All the pieces

Writer’s should read and perhaps the most compelling reason is that reading good writing reminds us of what we aspire to. 

There are a few authors whom I want to write like. On is Matt Kirby after reading Icefall.  Gary Schmidt’s Doug character pulled me into Okay For Now. MG author Tom Angleberger impressed me the way he saved the final resolution of The Strange Case of the Origami Yoda until the last page. And John Green is John Green. Who wouldn’t want to write like him? 

Add to that list Carol Lynch Williams.

Carol is an amazing writer. I just finished The Chosen One for the second time and once again was blown away. Ann Cannon has assigned reading The Chosen One as part of our WIFYR workshop. I checked it out online through Overdrive and received both the audio version and an epub format.

There are number of elements key to a good book. These include compelling characters, dramatic events, believable settings, and a strong writers’s voice. Carol not only applies them, but squeezes the most from each. 

She draws you in immediately with her first line, “If I was going to kill the prophet,” I say, not even keeping my voice low, “I’d do it in Africa.” Thus begins the story of a 13-year old polygamous girl chosen to marry her 60-year old uncle. 

Most of us Utahans may have encountered polygamists on the street and peered curiously at them. Carol takes us inside an isolated polygamous community where we accept as normal the three wives of Kyra’s father. Carol enriches her setting with scorching heat, red desert dust, and Russian olive trees.

The Chosen One is character driven and Kyra is a compelling MC. She unquestioningly accepts the lifestyle yet does not fit the mold they have cast for her. Books have been banned as the devil’s words, yet she has a yearning to read. Kyra has an interest in a boy and wants to choose him to marry rather that have the prophet dictate who her husband is to be. 

Besides her incredible voice, a technique Carol employees masterfully, is the way she raises the stakes for Kyra. This poor girl not only must deal with her sins against the rules of the community and the approaching marriage to the uncle she despises, but faces other traumas. Carol perpetually ratchets the tension until resolving the story nicely.

Carol’s an amazing writer. She also puts on a great writing conference, coming up later this month. (Classes still open, more info here.)

(This article also posted at http://writetimeluck.blogspot.com)

MG novels

The best way to improve your writing is to read so I’ve been consuming stories for the last few weeks.

I’ve taken them electronically, on paper, and I’ve listened to a few audiobooks. A dog narrates my MG story, so I’ve sought out talking animal stories – Bunnicula, and others. I’m going for humor so I checked out Barbara Parks and The Origami Yoda and Bruce Corville’s My Teacher is an Alien. I packed a bunch of books and took on vacation. When I and ran out, I went to the Salt Lake city and county library systems and loaded up online.

What amazing times we live in. Not only are there things like libraries, but from thousands of miles away, you can check things out. All you need is a library card and an app called Overdrive and it will get you into numerous library systems around the country. The county seems to have more kid’s lit available than the city. You can’t always find what you’re looking for, but they have plenty of other titles.

Available was Rebecca Stead’s Liar & Spy. I liked her last book so went with this one. At WYFIR last summer the importance of antagonists was stressed. Stead gives us the typical school bullies and adds the in-your-head kind. The MC had several things going on and Stead brought everything to a close in a feel-good kind of way. Makes me wish I could write like that. I fell into the story to the point I forgot to look at it with my writer’s critical eye. Another wonderful thing Stead does is her use of metaphor. She uses Seurat's pointillism style of art in which numerous insignificant dots combine to make a big picture. Also at WIFYR, Martine Leavitt's had a session on metaphors. This is a great book. 

Another great author, another I-want-to-write-like-that is Tom Angleberger. In The Strange Case of Origami Yoda Angleberger wastes no time getting to the heart of the MC’s desire. This happens the very first sentence. He builds from there, and saves the final reveal to the very last sentence. He has the upper MG kids pegged and his story is engaging. It is so well crafted.

Other finds: The Extraordinary Education of Nicholas Benedict. Trenton Lee Stewart’s prequel to the Mysterious Benedict Society seems to break the rules for fiction and does the opposite of Angleberger’s approach. Published last year, this feels like an old fashioned book in which the writer takes time to lay down the setting and build the character. The book is long - 480 pages – and it takes a good hundred pages in before we get a sense of MC’s goal and the story gets off the ground, but. I liked it.

In looking at humor, Barbara Parks is good. I reread Skinnybones, one I read aloud numerous times to students. Parks is one of the best. Also read her My Mother Got Married (and other disasters). They were written in the 80s when it was more acceptable to set the humor before pushing a story. She addressed kids of divorced parents dealing with a remarriage in the one and seems to have nailed the voice for that audience.

I looked at two of the Bunnicula series, narrated by a dog. Written in the 70s, the thing that impressed me most was audience. The Bunnicula books do not feel like they were written for kids. They feel like a Broadway play storyline and I kept thinking that they missed the kid voice. Don’t know why these books were so popular. The family in this story seemed too successful and Leave-it-to-Beaver clean, unlike the more street smart, families-working-to-make-ends-meet people I’ve taught. They have helped me hone in on my target MG boy audience.

So I’ve been going through some children’s literature.

(This article also posted at http://writetimeluck.blogspot.com)