Write THAT book

by Suzanne Y. Cordatos

www.suzannecordatos.blogspot.com

Boots crunch on six inches of new powder and carve a fluffy white trail up the Connecticut hills. Like a scene on a greeting card or a Norman Rockwell painting, we drag an empty red sled and carry a rugged knife capable of allowing a suburban family to saw a perfect 7-foot pine from the tree farm a short drive from our new house. My preschoolers run and hug one of the first trees they see and declare it perfect. Feeling like a lumberjack, my husband gets to work with the saw and the fresh pine smell rushes our senses with nature’s holiday goodness as our fingers get sticky with the resin we can’t help but touch.

 

“I have no memory of that – of a real tree in the house,” my now-teenage daughter announced the other day as she made up her own verses singing “Deck the halls and fluff the branches! Fa la la la la-a-a-, la la la la!” She referred to our family’s annual ritual of fluffing the plastic Christmas tree branches to look more real, spreading the packaged greens apart while I silently regretted not buying a pack of “pine scent sticks” to tuck into the tree branches. Then it hit me: How did I succumb to this fake tree? When did I allow this change to happen to my family? What do you mean you have no idea what a fresh pine tree smells like at Christmas?!?

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas,
but what happened to the pine smell?

Writers, it is up to us. 

How might city kids learn about the woods or a farm if they have never visited one? When a girl loves to dance, can she imagine herself on stage? What does it feel like under the hot lights in front of an audience?There’s probably a book for that—and if there isn’t? Write THAT book!

Prolific American author Jane Yolen has a lot to say about what and how to write in her book, Take Joy. Her advice on what should go into your writing? "The wind in your hair, the slate of sky overhead; a child's quick intake of breath". In other words, the little discoveries that perhaps only you have bothered to notice. Cultural holiday traditions from far away or long ago can feel as alive as a simmering pot when you read about them in a storybook; the tinkering of tools in a workshop crafting homemade wooden toys; the warmth of Mom’s kitchen, her flour-coated hands expert on the rolling pin or helping pudgy little fingers press hard enough on the cookie cutters; tangible vibrations of voices lifting together in joyful song to the heavens.

When writers describe life’s moments (big or small, important or seemingly trivial) through words and characters and stories, we offer readers a window into an experience they might completely miss out on otherwise. Not just pretty holiday moments, either. Young people learn empathy by identifying with a character and experiencing tragedy or illness without having to go through the trauma themselves. Through books, we get inspired to discuss ethical dilemmas and explore different paths our lives might take. If we didn't learn about life through books, our world would be limited indeed. 

Please share one of your special holiday moments – it is important! Let’s not miss out!
Happy Holidays, everyone!

Gifting a Writer

 By Suzanne Cordatos

www.suzannecordatos.blogspot.com

Like an unfriendly ghost, a past embarrassing moment drifts to the present with the power to make us cringe years later. Afraid you've stumbled on a lost Halloween blog post? No, worse, a 1970’s Secret Santa Gift Exchange. It haunted me the other day like the Ghost of Christmas Past. The scene? Giggling Girl Scouts. Holiday packages filled with pink lip gloss and Love’s Baby Soft drug store perfume. Candy wrapped in crinkly cellophane dotted with Rudolphs and red noses. I couldn't wait to open my box.

Like Scrooge, I had to learn the hard way about gifting. My lesson? The beauty of the polite cover-up. I felt eyes, a Girl Scout friend, watching me open the box. Inside? A pen. A lovely pen, probably, but it wasn't pink or sparkly, and at ten who notices quality? What on earth had I done to earn the most boring gift in the room? Then I heard the friend mumble, “You said you want to be a writer.”

She was right, I did. I hide my Scrooge face better these days, but I still don't want a pen under the tree!

 

SO . . . What gifts might warm the heart of a writer in your life?

* Books. Obviously! 4RV books! Link right here! http://www.4rvpublishingcatalog.com/  

*  Goofy writer gifts abound on internet shopping sites, like legal-pad designed napkins for when hunger—and the next great bestseller idea—strike at the same time. 

      * Keep inspired with a desk knickknack that represents the main character in a work in progress, or frame a motivating quotation from a favorite writer.

The best gift?  Time… to listen, to work, to brainstorm.

* Offer to read a manuscript and give an honest critique.

            * Create homemade coupons, each good for an hour of uninterrupted time to write or listen or read.

            *  Invite the writer to a coffee shop for an expenses-paid session to chat up their latest work.

Santa’s hint . . . Print the list. Let it mysteriously land on the family computer keyboard, or maybe accidentally-on-purpose stuffed in the cookie jar.

Have a wonderful holiday! And share—if you dare, what shadow haunts from your Christmas past? (Careful, story ideas lie buried there!)

Write What I KNOW? Are you KIDDING?

by Holly Jahangiri

Somewhere after, "Show, don't tell!" comes the advice to "Write what you know." It's sensible advice, but like "Show, don't tell" it offers little guidance to a novice who doesn't already understand the concept. In fact, if your first reaction to hearing "Write what you know" was to throw up your hands and say, "But I don't know anything! I'm doomed!" you're not alone.

But you'd be wrong.

"Write what you know" is just shorthand for "Pull it from somewhere deep inside you. Somewhere real, even if what you're crafting is fiction. Because fiction must be a believable lie, no matter how far-fetched the scenario. Reach in and dig around in the chambers of your heart for real emotion. Wander the mental library stacks to rifle through the memories and pick up inspiration from real events that you've observed or experienced first-hand. Steal your friends' quirks and mannerisms and do the ultimate mash-up to create characters that are familiar - but new and not likely to get you sued. Remember all that reading you did when you were a kid? You know what you liked about it, what sucked you in and kept you reading all the way to the dinner table. Use it all."

Try this:

1. Grab a piece of paper and a pen.
2. Think back to when you were in 7th grade. Jot down three memories that stand out. They don’t have to be huge events in your life, just three that come to mind when you hear “7th grade.” List them on the paper.
3. Who was your best friend that year? Write down a list of traits, quirks, mannerisms, and actions they did that made you especially like them.
4. Who was your nemesis or rival that year? Write down the traits, quirks, mannerisms, and actions that angered or frustrated you.
5. Now, flash forward – in your adult life, who is the most difficult person you have to deal with on a daily basis? What makes them difficult or challenging? What do you LIKE about them?

Next, write a story:

The year is 7th grade. The protagonist, from whose point of view you’ll write the story, is the challenging adult you named above (5). Give this person a new name, and regress them to the age of twelve. What makes them tick? Strive to understand them and to see their hidden potential, but use it in the raw form it might have taken when they were twelve. Take the best friend you listed (3) and make them the “inspirational teacher” – the one adult who makes a difference in your protagonist’s life. The antagonists of your story are your nemesis’ and rivals (4) – but make a real effort to give them depth – don’t let them be “evil” caricatures of themselves. Give them credible motives and feelings drawn from what you NOW know of human nature – secrets your protagonist has yet to figure out. Use the events of your own 7th grade year (2) as plot points – how do your characters react? How do they grow and change (or not) as a result of these events and their outcomes? Flesh it out with details drawn from memory and imagination.

Do you see, now, that “Write what you know” doesn’t require a degree in physics, or a background in medieval history? You can research the details if you can read – and if you write, then you know how to read. So now, add a little challenge: Pick your worst subject in 7th grade and research it in sufficient detail to write and describe a simple 7th grade lecture on it. Make that a scene in your story, using either your “inspirational teacher” or another teacher character created just for this scene.

When you’re done, you should understand “Write what you know.” Maybe you could even write a story about an aspiring writer learning to draw from the inner well of what he or she knows.