Sentences That Breathe

In "My Life's Sentences" a brilliant article about writing, (New York Times, 3/18/12) Jhumpa Lahiri claims: "They (sentences) remain the test, whether or not to read something. The most compelling narrative, expressed in sentences with which I have no chemical reaction, or an adverse one, leaves me cold." So what sort of sentence keeps the reader hooked?


"Certain sentences breathe and shift about, like live matter in soil. The first sentence of a book is a handshake, perhaps an embrace. Style and personality are irrelevant. They can be formal or casual. They can be tall or short or fat or thin. But they need to contain a charge. A live current, which shocks and illuminates ... Sentences are the bricks as well as the mortar, the motor as well as the fuel. They are the cells, the individual stitches. Their nature is at once solitary and social. Sentences establish tone, and set the pace."

How does Jhumpa Lahiri create the sentences in her fiction? "After an initial phase of sitting patiently, not so patiently, . . . they begin arriving fully formed. . . I hear sentences as I'm staring out the window, or chopping vegetables. They are pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, handed to me in no particular order."

Later, they are "sorted, picked over, organized, changed. Most will be dispensed with. All the revision I do - and this process begins immediately, accompanying the gestation - occurs at the sentence level. It is by fussing with sentences that a character becomes clear to me, that a plot unfolds. . . As a book or story nears completion, I grow acutely, obsessively conscious of each sentence in the text. Each sentence is "confronted, inspected, turned inside out."

Does her writing process seem unusual? Or do you also work this way?

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The Personality of the Narrator

Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about narrative voice. Not which person to use, but which personage. The narrator's personality is such a make-or-break element of a novel from the very beginning. A really strong narrator grabs you from the first line. For example, Scott Westerfeld’s dystopia Uglies begins with this image: “The sky was the color of cat vomit.” Original. A bit graphic. Also highly descriptive—at least to any cat owner! But also angry. Maladjusted. What a way to see a sunset! Right away we see that the narrator is no Sugar Plum Fairy; it's not going to lead us into the Land of the Sweets.

Westerfeld's heroine Tally Youngblood is bold, frank, original; restlessly counting down the days till her 16th birthday and the total makeover that will turn her into a flawless, bubble-headed “Pretty.” With this first line Westerfeld sets up a tension with the scenario he’s set up for Tally; we know a girl that who sees sunsets as cat vomit won’t find it easy to conform. He sets up a tension between his scenario of seeming perfection and his view of that world. (In this case the narrator is third person, but very close to Tally's point of view most of the time.)

Choosing the narrative voice is one way of choosing what kind of writer you want to be. How do you choose your narrative voice? Do you think about it consciously? Or does it just flow out of you?

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Enjoying Publication!

Last month I wrote about the mammoth to do list I was attempting to accomplish in the two weeks prior to the publication of my picture book, "Where Do Diggers Sleep at Night?"

At times, accomplishing all the tasks on the list seemed impossible. But now, several weeks after my book is available for purchase, I can give you the update and...

I did it! Nearly every task I listed is done

The book trailer is now complete. (And I think it looks pretty awesome!) You can check it out here:

And the online Truck Stop Book Launch party was a truckload of fun! (I haven't taken it down yet, so if you haven't gotten a chance to visit yet, please do! Truck Stop Book Launch

And school visits have been so much fun! Especially the one to the elementary school I attended as a child. (My fourth grade teacher brought my fourth grade picture to show to her current second graders. Thanks Mrs. Moskowitz!)

And the Touch-a-Truck day that the Junior League of Seattle planned was so much fun! I got to sign copies of DIGGERS (alongside Seattle's awesome Mockingbird Books) for lots of books for lots of enthusiastic truck fans!

So that's the update! I'm so glad that last month's craziness is gone!

Although it's still pretty hectic around here.

(Two more school visits next week!
Yay! This is fun!)

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Dark and Stormy Doesn't Do It

"Tt was a dark and stormy night." This opening line in Bulwer Lytton's "The Last Days of Pompeii," is considered a literary joke. For years the sentence has been used as an example of how not to open a novel. Today one must start in the middle of the action. Hook the reader, expecially the younger reader. No more scene painting. Description is to be used like salt or vinegar. Sparingly. I'm not so sure I agree with this. Wouldn't a good opening paragraph with time, place, weather, scenery, be beneficial to the reader? Guess not. Like a TV viewer surfing channels for an eyecatching flick, the young reader wants the first line to pull him in. "Lights, camera, action" works best. So I've been examining my manuscript for the eyecatcher. Apparently it is not a teenage farm girl in front of a hot stove. Guess I have to trot out the dead body a little earlier.

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Camping In

I'm camping in this June. Okay, maybe I'll spend some time on my deck with my laptop, but I'm camping in with Camp Nanowrimo. Yes, for those of you who always yearned to write a novel in a month, but couldn't imagine speed writing in November, you can now attend Camp Nanowrimo in June or August!

Camp Nanowrimo works perfectly for me. I had already decided to buckle down and finish my revision in June. Now I have friends and emails cheering me on to reach that finish line.

So excuse me if this post is short -- I have a lot of work to do. And who knows, if all goes well, maybe I'll go to camp in August, too!

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An Asset

I have always found that being a writer is an asset in many ways but in unusual circumstances it becomes a great asset. Sitting for long periods of time in a hospital room or a rehab center when a loved one has a prolonged and serious illness, as my husband has suffered recently, can be draining and wearying since you need to be there but you can't help with what is needed medically. But, as a writer, I can be present for him and write too. With a pad and pen, laptop and Ipad I can work almost anywhere. I have reviewed my critique group members' manuscripts for the meeting last week (Writers - they are in the mail!) and work on my own manuscipts. I can revise, revise, revise, updating changes on the laptop or home computer at night. At the same time I get to travel to the locales of each story, to a supernatural new world of one colleague and a local high school of another colleague's current WIP where the MC struggles with his unique problems. I can travel to the Himalaya Mountains, scene of a new PB manuscript of mine or back in time to medieval England which is the setting for a historical fiction PB that I am working on. As Julie mentioned on her last post here, one goal of a writer is to keep the story going and moving forward, even if it is a little at a time. So I keep up with my characters' journeys and the changes in the plots and protagonists of the blossoming books of my writing colleagues.

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Words Are Not Enough

This year I have made progress on several projects, although I haven’t written as much as I intended. As the summer looms, and the inevitability of children rushing through my house all day approaches, I realize I will get even less done each day than I do now.  How can I write more, and write it faster?

Many authors measure their progress in words per day.  This doesn’t seem to work for me.  I need to be a more ‘effective writer.’   

Here’s what I need to work towards:

1.     Plan.  Outline.  Draw a mind map.  Looking ahead can save a lot of looking back and rewriting. 

2.     Separate writing from editing.  Effective writers WRITE, without looking back.  Just get through the first draft, not the first chapter.  Edit through the dross and the good stuff in a second stage.  (This is a biggie for me.)

3.     Write every day, even just a little.   Just one more page keeps the story moving forward.  Over a year, a page a day is a novel’s first draft.  (Reportedly, Stephen King writes even on Christmas Day.  Wow. What discipline.)

4.     Finish what was started.  Don’t let good ideas rest in peace in the file cabinet.  Resurrect them! Complete what was once a passionate and inspirational project.

5.     Set deadlines.  Deadlines demand a finished piece.  (This is one of the many things a critique group is good for.)

6.     Write first. Volunteer last. Instead of structuring free time around, say, school library volunteer work, and squeezing in writing, structure time around writing.  Give up other activities and give in to the dream of writing.  Then a book I write might appear in the library.

Summer, with frequent interruptions (whether children, visitors, or vacations) can be a tough time to be productive.  But if I try, maybe I will make more progress than I expect. 

How do you keep productive?  Any tips?

 

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A Kiss is Just a Kiss (NOT!)

As a writer of contemporary YA fiction, I find myself creating a lot of romantic plot lines. I'm currently digging deep to finish a second round of revisions, and one of the things I'm looking to clean up is parts where I'm 'overdoing it'. My problem is characters who over analyze their feelings...maybe too much heart-thumping, breath-catching, lip-biting, sighing, staring deeply into each others eyes...you get the picture.  Then I'll read some current YA and growl in frustration because it feels like all I'm reading about is

lip biting,

breath-catching,

heart-thumping kisses,

and wonder where am I going wrong?

See, my first kiss was amazing. No awkward nose-bumping, no fumbling. He was the boy next door (okay, not right next door, but close enough), two years older and suffice to say, had skilled lips. Being kissed by someone with experience was like getting a hit of the most delicious, pleasure-inducing drug imaginable. If I'd only known the side effects - confusion (Does he like me?)...despair (Why is he ignoring me?)...desire (When can we do that again??!!)...I would have run in the other direction.

Yeah, right.  A kiss in NOT just a kiss for me.  It's a life altering experience.

And so began, as kd lang sings, this constant craving for those yummy feelings that come with the territory. Romance - even just the hint of it - is an essential part of a book for me. And it's part of who I am as a writer. Most stories I've written have some element of l'amour in them. Does that make me a sap?

Over the years, some of the most biting editorial remarks I've received regarding my writing have included words like "melodramatic" and "cheesy" - yeah, ouch. My cheeks are reddening as I type this. Not exactly buzz words you want on your jacket flap. 

So Paper Waiters, I know there's a fine line between true romance and mawkish romance, but how do you know when you've crossed it? What are some good, contemporary YA romances that have gotten it right? 

*photo credit  Alfred Eisenstaedt (photographer of The Kiss)

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More About Maurice

Since Maurice Sendak died last week, there's been a flood of accolades and personal memories published. I'd like to add one small story from an interview he gave Leonard Marcus in WAYS OF TELLING: CONVERSATIONS ON THE ART OF THE PICTURE BOOK published by Dutton in 2002.

Leonard S. Marcus: "Once when you were ill as a child, your father told you that if you looked out of the window without blinking you might see an angel. In many of your children's books, characters stare out at the reader. Are they, too, looking for angels?"

Maurice Sendak: "I remember that incident clearly, as if it were yesterday. It hurts not to blink, and I didn't blink until my eyes watered, but I did see an angel. And when I saw him or her or it go by, I screamed and my father came rushing in. And, of course, in WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE, Max doesn't blink once."

Do you have any childhood memories woven into your writing?

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Writing out of the box

Recently I’ve read a few really great fantasy novels for grown-ups and I'm wondering: am I limiting myself by writing for children? Usually I dismiss fantasy for adults as somehow fake or lame. My feeling is (or was!) "This stuff is supposed to be written for children—and me and my few friends who are cool enough to appreciate it." But it was so refreshing in The Magicians by Lev Grossman when the magicians in training actually curse, and then they have sex for the first time after they transform into Arctic foxes. (But not at the same time!) I loved the moment in The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern when we get to follow the hero and heroine PAST being young adults and watch them confront the problem of aging within the confines of their magical world. These are things you just wouldn't put in your ordinary YA fantasy novel, partly because of commercial considerations and partly because of the expectations of the genre. It just sort of isn't done. And do I want to be in this little genre box where these things aren't done? But then a real event interrupted my thoughts: Maurice Sendak died. And as I pored over the many tributes to him and his iconoclastic, uncompromising style, I started thinking about how little he censored himself, and how that was a big part of his greatness: Naked butts (Night Kitchen). Giant cannibal babies (Higgledy Piggledy Pop). Boys who menace the dog with forks. Sendak never pulled his punches because he was writing for kids. Should we? What about you? Do you censor yourself in writing for kids? Is there any other reason besides marketability to censor ourselves in writing for them?

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