Johnny, Can You Hear Me?

Hello, my dear neglected blog! How are you? And how have you been?

I'm writing today to help spread the word about a really awesome, really worthy campaign that is making its way around the virtual writing world. If you have a long memory, you might remember that I wrote about my friends at YARN several thousand years ago, when they won the Innovations in Reading Prize. Partly because they are, plain and simple, really wonderful people, and partly because they once published a story I wrote, the folks at YARN are dear to my heart, and I would love it if you'd support them by promoting what they're up to now.

Here's the long and short of it: They want John Green, award winning YA author of (among others) Paper Towns and Looking for Alaska, to share a story with them. To get his attention, they have begun a campaign called Johnny, Can You Hear Me?, spread around the world wide web through as many mediums as possible, hoping to build enough momentum to catch his eye. So how, you might ask, can you help?

Several ways!

1. On Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr, use these hashtags: #JCYHM, #JohnGreen, #YA, #Nerdfighters

2. On your blog, write a post about it and spread the word.

3. Retweet @YAReviewNet's tweets about the campaign.

And if you feel you don't know YARN well enough to support them, now would be an excellent time to head over to their About Page and learn about how incredible they are. You won't regret it.

Summertime Guest Bloggin'

Giles Hash of High Aspirations is out of town this month, and he asked me to write a guest post for his blog to keep his readers entertained while he is away. You can check it out HERE.

And while you're over there, you should mosey through the rest of Giles' blog! It's full of good, writerly advice and camaraderie.

Happy Wednesday!

I'm a Guest Blogger!

This past weekend was a wonderful one for writing and kindred inspiration. My friend Amie (from iAMalive) came to visit me in Tulsa! And she asked me to write a guest post about it on her blog. What a pal, eh?

Here's a picture I stole from her, illustrating our time together. As you can see, Ophelia played a pivotal part in inspiring us to write.

So you should go check it out by clicking on this sentence.

Happy Thursday to you!

Countdown to NaNoWriMo Day Three: POV Character

Happy Wednesday!  Welcome to my impromptu countdown to NaNoWriMo, which you can read more about here and here.  To celebrate/prepare for the month of madness, I'm recapping some of the workshops I attended at the Highlights Foundation Writer's Workshop at Chautauqua, NY in July, because they were full of gold nuggets and wonderful bits of wisdom.  (Yanno, the kind of wisdom that comes in handy when you're writing 50,000 words in 30 days...)

Pressing on.

Today's gold nuggets are from a workshop by author Sandy Asher, titled "Who's story is this?  And why?  And are you sure?"  In other words... all about your Point of View Character.

Enjoy.

All characters need at least one of these crucial items:
1.      Safety/Security
2.      Acceptance/Belonging
3.      Love
4.      Independence
5.      Recognition/Esteem
6.      Empowerment
7.      Self-actualization  

You have to decide who of your characters has the greatest need, and thus, who is driving the story forward.  It is crucial to know why characters are in your story at all, and what they are trying to accomplish there.

Needs 1-3 are good for very young readers. (Early childhood.)  4-6 are good for adolescents.
- Getting these needs met, plus maintaining the first three, keep us busy for a lifetime.  Safety, security, and trust are much more complicated to a high school student than to a young child; thus creating a more complex situation.  (“I wish someone cared where I was at midnight.”  Rules are a comfort to older kids.)

- With teenagers, needs begin to conflict with one another.  You want to belong, even as you want to assert your independence.  To become an adult, a teenager has to become more like his/her parents.  To become an individual, a teenager must become LESS like his/her parents.

- These needs are constantly in play, constantly interacting with one another.  And as they crash against each other, conflict arises, creating STORY.

(Photo: http://www.zazzle.com/)

- Every time a character enters a scene, he knows what he needs, or he wouldn’t enter the scene in the first place. 

- The underlying need not only affects why we do the things we do, but also HOW we do them.  Determines the level of desperation, as well as the tolerance for failure.

- What your character wants may be exactly the WRONG thing to get him what he needs.  He may get what he wants, and still not get what he needs.

- When a story is too thin, or a character lacks dimension, it is often because you present what HAPPENS without presenting the WHY.  This is an opportunity to travel deep inside a character.

- Real, basic human needs in stories keep readers coming back again and again for more.  It keeps the same story fresh and significant.  We instinctively understand that need.  Every person acts instinctively out of his or her needs.  And the people around them react.  It is an action driven from inside.  SO it behooves you to know why and how your characters are acting in a particular scene.  If you can’t figure it out, perhaps there is no need for the scene?  Or perhaps that is not, in fact, your main character.

(Photo credit: http://blog.adhack.com/2009/07/23/what-makes-an-interesting-protagonist/)

Ultimately: the main character is the one whose needs and wants are so strong, they drive every scene and every chapter irresistibly forward.

Any thoughts?  How do you decide on your protagonist?  Does your main character have clear needs and wants, or is that something you can tweak before you begin?

Countdown to NaNoWriMo Day Two: Writing YA

I said I'd do it.  Here, look at me!  I'm doing it.  Blog post.  Two days in a row.  Five more coming, so stay tuned, Dear Reader.  If you don't have a clue what the heck I'm talking about, you can visit this link, and it will tell you all you need to know.

Today I'm cutting straight to the chase.  The gold nuggets for today are the highlights from a workshop called "Writing Novels For and About Young Adults" by author Helen Hemphill (LONG GONE DADDY, RUNAROUND).

8 Traits that Define YA

1. Teen protagonist
2. 200-250 pages
3. Marginal adult characters and limited amount of secondary characters
4. Brief times span, and a universal and familiar setting
5. Few subplots
6. Current teen language, slang, expressions
7. A positive resolution to the crisis at hand, although never moralistic or In Your Face
8. Focus on the experiences and the growth of one MC with problems specific to teens, and the journey into adulthood.

In the last 10-15 years, the resurgence of the YA novel has come up in pure entertainment. 

Decidedly teen problems don’t necessarily exist anymore.

Imaginative plots, characters who are more than they seem, and complete creation of a world are all things readers want.

(Photo source: http://cltlblog.wordpress.com/)

* Conflict: Writing is about creating story.  At its most basic, story IS conflict.  No matter what the idea, something has to happen in the story.  Hint from page 1.  Choices, actions, and reactions must define and drive the conflict.  Characters must be forced to make choices.  They must be tested.
* The plot of your novel can’t sag.  It can’t be loose or lacking tension and conflict at every turn.  Conflict must be at the center of your story.
* Believability: the story must work.  It must seem as if it is true.  You want your readers to be so immersed that they forget they are reading a book.
* Do a proper set-up.  If something unusual happens in chapter 15, you have to set it up in chapter 2.
* Coincidence: don’t use it.  You get one per novel.  It upsets the balance of reader expectations.
* Avoid cliché.  You don’t want to be predictable.  Be surprising.
* Resolution: Satisfying ending. You want a definitive change or outcome.  It must be in the here and now of the story’s resolution.


Character:
o Round characters have the quirks, the insecurities, etc.  They are the real ones.
o But in today’s YA, readers want more than just round characters.  They need a defining role, trait, or association.  They can’t just be normal or ordinary.  (Bella, Edward, Katniss, etc.)
o POV is the qualifying factor in a YA novel.  The hub.  Most YAs are in first person, but that is rather limiting.  3rd person threatens to be too distant, but it can be managed.  Action must move forward with each voice.  Narrative voice should ring true to life.  They should fit the characters.  Their dialogue should reflect their personality.
o Super-round characters come from observation combined with imagination.
o “As a writer, you don’t have to live an exciting life; you just have to have friends who do.”
o High entertainment: KIDS ARE READING FOR ENTERTAINMENT.
o You are telling a story.  Great plots, characters we care deeply about, and places that enthrall us.
o The best book of all is the one which takes us by surprise… because it refreshes what we already know… borrowed and uniquely imagined.”

 (Photo source: http://blogs.learnnc.org/instructify/category/reading/page/5/) 

Any thoughts?  Do you write YA, and if not, do you think Ms. Hemphill's advice can translate into other genres?  And what about those who do write YA: do you agree or disagree with these gold nuggets, or have other things to add?

You're Weird: Motley Monday

Once upon a time, I read an interview on Rachelle Gardner's blog with author Matt Mikalatos which was all about embracing your inner weird.  (You can read that full post here.  And I'd highly recommend it.  It's great.)  At the time, I was feeling ultra-serious about whatever it was I was writing, and thinking things like, Oh gosh this had better be so-so-so good or I'll never ever get published, and, I've got to buckle down and be serious and write in the way that people will want to read because I'll be doomed otherwise and no one will ever read my... blah blah blah.

And I remember this interview being a turning-point for me.  You see, it's always the exceedingly simple things that rattle my brains and club me upside the head with epiphanies.  I'm never boggled by the complex things; usually my little mind embraces those without flinching.  But the simple ones?  No, the simple ones tend to leave me dizzy for days.  And this was one such.

The essence of the interview was this: don't be afraid of the weird things that make you you.  And don't be afraid to saturate your writing with them.  Because it is that side of yourself, those oddities which truly make you unique, that will set your writing apart.

Now, some people are naturally more weird than others.  And that's just fine.  But whatever level of quirk you have inside you, don't be afraid to let it show.  Because, as it turns out, the world doesn't really want normal.  The world wants weird, and the world wants you. 

Take this quote (a new favorite of mine), and post it by your writing desk:

"Follow your inner moonlight; don't hide the madness." -Allen Ginsberg

 

And then cross-stitch this one on a pillow, and sleep on it every night:

EMBRACE YOUR INNER WEIRD. 

You tell me: do you let yourself into the things you write naturally?  Or is it a struggle for you sometimes?  What methods do you use to turn off that critical inner editor and allow your true weird self to shine through in your writing?

The Inconstant Blogger and Motley Mondays

Turns out, I'm not very good at being consistent.  I mean, I can consistently brush my teeth in the morning, and walk my dog, and write, and (usually) remember to eat food when I'm hungry... but the blogging thing still isn't second nature.

In an effort to instill some consistency into my blogging self, I've devised a plan.  It's called:

Motley Mondays.

mot·ley[mot-lee]  adjective, noun, plural -leys.

–adjective

1. exhibiting great diversity of elements; heterogeneous: a motley crowd.

2. being of different colors combined; parti-colored: a motley flower border.

3. wearing a parti-colored garment: a motley fool.

–noun

4. a combination of different colors.

5. a parti-colored effect.

6. the parti-colored garment of a jester.

7. a heterogeneous assemblage.

8. a medley.

Origin:
1350–1400;  ME; see mote¹ , -ly

—Synonyms
1.  varied, mixed, incongruous.

The idea is that Mondays will be reserved for whatever I have floating around in my brain at the time of the post.  Naturally, I'll try and corral those thoughts into useful things--like links to good blog posts, book recommendations, beet recipes, gold nuggets, writerly quotes, etc.--but the idea is that there is no rhyme or reason to it all.  Now, be warned: sometimes strange things float around in my brain.  So you might encounter anything here on Motley Mondays.  But this plan guarantees me at least one post per week.  And it gets better.

I want YOU to be involved, too.  Any given Monday, if you find you have an incongruous assortment of things to share and you don't want to tie them all together into one coherent and artful entry, just show up here and post your link, and we'll all celebrate being Motley together.

So, with that being said, I'm going to share a few awesome things.


If you like bumper stickers and/or Harry Potter and/or Shakespeare, you should have a look at this sticker.  If I didn't already have a sticker of the Hogwarts crest on my back windshield, I think I'd buy this.
http://www.cafepress.com/+shakespeare_expelliarmus_oval_sticker,196686770


Also, if you are among the lucky humans on the continent who is currently experiencing that crisp and elusive season we call Autumn, or Fall, you might enjoy this scone recipe.  (Because scones are wonderful in the fall.)  I've made it a handful of times to good results, and since I am an incompetent cook, I think that makes it foolproof.
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Worlds-Best-Scones-From-Scotland-to-the-Savoy-to-the-US/Detail.aspx


And if you've never been to Hyperbole and a Half to laugh your face off, I think now is a good time.  Mondays seem to need extra laughter, and this blog sure does provide.


Finally, I'd like to point out that we are exactly 41 days away from NaNoWriMo.  I'm excited.  How about you?  If you're planning to participate this year, do you know what you're writing about yet?  Do share!

Happy Monday!  I hope it is very motley indeed.  (Post your link in the comments if you have an entry you want to share.)

1 gold flake, 3 Things Thursday, & 1 Hot Dog

Last week, I promised gold nuggets.

But since today is Three Things Thursday (hosted by Amie at i AM alive), today's gold nugget will be more like a gold flake; a teaser, if you will. I promise I'll share more about all the fabulous things I learned at Chautauqua really, really soon. But in the mean-time, let this little kernel of glittery goldness sparkle in your palm for a while:

(This came from writer/editor Patricia Lee Gauch during a general session on Tuesday, July 20.)

"Transcending [in writing] is rising through a mischief of words and hitting your mark."

Isn't that glorious? There's oodles more where that came from. Stay tuned, Dear Reader, because we'll have more golden writerly goodness coming your way before you can say California Prospector. For now, though, let's join Amie in celebrating Three Things Thursday. Today's theme is: three things about your childhood that make you who you are. (If you'd like to participate, go visit Amie's blog and jump in!)

Here are my three things:

1. My imaginary friend was a red squirrel called Chippy. He ran alongside the car everywhere my family went, and entertained me in math class when I was too frustrated with my numerical ineptitude to pay attention anymore. To this day--despite knowing that they are overpopulated, diseased vermin--I have a soft-spot for squirrels.

2. My favorite thing to do in the back-yard was to wander around through our evergreen trees and pick the small, frosty-blue berries so I could combine them with mud, leaves, and crape-myrtle buds in an old bowl to make a magical stew. This gave way to a penchant for weird Celtic mythology.

3. I once led my neighbor friends to the doorstep of an old house that I thought was abandoned, planning to introduce an exciting new place to play. As I reached for the doorknob, the door swung open to reveal a livid old woman I would later swear was a witch, who screeched after us about calling the police even as we sprinted for our lives back down the street. Now, when I walk Ophelia, I hate tiptoeing into people's lawns to pick up after her because I'm afraid they'll come running out, bellowing threats.

That's my three! And speaking of Ophelia, my roommate's friend Adri (who is a fab photographer) took this photo of my little spotty-dotty the other night. Ophie's usually not very photogenic, but I like this one.

Credit Where Credit is Due, or The New House

I don't know where I've been all these months of my blogging existence.  Under a virtual rock, evidently.  Because until last week, I had no idea what Shabby Blogs was.  Had no clue that the entire time I was pulling out my fingernails to get my Blogger template the way I liked it, a site existed just a mouse-click away that offered all the kinds of things I like as blog decoration... FOR FREE.  (Check out their blog, too.  It's as beautiful as everything they offer.)



And, what's more, Shabby Blogs lead me to another site which exists purely for the editing and decorating of photos.  FOR FREE.  Fotoflexer.com.  This was another brilliant revelation for me.  Maybe I'll stop lurking under my rock.  It seems that the virtual world is full of wonders.

After much deliberation over my selections, I have redecorated this place so that it fits my tastes, and feels more like home.  Of course, even moving into a home decorated the way you like it feels strange at first, because nothing is familiar.  So, it will take some getting used to.  But I like the results.  My template is called "French Flea Market".  (Just like when I buy paint, I find it difficult to resist something with a good name.)

So, welcome to my open house!  Have a look around, pour yourself a glass of French wine, and stay awhile.  It's lovely to have you here.