Marcia Thornton Jones's Blog, page 17

Author, Embrace Yourself!

 

I will not get this quote exactly right. The words may be only a shadow of the original, but I once heard the wonderful editor Caitlin Dlouhy say something to this effect:If you can write this brilliantly here, in this scene, the rest of the book can rise to that level.
I’ve held onto the spirit of those words not only when I’m in the midst of a work-in-progress but also, and maybe more fervently, when I’m ready to write something new, something fabulous, something that makes me want to shout out in excitement. And I would but... But that big idea just won’t announce itself. 
In those moments when my energy sags, when I sense a drought of creativity, when I have a passing thought about hanging up my pens forever, I latch on to Caitlin’s message and make it my own. 
“You can rise to that level, Jody. You’ve done it before. You’ve made something out of nothing. Don’t just sit here. Go! Go channel that electric sensation of discovery. Use it to power up your senses. Feel the excitement, the joy. “Go! Go out become the embodiment of your past creativity.. Embrace your abilities. Embrace the creative power of the universe. Embrace yourself.”
And I do.
Award-winning author Jody Feldman loves to help spark creativity in students of all ages. If  you'd like Jody to speak to your school or group, give her a shout.
jody@jodyfeldman.com or contact Sarah DeVore, sarah@hownowbooking.com

Living Many Lives by Jane Kelley

 

Mr. Mole (me!) and Mr. Rat (my dear friend Wendy Lueker)

My writing journey began in the theater. I wanted to experience more than seemed possible to a girl growing up in the Midwest. And so I was in every play in high school. I participated in Forensics competitions. I studied acting at Northwestern University. I did an acting apprenticeship at Actors Theatre of Louisville. I performed throughout the Midwest with the Chicago Free Street Theater. 

Somewhere along the way, I figured out that there were limits to acting. Mainly in getting cast! Ah, but in writing, the only limit to what I could embody was MY IMAGINATION.

Living many lives doesn't mean speaking for someone who can and should be speaking for themselves. It means considering other ways to be. Richer, poorer, in sickness, and in health -- well, you get the idea.

We are all individuals. Unique products of nature and nurture. But we can -- if we make the effort -- try to imagine what it is like to be someone else.

And if my imagination fails, then I can READ my way into another experience. 

Jane Kelley is the author of many middle-grade novels -- including one in which she got to imagine being an African Gray Parrot.

The Embodied Writer

 

Irene LathamWhat does it mean to be an embodied writer?

As a dreamer/seeker/practicer of mindfulness, I've come to believe that embodiment has to do with: 

1) being present 

2) practicing acceptance.

Being present in our bodies, aware of all the sensory information available to us in any given moment (instead of being caught in “stinking thinking”).

Practicing acceptance of who we are, and believing that not only that we are enough, but also LOVING who we are....and having this overwhelming sense of being glad to be alive.

John O'Donohue, in his lovely book Anam Cara: A Book of Celtic Wisdom has this to say:

“The body is your only home in the universe. It is your house of belonging here in the world. It is a very sacred temple. To spend time in silence before the mystery of your body brings you toward wisdom and holiness.”

He encourages us to cultivate a deep sense of gratitude and connection with/for our bodies – and not just some parts of our bodies; ALL parts.

So when we're writing, we need to be aware of our bodies and of the sensations coming and going. 

We can deeper our characters by giving them this same awareness. When they succumb to fear, face the challenge, sink into despair,...what is happening in their bodies? 

Including these kind of details is what will provide for readers a visceral reading experience. As if our reader is THERE in the moment. As if our reader IS the hero. 

It's embodied writing we all crave and love to read. That's what gives our words and characters energy. That's what makes our stories powerful.

Don't know where to begin?

Start with breath. 

Breathing. 

You can't focus on your breath and think at the same time—so becoming aware of breath automatically and instantly making you present to your life. 

Other things you may pay attention to are the sound of your fingers hitting the keyboard, the feel of clothing against your skin, the taste and tenperature of tea/coffee/drink of choice as it fills your mouth. 

Overwhelmed? 

Come back to your body. 

Excited? 

Come back to your body? 

Stuck? 

Always come back to your body.

And know you are not alone! 

Here are some links for you:

https://www.sarahcannata.com/a-beginners-guide-to-embodied-writing/

https://introvertdear.com/news/the-career-benefits-of-embodied-writing/

https://writers.com/course/embodied-writing-somatic-practices-to-improve-your-work

Middle Grade Fiction for Late Summer

Middle Grade Fiction for Late Summer

On my blog Book Q&As with Deborah Kalb, I've recently interviewed some authors that embody the spirit of middle grade fiction. Here are a few examples:

 

Terri Libenson creates the graphic novel series Emmie & Friends. When I asked her about her most recent addition to the series, Always Anthony, she said, "In the acknowledgments section of some of the newer books, Istarted asking readers to suggest their favorite characters to use asprotagonists. Anthony was requested a lot, and I felt he deserved his ownstory. I chose Leah to star opposite him because I wanted someone verydifferent in nature, and she was a great fit." 

 

Sean Ferrell's The Sinister Secrets of the Fabulous Nothings is a sequel to his novel The Sinister Secrets of Singe. He said: "Book 1 (Sinister Secrets of Singe) is verymuch about the hesitation a kid feels about entering the adult world. Secretshave been kept, family history has been hidden, and Noah doesn’t really knowhow he’s supposed to fit in. He starts book 1 isolated and uncertain...Book 2 finds Noahstruggling in a different way with growing up. He’s no longer afraid to try tofly, but he is uncertain about where to go.

 

Dan Gutman, author of the My Weird School series, also wrote The (Mostly) True Story of Cleopatra's Needle. He said of his new book: "When you’re blending fact and fiction together in a story,you have to be very careful not to overwhelm your readers (especially youngreaders) with too many facts or too much fiction. I don’t want to bore thekids, and I also don’t want them to feel like they’re getting a historylesson. I think the best strategy is to tell a great story, and slipin just enough facts and real background to make it believable."

 

Katherine Marsh's most recent middle grade novel is The Myth of Monsters: Medusa, the start of a new series. She said, "I have a 13-year-old daughter and I've been struck by howmany of the mega-successful middle grade fantasy series feature boy heroes andgirl sidekicks. Take Percy Jackson and Annabeth Chase or Harry Potter andHermione Granger. The girls are portrayed as smart and helpful but not theleaders. I purposefully wrote this series to challenge that and givemy daughter another model, one in which the girls are the brave, headstrongheroines destined to lead the action and the boys are their smart,sensible sidekicks."

Enjoy the rest of the summer!

--Deborah Kalb

Unraveling the Mystery (Holly Schindler)

When I started writing, the process seemed a complete mystery. And the only way to get from first sentence to final, publishable manuscript was to endure a somewhat (okay, really) painful process of going through draft after draft after draft, pushing myself to complete 5K writing days, rarely knowing where I was going, seeking feedback, submitting, revising, resubmitting...

You get the idea. 

But times are totally different than they were when I started my writing journey.

There are so many really incredible online resources available. I mean incredible. A few of my faves:

Lisa Cron: Wired for Story Okay, not so much an online resource as a nonfiction book. But this was my very first plotting or structure read, and with this book, I was absolutely hooked.

Writers Helping Writers If you don't have a few copies of the Writers Helping Writers series (really recommend the emotion and conflict thesauruses), you need them. Now. They're great rescue devices when you find yourself needing a lift from writer's block.

Save the Cat I'll admit, I haven't used this one nearly as much as the others mentioned here, but I know soooo many authors who've said this was their intro to plotting theory. Great starting place.

K.M. Weiland If you've never visited Weiland's site--or listened to her podcast--or read any of her structure books--or taken any of her courses--you are missing out. Period. Anyone interested in writing and in learning to outline or become a plotter needs to become acquainted with Weiland. Period.

John Truby Anatomy of Story. So good. Also, Anatomy of Genre is another great writing desk go-to resource.

Donald Maas Writing the Breakout Novel: a classic for a reason.

Michael Hauge His 6-Stage Plot Structure offers a fantastic plotting foundation. The first time I tried to implement specific beats into a book, I was actually using Michael Hauge's 6-Stages. 

I know how important such writing instruction is--so I wanted to offer a bit of my own.

 

I've decided I'm also going to start teaching online. I've got several ideas for courses. The first will be a plotting tutorial--specifically, on plotting an entire novel through backstory. 

(Yes! The entire thing. It's totally possible. Your entire book can be plotted using a character's backstory. I discovered that's what I was doing to plot this year's Ruby's Place Christmas installment. This is perfect for writers of character-driven work.)

But people all learn differently. So I decided I need to put my plotting-through-backstory tutorials up in as many different forms as possible. Right now, it's going up in small chunks, week-by-week, on my Substack. Once the Substack serial wraps, it will be available as an e-book and also as a video course. 

I also think it's incredibly important to offer tutorials online for the most affordable price possible. Price shouldn't be a barrier to creativity. It should be about your willingness to put in the work. Right now, my Substack posts are going up for all subscribers--including free subscribers--with nothing behind the paywall. If you'd like to support my work, though, I also decided to put my Substack on a kind of perma-sale. $15 for an entire year. 

I hope you'll decide to check it out: Subscribe

~

Holly Schindler is the author of The Junction of Sunshine and Lucky.

Give Me a Mystery...

 by Charlotte Bennardo

To me, the biggest mystery is the universe. There is still so much we don't understand, like it's creation, its future, if there are more particles and multiverses and species. Even with the Hubble and James Webb Space Telescope, we can only see a small fraction. But that gives us food for our imaginations. That's probably why I wrote a science fiction space-based novel. I don't think humankind will ever solve every mystery of the universe, and that's astounding.

Photo by Pixabay: https://www.pexels.com/photo/gray-and...

We also have so many mysteries here on our little blue planet. Take the oceans. Scientists are still discovering species in its depths. It's estimated that only five percent of the ocean has been explored, according to science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/earth/oceanography/how-much-ocean-explored.htm. Pretty shocking! We're on our way back to the moon, then going to Mars, and we've only explored five percent of our oceans?? What mysteries could be solved with further exploration? No wonder tales of fabulous beasts and underwater cities with lost civilizations are so captivating.

Photo by Irina Iriser: https://www.pexels.com/photo/three-mu...

And what about other earth features like caves? Who doesn't love a good cave tour? I think of Journey to the Center of the Earth and other fabulous stories. What lies hidden beneath the ground? There's more than just dirt: there are dinosaur bones which reveal more extinct species, and gems from ancient earth eruptions, cities of lost civilizations, and spectacular features like the giant crystals discovered in Mexico. 

https://www.bing.com/images

We don't have to look far away-there are mysteries in our own human body. Think of the complexities of the human brain. According to weforum.org, we still understand little about how our brains work, how they process stimuli, control and regulate our bodies, and create. Add in the complexity of our circulatory, lymphatic, neurological, and others systems-we are walking miracles. This is reflected in such stories as Fantastic Voyage. If only we could shrink ourselves and explore the inside of our bodies! 

Photo by cottonbro studio: https://www.pexels.com/photo/white-co...

And it's not just us; I'd love to solve the mystery behind my cat. Does he see me as an equal, does he feel as many emotions as people do? What does he think about? Are some cats smarter than others? Could a cat commit a crime? What about all the other animals? This was the basis for my Evolution Revolution trilogy; could a squirrel learn simple machines, and then language? There are so many species and so much we need to learn about them. 

My Mink

So many mysteries, not enough time or science or research to solve them! The best part about any mystery, though, is that it creates a space for imagination and creativity for writers, movie makers, artists, and chats among friends. 

What will be the next great revelation?

It's a mystery to me.

  

Charlotte writes MG, YA, NA, and adult novels in sci fi, fantasy, contemporary, and paranormal genres. She is the author of the award-winning middle grade Evolution Revolution trilogy, Simple Machines, Simple Plans, and Simple Lessons. She co-authored the YA novels Blonde OPS, Sirenz, and Sirenz Back in Fashion. She has two short stories in the Beware the Little White Rabbit (Alice through the Wormhole) and Scare Me to Sleep (Faces in the Wood) anthologies. Having finished her MFA, she's applying what she learned and is working on several children's and adult novels, along with some short stories. She lives in NJ with her family and her floofy cat. When they trimmed the backyard tree, the crazy squirrel couple had to move out, but she is happy to report she has a new squirrel tenant along with a new pet rabbit (Bad Bunny).

Imagination + Energy = Change: Smack Dab in the Imagination by Dia Calhoun

July 21, 2024

Behold, on this day a new era dawns
when Imagination is seen
as the Great Kindler, the spark,
essence of change.

And in that era, Imagination
is honored as the co-creator of the world
with hands, hearts, and minds.

And let it be celebrated that this arose
from heroic sacrifice for the greater good.
This brought energy to the struggle
to bring forth a new vision and hope
for a future free from tyranny.

Imagination + Energy = Change

At Least Turtles Make Sense

 

It’s been a long minute since the planets aligned just right,allowing me to take a writing class. And this one is a doozy, sponsored by Lorin Oberweger and Free Expressions. This six-week course -- The Breakout Novel Intensive -- explores the principles outlined in Donald Maass ‘ book,Writing the Breakout Novel (2001). As a story nerd, I thrive on taking deep dives intothe story engineering process, and this is as deep as it can get. This week we're working on micro-tensions. This type of tension isn't in the action itself, but in the psychology underscoring the action. To make this happen, the narrative uses dialogue and exposition to highlight the emotive presence.

As a working writer, I consider my job is to write. As such,I dutifully and gleefully do my job, sometimes hours at an end. I LOVE my job (writing, that is)!

Except, unexpectedly, these days I find myself rather spentafter only an hour or two. It's not just writer's block.  And not just exhaustion. Something else bubbling just beneath the surface.

The only day, I went about doing some errands. I keptsquirming because my running shorts didn’t seem to fit. O no, I bemoaned. Ialready have enough old lady fat. Turns out, I had put my britches on insideout AND backwards. And yes, I went out in public like that.

You may remember that I am the ultimate Doctor Who superfan.I’ve been watching the show since it first aired in 1963. In other words, myrelationship with the Doctor has outlasted two husbands, four dogs and threecats. And yet, when the finale for the Fifteenth Doctor finally aired, Ifell asleep.  What? What? WHAT?

And it’s hot outside.  Too hot to sleep. My garden is decimated. Bees are dropping off the petals, their little wings burned.  I even feel sorry for the wasps, those evil little buggers. The heat index has reached over 100for several days, and there’s no end in sight. Combined with the high humidity,I feel like a toad swimming in boiling water. And toads do not like to swim.

You may remember that I live in the middle of Red HatCounty. Politics are posted everywhere. I’ve learned to ignore it. 

Except, one neighbor did rant on about 800,000 dead people whovoted illegally. I had to admit to him that zombies are just the worse.

Another neighbor railed about how we are a republicand not a democracy. I told him that he reminded me of some of my good friends. Perhaps he knew them: JohnAdams, James Madison, my personal favorite John Jay, and that upstart AlexanderHamilton, who all argued the very same thing for years. I told him, since he wasinterested, he could read all about it in the Federalist Papers. Granted, with85 long-winded essays, it’s thicker than a comic book.

Flags hang upside down here. They're also worn as hats and britches and swimsuits. Everyone brags about how many guns they collect. One man rants about shooting a coyote (in the middle of a neighborhood?). Meanwhile, the school down the road had gone on lockdown a couple of weeks ago. And a couple blocks away, a high school student shot his neighbor.

You may remember, too, that I’m counting the days to when Ino longer have to teach. At long last, I can choose which classes, and when, toteach. Or not. After forty years, it’s a daunting position. By the way, I hateWorkDay. I’m not the brightest bulb in the package when it comes to tech stuff.Still, all those fecking buttons and columns, and rows and arrows and … it tooklonger for me to fill out one spleeny form than to grade two weeks of class. (Yes,it’s God’s greatest joke to the universe that I teach online classes. But I amnot laughing. I remember that movie when computers took control. It didn't end well for most folk.)

And remember some months back, I was so excited to share “somenews” but had to wait until it becomes official. We’re still waiting. That’show the business rolls. Patience is not my middle name.

Eegads. Has the world gone craxy?

Then I remember this wisdom from one of my favorite offavorite people and teachers. Dumbledore wisdom from Emma Dryden. I’ve shared this before, but it seems I  needed reminding,and maybe you do, too…

I think I'll go for a walk, and get some ice cream.  I'll go to the local pond and count the dragonflies and watch the turtles. At least turtles make sense. And no worries, I put my britches on the right way. Not that the turtles will care. And when I return to my story, I'll figure out how to write micro-tensions.

By the way, see what I did there?  For more information about the BONI and many other excellent seminars, webinars and classes at Free Expressions, check out their website. 

--Bobbi Miller

The Mystery in Writing by Darlene Beck Jacobson

 I don't know about you, but I love a good mystery story. Following along as a detective or police officer shares clues and narrows down suspects to find the guilty party and solve the crime. I've been hooked ever since I read my first books by Carolyn Keene in elementary school, and then Agatha Christie and Early Stanley Gardner when I was in my teens

  

While there is a definitive genre for mysteries, I am making a case for the MYSTERY of writing in EVERY genre. The discovery of character and how that character grows, changes, and interacts with the rest of the players. Until I begin writing, many aspects of the character's development is a mystery.

How the plot unfolds with each scene and where it takes the character is a mystery. I am often surprised at the places I end up going and the things my character ends up doing to move the story along. So much of what happens seems to evolve as I write. It changes as I write as well, and I am never sure where I'll end up. That's another mystery of writing.

 

 

 

So even though the middle grade stories I write are not technically labeled as mystery stories, mysterious things happen on every page as I put pen to paper. Perhaps the biggest, most amazing mystery of all is that all those words, and all those pages somehow turn into a story.

When Darlene Beck Jacobson isn't reading mysteries or writing mysterious things, she can be found watching classic mysteries on TV. She especially enjoys the British ones found on BBC and PBS.

Building a Mystery

The Builders by Jacob Lawrence
'Cause you're working
Building a mystery
Holding on and holding it in
Yeah you're working
Building a mystery
And choosing so carefully
     - from Building a Mystery by Sarah McLachlan

That’s what I’ve been doing recently. Trying to build a mystery; a story creepy and suspicious enough to keep readers turning the page and my mind constantly churning up the possibilities.

As for the song, it's not the first time this chorus has crept into my brain because...
If you think about it, nearly every story holds a little bit of mystery. Doesn’t it? 

You can find Jody Feldman juggling all the vital elements and red herrings of a new book. Meanwhile her other middle grades each have some mystery in them, too.