Writing exercise

What happens next?

With a Little Help From My Friends

I told a pal here in L.A. I would take a look at the first chapter or so of her friend's YA about a girl raised by wolves who is trying to integrate back into society.

And I'd no more than sent the e-mail than the concept sounded familiar. Is there a book out there about kids-raised-by-wolves? A girl especially?

"Anybody?" as Ben Stein said in "Ferris Bueller's Day Off."

Thanks in advance.

Writing Dialog

You know how sometimes dialog rambles on with little happening to advance the plot? Last Saturday I attended a terrific workshop on dialog with novelist Janet Fitch during Spokane's Get Lit! literary festival. Fitch is the author of White Oleander and other novels and her dialog jumps off the page.

Since I am currently revising a novel and all three of my Hamline students are working on novels this semester, it proved timely.

I kept these suggestions in mind all week as I worked on scenes in my novel.

Some Dialog Tips from novelist Janet Fitch:

* Dialog should NEVER be used to impart information or back story.

* Dialog is for the reader, not the other character. Therefore, don’t repeat what has already happened or been mentioned in story.

* Every character’s dialog should be particular to them. A line that anybody could say – nobody should say.

* Purpose of fictional dialog is to reveal tension, characters putting pressure on each other. Purpose of real life conversation is to avoid conflict.


What do you think? Any of these ring true for you?

High Concept?

My agent told me recently that all novels need to be high concept these days. No longer can a mere coming-of-age novel cut it (i.e, sell it). According to her, high-concept does not mean it must have vampires, fallen angels or other paranormal elements, but it must have a hook and must be about something.

Wait a minute, I assumed all novels need a hook and must be about something!

So I looked up high-concept on Wikipedia: “High concept is an ironic term used to refer to an artistic work that can be easily described by a succinctly stated premise.”

Second hit on google is screenwriter/pitcher Steve Kaire. He gives five rules for creating high-concept:

1. Premise should be original and unique.
2. Story must have mass audience appeal.
3. Has to be story specific.
4. The potential must be obvious.
5. the Pitch (flap copy) should be one to three sentences long.

He also describes Non-High-Concept (phew, it exists) as: “projects that can’t be sold from a pitch because they are execution driven. They have to be read to be appreciated and their appeal isn’t obvious by merely running a logline past someone.”

So my questions are thus:
How do you define “high-concept?”
What do you think of “high-concept” in contrast to “non-high-concept” or “concept?”
And here’s the fun one—what would it take for your current writing project to be “high-concept?”

Guess which one is older!

It's Earth Day and my birthday!

RK

Devices and conventions

Do you have some time on your hands? Time and patience, that is. Wading through any Wiki can be a crap shoot, but I've found some interesting stuff in TV TROPES. Want to know what books, TV shows, films, and Anime feature a character with an obnoxious laugh (the laugh meant to convey the character's overall badness)? Want to know what films use the plot trope of the "accidental hero?" TV Tropes has the answers.

According to the site's home page, "tropes are devices and conventions that a writer can reasonably rely on as being present in the audience members' minds and expectations. On the whole, tropes are not clichés."

True, I suppose. But after wading through list after list of obscure tropes everything blurred into cliche for me. And that, I've decided, can be a helpful thing for a writer. So if you're thinking about adding a certain character quirk or a plot twist, it might be worth checking this site. Undoubtedly your great idea has been done and done and done.

The majority of contributors to this Wiki are clearly grounded in fantasy and science fiction and are steeped in the minutiae of their passions; further, books are not privileged. The children's book world can be a tad insular and old-fashioned (Think how long it's taken graphic novels to be accepted). TV TROPES is a fun escape from the cloister.

Bookworm

In L.A., anyway, (and I imagine on other NPR stations) a guy named Michael Silverblatt does an interview-the-author show. I tuned in for just a minute as I got off the freeway and pointed my Toyota (only going 35 compared to 135) toward the race track. MS was interviewing a poet, and Michael said something complimentary along these lines: "Sometimes when I read your work I'm reminded of a child talking before he's really sure what words mean."

And I thought, "So that's it!" I read a lot of poetry and some of it I like but don't, in the usual sense of the word, get. Some of it I just can't stand. Now I might understand why/why not.

A lot of the likable stuff resembles free-for-all, creative babble while the less likable has a manufactured, look-at-me-be-pre-verbal odor to it. I prefer to watch poets' minds at play, anyway, compared to concentrating on what they write. (And don't get me started about what-poems-mean!)

The so-called Language Poets have a political agenda; they think language has been so debased by advertising and "Meet the Press" dissembling that jarring juxtaposition and nonsense is the only way to reanimate language. Maybe they're right, but they rarely seem to be having any fun. While the kind of poetry I'm writing about this morning is usually very high-spirited.

Naturally, there's something in all of this for all of us: I'm a natural smarty-pants, so in YA faction I like high spirits and electricity on every page. And I know now why some competent picture books leave me feeling enervated. I don't feel a mind at play.

RK

At Home with the Amazonians

I've just returned from a week in New York, and I'm rather amazed at the number of things I let slide while there. I need to catch up, desperately--so naturally I'm perusing the Internet.

I don't know what authors obsessed over before Amazon.com and their customer review feature, I'm only imagining they led much more complete, fulfilled lives. I learned long ago to stop reading the things, because it turns out the last thing you really want to know is what everyone with internet access and a basic ability to spell thinks of your book. You may trust me on this. For my first novel, a friend left a positive customer review and another reviewer held up something he said as ridiculous because the book was so very bad. My friend chose to be offended, and I rather thought that this wasn't about him.

But, as much as you really don't want to read the customer reviews, you also really, really don't want to use the review feature to castigate your rivals. Because it turns out that people pay attention, and that's when things get embarrassing:

An extraordinary literary "whodunnit" over the identity of a mystery reviewer who savaged works by some of Britain's leading academics on the Amazon website has culminated in a top historian admitting that the culprit was, in fact, his wife.

Prof Orlando Figes, 50, an expert on Russia and professor of history at Birkbeck College, London, made the startling revelation in a statement through lawyers following a week of intrigue, suspicion, legal threats and angry email exchanges over postings on the website's UK book review pages...

It ended on late on Friday evening with the surprise unveiling of Figes's wife, Dr Stephanie Palmer, a senior law lecturer at Cambridge University, barrister, and member of the top human rights specialists, Blackstone Chambers, as the reviewer calling herself "Historian", and responsible for several anonymous online attacks on the works of her husband's rivals.

There's an uncomfortable dinner table conversation for you.

Illustration

I went to an Illustrator’s event last night—Four famous illustrators talking about their work in regard to collaboration and expansion. Don’t forget, dear writer friends, that illustrators are also storytellers and that they work incredibly hard to come up with brilliant ideas. It is also a collaborative effort. No artist works alone. In every book, every illustration there has been help and guidance.

My favorite of the four was Chris Sickels, founder of Red Nose Studio. What I love about his work is how playful and profound it is. Here are some Utube links to his sculptures and animations. See if you find them as inspiring and enjoyable as I do.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8dpiz6jex4&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKag0LPVISA&feature=related


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FS0g3uHWBOo&feature=related

Writing and the Home Office

No, I am not going to talk about taxes. But rather what a home office means for a writer - beyond the Schedule C write-off. A month ago my accountant looked at me and asked, "So how much square footage in your new house encompasses your office?"

Do I answer - my desk area? My filing cabinets, book shelves, living room where I read and read and respond to Hamline student manuscripts and edit my own ? My bed where I read some more? The kitchen where I think about my writing while chopping vegetables? The dining room table where I sometimes drift off during dinner, thinking about some writing problem?

Some days I think it might be better if I had an office away from home. Some of my writer friends have contemplated that over the years. A place where I go to work, so that when I return home, I turn my writing life off. So that I come home and pay bills, talk to my husband, play the piano, take a walk.

The home office is always there - weekends, Christmas morning, the middle of the night when you can't sleep. It's especially there when your kids are grown and out of the house and not interrupting you with squabbles and requests for overnights. I know. I know. When the kids are young, there is never enough time. But our kids are in their 20's and I still think there's not enough time. There never will be when we're trying to write well.

Boundaries. Like Sisyphus shoving that rock uphill, I am in a career that takes a giant to shove away the thoughts night and day, about a manuscript, research, a student's story, a knotty craft aspect.

I know how lucky I am to be able to work in my pajamas, jump on the computer without a commute, eat breakfast after some breakout writing time. Some of you are so frantically busy juggling, that my situation sounds like heaven. I've been there. But right now for me, it's time for some realignment. Time to step back sometimes without leaving home. To return to work the next day fresh and confident. Perhaps no writing on Sundays or after 5 p.m.? How's your home office working for you?