Sit in the Discomfort

This week alum Donna Koppelman talks to us about this frightfully fun time of the year as we inch ever closer towards Halloween.  Read on if you dare to embrace your own darkest fears (insert melodramatic evil laugh).

The scary season is upon us. Not presidential debates. Haunted houses. Fright nights. Scary movie marathons. Ghost walks. Imagineers at theme parks brainstorm new and powerful ways to scare people.

Adults are inclined to squelch this emotion in modern culture, but artists must embrace the intensity and power of fear. People who write for children cannot lose touch with this emotion. Fear plays a critical role in the lives of young people.

When children are very young, good parents and teachers honor their fear. It’s real and valid, and keeps them safe. As children grow more adventurous, fear protects them. Still, small children don’t like fear. The avoidance of fear may drive many aspects of a child’s life.

For teen-agers, it all changes. Fear becomes delicious, scintillating, exciting. Young people seek the heart-pounding, skin-crawling rush of emotion. It tests their mettle, their courage, and their confidence. Adolescents embrace scary situations as long as they happen in a controlled environment. In other words, adolescents often play at being scared because they thrive on the intensity.

Adulthood brings with it routine and responsibility and other logistics that allow people to avoid fear as much as possible. Young couples look for a home in a safe neighborhood. Parents seek out nurturing, safe schools and work environments. Adults instinctively consider ways to protect themselves from horrible tragedies reported in the news. They think their way through fear, explain it away and rationalize it. In this manner, sensible adults isolate themselves from the primal fears of childhood.

Writer friends, we can’t be sensible adults AND effectively write for children!

We must connect with the raw, basic emotions of childhood. The children need us to remember, understand and support them in their fears. We must write characters who experience real, knee-knocking fear and then find their way to courage and strength. In this way, our readers will feel less alone in their fears, our work will ring true, and our characters can offer help and hope.

Young readers try on different identities, environments and experiences by immersing themselves in books. We must provide honest, real writing for readers to connect. We cannot do it if we have grown detached from the intense emotions of childhood.

So do your research. Take a ghost walk. Visit a haunted house. Watch a horror movie. Walk around your house in the dark and listen to its sounds.

Scared yet?

Good.

Now, pay attention to your fear. Sit in the discomfort. What does it do to your senses? How does your body respond? What scares you now versus what scared you as a child? What would comfort you? What environment or encounter would push you past rational fear to true terror?

Take notes and put them in a folder marked fear. Add to it whenever you feel afraid or observe a frightened child.  Keep a list of things that frighten you and scary story ideas for the younger set.

Figure out how your own emotions and physical reactions can enrich a children’s story. Then, write one. Or ten.

And every October, get out there and be afraid.

For the children.

Getting the Right Blank Page

This week we have another fantastic post on "Getting Started."  Read on as Jackie Briggs Martin*, prolific picture book author and Hamline professor extraordinaire, gives you her advice on what to do once you're ready to start your next big project.

This month’s Inkpot topic is “getting started,” facing the blank page. I’m taking this to mean what you do when you have no unfinished writing projects to work on and not the blank page of the next chapter. I feel as if I should have a list—“10 keys to filling the blank page”—but I don’t. I never have. I just wander around at the beginning, kind of like exploring a new patch of prairie, see what’s there, what might grow, what might be beautiful. So I can’t share answers here, just a few thoughts.

A blank page begins with a notebook, at least for me—a new notebook. And the kind of notebook I have is very important. I can’t imagine writing a new story in just any notebook. I want a notebook with the right colored cover, with ¼” graph lines on ivory paper. I don’t know why this is important but it is. And so is the writing instrument. Rolling Ball V pens or pencils go directly to my brain. Pens from the gas station don’t work. My muse is particular.

So getting the right blank page is the first requirement. Then, even at the beginning, the page is not really blank. We all have some little story idea tapping us on the shoulder, maybe not formed, just an urge, but something we want to explore. Whether we keep an actual file of story ideas, or interesting articles or just let them simmer in that unconscious part of our brains until we have time and/or inclination to develop them, something is there. So when the page looks blank, maybe we should just write something, anything—as Phyllis Root says it’s all play. Just write what our brains tell us to write. Then write some more. Let a character stroll on to the page and off again. Be goofy. It’s all play. I heard Minnesota poet Michael Dennis Browne talk about beginnings once. And he said that beginnings are like auditions for ideas. And we should welcome all the ideas we have onto the stage. I find it useful to write all over the page, at all angles, against all those prescribed graph paper lines. It somehow gives me permission to be whimsical.

The next problem can be which one of those clamoring ideas gets picked. Sometimes it’s easy. One is just more compelling, more demanding. Sometimes it’s not. They all seem to speak at equal volume. What to do? Wait. One will emerge. Or just start. Just pick. We can always put it aside.

Once I have chosen the topic, or the topic has chosen me, I have to get into a new world, the world where that story could take place. And that is true whether it is fiction or non-fiction. I have to do research, find out where the grass grows, what the people in this world do for fun, what games they play, what their shoes look like, what they do when it rains. Sometimes this involves actual looking things up. Sometimes just brainstorming lists and charts, weather reports and relationships.  As I do this research, story ideas accrue on the page and it’s no longer blank in any way but a busy carpet that takes me into the story.

Thanks Jackie for a great take on starting our stories.  If you're looking for more tips, be sure to check out Claire Rudolf Murphy's post, Research – How to Start, When to Stop, What to Do With It, for more insight into starting work on your next project.

*Jacqueline Briggs Martin is the author of over a dozen picture books for children. She is best known for Snowflake Bentley, which received a Caldecott medal in 1999. The Chiru of High Tibet, published in 2010, was named to Smithsonian Magazine’s and Kirkus Review’s “Best Book of 2010” lists and selected for the 2011 list of “Outstanding Science Trade Books for Students K-12” by the National Science Teachers Association and the Children’s Book Council.  To learn more, visit her faculty profile at Hamline University or her author website.

Research – How to Start, When to Stop, What to Do With It

Today we have a special post from the amazing Claire Rudolf Murphy*, renowned author and MFAC professor at Hamline University.  Taking on the challenge of "getting started," Claire provides us with her top ten tips on doing research for your next book.

Hello, Readers. When Daniel Campbell, our new blog coordinator, suggested the theme of “getting started,” I decided to write about one of my passions – research. Every writer gets a gift  - something that comes naturally. Mine is research. 

Let’s pause for a moment. What is your natural gift? Dialog? Plot? Humor? 

Back to mine – research.  This love for uncovering new information started back when I was a history major in college. You may not like to do research. But for many of us it is much easier to learn new things than to put this knowledge into writing. According to plot guru Martha Alderson the order of difficulty in communication skills are: listening, speaking, researching, and finally writing, the most complex. I agree.

Research is not just for nonfiction writers. You do research every day in your personal life – what car to buy, where to move, how to meditate. And in your writing – fiction, nonfiction or for your critical essays. Fantasy writers might study up on Greek myths or astronomy. For realistic fiction, you may need to learn specific details about a type of dog, how to cut hair, what the character’s body feels like when running a 10 K race. Yes, in nonfiction the bar is higher. Everything you write needs to be true and verified. 

But for all of us, here are ten research tips for writers of all genres. Thanks to the wonderful Hamline writers, past and present, who have shared their process with me and contributed to my tips below.

1. Start with general learning and reading on the subject – online articles, books, articles, interviews, videos. Enjoy yourself.

2. Figure out a method for keeping track of your research notes - from old-fashioned notecards, to a notebook like a scientist in the field, or new computer programs like One Note, Scrivener, or Ever Note. Faculty writer Emily Jenkins uses Scrivener for novel writing, too, and many Hamline writers have followed suit. New grad Judi Marcin used Scrivener when working on her third semester critical project. Your method doesn’t
need to be fancy, it just needs to be one that you will actually use and suits your style.

3. Look for surprises in your research. When alum Judy Dodge Cummings researched the Revolutionary War for her book The American Revolution: Experience the Battle for Independence, she was “amazed and impressed by the endurance of the soldiers fighting. We would never survive this today.” See her publication interview here.

4. Take a break from your own work, and read about how other writers do research. Last winter I suggested for one of our common books Curiosity’s Cats – Writers on Research. These are wonderful essays on how writers of how genres uncovered the information they needed. The Hamline University bought several copies for our use.

5. Speaking of the Hamline University Library, contact librarian Kate Borowski when you come up with a problem or question. She is an amazing resource and dedicated to our program, as many of the third semester critical writers have discovered. Check out the other resources offered online at the Bush Library. 

6. When doing online research, if you want your Google search to bypass Wikipedia and go straight to a more elevated (!) source -- for example the New York Times or the Smithsonian Institution -- type in your keywords with followed by "site:nytimes.com" (no quotation marks) or "site:smithsonian.org" and you'll get a much more refined result.

7. Those of you at the July residency heard graduate Donna Koppelman read from her delightful Elvis story, with the amazing O.J. as Elvis. Here’s one of Donna’s research tips: “I have learned the value of immersing myself in a time period when writing about a certain thing.  Working on the Elvis book, I have been listening to Elvis Radio on XM (yes, there is such a thing) for months.  Every day someone close to Elvis calls in and tells stories about his life.”

8. Donna’s suggestion for interviews: “It’s hard to cold call all these people, explain who you are, what you want, and then get them comfortable enough to open up to you.  But the more I do it, the better I get.  AND the more I do it, the more I learn the right people to talk to usually aren’t the biggest names.  The governor’s receptionist gave me way more information than the governor ever would have.”

9. Current student Hayley Lerner is researching a nonfiction project on the Radium Girls. One step she took to find about more about this important, but little known story from decades ago was to locate their relatives. After many weeks, she heard back from one descendant that had a diary of one of the girls. A thrilling day for Hayley that renewed her enthusiasm and dedication to the project.

10. I will wrap up with advice from alum Tracy Mauer, the author of many nonfiction books. After Tracy has some basic knowledge of her subject, she puts it into one long document with footnotes and thinks about what she has learned. Then she tells it to another person, her husband, the dog, a stuffed animal. “If you can’t explain how an external combustion works to another person, you won’t be able to explain it to a kid.”

So dear writers, there are many ways to learn about a subject. Just jump in. And don’t forget to tell your friends. They often have leads. Requests for information on the Renegades site has helped many of us over the years.



Thanks for a fantastic article Claire. This will certainly give us all a wonderful place to start when we begin researching information for our next book.

*Claire Rudolf Murphy is the author of over a dozen books of fiction and nonfiction and a professor in Hamline University's Master in Writing for Children and Young Adults program.  To learn more about Claire and her writing, please visit her website or faculty page.

Setting Boundaries As Writers

Today's post is from alum Araceli Esparza* and talks about one of the biggest issues that an author can face, setting boundaries and learning to say "no." Araceli also provides a great quote from another Hamline alum, Jennifer Mazi, and some life boundary exercises.

As writers, we are presented with many options and opportunities to give to a project by using our writing, like even writing for a blog! One way to give the very best of yourself to your writing is by setting boundaries.

Boundaries can help us trim down these options/invitation in to suggestions, and not into obligations that choke our time to write, our time to have for ourselves, and our families.

Writing, teaching, and sharing are all parts of being a writer. When we begin setting boundaries for our writing life, we add value to it, regardless of whether we are published or not.

Our boundaries help us structure and honor our craft, our profession and our choice to read or write. Setting boundaries is a muscle--use it and the stronger it gets.

Having boundaries doesn’t mean you have to close-off your relationships, it means that you can begin to select meaningful relationships. Beginning with ourselves, writers must communicate in our own voice style what it is that we want or desire. Building boundaries is a first step to getting to know your voice.

I asked fellow alum Jennifer Mazi to share with us her experience with writing as a mother and finding balance, boundaries, and time for her writing:

"I used to say yes to everything because I believed, by telling the universe that I was open for business, more opportunities would come my way, which would lead to wild success, that everything would happen in easy ways because of my awesome positivity. 

That kind of naiveté makes me tired even typing about it. Consider me yessed out, which is worse than stressed out. My new strategy is to structure my life around the writing in order to protect my own bandwidth and my family. 

This means I say NO a lot more, and to more people. This leaves me with enough energy to bring my best to both my writing and my kiddos, because if I do right by them, there is a good chance my best will be enough to reach other kiddos one day.

That’s the dream, anyway."

That’s all of our dreams. Each of us have a similar story/dream, whether it's to be published or just nail it.

After publication, most authors never let that comfort level go to high. I have found from talking with other authors and writers, that it’s important to stay hungry. Making space for our writing is a constant battle.

Remember that on the side of pre-publication: 

You can take a break from trying to get published and enjoy the freedom that you can write whatever the heck you want to, and you can submit it where ever the heck you want to.

Tips to do Free Writing:

• You can explore whatever genre, hybrid, heck invent a new meter.
• Ask for space for yourself.
• Visualize the word rejection and blow it up. 
• Paint. Draw. You are an artist. Collage. Redecorate. You are an artist.
• Instead of giving we need to take. Sometimes.
• Writing is giving, and as women, mothers, men, partners, etc. we give so much.
• Ask for quiet time from your family.
• Get some healing rocks.
• Spend quiet time at church.
• Ask for a room with no TV and cut off your laptop from wifi when you are on vacation.
• Read.
• Write like no one will see this!

Write out your writing life boundaries in these three sentences with 3 variations:

People may not ________________________________________

I have the right to ask for _________________________________

To protect my time and energy, it’s okay to ___________________

Thanks Araceli for saying yes to the Storyteller's Inkpot and deciding that this WAS worth your time and energy.  We appreciate it immensly and hope that your advice will be equally helpful for others.

*Araceli Esparza is a poet, budding bilingual/bicultural picture book author, and diversity in children's literature advocate.  An alum of Hamline University's MFAC program, she enjoys blogging about the writers life, her journey to publication, and writing latino children's books.

Agenting Tips of the Day

MFAC alum and agent extraordinaire Jodell Sadler* (Sadler Children’s Literary) has generously offered to answer a few questions about the ever mysterious world of agents - and how to find one. Read on to find out her agent tips of the day!

What are agents looking for from a craft point of view?

Agents look for great writing and great story, pure and simple. It has to be both. When a unique idea comes along, it stands out. When a unique voice pops up in the inbox, it stands up and announces itself. When I open a submission and sense a writer has studied his/her craft and places me in story within the first lines, pages and chapter, I forget I am reading a story, and its the magic I look for. It makes me want to acquire yesterday and work with that writer.

The next concern is if a writer can carry story over the muddy middle. I look for a well-paced manuscript: active verbs, honed sentences with diction that pauses me at emotional hot points and enhances my focus in a masterful way—just really great sentences. I ask myself a few questions: do the words match the action of scenes? Do I sense emotional depth, original character, and worldview and does the piece have both layers and legs?

More than anything, I crave fresh, original, creative, interactive, and genuinely engaging stuff. What’s the personality and voice used in your cover letter? Are you presenting to an agent your personality and passion? Are you using comedic timing and pause well and asking they pay attention to the underpinnings of your words? I love that quote from William Zinsser, “You are the product that you sell” or the notion the late Ray Bradbury speaks to: writers learn the rules and how to break them well up until that day that the process of writing becomes “all in an of their fingers”—and they no longer think about it. If you have earned your MFA, you are well on your way. So, write. Write from that passionate place where story comes.

What are some writing clichés to avoid?

Princess and holiday books cause allergic reactions for me. I see them too often in my submissions bin. I prefer commercial, literary—that surprising, new material that makes me want to snatch it up. Material that presents that wow-factor and leaves me thinking: “I with I had thought of that!” moment is perfect.

When I first started out as an agent, I felt I could help any writer who was committed to his/her career, held an MFA, but that has since changed. It’s all about collaboration and a project I can genuinely connect to and believe in. As an agent, especially an editorial one, we spend time with the manuscripts, reading them and rereading. So, I am careful to take on projects and writers or writer-illustrators I feel connected to. I look for that writing professional who partners with an agent to further a career.

I’ve come to enjoy finding clients at events and workshops because I learn more about how they work, how they edit, and who they are. What I know is that when I take on a client who dedicated to improving craft and has a great manuscript in hand, that’s perfect. You should be savvy about what is out and current in the marketplace—enough to know when a manuscript feels like it is written from a mentor text or includes lines so similar to established text that it feels cliché.


Do I need to have a full draft of my novel?

Yes. You should have a full draft of your novel to submit. We are looking for that next great book. It’s nice to have other manuscripts in the works as well, ideally ready, but one great book is what we look for. I personally enjoy working with writers who work in more than one category, a writer who enjoys nonfiction as well as fiction, or is a writer and also an illustrator, or a picture book writer who also writes YA.

How much revision should I do before I submit?

Your novel should be through a number of revisions, for it is usually in the 8th or 56th that we reach that depth needed to skyrocket our manuscript toward success. I was working on a manuscript the other day, or just looking for where I was at in my own revisions, and I found a draft marked 222. I laughed. I remember how I felt at the time I saved it like that. Some stories come to us and the muse opens up and others find there way through the labyrinth of our souls, but they find their way. Our job is to nurture it onto the page. And with pluck and a little luck and butt-in-chair (BIC), we, ever onward, reach our goals. It’s what writers do. What you need to know is that with MFA in hand, you are on that journey, so enjoy it, celebrate it, and cherish the small successes as you move forward.


What are some tips about writing a cover letter?

My biggest tips are two-fold: keep it short and be yourself. We get so many submissions, so those that share their personality in the cover page stand out. I enjoy it when the cover letter matches the tone of the manuscript.

One of my favorite submissions was from an author-illustrator who mentioned his work in a three parts; he works as an art director, cut his teeth at DC comics, and cries at most Tom Hank movies. This is a breathing person who feels real and friendly. He’s been fabulous to work with and we are currently contracting his fourth book, a two-book deal with more in the works.  Another great submission came from a writer who shared her cover letter in her main character’s point of view and voice. It was really engaging. And so was the work that followed.

I’ve been on enough editor-agent panels now to know that when I suggest to keep these short, it’s the best advice I can give you. A lot of us feel this way. When I see a long, long cover letter, I get hives and think “I’ll read that one later” and may not. It’s professional to by concise and clear. Short means it fits on my computer screen without scrolling down. Keep it simple, direct, and memorable.

What matters most about your submission? Your manuscript. For your cover letter, spend the most time honing that pitch for your manuscript. Write that in a way that makes me crave your read and you will be in great shape. I often read this pitch and move right to reading the manuscript. Really. When my in bin fills fast and furious like a wild thing, it’s a must. Some twenty to one hundred submissions a day is normal life as an agent and really why we are sometimes slow responding. If I write an article, at times that number can reach 500-600 in a month.

When I’ve been the submission agent following an online event, I’ve received this number from just one group—all picture books. When I attend conferences, critiques get added to this reading. When I want to send out clients’ manuscript, important reading and editing gets added to this reading. So do realize that when we are slow to respond, we are diligently and constantly working to catch up.

So my other piece of advice is to take the time to read and adhere to the specific guidelines for each agent you send your work to. When I receive submissions written to the agent they sent to just prior to me (Happens a lot just prior to events I am scheduled to attend—I think writers send to the agents that will be there and simply forget to change the name) or to “Dear agent” (really? Didn’t bother to look my name up) or Mr. Sadler (did I really have a sex change overnight? Hmm), I know this writer has not taken the time to consider me as a professional or present him/herself as a professional.

Will my agent work on revising something with me?

Agents are the new editors in many ways. We look for work that is so ready to send that it already sings. It’s nice when we only have a few things to consider like setting or depth of characterization, or chapter breaks and shifts, or subplots or threads that need more attention. In the case of picture books, a lot of time can be spent on crafting fresh and thinking about what will elevate a piece in the marketplace.

I’ve recently launched KIDLIT COLLEGE, which hosts great webinar events with editors and agents, who also do critiques. In a recent event, Allison Moore talked about Big Story Ideas and shared how to position your work to complete in the marketplace and stand out. This past weekend, Ann Whitford Paul joined Jill Corcoran to talk about picture book craft. Ann talked about the ABCs of writing picture books, which was fabulous and gave detailed list of what to do, and literary agent extraordinaire, Jill Corcoran joined her to talk about what agents look for.

Find these kind of opportunities to get your work critiqued and reviewed by editor and agents. From our first webinar alone three manuscripts out of 20-ish where requested by the critiquing editor, so it’s a great move.

I often say that while we don’t write to the market, per se, we do need our work to fit into a market category. It’s a different ballgame to craft a story than to craft a story that will sell. I know a book is one I can take on when I can instantly think of three editors I can share it with.

Agents work on revisions, but an editorial agent definitely does, and this is all a process. I now use Google hangouts to work with clients because it saves a lot of back and forth emailing. We read and mark up and then chat about the piece and what needs to happen to make it ready to send out.

What catches an agent's eye and makes them want to read more?

Voice. Original idea. Different. Captivating. And Firsts. The first line, paragraph, pages and chapters of your novel need to be the best you’re capable of. We need character, setting, plot hints and voice all at once. How important is this? Huge. In the first week of my MG/YA pacing course, I talk about the importance of firsts. I also recently did a Writer’s Digest Webinar with Leslie Shumate, assistant editor at Little Brown Books for Young readers, and she will also be talking about first pages and we have Leslie joining us at KidLit College in October: “Making First Impressions”—and she definitely knows what she is talking about.

I believe in one simple truth: A writer who hones his/her craft will earn the book deal. There are no short cuts. A manuscript has to be top quality. This was the whole reason I started KIDLIT COLLEGE, and asked presenters to talk about craft. Ariel Richardson, assistant editor at Chronicle, will be talking about “What Makes Nonfiction Great” in September, and Yolanda Scott, executive director at Charlesbridge, will talk about “The Whole Book Approach to writing picture books in November. We also have an author-agent team talking about The author-agent relationship in a few short weeks, titled, “I’ve Got Your Back,” which pretty much sums up a great team approach to agenting.


If you could give one tip to new authors, what would it be?

Write the best manuscript, that manuscript only you can write, and write it strong in your voice and style and trust in the journey—it’s a good one.



Thanks Jodell for all the great advice!

We'll try to make this a regular monthly post, so if you have a question we can ask just write a comment below and we'll get it answered next time.

*Jodell Sadler is the founding agent and owner of Sadler Children’s Literary and KidLit College. She also teaches and presents on "pacing a story strong" nationwide.

Ask the Inkpot!!

Good afternoon, Inkpotters. Below is a question from the "Ask the Inkpot" inbox for you to wrestle with this week. Readers, if you have a question for the bloggers, please send it to asktheinkpot@gmail.com

Thanks!! Administrator

QUESTION FROM READER:
Hey there...

I'm drowning in false starts for a novel that is begging to be released from my brain, but somehow, I cannot bring it together. I've been told that all I need to do is keep writing, that serendipity will pull it together for me, like magic. I'm still waiting after three years, with about six false but compelling starts that I believe somehow all fit together but I don't know how or why.

Do I try to weave together the common threads of the false starts into a new piece? Do I trash it all and start from scratch, trying so hard to stop trying so hard? Does this mean that it's not ready to be written, that I should start a different project until I have a rough idea of who is in my book and who isn't? Thanks so much for taking a stab at this. It's been on my mind for a while, and I don't know what to do next.

Not so anonymously,
Jen

PS- Love the blog. The discussions are like mini-lessons that have me thinking for days.

Got a Question? Ask the Inkpot!

Hello bloggers and blog readers!

Great suggestion to add an "ask the inkpot" component to the blog!

And so, with no further ado, if you have a question you'd like to submit to The Storyteller's Inkpot, please email it to: asktheinkpot@gmail.com.

(Bloggers, I'll be in touch with you to let you know the secret magic word that unlocks that account, so that you can check in to see what readers are asking).

Signing off,
Administrator