Marion Dane Bauer's Blog, page 44

Longing, the Core of Every Story

Last week I mentioned that every story springs from the writer’s own longing. Even the most careful readers would find it impossible to assemble the facts of my life from my stories, but they would have little difficulty peering into my soul. The longing each story is built upon provides an exceedingly transparent window.

A mansion similar to the one in my hometown memories.

Some elements of my stories come from small, if once deeply felt, moments of longing. For instance, Erthly, the town wher...

Did That Really Happen?

The question readers often ask, adults or kids, is the same. Did that really happen? And to you? And sometimes, of course, it has . . . in some way, at some time. Most of my stories, though, come not from the substance of my life but from fragments and bits: a place I once lived, a promise once broken, a cat that once rode a dog's back all the way out of our yard.

I have been writing lately about researching to extend my experience, going dog-sledding in order to write a dog-sledding scene...

More About Researching for Fiction

books I'm using for research

Not every story has to be lived to be written. That's what imagination is for. If writers are going to produce more than one or two novels, they are probably going to have to extend their experience through the most readily available source . . . reading. I need to do research in order to be able to write many of my novels. Some of that research, as I wrote last week, has been through travel and trying out new experiences. Far more comes from books.

I consider it...

A Research Trip

I've just returned from a research trip for the young-adult novel I'm working on, Blue-Eyed Wolf. Well, actually, it was a mixture of a research trip and a retreat with a friend who needed some time away from home to concentrate on her writing. We went to Gunflint Lodge, a marvelous old Minnesota resort on the Gunflint Trail north of Lake Superior. The time we spent couldn't have been more perfect.

Blue-Eyed Wolf is set on the edge of and in the Boundary Water Canoe Area, a wilderness of...

Celebrate!

How many times have I said it to my students and to other developing writers? When you're publishing a book, celebrate every step of the way, because if you don't celebrate the small moments, you rarely arrive at one that feels big enough to justify loud rejoicing.

(Okay. If you win a Newbery or a National Book Award you get a party. Short of that, one moment in the life of your much-loved book tends to blend right into the next.)

The process of writing a book and getting it published is a...

Where Do Ideas Come From?

I got the idea for this blog when I was meditating this morning. Yes, I know, I'm not supposed to get ideas meditating. In fact, that's supposed to be a time for leaving ideas behind. But when my mind loses its quiet focus on my breath and skitters off to someplace else, ideas about what to write or how to fix something I'm currently writing are one of the more productive results it can return with. "Thinking," I remind myself happily as I tuck the idea away, and then I return to my breath.

It...

Happy Stories

I have written many novels over the years—I've just gone to my bookshelf to count, and the number comes to 24—and few of them could be called "happy stories." Some don't even have happy endings.

I often receive responses from students who are upset about the lack of a happy conclusion to On My Honor, my Newbery Honor story of two boys who take a forbidden swim in a river where one of them drowns. They want me to "finish" the story, to carry it to a happier conclusion, ideally to bring the...

What Do You Need Editors For?

I've been asked the question many times, almost always by non-writers. Or if the question comes from a writer it is, for certain, from one who hasn't yet been published. "What do you need editors for? What right does anyone have to tell you how you should write your story?"

The best analogy I can think of as to why writers need editors is that it's the same as singers relying on vocal coaches throughout their careers, however stellar those careers may be. Why? Because they need someone to...

The End of the Children's Book

That was the headline on a news story on NPRs "All Things Considered" last week.  Oh, no, I thought. Everything, especially it seems about children's books, is always coming to a cataclysmic end.  I am, frankly, weary of the hysteria. I suppose, too, at the age of 73 and in the latter part of a long career, I feel somewhat insulated against these changes.  My books—some of them, anyway—will probably continue to be out there as long as I'm aware. But does disaster loom for those who follow...

Greatest strength / greatest weakness

I am about a third of the way into writing a young-adult novel called Blue-Eyed Wolf, far enough in to feel a sense of accomplishment, far enough from the end to still have some apprehension about making it the whole way.  But a problem has begun to develop. As I sit down to work each day I find myself feeling increasingly claustrophobic, as though I'm being caught into a place I don't especially want to be.

I sent these early pages to a friend, a fellow writer whose judgment I trust. "Should ...