Sarah Beth Durst's Blog, page 46
August 6, 2013
The Writer's Toolbox: Character Names
Welcome (again) to the Writer's Toolbox! In this blog series, I'm talking about nitty-gritty writing craft stuff. Today's subject is character names.
Juliet famously stood on her balcony and proclaimed that names are meaningless and a rose would smell as sweet if it were called "skunk cabbage" or "baboon." And then she died because she was totally wrong. Also, unable to use the postal service in an effective way, but that's beside the point. Point is that names are an important tool in the Writer's Toolbox.
Name a character Ebenezer Scrooge or Darth Maul or Elizabeth Bennett or Her Majesty Queen Silverhoof of the Lakeside Unicorn Clan, and you set up certain reader expectations for their personality and their fate. It's then your choice whether to fulfill or subvert those expectations.
So... how to name a character.
I decided when I was ten years old that I wanted to be a writer, and one of the first things I did was read the phone book. (I'll pause for you to tilt your head in befuddlement and contemplate what an odd child I must have been. I'll wait. Done? Good. Let's move on.) I did it to find character names, and I wrote each name down on its own index card and then assigned them magical powers and talking animal friends. And really, that's not a terrible way to find names. In fact I'm going to go with that as resource #1: the phone book.
Resource #2 didn't exist when I was ten years old, and it's the one I use most often when writing stories set in our world (or a variant of): the
Resource #3 is baby name books. There are tons of them out there, and they boast names ranging from common to obscure. Often they list their origin and meaning. Only downside of these is if you have them in the house, your relatives and friends will start wondering about what's coming in nine months.
If you wish to avoid questions about that, a better resource is #4: baby name websites. There are TONS of them out there, nicely searchable, often including name origin and meaning. These let you find names whose meaning matches themes in your story or personality quirks you want your character to have (or not have). (For example, in Drink, Slay, Love, I named my vampire girl Pearl because she's the opposite of that name.)
And last but not least is resource #5: children. If you're looking for exotic names for characters in a fantasy world, ask a little kid to invent some names. They excel at stringing together nonsense syllables that sometimes end up sounding pretty darn good, and they aren't burdened by years of experience in what a name should be.
Next: when to name a character.
Really, whenever you want. Sometimes I choose the name first and then shape the personality to fit. Other times, I have a firm sense of the character's voice and need a name to match it. Usually, it's somewhere in the middle: I have a vague sense of the character but he/she doesn't gel until I have the "right" name. And then there was the one time when I wrote an entire novel and then changed the main character's name several drafts later. (This was Lily in Enchanted Ivy. She was Ivy until nearly the final draft, when I decided that Ivy wasn't exactly subtle for a girl who wants to go to an Ivy League school.)
How do you know when a name is the "right" name?
Um... I really don't know the answer to that. When the name is right it just kind of clicks in your brain, like when a puzzle piece fits neatly into a puzzle. Once you have the name, the rest of the picture should get a little clearer. The name should, hopefully, lead to a clearer vision of the character's voice and/or lead to more revelations about the character. And by the end of writing about a character, it should feel like he or she never had any other name.
Especially not Skunk Cabbage or Baboon.
Know of any other good resources for naming characters? Where do you find your names? Please share!
Juliet famously stood on her balcony and proclaimed that names are meaningless and a rose would smell as sweet if it were called "skunk cabbage" or "baboon." And then she died because she was totally wrong. Also, unable to use the postal service in an effective way, but that's beside the point. Point is that names are an important tool in the Writer's Toolbox.
Name a character Ebenezer Scrooge or Darth Maul or Elizabeth Bennett or Her Majesty Queen Silverhoof of the Lakeside Unicorn Clan, and you set up certain reader expectations for their personality and their fate. It's then your choice whether to fulfill or subvert those expectations.
So... how to name a character.
I decided when I was ten years old that I wanted to be a writer, and one of the first things I did was read the phone book. (I'll pause for you to tilt your head in befuddlement and contemplate what an odd child I must have been. I'll wait. Done? Good. Let's move on.) I did it to find character names, and I wrote each name down on its own index card and then assigned them magical powers and talking animal friends. And really, that's not a terrible way to find names. In fact I'm going to go with that as resource #1: the phone book.
Resource #2 didn't exist when I was ten years old, and it's the one I use most often when writing stories set in our world (or a variant of): the
Resource #3 is baby name books. There are tons of them out there, and they boast names ranging from common to obscure. Often they list their origin and meaning. Only downside of these is if you have them in the house, your relatives and friends will start wondering about what's coming in nine months.
If you wish to avoid questions about that, a better resource is #4: baby name websites. There are TONS of them out there, nicely searchable, often including name origin and meaning. These let you find names whose meaning matches themes in your story or personality quirks you want your character to have (or not have). (For example, in Drink, Slay, Love, I named my vampire girl Pearl because she's the opposite of that name.)
And last but not least is resource #5: children. If you're looking for exotic names for characters in a fantasy world, ask a little kid to invent some names. They excel at stringing together nonsense syllables that sometimes end up sounding pretty darn good, and they aren't burdened by years of experience in what a name should be.
Next: when to name a character.
Really, whenever you want. Sometimes I choose the name first and then shape the personality to fit. Other times, I have a firm sense of the character's voice and need a name to match it. Usually, it's somewhere in the middle: I have a vague sense of the character but he/she doesn't gel until I have the "right" name. And then there was the one time when I wrote an entire novel and then changed the main character's name several drafts later. (This was Lily in Enchanted Ivy. She was Ivy until nearly the final draft, when I decided that Ivy wasn't exactly subtle for a girl who wants to go to an Ivy League school.)
How do you know when a name is the "right" name?
Um... I really don't know the answer to that. When the name is right it just kind of clicks in your brain, like when a puzzle piece fits neatly into a puzzle. Once you have the name, the rest of the picture should get a little clearer. The name should, hopefully, lead to a clearer vision of the character's voice and/or lead to more revelations about the character. And by the end of writing about a character, it should feel like he or she never had any other name.
Especially not Skunk Cabbage or Baboon.
Know of any other good resources for naming characters? Where do you find your names? Please share!
July 22, 2013
CONJURED on NetGalley!
My next YA book, Conjured, is now available for review on NetGalley! If you're a book blogger, librarian, educator, bookseller, reviewer, or publishing professional, you can request the eGalley here.And whether or not you're any of the above, if you'd like a taste of Conjured right now, please feel free to hop over to my website and read the first chapter.
I am so, so, so excited about this book! It's the creepiest one I've ever written, and I had a blast working on it (though I'll never view carnivals the same way again). I can't wait to share it with you!
CONJURED will be coming out on September 3rd from Bloomsbury/Walker.
July 14, 2013
VESSEL Won the Mythopoeic Award!
I have AMAZING news to share!
My book, Vessel, just won the 2013 Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Children's Literature!!!!! Winners from prior years include Kristin Cashore, J.K. Rowling, Michael Chabon, Grace Lin, Franny Billingsley, Diana Wynne Jones, Jane Yolen, and Salman Rushdie. And now -- via what I can only imagine was some sort of clerical error -- me. This, my friends, is crazy-sauce!!! It goes without saying that I'm over-the-moon excited!
I was thrilled just to be nominated for this award alongside such wonderful authors -- Merrie Haskell, Christopher Healy, Sherwood Smith, Jorge Aguirre and Rafael Rosado -- and am so grateful to the award committee for this honor.
And to top it all off, the award itself is a gorgeous statuette of Aslan (the lion from C.S. Lewis's The Chronicles of Narnia). So. Ridiculously. Awesome. I've already picked out a place of honor for him on my writing desk.
The one pictured above is Neil Gaiman and Charles Vess's. Mine should be arriving in the mail sometime soon. I plan to stalk the mailman daily.....
The Mythopoeic Society announced the winners of this year's awards (there's an adult literature award and two scholarship awards in addition to the children's literature award) during an awards banquet on Sunday at Mythcon, held this year at Michigan State University.
Click here to read the press release.
Though I wasn't able to attend the awards banquet in person, I was given the opportunity to send in some acceptance remarks ahead of time. Here's what I said:
Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Children's Literature
Acceptance Speech
Sarah Beth Durst
When I was little, I never thought there were monsters in my closet. The monsters were all under the bed, along with the venomous snakes. The closet was for Narnia. I used to check it every single night, pushing aside all the clothes, digging through the shoes and stuffed animals, looking for a way to the woods with the lone lamppost. Winning this award makes me feel like I found the way into Narnia. I am so honored and so delighted, and I know my ten-year-old self would be too.
I’ve wanted to be a writer since I was that ten-year-old girl. I believed—and still believe—that being a writer is the closest you can get in this world to being a wizard. You’re trying to cast a spell that lets you touch the minds and hearts of people you’ll never meet. You’re trying to transport people out of their lives and take them on a journey and then bring them safely back, maybe a little changed.
I love the journeys that you find in fantasy books. I love the way that fantasy is (or can be) a literature of hope and empowerment. When I close a fantasy book, I feel as though the world is a little more magical, a little more wonderful, and a little larger than it was before.
I write fantasy because, quite simply, it is what I love to read. After I received the news that VESSEL had been nominated for this award, I looked at the full list of nominees and winners of the Mythopoeic Award since its inception. It’s a list of every author that I’ve ever loved. I started crying when I realized my name would be on that list of wizards.
So I want to say thank you from the bottom of my heart to the Mythopoeic Society, to my fabulous agent Andrea Somberg who has believed in me from the beginning, to my wonderful editor Karen Wojtyla at McElderry and all the other fantastic people at Simon & Schuster who helped bring VESSEL into the world. And especially thanks to my family, my children who are my world, and my amazing husband Adam who made my dream his dream and who shares every step of every journey with me.
I wish I could go back in time and tell my ten-year-old self, "Keep looking in that closet for Narnia because, someday, you’ll find your Aslan. Or, more accurately, in the case of this beautiful award… he’ll find you."
Thank you so very, very much!
My book, Vessel, just won the 2013 Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Children's Literature!!!!! Winners from prior years include Kristin Cashore, J.K. Rowling, Michael Chabon, Grace Lin, Franny Billingsley, Diana Wynne Jones, Jane Yolen, and Salman Rushdie. And now -- via what I can only imagine was some sort of clerical error -- me. This, my friends, is crazy-sauce!!! It goes without saying that I'm over-the-moon excited!
I was thrilled just to be nominated for this award alongside such wonderful authors -- Merrie Haskell, Christopher Healy, Sherwood Smith, Jorge Aguirre and Rafael Rosado -- and am so grateful to the award committee for this honor.
And to top it all off, the award itself is a gorgeous statuette of Aslan (the lion from C.S. Lewis's The Chronicles of Narnia). So. Ridiculously. Awesome. I've already picked out a place of honor for him on my writing desk.
The one pictured above is Neil Gaiman and Charles Vess's. Mine should be arriving in the mail sometime soon. I plan to stalk the mailman daily.....
The Mythopoeic Society announced the winners of this year's awards (there's an adult literature award and two scholarship awards in addition to the children's literature award) during an awards banquet on Sunday at Mythcon, held this year at Michigan State University.
Click here to read the press release.
Though I wasn't able to attend the awards banquet in person, I was given the opportunity to send in some acceptance remarks ahead of time. Here's what I said:
Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Children's Literature
Acceptance Speech
Sarah Beth Durst
When I was little, I never thought there were monsters in my closet. The monsters were all under the bed, along with the venomous snakes. The closet was for Narnia. I used to check it every single night, pushing aside all the clothes, digging through the shoes and stuffed animals, looking for a way to the woods with the lone lamppost. Winning this award makes me feel like I found the way into Narnia. I am so honored and so delighted, and I know my ten-year-old self would be too.
I’ve wanted to be a writer since I was that ten-year-old girl. I believed—and still believe—that being a writer is the closest you can get in this world to being a wizard. You’re trying to cast a spell that lets you touch the minds and hearts of people you’ll never meet. You’re trying to transport people out of their lives and take them on a journey and then bring them safely back, maybe a little changed.
I love the journeys that you find in fantasy books. I love the way that fantasy is (or can be) a literature of hope and empowerment. When I close a fantasy book, I feel as though the world is a little more magical, a little more wonderful, and a little larger than it was before.
I write fantasy because, quite simply, it is what I love to read. After I received the news that VESSEL had been nominated for this award, I looked at the full list of nominees and winners of the Mythopoeic Award since its inception. It’s a list of every author that I’ve ever loved. I started crying when I realized my name would be on that list of wizards.
So I want to say thank you from the bottom of my heart to the Mythopoeic Society, to my fabulous agent Andrea Somberg who has believed in me from the beginning, to my wonderful editor Karen Wojtyla at McElderry and all the other fantastic people at Simon & Schuster who helped bring VESSEL into the world. And especially thanks to my family, my children who are my world, and my amazing husband Adam who made my dream his dream and who shares every step of every journey with me.
I wish I could go back in time and tell my ten-year-old self, "Keep looking in that closet for Narnia because, someday, you’ll find your Aslan. Or, more accurately, in the case of this beautiful award… he’ll find you."
Thank you so very, very much!
July 8, 2013
Excerpt from CONJURED
57 days until Conjured comes out!!!In honor of that completely random number of days -- and also because I am ridiculously excited about this book -- I've posted the first chapter on my website. Hope you enjoy this sneak peak at Conjured!
Here's how it begins:
"Your name is Eve. Remember that."
She was supposed to call him Malcolm. Pressing her forehead against the cool glass of the car window, she stared at the house. Yellow and narrow, it loomed over the lawn. She traced the outline of the house on the window: a peaked roof, two windows with shades drawn, a front door dead center. "It's a face," she said.
The man and woman in the front seats checked their phones and then their guns. "You can't give her kiwis," the woman said to the man. Malcolm. And she was Aunt Nicki. "She'll think they're mice."
"Kiwis are nutritious," Malcolm said. Twisting in his seat, he leveled a finger at Eve. "I walk first, you second, Nicki last. Understood?" He didn't wait for her response, and she didn't give him one. He stepped out of the car and stretched.
"Start her on apples," Aunt Nicki said, opening her door and stepping out into the street. "Or bananas. Oranges."
"You could have shopped," Malcolm said. "Besides, it is impossible to eat an orange without it spitting at you. It's a hostile fruit."
"Oranges are classic. For centuries, soccer moms have been carting orange wedges to refuel their charming tykes on the field of battle."
Outside, they shut their doors. Eve let the blissful silence wrap around her for three seconds until Malcolm yanked open her car door. "You push the red button to release the strap." His voice was kind and soft, as if he expected her to cower or bolt. He pointed next to her, and she located the red button. It clicked, and the seat belt snapped out of her hands and flattened onto the seat behind her. "It's going to be okay," he said, and she was certain he wasn't talking about the seat belt. Not wanting to see pity in his eyes, she stared at the seat belt contraption for a second before she climbed out of the car and followed Malcolm toward the house.
Click here to read the rest of the first chapter.
June 24, 2013
Junior Library Guild Selection and Kirkus Review
Got some really lovely news today:
Conjured is a Junior Library Guild selection!!!
Junior Library Guild (JLG) is a collection development service for libraries. Their mission is to read through the thousands of books published each year and select books that they believe will best enhance library collections. This service is used by libraries all across the country, which means that Conjured will find its way onto lots of library shelves! This makes me a very, very happy Sarah. I feel so honored and so thrilled that Conjured was selected!
And in other really lovely news:
The first trade review of Conjured is out, and it's a great review!! It appears in the July 1st issue of Kirkus. The full review is on their site, but here's a snippet:
"Durst excels at describing grotesque violence and gorgeous magical transformations alike, painting a touching portrait of first love against a backdrop of Twilight Zone–type terrors." -- Kirkus
*shoots off confetti fireworks and does Snoopy Dance of Joy*
Thank you so much, JLG and Kirkus!!!
Conjured is a Junior Library Guild selection!!!
Junior Library Guild (JLG) is a collection development service for libraries. Their mission is to read through the thousands of books published each year and select books that they believe will best enhance library collections. This service is used by libraries all across the country, which means that Conjured will find its way onto lots of library shelves! This makes me a very, very happy Sarah. I feel so honored and so thrilled that Conjured was selected!
And in other really lovely news:
The first trade review of Conjured is out, and it's a great review!! It appears in the July 1st issue of Kirkus. The full review is on their site, but here's a snippet:
"Durst excels at describing grotesque violence and gorgeous magical transformations alike, painting a touching portrait of first love against a backdrop of Twilight Zone–type terrors." -- Kirkus
*shoots off confetti fireworks and does Snoopy Dance of Joy*
Thank you so much, JLG and Kirkus!!!
June 17, 2013
Stuff I've Learned: Just Finish It
Here's the second most important thing I've learned about writing (next to making bite-size goals): finish the story.
I started writing when I was ten years old, and I wrote tons and tons of story beginnings. I'd create lovely folders for each of them, using my beloved Lisa Frank unicorn folders for my favorites. Every year, I'd put "write a novel" on my New Year's Resolution list, and I'd plan out daily, weekly, and monthly goals to meet that resolution... and then ten pages into whatever story, I'd be disillusioned with it and skip off after another shiny idea. This continued pretty much until I graduated from college.
After college, I moved to England with my then-boyfriend, now-husband. I'd planned to stay for a year and work at a bookstore or library or something involving words... but I kind of forgot to check about whether that was legal or not. So when I discovered that my student work permit would expire after six months, I decided that THIS was when I would write my first novel.
I told myself that it didn't matter if it was horrible or not, all I had to do in that year was finish it. And so I dove in and wrote every day, even before my work permit expired. The story was based off one of those abandoned beginnings from one of my Lisa Frank folders, and it had talking wolves and other worlds and girls with swords and everything I ever wanted to throw into a book.
And I did it. Before we left England, I had a full manuscript, complete with a beginning, middle, and end. When I came back to the US, I started submitting it to various publishers and agents. It piled up some lovely rejections, and then it took up residence in my closet. In the meantime, I'd run across a beautiful picture book illustrated by P.J. Lynch called "East O' the Sun, West O' the Moon," and I started work on what would eventually become my third published novel, Ice.
But here's the amazing thing that happened after I finished that first novel that lives in my closet: it got easier.
Finishing that novel taught me that I could do it. And once both my conscious and subconscious mind knew that, everything changed in a profound way that I hadn't anticipated. It removed this massive psychological wall that I hadn't even fully realized was there, and I became a writer.
So that's my hard-won advice for this Stuff I've Learned post: just finish it. Finish the story. Finish the novel. Finish the play. Finish the script. It doesn't matter if it's good or not or if it sits in a closet forever. The key is to finish it... and then you can write the next one and the next one and the one after that.
JUST FINISH IT. After that, anything's possible.
I started writing when I was ten years old, and I wrote tons and tons of story beginnings. I'd create lovely folders for each of them, using my beloved Lisa Frank unicorn folders for my favorites. Every year, I'd put "write a novel" on my New Year's Resolution list, and I'd plan out daily, weekly, and monthly goals to meet that resolution... and then ten pages into whatever story, I'd be disillusioned with it and skip off after another shiny idea. This continued pretty much until I graduated from college.
After college, I moved to England with my then-boyfriend, now-husband. I'd planned to stay for a year and work at a bookstore or library or something involving words... but I kind of forgot to check about whether that was legal or not. So when I discovered that my student work permit would expire after six months, I decided that THIS was when I would write my first novel.
I told myself that it didn't matter if it was horrible or not, all I had to do in that year was finish it. And so I dove in and wrote every day, even before my work permit expired. The story was based off one of those abandoned beginnings from one of my Lisa Frank folders, and it had talking wolves and other worlds and girls with swords and everything I ever wanted to throw into a book.
And I did it. Before we left England, I had a full manuscript, complete with a beginning, middle, and end. When I came back to the US, I started submitting it to various publishers and agents. It piled up some lovely rejections, and then it took up residence in my closet. In the meantime, I'd run across a beautiful picture book illustrated by P.J. Lynch called "East O' the Sun, West O' the Moon," and I started work on what would eventually become my third published novel, Ice.
But here's the amazing thing that happened after I finished that first novel that lives in my closet: it got easier.
Finishing that novel taught me that I could do it. And once both my conscious and subconscious mind knew that, everything changed in a profound way that I hadn't anticipated. It removed this massive psychological wall that I hadn't even fully realized was there, and I became a writer.
So that's my hard-won advice for this Stuff I've Learned post: just finish it. Finish the story. Finish the novel. Finish the play. Finish the script. It doesn't matter if it's good or not or if it sits in a closet forever. The key is to finish it... and then you can write the next one and the next one and the one after that.
JUST FINISH IT. After that, anything's possible.
June 9, 2013
Countdown Widgets for CONJURED and THE LOST
The other day, it suddenly dawned on me that... Whoa! It's now less than three months until Conjured comes out! And for that matter, less than five months until The Lost comes out!
Yes, I've known the pub dates forever. But somehow, the reality of how those dates are actually approaching, and how these novels are going to become real books when those dates arrive, just reached my brain last week.
After a brief flash of terror -- SO MUCH WORK TO DO BEFORE PUB DATE!!!! -- my brain accepted reality and got quite giddy! And since I know I'll now be counting the days until each of these pub dates, I figured I'd formalize the process and post some countdown widgets here. So, without further ado, here they are.....
For Conjured, my next YA, which comes out September 3rd:
Get the Countdown Creator Pro widget and many other great free widgets at Widgetbox! Not seeing a widget? (More info)
And for The Lost, my first book for adults, which comes out October 29th:
Get the Countdown Creator Pro widget and many other great free widgets at Widgetbox! Not seeing a widget? (More info)
If you'd like to join in my countdown, please feel free to grab either or both of these for your site/blog/etc by clicking the "Get Widget" buttons.
Tick. Tick. Tick. AAAAAAAH! SO MUCH WORK TO DO!
Yes, I've known the pub dates forever. But somehow, the reality of how those dates are actually approaching, and how these novels are going to become real books when those dates arrive, just reached my brain last week.
After a brief flash of terror -- SO MUCH WORK TO DO BEFORE PUB DATE!!!! -- my brain accepted reality and got quite giddy! And since I know I'll now be counting the days until each of these pub dates, I figured I'd formalize the process and post some countdown widgets here. So, without further ado, here they are.....
For Conjured, my next YA, which comes out September 3rd:
Get the Countdown Creator Pro widget and many other great free widgets at Widgetbox! Not seeing a widget? (More info)
And for The Lost, my first book for adults, which comes out October 29th:
Get the Countdown Creator Pro widget and many other great free widgets at Widgetbox! Not seeing a widget? (More info)
If you'd like to join in my countdown, please feel free to grab either or both of these for your site/blog/etc by clicking the "Get Widget" buttons.
Tick. Tick. Tick. AAAAAAAH! SO MUCH WORK TO DO!
June 2, 2013
BEA 2013
Just got back from BookExpo America (BEA), an annual publishing industry convention. Five days filled with tons of wonderful people who love books! It was fantastic!
My BEA started on Tuesday when I arrived at a pre-BEA party at Books of Wonder (one of my favorite bookstores in the world), and it ended on Saturday after I was on a BEA panel about SF/fantasy with Laura Anne Gilman, Leanna Renee Hieber, and Jeri Smith-Ready that was more fun than riding a sparkly unicorn across a meadow of cheering leprechauns. And you know those leprechauns can cheer.
You can watch the entire panel here. I start talking at just shy of 4 minutes in.
Other highlights included the Children's Art Auction on Wednesday, my signing on Friday (So much fun! Thank you, everyone!), and the elegant and awesome Harlequin party on a rooftop bar with a gorgeous view of the Chrysler Building. Wish I'd taken photos. Just picture Manhattan at its prettiest.
All in all, it was a great week, and I'm already looking forward to next year!
My BEA started on Tuesday when I arrived at a pre-BEA party at Books of Wonder (one of my favorite bookstores in the world), and it ended on Saturday after I was on a BEA panel about SF/fantasy with Laura Anne Gilman, Leanna Renee Hieber, and Jeri Smith-Ready that was more fun than riding a sparkly unicorn across a meadow of cheering leprechauns. And you know those leprechauns can cheer.
You can watch the entire panel here. I start talking at just shy of 4 minutes in.
Other highlights included the Children's Art Auction on Wednesday, my signing on Friday (So much fun! Thank you, everyone!), and the elegant and awesome Harlequin party on a rooftop bar with a gorgeous view of the Chrysler Building. Wish I'd taken photos. Just picture Manhattan at its prettiest.
All in all, it was a great week, and I'm already looking forward to next year!
May 27, 2013
The Writer's Toolbox: First Lines
Hi! I'd like to introduce a new blog series today: the Writer's Toolbox. In these posts, I want to talk about (and hear your thoughts on) nitty-gritty writing stuff, the tools and techniques of the craft of writing.
So let's dive right in... First topic: first lines!
Everyone knows the opening line of a story or novel is important. Every writer agonizes over it. Some can't even start until they have it.
Okay, yes. *raises hand* That's me. I have to be in love with my first line before I can write the rest of the book. Sometimes it comes to me quickly; sometimes I have to write a bajillion openings until I find one that feels right. But I need to have that sentence (or two or three) before I can proceed.
There are lots of great first lines out there. And there are lots of different kinds of great first lines. For me personally, the ones that work best do one of four things:
1. Establish what's normal
"Dorothy lived in the midst of the great Kansas prairies, with Uncle Henry, who was a farmer, and Aunt Em, who was the farmer's wife." -- L. Frank Baum, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
In this one sentence, we know instantly where we are and what kind of people we're with. This is both an important and appropriate opening for this novel: We have to know what's normal for Dorothy, i.e. what her sepia-toned world is, so that we can appreciate the contrast when we're swept away into technicolor.
"Lyra and her daemon moved through the darkening hall, taking care to keep to one side, out of sight of the kitchen." -- Philip Pullman, The Golden Compass
We may not know what a "daemon" is, but we know instantly that Lyra knows. The simple word "her" does all the work here. She's with "her daemon." This establishes right away that what's normal for Lyra isn't normal for us.
2. Set up expectations
"Look, I didn't want to be a half-blood. If you're reading this because you think you might be one, my advice is: close this book right now. Believe whatever lie your mom or dad told you about your birth, and try to lead a normal life." -- Rick Riordan, The Lightning Thief
Setting up the right expectations is crucial. You can write the best mystery in the world, but if a reader thinks you're going to deliver a romance, then odds are he or she will be disappointed. This opening sets us up to expect a dangerous, out-of-the-ordinary adventure. And that's exactly what we get.
"Human girls cry when they're sad and laugh when they're happy. They have a single fixed shape rather than shifting with their whims like wind-blown smoke. They have their very own parents, whom they love. They don't go around stealing other girls' mothers. At least that's what Kaye thought human girls were like. She wouldn't really know. After all, she wasn't human." -- Holly Black, Ironside
With this opening, we expect magic in the real world. We expect to see it (and us) through the eyes of a nonhuman. Also, we expect some parent issues.
3. Start the action
"Alanna the Lioness, the King's Champion, could hardly contain her glee. Baron Piers of Mindelan had written to King Jonathan to say that his daughter wished to be a page." -- Tamora Pierce, First Test (Protector of the Small)
This is a somewhat unusual opening because it isn't from the protagonist's point-of-view. It's from the pov of the protagonist of Pierce's earlier series, essentially handing the story baton to the new lady-knight-to-be. But I think it works as an opening because in the space of two sentences, you know the entire core conflict for the next four books: a girl wants to be trained openly as a knight.
"Gordon Edgley's sudden death came as a shock to everyone -- not least himself." -- Derek Landy, Skullduggery Pleasant
Every story has a catalyst -- the event that rocks the status quo and propels the protagonist into the adventure. Some books establish normal first and shortly after turn it upside down. Others, like this novel, begin right away with the catalyst. The death in this first sentence is what leads to all the events in the rest of the book.
"On the day she was to die, Liyana walked out of her family's tent to see the dawn." -- Sarah Beth Durst, Vessel
This novel also begins with the day that changes everything, the day that the protagonist has been anticipating for years, the biggest moment in her life. I believe a novel really should be about the most meaningful thing to happen to a character -- otherwise, there's no reason to tell the story. With this sort of opening, we're diving directly in.
4. Set the tone
"There is a certain kind of girl the goblins crave. You could walk across a high school campus and point them out: not her, not her, her. The pert, lovely ones with butterfly tattoos in secret places, sitting on their boyfriends' laps? Yes. Them. The goblins want girls who dream so hard about being pretty their yearning leaves a palpable trail, a scent goblins can follow like sharks on a soft bloom of blood. The girls with hungry eyes who pray each night to wake up as someone else. Urgent, unkissed, wishful girls. Like Kizzy." -- Laini Taylor, Lips Touch Three Times
This beginning does establish a character, but more than that, it sets a tone. We expect this story to be poetic, like the Goblin Market poem it's based on.
"If Sarah hadn't put the monkey in the bathtub, we might never have had to help the monsters get big. But she did, so we did, which, given the way things worked out, was probably just as well for everyone on the planet -- especially the dead people." -- Bruce Coville, The Monsters of Morley Manor
This one sets the tone for a madcap adventure. It works for me because it both makes me smile and makes me ask why. I think it's my favorite opening line of all-time.
What are some of your favorite opening lines?
So let's dive right in... First topic: first lines!
Everyone knows the opening line of a story or novel is important. Every writer agonizes over it. Some can't even start until they have it.
Okay, yes. *raises hand* That's me. I have to be in love with my first line before I can write the rest of the book. Sometimes it comes to me quickly; sometimes I have to write a bajillion openings until I find one that feels right. But I need to have that sentence (or two or three) before I can proceed.
There are lots of great first lines out there. And there are lots of different kinds of great first lines. For me personally, the ones that work best do one of four things:
1. Establish what's normal
"Dorothy lived in the midst of the great Kansas prairies, with Uncle Henry, who was a farmer, and Aunt Em, who was the farmer's wife." -- L. Frank Baum, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
In this one sentence, we know instantly where we are and what kind of people we're with. This is both an important and appropriate opening for this novel: We have to know what's normal for Dorothy, i.e. what her sepia-toned world is, so that we can appreciate the contrast when we're swept away into technicolor.
"Lyra and her daemon moved through the darkening hall, taking care to keep to one side, out of sight of the kitchen." -- Philip Pullman, The Golden Compass
We may not know what a "daemon" is, but we know instantly that Lyra knows. The simple word "her" does all the work here. She's with "her daemon." This establishes right away that what's normal for Lyra isn't normal for us.
2. Set up expectations
"Look, I didn't want to be a half-blood. If you're reading this because you think you might be one, my advice is: close this book right now. Believe whatever lie your mom or dad told you about your birth, and try to lead a normal life." -- Rick Riordan, The Lightning Thief
Setting up the right expectations is crucial. You can write the best mystery in the world, but if a reader thinks you're going to deliver a romance, then odds are he or she will be disappointed. This opening sets us up to expect a dangerous, out-of-the-ordinary adventure. And that's exactly what we get.
"Human girls cry when they're sad and laugh when they're happy. They have a single fixed shape rather than shifting with their whims like wind-blown smoke. They have their very own parents, whom they love. They don't go around stealing other girls' mothers. At least that's what Kaye thought human girls were like. She wouldn't really know. After all, she wasn't human." -- Holly Black, Ironside
With this opening, we expect magic in the real world. We expect to see it (and us) through the eyes of a nonhuman. Also, we expect some parent issues.
3. Start the action
"Alanna the Lioness, the King's Champion, could hardly contain her glee. Baron Piers of Mindelan had written to King Jonathan to say that his daughter wished to be a page." -- Tamora Pierce, First Test (Protector of the Small)
This is a somewhat unusual opening because it isn't from the protagonist's point-of-view. It's from the pov of the protagonist of Pierce's earlier series, essentially handing the story baton to the new lady-knight-to-be. But I think it works as an opening because in the space of two sentences, you know the entire core conflict for the next four books: a girl wants to be trained openly as a knight.
"Gordon Edgley's sudden death came as a shock to everyone -- not least himself." -- Derek Landy, Skullduggery Pleasant
Every story has a catalyst -- the event that rocks the status quo and propels the protagonist into the adventure. Some books establish normal first and shortly after turn it upside down. Others, like this novel, begin right away with the catalyst. The death in this first sentence is what leads to all the events in the rest of the book.
"On the day she was to die, Liyana walked out of her family's tent to see the dawn." -- Sarah Beth Durst, Vessel
This novel also begins with the day that changes everything, the day that the protagonist has been anticipating for years, the biggest moment in her life. I believe a novel really should be about the most meaningful thing to happen to a character -- otherwise, there's no reason to tell the story. With this sort of opening, we're diving directly in.
4. Set the tone
"There is a certain kind of girl the goblins crave. You could walk across a high school campus and point them out: not her, not her, her. The pert, lovely ones with butterfly tattoos in secret places, sitting on their boyfriends' laps? Yes. Them. The goblins want girls who dream so hard about being pretty their yearning leaves a palpable trail, a scent goblins can follow like sharks on a soft bloom of blood. The girls with hungry eyes who pray each night to wake up as someone else. Urgent, unkissed, wishful girls. Like Kizzy." -- Laini Taylor, Lips Touch Three Times
This beginning does establish a character, but more than that, it sets a tone. We expect this story to be poetic, like the Goblin Market poem it's based on.
"If Sarah hadn't put the monkey in the bathtub, we might never have had to help the monsters get big. But she did, so we did, which, given the way things worked out, was probably just as well for everyone on the planet -- especially the dead people." -- Bruce Coville, The Monsters of Morley Manor
This one sets the tone for a madcap adventure. It works for me because it both makes me smile and makes me ask why. I think it's my favorite opening line of all-time.
What are some of your favorite opening lines?
May 20, 2013
Nebula Awards Weekend 2013
This weekend, I flew to San Jose, California, for Nebula Awards Weekend. Vessel was a finalist for the Andre Norton Award, and I was not missing out on the free unicorns. (As everyone knows, all award nominees automatically receive three free unicorns. If you show up, you are given the ones that are housebroken. If you don't, they ship you the leftover unicorns, and believe me, the bill for cleaning rainbows out of carpets is HUGE.)
Seriously though, I was -- and am -- so thrilled and honored that Vessel was nominated, and I was delighted to be able to attend.
I arrived late on Thursday night and woke up on Friday bright, chipper, and ready to say hello, hello, hello to people... at 4am. (Or at least that's the time the crazy west-coast clock said it was. My east-coast body begged to differ...) I tried again at 6am. And then at 7am. And then 8am... at which point my paranoid side started to whisper maybe I was in the wrong hotel or the wrong state or had the wrong weekend, but then I spotted some people that I knew and all was well with the world, at least until I trotted off in search of registration and walked straight into a dental hygiene seminar. Sadly, they did not have any unicorns.
Anyway, I found my badge eventually, and then I viewed a mummified fish, joined a posse, got pinned, got photographed, got dressed up, and ate a salad while waving at my husband on the other side of the country. In that order.
I didn't see much of San Jose on this trip, but here is the view from my hotel room:
My one big trip out of the hotel was to tour the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum. I went with a dozen other attendees in a stretch limo that boasted broken window controls, dusty glass decanters, and a dubious odor. We were fairly certain we were all going to die. Or be taken back in time to a 1980s prom. But we arrived safely at the Egyptian museum...
... where we saw a mummified fish...
... and toured a reproduction of a tomb, which was pretty much one of the coolest things I've ever seen in a museum. Once we were allowed off on our own, I promptly went back in and spent many lovely moments imagining it was real and that I was an ancient Egyptian.
Okay, that's not really true. I totally imagined I was the goddess Isis. She so rocks. Did you know she was one of the first kickass heroines? She quested through Egypt with her pack of awesome giant scorpions in search of the pieces of her slain husband's body. But I digress.
After the fish and the tomb came the posse.
The Friday night of Nebula Awards Weekend has always been my favorite part. It starts with a mass autographing at the hotel and concludes with the Nominee Reception. Not to be missed. This year, the Norton nominees who were there on Friday (Leah Bobet, Alethea Kontis, Eugene Myers, and me) claimed a table and formed the Norton posse. (Jenn Reese joined us on Saturday.) In all seriousness, they were a large part of what made the weekend great, and I adore them.
After a break for dinner with additional fabulous people, I went to the Nominee Reception, which was held in a room lit by green lights and decorated with glowing white roses. It also had exit signs near the floor, which Eugene claimed were there to guide crawling people in case of a fire, but I was convinced were there to guide the rescue hedgehogs in case of any emergency. For the record, Alethea agreed with me.
During the reception, the nominees were all awarded certificates and "Nebula Nominee" pins. Here's my snazzy certificate:
And we were taken into a non-green room for professional photographs of the entire group. The photographers told us to come back later if we wanted additional shots. I don't think they actually expected anyone to take them up on that, but the Norton posse is all about defying expectations. We returned and much fun was had taking all sorts of pictures.
We then returned to the reception for more discussion of hedgehogs, and I performed a maneuver not unlike Cinderella taking the unbroken glass slipper from her pocket and pulled my other two Norton nominee pins (from when Into the Wild and Ice were nominated) out of my purse and put all three on my badge. They make me very happy, and when else do I ever get the chance to wear them?
On Saturday, I again woke early (though thankfully not as insanely early as on Friday), and I did some writing. Appropriately, the artwork in the hotel room featured old typewriters. Here's my desk in the hotel room:
Saturday officially started with a SFWA Business Meeting, which I enjoyed. (I mean that seriously. The first thing I did after signing my first book contract was mail in my membership application to SFWA, and I enjoy being a member and doing memberly things.) Plus this meeting had lots of food.
I had my second interview of the weekend after that, a joint one with Leah Bobet (conducted by Carrie of the fabulous blogs Smart Bitches Read Trashy Books and Geek Girl in Love). The first interview was for the SFWA website, and I believe it will be posted soon as a podcast. Both interviews were really fun.
In the afternoon, Leah Bobet, Steven Gould, Eugene Myers, and I did a panel called "Writing for YA," which began with Steven demonstrating his skill with falling and rolling and included my oversharing the fact that as a child, I didn't realize that Bambi's mother died. I thought his parents had simply divorced and it was time for him to go live with his dad for a while.
And then at night... the banquet!
Time for my dress! I’d actually starting regretting the fact that I’d gone with a cocktail dress rather than a ball gown or a floor-length evening gown for the banquet. Alethea even kindly offered me a tiara to make me feel better -- thank you, Alethea! -- but I decided to stick with my own jewelry and once I put on my dress, I remembered why I'd picked it. It makes my eyes look totally Fremen blue.
I don't have any photos of the reception or the banquet itself, but there were many glorious dresses and tuxes and sparkles and sequins. Even Barry, Lawrence Schoen's little pet buffalo, was dressed up all dapper. I was seated at a great table filled with fabulous people, one of whom (thank you, Dawn!) was kind enough to discover for me that there was a live stream of the event. I promptly texted my husband back home, and he promptly found it and proceeded to watch all of us eat food for the next hour and a half.
I love that SFWA did the live stream. It made me feel like my husband was right there with me, and that made the whole evening extra special. Like the true professional I am, I of course waved and blew kisses at him via the video camera at every opportunity.
When they announce the awards, it really feels like the Oscars. They project the names of the nominees on a big screen and read the names, and it's all really exhilarating. Steven Gould introduced the Andre Norton Award, and it was a lovely intro. He read the opening lines of a dozen classic MG/YA novels, and those sentences alone said everything. They encapsulate why YA and all of children's literature is important: because it touches that bit of you that is eternally young and full of wonder. I think he's planning to post it online soon, and I dare you to read that list and not be filled with memories.
In the end, I didn't win. The winner of this year's Andre Norton Award was Eugene Myers for Fair Coin from Pyr. But I am really, really thrilled for Eugene! He's a great guy, and it's a great book. (I blurbed it, in fact.) Yay, Eugene!
And I'd like to say congratulations to all the winners:
Kim Stanley Robinson (Nebula for Best Novel)
Nancy Kress (Nebula for Best Novella)
Andy Duncan (Nebula for Best Novellette)
Aliette de Bodard (Nebula for Best Short Story)
Benh Zeitlin and Lucy Abilar (Ray Bradbury Award)
E.C. Myers (Andre Norton Award)
Gene Wolfe (Grand Master Award)
Ginjer Buchanan (Solistice Award)
Carl Sagan (Solistice Award)
Michael H. Payne (Service to SFWA Award)
*cheers, applauds, and does Snoopy Dance*
It was really so much fun to be a part of this event. I had such a big smile on my face through the whole thing that after the ceremony, Robert Silverberg (the MC) said to me, "You should win a Nebula for your smile. It lights up the room," which only served to make me smile all the more.
Thank you to SFWA and to all the organizers and volunteers who made the Nebula Weekend possible. I had a fantastic time! And I love my three unicorns.
Seriously though, I was -- and am -- so thrilled and honored that Vessel was nominated, and I was delighted to be able to attend.
I arrived late on Thursday night and woke up on Friday bright, chipper, and ready to say hello, hello, hello to people... at 4am. (Or at least that's the time the crazy west-coast clock said it was. My east-coast body begged to differ...) I tried again at 6am. And then at 7am. And then 8am... at which point my paranoid side started to whisper maybe I was in the wrong hotel or the wrong state or had the wrong weekend, but then I spotted some people that I knew and all was well with the world, at least until I trotted off in search of registration and walked straight into a dental hygiene seminar. Sadly, they did not have any unicorns.
Anyway, I found my badge eventually, and then I viewed a mummified fish, joined a posse, got pinned, got photographed, got dressed up, and ate a salad while waving at my husband on the other side of the country. In that order.
I didn't see much of San Jose on this trip, but here is the view from my hotel room:
My one big trip out of the hotel was to tour the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum. I went with a dozen other attendees in a stretch limo that boasted broken window controls, dusty glass decanters, and a dubious odor. We were fairly certain we were all going to die. Or be taken back in time to a 1980s prom. But we arrived safely at the Egyptian museum...
... where we saw a mummified fish...
... and toured a reproduction of a tomb, which was pretty much one of the coolest things I've ever seen in a museum. Once we were allowed off on our own, I promptly went back in and spent many lovely moments imagining it was real and that I was an ancient Egyptian.
Okay, that's not really true. I totally imagined I was the goddess Isis. She so rocks. Did you know she was one of the first kickass heroines? She quested through Egypt with her pack of awesome giant scorpions in search of the pieces of her slain husband's body. But I digress.
After the fish and the tomb came the posse.
The Friday night of Nebula Awards Weekend has always been my favorite part. It starts with a mass autographing at the hotel and concludes with the Nominee Reception. Not to be missed. This year, the Norton nominees who were there on Friday (Leah Bobet, Alethea Kontis, Eugene Myers, and me) claimed a table and formed the Norton posse. (Jenn Reese joined us on Saturday.) In all seriousness, they were a large part of what made the weekend great, and I adore them.
After a break for dinner with additional fabulous people, I went to the Nominee Reception, which was held in a room lit by green lights and decorated with glowing white roses. It also had exit signs near the floor, which Eugene claimed were there to guide crawling people in case of a fire, but I was convinced were there to guide the rescue hedgehogs in case of any emergency. For the record, Alethea agreed with me.
During the reception, the nominees were all awarded certificates and "Nebula Nominee" pins. Here's my snazzy certificate:
And we were taken into a non-green room for professional photographs of the entire group. The photographers told us to come back later if we wanted additional shots. I don't think they actually expected anyone to take them up on that, but the Norton posse is all about defying expectations. We returned and much fun was had taking all sorts of pictures.
We then returned to the reception for more discussion of hedgehogs, and I performed a maneuver not unlike Cinderella taking the unbroken glass slipper from her pocket and pulled my other two Norton nominee pins (from when Into the Wild and Ice were nominated) out of my purse and put all three on my badge. They make me very happy, and when else do I ever get the chance to wear them?
On Saturday, I again woke early (though thankfully not as insanely early as on Friday), and I did some writing. Appropriately, the artwork in the hotel room featured old typewriters. Here's my desk in the hotel room:
Saturday officially started with a SFWA Business Meeting, which I enjoyed. (I mean that seriously. The first thing I did after signing my first book contract was mail in my membership application to SFWA, and I enjoy being a member and doing memberly things.) Plus this meeting had lots of food.
I had my second interview of the weekend after that, a joint one with Leah Bobet (conducted by Carrie of the fabulous blogs Smart Bitches Read Trashy Books and Geek Girl in Love). The first interview was for the SFWA website, and I believe it will be posted soon as a podcast. Both interviews were really fun.
In the afternoon, Leah Bobet, Steven Gould, Eugene Myers, and I did a panel called "Writing for YA," which began with Steven demonstrating his skill with falling and rolling and included my oversharing the fact that as a child, I didn't realize that Bambi's mother died. I thought his parents had simply divorced and it was time for him to go live with his dad for a while.
And then at night... the banquet!
Time for my dress! I’d actually starting regretting the fact that I’d gone with a cocktail dress rather than a ball gown or a floor-length evening gown for the banquet. Alethea even kindly offered me a tiara to make me feel better -- thank you, Alethea! -- but I decided to stick with my own jewelry and once I put on my dress, I remembered why I'd picked it. It makes my eyes look totally Fremen blue.
I don't have any photos of the reception or the banquet itself, but there were many glorious dresses and tuxes and sparkles and sequins. Even Barry, Lawrence Schoen's little pet buffalo, was dressed up all dapper. I was seated at a great table filled with fabulous people, one of whom (thank you, Dawn!) was kind enough to discover for me that there was a live stream of the event. I promptly texted my husband back home, and he promptly found it and proceeded to watch all of us eat food for the next hour and a half.
I love that SFWA did the live stream. It made me feel like my husband was right there with me, and that made the whole evening extra special. Like the true professional I am, I of course waved and blew kisses at him via the video camera at every opportunity.
When they announce the awards, it really feels like the Oscars. They project the names of the nominees on a big screen and read the names, and it's all really exhilarating. Steven Gould introduced the Andre Norton Award, and it was a lovely intro. He read the opening lines of a dozen classic MG/YA novels, and those sentences alone said everything. They encapsulate why YA and all of children's literature is important: because it touches that bit of you that is eternally young and full of wonder. I think he's planning to post it online soon, and I dare you to read that list and not be filled with memories.
In the end, I didn't win. The winner of this year's Andre Norton Award was Eugene Myers for Fair Coin from Pyr. But I am really, really thrilled for Eugene! He's a great guy, and it's a great book. (I blurbed it, in fact.) Yay, Eugene!
And I'd like to say congratulations to all the winners:
Kim Stanley Robinson (Nebula for Best Novel)
Nancy Kress (Nebula for Best Novella)
Andy Duncan (Nebula for Best Novellette)
Aliette de Bodard (Nebula for Best Short Story)
Benh Zeitlin and Lucy Abilar (Ray Bradbury Award)
E.C. Myers (Andre Norton Award)
Gene Wolfe (Grand Master Award)
Ginjer Buchanan (Solistice Award)
Carl Sagan (Solistice Award)
Michael H. Payne (Service to SFWA Award)
*cheers, applauds, and does Snoopy Dance*
It was really so much fun to be a part of this event. I had such a big smile on my face through the whole thing that after the ceremony, Robert Silverberg (the MC) said to me, "You should win a Nebula for your smile. It lights up the room," which only served to make me smile all the more.
Thank you to SFWA and to all the organizers and volunteers who made the Nebula Weekend possible. I had a fantastic time! And I love my three unicorns.
