Bring the World of Ink to Young Minds: 6-Year-Old LaNiyah Bailey

Meet Six Year Old Debut Author LaNiyah Bailey

Six‐year‐old author, LaNiyah Bailey, released her debut book, Not FAT Because I Wanna Be in April 2010. In her book, LaNiyah details the struggle of Jessica, a fictional girl who has an underlying medical issue that causes her to gain weight. Bullied by her peers, Jessica learns to accept her body and eventually opens up about her condition to her classmates.

LaNiyah has gone through many of the same things her fictional character Jessica went through. Inspired not to sit around and feel sorry for herself, LaNiyah told people what she was going through, hoping it would make people see you can’t judge others from their outside self. LaNiyah is living proof of this. Even though LaNiyah is a debut author, she is still your typical six year who loves playing with her puppy, Diva and doing girl stuff such as, playing with dolls, putting on make-up with her cousins and hanging out with her best friend, Chase. 

LaNiyah stated, “I just wish this book can help other kids like me...and I wish it can help people see that [even though] you might be big that you are not unhealthy or…a monster like people may make you feel.”

LaNiyah decided to write her book, NOT FAT Because I Wanna Be in November 2010, when she’d had just about enough of being called “fat.” Encountering bullies and teasing head-on, at the tender age of three has helped LaNiyah distinguish some of the lasting effects of bullying. Her mom stated in a recent interview, “LaNiyah had become withdrawn at home and showed signs of separation anxiety when I would drop her off at daycare and school.”

Statistics show that over 300,000 kids ditch school every day to be relieved from their bullies. This is a sad but true fact. Being proactive and trying quickly to turn a negative into a positive LaNiyah’s mom decided she needed to find a way for her young daughter to release this horrific thing that was taking her daughter over. LaNiyah started to write, something many children’s psychologist suggest, when she was only in kindergarten to help her deal with daily struggles. From there her book was born. 

With a message that words can hurt and that not all weight gain is due to an unhealthy lifestyle, LaNiyah Bailey hopes her book will enlighten and entertain her young readers. She has already taken her message beyond the pages of her book with a World of Ink Virtual Tour and speaking publically for the first time at the African‐American Youth Day Festival. 

She is truly an inspiration to all of us in the writing industry. 

Guest Post: Youth Author LaNiyah Bailey...What is it like writing a book?

Well, I would say that I have learned a lot about writing a book. It has been a fun job to do and I think that I am helping other kids, by telling them what I went through. Hopefully, this can help them talk about their own problems and get help from their moms and dads or even their teacher. I hope that people who bully people will read my book and it helps them to stop what they do. Because bullying hurts people’s feelings a lot. I used to think that I was everything they called me, until my mom, dad and my entire family told me that no matter what you are beautiful and we love you! That made me believe in myself more better. I don’t know much about publishing a book. But, the process my mom did helped to get the book out to the whole world. She put together a team of people like my dad, my cousin Sharisse and her good friend La Tasha Mason and they really worked hard to get me on TV, radio and doing interviews and it has been doing very good. 

Writing a book has been very fun. At first I was scared about it but now I am excited that it is doing really good. It has shown me that a lot of kids are going through some of the same things that I went through and now since they read my book they will stand up for themselves and tell their parents what is going on with them. Hopefully, it will make people stop being bullies too. 

I think it is really important to write because, you get to put your feelings out and you get to create stories that are fun and can help someone else. Many people have told me that knowing that a six year old wrote a book that they now believe that they can do it too and that is a good thing. I plan to write more books soon!

You can find out more about LaNiyah Bailey, her book and World of Ink Author/Book Tour here http://storiesforchildrenpublishing.com/LaNiyahBailey.aspx. There will be giveaways, reviews, interviews, guest posts and more. Make sure to stop by and interact with LaNiyah and her mother, and the hosts at the different stops by leaving comments and/or questions. LaNiyah will be checking in throughout the tour and is offering an additional giveaway for those who leave comments throughout the tour.

In addition, come listen to Blog Talk Radio’s World of Ink Network show: Stories for Children here http://www.blogtalkradio.com/worldofinknetwork. LaNiyah and her mother will be chatting about NOT FAT Because I Wanna Be, being a youth writer, publishing a book and her experiences along with tips on how to deal with bullies. The show will be live August 29, 2011 at 8pm EST.

Joe Konrath on the arguments against ebooks and self-publishing

http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/2011/08/same-tired-arguments.html

The Goal of Your Scene

by Scott Rhoades

Last week, I wrote an overview of the structure of a scene. This week, I want to go into a little more detail about the first element of a scene.

Every scene should have a goal. Actually, every scene should have a set of goals that you should consider before you ever set pen to paper, or finger to keyboard, or whatever.

1. Author's Goal: Before you start a scene, you should have some idea what you want to accomplish with your scene. For this goal, consider the reader and how you want her to feel. Will this be a suspenseful scene or a quiet scene? Do you want to introduce a new plot element or character, or resolve something you've started? You can usually tell when an author didn't have a specific goal for the scene, because it rambles and maybe not a lot happens.

2. Scene Goal: The goal of your scene may be closely related to the author's goals, but the perspective is different. Where the author's goal is what you want to accomplish, the scene goal is how the scene furthers the story, what you want the scene to do for the story. This comes down to plot. Maybe your POV character wants to giver her boss a piece of her mind. Maybe she's going to ask for a raise. Maybe you want to move your characters from the Forest of Wylde to the Goopy Swamp. Maybe your character needs to get away from the baddies.

3. Characters' Goals: Each character in the scene has his own personal agenda, and so each character has a goal. Typically, we don't have a lot of trouble thinking of the main character's goal. We might not think about it in enough detail, but at least we know what he wants in general terms. We also know that the antagonist wants to stop the main character from achieving the goal. Sometimes that's as far as we get with Mr. Bad Guy. But why does he want to stop him? Remember, plot is the action, but motivation and emotion are the story. Is the antagonist just evil, so he wants to do bad things? Or is the antagonist basically good, at least from his own perspective, so he wants the same thing the protagonist wants for his own idealistic reasons? If there are other characters in the scene, even minor one, remember that they each have an agenda too, so they each need a goal. If Our Hero stops at a relative's house for a sandwich, the relative has her own life and her own plans. She has to exist for more than making sandwiches for stray relatives. She has her own problems, and approaches the task of making the sandwich from the perspectives brought about by her own issues.

The characters' motivations and perspectives lead you to the next element of the scene, the conflict.

No One's Publishing Good Books Anymore: True and False

by Deren Hansen

Claiming that your book will stand out from the rest because no one publishes good books any more is one of the first things agents mention when asked to list elements of queries that mark you as an amateur.

I don't know about you, but I have a twinge of guilt each time I read a list like that because, try as I might, I can't exorcise the opinion that my book is better than most others.

Now before you rush to get your torches and pitch forks, let me explain the epiphany I had as to why this heretical opinion is both true and false.

True

As a writer, you have to believe that your book will be better than most other books in its neck of the publishing woods, otherwise you can't justify the effort it takes to write and polish long-form fiction. If you believe that others are producing better books than you ever could, why torture yourself when you could enjoy their offerings?

"Wait," you say, rising up in righteous indignation born from proper writerly humility, "there are masters whose inkwell I'm not worthy to refill."

The problem here is the word, "better," because it implies a single comparative dimension when novels can be good in many different ways. The "better" you have to believe in as a writer is that you have something to add to the conversation in terms of both the story you want to tell and the unique way in which you can tell it.

False

But, as a writer, you also have to understand that you're writing for an audience--a paying audience--and that their opinions and tastes are all that matters when it's time for money to change hands.

So, how do you know what your audience wants?

Short of conducting your own interviews and surveys, the best thing to do is forget about "good" and "bad" and pay attention to the books that people are actually buying.

Which brings us full circle: the problem with claiming your book will stand out is that you're saying you know better than the market and everyone, including the agent you've queried, involved with it.

Truce?

What can you do to keep your head from exploding?

Believe in your secret heart that your book will be better as you write. And if you've mastered showing instead of telling, your readers will discover how truly superior your manuscript is for themselves. Remember, it's a secret that just might be true if you never tell it.


Deren blogs daily at The Laws of Making.

Lost in the Maze: Buried Plots

By Julie Daines

As a reader, I've recently found myself lost in a maze of words. I'll be reading a book or manuscript and find that I have no idea what story thread I'm supposed to cling to as the main plot. Sometimes the main plot points are eclipsed by sub-plots or fancy wording and I don't know when to give particular events sufficient significance. Suddenly, I find myself wondering what I missed. I don't know which parts of the story are important and which are secondary. I'm lost.

As a writer, I need to avoid that so my readers don't get frustrated or bored.

The problem is, I don't think I have all the answers to this problem. It's not always easy to spot a buried plot, and fixing it can take a lot of work. But here are a few thoughts that may help:

When you are writing an important scene or plot point, change the wording and sentence structure. If you normally write with long, flowing sentences throw in a few short ones that are heavy on action or emotion. If you use a lot of metaphorical language, be blunt and straightforward. Or if you rarely use metaphors, use a single powerful one to make your point stronger.

Use shorter paragraphs to give importance to whats happening. Make the event stand out on the page.

Cut down on the number of sup-plots. I think this is a big one. Too many minor threads makes the reader loose track of what's really important. Especially in YA and children's writing, the story should stick to the main character's objects of desire. A reader has to be able to recognize (at least subconsciously) the inciting incident and the main plot points that lead to the climax and conclusion or the story won't make sense to them.

Use an objective correlative that can add significance to certain events, dialogue or thoughts. See my post here for more on objective correlatives.

Add some direct thought rather than just narrative thought. This is sometimes easier to do in third person POV because first person is in some ways already direct thought. But if you can make it work it might help set the important situations apart from the other fluff.

That's what I was able to come up with in the few minutes I've been typing this post. Any other suggestions are welcome!

Scenic Overlook

by Scott Rhoades

As writers, we tend to think in terms of chapters. We tell people we're working on the next chapter. We share chapters in our crit groups. When we read, we read a chapter at a time. But chapters aren't the basic unit of a story, as our near-obsession with them would indicate. Scenes are.

A scene and a chapter might be the same thing. Because we think in terms of chapters, we often wrap a chapter around a scene to create a logical break. Sometimes, a chapter contains multiple scenes. Or, a scene might span the end of one chapter and the beginning of the next. This is often the case when a chapter ends with a cliffhanger.

When we are creating our stories, especially those of us who struggle with plot or with other elements of structure, it might be better to concentrate on the scene and forget about chapters. We can go back and divide our stories into chapters later. Or, we could do like Terry Pratchett often does and ignore chapters altogether.

I don't want to go into a lot of detail about what a scene is. There are a ton of good resources that go into great detail. Most current discussions about scenes start with the pattern outlined in Dwight Swain's Techniques of the Selling Writer. For a thorough discussion, start there, or read one of the other good books out there about scene and structure, most of which cover the same territory as Swain, but maybe in more detail or slightly different terms. Or, Google "scene" and "sequel." You'll find a lot of stuff, some of it very good.

I just want to give a quick overview of Swain's scene and sequel technique. It sounds formulaic, almost paint-by-number, and it can be. However, the best writers know how to personalize and modify the technique so they get the benefits without losing the creative edge that makes them unique.

Basically, it goes like this: a story is divided into scenes, which contain specific elements. Scenes are followed by sequels--responses to the scenes--which also contain certain elements.

Broken down to it's most basic elements, a scene needs three things to make it work, according to Swain and those who follow his technique:

• Goal
• Conflict
• Disaster

In other words, the character wants something, somebody or something wants the same thing or wants to keep the character from getting it for some other reason, and then, usually, the character doesn't get what he wants. In fact, things probably become even worse. One step forward, two steps back.

Then, the character needs to respond to what just happened. That leads us to the sequel. The sequel contains these elements:

• Reaction
• Dilemma
• Decision

Your character reacts to the disaster, recognizes that things aren't going well, and decides what to do about it. This leads naturally into the next scene, and the pattern starts again.

Swain and other writing teachers break each of these elements down into further detail. Too much, obviously, for one readable blog post.

If you feel like your chapters aren't going anywhere, or your crit group or other readers say they like the writing but can't find the story, or that, despite all the stuff you put into the chapter, "nothing really happened," then you need to examine your scenes and make sure they contain the elements of a story. Using Swain's technique can help you solve those kinds of problems.

There are tools you can use to help you keep the structure of scenes in mind. Windows users can use the free yWriter program, or something similar. When you're laying out your scene, yWriter makes you think about and note the goal and conflict of the scene. Or, you can set up a template in your word processor that enforces the scene structure, with spaces for jotting down the elements of each scene and sequel.

If you plan your work on index cards or in a spreadsheet or in a notebook on or off your computer, don't write anything before you make notes summarizing the elements of your scene and sequel.

If, like many of us, you're a fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants kind of writer and don't plan ahead in any great detail, keep these elements in your head while you write.

Even if you prefer not to follow Swain's formula, learning as much as you can about scene and structure can only help. You can choose to go your own way better once you know as much as you can about the "standard" methods.

Resources:

I've read all of the following, and found them useful. I'm listing them in order of my personal preference.

• Plot & Structure, James Scott Bell
• Techniques of the Selling Writer, Dwight Swain
• Make a Scene, Jordan E. Rosenfeld
• Novelist's Essential Guide to Creating Plot, J. Madison Davis

All of these books are based heavily on Swain's idea. I don't list him first, however, because his book contains much more than just the discussion on scenes, and because I found Bell's book more readable and more focused on today's topic. Every writer's library should have Swain's book, however, and every writer's mind should be filled with his techniques.

Edna Ferber on characters

(Excerpt from The Literary Ladies)

"Writing is a lonely work but the creative writer is rarely alone. The room in which one works is peopled with the men and women and children of the writer's imagination. Often they are difficult--but rarely boring--company. This is a fortunate thing, for they are with one day and night, they never leave while the book or play is in progress. One wishes sometimes that they would go away. just leaven me alone for an hour--a minute--won't you! Often they are so much more fascinating to the writer than the living people once actually encounters that to go to a party, a dinner, even to the theatre is an anti-climax. Every day for hours one is shut up in a room with a company of chosen people created by oneself."

What did Ms. Ferber write? Glad you asked. She is not a well known as other female authors but you might have heard of some her novels-turned-movies such as: Giant, Show Boat, and Cimmaron. Ms Ferber also wrote So Big which won the 1925 Pulitzer Prize.
I've often heard of characters coming alive for the author. Has a character or plot pestered you until you wrote their story? This happened to me recently. I have two books I put on the shelf until I finished edits on one to submit it. Suddenly, one of the books called to me. The main character was ready to tell her story, never mind I already had 40,000 words written. I like this character. She's sharp, funny and fun-loving. I can't wait to finish her story.

Have you ever stayed home from an event or date to write? Excusing yourself from a family reunion to write doesn't count. :)

Kevin Smokler: Promotion is an Expresstion of Gratitude

by Deren Hansen

Authors often wince when they come to understand just how much they need to promote their work. I confess to being in that camp, particularly when it sounds like we're expected to go out and convince people to read our books.

That's why I was quite taken with Kevin Smokler (co-founder and CEO of BookTour.com) and his idea that promotion is fundamentally an expression of gratitude. In that vein, I want to thank Nick James, who blogs at The Spectacle and posted the following

"I think the word “promotion” sends a shiver down many people’s backs. At its worst, it connotes a situation where an author is more or less trying to shove a product down readers’ throats. Very few people want to feel like salesmen. And not everybody is skilled in that area. That’s why Kevin’s definition struck me so strongly.

"Promotion, he says, is primarily “an opportunity to meet people who are interested in your book and thank them for their interest.” Or, more succinctly, it’s “an expression of gratitude and graciousness.” [source]

On Nick's recommendation, I listened to all of Dan Blank's interview with Kevin Smokler at We Grow Media. I recommend you do the same. Kevin has a number of interesting things to say about the changing role of the author in book promotion and about the industry in general.

I'm going to add the phrase, "Promotion is an opportunity to meet people who are interested in your book and thank them for their interest," to my list of mantras.


Deren blogs daily at The Laws of Making.

Helpful Tips on Writing

Let more than one person edit your book.

 You need an editor for grammar and such, but it’s a good idea to let someone with knowledge on the subject matter read it too. When a reviewer would ask me what I meant when I wrote this or that sentence, I knew I had to do a better job conveying the message because others would ask the same questions. This give and take with people I trusted greatly improved the clarity and quality of my writing.

Know whom you are writing for.

 Life Is Not a Candy Store started as a spiritual guide for all ages. However, as the project moved forward, reaching teens became the main purpose of the book. It meant I had to go back and change some of the writing. I had to think in terms of what issues teens deal with or are bothered by. I also had to change the examples I used in the book to fit their environment and talk about things such as peer pressure and challenges teens faced in school. Changing the target audience during the writing was the right decision, but a time consuming one too.

Always talk notes when you have new ideas.

Over the years you may have had many inspiring ideas crossing your mind, but for different reasons you let them go. You will do yourself a big favor by starting to write them down as they come to you. Those are the seeds of your writing and the gifts the universe sent you. Always have something you can write with. Later on, you will have time to develop it further. 

You are the most original part of your book, so show it!

Whatever subject you write on, and whatever story you tell, most likely it was told before in one way or another. What makes your book unique is your prospective, your personality. Be passionate; let the readers see your version of something they heard about before. For example, when you read Life Is Not a Candy Store: It’s the Way to the Candy Store, you will feel that the book was written as a personal journey coming from the heart. It is so because I decided to connect with the readers on that level.

Finally, have fun writing!!!

It takes time and money to publish a book, and it’s not always easy to remember, but going through the process means you are realizing a dream. Look around you, how many people you know are actually doing that?  Very few, if any at all. It is of no use at all to be sitting there twenty years from now telling anyone who is willing to listing that once you wrote a book. Live in the present and enjoy the moment! 

Tal Yanai teaches Hebrew and Judaic Studies in Temple Beth Hillel in the San Fernando Valley as he continues his quest to explore the meaning of soul and achieve his full potential as a spiritual teacher.

You can find out more about Tal Yanai, his book Life Is Not a Candy Store and his World of Ink Author/Book Tour at http://storiesforchildrenpublishing.com/TalYanai.aspx. There will be giveaways, reviews, interviews, guest posts and more. Make sure to stop by and interact with Tal Yanai and the hosts at the different stops by leaving comments and/or questions. Yanai will be checking in throughout the tour and is offering an additional giveaway for those who leave comments throughout the tour.

Installing Popular eBook Readers on Your Computer or Mobile Device

by Scott Rhoades

A couple of recent posts on the Utah Children's Writers mailing list (available as a Yahoo Group) have mentioned using the Kindle application on a computer to read Amazon Kindle books. One person had trouble figuring out how to install the application.

This seems like a good blog topic, so I will provide basic installation instructions here. You can do the same thing with the Nook, so I'll discuss both. Because these applications are free, you might consider getting them both. With these two readers, you're set up to read virtually any ebook on the market or available from free sources like Project Gutenberg, without spending the money on a reader. If you already have a reader, you can sync your library with your other devices, giving you more options for reading.

Kindle

The Kindle app lets you read any book you can read on the Kindle. You can install it free on your computer, tablet, or smart phone. To get it on your mobile device, go to the AppStore or Android Market, search for "Kindle," and download and install it like you would any other app.

To get it for your computer:

1. Go to www.amazon.com.

2. On the menu on the left side of the screen, mouse over Kindle, then select Free Kindle Reading Apps from the flyout menu that appears.

3. Select your platform (such as Windows or Mac) from the menu on the right, then click Download.

4. After the download completes, select the app from your browser's Downloads list and install it, then register the app (using the same registration info you use for your actual Kindle, if you have one).

Once the app is installed, you can find free books for the Kindle or buy books from Amazon.com. You can sync with your Kindle library, if you have one, so your books are available to the Kindle app on each of your devices.

Nook

Use the Nook app to read your Nook library on your computer, tablet, or smart phone. Of the two readers, I personally prefer the Nook because it supports the ePub standard, which means there are more books available for free, and it's easier to read your own manuscripts as an ebook. The Nook app also provides more display options. You can change fonts and customize the reader in other ways to make your books easier for you to read.

1. Go to http://www.barnesandnoble.com/u/free-nook-apps/379002321/.

2. Click the version of the Nook applications you want. You can either click the button on the left to read about the app, then click Download, or scroll down the page a little and click Download Now next to the one you want.

3. Wait for the download to finish, then install the program.

After you install, if you already have a Nook account, your library automatically syncs and you're ready to go.

Other Options

Nook and Kindle aren't the only options for ebook readers. If you have an iPad, it comes with iBooks installed, a pretty nifty reader. For Android, I really like the free FBReader, but there are lots of other options. Be aware, though, that a lot of free readers don't supports Kindle's book format, but most do support ePub, a more common format. So, if you've bought books for your real Kindle and want to read them on your laptop or phone, make sure you find a reader app that supports the MOBI book format. And, of course, the other readers won't sync with your existing Kindle or Nook account automatically.

With these apps, you can take a large virtual library with you everywhere you go. Have fun with that!

Tropes

Here is an amusing list of TV tropes that also apply to fiction writing. It's both fun and educational. I actually wanted to use some of these, and I would have gotten away with it too if it weren't for those meddling kids.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Dialogue

Writing vs. Web Presence: the 90/10 Rule

by Deren Hansen

Even knowing that the ether is awash with conflicting advice, you don't have to read long before you come away with the impression that you must blog and twitter and friend and comment in order to have any hope of success.

But if you do all that, when are you supposed to find time to write the book that you're doing all that to promote?

Agent Rachelle Gardner suggested the following guidelines for balancing writing and platform building:

"If you are writing fiction. And you are unpublished. You really MUST be putting your writing first. Spend most of your discretionary time learning to write. You do this by continuing to write, and by reading high quality fiction, and by using critique partners, and reading books on craft. But mostly from writing, writing, writing.

"Dabble in social networking for fun and leisure, and to get a head start on what you'll need in the future. But you should keep in mind a 90/10 ratio. Spend 90% of your free time on your writing, and no more than 10% on platform building."

Clearly, "if you build it," they won't simply come. That is, you can't expect to write a novel and then sit back while your audience finds it. But if you haven't written a novel, there won't be anything for your audience when you invite them to come.

Deren blogs daily at The Laws of Making.

A Better Way to Show

By Julie Daines


I've been reading about my favorite subject lately, imagery in literature, and I keep coming across the term objective correlative. As I delved deeper, I realized that was exactly what my current work in progress is missing.

Objective correlative is a term coined by T. S. Elliot. He said:

The only way of expressing emotion in the form of art is by finding an "objective correlative"; in other words, a set of objects, a situation, a chain of events which shall be the formula of that particular emotion; such that when the external facts, which must terminate in sensory experience, are given, the emotion is immediately evoked.

What does that mean? Essentially, an objective correlative is a type of metaphor where certain symbols or objects are used to express or allow an understanding of usually incomprehensible emotions or feelings.

In our current world of show but don't ever upon penalty of death tell, it's easy to get bogged down in trying to describe the physical traits of sadness, regret, nostalgia, etc. Tears, a sinking feeling in the stomach, furrowed brow--these are all becoming cliche. So how do you show what your character is feeling without being cliche?

The answer: Objective correlative! 


Here are some examples:

I just saw the movie The Eagle wherein a young man wants to redeem his father's name and restore honor to his family. As a child, his father gave him a carved amulet of an eagle--symbolic of the great golden eagle standard of Rome and of his father's honor and love. When the audience is meant to feel the main character's desire to recover his family's honor, he fondles the amulet and immediately we know what he is thinking and feeling. The eagle amulet is an objective correlative.

In one of my earlier novels the main character feels tremendous guilt for causing the death of her boyfriend in a car accident. She has a scar from that accident, and when I want to show that she is feeling shame and guilt because of what she did, all she has to do is reach up and try to cover her scar. The act of covering her scar is an objective correlative.

In Lord of the Rings, Aragorn is conflicted about his place as king. He feels unworthy because of the treachery of his ancestor, Isildur, who kept the Ring for himself instead of destroying it when he had the chance. Aragorn worries he will also become weak and susceptible to corruption when faced with an opportunity for power. All the audience needs to see is a quick flashback of Isildur's treachery to know exactly how Aragorn feels. That quick glance to the past is an objective correlative.

So when my critique group told me my main character was too whiney in my last chapter. That's when it hit me, he doesn't have his objective correlative yet. He needs that symbol to show without telling exactly how he feels.

After all, a picture is worth a thousand words. In literature, an objective correlative is just a written picture.


Julie's Blog: After the Toilets

More About Characters: Steinbeck's In Dubious Battle

by Scott Rhoades

There have been several posts on this blog about characterization, and many have mentioned that your main character should have flaws.

Sometimes, it's the flaws that create the characters.

I just finished reading In Dubious Battle by John Steinbeck. If you don't know this book, it's the story of two "red" agitators who help a group of maltreated apple pickers organize a strike, probably based partly on a strike in Watsonville, California. Some readers criticize the book for sounding at times like a communist tract, but they are only seeing part of the picture. I'll try to write this post without giving too much away, in case you decide to read it yourself.

It's hard to tell the author's intentions. He masterfully relies on his characters to tell the story. We know from his other works that Steinbeck identifies closely with the worker and the bum, with the regular Joe who is just trying to make a decent life for himself, often against the wishes of those who hold the power. So we can assume he identifies with the poor apple pickers who live in squalid conditions and then had their pay cut.

It't not so clear how much he identifies (or, more importantly, wants the reader to identify) with Mac and Jim, the two agitators. Their portrayal begins with a sympathetic, heroic act, as they help a young woman in the picker camp deliver a baby. But as the story goes on, it becomes clear that everything they do is to further the cause. They talk about the importance of helping the worker, but then use the workers mercilessly, without regard for their health or lives.

Perhaps Steinbeck's own position is illustrated best by Doc Burton, a local doctor who helps the strikers, although he does not agree with their methods or even, necessarily, their cause. He does, however, believe in respecting and helping the downtrodden pickers who are being sacrificed, supposedly for the good of pickers as a whole.

We see Mac and Jim and like them, becoming interested in their relationship and the things they learn about themselves during the ordeal. At the same time, we hate them for the way they think about the people they claim to be trying to help. After Doc, the conscience of the strikers' camp, disappears near the end of the book, Mac and Jim descend into dangers to the strikers and to themselves. At the same time, as they grow more terrible, their relationships with each other and some of the others in camp become more poignant. We care about them more than ever, but we also begin to realize that they are irredeemable.

We know the powerful ending is deserved (only a few endings affect me the way this one does), but at the same time it's crushing. We hoped they'd come to their senses.

This book is a wonderful example of how to create characters we care about out of highly unlikable people. It's a love-it-or-hate-it kind of book, but it seems like the people who hate it often do so because of what they bring to the book themselves, which keeps them from seeing the real picture Steinbeck is painting. That the main characters are communists does not make this a communist tract. It's clear that the author does not want us to see the world the way Mac and Jim do, but he also wants us to see that they are very human men, with inhumane attitudes.

Since I finished the book last night (for the second time--I read it once before, probably close to twenty years ago), it has weighed heavily on my mind. I can't stop thinking about it, mostly because of Steinbeck's characters and they way he made them likable men whose actions are despicable.

I'd love to write something that leaves that kind of impression on readers. Wouldn't you?

Willa Cather on voice

(Excerpt from The Literary Ladies)

"When I was in college and immediately after graduation, I did newspaper work, I found that news paper writing did a great deal of good for me in working off the purple flurry of my early writing. Every young writer has to work off the "fine writing" stage. It was a painful period in which I overcame my florid, exaggerated, foamy-at-the-mouth, adjective-spree period. I knew even then it was a crime to write like I did, but I had to get the adjectives and the youthful fervor worked off.
I believe every young writer must write whole books of extravagant language to get it out. It is agony to be smothered in your own florescence, and to be forced to dump great cartloads your posies to in the road before you find that one posy that will fit in the right place..."
Inter, Lincoln Daily Star, 1915

I LOVE Willa Cather's voice in this interview, don't you? Voice is a struggle for most writers I think. Finding one's voice is probably the biggest task in the journey of a writer.
One suggest is finding your style and voice through imitation of your favorite authors while learning the lessons you need. Willa Cather admits to copying Henry James.

Do you have a favorite author? What have you learned from them?

Non-character Antagonists and Conflict

by Deren Hansen

Commenting on last week's post about Antagonists and the Source of Conflict, Julie Daines said, "This is great information. But not all stories have an actual antagonist character. I'd love to hear what you have to say about conflict that isn't generated by an antagonist but rather comes from inner conflict or from the environment or whatever"

Being completely incapable of not responding when someone says they'd love to hear what I have to say, and guilty of assuming that Julie was speaking for everybody, I decided I should expand on the topic here.

Julie has highlighted the distinction between antagonists and the source of conflict by pointing out that some stories don't (or can't) embody the forces working in opposition to the protagonist in a single character. Even so, those stories still must have a source of conflict, whether interior or exterior.

If you ask writers about kinds of stories you'll likely get a variation on the classic triumvirate of man vs. self, man vs. man, and man vs. nature. I like to add a few more gradations to the sources of conflict:

• Self - Internal demons, conflicting needs or desires, psychological dissonance
• People - Lovers, family, friends (i.e., people with whom the protagonist has more than casual relationships)
• Society - Organizations, clubs, cabals, conspiracies, churches, companies, bureaucracies, armies, parties, governments, movements, etc.
• Nature - A particular feature of the natural world: animals, mountains, oceans, storms, droughts, etc.
• Universe/God - The external world in general

What's convenient about having an antagonist as a character is that it's easier to give our protagonists the moral high ground if the conflict is forced upon them by the bad guy.

But there's a deeper reason that the conflict in the vast majority of stories occurs at the level of people and society: conflict is fundamentally interpersonal.

Before you accuse me of forgetting the question, let me explain: in the same vein as the philosophic question about trees falling in the forest, there are no stories about the world that existed before people. It's not that things didn't happen--indeed, if contemporary CGI-rich dinosaur documentaries are to be believed, there was plenty of red-in-tooth-and-claw conflict--it's that there was no one around to attribute significance to the actors and events. Was it good or bad that the tyrannosaurus took out the ailing duckbill?

Often, scarcity is the source of conflict. A great many sports, for example, depend on the fact that there are two teams and only one ball. But the significance of the conflict depends upon the meaning we assign to it.

"Okay," you say, "what about a man trying to conquer a mountain?"

It all depends on why he's trying to conquer the mountain. If he's trying to get to the other side to find the cure for the fever in his village, then it's a heroic conflict. If he's trying to get to the other side to enslave the village there, then it's a very different sort of conflict. 

Put another way, regardless of the source of conflict, the first thing readers want to know is, "Why should we care?" Most people find it very difficult to care about anything unless they can do so in personal terms. When another person or persons oppose the protagonist, readers immediately recognize the personal stakes. When the source of conflict is non-personal--either internal or external--you must show why that conflict matters to your protagonist and, by extension, your readers.


Deren blogs daily at The Laws of Making.