’s just that no one knew it until 2003, when they saw the book.

The audience appreciation is always way later than the creative process.

Pay Attention to the Creative Process

On days like today, when I have a tendency to look at reviews, royalties, agents, awards, sales, speaking engagements, or any other outward measure of success, I have to pull myself back. They only speak about yesterday’s projects, not today’s.

The only thing that matters TODAY is the current project. And the writing went really well yesterday on my WIP, as I finally started figuring out the tricky POV. The writing is going well! And that is reason enough to throw off the stirrings of depression and rejoice. The writing went well yesterday and it will go well today. Rejoice.

Revise with confidence.

Christmas Gift for Our Readers

For the last few years, I’ve posted writing tips from Winter Holiday personalities. For example, Frosty the Snowman has 6 Top Writing Tips. This year, as our Christmas gift to you, we’ve collected these into one downloadable pdf.

Winter Writing with Kids

FREE download. Celebrate the Season while Teaching Kids to Write. 34 Writing Skills addressed.

DOWNLOAD NOW from the FICTION NOTES STORE

The Gingerbread Man gives his writing tips. Be sure to see the related post, Poor Gingerbread Man for funky cookie cutters.

Event Repeat

The story of the Gingerbread Man uses an event-repeat type plot. An event is repeated several times, with only a minor change. When the Gingerbread Man escapes and runs away, he meets several people who want to eat him. Each character is added to the parade as the Gingerbread Man runs away, until the Fox outsmarts him at the last.

Chorus

“Run, Run, Fast as you can, you can’t beat me, I’m the Gingerbread Man.”
Using a Chorus is effective in short stories and picturebooks.

Changing Setting

Especially for the picturebook format, it’s important to keep the setting interesting, so the illustrations are exciting. By sending the Gingerbread Man across the landscape, the illustrations have visually exciting possibilities.

Folktale Mode

This story is in the folktale mode, which treats characters as a general type. For example, the ugly stepsisters in Cinderella, have a role as mean, ugly stepsisters, and not much more. When Gingy is added to the Shrek movies, though, his character is made more interesting by giving him individual characteristics. Decide if your story needs a general, folktale type character or a more individual character.

Folktale Morals

Folktales and fables often add a moral at the end of a story. Of course, the Gingerbread Man should not have trusted the Fox! It’s seldom that picture books and stories today have such an explicit, straight forward moral. Instead, it’s usually implied and the reader is left to verbalize it for him or herself.

Writing Tips from Other Characters

Frosty the Snowman’s Top 6 Writing Tips
Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer’s Top 5 Writing Tips
Santa Claus’s Top 5 Writing Tips
The Gingerbread Man’s Top 5 Writing Tips
12 Days of Christmas Writing Tips

Revise with confidence.

How do you create tension in a story? I’ve been talking with a friend and his gut instinct is to withhold certain information, for example, the exact location of the scene.

Story Tension

In How to Write Science Fiction & Fantasy, Orson Scott Card says that tension is created by withholding “what happens next.” You give the reader specific, interesting information about what is happening at this specific moment and the reader will turn the page to find out what happens next.

My friend, though, says that as a reader, he likes to know more than the characters in the story. So, for example, in a mystery, he doesn’t mind knowing up front who the killer/criminal is. Then, when the killer interacts with another character, as a reader, he enjoys the thrill of knowing something the character doesn’t know. To him, that’s great tension.

Or, he likes to withhold information, such as the location of a scene, to keep the reader guessing for a time about where exactly the story is taking place.

I tend to agree with Card; however, I see my friend’s points for special situations.

How do you see tension played out in a story?

Revise with confidence.

I’m still looking for a way into a new novel. So, here’s my plan for today: experiment with voice.

Starting with Voice

I’m reading Finding Your Writer’s Voice: A Guide to Creative Fiction by Thaisa Frank and Dorothy Wall. While I don’t like every exercise they suggest, there are some interesting ones.

For my purposes today, Chapter 25 is entitled, “Working with Short Forms to Discover Your Story.” They suggest you write a short piece, just a paragraph or two, each emphasizing a different aspect: character, plot, images, or tone. This should tell me/might tell me what sort of approach to use to the novel I’m planning.

• For voice, they give an example from Sandra Cisnernos’, House on Mango Street, talking about a Hispanic neighborhood entirely from a character’s viewpoint. “Those who don’t know any better come into our neighborhood scared.”
• For plot, there’s a short story by Augusto Monterroso and a prose poem from Danhil Kharms, which they describe as a “tiny Russian novel in a paragraph.” “Once Orlov ate too many ground peas and died.”
• Short examples of prose imagery from Portugese writer Ana Hatherly are called “tisanas” and feature outlandish imagery that takes surprising leaps. “Once upon a time there was a landscape where there were never any clouds. To make it rain it was necessary to wash the horizon with feathers. (from Tisana #87)
• For tone, they offer a paragraph from David Ignatow called, “I’m a Depressed Poem.” “You are reading me now and thanks.”

It is interesting to see how the voice of each of these is dominated by what interests the writer the most.

Actually–I have two or three ideas for a new novel, so I may do this for each of the ideas, and see what voice emerges that excites me.

Starting a new novel is hard work!

Revise with confidence.

I’ve been thinking about the narrators chosen to read various books-on-tape . As I revise my current novel project, I wonder–
who be chosen to read my current WIP? I need suggestions!

The Voice Problem

One of my favorite fantasy titles is Lirael by Garth Nix, the the first book in the Abhorsen Trilogy.

This week, I listened to the audio version of Lirael, as read by Tim Curry. Curry has read about 77 other things listed on Amazon, including many of the Series of Unfortunate Events–Lemony Snickett.

I love Curry’s voice and his reading. But, I can’t imagine him reading my WIP. Wrong voice.

Suggest a Narrator

One thing that an editor said on a previous version of this story is that she wanted more of a regional flavor to the narrative voice. I’m trying to imagine listening to my story on a books-on-tape and can’t quite hear the voice.

This has a Texas/South/Southwest sort of flavor. It’s an animal fantasy, with a sort of epic feel. It doesn’t have to be a male voice, it could be female.

Who would you suggest as the narrator for such a story? Whose voice has a sort of epic quality, yet that Texas twang?

I wonder–if I had that voice firmly in mind (in ear?), would it help me find/explore/play with the story’s voice better? Any suggestions?

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This is an attempt to summarize and organize the comments on my posting last week about voice. Thanks to these writers for making comments: Janni Simner, Joni Sensei, Sarah Miller, T.E. Wymer, Lori Van Hoesen, and Linda Urban. Apologies, if I’ve misconstrued anything. Read the full discussion.

Voice: A summary of comments

1. What is Voice?
   • Define. Definitions of voice are fuzzy.
   • Describe. It’s easier to describe voices, but not much easier:
     Use categories of personality (witty, reserved, observant), narrative tendency/style of speech (mimicry, colorful language, precise speech) .
     Stripped away prose–straight to the point, powerful sentences that create lasting images (ex. Kate DiCamillo in The Tiger Rising)
     Imagery driven with personification (ex. Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy by Gary D. Schmidt)
   • Distinguish among. We distinguish narrative voice (for a certain piece) v. authorial voice (for a canon of writing)? (Does George Clooney always sound like George Clooney, or does he change with each character role?) (Or to reverse that, does Ebenezer Scrooge always sound like Ebenezer, regardless of the actor playing that role?)

     Narrative voice: word choice, attitude, tone, what the character notices, narrator’s voice.
     Authorial voice: transcendent. Complexity v. sparsity of prose, imagery, symbolism, challenge to the reader, provocativeness.

2. The Appeal of Voice
   Do certain voices have a universal subjective appeal? Why do some people like a voice, but others don’t like that voice?
3. Learning/Teaching Voice
   • Can narrative voice and authorial voices be taught?
     Some confidence that narrative voice can be taught (planned and structured), but some skepticism that authorial voice can be taught (gut issue: the best thing that most writers can do is get out of their own way). Structured/intuitive, craft/gut–back to this terminology again, but with the twist that some types of voice must be intuitive/are by nature intuitive and can’t be taught?
   • When, in the writing process do you begin to focus on voice?
     Lori uses the first few drafts to explore voice intuitively. In revisions, she focuses more on voice. Could that be reversed and a story begin with voice?
   • Practice and Play

     Write dialogue between vastly different characters: Ex. Biker chick, Pollyanna
     Do the same with a common topic: talk about how tired you are. Ex. of characters to use–single mother, 5 year-old child, 90 year-old man.
     Do Improv acting on that common topic from the differing POVs, then write again.

   • If you begin voice in a structured way, can it then become intuitive or more natural?
4. Special Problems
   • Multi-voice Project
   • Historical project (or ghostwriting) where you have diaries, letters, interviews, etc. and must recreate the voice found there.
   • First person projects–how to deal with the differences of narrative voice and authorial voice.

More concerns? More to think about?
I’ll be out for a day or two, but will summarize again when I get back.

Revise with confidence.

When you approach the topic of Voice of a novel and how to produce a pleasing Voice for fiction, especially as you revise, I think a helpful attitude is to think of the approaches as a continuum.

The Approach to Voice Continuum

The continuum runs from a Craft Approach (very left-brained, structured craft oriented skills that can be learned ) to an Emotional Approach (very right brained, dig deep into your soul and be yourself).

I’m trying very hard here to think of a name for the second approach that describes it in a fair manner: Gut Approach, Be Yourself Approach, Live Your Character Approach, Dig-Deep Approach. All of those sound faintly derogatory to me and I don’t mean that at all.

Likewise the first approach has equally dissatisfying monikers: Hack Approach, Formula Approach, Grammar-and-Editing Approach.

I don’t even like the right-brained, left-brained approaches, because those have unwelcome connotations, too. It’s just the continuum of ways you can approach Voice from structured to loose.

The problem is that when both extremes get criticism, there’s nothing left and voice becomes that nebulous thing that no one can talk about, they only recognize when they see it. And that isn’t helpful, because it gives writers no way in to make revisions. It gives us no tools, no strategies, no goals.

In other words, I’m going to teach about Voice and Scenes this fall and I need help in deciding how to discuss Voice. I’ve surveyed the land in front of me and see this continuum and how different teachers/writers might fall on that continuum. I just need ways to describe the continuum without choosing sides.

How would YOU describe the ends of the continuum? Which approach do you like? Any books to recommend on how to improve Voice (or Scenes), especially any that definitely take one approach or the other?

Revise with confidence.

As you Wish

Are you a fan of the Princess Bride movie? My daughters can quote that move backwards and forwards. J actually went looking for the screenplay online, downloaded it and studied it. Now, she and her friend use quotes from Princess Bride as a shorthand for things.

Well, I love the scene where the Princess is about to marry the evil Prince. It’s a solemn moment, and then the minister starts to speak. “Deah-wy Be-wuv-ed.” His scrambling of the “Dearly Beloved” line is hilarious. It’s a great example, too, of a twist in a story. Expectations set up, then blown apart. Here, it’s not a plot twist, but a small element that is used for humor.

I’ve been thinking about twisted voices this week, which is a good exercise in “Brute Thinking,” forcing two concepts together. I keep thinking of using an inappropriate or unexpected voice for humor, for shock value, or to distinguish a character. It points out that there are both big and small elements that can be twisted in a story (expectations met in unexpected ways) to keep the interest high.

I also found examples of voices described as “twisted.” Usually, these implied dark, forbidding characters, or characters in extreme circumstances.

Describing Voices

If you haven’t seen/heard NPR’s Vocal Impressions series, you should. Listeners to National Public Radio are asked to describe voices of well known people. Here are a few samples. Go back and look at all five in the series and then send in a description for number six!

• Phyllis Diller: The sound of an aluminum beer can rubbed on a rusty cheese grater — James Green
• Elvis Presley: A barn full of straw burning at night visible for 20 miles — Denny Dowdye
• Celine Dion: A Siamese cat stretched immodestly over a black leather couch — Markus Schafer
• Bobby Short: Sadness and beauty walking hand in hand on a cobblestone street on a foggy night — Denny Dowdye

For Vocal Impresions six, you’re asked to listen to Rodney Dangerfield, “Mama” Cass Elliot, Samuel L. Jackson, and Paul Robeson.

How would you describe the voices of your characters?
Any other examples of twisted voices?

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Patricia Sargeant on the importance of the writer’s voice. (Scroll down to her advice for other writers.)

Author Grace Paley died yesterday at the age of 88. Here’s an excerpt of her comments about the way your cultural roots affect your writing voice.

Cynthia Morris offers a checklist for evaluating your writing voice.

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