Getting Inside Your Character

In all of my classes at the moment, we are workshopping (critiquing). This means I am reading and commenting on around 52 lots of pages over 3-4 weeks, ranging from short stories to picture books to novels, which includes fantasy, crime, literary, humorous, YA and little kid's stories. For many students, this is their first experience of getting multiple comments on their work, from people who may not read the same genre or have done any past critiquing of other's writing. It's a lesson in diplomacy, tact, encouragement and helpful feedback.

The one thing that comes through for me is the lack of depth in characterisation and point of view. It's totally understandable - you come to class, you spend a lot of time reading, writing, discussing - and then suddenly you have to produce something. It's been hard enough taking in all the information and how-to stuff. To put it all into practice at once is a big ask. But my main feedback in 90% of what I am commenting on is: you are not deep enough into knowing your viewpoint character and seeing the world through their eyes, speaking with their voice, acting with their impulses and motivations.

My new book Tracey Binns is Trouble is just starting to get reviews (brilliant one in the Sunday Age today - very exciting!), and as part of my own publicity efforts, I created a Tracey Binns website. What was fantastic about this (apart from the fact that I had a lot of fun with it) was the way in which it really helped me get even further inside the character of Tracey. I had to stop being me (old, boring writer) and become Tracey (12 year-old smartypants with lots of energy and kid humour). I imagined what the site would look like and sound like if I turned it over to her, what kinds of stuff she'd put on it, what she'd say about things like Teacher's Notes that the publisher kindly gave me to add in.

Tracey is not polite. She likes to say what she thinks, she has some weird likes and dislikes, but she also is good at sharing - so she shares her favourite recipe with you. As I am writing another book about her, creating this site became part of getting back inside her head and hearing her voice and what she says about the world around her. She'd love you to visit!

Very few people are going to create a website for their character, especially when the book isn't even finished, let alone published. But it's that kind of character development and work that helps to create a strong voice in the work, and also goes a long way towards the reader feeling that this is a real person, with a story that is interesting and engaging. In class, we start with character templates and timelines, but that's just the beginning. There are other methods that help - free writing, drawing pictures, imagining dreams and daydreams, interviewing the character, writing other stories about them - and all of them help the writer move more deeply into their head and heart. I think it's an essential part of what brings a story alive, and worth the hard background work.

Where Reading Takes You

First of all, let me send out a million commiserations to all those poor Australian kids who had to sit government-orchestrated tests today. Trust me, whatever the results try to tell you - you are doing OK. And the tests are crap. You want to know how your teachers feel about those tests? Read this. I cannot believe that this government is venturing down the road of No Child Left Behind. To me, it's like saying our teachers are useless and need a good testing kick up the rear end to make them better. NOT. Who knows more about the kids in their classroom than a teacher? Who knows more about where those kids come from? For crying out loud, we have kids entering our schools every year who don't know which way up to hold a book! You think a test is going to solve that?

OK, time out for a few moments while I try to calm down.

What does reading do? I've already gabbed on here about what reading does for someone who wants to be a writer. I'm seeing students right now who want to write children's books who read 5 or 10 and think that's it. No, it's not. You have to read 20 or 40 or 100, and then think about who those books are speaking to, what the voice is doing, what the language is doing (not dumbing things down), how things like pace and action and dialogue are all working together to create a "cracking good read" (shades of Basil Brush there).

But it's much more important for us to think about what reading does for our kids. I was talking to someone today (Hi, M!) who said her son (8) is writing a book. And he's doing a pretty good job of it too, even with the grammar and punctuation. Straight away, I asked her, "Is he a keen reader?". Yes, she said. And that just proved to me yet again that reading lots of books leads to an innate, basic understanding of not only how a story works, but how a sentence works. If you read plenty of books, of any kind, or poems, articles, even encyclopedias, you just come to understand how sentences work. You don't need to know subject-verb-object in parsing terms, you just know it by reading it over and over.

I read something today about the nose-dive in the amount of reading that 18-30 year olds in the US do (it was from a magazine called Narrative) and how the editors have decided to try to do something about it by focusing the magazine on that reading age group. But they also talked about much younger readers - how kids in the 11-13 age group are also reading less. There's been a lot of stuff about this recently, and every project designed to get people reading again is great. But it does ultimately come back to schools - primary schools. If someone isn't reading by Year 7, you're unlikely to get them back.

There is a big push here to refund schools so that they all have teacher-librarians (a dying breed). A librarian from the NT blogged about how he wasn't sure if it was worth going back to uni to train as a teacher-librarian. Hello? If you are already a teacher or a librarian, why do you have to go back and pay HECS and study some more? They teach or work in a library, they love books, they love reading, they want to get kids to love reading. Why do you need one more piece of paper (that cost you more than a few thousand dollars) to prove it?

I have commented before about how reading is reading, and any kind of reading is great. It is. But now I'm going to go one step further and suggest that what fiction reading can do is set your imagination on fire. It takes you to other worlds, it shows you things about the world in a way that facts seldom do, it tells the stories of other kids like you, it shows you about issues like refugees in a way that newspaper reports don't (or show falsely). Reading a book takes stamina, but a great story will carry you away to a world you didn't know existed. A poor reader who finally finds a book they love, a book that transports them, that gives them hope and courage - how is that reader going to find that book on their own?

New Syndrome reported

In the Age newspaper this weekend came the information about a new syndrome, and I believe I am suffering from it. It's LLHCS - Late Life Holden Caulfield Syndrome, recently discovered by Michael Leunig, writer and columnist. He named it after Holden in The Catcher in the Rye, a character who "saw clearly the world's phoniness and despaired because people always applaud the wrong things."

Leunig also says that along with this syndrome, as he gets older, his bulls*** detector just seems to get stronger and stronger. This could be a curse or a blessing. I'm with him there. My tolerance for BS at work is getting lower and lower which, when you work inside what amounts to a bureaucracy, is not a good thing! As for the rest of my life, no doubt my friends would say, "That's not news to us!!"

On the other hand, George Clooney observed that this may finally be the time in US history where young people are going to stand up and vote at last, and have a say in who runs their country. I guess it might all come down to their BS detectors too. Have they got them turned on to full power yet?

More CBCA Conference notes

This is the wonderful Liz Honey, signing one of her books after our poetry session. Talking to people now about the conference, a week later, means I am remembering more of the highlights and things that stuck in my brain. Such as the way that, as the conference went on, more and more people started to say how sick of the word literacy they were. How often it was used an excuse for doing stupid stuff like testing (instead of helping kids to enjoy reading), how so many "experts" used it as a topic to beat their chests about and make a noise while contributing little of value. How it is used as a big stick to threaten schools and teachers. So inevitably the suggestion came that we ban the word and go back to talking about literature. I'll say yes to that.

There was an inevitable small stoush over the CBCA shortlists being elitist, and how any "popular" book that made it to a shortlist was a token gesture (to whom, I wonder). The other main point of disagreement was over what some called "trashy" books, suggesting they should be banned or children actively dissuaded from reading them. One would have to ask why. Reading is reading is reading, isn't it? I'm often amazed at those who do studies on reading and forget to include things like websites, comics and nonfiction books, focusing only on fiction. Lots of people don't read fiction, but they do read. And then of course there are people like me (and I have discovered some of my students!) who will read anything, even the back of the cereal box at breakfast.

There were lots of book launches, not just mine, and piles and piles of new books in the Trade Fair. The Fair is definitely freebie time, and I came home with several new books that were being handed out like those food samples at the supermarket. I avoid the food and love the books. (I also have to celebrate winning a door prize at the Saturday night dinner and - lo and behold - the prize was books. Yaayy!)

One interesting panel session was about the survival of picture books. Ann James would have to be one of our best illustrators in Australia, yet she said although she is doing better work now than ten years ago, she is earning less, due mostly to deep discounting practices, where a creator can end up being paid five cents per book for deep discount sales because those royalties are not based on RRP. Five cents compared to $1.30? Tell us about it! Unfortunately, the guy from ASO, where a lot of those dd sales often go, said he had no idea that was the case. I say unfortunately because after the session several people said they had heard him speak before and he certainly did know that was the case. Logically, how could you not?

One issue that did come up in informal delegate discussions quite a few times was the cost to attend the conference. I knew several people who couldn't afford to go, even for one day, although the keynote speaker talks were open to the public for $25 each. However, if you wanted to attend the whole thing, you were looking at around $700. Not a problem if your school or library pays for you, but out of range for most others who were genuinely interested. Who do we want to attend these conferences? Obviously teachers and librarians from schools and public libraries, and other professionals in the children's book arena. Does the CBCA want new authors there? What about those interested in books simply because they love reading and maybe have kids? It's an ongoing problem - obviously they have to cover costs, and venues now are expensive, as is catering and organising. It is something to think about before the next one.

CBCA Conference

Where to start? Some terrific keynote speakers were the highlight for me. Shaun Tan (below) spoke about his life as an artist and illustrator and used an amazing array of images. This one is from his book The Lost Thing. He also showed his drawings from his first day and second day of school, and one of a T Rex from when he was seven - absolutely gobsmackingly good!
Another great speaker was Neil Gaiman. His session was one that was open to the general public, who swelled audience numbers by a hundred or more. He included poems based on fairy tales in his talk, and said some very interesting things about the craft of writing and ideas that come from 'what if'. Emily Rodda was also good, and made us laugh.

My favourite speaker of all, though, was Bernard Beckett from New Zealand. Text launched his book Genesis and Bernard spoke for about five minutes. I could have listened to him for another hour or more. He was very genuine and passionate, and kept everyone entranced. I have bought a copy of his book, which was recently optioned for a movie. The guy from Text made a point of saying how they were actively looking right now for great YA novels (got one in your bottom drawer? it has to be really good!)

The top photo is of Elizabeth Fensham launching my book Tracey Binns is Trouble. She said some lovely things about the book and read some bits from it. The launch was in the trade fair so it was very noisy, but we gathered a small crowd. (Yes, that's me hovering in the background.) I was pleased to be able to get Tracey's website up before the conference, and it was a lot of fun. Plus an excellent way to get even more in tune with the character. She kind of took over and wrote the site herself.

On Sunday, I chaired a session called Wild About Poetry, and we had Liz Honey, Meredith Costain and Moira Robinson on the panel. Lots of issues raised and discussed, and the outcome is a proposal for an Australian Children's Laureate. Now wouldn't that be wonderful! All we need is some money. And lots of people to get behind the idea. In the final session I sat behind two women who are part of the conference committee for the 2010 Brisbane event, so I hinted in a big way that another poetry session would be very popular.
More reports soon.

How/Why do you Read?

My day started today with Blogger sending me a comment from a post I wrote a long time ago, about Melina Marchetta's third novel On the Jellicoe Road. The commenter castigated me for criticising what was apparently his/her favourite book. How could I? How dumb was I? It was a reminder of how differently people read, and the reasons why they read. I can't tell you how many times we have read a novel in class (Cold Mountain was a notable) and had a number of students absolutely loathe it, and a just as vocal group love it. House of Sand and Fog is a great novel for dividing a class between those who support one character and those who are barracking for the other.

Why does this happen? For the same reason some viewers love Lost and others hate it, and some viewers love House and some hate it. I often look at the highest rating TV shows, or the bestsellers list in the Saturday paper and wonder how on earth that show or that book became so popular. It's about personal taste. The biggest divide I've seen (which still seems a bit strange to me) is between the science fiction fans and the fantasy fans. Both seem to think the other group has no taste at all!

Very often it's about who you are and where you are (in your life) when you read a book. I was given a copy of The God of Small Things but it took me a year to get around to reading it because I never felt in the right frame of mind - in other words, I felt too darned tired to get my head around the language and ideas. I was glad I waited because eventually I loved it. I read a lot of crime fiction, but not indiscriminately. By that I mean that there are certain authors whose voice and characters I enjoy, and others who leave me cold or fail to engage me by page 30. One divide in crime fiction is between those who are Hercule Poirot fans and those who are Miss Marple fans (and never the twain shall meet).

Sometimes we try to read a book at the wrong time. It's a funny book when we feel depressed and not in the mood for silly stuff (even though we might need it). Or it's a literary novel when our brains just can't cope. Although this blog is called Books and Writing, I don't really post reviews. I write comments on books I read because they stir me in some way, either positively or negatively. Often I will write about a book from a writer's point of view - what I learned from it - rather than purely a reader's stance.

I always have a pile of books next to the bed (and another one in my office, plus a library pile). At the moment I'm reading Creativity for Life (writers' and artists' book), Killing the Possum by James Moloney (YA), Firebirds Rising (anthology of fantasy short fiction) and Compulsion by Jonathan Kellerman (crime). And sometimes I dip into a short story collection by T.C. Boyle, and I've got Best American Short Stories 2007 waiting. Oh yes, and the new Sarah Dessen YA novel. If I am going to comment on any of these, it'll be because I have an opinion - not a paid one, either - and I'm keen to share it and hope someone else out there wants to chip in.

At the beginning of this year, we asked students to follow Chris Baty's example (the NaNoWriMo guy) and make two lists - one of things they love in books and one of things they hate. It's an interesting exercise because it really tells you the kind of book you want to write. One student said he hated books that used haunted objects. Another loved books with slapstick humour. It's a great thing to do - you might surprise yourself if you try it.

Books about Dying

I've just read two books in a row in which a major character (or the main character) dies. And in one of them, the viewpoint is first person. Obviously in that story, the death is on the last page. I didn't mean to read these together, but that's the order they were in on my book pile. First up was Miss McAllister's Ghost by Elizabeth Fensham, who managed to win a CBCA award with her first book, Helicopter Man. First thing I have to say is the title doesn't do the book justice. Apart from anything else, I kept expecting a ghost story, which it isn't.

The three kids in the story meet a very old woman, Miss McAllister, when the youngest, Wilf, sees her at the window of an old house and thinks she is a ghost. But she is very real, if very old, and during the course of the story, turns around the lives of the three. Their parents are not only busy working, but Dad is prone to thumping them all or throwing things, and is not someone you'd go to for advice or help. I'm not going to tell you who dies, but it's another reason I don't like the title because I think it gives the ending away. It's a quiet story about people thrown together in an unlikely way, and has humour and surprises to keep you reading.

The second book was Before I Die by Jenny Downham, the story of a seventeen-year-old girl dying of leukemia, so you know the ending before you start. I was wary of this book, even though I'd heard good things about it. Being in first person meant it was going to tread that fine line of melodrama and sobbiness - however, the voice of the narrator is tough and angry, and her situation leads her into all kinds of risky behaviours as she attempts to complete her list of ten things to do before she dies.

It's a very real story, and made me cry simply because it wasn't sentimental at all. The scenes at the end are written so well that I wondered if the author had been very close to someone who died like this (it was a stark reminder for me of when my sister died). When I Googled for information, I discovered that Downham has not had this experience but is an actor and is good at working her way into a character. She kept a diary for two years as Tessa, the narrator, and the amount of time she spent working on this book shows in the depth of characterisation for all of the characters, especially Tessa's father.

I think writing about death is, in some ways, like writing about sex. The more simple and clear and direct you are about what your characters feel and think and do and say, the more you evoke the "real-ness" of it. It all comes back, yet again, to your use of language, your choice of words, your ability to be in your narrator's or character's head. In a world where we see people die, either for real or in fiction, dozens of times in a day (more if you watch an Arnie movie!), the fact that we have writers who can make one death in a story meaningful is a wonderful thing.

Books vs What?

Tonight I happened to be watching a bit of a TV show on archaeology, during which they looked at a 16C drawing of a tattooed woman. Someone said, "Why is this the only thing we have? How can we know what other people of this era looked like?" The obvious answer was, "Because they didn't have cameras back then, with people taking a million digital photos of everything that moved or looked mildly interesting." But it is an interesting question, one that historians grapple with, if they're any good. Who records history? Why? Is the history of war, for instance, recorded mostly by the victors? Is our social history recorded by the rich and literate? In that case, where are the stories of the poor and illiterate?

This question has given rise to the oral history, where someone interviews a wide range of people in order to get their experiences of being alive during a certain time. In Australia, Wendy Lowenstein has done this with Weevils in the Flour, and in the US, Studs Terkel is famous for his oral histories. They tell us the realities of poverty, starvation, and women killing themselves with Lysol because they couldn't afford a more expensive poison.

But this led me on to thinking about other issues with recording who we are, as well as what we are creating that reflects our lives. Think about this - any photos that you take right now are almost certainly digital. If you save them on your computer, or on a CD, or on a USB drive, you have absolutely no guarantee that they will survive. Your computer will die (any writer will have had the experience or know of someone who has lost everything through a hard drive failure). CDs, once thought to be the ultimate indestructible storage, are now being shown to fail within five to ten years. I've had a USB drive fail on me recently, and another that is showing signs of dying.

If you print out your photos from your digital source, as I do, they are often printed on cheap paper with cheap inks. How long will they last? Not as long as those old prints your grandparents owned, that's for sure. If you print them on your home printer, probably even less. As for text, again anything on your computer can be gone in an instant. (Computer failure has overtaken "the dog ate my homework" as the prime excuse for late assignments - no, we still don't believe most of them.) When I got married, we asked the celebrant for a copy of the ceremony text, which she printed out on her thermal printer - I don't dare go and look because I know from experience that it will have faded and now be unreadable.

Scrapbooking? How many people are using acid-free products? If not, within time your paper and glue will both cause staining and irreparable damage. A friend of mine spent many years on a family history and has spent the time and money to have it printed on acid-free paper and bound in leather. Gee, just like they did in the old days. Her work will still be around in 500+ years. Not much else that's being produced right now will do the same.

What if we have some kind of nuclear winter (caused by goodness knows what)? What will survive? For a start, anything digitally stored will probably be useless. Remember all those old 8mm home movies? Who still has the old projector setup so they can be watched? And if you transfer them onto digital video, in twenty years time you'll be in the same boat. I may well sound like a total Luddite, but for me, digital technology and storage is incredibly fast and convenient, but I never assume it will last. Books will. And so will language. We are still reading texts produced hundreds of years ago (with a little translation help) because they were recorded on paper and stone and parchment - things that, despite weather and other disasters, have lasted and endured.

I suspect that the paperless office will continue to be a myth, simply because at some level, most people believe digital records are not permanent. As for the ongoing razzamatazz about ebooks and digital books and all that other stuff - yes, our next generation may well discard books as a way to educate themselves and entertain themselves. But if it all disappears, they'll be back begging for a library card in five seconds flat!

Outlines Stage 2

This week I started reading a book on writing called The Anatomy of Story by John Truby. Although Truby usually focuses on screenwriting, this book, he says, covers novels as well, in terms of looking at how to develop a novel-length work. In the beginning, he tells you to put aside your traditional methods of structuring a story (hero's journey or three acts) and approach it from a new perspective. Initially, this means putting character and premise together and looking at how and why your main character changes during the course of the story.

So off I went. I've been working on a new novel, but having trouble with the first few chapters. I had already worked out the plot - what would happen, the climax, etc - but I couldn't work out how to get my characters to that point (one problem was a jump of two weeks with nothing happening). I decided to use Truby's initial planning steps to try to work out what was missing in my story. I answered all the questions, I had the premise and story design, I figured out his seven key steps for story structure (weakness and need, desire, opponent, plan, battle, self-revelation and new equilibrium). It seemed to be kind of working for me.

Then I stopped. I remembered how I had done a similar thing once before for a novel, and in the end it was no help at all. It made the novel into something I had never intended, and something I had a really hard time writing - and getting right. After eight drafts and some major changes, I think this novel is still not working. I tried too hard to "make it right" before I wrote it. That's not the best way for me to work. I got too cerebral about including all those key elements that a story should have, and lost my grip on character and voice.

Character and voice, for me, is what counts most in making a story work. I can always come back later and fix plot holes or add tension or rewrite beginnings and endings. But if I get off the track with the character, if I analyse or diagnose or try to put that character into a straitjacket of shoulds before I tell my story, I kill everything. I start doubting what I'm doing. I lose the voice. And strangely enough, I have a much harder time keeping the plot together.

I think that's one of the things we have to learn as writers - what our happy medium is when it comes to outlining. I mentioned in another post that mostly my outlines are diagrams and lots of scribbled notes. It took me a long time to realise that, messy though it seems, that is what works for me. That, and sometimes a grid of major scenes to back it up. No outline at all makes me extremely nervous, because I need to know where I'm going. Too much planning and setting down what must go into the story freezes me up.

So no more Mr Truby. I'll read him again when I'm much further into this novel, and the character and the momentum are leading me where I need to go. Your happy medium might be starting with one sentence and then writing into the wild blue yonder. Or it might be a 50 page detailed outline of each scene. How-to writing books are great, and often very useful, but you also need to know when to put them down and just write.

Playing with Words

Earlier this week, I created the following as a bit of fun (OK, so I was procrastinating instead of working on my novel!)

THE NOVEL WRITER’S DEDICATION

Write placidly amid the noise and haste,
and remember what peace there may be
in a room of your own.
As far as possible without surrender
be on good terms with all publishers.
Write your truth quietly and clearly;
and listen to others,
even the dull and the ignorant;
they too have their story.

Avoid loud and aggressive writers,
they are vexations to the spirit.
If you compare yourself with others,
you may become vain and bitter;
for always there will be greater and lesser writers than yourself.
Enjoy your achievements as well as your deadlines.

Keep interested in your own career, however humble;
it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of publishing.
Exercise caution in your business affairs,
especially your book contracts;
for the world is full of trickery.
But let this not blind you to what marketing potential there is;
many persons strive for websites and platforms;
and everywhere life is full of shelf hangers.

Be yourself.
Especially, do not feign affection for your editor.
Neither be cynical about your rewrites;
for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment
they are as perennial as the grass
and if you don’t improve your novel
you’ll have to rewrite it again.

Take kindly the counsel of your writing group,
gracefully surrendering the things that suck.
Nurture strength of spirit to shield you against reviews.
But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings.
Many fears are born of low sales and deep discounting.
Beyond a wholesome discipline,
so many words per day,
be gentle with yourself.

You are a writer of the universe,
no less than the poets and the screenwriters;
you have a right to put words on the page
but not to expect people to appreciate them.
And whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt the universe is reading as it should.

Therefore be at peace with your agent,
whatever you conceive him to be,
and whatever your labors and aspirations,
in the noisy confusion of life
keep peace also with your writer’s soul.

With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams,
the world of books
it is still a beautiful world.
Be cheerful.
Strive to be happy.
Keep writing.

(yes, inspired by the Desiderata).

Outlines vs Vague Thoughts

One of my big jobs this week was to write outlines for two books (my biggest job was to mark around 40 student assignments, but we won't go there). These two are supposedly going to be Books 2 and 3, featuring the same character. When I wrote the first one, I had no intention of writing any more. It seemed a complete story to me, with a fairly resounding ending. None of this Hollywood doubling back and tricking the reader at the last minute with a new monster being birthed. Then the publisher said the character was so good, how about another story featuring her?

Of course. (Lesson 1 in writing and publishing - never say No way, Jose when a publisher asks you to write a book, unless it's something horrible that would destroy your rep forever. You can always negotiate what the book might be, and get it closer to what you want.) In this case, it had been a while since I'd written the first one, and I also really liked the character. Not sure where she came from, but we get on well together.

Then it became 'We'd like to see outlines for two more books, please'. Hmmm. I don't have any problems with outlines, especially the ones done my way. My way starts with scribbles and circles and arrows all over the page, then it progresses to more diagrams and grids and notes. When I'm happy, I start writing. But that's not what a publisher wants to see. Because they'd never understand my scribbles and diagrams in a million years.

A publisher wants to see it all written out, like a summary or a short version of what the whole thing will be about, who will be in it, what will happen, and what the outcome will be. It's also good to indicate what the outcome will mean to the characters, the result of their journey. For me, this is not a synopsis. A synopsis is when you have written the whole thing and rewritten it, and then you write down everything that happens so an editor or agent reading the first three chapters can see whether you've got a solid grip on the rest of the story.

These outlines are saying what I'm going to write about. What I have planned will happen. There in lies the rub. What if I change my mind? What if a better idea or ending presents itself halfway through the writing? What if I get to Chapter 4 of my planned novel (according to the outline) and I hate it and it's not working how I thought it would, and I want to burn it? That's why outlines freak me out a bit. What if I get it wrong?

The plus side of this, however, is that while I had a good idea for Book 2, Book 3 wasn't even a twinkle in my eye. I had to start from scratch and explore a whole new idea. I came up with something I liked, then I came up with something big and exciting that really made it all come together. And in turn, that showed me where the weakness lay in Book 2. That's what I'm working on right now - how to find that big, exciting extra element that I think Book 2 still needs to pump it up to a top-notch story. It's mostly there, but I want to add one thing more...

April is Poetry Month

Actually, it's only Poetry Month in the US. Australia doesn't have a Poetry Month, or even a Poetry Week. I think we have one Poetry Day on 1 September, but my guess is that more Australians know that 17 September is World Talk Like a Pirate Day than know about Poetry Day. Arrrrr!

There are currently lots of websites and blogs promoting poetry for kids, in the classroom and generally. The CCBC Discussion Board is talking about poetry anthologies, and the ongoing issue of why more teachers don't teach or use poetry in the classroom. Mostly it seems to be because they don't know how to teach it. A few people have commented that if a teacher doesn't enjoy poetry and doesn't read it, there's little likelihood they'll include it in their classroom activities.

Some of the other issues are about "killing" a poem by dissecting it to death, using poems in classroom comprehension tests (another way of strangling a poem) and the teacher who reads out loud in a way that condemns a poem to the Boring Bin in a second. People also complain that they don't understand poems, that they're "too hard", and I can sympathise with that. But who said you have to understand every single thing? That is the joy of a poem - when it speaks to you on some other level that you can't pin down, but it makes you feel that you have just experienced something amazing and true. And there are hundreds of great poems that are easily understandable and still offer much to the reader. Accessibility in poetry is not about dumbing down!

When Billy Collins was Poet Laureate, he created a website of 180 poems for teachers (or everyone) to use - poems that weren't obscure or meaningless, poems that would provoke discussion, poems that showed the world in a different way. Even if all you did was read one poem per day out loud (without analysing it), you could create sparks of inspiration and maybe the desire to write a poem or two.

I like the idea of reading lots of poems and simply talking about what one of the poems says to you, then writing something in response. I don't think you can give kids a whole bunch of poem exercises to complete without first surrounding them with word music, imagery, rhythm and language possibilities. I think if a teacher enjoys poetry, they can't help but pass that on to their students (of any age). I like nothing better when I teach poetry writing than sharing my favourites. Here's one by Billy Collins - Introduction to Poetry. And another by Margaret Atwood - You Fit Into Me. Anyone got favourites of their own?

CBCA Shortlist

Around this time of year, some major awards here in Australia announce their shortlist. So we have the Miles Franklin, the NSW Premier's Literary Awards and the Australian Children's Book Council Awards. If you have a book in the running, it can be a nerve-wracking time. In 2005, my book Farm Kid was shortlisted for the NSW award, which was a huge surprise for me. When it won, I made the most of it and celebrated and went to the awards dinner in Sydney. It was like a huge, excellent, late Christmas gift, something to totally enjoy.

This year Sixth Grade Style Queen (Not!) has been shortlisted for the CBCA Younger Reader awards. I can't tell you how many fingers and toes I had crossed! I could hardly walk. Although the Newbery Medal in the US doesn't have a shortlist beforehand, the effect on book sales and everything else that goes along with being a children's author is the same. It's mind-boggling, actually (I've talked to others who have been shortlisted and won or had Honour books), and exciting. And sitting around on Tuesday morning waiting for the shortlists to go up on the CBCA site was unbearable. So I went to the movies.

When I was a teenager, one of my favourite movies was Anne of a Thousand Days, so I really wanted to see The Other Boleyn Girl. It was great - lots of strong minor characters to fill out the story with subplots, two very different actors in the main roles, and a different perspective also on Anne. Yes, I did manage to forget about the shortlist announcements until the movie was over. Then I arrived home to a lovely message from my publisher on my answering machine, and the sight of my book on the website. It took a while to sink in, but the champagne helped!

There is now a long gap until the winners are announced - 15 August - which allows for lots of discussion and time for kids to read the books and decide for themselves. This year there will be another Junior Judges happening, where schools can get involved and be part of it. In early May, the CBCA conference takes place here in Melbourne, and I'm going to be leading a session on Sunday on poetry for children (which was organised months ago).

Yes, I am trying very hard here to sound serious and "worthy" - my friends would all laugh and give me a good poke in the ribs, because they know that inside there are a dozen elephants still doing a mad, happy dance! So now I will go off and do some writing, because I have a deadline, and later on I'll let the elephants out and we'll watch the footy and drink nice wine and celebrate some more!

Awards and Rewards

Last night, my writing group went along to the FAW (Fellowship of Australian Writers) Awards night. We had received a Commended in the community writing group section for our group novel. Of course, we thought we would have won if we'd been able to submit the whole book! The rules said only 30,000 words, so we had to cut it off halfway and say it was only Part One. Mind you, as someone in the group said, if we'd been able to put the whole novel in, we would have been struggling to finish it in time! As it is, here we are at the end of March and we're still about 10,000 words away from finishing (we think).

Still, the competition was a great impetus for us to do something different. We have all created characters for the novel that now seem real - we sit around the table, plotting what comes next, and refer to each other by character names. Plotting is such fun, with everyone throwing in ideas about who will do what next. At the function last night, another writer asked me how we did it, and then seemed amazed that we managed to plot and write without huge arguments.

I think the key is ego. None of us want or need our part of the novel to be "the best" or the biggest or the most exciting. We're more interested in enjoying the process and seeing where it will lead us. One of us has developed a very snooty, nasty character and is now loving being able to write in her voice and "let it all hang out". Another writer has created a male character and is practising her skills in terms of voice - making sure he sounds like a male. We intend to self-publish the novel when it's finished, just for ourselves.

The great thing about the Awards night is seeing so many people so excited about winning or receiving acknowledgement that their writing has been judged as darned good. In many ways, our society hates high achievers and likes to cut them down to size. The FAW Awards give prizes and commendeds to more than 100 writers, and it's a celebratory occasion. Some people come from interstate to receive their awards, and it's lovely to share their happiness. The awards also are for younger writers - one young man who won a poetry prize said his English teacher had told him that poetry was obviously not his strong suit, and it was good to have another educated opinion on that! No doubt he'll take great pride in showing her his certificate.

There are always writing awards around. The new Prime Minister has announced two major prizes for fiction and nonfiction writing worth $100,000. Yes, that's nice, but wouldn't it be better to spread it around a bit more? Sometimes you hear people say that there are too many awards, but I think it's great to have many rather than one or two. Judges differ widely in their choices (just look at the State writing awards for children's and YA books compared to the CBCA choices for their awards) and it means more books get promoted and praised.

We writers tend to tuck ourselves away in the back room and write, hoping for publication and recognition, hoping we'll find readers who love what we've created. Prizes and awards, both large and small, help us to feel validated, help us to keep persevering, just as much as actual publication does. Every bit helps. And I can't say enough good things about my writing group (go, girls!) - their encouragement and critiquing skills have kept me going over the years, more than anything else. If you can find fellow writers who understand what you are trying to achieve, and who can offer you (and you, them) that vital support, that's a prize in itself.

Who Made/Wrote This?

While the holidays mean reading lots of books and writing and relaxing, I also try to fit in some movie viewing. Unfortunately, these holidays the cinemas are crowded with not-so-good children's movies (sorry, I have no desire to see Horton Hears a Who although I might give the Spiderwyck Chronicles a go) so I need to look further afield for entertainment. I watched Margot at the Wedding. I give myself four stars for lasting the distance. The movie gets zero. this was one of those movies where you keep watching because you just can't believe - a) it's as bad as you suspect it is, b) you keep hoping it will improve, c) you keep looking for something good in it, and then have to give up.

Who paid all that money to make this movie? I'm a fan of the dysfunctional family story - I loved Little Miss Sunshine. That movie had a great cast of characters and a story with a goal and destination. Margot has two characters - sisters - who spend the whole movie trying to be nice to each other and failing to even be successfully crazy or bitchy or vindictive, or in fact any emotion that might transmit itself to the audience. Nobody in this story (sorry, scratch the word story because there isn't one) has a relationship with anyone else that comes close to interesting. It's a sad day when I realise the only character I kind of liked was the one played by Jack Black (who I don't like).

I checked out some reviews on Rotten Tomatoes to see if it was just me - they were mixed, but most people agreed that there was little plot, a lot of depressing misery and none of the characters sparked enough to carry the movie to any kind of decent ending. I think what I hate are movies where all of the characters are just plain stupid, act in stupid ways, fail to make any kind of decisions that create a possible storyline, and aren't funny even when they are supposed to be.

How hard is it to write a story with tension, action, consequences and empathetic characters? Was Margot nuts? Was she having a breakdown? Who knows? Who cares? And the who cares question is the killer. If we don't care about any of the characters in a story, we aren't going to watch it or read it. This is something we teach our students from Day One. If you are going to create a character who is unlikeable, there had better be other great things going on in the story to hook the reader in. Is it unfair to compare Margot at the Wedding to Little Miss Sunshine? I don't think so. That's what we do as readers and viewers - we pay our money and we get to judge whether it was worth it or not!

Review Round-up

Over the past couple of weeks, I've read six or seven books, probably more, mainly due to the dire offerings on TV. I've been known to take myself to bed by 8.30pm with a pile of books, diving into whichever one holds my interest most. Some haven't. After being intrigued with Denise Mina's Sanctum (a clever play on diaries and case notes that leaves you wondering afterward how much was fiction - well, all of it, probably, but she does well to keep you thinking), I tried another one and gave up after twenty pages. The Field of Blood had two things against it for me as a reader - the main character seemed to be too ineffectual and passive to hold any hope of future engagement, and the first pages were so overloaded with a huge cast of characters that I was having trouble following any of it. Yes, harsh and fast judgement, but there were other more enticing books waiting.

I read Boy Toy by Barry Lyga first out of my pile, and am still considering what I think of it, and why it made me uncomfortable. I have decided it was intended to do so. If you haven't heard of this book yet, here's a short summary. Josh is seventeen and about to graduate from high school, but he's not coping. He can't relate to girls his own age, he feels the whole world stares at him and knows who he is, and he doesn't know what to do about baseball and college. The reason? Josh had an affair with his teacher when he was twelve and she went to jail for it. The story moves back and forth in time, so that we alternate between Josh now, struggling to keep his head above water despite help from a therapist and his friend Zik, and Josh at twelve, being seduced by his teacher.

I'm not going to spoil the book for you by telling you what the dark, emotional twist is in the last section, but it does explain why Lyga goes into such excruciating detail about the affair. This book is all about Josh, about how and why he is struggling still at seventeen. Cases like this in real life always make headlines (they certainly have here) and I wonder if one of Lyga's intentions was to show young males exactly what damage this kind of relationship can do to you (rather than assume it would be an exciting and "maturing" experience, which I can imagine a lot of young males doing). This was not Josh's experience at all, and I think perhaps the discomfort I felt in reading this came from the way in which it made me aware that perhaps I had made my own assumptions too. Another reminder of how the media can distort the truth or fail to show more than one side of a story. I highly recommend this book, but be aware of its content.

I like to save up some good crime fiction for holiday weekends, but Killing Fear by Allison Brennan wasn't really it. The sticker said Love this or your money back. Well, I didn't love it. I kind of thought it was passable. Does that qualify me for a refund? Maybe it's because the serial killer genre is getting tired, and I've read too many really good ones to tolerate one that doesn't do anything much fresh and new. Mind you, that might be asking too much. Fresh and new serial murders. Hmmm. I think my biggest gripe with this book is that it was a bit shallow. I never really felt a sense of place, and third person omniscient POV felt too distancing. This might have worked better (for me, anyway) with a closer POV, but as one major character was the villain, I'm not so sure.

Anyway, I went from that to Travel Team by Mike Lupica, and did that book grab me and keep me reading all day! It's middle grade fiction, about a basketball team, and a really short kid who is a terrific player but doesn't get picked for the travel team (the team that travels around to play in the league). The kid, Danny, has a father who was a star basketball player until he crashed his car, and now he's a bit of a no-hoper who decides to start his own team so his son can play. While the story might sound familiar, Lupica's characters bring the book alive with action, humour and hope. Right from the start, Danny is the skeptical one who thinks it's all a waste of time but goes along with it, which adds unexpected conflict from all angles. He's a multi-faceted character who carries the story with depth and emotion, and is honest and direct in a way that continually refreshes the novel.

It's books like Travel Team that help me as a writer. I can re-read it for dialogue, characterisation and the whole show-don't-tell thing, and learn as I go. Books like that go on my closest shelves, so I can use them for class or for my own benefit whenever I need a good example to follow. Have you got any books like that on your shelf? (I mean novels, not how-tos.)

I'm Alert!

The other day I signed up for Google Alerts on two topics, one of which was my book Sixth Grade Style Queen (Not!). I'd heard other people talking about how handy the alerts were, so I thought I'd give them a try.
Imagine my surprise when I started getting alerts almost immediately, and it was an even bigger surprise when one of them led me to the Australian Publishers' Association site. The big news is that my book has been shortlisted for the Book Design Awards - twice! Once for the cover and once for the whole book.

Now I can't claim any credit for the design of the book, apart from my first suggestion that perhaps the inside could have kind of doodle-like drawings in it, as if my main character had drawn them herself. From this, the amazing designer, Elissa Christian, went ahead and created a pretty stunning and unusual book. For a start, everything inside is green, including the text, and the cover you can see above is like a colourful doodle too.
Go, Elissa! Hope you win.

With Easter coming up, that means lots of writing time for me. We don't have family obligations (as in visits to in-laws and out-laws) so it's pretty much a time to relax, and for me to write. I'm in revision mode on a novel, and am writing lots of poems, and plotting out a new novel. I'm sticking to quite a few of my 2008 resolutions, amazing for me, which means walking every day, sleeping more, eating well, doing the stretches and exercises for my neck/shoulder problem, and working steadily on two-monthly goals. Thinking about that is a great encouragement in itself. I might have to splurge on some chocolate! Just a little bit.

Dumb Questions

I used to think there was no such thing as a dumb question. When I first took over the "boss" job at work, there was no handover from the previous person and I was pretty much floundering. After my tenth stupid (to me) question of the admin staff, I apologised for asking so many dumb questions. The other person said, "I'd much rather you asked a million dumb questions and then did it right, than guess and have to ask for help to clean up the mess." What a pleasure she was to work with!

Since then, I've worked on that principle a lot of the time, in class as well as out. New writers can't be expected to know everything when they first start (that's why they're in a class - they want to find out) and that's how I learned too. I will never forget the wonderful help Michael Dugan (famous Australian children's writer and poet) gave me when I first started writing and publishing children's books. It made a huge difference to me, and I like to try and pay that forward whenever I can.

Mind you, I do still hear an occasional question that really does indicate the asker needs to rethink their words. Like the person in a seminar last year who said "I have an idea for a story and I want to know how to get it published". The audible intake of breath from everyone said it all. If you haven't even written anything before you start asking about publication, then you're probably better off trying something else.

These days, I am no longer the "boss", thank goodness (they let me escape back to being a teacher), but I still have to deal with a lot of admin as part of my job, and my new pet hate is the burial expert. As in "I didn't know what to do with this so I pretended it didn't exist and buried it on my desk under all the other things I am supposed to be doing". Coming a close second is the duck-shover - "I didn't know what to do with this so I shoved it into someone else's In Tray". When I'm feeling negative about these two, I can't help but think of all the extra hours of work they create for other people, and then I think that in my case, those hours are writing time! Shame on them!

Friday Thoughts

My first thought is where the heck did the week go? My second thought is that I have managed to write three days in a row on two different projects. That's got to be a good week!
My friend Tracey recently posted on writing in the zone, how it feels when the words zing along and everything seems so easy. And how rare that can be. A writer writes no matter what, and waiting for the zone is guaranteed to end up in no writing at all.

I've been reading a new acquisition this week - Creativity for Life by Eric Maisel. I had enjoyed his A Writer's Paris so much that I wanted to read another by him. This one is a lot more complex and deep. So much so that I can only read a few pages at a time, then I have to go away and think about it. But today I was reading about the artist's personality, and the factors which go into it. Under Discipline, he talks about leading all-day workshops for writers who are blocked, and how these people can come and write for a whole day with him when previously they haven't been able to write a word.

What causes the block to disappear? Is it the man up the front giving them permission to write? Or ordering them to write? Maisel asks the question - if the gap between being blocked and writing is so small that it goes in a few moments, why does it seem so insurmountable at other times? I think it often comes back to the title of that section - Discipline. If you discipline yourself to write, you will write. You won't write until you can convince yourself that sitting and doing is all that is necessary. Just sit and write. Anything. And when you are writing and thinking every word is awful, keep writing. It's amazing how persisting for ten more minutes will move you into that writing space that may not be the zone, but will be writing that satisfies you (maybe even because you did not give up).

In the Weekend Australian magazine there were two interesting articles. The first was on Joan Didion, the writer, who said some wonderful things including this: No one ever reads as passionately as a 12-year-old. Critic John Leonard said about her writing: She seems almost Japanese in what she can leave out and still have us know it's there. It's almost poetic. That made me want to read her books.

The second article was on comedians, and whether the best ones are those who have terrible childhoods, are depressive or have personality disorders. The writer, Oliver James, quotes a number of famous comedians with these pathologies to back up his claim. He says the urge to create humour stems from using it as a defence in childhood, and later on, against criticism, abuse and low self-esteem. I've read similar claims about children's writers - that they are somehow caught between being grown-up and being back in a certain period of childhood that was either traumatic or holds great memories. The key can often be to imagine yourself back then, at ten or twelve or fifteen, and be able to recreate it on the page. Food for thought.

What Inspires You?

As writers, we all know how a great book, poem or movie can be inspiring - how something that touches us or stirs us in some way can spark off new inspiration, or just firm up our desire to write and accomplish our dreams.
But there are other things that inspire us that are very personal and unique. Here are some of mine:

* building frames for houses - there is something about seeing a new house, seeing its bones and imagining what it will become, that inspires me

* a great singer (two of my favourites are Tina Arena and George Michael) - the sound of an amazing voice reaching perfect notes is astounding to me, and energises me

* crickets and cicadas - on a hot summer day, cicadas in chorus are ear-splittingly wonderful, and when I go for a walk at dusk and hear crickets in the grass singing at similar ear-splitting levels, and then think about how small they are, that amazes me

* people who simply inspire because they care and want to share their thoughts, and hope that you will gain something good from reading them - Julius Lester and Craig Harper are examples that spring to mind right now

* a terrific football (rugby union) player, Chris Jack, who is fascinating to watch in action because you can literally see him thinking, analysing, acting, moving - he is able to be in the play all the time, and be extremely effective, because of this ability - it's uncanny to watch

* people who don't give up, and who really do understand it's up to them and nobody else - seeing them achieve great things in any walk of life is wonderful (even better when you know them personally)

Those are some of mine, weird though they may seem! What about yours?