Jo Knowles's Blog, page 6
November 25, 2013
Why you write back :-)
"Dear Mrs. Knowles,
I cannot believe it at all, you actually wrote back! Oh my gosh! As soon as I saw the notification I ran all over my house with adrenaline running through my body screaming Oh my GOSH!"
I cannot believe it at all, you actually wrote back! Oh my gosh! As soon as I saw the notification I ran all over my house with adrenaline running through my body screaming Oh my GOSH!"
Underneath, it's really about...
Hi everyone!
Your Monday Morning Warm-Up can be found at Inside A Dog, where I'm still the author in residence. :-) I really love this one!
http://insideadog.com.au/blog/underneath-its-really-about
xo
Your Monday Morning Warm-Up can be found at Inside A Dog, where I'm still the author in residence. :-) I really love this one!
http://insideadog.com.au/blog/underneath-its-really-about
xo
November 19, 2013
A chat with Sara Zarr :)
Sara Zarr invited me to be her guest at This Creative Life! Here is her teaser:
"In this episode, the lovely and talented Jo Knowles talks with me about emotional truth vs. “what really happened,” The Chocolate War, when we will start to feel like real authors, and the tragic decline and fall of roller discos. Jo is the author of five novels, her most recent being Living with Jackie Chan, a companion novel to her YALSA Top Ten Quick Pick, Jumping Off Swings."
If you'd like to listen to our chat, or check out more chats Sara has done, you can start here:
http://www.sarazarr.com/archives/3516
"In this episode, the lovely and talented Jo Knowles talks with me about emotional truth vs. “what really happened,” The Chocolate War, when we will start to feel like real authors, and the tragic decline and fall of roller discos. Jo is the author of five novels, her most recent being Living with Jackie Chan, a companion novel to her YALSA Top Ten Quick Pick, Jumping Off Swings."
If you'd like to listen to our chat, or check out more chats Sara has done, you can start here:
http://www.sarazarr.com/archives/3516
November 18, 2013
"Teachers Change Lives"
Hi everyone!
I'm still over at Inside A Dog, where you can find today's Monday Morning Warm-Up! :-)
http://insideadog.com.au/blog/teachers-change-lives
I'm still over at Inside A Dog, where you can find today's Monday Morning Warm-Up! :-)
http://insideadog.com.au/blog/teachers-change-lives
November 11, 2013
"Your Ideas are Important"
Hi everyone,
Your Monday-Morning Writing Prompt is over here today:
"Your Ideas are Important” http://insideadog.com.au/blog/your-ideas-are-important
:-)
Your Monday-Morning Writing Prompt is over here today:
"Your Ideas are Important” http://insideadog.com.au/blog/your-ideas-are-important
:-)
November 4, 2013
Today's post is at Inside A Dog:Overcoming Writer's Block...
Today's post is at Inside A Dog:
Overcoming Writer's Block: On Grief, Love, Fear and Being in the Moment
Link: http://insideadog.com.au/blog/overcoming-writers-block-grief-love-fear-and-being-moment
With thanks to Kristin for the topic suggestion. :-)
~*~*~*~*~*~
Monday Morning Warm-Up:
Take a moment to sit quietly and listen. What do you hear? Make a list. It can be boring things, like the dishwasher running. Or annoying things, like the incessant barking of a neighbor's dog. Or interesting things, like a conversation you overhear in a cafe. Listen. Just listen really carefully. List EVERYTHING. Even your own breath. And then pick one thing on your list to write about more closely. Share if you'd like!
Overcoming Writer's Block: On Grief, Love, Fear and Being in the Moment
Link: http://insideadog.com.au/blog/overcoming-writers-block-grief-love-fear-and-being-moment
With thanks to Kristin for the topic suggestion. :-)
~*~*~*~*~*~
Monday Morning Warm-Up:
Take a moment to sit quietly and listen. What do you hear? Make a list. It can be boring things, like the dishwasher running. Or annoying things, like the incessant barking of a neighbor's dog. Or interesting things, like a conversation you overhear in a cafe. Listen. Just listen really carefully. List EVERYTHING. Even your own breath. And then pick one thing on your list to write about more closely. Share if you'd like!
October 28, 2013
The Doctor Is In...
Hi Everyone!
I know this fall I have been pretty bad about posting Monday Morning Warm-Ups, or posting at all for that matter.
But starting on November 1, I'll be posting 3 times a week as the Writer in Residence at Inside A Dog!
I will be talking about writing and life and books and whatever YOU would like me to talk about. Got a burning question? Something you'd like to discuss? Leave a comment here and I will add it to my list and try to get to it. I'll put a link here to all my posts there.
I hope this will get me back into the habit of writing blog posts more regularly. I really miss that exercise, and talking about writing with all of you.
I hope you'll join me so we can have fun conversations!
~*~*~*~*~*~
Monday Morning Warm-Up(s):
1. What would you like to discuss/read posts about?
2. Write to the prompt, "It was a cold, fall day, and..."
I know this fall I have been pretty bad about posting Monday Morning Warm-Ups, or posting at all for that matter.
But starting on November 1, I'll be posting 3 times a week as the Writer in Residence at Inside A Dog!
I will be talking about writing and life and books and whatever YOU would like me to talk about. Got a burning question? Something you'd like to discuss? Leave a comment here and I will add it to my list and try to get to it. I'll put a link here to all my posts there.
I hope this will get me back into the habit of writing blog posts more regularly. I really miss that exercise, and talking about writing with all of you.
I hope you'll join me so we can have fun conversations!
~*~*~*~*~*~
Monday Morning Warm-Up(s):
1. What would you like to discuss/read posts about?
2. Write to the prompt, "It was a cold, fall day, and..."
October 17, 2013
What revision looks like: A very long story
I cannot believe the last time I updated was more than a month ago! Yeesh. I've got a lot of excuses. Travel. Book promo. Adding an in-law apartment to our house. Moving in-laws into our house. Unpacking in-laws' things. Teaching. Travel travel travel. And mostly.... REVISING. And because today I handed in this revision, I thought I'd share a little about how the book came to be, since I've heard from a lot of people about how LONG it's taking them to finish their own drafts and I wanted to offer some hope.
So...
A little story about my next book, READ BETWEEN THE LINES. :-)
I got the story spark for this book 10 years ago this month. That's right. I said 10.
I played with ideas. I wrote chapter headings. I had fun writing bits of it here and there. But that's about it.
It was a project I feared.
It was a project I loved.
Many of you know, one of the things I find most rewarding about writing is exploring things from different points of view.
In this book, I do it with 10. That's right. I said 10. (I sense a theme!)
I felt strongly that 10 was the right number, but I also wanted the story to take place in one day. And I wanted the stories to overlap. And I wanted all the characters to overlap in interesting and unexpected ways.
Well, that seemed great but also hard. Really hard. I wasn't ready and didn't know how to do it. So, I just tucked the idea away, and sometimes took notes about it in a file. I played with a few stories, but didn't take it seriously.
Then a year or two later, I was on a retreat with several other authors. We were sitting around a table and someone asked, "What is your dream project? The one you would love to work on without worrying about audience or whether you'd sell it, but just something you'd love to do?"
And my answer was this project. Everyone at the table encouraged me to tell my agent about it. They loved the concept and thought it was worth pursuing.
I shared some parts of it with my friend, the brilliant writer Robin Wasserman.
She also encouraged me to tell my agent about it.
So, I told my agent about it.
He said, "Sure. Write it."
This is what he always says. He already wants me to write what I want to write. So it was kind of silly for me to ask. But I guess I just needed to hear those words: "Sure. Write it."
Over the next few years, I wrote more between projects. It was like my "I need a break" project that I would tinker with. It was fun.
But every time I saw Robin, she would say, "How's that special project going?" And I'd kind of hem and haw, until she'd convince me to share more with her. And in this way, I slowly wrote the book.
It took a lot of years.
But with Robin's encouragement, I finally finished and shared a draft with my editor. To my shock, she said she wanted to publish it!
And then she gave me lots of comments. Lots. Of comments.
And because this project is so complicated, and I had so many comments both from my editor, and Robin (who read it AGAIN) and my writing partners Cindy and Debbi, I bought my first book journal:
In it, I started to make a map of the chapters and characters, and how they would overlap:
That seemed kind of unhelpful. So then I began to create a Bible of sorts. First with a list of characters and which chapters they appeared in (the stars are the main characters who had their own chapters):
Then I needed to study each chapter. I had to know what time it was when the chapter started. What grade the character was in. Which characters show up in the chapter. And of course, what needed to be "Fixed" (according to my readers and my editor):
You might also be able to see the letters W.O.W. This was a tip I learned from Cindy Lord. I needed to identify what the character Wanted; what the Obstacle was getting in his or her way; and what the Way was to finally get it.
This was a new character I created (my editor suggested I kill off two and add two new ones-gasp!), and therefore didn't have notes from my editor or readers. Ah, a clean(ish) page:
I handed in the revision to my editor. Then, she called me and I tried to take notes:
These were not exactly detailed. I have trouble writing quickly by hand and I couldn't keep up. But luckily, she sent me written notes after our call.
Notes in hand, it was time to start the process all over again. I followed the same method, using one page for each character instead of two (that felt like progress!):
I filled this in as I revised, knowing I'd have to go back AGAIN once I'd incorporated the new changes. Here's what a typical page looked like as I did so, and even the backs of pages:
And even on the LAST two pages I was still making tons of changes:
These are pages from my editor's letter. I crossed off each issue as I addressed it, which was VERY satisfying:
And then I was finally able to go back and key in all the changes from my mark-up, and make one final outline of the characters, which fit on ONE page. Yay:
About twenty minutes ago, I got to send the revision to Robin. Wonderful Robin. If it weren't for her, I am pretty sure I never would have finished it.
THANK YOU ROBIN, and Joan, and my writing partners Cindy and Debbi, who kept me sane while I tried to balance this crazy project with everything else going on in my life this past year.
Also, thanks to my friends on Twitter and Facebook, who joined my many "Revision Day Celebrations" which I used as a trick to help me remember to have FUN with this project, daunting as it was.
I love you all.
I hope this helped those of you feeling overwhelmed and impatient with your own progress. You can do it. If I can, YOU can!! Find the tools that help you get control of the situation. Don't lose hope. Keep clicking away. You will get there. And I will celebrate with you when you do.
:-)
So...
A little story about my next book, READ BETWEEN THE LINES. :-)
I got the story spark for this book 10 years ago this month. That's right. I said 10.
I played with ideas. I wrote chapter headings. I had fun writing bits of it here and there. But that's about it.
It was a project I feared.
It was a project I loved.
Many of you know, one of the things I find most rewarding about writing is exploring things from different points of view.
In this book, I do it with 10. That's right. I said 10. (I sense a theme!)
I felt strongly that 10 was the right number, but I also wanted the story to take place in one day. And I wanted the stories to overlap. And I wanted all the characters to overlap in interesting and unexpected ways.
Well, that seemed great but also hard. Really hard. I wasn't ready and didn't know how to do it. So, I just tucked the idea away, and sometimes took notes about it in a file. I played with a few stories, but didn't take it seriously.
Then a year or two later, I was on a retreat with several other authors. We were sitting around a table and someone asked, "What is your dream project? The one you would love to work on without worrying about audience or whether you'd sell it, but just something you'd love to do?"
And my answer was this project. Everyone at the table encouraged me to tell my agent about it. They loved the concept and thought it was worth pursuing.
I shared some parts of it with my friend, the brilliant writer Robin Wasserman.
She also encouraged me to tell my agent about it.
So, I told my agent about it.
He said, "Sure. Write it."
This is what he always says. He already wants me to write what I want to write. So it was kind of silly for me to ask. But I guess I just needed to hear those words: "Sure. Write it."
Over the next few years, I wrote more between projects. It was like my "I need a break" project that I would tinker with. It was fun.
But every time I saw Robin, she would say, "How's that special project going?" And I'd kind of hem and haw, until she'd convince me to share more with her. And in this way, I slowly wrote the book.
It took a lot of years.
But with Robin's encouragement, I finally finished and shared a draft with my editor. To my shock, she said she wanted to publish it!
And then she gave me lots of comments. Lots. Of comments.
And because this project is so complicated, and I had so many comments both from my editor, and Robin (who read it AGAIN) and my writing partners Cindy and Debbi, I bought my first book journal:
In it, I started to make a map of the chapters and characters, and how they would overlap:
That seemed kind of unhelpful. So then I began to create a Bible of sorts. First with a list of characters and which chapters they appeared in (the stars are the main characters who had their own chapters):
Then I needed to study each chapter. I had to know what time it was when the chapter started. What grade the character was in. Which characters show up in the chapter. And of course, what needed to be "Fixed" (according to my readers and my editor):
You might also be able to see the letters W.O.W. This was a tip I learned from Cindy Lord. I needed to identify what the character Wanted; what the Obstacle was getting in his or her way; and what the Way was to finally get it.
This was a new character I created (my editor suggested I kill off two and add two new ones-gasp!), and therefore didn't have notes from my editor or readers. Ah, a clean(ish) page:
I handed in the revision to my editor. Then, she called me and I tried to take notes:
These were not exactly detailed. I have trouble writing quickly by hand and I couldn't keep up. But luckily, she sent me written notes after our call.
Notes in hand, it was time to start the process all over again. I followed the same method, using one page for each character instead of two (that felt like progress!):
I filled this in as I revised, knowing I'd have to go back AGAIN once I'd incorporated the new changes. Here's what a typical page looked like as I did so, and even the backs of pages:
And even on the LAST two pages I was still making tons of changes:
These are pages from my editor's letter. I crossed off each issue as I addressed it, which was VERY satisfying:
And then I was finally able to go back and key in all the changes from my mark-up, and make one final outline of the characters, which fit on ONE page. Yay:
About twenty minutes ago, I got to send the revision to Robin. Wonderful Robin. If it weren't for her, I am pretty sure I never would have finished it.
THANK YOU ROBIN, and Joan, and my writing partners Cindy and Debbi, who kept me sane while I tried to balance this crazy project with everything else going on in my life this past year.
Also, thanks to my friends on Twitter and Facebook, who joined my many "Revision Day Celebrations" which I used as a trick to help me remember to have FUN with this project, daunting as it was.
I love you all.
I hope this helped those of you feeling overwhelmed and impatient with your own progress. You can do it. If I can, YOU can!! Find the tools that help you get control of the situation. Don't lose hope. Keep clicking away. You will get there. And I will celebrate with you when you do.
:-)
September 16, 2013
Fun stuff coming up! :)
Here's where I'll be in the next few weeks/months. Hope you'll be at one of these places too! If you are, please say hey!
September 21
The Boston Teen Author Festival
Cambridge Public Library
Boston, MA
Panel: 12:15-1:00pm
Signing: 2:30-4:00
September 28
The Austin Teen Book Festival
Austin Convention Center
Austin, TX
Panel: 10:15-11; 2:30-3:05
Signing: 4:50-5:30
October 5
The Brattleboro Literary Festival
New England Youth Theater
Brattleboro, VT
Co-Presentation with Michelle Knudsen: 11:00-12:00
October 8
New England Independent Booksellers Association"
Rhode Island Convention Center
Providence, RI
Deets to come
November 15
American Association of School Librarians Conference
Connecticut Convention Center
Hartford, CT
Presentation: 3:15-4:30; Rm Marriot B
November 23-24
NCTE Annual Convention
Hynes Convention Center
Boston, MA
Signing: Saturday, 3-4pm in the Candlewick Booth
Presentation: Sunday, 8:30-9:45
September 21
The Boston Teen Author Festival
Cambridge Public Library
Boston, MA
Panel: 12:15-1:00pm
Signing: 2:30-4:00
September 28
The Austin Teen Book Festival
Austin Convention Center
Austin, TX
Panel: 10:15-11; 2:30-3:05
Signing: 4:50-5:30
October 5
The Brattleboro Literary Festival
New England Youth Theater
Brattleboro, VT
Co-Presentation with Michelle Knudsen: 11:00-12:00
October 8
New England Independent Booksellers Association"
Rhode Island Convention Center
Providence, RI
Deets to come
November 15
American Association of School Librarians Conference
Connecticut Convention Center
Hartford, CT
Presentation: 3:15-4:30; Rm Marriot B
November 23-24
NCTE Annual Convention
Hynes Convention Center
Boston, MA
Signing: Saturday, 3-4pm in the Candlewick Booth
Presentation: Sunday, 8:30-9:45
September 10, 2013
No one person makes a book. Thank you to everyone who helped make mine <3
It started with a question from a fan, after reading Jumping Off Swings:
"What happens to Josh?"
And another:
"Is Josh going to be OK?"
And some more:
"Did Josh really move away to live with his uncle? Did everything turn out all right for him?"
And then, some inspiration...
The first time I met Chip, one of my husband and son's karate instructors, I was inspired by his positive energy and the love and encouragement he gave to my son.
At around this time, I was asking my own questions about Josh, and Larry, and that year, thanks to persistent readers.
What was Uncle Larry like?
I imagined a version of Chip.
And then I imagined the day Josh arrived at Larry's home.
And then...
I started writing.
I didn't tell my editor I was writing this companion book. I had no idea if there would be any interest in publishing it. But I knew I had to write the story either way. So I did.
Thankfully, my editor bought the book. (I love you, Joan Powers and Candlewick!!!!)
This past weekend, I got to celebrate its publication with wonderful friends and family.
My friend Sara Morin designed a logo for me.
I sent iron-ons to any guests who were interested. These are just some of the ones who wore t-shirts to the party:
No one person makes a book.
The ideas come from questions asked by strangers.
From people who inspire through their kindness and enthusiasm.
From every day observations.
And from the love we see and receive and give and crave and miss and long for and share throughout our lives.
Thank you, to everyone who contributed these things and more. Because of you, I can finally answer (and you can find out, because the book comes out TODAY!)...
Here's what happens to Josh:
With lots of love and gratiude,
Jo
"What happens to Josh?"
And another:
"Is Josh going to be OK?"
And some more:
"Did Josh really move away to live with his uncle? Did everything turn out all right for him?"
And then, some inspiration...
The first time I met Chip, one of my husband and son's karate instructors, I was inspired by his positive energy and the love and encouragement he gave to my son.
At around this time, I was asking my own questions about Josh, and Larry, and that year, thanks to persistent readers.
What was Uncle Larry like?
I imagined a version of Chip.
And then I imagined the day Josh arrived at Larry's home.
And then...
I started writing.
I didn't tell my editor I was writing this companion book. I had no idea if there would be any interest in publishing it. But I knew I had to write the story either way. So I did.
Thankfully, my editor bought the book. (I love you, Joan Powers and Candlewick!!!!)
This past weekend, I got to celebrate its publication with wonderful friends and family.
My friend Sara Morin designed a logo for me.
I sent iron-ons to any guests who were interested. These are just some of the ones who wore t-shirts to the party:
No one person makes a book.
The ideas come from questions asked by strangers.
From people who inspire through their kindness and enthusiasm.
From every day observations.
And from the love we see and receive and give and crave and miss and long for and share throughout our lives.
Thank you, to everyone who contributed these things and more. Because of you, I can finally answer (and you can find out, because the book comes out TODAY!)...
Here's what happens to Josh:
With lots of love and gratiude,
Jo
