Catherine Austen's Blog, page 10

Things Hide in the Dark (Episode 1: Setting)

https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-3piah-e5f63a

A 40-minute episode for young writers interested in developing a strong setting. With an original spooky story, “The Sacrifice”; setting examples from Beowulf, The Scorpio Races, and The Incredible Journey; interviews with Tim Wynne-Jones, Lori Weber, and Caroline Pignat; and a story prompt set in a creepy basement.

PG-13. A “Fright-Free” version adapted for younger listeners is available at CabinTales.ca, along with the original “Spooky” version.

See the full episode transcripts at CabinTales.ca.

Shownotes:

[0:00] Intro: Welcome to Cabin Tales: Spooky Stories for Young Writers. This is Episode One: Things Hide in the Darkness. I’m Catherine Austen. And my guests today are Tim Wynne-Jones, Lori Weber, and Caroline Pignat.

[1:10] Introduction to today’s story, “The Sacrifice”

[2:00] Trigger warning: Today’s tale is about a young teen left alone on a lake. If you have a special sensitivity to drownings, monsters, or creepy men, skip ahead 7 minutes when you hear the musical bar at the beginning of the story. If you want to share the podcast with very young listeners, please download the “fright-free” versions of episodes on CabinTales.ca.

[3:20] Spooky Story: “The Sacrifice”

[12:50] Commentary on today’s story and how to show a setting that is hidden.

[15:20] Excerpt from E. Talbot Donaldson’s translation of Beowulf, the monster’s lair (and how to copy the technique)

[17:05] Excerpt from Maggie Stiefvater’s The Scorpio Races (and how to copy the technique)

[18:45] Excerpt from Sheila Burnford’s The Incredible Journey (and how to open with a setting)

Interviews

[22:10] Tim Wynne-Jones on the setting of The Emperor of Any Place.

[23:50] Lori Weber on Newfoundland and Montreal.

[25:20] Caroline Pignat on writing Ireland.

Advice for young writers

[26:20] Caroline Pignat on setting exercises for young writers.

[28:15] Lori Weber on the importance of setting for young writers.

[30:25] Tim Wynne-Jones on immersing yourself in a setting .

Scary settings

[31:40] Tim Wynne-Jones fears the woods at night.

[32:50] Lori Weber fears insects and animals.

[33:55] Caroline Pignat fears camping and heights.

[35:00] Catherine tells a creepy story, “The Drummer in the Basement.”

(Read this story prompt and the fright-free prompt, “The House with Two Doors, on the Cabin Tales Write page.)

[38:15] Thanks, etc. You’ll hear more from today’s guest authors this fall.

Submit a story for October. See the Cabin Tales Submit page for details.

Next week’s episode will feature interviews with Karen Krossing; Jan Coates; Rachel Eugster; Amanda West Lewis; and Monique Polak.

Week 3, August 21st, I’ll be back with stories and excerpts and prompts in Episode Three, “Nasty People meet Nasty Ends,” an episode all about character.

In the meantime, stay safe and sane and keep your social distance because, as a Hollywood monster-killer once said, “If we break quarantine, we could all die.”

(Do you know what monster movie that line is from?)

Thanks for listening.

Guest Authors:

Caroline Pignat is the two-time Governor Generalʼs Literary Award-winning author of novels, non-fiction, and poetry. At age 16, she wrote a short story that years later became Greener Grass, winner the 2009 Governor General’s Literary Award. The Gospel Truth, a novel in free verse poetry, won her a second Governor General’s Award in 2015. With over 20 years’ experience teaching in schools, workshops, and at conferences, Caroline loves helping young writers find and share their unique voices. Website: www.carolinepignat.com; Twitter: @CarolinePignat

Lori Weber is the author of eight young adult novels, including Yellow Mini, a novel in verse, and Deep Girls, a short-story collection; one historical middle grade novel, Lightning Lou; and one picture book, My Granny Loves Hockey. She has also published short fiction, poetry and non-fiction in several Canadian literary journals. A native Montrealer, she lived for several years in Atlantic Canada where she taught English in Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. Upon returning to Montreal, she began teaching English at Vanier College in 1994 before moving to John Abbott College in 1996, a position she recently retired from. She has represented Quebec twice for TD Canadian Book Week and has been offering classroom workshops around Quebec as a member of the Culture in the Schools program since 2005. She currently lives in Dorval, Quebec, where she hopes to do more writing, taking inspiration from her cat, Bogey, and the beautiful Lac Saint Louis which is at her doorstep, and which she loves to photograph daily. Website: www.lori-weber.com; #lacsaintlouis (Instagram)

Tim Wynne-Jones has written 35 books for adults and children of all sorts of ages. He has won the Governor General’s Award twice and the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award twice, most recently for the thriller, Blink & Caution. He has twice won the Arthur Ellis Award of the Crime Writers of Canada, as well as the Edgar Award of the Mystery Writers of America. His books have been translated into a dozen languages. Tim was made an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2012. His latest novel, The Starlight Claim, came out in 2019. Website: http://www.timwynne-jones.com/; Blog: https://theresalwaysdinner.home.blog/; Twitter: @tim_wj; Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tim.wynnejones.3

Host:
Catherine Austen writes books for children, short stories for adults, and reports for corporate clients. Her novels have won the Canadian Library Association Young Adult Book Award and the Quebec Writers’ Federation Prize for Children’s Literature. Her stories have appeared in anthologies and journals including The Fiddlehead and The New Quarterly. Catherine is a literacy tutor for Sage Youth and a mentor for the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (Canada East). She has given creative writing workshops and presentations from coast to coast. She lives in Gatineau, Quebec.

Music:

Music on the podcast is from “Stories of the Old Mansion” by Akashic Records, provided by Jamendo (Standard license for online use).

Cabin Tales Podcast Trailer

I’m having a blast developing my podcast, Cabin Tales: Spooky Stories for Young Writers. It’s morphing as it goes, but here’s the trailer for it.

Check out the website, CabinTales.ca, for more information.

And tune in to the podcast next week — the first episode launches on Friday, August 7th. It’s all about setting. It features a story with a spooky underwater monster, interview excerpts from Caroline Pignat, Lori Weber, and Tim Wynne Jones, and a ghost story set in my creepy basement that listeners are invited to finish.

I’ll even have a “fright-free” version available for very young writers.

Cabin Tales Podcast Trailer

https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-d9e2j-e52f8f

A 1-minute trailer for the upcoming podcast, Cabin Tales: Spooky Stories for Young Writers. Launching next week, Friday, August 7th, 2020. 

 

Trailer Transcript:

“Listen to Cabin Tales: Spooky Stories for Young Writers, a podcast where every episode focuses on one aspect of creative writing. Featuring original stories told around a fictional campfire, plus creative writing commentary, excerpts from classics, and interviews with some of Canada’s finest authors for children and young adults. Hosted by Catherine Austen. Launching August 7th, with new episodes every Friday at 30 minutes each. Visit CabinTales.ca for more information. Build a fire in your mind, seat some young storytellers around it, pull up a chair and listen in. Then take your turn and write your own tale.”

 

(Music credit: “Stories of the Old Mansion” by Akashic Records, provided by Jamendo, Standard license for online use)

Cabin Tales Podcast coming in July

[image error]Cabin Tales: Spooky Stories (and how to write them) is my new podcast coming this month. I’ll post more about it soon!

2020 Winners Announced

The Award Ceremony for the Ottawa Public Library’s Awesome Authors Youth Writing Contest had to be cancelled this year, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. So the judges (including me) made short videos to announce this year’s winners and honourable mentions, and the wonderful folks at the library put it all together into two ceremonial videos: one for ages 9-12 and one for ages 13-18.

You can check them out on the Awesome Authors page of the  library website.

And you will be able to read them in the fall 2020 edition of Pot-pourri.

 

[image error]Pot Pourri is an annual youth writing anthology published by the Friends of the Ottawa Public Library, featuring the winners of the Awesome Authors contest. 

There were so many great stories and poems entered this year! I could fill an entire book with just the best stories from the 9-12 category, and it would be great reading. If your submission is not among the winners announced this year, that doesn’t mean it wasn’t among the best. We just had too many “bests” to fit them all in.

We look forward to reading your submissions to next year’s contest. In the meantime, I hope you spend some of the summer writing stories.

Young Writers Workshop: Know your Character

To all the young writers whom I’d hoped to meet at a workshop this spring or summer (cancelled due to Covid-19)…

If you’re stuck at home with a pen handy, why not start a story or ten?

Don’t know how to begin? I’ll take you through five easy entry points over the coming weeks. (Kind of like my writing workshop, “Five ways to start a story,” except missing the key ingredient of workshop participants, and so not as fun or useful. But still something to do.) 

First up: Start with a Character.

Below you’ll find a “Build your Character” handout and a short version of my talk, “Know your Character.” (Not to be confused with next week’s talk, “Show your Character.”) Feel free to use it on your own or with a group of young writers keeping their social distance.

Who cares about character?

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Cinderella is lovely, hard-working, and good-natured. We would feel differently about her story if she was a lazy brat who connived her way to the ball and moved into the castle — “See ya later, suckers!” — leaving her sweet kind sisters in poverty. It would not be the same story.

If Harry Potter was a bully? Different story. He’d join the Slytherins and they’d take over the world.

A story progresses the way it does because of its characters: who they are, what they want, and how they act and interact. Character makes a story mean what it does, too. The story of Cinderella isn’t just about a poor girl who gets to go to a ball; it’s about a mistreated kind person who gets the life she deserves.

What’s in a character?

In creating a character, you can start with some basic sets of questions:

[image error]1. The physical stuff

What species are they? (Always a good starting point.)
Gender? Age? Size and shape?
What do they they look like? (Crooked teeth? Expensive clothes? Long black hair? All over their body??)
What do they look like in comparison to everyone around them? (Unique? A visible minority? One of a thousand clones?)
Do they have any disabilities? Exceptional abilities? Superpowers?

Make your character memorable in some way.

[image error]2. The personality

How does your character behave with other people? (A leader? A loner? An outcast? An eavesdropper?)
Are they an animal lover? An athlete? An arachnophobe?
Are they helpful around the house? Selfish or thoughtful? Lazy or energetic? A protective brother or a bully?
Are they smart? Funny? Trying their best? A total jerk?
How do they spend Sunday afternoons?
Do they have quirks or traits or hobbies? (Always playing with her hair? Never gets off his phone? Collects seashells from around the world? Designs his own clothes?)

Make your character active. Even sweet Cinderella has the gumption to sneak out to the ball.

[image error]3. The facts of life

Does your character go to school? What grade? Are they passing? Excelling? What’s their favourite subject?
Does you character work? At what? Do they walk to work? Or bike? Do they like the people they work with?
Do they live on Earth? In the present day? Where exactly? On a farm? A city apartment? A toxic landfill?
Does your character live alone? With family? Brothers and sisters? Pets? Do they have their own room? What’s their favourite thing in it?

4. [image error]The inner life

Does your character believe in god? In ghosts? In karma?
Do they believe that life is fair? That the strong should help the weak? That you should take whatever you can before someone takes it from you?
What would your character call a good life? Acquiring money? Having friends? Experiencing adventure? Making history?
What makes your character happy? Sad? What memory do they cherish? What fantasy do they hold dear?
What are they afraid of? And most importantly: what do they want?

There are two levels to what characters want: the immediate specific goal; and the deeper need it fulfills. Remember Cinderella. She wants to go to the ball. But what she really wants is a break from drudgery. Even readers who hate to dance can relate to that.

So maybe your character wants to win a singing contest. But what she really wants is to be admired.Or your character wants to solve a crime. But what he really wants is justice. Or your character wants to find a good hiding spot. But what she really wants is not to die. That’s a classic. 

Remember Setting

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If your character lives in a world completely different from yours, consider giving them different values or beliefs or habits. Or have them struggle against the beliefs of their time. Setting always affects character.

For example, expressive children weren’t encouraged in the 18th century; they were beaten. Girls weren’t encouraged to be scientists,  boys weren’t encouraged to be nurses, homosexuality was against the law, and almost everyone was brutally racist. These things affect individuals. If you create a character affected by such things, they will seem more real.

You certainly don’t have to make a character who fits into their setting — great stories are often about people who challenge the world — but make the character and setting react to each other.

You can Start with a Setting and then come back to character. Or go from here to there and back again.

Now build your character

You can use this handy handout to help build your character.

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Start with a real person — maybe yourself or someone your know, someone in the news or in a history book. Or invent a character unlike anyone seen before — a sinister alien, a kind-hearted demon, a genius caveman. Or expand on a character in a story you’ve already begun. In a pinch, take a fictional character you’ve read and change something about them, e.g., Percy Jackson as Persephone Jackson — would she be different as a girl? Rusty and the Warriors as hyenas?  Cinderella’s godmother as a wicked witch?

Just begin. Forcing yourself to come up with details often results in something really interesting. Try it. You’ll be amazed by how creative you are. Start with one character trait and ask questions. Soon you’ll know your character so well, you’ll be ready to show them to your reader — but more on that next week.

Have a great Friday.

Kids’ Lit Quiz 2020

It was a real pleasure to be the Guest Quizmaster at the Ottawa heat of the Kids’ Lit Quiz this year. The contest was held at Elmwood School on Tuesday, January 21st. And even in the middle of a teachers’ strike (Go teachers! Fight for your class size!), 22 teams came out to battle.

[image error]The Glashan PS team (First Place) with parent coach (left) and me, Catherine Austen, Guest Quizmaster (right). Kids’ Lit Quiz Ottawa 2020

The Kids’ Lit Quiz is an international annual literature competition for children aged 10-13. It’s a fun and exciting way to celebrate the love of books and make a sport of reading. Teams of 4 players sign up to compete at local heats around the world, answering literature-related questions of all types. Most teams are school-based, but there have even been home-schooled teams in some heats.

Participants in the Ottawa heat of the Kids’ Lit Quiz answered more than 100  questions in ten categories over the course of three hours. (Some of them were so hard! I was glad I was asking them instead of trying to answer them.)

The official Quizmaster, Wayne Mills,  who started the Kids’ Lit Quiz in 1991 and who writes all the questions for the competition, will be at the National Finals in Toronto this year. But it was nice to stand in his place (and in his shirt!) for the local heat. 

Glashan Pubic School took first place in the Ottawa competition, and their team will head to the National Finals on February 1st, along with Knoxdale Public School, whose team won the tiebreaker for second place against First Avenue Public School‘s Team 2. Congratulations to all three of these top-scoring teams, and to all the other teams who came out to the Ottawa Heat. Your enthusiasm, knowledge, and love of literature are inspiring.

[image error]The Knoxdale PS team (Second Place) with me, Catherine Austen, Guest Quizmaster.

Whichever team wins the Canadian Finals on February 1st will go on to compete against teams from the UK, the USA, South Africa, Singapore, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Nigeria, Australia and New Zealand in July. Good luck!

Every year, each local heat of the Kids’ Lit Quiz features a Guest Author Team comprised of local authors who play for fun. This year in Ottawa, authors Kate Jaimet, Holly Bodger, and Jo Rioux came out for the quiz. (And scored very well. They had the “Classic Characters” and “Book Knowledge” categories down pat.)

It takes a lot of committed volunteers to make events like this a success. If you are interested in taking part in the Kids’ Lit Quiz next year or supporting the Quiz anywhere in Canada, check out the Kids’ Lit Quiz Canada website for more information. And check out the international Kids’ Lit Quiz website to test your knowledge of children’s literature.

Awesome Authors 2020

The Ottawa Public Library’s annual Youth Writing Contest — Awesome Authors — is underway! If you’re an Ottawa resident between the ages of 9 and 18, sharpen your pencils or boot up your computer because it’s time to get writing and drawing.

Awesome Authors honours the very best poems, stories, and comics in English and French submitted by young Ottawa writers and artists from December through February each year. This year’s deadline is February 28th — that’s tons of time to get your best material polished.

If you need help getting your work in order, register for one of the many writing workshops being offered across town for free. I’m giving the fiction workshop for kids aged 9-12 and I’d love to meet you.

English workshops:

Short story workshop with Catherine Austen for ages 9-12, Stittsville branch, February 1st at 11 am

Short story workshop with Amelinda Bérubé for ages 13-18, Hazeldean branch, February 8th at 1:30 pm

Comic book workshop with Éric Péladeau for ages 9+, Ruth E. Dickinson branch, February 15th at 2 pm

Poetry workshop with Apollo The Child for ages 9-12, Greenboro branch, February 22nd at 10:30 am

Poetry workshop with Apollo The Child for ages 13-18, Carlingwood branch, February 22nd at 2 pm

French workshops:

Comment devenir un(e) super auteur(e) with Karine Perron for ages 9+, St-Laurent branch, February 1st at 3 pm

Comment devenir un super bédéiste with Éric Péladeau for ages 9+, Cumberland branch, February 15th at 11 am 

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If you’re super-keen, you can submit in every category for your age group! Whatever you do, follow the rules outlined on the OPL website. Have fun, work hard, and submit by February 28th.

Winners will be announced at an Award Ceremony in April 2020. Winners will receive awesome prizes and their winning work will be published in next year’s Pot-pourri anthology.

Good luck.

 

Writing Workshops

There’s a new source of funding for author visits to English-language Quebec schools: ArtistsInspire. The program administers federal funding for minority language education. Through ArtistsInspire, schools receive full funding to invite authors, artists, or other culture creators to engage their students in the arts. All English-language schools in Quebec are entitled to $1500 per year (through 2023). There’s no competition for limited funds. Just apply.

I’m proud to be listed among the ArtistsInspire authors. For schools considering inviting me, here are some of my most successful Writing Workshop topics. (And be sure to check out my Author Presentations, too.) 

Presentations work well with several classes at once, but Writing Workshops are best for single classes (about 25 students). Individual workshops can be 1-2 hours long. I use a variety of exercises to explore each theme, depending on the participants’ age and the time available. Each workshop includes at least one mini-lesson on the theme, plus writing time and workshopping (sharing and super-kind feedback).

If you have a keen group of students, consider multiple workshops with the same class on

pre-writing (character, setting, and plot development);
writing (crafting scenes through dialogue, description, and action); and
rewriting (revising, critiquing, and polishing)

to guide students through the entire process of developing a short story or memoir.

Whether you want one “Story Starter” workshop in your library, or several days of workshops to get all the students in your school writing creatively, contact me to ask about availability. And be sure to check out other potential sources of funding.

“Five Ways to Start a Story”  [image error]

Conquer the blank page! This workshop leads participants through exercises to launch stories with a character, a setting, an object description, a word prompt, and a fill-in-the-blanks instant plot. Some exercises are done alone, in pairs, or aloud as a class, as time permits.

No participant will ever be able to say, “But I have no ideas!” again.

This workshop is suited to all ages and all levels of experience and ability.

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“Knowing and Showing Character” 

This two-part workshop helps participants develop strong fictional characters who reveal themselves by how they think, speak, and act. Preliminary exercises include character profiles, interviews, first- and third-person freewrites, and even a little theatre. Once students have a character in hand, they’ll learn to show that character to readers through monologue, dialogue, description, and action.

Because you can’t attach a character profile as an addendum to your story.

This workshop can be adapted for all ages, even the youngest writers.

[image error]Plot Happens

“Character-Driven Plots” 

Create your characters, then set them free to wreak havoc or save the day. This workshop leads participants through exercises to build a character or two, really get to know them, then combine them in group stories based on a selection of established premises. How it all turns out is up to the characters. Character is destiny, after all.

Participants will learn the cause-and-effect relationship of characters and plots, and how to tinker with both to create more exciting, believable, and emotionally resonant stories. (Or they’ll just crack themselves up with the team plotting exercise.)

This workshop works best with grades 7-8, though I haven’t figured out why, but it’s adaptable to any age.

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“Writing to Build a Mood” 

This workshop teaches participants to write for effect. Choose a mood or genre for your story (e.g., funny/comedy, serious/drama, scary/horror, exciting/adventure), and let that guide your choices in character, setting, plot, and language.

Through exercises on story development, scene creation, and line-by-line revision, participants will learn to lead readers to just the right emotional impact.

This workshop can be adapted to every age and experience level. 

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“From Freewrite to Flash Fiction ” 

There are diamonds in your rough drafts. Starting with a blank page and a prompt, participants will draft a few freewrites, then scour them for a nugget of genius to transform into a short short story. Through exercises to unleash creativity, sharpen sensibility, and just get to work, participants will learn that all you really need to write is a pen and few minutes of focus. 

This workshop is perfect for those afraid to begin or those who think they need a year on a desert island to write their story.  It’s also suited to the impatient, silly, or daring. Pretty much everyone can benefit from this one, and writers who’ll share their work (with me, with all, or with a partner) will get the most from it.

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“Revision” 

Make your writing shine. We tend to think of drafting as “writing” and revision as something else — but it’s through revision that the real craft of writing is learned. This workshop leads participants through story-level, scene-level, and line-level revisions, with exercises to enhance sensibility and evaluation skills, hone scene-crafting techniques, and declutter language to reveal a story’s essence.

This workshop was developed for an SCBWI Canada East Conference in 2018, but I’ve adapted it to younger audiences with the addition of writing exercises and group work. Still, it has a lot of talk to illustrate its points, and it’s best for more experienced or serious writers (high school students, creative writing classes, or adult writing groups) who have already drafted at least one story.

Any of these writing workshops can be modified, combined, or tossed out the window and replaced by something totally new. I’ve led workshops on many other themes, including:

Writing comedy
Crafting a scene
Turning a memory into a story
Getting ideas from your fears
Building the best setting
Journalling for memoir and fiction
Creating a dystopian hero

And I’m always up for something new.

If you want multiple visits to the same classes, I can lead your students through the entire process of writing a short story. This can be done in 3-5 visits per class., with 2-3 drafting workshops (on character and setting; plotting and scene construction; and mood-building and sentence construction), and 1-2 revision workshops (with one-on-one feedback from me and peer review from classmates) and ideally a final day of presentations about being a professional writer.

Please note that a workshop series works best if

(a) there is some time between workshops, from two days to two weeks, to allow the students to develop their ideas and compose their drafts (but we can squish it into a week if you’re willing); and

(b) students are writing the story as part of their class work, with a deadline to hand it in and receive credit for it. (Writing a story is hard work, and some students may tire unless the work is credited by the teacher.)

That said, for teachers with a creative writing or short story unit to build on, a series of writing workshops can be extremely rewarding. Teachers have told me it’s the highlight of the year.

Contact me to inquire about the possibilities.

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Book Launch of Pot-pourri 2019

Dozens of young writers in Ottawa will attend their book launch next week, as the Friends of the Ottawa Public Library Association (FOPLA) launches the latest volume of Pot-pourri.

Pot-pourri 2019 features all the winners and honourable mentions from this year’s Awesome Authors contest — that’s dozens of the best poems, short stories, and comics by creative kids and teens from the Ottawa area, packed into one bilingual book.

(I’ve been one of the judges of the contest, and one of the editors of the anthology, for a few years now. So I know what great work is in there.)

The book launches on Thursday, November 28 at 6:30 pm in the Auditorium of the Main Branch of the Ottawa Public Library at the corner of Metcalfe and Laurier Streets. Come out to celebrate the achievements of all the contributing authors and buy a copy of this year’s anthology. Find out more from the FOPLA website.

If you can’t make it to the launch, purchase a copy online. (And pick up a few copies from previous years at bargain prices.) Support youth writing and public libraries.

If you are a young writer who missed out on last year’s Awesome Authors contest, don’t worry. This is an annual event, and this year’s contest will begin in December. You’ll have two months to enter your best work — and then maybe you’ll be featured in Pot-pourri 2020. I’ll post more details when the contest re-opens next month.