Annie Cardi's Blog, page 83
July 11, 2012
Don’t Be Afraid to Say “It’s Boring”
Writer and my former workshop-mate Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevitch has a suggestion for critique groups–let someone know if their story is boring.
Okay, that might sound harsh. But “boring” is a major reason people outside of your workshop will set aside your story. I’m guilty of not pushing my characters and plot enough, too, and I always appreciate it when my critiquers tell me that things need to move faster or more needs to be at stake. Usually when I revise with that in mind, the story is more engaging and doesn’t put the reader to sleep.
Still, it can be hard to hear that your story isn’t compelling. To protect fellow writers’ feelings, Alexandria offers this idea for workshop notes:
“So how about this: a small circle in the margin of the page, to signal a change in the reader’s attention level at a given point. The circle could be filled in all the way for moments when the reader was rapt, put to half-mast for moments when the story was inching along well enough but the reader was fighting the impulse to check how many pages remained, and left empty for the moment the reader actually did put the story down, not to be picked up again until, say, the night before workshop.”
I really like this idea. A series of circles feels less than a jab than it does a way to track your story’s momentum. Plus, it’s so helpful to see how a reader actually interacts with the story. You may think that readers will be stunned by a particular line of dialogue or scene, but they might not get enough emotional resonance for the scene to have the effect you want.
Make sure to click through for Alexandria’s whole post.
A Tale of Two Gothams
Another reason it’s good to read the classics: you can get inspiration for the last movie in a mega-successful series, like The Dark Knight Rises. Apparently A Tale of Two Cities was a big inspiration for the script in terms of structure and emotion. Christopher Nolan says:
“What Dickens does in that book in terms of having all his characters come together in one unified story with all these thematic elements and all this great emotionalism and drama, it was exactly the tone we were looking for.”
So even though Madame Defarge might not make an appearance, it’s cool to see Hollywood take inspiration from Dickens.
Wear Your Bookish Heart on Your Sleeve
A bracelet made from the spine of Lois Lowry’s A Summer to Die? So cool.
Magic Industrie has lots of other great book spine bracelets, magic wallets, and buttons. A couple of others I dig are the Shakespeare bracelet, the Stars in Their Courses braclet, and the Rider wallet.
Because you can’t have enough book-related accessories, right?
Thanks to Fête for the heads up on this awesome shop!
July 10, 2012
Candlewick Believes in Picture Books
Reason #112 why Candlewick Press is the best:
So glad to see these stories given support. A love of learning starts with picture books.
Learning from Faulkner
Photo by Ralph Thompson of Faulkner in Rouss Hall [Print# 0218]
You can break everyone into a dog person or a cat person, a chocolate person or a vanilla person, or (like I do) a Hemingway person or a Faulkner person. I’m a Faulkner person through and through.July 6 marked 50 years since William Faulkner’s passing.One way to mark the occasion is to check out the University of Virginia’s digital archives of Faulkner’s materials and lectures from his time at the University. During one of his classes, Faulkner was asked about Caddy in The Sound and the Fury:
Frederick Gwynn: Is Candace a common name in Mississippi or—?
William Faulkner: No. No, Caddy seemed a nice name for her, and I had to think of something to justify it.
I kind of love that Faulkner just thought it sounded like the right name. Sometimes that happens–a character just comes to you in a certain way and you’re not quite sure why a particular detail rings true, but it does.
Lots of awesome material in there for all you fellow Faulkner fans.
(quotes and image from Faulkner at Virginia, © 2010 Rector and Visitors of the University of Virginia; Author Stephen Railton)(via UVA Today)
Quote of the Day
“Being a writer does not necessarily mean being published. It’s very nice to be published. It’s what you want. When you have a vision, you want to share it. But being a writer means writing. It means building up a body of work. It means writing every day. You can hardly say that van Gogh was not a painter because he sold one painting during his lifetime, and that to his brother. But do you say that van Gogh wasn’t a painter because he wasn’t “published?” He was a painter because he painted, because he held true to his vision as he saw it. And I think that’s the best example I can give you.”–Madeleine L’Engle
From Madeleine L’Engle Herself: Reflections on a Writing Life; probably the best example of why the writing itself is what matters.
July 9, 2012
Links Galore
Catching up on the webs:
Why cursive is important to the study of archival materials.
The top 100 chapter books, as chosen by you!
I love rereading books.
All the gifs writers could want.
Get ready for this summer’s Nerdfighter Book Club.
So much truth about the first sale expectation vs. reality.
Books about piracy are cool. Book piracy is not cool.
Great post about why you need to read YA to write YA for today’s market.
Classic novels meet the classic personality test.
Jane Austen had style, and so can you if you have a few thousand dollars on hand.
Magical Mugs
My desk and I need the floating mug:
Sadly, it’s not available yet, but you can pledge money via Kickstarter to make the floating mug a real thing and save desks everywhere. Because that hot cup of coffee/tea is vital to the writing process.
(via Core77)
Dog Days of Summer
Frequent readers might have noted a little blog silence last week. Don’t worry, I didn’t melt in the heat; I was just on a bit of summer vacation and lacked pretty much all internet access. (Me: I have two bars! 3Gs! Wait…okay, no Gs. Carry on.) This also meant that my husband needed to deal with me trying to back for summer vacation reading. This was what I narrowed it down to before I tried lifting my bag:
Plus my e-reader. Walt assured me that I’d be okay if I left out a couple of hard copies. I ending up taking the e-reader, Born Wicked by Jessica Spotswood (totally new read), Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin (which I was about 200 pages into), and Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt (a summer classic). I finished all of those, plus Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo, and started The Invisible Bridge by Julie Orringer. Hurray for summer reading! Throw some writing and swimming in there, and it was a pretty successful vacation.
Of course, vacation has to end sometime. So now I’m back and ready to dive into all the internet has to offer in literary goodness.
In exchange for silence on the blog last week, here’s a picture of a dog reading:
Follow the link for even more dogs reading!
(image: the13thcowspot)(via BuzzFeed)
June 29, 2012
Friday Fifteen
Friday couldn’t come any sooner. Onto the fifteen!
Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman
Makes you want to memorize the whole thing and go around shouting lines.
Pedro’s Journal: A Voyage with Christopher Columbus, August 3, 1492-February 14, 1493 by Pam Conrad
The first epistolary novel I remember. Don’t remember much about the plot.
Witch Baby by Francesca Lia Block
Sometimes we all feel like Witch Baby, who doesn’t quite fit with the love magic.
The Duck Variations by David Mamet
An emotional version of Statler and Waldorf, plus ducks.
Mr. Bell’s Fixit Shop by Ronne Randall
Read this all the time when I was little. DIY method of getting over heartbreak.
