WORN OUT WORDS

                                               

“That’s a cliché!”

We’ve all heard that and we cringe when someone says it about our writing. We know clichés are bad. We know they’re a sign of an amateur. But sometimes we’re too lazy to get rid of them.

Do clichés have a place? Yes. In dialogue, if you have decided that is how you want your character to talk. And in first drafts, when you want to write fast and furious. It can slow you down to think of something new and fresh and slowing down is something we don’t want to do in our first drafts. We want to get the story out. Then we can go on a cliché hunt.

Why are clichés appealing? They’re easy (usually the first thing that pops into our head). And they’re effective. That’s why they exist. The first person who spoke or wrote a cliché was probably brilliant. The comparison or descriptive phrase was so perfect that it was worth repeating. Again and again and again. Then one day it became stale and boring.

Clichés can be a few words (as wise as an owl),  a description of a character (a fast talking lawyer) or even a description of a setting (Grandma and Grandpa’s farm.) James Scott Bell talks about “flipping the obvious.” Change that burly male baseball cap wearing truck driver to a woman and see what happens.

In recent news, I was startled to hear that one of the bombing suspects of the Parliament Buildings in Victoria was a 29 year old woman. In a book, she would be a more interesting character than her male partner. 

In my Language Arts classes, my grade sixes and sevens had fun with clichés. At breakneck speed I would shout out the beginning of a phrase and they would shout out the ending:

Pretty predictable responses.

As speedy as . . .  a bullet

As skinny as . . .  a stick

As black as . . .  night

As white as  . . . a ghost.

They learned that the first thing you think of is almost always a cliche.

Then we would go back and see how creative we could be.

I remember one student beaming with pride when he came up with “as white as mayonnaise!”  

Nigel Watts in Write A Novel and Get It Published warns us that . .  .

A writer serving up clichés is in effect feeding his readers warmed-up leftovers!

Does that make your stomach sink? Whoops! Heard that before.  Does it make your stomach turn a somersault? I’ve probably read that a thousand times. Does it make your stomach plummet six stories?

Hey, it’s late.

But one day I’m planning on using “as white as mayonnaise” in a story!

MY FAVOURITE KIDS BOOK OF THE WEE

The Old Brown Suitcase by Lillian Boraks-Nemetz

Slava is a compelling narrator in this award winning Holocaust story that alternates chapters between Poland and Canada.

Good Reads says:

The story juxtaposes heart-wrenching scenes from a child's life in war-torn Poland with the life of a teenager trying to adjust to a new country in time of peace. In Canada, it is not easy for Slava to build a bridge between two cultures; nor is it easy to live with the turmoil of her immediate past. At the same time she must face the new challenges involved in being an immigrant, a Jew and a teenage girl.

 

ON BLOGGING

                                            

I love making New Years Resolutions. They suit the side of me that loves to make lists (I make lists for everything!) Occasionally I stick to one or two resolutions, at least for a few months. In my writing journal, I make a list of resolutions specific to my writing career, mostly to do with word quotas, deadlines, finishing first drafts and so on. Not too daunting.

This past January, I added a resolution that I’ve been avoiding like the plague. Get into social media.

That’s where the world is (the young world, anyway, that makes up most of my readers.) So I need to be there too. I know that but I avoid it.

I pride myself on having an up to date website. I also answer emails from kids all over the country. I bought a book called 55 Ways to Promote and Sell Your Book on the Internet by Bob Baker. I even participated in a chat room with girls across the U.S. Surely that’s enough? Not any more.

So I made two New Years Resolutions. Start a blog. Get into Facebook.

The problem is, I didn't think I liked blogs all that much. I’m not interested in reading (or writing) about day to day trivia.   Then I read an article about blogging that suggested you pick an area of expertise and blog about that. Aha! That sounded better. So I came up with this blog of writing tips and strategies.

I made a commitment in February to blog for a year. I aimed for once a week, but now am happy with every ten days or so if I’m busy. I keep a bank of blog entries, ready to post, so if I travel or have a lot of other things going on, I can pull one out of there.

Is anyone reading my blog? I don’t know. I read that you should ignore statistics on how many readers you have for the first year. Makes sense to me. I don’t want to worry about this blog. I want to have fun

And I am. I’m digging into all my how-to-write books for ideas and inspiration. I’m thinking about what works and what doesn’t work for me. I’m remembering old tips and strategies that I’ve forgotten and I’m incorporating them into my writing. Best of all, I get to practice a different form of writing than juvenile fiction.

And I get a thrill when someone (rarely) posts a comment!

As for my second New Years Resolution . . . er . . . something to do with Facebook. I do have a Facebook Fan Page and I try to post things on it but it’s not really working for me yet. The problem is, I don’t really get Facebook.

Anyway, I’ve got an idea for another blog so Facebook can wait . . . for now.

WHAT KIDS WORRY ABOUT

 

Conflict, conflict, conflict. That's what makes a memorable story. A great way to bring conflict into your story is to give your character something to worry about.

Kids don't worry about the same things as adults. A six year old girl doesn't worry about the same things as a seventeen year old boy. But everyone worries, and as a reader we identify with and root for the character who is worried

When I taught a class for the Summer School of Arts in Wells, B.C., we made a chart. . . . .

                             WHAT KIDS WORRY ABOUT

 

PRESCHOOL                  ELEMENTARY                     HIGH SCHOOL

Robin worries that her cousin April
won't like living with her.

We thought about our own children, our friends' children, kids we had worked with and memories of when we were children

.

A sample of what we came up with:

PRESCHOOL:

-separation from parents

-doctor and dentist

-mean dogs

-learning to tie shoes

-monsters in closet

ELEMENTARY:

-moving

Melissa worries that her mother will
 start drinking again.

-summer camp

- getting invited to a birthday party

-being picked for a team

-liking your teacher

HIGH SCHOOL:

- having a boyfriend/girlfriend

-sexual orientation

-grades and scholarships

-peer pressure

-bullying

Of course, there's lot of overlap. Kids of all ages might worry about their parents getting divorced or losing a best friend. 

Tip: Make your own chart. Talk to as many kids as you can.  Listen for the unusual. . .   A young figure skater who worries that her skate laces will break in a competition (it's happened!)  Jot down ideas as they come to you. You never know which one will spark a great story!

Some advice from Donald Maass in Writing the Breakout Novel . . .

In a novel, struggle is far more compelling than satisfaction. Conflict is the first principle of plot construction and it is also the underlying secret of great characters.

 

MY FAVOURITE KIDS BOOK OF THE WEEK:

Mama's Going to Buy You a Mockingbird by Jean Little

Jeremy and Sarah learn to cope with their grief as their father battles cancer. It's sad but beautifully written and my favourite of all of Jean Little's books.

FUN FOR KIDS:

What if . . . you found an old fashioned key in a junk store? Who did it belong to? What does it open?

 

 

 

 

NO TIME TO WRITE?

                               

No time to write! Have you caught yourself saying that? For the moment it eases the guilt (yes, almost all the writers I know battle with guilt). You want to write, you call yourself a writer, you have all kinds of wonderful ideas for plots and characters but . . . darn it, you just don't have time to write.

There are meals to cook, laundry to wash, perhaps a day job, demanding children, demanding pets, meetings, gardens to weed, groceries to buy, movies you'd rather watch . . . the list is endless. No wonder you have no time to write! 

The solution? You have to MAKE time. Writing has to become one of your priorities. At least as important as laundry!

James Scott Bell talks about learning to snatch time. Find those moments in a day when you could write for ten or fifteen minutes.  How about while you're waiting for something to cook on the stove, in waiting rooms, on the bus? There are so many portable lightweight devices available that make it easy to carry your writing along with you. Good old fashioned pen and paper works too!

I like to make a quick schedule for the day, usually last thing before I go to bed the night before. I allot a slot for writing and I make a commitment that I will write at that time. It's great if you can write at the same time every day (the writing will generally come more easily) but it's more important to write. Any time.

Put a Do Not Disturb sign on your door. Turn off your phone. Refuse to answer emails. Do whatever it takes to give yourself the time to write.

When I was teaching school, I got up every day (well, most days) at five o'clock and wrote until seven. Now I have the luxury of being able to sleep in and I kind of miss those early mornings. Those two hours were incredibly productive - probably because I knew they were the only two hours I had.

Some advice from Nigel Watts in Write a Novel and Get it Published . . .

Free time will rarely come knocking at your door. You must make the time if you're serious about writing.

Elizabeth George in Write Away can't put it more directly .  . .

I suit up and show up. I sit down at the computer and I do the work, moving it forward a sentence at a time, which is ultimately the only way there is to write a book.

MY FAVOURITE KIDS BOOK OF THE WEEK:

Half Brother by Kenneth Oppel

I love this story of a family who brings an eight day old chimpanzee into their home as part of a scientific research project. Half Brother has won all kinds of accolades including winner of the CLA Book of the Year for Children Award.

GoodReads says: Half Brother isn't just a story about a boy and a chimp. It's about the way families are made, the way humanity is judged, the way easy choices become hard ones, and how you can't always do right by the people and animals you love. In the hands of master storyteller Kenneth Oppel, it's a novel you won't soon forget.

 

 

PASSING TIME

                                    

 

Handling the passing of time in your novel doesn't have to be tricky.

Most of my novels take place over a relatively short period of time. A week or two. Sometimes a month. When I'm writing the first draft, I keep a timeline beside me. I list the days down one side of the page, eg Wed June 8. When I finish a scene, I make a brief note beside the date. Some days will have three or four scenes beside them. Some days are blank.

Is it okay to have nothing happen for a few days? Of course. You don't have to tell what your character does every single day.  Or every moment of the day. If it's not important what your character ate for breakfast, skip it. You should only write scenes that move your story forward.

The time line helps me keep  track of where I am. It also prevents me from making mistakes - something happens on Monday and four days later it's only Wednesday. Readers will pick up on those errors.

Another bonus of the timeline is when you are finished you will have a neat summary of the story's action on one or two pages.

Our horse Dylan
 who was the inspiration for the pony Lucky in The Way Home

There are lots of phrases you can use to pass time:

the next day

a few days later

that afternoon

two days later

the next week

by the weekend

Another device is to leave a double space on the page - that indicates to the reader that some time has passed. You can do that several times within a chapter.

Remember: If it doesn't move the story forward, leave it out.

 

Some advice from Alfred Hitchcock!

Drama is like real life with the dull bits cut out.

MY FAVOURITE KIDS BOOK OF THE WEEK:

Ida B . . . and Her Plans to Maximize Fun, Avoid Disaster and (Possibly) Save the World  by Katherine Hannigan

This book is a lot of fun! The voice of Ida B is engaging and chock full of personality.

Amazon Review:

Ida B. Applewood believes there is never enough time for fun. That's why she's so happy to be homeschooled and to spend every free second outside with the trees and the brook. Then some not-so-great things happen in her world. Ida B has to go back to that Place of Slow but Sure Body-Cramping, Mind-Numbing, Fun-Killing Torture—school. She feels her heart getting smaller and smaller and hardening into a sharp, black stone. How can things go from righter than right to a million miles beyond wrong? Can Ida B put together a plan to get things back to just-about perfect again?

 

 

 

IT'S A NAIL BITER!

                        

Characters feel things. That's why the reader identifies with a character. But the story will fall flat if you write "John was afraid" or "Sally was embarrassed."

When I taught a class for the Summer School of Arts in Wells, B.C., we made a big chart with the headings:

                   EMOTION                               ACTION

Then we brainstormed.

Some of our ideas:

Anxiety    jittery, stomach ache, unable to focus, blinking, stammering,                   wringing hands, playing with hair, sucking thumb, difficulty

                 breathing, biting nails, picking at cuticles, looking away, jiggling                     knee, rattling keys or change in pocket, wants to throw up,

                pacing, tossing and turning in bed, shredding a styrofoam cup

Anger       flailing arms, red face, cold eyes, pursed lips, narrowed eyes,

                 scowling, shouting, glaring, spitting, slamming things, stomping,                          pulsing vein,  muscles tightening, roaring in head, throwing

                 something, breaking something, clenched fists                         

Fear         wide eyes, pounding heart, racing heart, butterflies, falling

                stomach, goosebumps, cold sweat, prickles up spine, weak knees,

                trembling, shaking, shivering, curling into ball, backing away, hard

                to breathe, dry mouth, frozen

Other emotions to try: embarrassment, loneliness, guilt, grief, confusion, shame, envy, worry, pain, sadness.

Tips:

Keep your word lists handy and reach for them when your character feels something.

Do a word check of your manuscript to make sure you're not using the same action too many times eg. Does your heroine's heart pound on  every page?

And don't overdo it! You're writing a novel, not anatomy text book!

Some advice from Nancy Lamb in The Writer's Guide to Crafting Stories for Children .

Whether it's joy, anxiety or sadness, find interesting ways to show the reader what the hero feels. You'll be rewarded with a more intriguing portrait for your efforts and a more enthusiastic audience for your book.

MY FAVOURITE KIDS BOOK OF THE WEEK:

Jane of Lantern Hill by Elizabeth Montgomery

I read this book at least 10 times when I was a kid! It's sentimental but I guarantee you'll fall in love with Jane. The setting of Prince Edward Island is enchanting and Jane's grandmother is a satisfying villain.

 FUN FOR KIDS:

What if . . . you found a diary hidden in your attic with a secret in it that could change your life? What could that secret be? What would you do?

 

 Next week:

WHAT COMES BEFORE

                           

 

One of the trickiest things for me when I write a book is fitting in all the stuff that happened to the characters before the story begins.

It's not hard to invent this prior life - a mother's death in a horse riding accident, moving from town to town, a devastating fire, a string of foster homes and changing schools are a few examples of the things that have happened to some of my characters before their story begins. These events from the past add layers of interest and depth to a character. They explain why a character behaves or thinks in a certain way.

So why is it so hard?

As soon as you switch to backstory, no matter how interesting, you take the reader away from the immediate action. And that slows the story down.

There are two ways to deal with backstory. You can insert the information into the dialogue or thoughts of a character without leaving the present action. Or you can actually go back in time and write a scene called a flashback.

Be very wary of flashbacks when writing for children. Young readers can quickly become confused. Make sure there is a compelling reason to use a flashback.

TIPS FOR WRITING FLASHBACKS:

*It must follow at least one strong scene set in the present so the reader has a sense of the character (if you don't care about the character today, why will you care about the character in the past?)

*Make it clear exactly when the flashback occurs.

*Avoid overusing the word "had" which will quickly become annoying. Use it for a few times and then switch to the regular past tense.

*Make the scene dramatic with strong dialogue and conflict.

A better way to tell the backstory when writing for children is to insert it into the character's thoughts or dialogue. But be careful it doesn't become an information dump. Tell only as much as you have to. If it's not important, leave it out.

Avoid a lot of backstory in  the first chapter. You might be surprised how easily it slips in. I once highlighted all the backstory in one of my drafts of a first chapter and was shocked when I saw how much there was.  I imagined the reader saying, "Get on with the story!" I deleted, deleted, deleted.

I believe one of the most common reasons a child finds a book boring is because there is too much "telling" of backstory.

No matter how you choose to tell the backstory, you'll need a trigger. A strong sensory detail works well. In my book Missing, the smell of hay in a barn reminds Thea of her mother and the horse barn on their old farm.

          The heavy door creaks when I push it open. I'm immediately hit with the smell of hay. An image of another barn slams into my head. . . It's four years since I've been in a horse barn. Four years since Mom died.

          From there, I was able to insert relevant details of Thea's past life with her mother.

So, let your imagination soar and invent all kinds of details about your character's past. But only use the most important ones!

Some advice from Nancy Kress in Beginnings, Middles and Ends . . .

A writer always pays a price for flashbacks. Any flashback, no matter how well written or interesting, will distance your reader from the action . . . Are you more thrilled by a kiss you experience today or one you remember from a year ago?

MY FAVOURITE KIDS BOOK OF THE WEEK:

 Making Bombs for Hitler by Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch

Winner of the Silver Birch Award!

A gripping story about a girl sent to a Nazi slave labour camp. Look for the companion novel Stolen Child.