tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-45992328182327622042024-03-13T07:50:32.970-07:00Sage Blackwood's BlogSage Blackwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10847897945969895906noreply@blogger.comBlogger39125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4599232818232762204.post-42584925593790507752018-09-02T17:18:00.002-07:002018-09-02T17:18:49.702-07:00When Writers Get StuckMost writers get stuck at some point when they're writing. Everything is going fine and then-- bang. Suddenly it isn't going at all.<br />
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I usually get stuck two or three times while I'm drafting a novel. Fortunately I have a list hanging on the wall of things to try when I get stuck.<br />
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Here's the list, with explanations:<br />
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<b>Print out what you've got, and read it.</b><br />Sometimes it helps to change everything to a font you don't usually use, and then print. Jot ideas in the margin as you read.<br />
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<b>Identify where your stuckness began.</b><br />
What's the story element problem?<br />
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<b>Take a walk.</b><br />
I find it most helpful to walk in the forest, or in the dark.<br />
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<b>Draw a picture.</b><br />
Don't worry if you "can't draw". No one else has to see it. Draw your main character, or any character you're having trouble with. What's s/he holding? Doing?<br />
Don't skip this one; you'll almost always learn something new about characters by drawing them.<br />
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<b>Make a bubble map.</b><br />
Instructions <a href="https://sageblackwood.blogspot.com/2014/09/how-to-plan-for-nanowrimo-part-2-bubble.html" target="_blank">here</a>.<br />
Put your problem --the story element on which you're stuck-- in the center.<br />
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<b>Game of 20.</b><br />
Form your story element problem into a question. (Like "Why is Aunt Fiona missing?")<br />
Start writing answers to the question. The first few will be obvious answers. The next few will be ridiculous answers. Keep going till you get to the more interesting answers. Go all the way to 20 answers. I usually find #17 or #18 is the right one.<br />
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<b>Do some dialogue.</b><br />
Starting from the place where you got stuck, just let your characters talk to each other for a while. Don't worry about what they say; you don't have to use this dialogue. Just let them talk, and see what you learn.<br />
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<br />Sage Blackwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10847897945969895906noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4599232818232762204.post-92051488700164539692016-04-18T11:35:00.000-07:002016-05-03T09:15:31.186-07:00(Auction for refugee relief ended.)Auction has ended. Thanks to everyone who bid! Altogether the Writing for Charity auction raised over $29,000, all of which will go to Lifting Hands International for refugee relief.<br />
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<strike>Hey, incipient children's writers, here's an opportunity to help refugees <i>and</i> have me critique your manuscript!</strike><br />
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<strike>As part of the Writing for Charity auction to benefit refugee relief, organized by authors Shannon Hale and Mette Ivie Harrison, I'm offering a critique of a middle grade manuscript up to 75,000 words.</strike><br />
<br />
<strike>See the offer <a href="http://events.lite.readysetauction.com/writingforcharity/refugeeauction/catalog/item/6" target="_blank">here</a>.</strike><br />
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<strike>Proceeds from the auction will go to <a href="http://www.liftinghandsinternational.org/" target="_blank">Lifting Hands International</a>.</strike><br />
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<strike>There are <a href="http://events.lite.readysetauction.com/writingforcharity/refugeeauction/catalog/items" target="_blank">tons of other items</a> --lots of other critiques offered! Plus more cool stuff, including a pole dance by two award winning authors; I'm not making this up.</strike><br />
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<strike>To bid in the auction, you'll need to <a href="http://events.lite.readysetauction.com/writingforcharity/refugeeauction/signup/bidder" target="_blank">set up an account</a>.</strike><br />
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<strike>Bidding closes at 1 a.m. on 5/3/16. I'm not clear on the time zone, but I'm going to wildly guess they mean Mountain Time, which would be midnight Pacific and 3 a.m. Eastern. To be on the safe side, bid early!</strike><br />
<strike>(And often.)</strike>Sage Blackwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10847897945969895906noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4599232818232762204.post-87182805324303836862016-02-08T09:54:00.000-08:002016-02-08T09:54:02.873-08:00Lemon Chess Pie<div style="text-align: -webkit-center;">
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<span style="text-align: -webkit-center;">I haven’t made lemon chess pie in years.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The other day I asked my mother if she could find the recipe. And she could; stuck away in a drawer, exactly where she thought she’d put it. In a photocopy of an article in the <i>Fort Wayne Journal</i> about Murphy’s At The River. We picked that photocopy up one day in 1986 when we made a journey to the restaurant, as people did, to eat lemon chess pie.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">If you have never had lemon chess pie, it is worth a long, long drive.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">My other memory of that day is that we rode a small cable ferry across the Kentucky River. The ferryman was missing a family event— a wedding reception, I think— and his nieces had brought him a plate of fried chicken and fixings from the party. And he was surprised because he remembered the nieces as toddlers. And there they were, big.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The green river slipped away under the boat as it chugged across, and when we tried to pay the ferryman, he said </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">“That’s okay. I was going across anyway.”</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Which was so perfectly poetic that, being the right age, I wrote a poem about it. I’ve mercifully lost the poem, but below is the recipe for lemon chess pie.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">According to the <i>Journal</i> article, the recipe was modernized by restaurateur Dorothy Rhea Murphy, from one handed down to her by her grandmother, Lucretia Curd King. The ingredients look pretty alarming… but they don't seem to have done Mrs. Murphy any harm. She lived well into her nineties. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Lemon Chess Pie</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">2 whole eggs plus 4 yolks</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">1 cup white sugar</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">4 T melted butter</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">1/4 cup heavy cream</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">1 T yellow cornmeal</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">1 T flour</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">4 T lemon juice</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">1 T grated lemon rind</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">1 9” unbaked pie crust</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Preheat oven to 350 degrees</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Beat eggs, yolks & sugar together at high speed for 2 minutes. Add butter</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">and cream; beat again at high speed for 2 minutes. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Add cornmeal, flour, lemon</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">juice & rind. Mix well. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Pour into pie crust and bake 30 minutes. Allow pie to cool to room temperature before serving.</span></div>
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Sage Blackwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10847897945969895906noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4599232818232762204.post-1843109109846836272015-10-02T07:34:00.000-07:002015-10-02T07:35:54.645-07:00A Few Facts About Guns<div style="font-family: Arial;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Yesterday the country was shocked by another mass shooting.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Nine people were killed. Yes. Sadly. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Of the 92 people killed by guns in the US yesterday, nine were in class at a community college in Oregon.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">So we are talking about guns for the first time since nine people were killed at a prayer meeting in a church in South Carolina.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">In between those two incidents, it’s likely that 9,584 people died of gunshot wounds in the United States.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I’m basing this on <a href="http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/injury.htm" target="_blank">statistics from the Centers for Disease Contro</a>l. The numbers are from 2013, the most recent year available. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">For 2013, the CDC lists 33,636 gun deaths in the US.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">In other words, the tragedies in Oregon and South Carolina that captured the nation’s attention occur <i>ten times a day</i>.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Usually, news sources quote a much lower figure: 11,208 gun deaths a year. Those are homicides. That’s 31 a day. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Three times the Oregon shooting. Three times the South Carolina shooting. Today, and yesterday, and tomorrow, and forever.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><a href="https://www2.fbi.gov/ucr/cius2009/offenses/expanded_information/homicide.html" target="_blank">According to the FBI</a>, three-fourths of homicides are committed with guns. More than half are committed by someone the victim knows; 1 in 4 are committed by family members. One third of female homicide victims are killed by their husbands or boyfriends. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">In other words: an American is far more likely to be shot at home by a family member than in a public place by a deluded narcissist.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">So what about the other 61 US gun deaths a day? A small proportion of those are accidents, a category that <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2014/09/04/how-often-do-children-in-the-u-s-unintentionally-shoot-and-kill-people-we-dont-know/" target="_blank">tends to get distributed </a>among other categories. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> But two-thirds of gun deaths are suicides. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Many people, including the news media, are quick to brush the suicides aside as unimportant. The thinking is that “those people” were doomed anyway.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Research shows <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/06/magazine/06suicide-t.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0" target="_blank">this is not true</a>. Suicide is largely dependent on opportunity. The great majority of people who narrowly survive a suicide attempt never try again. And suicides attempted with guns are the most likely to be successful. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I just wanted to put these facts out there. They tend to get lost in the noise.</span></div>
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Sage Blackwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10847897945969895906noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4599232818232762204.post-66425301016161388642015-03-04T12:04:00.000-08:002015-03-04T12:17:18.630-08:00Rabies Shots<div style="font-family: Arial;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">So the final book in the <i>Jinx </i>trilogy, <a href="http://www.harpercollins.com/9780062129963/jinxs-fire" target="_blank">Jinx’s Fire</a>, comes out in just 20 days, and I’ll be doing <a href="http://sageblackwoodevents.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">some events</a> (more to come later). I hope you’ll attend, and that you’ll come up and say hello. I promise not to bite… </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">…and anyway, I’m getting rabies shots.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">There seem to be two FAQ about rabies shots, which I would like to address here.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>Q: Is it true they are given in the stomach every day for ten days with a needle as long as your arm, and are horribly painful?</b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">A: No. It turns out they are given in your arm with an ordinary-sized needle, and they don’t hurt any more than an ordinary shot. And I’m having four of them over a period of two weeks, which is standard. (Immune-compromised people have five over the course of a month.)</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>Q: DId something bite you?</b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Not to my knowledge. But I’ve been sleeping for the past couple weeks in a room that has periodically filled with bats. Not cute little upstate New York bats, but big honking New England bats.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Because there is a very remote possibility of contracting rabies simply from sleeping in a batty room (i.e. it seems to happen about once every few years in the US) the public health officials in Rhode Island, where I’m staying right now, advise people to get rabies shots under these circumstances.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I don’t really think I need the shots, but the disease is nearly 100% preventable with the shots, and nearly 100% fatal without them. </span></div>
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So prevention seems like the way to go.</div>
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Sage Blackwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10847897945969895906noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4599232818232762204.post-91476384849747219172015-01-18T09:44:00.000-08:002015-01-18T09:44:19.384-08:00How and why to cut words from your manuscript<div style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;">
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I’ve just cut 2,800 words off my current work-in-progress, a middle grade novel with a tentative publication date in 2016. (Katherine Tegen Books, HarperCollins, working title: Miss Ellicott’s School for the Magically Minded.) My goal was to cut 3,000, so I nearly made it. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.0px;">When I first taught myself to cut words, I did it mainly to get my manuscripts down to industry standard for middle grade. (For fantasy, under 75,000 words; for other genres, under 65,000.) But I learned so much else from the process of word-cutting that I now use it to identify other issues. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Cutting words is a good idea even if you’re <i>not</i> over wordcount, because it helps make your manuscript leaner, cleaner, and more like the stuff that gets published.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Here’s the procedure. </span></div>
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<li style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Decide how many words you want to cut.</span></li>
<li style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Print your manuscript.</span></li>
<li style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Divide the number of words you want to cut by the number of pages you’ve printed. In this case there were 202 pages, so my goal was to cut 15 words a page.</span></li>
<li style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Take a pen and try to hunt out the target number of words to delete on every single page. Write your score at the bottom of each page.</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Keeping score is important, because it gives you an incentive to keep hunting out that one little extra word you can do away with it. (You probably won’t meet your goal on every page, so you’ll need to exceed it on some pages.)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Here are some of the cuts I made, and why I made them. Underlined words are words I added.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue;">“We can’t buy dinner.”<br />“Why should you need to <strike>buy dinner</strike>?”</span></span><div style="min-height: 14px;">
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Deleting the unnecessary repetion cuts two words. Sometimes repetition serves a rhythmic purpose. This one doesn’t.</span></div>
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<span style="color: blue; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.0px;">He waved<strike> them through </strike><u>toward</u> a high arched hallway <strike>that opened beyond the office</strike>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.0px;">It doesn’t matter exactly where the hallway is, so those five extra words can go.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Changing “them through” to “toward” saves a word, but it also saves misunderstanding. He’s not waving <i>them</i>.</span></div>
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<span style="color: blue; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> <strike>With a sigh,</strike> she thought of Miss Ellicott.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.0px;">As I made cuts, I discovered my protagonist was doing <i>everything</i> with a sigh. Sometimes she ended the sentence with a sigh, sometimes she began it with one. After this week’s cuts, only three sighs remain.</span></div>
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<span style="color: blue; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> <strike>The fact was </strike>it was a very big city.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.0px;">“The fact was” over and over again in this draft! No longer.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: blue;">She gestured broadly <strike>with her arm</strike>. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Yeah, what else was she going to gesture with? I mean, the choices are fairly limited. There’s no need to say what she gestured with unless it was something really unusual. Someone else’s arm, for example.</span></div>
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<span style="color: blue; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.0px;">There were pools of water <strike>here and there</strike> <u>in hollows</u> on the rock.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.0px;">This is only a net reduction of one word, but it gets rid of the vague “here and there” and replaces it with something more specific.</span></div>
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<span style="color: blue; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.0px;">It was pitch dark. <strike>She couldn’t see a thing</strike>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Since the second sentence describes exactly what we would expect, it can go.</span></div>
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<span style="color: blue; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.0px;">“So you’re spying on me, are you?” <strike>said</strike> Mrs. Walters, <strike>standing in front of</strike> <u>stood before</u> the fireplace, hands on hips.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.0px;">This is one I did purely to reduce word count. I don’t think the changes I made in this sentence add anything stylistically. “Before” isn’t a better locative than “in front of”. It’s just shorter.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.0px;">You can usually remove a dialogue tag (<i>said X, X said, X asked</i>, etc) if it’s immediately followed by an action. The point of dialogue tags is to identify the speaker. The action accomplishes this.</span></div>
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<span style="color: blue; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> Men and boys were everywhere, </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px; text-decoration: line-through;">rolling barrels that rumbled along the docks,</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> shouting and singing. </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px; text-decoration: underline;">They rolled barrels that rumbled along the the docks</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.0px;">This one actually results in a net gain of one word. But I had to do it. As it was, the barrels, since they were already the subject of the verb “rumbled”, appeared to be shouting and singing. While this would be interesting, it was not the image I wanted.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Besides the above examples, there were many whole sentences and even some paragraphs I removed simply because they described something that was already adequately described.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.0px;">On my next round of cuts, which will probably follow my next revision and immediately precede submitting the manuscript to the publisher, I’m going to be looking for places where I’ve overexplained, not trusted the reader enough.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.0px;">A round of cutting generally takes a week of full-time work.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Anyway, I thought the above might be interesting to some people.</span></div>
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Sage Blackwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10847897945969895906noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4599232818232762204.post-22872356096352969372014-12-31T08:41:00.002-08:002014-12-31T08:53:39.088-08:00My New Year's Resolution: Don't Be Mrs. X<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Many years ago, Jimmy Carter was President and I lived in a small town in upstate New York where various people worked for less than they might have, because otherwise the things they did would not have been done at all. The village doctor saw minor cases for $1, more serious ones for $5. The piano teacher, Mrs. Hull, taught lessons for $1.</span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The system was this. You came into her house, at the appointed hour, without knocking. If another kid was in there having a lesson, you entertained yourself by examining Mrs. Hull’s collection of ceramic miniatures (among other things, a tiny sliced loaf and a tiny dish of butter). When it was your turn, you placed a dollar on the piano and sat down next to Mrs. Hull on the bench. You played your pieces, and sometimes she would interrupt and say gently, “If you hit an F sharp there, it might sound a little bit better for you, Sage.” Or she would lean over and gently pry your finger away from a note it was holding too long. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If she was satisfied with your performance, you got new pieces, which she would play once through for you (she knew them all!) And off you went.</span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I loved these lessons. I walked to them on stilts sometimes. (You never see stilts anymore.) I practiced 2 or 3 hours a day. (My poor family.) I went through lesson books and sheet music pretty fast, and since Mrs. Hull always insisted on giving the music to me, and wouldn’t let me pay for it, my mother decided to pay $2 a lesson. (She would have paid more but we didn’t have more.) </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Mrs. Hull was not a young woman. She had graduated from college with degrees in German and music sometime in the Depression. She was quiet and kind and never suggested I had a scrap of musical talent, which indeed I did not.</span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And then I got big and went away to college. The music professor, Mr. X, had a wife who gave piano lessons for $6. Well, I could make $6 by leading a two-hour nature hike, so I signed up for 12 weeks of lessons. Twelve nature hikes.</span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Mrs. X was about Mrs. Hull’s age, and also soft-spoken. But she was not Mrs. Hull.</span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What I remember about those twelve weeks is failing, continually and resoundingly, to live up to Mrs. X’s expectations. She asked me to tell her the direction that sound moved. (I couldn’t.) She asked me to compose variations based on simple nursery songs. (I couldn’t.) She asked me to sit down on the piano bench as hard as I was hitting the piano keys. (I refused.) She sternly informed me that she had been deceived by my sight-reading into thinking I had talent. She assured me with finality that I did not.</span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Gradually I stopped practicing much, and at last the 12 weeks came to an end. I shut the piano lid with relief and stepped away. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And 30 years went by.</span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This winter I find myself staying in a house that has a piano in it. A very shiny piano, the kind that gleams at you from across the room and says, “Come on. You know you want to.”</span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So one day, a month ago, I opened the lid. And I sat down. And I played it. And played it some more. And some more. And you know what?</span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I don’t have any talent. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Not an iota. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But I <i>like</i> playing the piano. It’s pleasant and relaxing and fun.</span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And it’s okay to play the piano, or to practice any art form, for those reasons.</span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Mrs. Hull knew that.</span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My Mrs. X story isn’t at all unusual. I’ve heard similar stories from many people. It might be music, or dance, or drawing. Someone who enjoyed doing something was informed by someone knowledgeable that they had no talent and should stop. The world has too few Mrs. Hulls, who understand that a thing can be worth doing for its own sake and not for any glory or remuneration.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></span></div>
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Sometimes friends and acquaintances show me their writing, and they want me to tell them if it’s <i>any good</i>, or<i> good enough</i>.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></span></div>
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And of course no professional writer ever thinks anything is good enough, so I try to share the joys of my insecurity with them. And they gently remonstrate. “Well, this is just something I’m doing for fun, you know. Something I thought my grandchildren might like.”</span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Ouch. Point taken. They want to write the way I want to play the piano, for a bit of joy.</span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My New Year’s resolution is to remember Mrs. X and Mrs. Hull, and remember that all of the art forms are for everyone, and not just for a chosen few.</span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If you like doing it, it’s <i>good enough</i>.</span></span><br />
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Sage Blackwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10847897945969895906noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4599232818232762204.post-15737619753512180572014-12-02T12:22:00.000-08:002014-12-02T12:22:55.245-08:00Mystery of the Rusty KeysThese rusty keys look like they've been sitting on this log a long time...<br />
<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-iwyKGErl4Vs/VH4dOXp1GtI/AAAAAAAAAHI/t4PASXUxqz0/s1600/rusty%2Bkeys%2B1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-iwyKGErl4Vs/VH4dOXp1GtI/AAAAAAAAAHI/t4PASXUxqz0/s1600/rusty%2Bkeys%2B1.jpg" height="256" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
... beside this broken sign-post...<br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-LoXe6u1iN0s/VH4dizmCNdI/AAAAAAAAAHQ/al9xhfBqboo/s1600/rusty%2Bkeys%2B2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-LoXe6u1iN0s/VH4dizmCNdI/AAAAAAAAAHQ/al9xhfBqboo/s1600/rusty%2Bkeys%2B2.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
...at the edge of this cliff...<br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-xPMeeNIBPa8/VH4dzwDH9UI/AAAAAAAAAHY/poGbOU41nZI/s1600/rusty%2Bkeys%2B3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-xPMeeNIBPa8/VH4dzwDH9UI/AAAAAAAAAHY/poGbOU41nZI/s1600/rusty%2Bkeys%2B3.jpg" height="184" width="320" /></a></div>
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...beside the lighthouse...<br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-nMNw9ofzW2s/VH4eCHfudWI/AAAAAAAAAHg/DHxAofTQN7s/s1600/rusty%2Bkeys%2B4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-nMNw9ofzW2s/VH4eCHfudWI/AAAAAAAAAHg/DHxAofTQN7s/s1600/rusty%2Bkeys%2B4.jpg" height="314" width="320" /></a></div>
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...by the sea...<br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-C66VPmRNAvk/VH4enfxxZMI/AAAAAAAAAHw/IldprpGirW0/s1600/rusty%2Bkeys%2B5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-C66VPmRNAvk/VH4enfxxZMI/AAAAAAAAAHw/IldprpGirW0/s1600/rusty%2Bkeys%2B5.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
...in Rhode Island.<br />
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Sage Blackwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10847897945969895906noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4599232818232762204.post-22242881337121724572014-11-23T11:25:00.000-08:002014-11-23T11:25:09.789-08:00On the fatal shooting of a 12-year-old boy by the police.
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
This morning, a
12-year-old boy died in Cleveland of injuries he received yesterday
when he was shot by a police officer.</div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
The first news I saw
of this was a tweet in which the twitterer expressed sympathy for the
family and worried that "things could get ugly".</div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Those four words
complete the circle. They explain what killed this American child.
(These are our children, America.)</div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Faced with an
appalling incident of white-on-black violence, the twitterer was
afraid of what <i>black </i>people might do. The only white-majority nation
ever to elect a black head of state is still terrified of black
people.
</div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
The electorate is
still capable of hearing about the violent death of a black child and
worrying that... that... that
<i>someone might get hurt?</i></div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
That the response
might be anger?</div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
It is.</div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
If you've ever lost
someone close to you, you know that anger is always part of the
response, even if the cause was an incurable disease. (Why didn't
someone cure it?!) Now imagine how angry you might be if someone
killed your child because they were afraid of him.</div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
(These are our
children, America.)</div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
The black community will be expected (by America) to grieve in a way that unnaturally suppresses anger. Any expression of
anger that occurs will be magnified in the media, and the fear will
be fed, and the cycle will continue.
</div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
And don't expect the
media to forego the traditional demonization of the victim just
because he was</div>
<div align="CENTER" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div align="CENTER" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div align="CENTER" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
</div>
<div align="CENTER" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Twelve.</div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
So far what we've
heard is that the assailant was a rookie cop. This is the <a href="http://nypost.com/2014/11/23/apparent-deadly-missteps-in-police-shooting-of-unarmed-man/" target="_blank">second</a>
fatal shooting of an unarmed black person by a "rookie cop"
in two days. We'll be asked to sympathize with his fear and
inexperience. </div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Against the fear and
inexperience of a child.</div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
A mature media would
ask the following questions. Since we don't have such a media, let's
ask them of ourselves:</div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<ul>
<li><div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Is something
being said, officially or <i>sub rosa</i>, to trainee police
officers that is making them afraid of black people?</div>
</li>
<li><div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
If trainees are
already afraid of black people before their training, shouldn't
someone else be recruited, someone who's not afraid of black people?</div>
</li>
<li><div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Can prospective
trainees be <i>tested</i> for a fear of black people? (Tests exist.)</div>
</li>
<li><div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
If "rookie
cops" have an increased tendency to shoot unarmed people
(something that may or may not be true, but that we're being tacitly
asked to accept), should "rookie cops" perhaps go unarmed?</div>
</li>
</ul>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
I don't know much
about how police officers are selected, but I know how teachers are. And there
is a winnowing that goes on at all phases of the process. Any discomfort with people of other races, religions, or nationalities is
(ideally) identified, and addressed. When all else fails, it's addressed by
taking the aspirant gently by the arm and leading him or her to the
door marked EXIT.</div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
It's time the same
standard was applied to police officers.</div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
Sage Blackwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10847897945969895906noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4599232818232762204.post-83320361136150963792014-11-05T08:37:00.000-08:002014-11-05T08:37:19.763-08:00A few tips on writing believable disabled characters.
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
So if you read <a href="http://sageblackwood.blogspot.com/2014/10/whats-this-disabled-character-doing-in.html" target="_blank">my rant on the portrayal of disabled characters in middle grade fiction</a> last week, you
may have been left with the impression that it was safest not to
write a disabled character at all. Sorry about that! Of course you
should write MG characters with real believable disabilities who kick
A and take names. We need more of those!</div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
I realize that some
of the tropes I described last week come, originally, from a place of
compassion. An author thinks about the disability that s/he's given
the character. And maybe as soon as s/he thinks about it, s/he wants
to solve the problem for the character. And the easiest ways to do
that are to deliver a miracle cure (trope #4) or a superpower (trope
#5) or to pretend that the disability doesn't really matter (trope
#6).</div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
But a writer's job
is to dig deeper.
</div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Acknowledge that the
disability is part of your character's life, probably a permanent
part, and that it presents challenges which the character lives with
every day. S<span style="font-style: normal;">how us that the
character's life is good and meaningful.</span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Here
are a few ideas.</div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>Ask yourself how
the character's disability affects the story</b></div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
If your disabled
character is the protagonist, what is different for him/her because
of the disability? How does it change the challenges s/he faces? How
does it change the ways s/he deals with the challenges? If the
disability were removed, would the story change at all? (If the
answer is "no", consider scrapping the disability.... or
working on it some more.)</div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
If the disabled
character is <i>not</i> the protagonist, make sure s/he has a story
arc of his/her own. S/he shouldn't be there just to teach the protagonist
compassion, or to make the protagonist feel grateful not to be
disabled.</div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>Remember the
"able" in "disabled"</b></div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
What <i>can</i> your
character do? What's s/he good at? The character needs the same
complexities as a non-disabled character-- flaws, good qualities, the
works. Hopes, dreams, things that annoy the hell out of her. And like
the rest of us, s/he should have a special talent or two... one <i>not</i>
related to the disability, please. She might be ace at manipulating a
wheelchair in tight spaces, but consider making her ace at factoring
quadrinomials as well. Or make him a train buff with an encyclopaedic
knowledge of the US freight-rail system which proves useful when push
comes to shove. Whatever suits the story.</div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>Research your
character's disability</b></div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
The external
manifestation of a character's disability usually occurs to us fairly
quickly. The character has a visual or hearing impairment, or wears a
leg brace, or has one arm, or uses a wheelchair. But what caused the
disability? A genetic syndrome, a disease, an accident?
</div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Is the disability
you've given the character one that actually exists? (It's surprising
how often this comes up!)</div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
What are the
less-visible aspects of the genetic syndrome, disease, accident, etc?
What treatment was required, is required now, will be required? Is
this going to get better in the future? Or worse?</div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
When you're
researching the disability, you may discover things that you wish
weren't true. Resist the urge to change the facts. You don't have to
<i>use</i> all the facts in your story... but don't rewrite science.</div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Once you've done
your research, of course, you should treat it like any other research
you do for fiction, ie apply it with a very light touch. After all,
if your readers wanted to read a treatise on osteogenesis imperfecta
(or the Battle of Agincourt, or gemstone cutting) they'd go do the
same research you did. Remember, the story is king.
</div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Research is a
vassal.
</div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>Try it yourself</b></div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Avoid the common authorly tendency to have characters scale Mount Everest in a wheelchair. (That's only a slight exaggeration.) To give yourself a sense of what your character will and won't be doing, try it yourself. When an author has
experimented with wearing a blindfold or earplugs, or using crutches
or a wheelchair, or avoiding using his/her hands, the details come
through much more clearly and realistically in the book.</div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i>Experiment with due regard for your own
safety and that of others! </i>Don't walk around upstairs with your
eyes closed, or try to cross streets in a wheelchair if you're not a
skilled operator of same.
</div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
When you use this
experience in your writing, be sure to think about whether your
character's disability is new or old. If new, the character is likely
to have the same difficulties and reactions that you had. But if it's
old, the character will be used to some things and may not give them
much thought. S/he may be skilled at tasks you found difficult (like
carrying a cup of hot tea while on crutches) but stymied by others
(like taking said cup of hot tea up a spiral staircase).</div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>Consider the
Mechanics</b></div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Humans make many
things, and the things humans make are generally imperfect. Leg
braces chafe, break and malfunction. They also weigh several pounds.
Prostheses can cause sores and ulcers. Wheelchairs are as subject to
breakdowns and damage as are other conveyances.</div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Figure out which
aids your character uses, and research them. Make sure you consider
the aid in the context of your story's setting. Will your character
move easily on a ship, a sandy beach, a steep cliff, an icy lake? If
your setting is historic, what aids would your character have used
during your novel's time period?</div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>Sensitive
Language</b></div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Whether you're
writing a disabled character or not, be aware of words and terms that
are outdated and/or offensive. Such words and terms should be avoided
in the authorial voice. If they're used in dialogue, they should be
dealt with as an issue.</div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />These include:</div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
- <a href="http://sageblackwood.blogspot.com/2014/08/middle-grade-time-to-lose-c-word.html" target="_blank">cripple</a>, crippled,
and crippling (including figurative use, eg "A crippling blow"
or "The crippled ship limped into port")</div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
- retard, retarded
(including figurative use, eg "A retarded idea")</div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
- former medical
terms that have become insults, eg mongoloid and spastic (also avoid
"spaz")</div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
- slang nicknames,
eg "Pegleg"</div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
- Disabilities used
in a figurative sense. ("What a lame excuse," "He's
blind to her faults." )</div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
- "confined to
a wheelchair" (a wheelchair is not a cell)</div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>Consider the
social aspects of the disability</b></div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Your character's
interactions with others will be affected by the disability. The ways
in which people-- children and adults-- react to disabilities are
myriad, many-faceted, and bizarre. You may have seen and experienced
this in your own life. If not, watch for it.</div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
I started out to
write a long list of examples here, but I've gone on long enough, and
it will be more useful to you as a writer to make your own
observations.</div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
(In R.J. Palacio's
<i>Wonder</i>, the social aspects of the protagonist's disability are
the main focus of the novel. And kids love it.)</div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Anyway. I hope the
above will prove useful to writers who want to write stories with
well-rounded, multi-faceted characters with disabilities. Please do!
We need more of them.</div>
Sage Blackwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10847897945969895906noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4599232818232762204.post-91000105231089686232014-10-29T07:00:00.000-07:002014-10-29T07:01:43.102-07:00What's this disabled character doing in this MG novel? Probably about what they were doing in 1910.<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Hello. I want to share a few thoughts
about the portrayal of characters with disabilities in middle grade novels. There's the good:</div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<ul>
<li>Mary in the <i>Little
House</i> books. While there's usually little for diversity advocates
to cheer about in this series, Mary's blindness is very
matter-of-fact and realistic. It affects her life and her
family's lives. And it doesn't ruin them.
</li>
<li><i>Wonder </i><span style="font-style: normal;">by
RJ Palacio</span><i>.</i> What can I say that hasn't been said
already? </li>
<li><i>Handbook for
Dragon Slayers </i>by Merrie Haskell. A MG <span style="text-decoration: none;">fantasy</span>
– yes, a fantasy!-- in which a protagonist with a disability goes
on a journey of discovery without encountering a miracle cure.</li>
</ul>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
And then there's the not-so-good. Below are six tropes that encompass
many of the portrayals of disabled characters in MG fiction. Each of them can be found in recent work as well as older books, though I'm only going to name older books.<br />
<br />
I've given each trope a cute name even though they're not really very cute.</div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>1. Paging Dr.
Strangelove</b></div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
In these books, the
disabled character is a villain. His/her mind is as twisted as
his/her body, get it? In case you don't, sometimes it's spelled out.
Blech. In one MG book I read, there was an attempt to soften this (I
think?) by having the villain turn out to be faking his
disability. The image remains.</div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
A venerable example of disability-conflated-with-badness is <i>The Secret Garden</i> (1910). When Mary arrives from
India, she's sickly and unlikable. As she becomes more physically able, she turns
into a better person. Then she arranges the same transformation for
her bedridden cousin Colin. The message is clear.</div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>2. God Bless Us,
Every One</b></div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Like Tiny Tim in <i>A
Christmas Carol</i>, the disabled character in some MG books is only
there to gauge the protagonist's moral growth.<br />
<br />
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>3. Exit Little
Eva</b></div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
In the 19<sup>th</sup>
century, one of the primary tasks of children in books was to die,
preferably after a long illness and some edifying moral reflections.
Although a few of these kids' books are still in print, like <i>The Birds' Christmas Carol </i><span style="font-style: normal;">(1887)</span>, this one
has mostly, er, died out.</div>
<b> </b><br />
Zombie-like, though, this trope rises again in the form of the character-too-badly-injured-to-survive. He tends to show up in action, pursuit, and battle scenes. He gets one injury, and then another, and things proceed to the point where he would be disabled were he to survive. So instead he's provided with yet another injury that enables him to die heroically. Sigh. As soon as the disabling injury was delivered, you knew this character was toast.</div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>4. It's A
Miracle!</b></div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
The protagonist has
a disability, but it's cured by the end of the book, often as a
reward for something the protagonist has accomplished. While this is
essentially what happens in <i>The Secret Garden</i>, and appears in
rather bizarre form at the end of <i>Johnny Tremain</i>, it's also
very common in fantasy novels.</div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>5. He's Blind,
But He Sees So Much More Than We Do</b><br />
In these books, the character's
disability is an undisguised blessing. It gives him/her powers that
the abled characters can only dream of. If the protagonist in one of these books had a brain injury, it would be more likely to result in telepathy than in seizures. </div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
</div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
This sort of book is
satirized in the play <i>Butterflies Are Free</i> as "Little
Donny Dark". In the <i>Little Donny Dark</i> books written by
the protagonist's mother, the blind boy has no trouble flying a
plane, because his other senses are so highly developed.<b> </b><br />
<br />
<b>6. You'll Find My
Disability on Page 16</b></div>
<div style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
These are books in which the protagonist has a disability which does not affect his/her life in any way. It might be a
disability that, in real life, would take some serious managing (new skills to learn, trips to specialists, hospital stays, etc). The book, however, will mention the disability only once. Neither the protagonist nor the reader ever has to think about it again.<br />
</div>
<div style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Oh dear. I hope my rant hasn't scared writers off from including
disabled characters in their MG novels. Because we need more,
not fewer. We need fully developed, complex characters whose disability is one aspect of their lives, one that matters but doesn't mean there's less for us to know and find out about the character. In a future post, I'll
talk about some approaches for writers.</div>
<div style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
Sage Blackwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10847897945969895906noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4599232818232762204.post-74509095052568664602014-10-26T08:26:00.000-07:002014-10-26T08:26:23.938-07:00About those million words.
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
There is a saying,
and it is mostly true, that you have to write a million words before
you're ready to be published.</div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
A million words is
between three and four thousand double-spaced pages.</div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Most of the authors
I know sold their fourth or fifth attempt at a novel. Me too. That means we had
three or four trunk novels before we sold. Of course, we didn't write them to be trunk novels. We wrote
them to be bestsellers. But we were learning. We're still
learning, and we still sometimes produce trunk novels.</div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Recently I ran into
a writer who said he knew he had to write a million words before he'd
be publishable, and he figured it would take him 18 months at 2000
words a day. This reminds me of my approach to a PhD. See, I was once
in this PhD program for some reason. And I kept calculating how
quickly I could get out of it. And people who had been through it
looked at me in dismay and said, "You're missing the point."</div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
I didn't get the
point till I ran into that writer.</div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
The point, in any
learning we do, is the process. Not the product.
</div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
I think we learn more from revision than we do from the initial writing. If we merely
crank out a million words without stopping to look at them, analyze,
recognize where we've gone wrong and what we need to do to fix it,
we'll end up not much better off than when we started.</div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
The million words
are incidental. A means of trying to quantify just how much there is
to learn. Unless we're present in the moment, fully focused on the
process, on recognizing our errors and learning from them, we're not
going to learn at all.</div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
If you're new to
writing and are planning to do NaNoWriMo, go for it! You'll be 50,000
words on your way. And once you've spent a year revising and
re-rewriting your NaNoWriMo project, you may well be 250,000 words on
your way.</div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
(By which I mean not
that you should write a 250,000 word novel-- you shouldn't!-- but that the
writing done in revision is part of the million words.)</div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
Sage Blackwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10847897945969895906noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4599232818232762204.post-36499411764099086752014-10-18T09:38:00.000-07:002014-10-18T09:49:13.948-07:00For Authors, About Reviews<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Every now and then
an author reacts online to a bad review. And I wish I could give him
or her the best piece of advice I ever received about reviews. It
was from science fiction author James Gunn.</div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
It was this.</div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
"Read the last
line first".</div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Simple and
effective.</div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
The last line tells
you whether the reviewer liked the book or not. Then you know.
Whether you actually read the review after that is up to you. I know
several authors who don't read their reviews at all. Not even the
glowing ones.</div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
If you do choose to
read a bad review, then read it, shrug and move on. If the reviewer
goes in for an ad hominem attack, you can smile while you shrug.
That's not a reviewer to take seriously.</div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Don't respond.
You'll be seen as "hitting down". This always sounds
bizarre to authors, many of whom reside well below the poverty line,
but there it is. There's a widespread perception that we all have castles in Scotland.</div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Bad reviews are not
fatal, to you or your book.
</div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Just remember to
read the last line first.</div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
Sage Blackwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10847897945969895906noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4599232818232762204.post-64667192601707293792014-09-23T10:51:00.000-07:002014-09-23T11:00:19.987-07:00How to Plan for NaNoWriMo, part 4: Index Cards<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Hi! Over
the last couple weeks I've shared some of my favorite tricks for
planning a story, <a href="http://sageblackwood.blogspot.com/2014/09/how-to-plan-for-nanowrimo-part-2-bubble.html" target="_blank">bubble-mapping</a> and <a href="http://sageblackwood.blogspot.com/2014/09/how-to-plan-for-nanowrimo-drawing-to.html" target="_blank">drawing</a>.
Both of those are strategies I use for brainstorming and planning a
story. This next strategy focuses on organizing your ideas so that
you're ready to write.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Equipment
required: Colored pens, index cards*,
and tape.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-pGCOGNALq_8/VCGvAWpxrTI/AAAAAAAAAGY/NNfzuOTy0uE/s1600/indexcards1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-pGCOGNALq_8/VCGvAWpxrTI/AAAAAAAAAGY/NNfzuOTy0uE/s1600/indexcards1.jpg" height="284" width="320" /></a></div>
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">It's
likely that as you've thought about your story, some of the story's
moments have become very clear in your head. Examples: Your hero
meets her mentor. Your hero steals a golden apple. Your villain hacks
into the NORAD computers, and <i>thinks </i><span style="font-style: normal;">he's
undetected.</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Write
each of these idea-moments on a separate index card. </span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-F49JKT6UljM/VCGvNaaCAUI/AAAAAAAAAGg/qJmwnKzP2nY/s1600/indexcards2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-F49JKT6UljM/VCGvNaaCAUI/AAAAAAAAAGg/qJmwnKzP2nY/s1600/indexcards2.jpg" height="226" width="320" /></a></div>
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Notice
that I've used two colors on this card. Each major character has his
or her own color. That way, when I organize the cards, I'll be able
to follow each of their storylines and see any gaps. (When a major
character is offstage, as, for example, the wizard Simon is in parts
of the <i>Jinx</i> books, you still need to know where s/he is and
what s/he's doing.)</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Now look
at your bubble-maps. (See <a href="http://sageblackwood.blogspot.com/2014/09/how-to-plan-for-nanowrimo-part-2-bubble.html" target="_blank">last week's post</a>.) Read through them
carefully. Identify anything in your maps that looks like it should be
a scene or a story-moment.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Make
a separate index card for each of these story moments.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Keep
making index cards till you run out of scenes and story moments.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">(Note:
If I have a lot I want to write on a card, I sometimes start out with a
Sharpie, but finish with a ballpoint pen.)</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Now,
it's time to play with your cards.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Sort
through them. You'll notice that some of the scenes clearly belong at
the beginning of the story, others near the end. Lay them out on a
flat surface, in the order in which you think they might occur. The
beginning of the story goes at the top, the end of the story at the
bottom. If two or more ideas seem like they should happen at the same
time, put them side-by-side.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-5Gnuk3Qml4k/VCGv8pMJoUI/AAAAAAAAAGo/UUz68qL8lW8/s1600/indexcards4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-5Gnuk3Qml4k/VCGv8pMJoUI/AAAAAAAAAGo/UUz68qL8lW8/s1600/indexcards4.jpg" height="320" width="209" /></a></div>
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Keep
moving them around till you think you've got them where you want
them.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">You'll
probably find some of your cards don't fit in anywhere. That's okay.
It may be that those scenes don't actually belong in the story, or it
may be that you'll figure out a place for them later.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">You may
also find gaps. Don't worry about that right now either.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">When you
think you have all the cards in the right order, tape them to the
wall.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-NjaqaLl8iQY/VCGwKkwyg0I/AAAAAAAAAGw/PKLEIj8d8Ig/s1600/indexcards5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-NjaqaLl8iQY/VCGwKkwyg0I/AAAAAAAAAGw/PKLEIj8d8Ig/s1600/indexcards5.jpg" height="320" width="193" /></a></div>
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">In the picture above, I have the scenes taped to the wall in order, top to bottom, but there are things missing. There are some thin spaces at the top. At the bottom, just before the closing scene, there's a gap that goes right across... I've got nothing. It's possible you'll have similar gaps in your own story. (Example: your hero is captured by the evil
villain, and then she is welcomed home. But you're missing the escape
scene.) </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Now it's time to fill in those gaps.</span>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Take
some more blank index cards. Think about what scenes you might use to
fill in the gaps. Jot them on the cards, and add them to the wall.</span></div>
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-KJ7xU1moeso/VCGwan2JHcI/AAAAAAAAAG4/ldZWH8sQ5Eg/s1600/indexcards6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-KJ7xU1moeso/VCGwan2JHcI/AAAAAAAAAG4/ldZWH8sQ5Eg/s1600/indexcards6.jpg" height="320" width="218" /></a></div>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Read
through what you've got.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Now look
at the storyline for each of your main characters. (Just follow his or her color-code down the wall.) Do any
individual characters have gaps? It's okay, for now, if they do. They
may end up having gaps in the story. Just remember that you've always
got to know where the major characters are, and, if they leave the
story in the middle, you have to know what became of them. If a major
character is left hanging, fill in an index card to show what he's
doing.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">When
your wall of cards is finished, you're ready to write.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">You can
start writing your novel directly from what's on the wall. </span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Or you
can divide your wall into chapters, hanging a slip of paper with the
chapter number on it next to each section on the wall. (I've done that in the last picture above.)</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Or you
can use your wall display as a basis for a traditional written
outline.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">I've tried all of these, and they all work.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">And
there you have 'em, as Casey Kasem used to say. My three main
strategies for pre-writing a novel. I hope you find them useful for
planning your own.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Good
luck!</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
<br /></div>
<div id="sdendnote1">
<div class="sdendnote">
*Some
writers use sticky notes instead of index cards. I like the index
cards because they're sturdier, easier to rearrange, and cheaper.</div>
</div>
Sage Blackwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10847897945969895906noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4599232818232762204.post-53462633042390101282014-09-16T14:44:00.000-07:002014-09-18T09:10:52.975-07:00How to Plan for NaNoWriMo, part 3: Bubble Maps<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Hi! Last
week I shared one of my favorite tricks for planning a story,
<a href="http://sageblackwood.blogspot.com/2014/09/how-to-plan-for-nanowrimo-drawing-to.html" target="_blank">drawing</a>.
I'm happy to have heard from several people that they've tried
this and found it useful. </span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">This
next strategy, like the drawing, should enable you to plan your story
without your internal editor getting in the way. It has various names; I call it bubble-mapping. Over the course of a
novel I'll usually make about 100 bubble maps-- about 25 of them at
the planning stage.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Here's
what one looks like:</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-z33YgnRBi2Y/VBiqhNWj8NI/AAAAAAAAAFQ/wZL48z_9BFI/s1600/Bubblemap1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-z33YgnRBi2Y/VBiqhNWj8NI/AAAAAAAAAFQ/wZL48z_9BFI/s1600/Bubblemap1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-6bau7CVthhc/VBir5wSvYvI/AAAAAAAAAFo/FPwdKiB15aM/s1600/bubblemap1altc.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-6bau7CVthhc/VBir5wSvYvI/AAAAAAAAAFo/FPwdKiB15aM/s1600/bubblemap1altc.jpg" height="248" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-wkS-_bUTjww/VBirlPmXbYI/AAAAAAAAAFg/PeJH3VHoTSo/s1600/bubblemap1alt.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br /></a></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">This is
one of about 20 bubblemaps I did about the Bonemaster (an evil
wizard in the <i>Jinx</i> trilogy) over the course of writing the
three books. There was a lot I had to find out about the Bonemaster,
so I kept asking myself questions about him. (The different colors
are color codes I assigned to different characters or aspects of the
plot. This is optional. More about colors next week.)</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Let's build a bubble map from the ground up. Start out with
the central idea of your story... the thing you want to write about.
Ask yourself 4 questions about it:</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-38os0iOqVi8/VBisQJW5SrI/AAAAAAAAAFw/Z5Edr71-02Q/s1600/Bubblemap2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-38os0iOqVi8/VBisQJW5SrI/AAAAAAAAAFw/Z5Edr71-02Q/s1600/Bubblemap2.jpg" height="261" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">These
questions are just examples. You can make up different questions if you like. Answer each question with whatever pops
into your head:</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-zZr1EVTOsoM/VBisdq5jzeI/AAAAAAAAAF4/i4SDH04Jcz8/s1600/Bubblemap3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-zZr1EVTOsoM/VBisdq5jzeI/AAAAAAAAAF4/i4SDH04Jcz8/s1600/Bubblemap3.jpg" height="217" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Don't
think too hard! Just let it flow.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">For
every answer, try to expand with more information or more questions
as they occur to you:</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-zCfDTW95PCY/VBisugqNqGI/AAAAAAAAAGA/W8lKpr-VJJU/s1600/Bubblemap4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-zCfDTW95PCY/VBisugqNqGI/AAAAAAAAAGA/W8lKpr-VJJU/s1600/Bubblemap4.jpg" height="314" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Keep
going till you run out of space on the paper. By that time you should
have discovered some interesting points that you want to explore
further.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Pick one
of these points, take another piece of paper, and start a new bubble map:</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-P6buUTepVC8/VBis6ePLsqI/AAAAAAAAAGI/Bse2s5VbLH4/s1600/Bubblemap5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-P6buUTepVC8/VBis6ePLsqI/AAAAAAAAAGI/Bse2s5VbLH4/s1600/Bubblemap5.jpg" height="219" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">The new bubble-map in this example is based on a question from the old bubble-map. ("Constitution?")</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Note the
question "When?" in the new bubble-map. I'm already wondering
whether this story takes place <i>before</i> the election, and is
about Silvia's run (scamper?) for the White House, or whether it takes place
<i>after</i> the election, when Silvia's won in a landslide and the
Secret Service has to outwit enemy cats and owls. Is this a story
about an election, about a constitutional crisis, about one mouse's struggle to change the world, or about an
alternative USA in which a mouse is president? </span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">This was
something I didn't think about till I started bubbling. I can make
more bubble-maps to explore it, but I won't really worry about it
till the next step of the process, which we'll look at next week.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Watch
this space!</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
Sage Blackwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10847897945969895906noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4599232818232762204.post-41716961705025031562014-09-09T15:56:00.000-07:002014-09-16T15:19:57.819-07:00How to Plan for NaNoWriMo, part 2: Drawing to Write<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Hi! In
my last post I promised to share a few tricks I use to help me get
ready to write. I call them tricks because they all do the same
thing-- they fool me into disconnecting my internal editor. None of
them involve writing words that will actually appear in my book. </span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">I use
all these tricks in the pre-writing planning process, before I begin
a manuscript. They enable me (and hopefully will enable you)
to forget about writing and focus on story.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Tonight's
trick is drawing.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Doodling,
sketching, scribbling, coloring. This is the very first thing I do to
help a story come toward me. I draw pictures. I start out drawing the
main character. Then I draw the other characters. I sketch in their
surroundings, give them something to stand on, something to hold.
Every single sketch tells me something new about the story.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Usually
when I share this technique with other writers, they say "But I
can't draw."</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Well,
really, as you'll see below, I can't either. But that's okay! Nobody
has to see your picture but you. And you're a writer, not an artist,
so it doesn't matter if the picture's not of professional quality.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">If it
will help, just draw stick figures. But do try it. Give it 15
minutes. If the 15 minutes go okay, give it another 15 minutes.
You'll be surprised at what you learn about your story.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">When I
first started planning to write Jinx, I thought the main character
would be Elfwyn. I drew pictures of her, of Dame Glammer, of Simon
and Sophie... pictures of scenes that never occur in the book. Then I
drew this:</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-C0QYWYfhE9g/VA-DbzsH4xI/AAAAAAAAAEw/N-iIGRq_jHk/s1600/Use%2BBergthold%2Band%2BJinx.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-C0QYWYfhE9g/VA-DbzsH4xI/AAAAAAAAAEw/N-iIGRq_jHk/s1600/Use%2BBergthold%2Band%2BJinx.jpg" height="284" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> </span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">As you
can see, I wrote in a few descriptive sentences that occurred to me
as I drew. These sentences didn't end up in the manuscript. Neither
did the drawing, of course. But the scene it depicted ended up in the
first chapter of the finished book.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">In each
picture, as I drew, the trees were becoming larger and larger. I
began to realize the trees were going to play a very important part
in the story, that they were a constant presence and had their own
opinions. They even had laws.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Here's a
picture for a story that's been kicking around in my head. I don't
know if it'll ever get written.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9Lww5T3s-jE/VA-D84TcCTI/AAAAAAAAAE4/FIN1URNzvDY/s1600/Use%2Bchair.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9Lww5T3s-jE/VA-D84TcCTI/AAAAAAAAAE4/FIN1URNzvDY/s1600/Use%2Bchair.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">And
here's a character who has yet to find a story to be a part of,
although I'm hoping her day will come:</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-VB-v6D3E31Y/VA-EQ-3C-jI/AAAAAAAAAFA/XQLDHgAmov8/s1600/use%2Bpinch.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-VB-v6D3E31Y/VA-EQ-3C-jI/AAAAAAAAAFA/XQLDHgAmov8/s1600/use%2Bpinch.jpg" height="320" width="127" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Eh, so I
have a little trouble with feet. Anyway, as you can see, the point
here is not to produce great art but to completely free your mind
from the need to Write Something. Draw to explore the world of your
characters. </span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Think
about the story you're planning to write for NaNoWriMo. Imagine the
main character. Draw him or her. Add some more characters to the
scene. Draw their surroundings.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Have fun
with it! </span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">In my
next post, I'll share another pre-writing trick that I find even more
useful than this one... and hopefully you will too. Watch this space!</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />Sage Blackwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10847897945969895906noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4599232818232762204.post-14924227318509270292014-09-05T09:28:00.000-07:002014-09-16T15:19:39.641-07:00How to Plan for NaNoWriMo, part 1. Watch This Space!<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">So,
NaNoWriMo is coming up. <a href="http://nanowrimo.org/" target="_blank">NaNoWriMo</a> is a challenge to draft a novel (or
rather, to write 50,000 words) during the month of November. I took
this challenge in November of 2009 and drafted <a href="http://www.harpercollinschildrens.com/books/Jinx/" target="_blank">JINX</a>, which was
published by HarperCollins in January of 2013 as the first book of a
middle grade fantasy trilogy.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">NaNoWriMo
is a good way to motivate yourself to write if you're having a hard
time getting off the dime. But many folks who start out on November
1<sup>st</sup> just don't make it to 50k, and it usually seems to
boil down to two reasons, both having to do with planning.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">The
first is simply time. Writers do the math: 30 days hath November,
which means that if you write 1667 words a day, you're good. The
problem is few people can really write every day. You run into
Thanksgiving (in the US), emergencies, and days of just plain not
being able to fit it in. It's better to plan on 2000 words a day.
That gives you five floating days off to cope with life's exigencies.
(Of course, if a really serious emergency crops up, one has to
throw in the towel.)</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">The
other thing that stops people from getting to 50k is that they hit a
point – often around the 25k word mark-- where they run out of
story. And I think this usually happens because they haven't done
enough planning prior to November 1st. I have heard that writers
are equally divided between planners and those who write by the seat
of their pants, but I don't think it's true. I think pure pantsers are
extremely rare, and that most writers need to plan to at least some
degree. We may not necessarily want or need an outline of the <a href="http://www.lib.jjay.cuny.edu/research/outlining.html" target="_blank">kind</a> we
learned in school. But we need <i>something</i>.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">So if
you're going to go for the gold this November, it would be a good
idea to start planning now. Over the next few weeks, I'm going to be
sharing some of my favorite planning methods. Hopefully you'll find
something useful that you can incorporate.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Watch
this space.</span></div>
Sage Blackwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10847897945969895906noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4599232818232762204.post-52546438375285576782014-09-02T14:56:00.000-07:002014-09-02T14:56:37.559-07:00Ducks and Stars
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Last night, or
rather at 1:10 this morning, it was too hot to sleep. So I lay in bed
worrying about things, and worrying about other things, and worrying
about some more things.</div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
When I was a kid, on
nights like this, my cousin and I used to slip out of the house and
walk barefoot down to the swimming hole in the creek (about a mile
away) and go swimming in the dark.</div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i>Too bad I can't
do that now,</i> I thought, tossing and turning.</div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i>Anyway, it's
September,</i> I added. <i>You don't swim in September in upstate New
York.</i></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
And then I worried
some more about other things, including being too old and sensible to
go swimming at one o'clock in the morning, which basically means
never doing anything fun ever again, and then...</div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
...And then I
stopped tossing and turning. I got up, and got dressed, and went down
to the park by the lake. Some ducks quacked a sleepy protest, but no
one else was around. I stepped into the lake. The water was cold, but
only just. I swam like a kid, not for exercise, but just for the
glorious feeling of being afloat, of moving through a foreign
element, of almost-flying.</div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
The Milky Way arched
overhead. A satellite crept across the sky. The lake was silent and
still except for the ducks. I was far enough from shore now that the
world was only the lake, and stars, and ducks. I trod water for a
while.</div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
When I turned and
swam back to shore, I sat on the edge of the water for a bit, not
wanting to leave. (As a concession to being an adult, I had kept my
clothes on.)</div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
But the ducks were
annoyed, and the night didn't feel so warm anymore, and so I went
home, and went back to bed...</div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
...and didn't worry
at all.</div>
Sage Blackwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10847897945969895906noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4599232818232762204.post-19367844710981724152014-08-18T11:55:00.000-07:002014-08-18T15:10:02.976-07:00Fear and Ferguson<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Many,
many years from now, toward the end of this century, three days will
slip quietly past on the calendar. They will be the days that Michael
Brown, Trayvon Martin, and Renisha McBride might have died. After
all, they were citizens of a country where most people live to be
old. They weren't meant to die before age 20.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> They
weren't meant to die of other people's fear.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> We
need to talk about the fear that killed them.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">We
need to talk about it so we can stop nurturing it.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Each
of these young Americans was shot and killed by an adult who had
bought into a narrative that says that black teenagers are dangerous.
Each of these teenagers was deemed a threat by an armed adult despite
being unarmed themselves. We haven't heard from the killer of Michael
Brown yet, but when and if we do, I won't be surprised if we hear, in
one form or another, that he was scared. It's what we heard from the killers of Renisha McBride and Trayvon Martin. In one case, a jury rejected this nonsense. In
another, it apparently found it plausible.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Why?</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Because
nearly everything in our popular culture and nearly everything in our
news media presents African-Americans as "scary." And when
one person or a small number of people are doing something
out-of-line, if they're white it's spoken of as the act of
individuals but if they're black it's often widely perceived and
tacitly presented as an example of what "they" do. There's
been a lot of this dichotomy in the discussion of what's going on in
Ferguson.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">For
example, take a look at <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2014/08/15/at-darren-wilsons-house-neighbors-say-he-and-his-family-took-off/" target="_blank">this brief and understated article</a> in the
Washington Post. Notice how the neighbors seem afraid of
"thugs" (their word, not mine) invading their neighborhood,
but absolutely unafraid of ...well, their own neighbor. The guy that
shot Michael Brown. Six times.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Look
at the news. Notice how those in authority, bizarrely, have focused
on the people of Ferguson as if they were a problem to be solved,
rather than focusing on-- or, at least, publicly saying anything
about-- the investigation into the death of Michael Brown.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">And,
of course, in this case as in the others, there's been the business
of pointing out flaws in the victim... in comparison, I suppose,
to the stellar perfection of all other teenagers.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">And
the showering of the perpetrator with <a href="https://time.com/3136935/ferguson-darren-wilson-michael-brown/" target="_blank">monetary gifts</a>.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">All
of these are different expressions of fear, a societal fear that is
killing black teenagers.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">We
bookish people tend to feel that the answer to this problem lies in
better books, but we're only partly right. Books are such a small
portion of the cultural message that most people consume. The answer
lies in insisting on more sensitive, nuanced discussion across all
media. The news media needs to talk about racism as if we were
grownups. It needs to use the same language to talk about the actions
of black people as it uses to talk about those of white people. (I
could say a lot more about this!) Television and movies need to stop
using blackness as a visual code for badness. </span>
</div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Some
years ago I had a curious conversation in a remote village on the
Bering Sea coast. I was in the office I shared with another teacher, a local woman.
I forget what we were talking about, but she made the surprising
remark that she had never met a black person. </span>
</div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">"And
I'm worried that when I do, I might react wrongly," she said. "I
might act as though I expect them to be violent and angry. Because
that's what I always see on tv. And I know they probably aren't
really like that."</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> Unfortunately,
not everyone is as willing to deconstruct the media message as my
friend was. Many people don't demand this level of thinking from
themselves. So we need to change the message.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> This
problem can be solved. This is America, and we've solved lots of
problems. Many things that were commonplace a generation ago are
unthinkable now. We can make this lethal fear of black teenagers
unthinkable, as well. </span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> </span>
</div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> We
can insist that our media and popular culture stop feeding it.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> Let's
do it now. Lives depend on it.</span></div>
Sage Blackwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10847897945969895906noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4599232818232762204.post-12911394996301889132014-08-14T07:33:00.000-07:002014-08-14T07:33:57.727-07:00The Rule of Law
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">It's
five days since a Ferguson, Missouri police officer shot and killed
18-year-old Michael Brown, and we don't know who that officer was.
This is pretty strange in the information age. Usually, when someone
stands accused of killing someone, we know their name. In fact,
usually the police are the ones to reveal it.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> Now
in this case we don't have a name, apparently because of concerns
about repercussions against the officer and his family. That almost
sounds logical till you poke at it a little.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">We
live in a society that enjoys the Rule of Law. And the essence of the
Rule of Law is that it prevents repercussions by ensuring justice.
It's safe to name the accused in our society because instead of an
ancient system of blood feud, we have criminal charges and courts and
juries.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">The
Rule of Law, like magic, only works if we believe in it. And thus far
events in Missouri have given us very little reason to believe in it.
By not revealing the name of the accused, the authorities in
Ferguson, Missouri are giving us a strong indication that <i>they</i>
don't believe in it.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">A
police force that doesn't believe in the Rule of Law is a frightening
thing. It's a police force that might do anything.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> In
fact, it's a police force that already has. Last Saturday.</span></div>
Sage Blackwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10847897945969895906noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4599232818232762204.post-27462449473052873732014-08-10T08:29:00.000-07:002014-10-26T11:32:39.937-07:00Middle Grade: Time to Lose the C-word<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">In the
past two months, I've been blasted out of five (5) recent children's books
by the C-word. </span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">There I
was, reading along, having a grand time, when all of a sudden...</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><i>BAM</i></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">.
C-word. I'm knocked out of the story and cast adrift, the words on
the page sifting meaninglessly past a brain now completely
preoccupied with wondering why the author –with whom I'd been
getting along swimmingly up till then-- suddenly decided to descend
into <a href="http://www.americanbar.org/groups/public_education/initiatives_awards/students_in_action/debate_hate.html" target="_blank">hate speech</a>.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">But
don't picture me reading these books. Picture a child in a
wheelchair. A little boy with a leg-brace. A girl on crutches.
Picture them reading the books. All of a sudden they're smacked right
in the eyes with a line something like this:</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.49in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><i>He
was a cripple.</i></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.49in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.49in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><i>I
hadn't known she was crippled.</i></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.49in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.49in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><i>Why
would anyone hurt a cripple?</i></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.49in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Why
indeed? But the child reader has been called this name on the school
playground. And yes, of course it hurt.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">(By the
way, the above-- and below-- are not direct quotes from the books.
I'm not naming and shaming. Just hoping for change.)</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Does it
matter how the word is presented? Whether it's in quotes or not?
Marginally. Only marginally. Remember, the target readers are
children, with a child's level of discernment.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Anyway,
in four of the five books, the word occurred at
least once <i>without</i> quotes.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">In two
of them, it was used in the authorial voice to describe a person with
a physical disability.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">In two,
it was used to describe hypothetical people, "cripples"
in the abstract.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">In
three, it was used as a figure of speech. </span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> <i>A
crippling blow.</i></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><i> </i></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><i> The
ship was crippled.</i></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">(If
you're thinking that adds up to seven: Yeah. Three of the five books used
the word repeatedly.)</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">I think
most people would probably be okay with the figurative use. I'm not.
For those people to whom a word has fangs, it has fangs even when
it's used figuratively. If you think about other hate speech in this
context, you'll see what I mean.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">It would
also probably be okay with most people (including me) if the word was
<i>discussed</i>, if the fact that it's hateful and hurtful, and/or
how a character is affected by the word, was the author's point.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">It's
never discussed.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">We
didn't use the C-word for years, because we understood that it was
insulting and hateful. Now apparently we think it's edgy.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">The
C-word, by the way, does not have fangs for all people with
mobility-related disabilities. Those who react most negatively to it,
I think, are those who were already physically disabled in elementary
school. </span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">But
these are middle grade books. They're <i>for</i> people in elementary school.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">So
please, can we stop calling them names?</span><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<i><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">update 8/12/14: Two days later...now I've read the word in six (6) recent middle grade books. </span></i></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
Sage Blackwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10847897945969895906noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4599232818232762204.post-49982932077084157052014-07-27T08:17:00.000-07:002014-07-27T18:44:03.149-07:00How to Get An Agent (or anyway, how to look for one without going nuts)<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">So how
do you go about getting a literary agent?</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Well,
the first step is to write an excellent manuscript, of course. But
let's assume you've already done that.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Here's
my recipe, based on experience gathered over the course of several
agent hunts.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><b>1.
Define what you're looking for</b></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">This is
really important! Don't tell yourself that “any agent will do.”
It's not true. An agent will end up having the final say in whether
and where you submit your work. You want to find someone you can
trust with that decision.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Make a
list of the qualifications you're looking for in an agent. Here's
what my list eventually became:</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<ul>
<li><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Agent
has a good sales record with middle grade fantasy</span></div>
</li>
<li><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Agent
has been an editor at a major publisher</span></div>
</li>
<li><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Agent
works in New York City</span></div>
</li>
<li><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Agent
does <span style="font-style: normal;">not </span>have a significant
online presence</span></div>
</li>
</ul>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">There
are, of course, many excellent agents who don't meet these
qualifications. You'll want to make your own list of what you feel
comfortable with. I just offer mine as an example.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><b>2.
Make a list of agents</b></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">You'll
find agents listed on agentquery.com and querytracker.net. Search for
agents who represent your genre. The information on these sites may
be outdated, so double-check everything. Make a list of every agent
who reps your genre.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><b>3.
Annotate your list</b></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Check
your list of agents (step 2 above) against your list of
qualifications you want in an agent (step 1 above). Google each agent
on your list. Look for interviews and reported sales. Be sure to read
the agent's webpage if s/he's got one. Take copious notes. The
purpose of this is not to find connections you can mention in your
query, but to help you make the right choice.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">That's
right. <i>You're</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> choosing </span><i>them</i><span style="font-style: normal;">.
They make a choice too, of course. But it's important to give full,
non-starstruck attention to your own part in the choosing.</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><b>4.
Divide your list</b> </span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Now it's
time to select the agents you feel you'd like to work with. Divide
your now-annotated list into three categories:</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
♫ <span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">= I
should be so lucky.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
♪ <span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">=
S/he would do nicely.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><b>X</b>
= Alas, I fear we should not suit.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">For the
♫ and X agents, make a note of why you put them in that category.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">In my
case, the ♫ agents were those who met all four of my desired
qualifications. (Note that I don't call them “dream agents”. All
I knew about them was what I'd found online... insufficient data for
dreaming.) The ♪ agents met two or three of the qualifications. The
<b>X</b> agents in most cases had no reported sales.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Take the
<b>X</b> agents off the list and put them in a separate file. Later
you may wonder why you didn't query them, so this will serve as a
reminder.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><b>5.
Write your query</b></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">There
are plenty of sites with good advice on how to do this, and alas, some
sites with not-so-good advice. Janet Reid's Query Shark blog offers good
advice, as does Absolute Write.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Polish
your query to the nines. But not to the tens. Spend a couple weeks on
it, but not three years. Ultimately, it's only a query.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><b>6.
Send your query</b></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">If this
is your first time querying, or if you've never gotten a request in
the past, pick just six agents off your list to query. If you know
the ropes pretty well, pick ten. Check each agent's submission
guidelines and tailor the query to the agent. Hit “send.” Note
the date you sent the query in your records. </span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Bite
your nails. Try to think about something else. Give it a month.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Increasingly,
agents have a “no response means no” policy. There's not much we
can do about this. Back in the day, you could avoid querying such
agents, but that's probably no longer possible... there are too many
of them. </span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Keep
careful records of any replies you received, including dates of form
receipts or form rejections.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">At the
end of the month, if you've heard nothing, don't nudge. Instead, get
ready to send your next batch. </span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><b>7.
Send your next batch.</b></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">If all
you got were form rejections or no response, there are two
possibilities:</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<ol>
<li><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">There's
something wrong with your query.</span></div>
</li>
<li><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">You've
written something that the agents (or their interns) don't think is
marketable. A common reason for this is that a trend has suddenly
become a glut.</span></div>
</li>
</ol>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Hard to
tell which. But take another look at your query anyway, revise if necessary, and go on to
the next six (or ten) agents.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">By the
way, I'd divide these batches between your ♫ and ♪ agents. You
don't want to use up your whole ♫ list while you're still refining
your query.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><b>8.
Reacting to requests</b></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">At some
point, if you've gotten your query right and if you haven't written
something for which there's no market, you <b>will</b> get a real
live personal response.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">If it's
a rejection, read it over carefully. Wait 24 hours and read it again.
Save it. If it's a partial or full request, make sure you have your
manuscript ready to go. If <i>that</i> gets a rejection that's not a
form rejection... same thing. Read the rejection carefully. Wait 24
hours and read it again. Save it. This is valuable data, especially
if a consensus develops among several agents.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Never,
ever say anything in response to a non-form rejection except,
possibly, “thank you.” </span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><b>9.
The Offer of Representation</b></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">An offer
of representation does not come via email. What comes via email is an
invitation to talk on the phone. You may want to have a list of
questions ready. (“What changes do you think my manuscript needs?”
and “Where do you think you would submit it?” are two I would
ask.) However, these conversations often seem to center on favorite
books-- yours, his/hers. It's really a get-to-know you conversation.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">After
some talk in which you get to know each other, the agent will usually
offer representation.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">What
should you do?</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Now
here's my advice, which differs from that of others:</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Accept.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">If the
conversation went well, that is, and if you have the impression that
this is someone you would like to work with. Just accept.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Especially
if s/he's one of your ♫ agents.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Contact
the agent's references, sure. But you don't need to contact other
agents so that they can move your query to the top of their pile and
consider whether they want to make an offer. You don't need multiple
offers, since the terms are the same industrywide (the agent gets 15%
of your domestic sales, 20% of foreign). You just need one good
agent.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">If the
offer is from one of your ♪ agents, and one of your ♫ agents is
also considering the manuscript, you might want to contact the latter
to see if s/he's interested. On the other hand, you're already
talking to someone who's enthusiastic enough about your manuscript
that s/he read it quickly and responded quickly. It's up to you.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">But you
want to write, not to spend your whole life looking for an agent.</span></div>
Sage Blackwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10847897945969895906noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4599232818232762204.post-58476624789597472382014-07-02T15:46:00.000-07:002014-07-02T16:53:49.782-07:00Walter Dean Myers and the World We've Lost<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Walter
Dean Myers died today. With this sudden loss, his much-read <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/16/opinion/sunday/where-are-the-people-of-color-in-childrens-books.html?_r=0" target="_blank">New York Times opinion piece</a> from this past March takes on the character of a final
charge to the kidlit community. One I hope we will fulfill.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">What I thought when I first read the piece (from a perspective, of course, that began some 30 years after that of Mr. Myers) was this: </span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><i>It
wasn't always like this.</i></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-BimARcnevnY/U7SIhENh9wI/AAAAAAAAAEg/p2uzqLTCUNU/s1600/walterdeanmyers.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-BimARcnevnY/U7SIhENh9wI/AAAAAAAAAEg/p2uzqLTCUNU/s1600/walterdeanmyers.jpg" height="320" width="210" /></a></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Here's
a book from my shelves. If memory serves (it occasionally does) my
brother bought it for the cover price of 1.50 at The Book Worm, a
shop around 15 miles from our home. We bought books there sometimes, when we were in funds--
books by Walter Dean Myers, and S.E. Hinton, and John D. Fitzgerald,
and Mildred Taylor. The books were all, like this one, modest in size
and presentation. The Potterquake was still far in the future, and
the children's book market wasn't anywhere near as competitive as it
is now.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> Hold
onto that last thought. It's important.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> In this
long ago world, computers were vast objects that filled an entire
room, and nothing went "beep" except automobile horns. Local volunteer firemen used to take all us village kids on long,
long night rides atop the fire trucks and we were allowed to put out
the streetlamps with the searchlights. Kids roamed freely in the
fields and forests; no one expected anyone so patently annoying as us
to be kidnapped.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> The
kids in Walter Dean Myers's books explored just like us, only in
Harlem. That interested us. We climbed about in barns; Myers's
characters roamed abandoned buildings. We rode our bikes down
the steepest hills we could find; Myers's characters did wheelies.
Harlem was a different world-- but these characters were fully
relatable.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> It had
clearly never occurred to anybody at The Book Worm that the kids in a
nearly all-white community wouldn't want to read books about kids in
Harlem. As you can tell from the cover, it also hadn't occurred to
anyone at Avon Books that since the majority of American children
were white, black children ought to be kept off book covers. There can certainly have been no idea that the books were somehow Special Interest, rather than mainstream. The Book Worm was about the size of the average motel room, with no shelf space for Special Interest.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">In his
New York Times piece this past March, Myers wrote:</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">"...This
was exactly what I wanted to do when I wrote about poor inner-city
children — to make them human in the eyes of readers and,
especially, in their own eyes. I need to make them feel as if they
are part of America’s dream, that all the rhetoric is meant for
them, and that they are wanted in this country."</span></div>
</blockquote>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> I can
only speak to the first part of Myers's wish. Mission accomplished.
We ate these books with a spoon. Any suggestion that we shouldn't, or
wouldn't, or couldn't have done so would have had to come to us from
adults. No adults obliged.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> We grew
up. The Myers books got tucked onto a shelf with many others. The
Potterquake came along and shook the children's book world to its core. And
the annual output of children's books tripled.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> The
number of children, however, did not.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> Suddenly
the children's book world got more competitive. It became necessary
to find an edge wherever one could. Covers became a matter of intense
study and scrutiny-- what would attract readers? What would repel
them?</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> At some
point, someone somewhere seems to have decided, based on who knows
what data or theory or madness, that a protagonist of color on the cover would
<i>not</i> attract readers. (Begging the question: Which readers?)</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> There
followed a period of several years during which African-American characters--
and, to a lesser extent, other characters of color-- vanished from
the covers of children's books. Books that <i>had</i> a protagonist of color
would show something non-human on the cover-- a symbol, a building, a
monster, anything! Or the protagonist would appear in silhouette. Or, in what
quickly came to be known as whitewashing, the protagonist would be
shown on the cover but would have mysteriously lost melanin.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> I see
signs that this is dying out. I still think we have a long way to go
before we progress to the point we were at in 1977. But I think that we've passed
our nadir, and we're on an upward climb. Characters of color are
reappearing on book covers, and some of them are even
African-American.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">We can
do better, though. We can do <i>so</i> much better.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Let's do it for Walter Dean Myers.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> </span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
Sage Blackwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10847897945969895906noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4599232818232762204.post-22021868526595446962014-06-19T15:36:00.002-07:002014-07-02T15:30:36.985-07:00Recipe: Spiedies<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Friends,
I am about to do what no upstate New Yorker does lightly. I am about
to share my spiedies recipe.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Understand,
this isn't my actual spiedies <i>recipe</i>. This is an approximation
of how I make 'em, jotted down for the first time ever during a
recent spiedies-making episode.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">The main
principles which my method follows are... wait, what?</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">What are
spiedies?</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Oh.
Spiedies (pronounced "speedies") are a regional dish found
within roughly 60 miles of Binghamton, New York. They are chunks of
spiced, marinated meat, eaten in a sandwich. When I was a kid I
thought they were called "spiedies" because they cook very
quickly. Now that I am grown up and have Google, I'm able to find out
that nobody knows why they're called spiedies. When I was a kid they
were almost always made with beef. Nowadays I think they are more
often made with chicken.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Anyway,
spiedies are not good for you, but I like to think my version is
less-not-good-for-you than others.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Warning:
Spiedies are addictive.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Ingredients:</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">2 large
garlic cloves</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">1 lb
(450 grams) organic free-range boneless, skinless chicken breast</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">1/2 cup
olive oil (<a href="http://www.jsward.com/cooking/conversion.shtml" target="_blank">Metric conversion table for recipes</a>) </span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">1/4 cup
red wine vinegar</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">1/4 tsp
lime juice</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">1/4 tsp
turmeric</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">pinch
fresh ground black pepper</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">1/8 tsp
Jane's Crazy Mixed-Up Salt (optional)</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">1 T<a class="sdendnoteanc" href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4599232818232762204#sdendnote1sym" name="sdendnote1anc"><sup>1</sup></a>
fresh basil (</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">about 8 leaves) </span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">1 T fresh sage
</span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">1 tsp
fresh oregano</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">4
spearmint leaves and 2 peppermint leaves (or 1 tsp combined fresh
mint)</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Chop the
garlic and set it aside to rest.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Combine
the olive oil, vinegar and lime juice in a large measuring cup. Add
the turmeric, pepper, and salt. Set aside.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Chop the
herbs; set aside.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Remove
all fat from the chicken and cut it into chunks or strips no more
than 1" in size. Put the chicken in a bowl or plastic bag.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Beat the
oil, vinegar and lime juice briskly with a fork for 1 minute. It will separate
immediately, but at least you tried. Add the garlic; stir. Add the
herbs and stir thoroughly.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Pour
this marinade over the chicken and stir well. Marinate in the
refrigerator for 24 hours or more, stirring occasionally in a vain
effort to get the oil and vinegar back together.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">The
olive oil may solidify in the fridge. For this reason, I prefer to
use a plastic bag. Frequent vigorous (but not too vigorous) squishing
of the plastic bag can reliquefy the oil.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Once the
spiedies are marinated, remove them from the liquid. Fry them. (The oil will tend to splatter, so you might want to cover the pan. Alternatively, they can be skewered and cooked outdoors on a grill.) Drain on paper towels or paper bags, and serve in your preferred sandwich wrapper. I like to use toasted
Italian bread. Traditionally nothing joins the spiedies inside the
sandwich. It's just spiedies and bread. </span><br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Alternative
for those avoiding starches: Cut each chicken breast into three or
four thin cutlets, instead of chunks or strips. Marinate. Then, instead of
frying, spread the marinated spiedies on a cookie sheet and bake in a 350 degree oven for 20-25
minutes, or until cooked through. (Slice and make sure there's no
pink inside.)</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">The
fresh herbs, by the way, are why I prefer to make spiedies in the
summer. But don't go out and buy all that stuff if you haven't got
it growing. And if you have thyme, which grows wild in much of
upstate New York, use that too. Just use whatever you have, in
whatever combination you want. Spiedies are essentially a state of
mind.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div id="sdendnote1">
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><a class="sdendnotesym" href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4599232818232762204#sdendnote1anc" name="sdendnote1sym">1</a>
If using dried herbs, use 1/3 as much. 1 T fresh= 1 tsp dried. 1 tsp
fresh= 1/3 tsp dried. </span>
</div>
</div>
Sage Blackwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10847897945969895906noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4599232818232762204.post-53613508243235329952014-06-05T09:00:00.001-07:002014-06-05T11:44:27.435-07:00My Writing Process Blog TourI would like to thank the delightful and wise <a href="http://www.meganfrazer.com/" target="_blank">Megan
Frazer Blakemore</a>, author of <i>The Spy Catchers of Maple Hill,</i>
for inviting me to participate in the Writing Process Blog Tour. I
have the honor to know Megan through Twitter and lists; lots of
lists! Her 2013 middle grade fantasy <i>The Water Castle </i>tends to
appear on the same lists as my book <i>Jinx</i>. Most recently, they
both appeared on the 2014-15 New Mexico <a href="http://www.loebookaward.com/young_adult_books" target="_blank">Land of Enchantment</a> list. <br />
<br />
<br />
And now, here are my answers to the Writing Process Blog Tour
questions:<br />
<br />
<i>1) What are you working on?</i><br />
<br />
I'm sitting here waiting for the page proofs of the third
and (for the nonce) final Jinx book, <i>Jinx's Fire</i>. They should
be here very soon. And I've started drafting another middle
grade fantasy. This one is set in a different world from Jinx's, and
at the moment the protagonist is a girl. I'm about 12,000 words
in.<br />
<br />
<i>2) How does your work differ from others of its genre?</i><br />
<br />
I suppose anybody's work is different from anyone else's.
You could take any story idea (for example: Due to a series of errors, a fieldmouse is elected
President of the United States) and hand it to 100 different writers,
and you'd get 100 different stories.<br />
<br />
One characteristic of all my work is that I'm fascinated by
setting. I love
to explore places. Setting is nearly always a character in my stories. In the <i>Jinx</i> books, the setting even has a speaking
part.
<br />
<br />
<br />
<i>3) Why do you write what you do?</i><br />
<br />
The desire to explore, again. Not just places, but
relationships between people, and the reasons why things happen, and
the unwritten rules and assumptions that we live by.<br />
<br />
I feel lucky to be writing children's fantasy, because fantasy stays with you.
When people talk about the books they remember from childhood, more
often than not they talk about fantasy. There's much more children's
fantasy being published now than when I was a kid, and I'm so glad to
be allowed to be part of that.<br />
<br />
<i>4) How does your writing process work?
</i><br />
<br />
I spend a long time-- months, sometimes years-- letting the story
come to me. While that's happening, I walk, I draw pictures, I write
down bits of dialogue and ideas, and I do bubble maps. I use colored
sharpies for the latter; a different color for each character or
event. (I have a lot of colors.) I also use the colored sharpies on index cards, which I'll rearrange on a table or on the
wall until I get the main events into a temporary order.<br />
<br />
Then I start drafting, as fast as possible. I shoot for 10,000
words a week and usually make it.<br />
<br />
I set the draft aside for as long as I can afford to (usually two
weeks to two months). Then I come back to it
with fresh eyes and begin the revision process. I usually go back and
make more bubble charts at this point to resolve issues that have
come up during the drafting. It'll be sometime after the third draft that I actually show
the work to friends, family, or critique partners.
<br />
<br />
After that there will be several more revisions before I'm ready
to send the work off, and then finally of course there are yet more
revisions with the guidance of my agent or an editor.<br />
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Oops, here's the UPS guy with those
page proofs for <i>Jinx's Fire</i>! So I'm going to finish now and hand you
over to another participant in the Writing Process Blog Tour, fantasy
author Sarah Prineas, who needs no introduction but is going to get
one anyway.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Sarah Prineas's award-winning <i>Magic
Thief</i> series follows the adventures of the irascible wizard Nevery
and his gutterboy apprentice, Connwaer. Sarah holds a PhD in English
literature and recently taught honors seminars on fantasy and science
fiction literature at the University of Iowa. Her latest book is
<i>Moonkind</i>, the conclusion to the <i>Winterling</i> series. Visit her website <a href="http://www.sarah-prineas.com/" target="_blank">here</a><cite><span style="font-style: normal;">,
and watch for her Writing Process Blog Tour post on June 12</span></cite><cite><sup><span style="font-style: normal;">th</span></sup></cite><cite><span style="font-style: normal;">.</span></cite></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Sage Blackwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10847897945969895906noreply@blogger.com2