Anna Staniszewski

1. I’m off to talk to a group of sixth graders today, which should be a lot of fun. Sixth graders always ask great questions and get really excited about making origami frogs.

2. Oh look what popped up on Amazon the other day:

I’m not sure if this is the official, final version of the cover, but I’ll crow about it anyway.

3. I’m excited to head off to BEA next weekend, especially since I’ve never been before. (Also, I’ve been told there will be ARCs of THE DIRT DIARY there. Woohoo!)

4. I’ve been helping a friend out with a super secret project this week. Hopefully, I’ll be able to share it soon!

5. The other day I watched a Bollywood version of Clueless and totally loved it.

It was exactly the light, fun type of movie I was in the mood for, and it put me in the right mindset to work on THE PRANK LIST.

Have a great weekend!

A few bits of randomness today:

-Look what I found: a map that I drew while I was figuring out the setting of MY SORT OF FAIRY TALE ENDING. (Can you see why I will never be an illustrator?)

-If you’re looking for the perfect fantasy read, the Enchanted Inkpot can help! Check out yesterday’s “Book Dating Game” post that helps readers find their book soulmates.

-I saw one of the cutest UnFairy Tale reviews yet, written by a young reader. My favorite part:

“My Very UnFairy Tale Life was so good I couldn’t put it down. I even read it on the playground at school while all my other friends were playing tag and other stuff.”

-Finally, I came across a list of Boston-area authors yesterday that mentions both me and Robert McClosky. Yeah. No big deal. *dies*

-And now back to drafting THE PRANK LIST (aka THE DIRT DIARY sequel). This draft is going much more slowly than I was hoping, but I should be on to revising by next week.

What’s new with you this week?

A couple weeks ago, I headed out to Western Mass. for the New England SCBWI conference. There were so many people there that it was a little overwhelming, but I ran into lots of writing friends and former students, and overall I had a great time.

I took pages and pages of notes, so I thought I’d recap/paraphrase some things that really stood out to me.

Sharon Creech (in her keynote speech):

-If you start writing, the ideas will come…Words generate words.

-Don’t be in a hurry to publish your story. Let it sit and see if you can deepen it.

-Don’t think about characters. Think about people.

Kate Messner (in her workshop on revision):

-Find the reason the heart of your story speaks to the heart of a child.

-Think of a first draft as a stem cell that can turn into any other type of cell.

-Try asking: “How could my main character make his/her situation worse?”

Kami Kinard (in her workshop on humor):

-Think embarrassment, exaggeration, and disaster!

-Put beats into your writing/dialogue to give readers time to process the humor.

Sudipta Bardhan-Quallen (in her workshop on rhyme):

-Make sure rhyme is best for your story.

-When the rhyme works, the reader barely notices the story is written in rhyme.

-If you break the meter, make sure it’s deliberate (for emphasis, etc.)

-Slow down the pacing to draw out the tension.

Grace Lin (in her keynote speech):

-The idea that a “mutlicultural book” will have a limited readership and will never be successful (as Grace was told when she was starting out) is clearly not true.

-Instead of recreating what other people are doing, find what’s unique to you that only you can do.

I’m still processing all the info from the conference, but I think Kate Messner’s reminder about finding the “heart” of your story was exactly what I needed to hear as I keep working on THE PRANK LIST.

Have a great weekend!

Psst, have you checked out the brand new website for The Writers’ Loft? It’s pretty awesome.

The other night, Husband Ray and I watched a Mike Birbiglia comedy special. While the special wasn’t laugh-out-loud funny the whole way through like some other comedians I’ve seen, there were parts that were hilarious. Ultimately, though, it was just an endearingly awkward guy telling entertaining stories.

This got me thinking about being a good storyteller. I’m a writing teacher so of course I believe that writing can be taught…to a certain extent. You can master the technical aspects, you can practice and practice until your writing flows more smoothly, but if you’re not a natural storyteller then you’re going to have a hard time making your writing click.

Even though I’ve always been super shy, I’ve loved telling stories for as long as I can remember (whether it was to an audience of stuffed animals or to crowds of actual people). These days, Husband Ray and and I have our stock stories down to a routine; he tells some parts and I tell others. We’re both dorks who love making people laugh.

So why am I thinking about all this storytelling/comedy stuff? Well, I’m going to be teaching a course on humor in children’s literature this summer, and as I’m working on the syllabus, I’m realizing just how difficult it is to define and talk about humor. Sometimes we don’t even need to laugh in order to be entertained (as with the comedy special).

This is also really helpful to think about as I work on THE PRANK LIST which isn’t terribly funny (yet) but I hope is at least mildly entertaining. I’m enjoying telling the story, and for now, I hope that’s enough.

How about you? Do you think of yourself as a natural storyteller?

So many things to report, so let’s dive in.

1. The first blurb for THE DIRT DIARY is in!

“This well-paced, realistic story is sweet, sensitive, and delicious! Rachel Lee is a believable and relatable character, and readers will see themselves reflected in every scene. Anna Staniszewski’s vivid writing pops off the page–she’s created a delectable story with a protagonist to root for and problems to agonize over. I laughed at Rachel’s antics, worried when she got in trouble, and wish she could make me some brownies!”–Erin Dionne, author of NOTES FROM AN ACCIDENTAL BAND GEEK and THE TOTAL TRAGEDY OF A GIRL NAMED HAMLET

Hooray!

2. Also, I should be getting ARCs of THE DIRT DIARY in the mail any day now, so I’ll be sharing pictures soon.

3. Speaking of The Dirt Diary series, the sequel now has a title and a release date! The second book will be called THE PRANK LIST and will be out in July 2014.

4. Yesterday was a busy, awesome day. My friend Heather Kelly has an adorable daughter who did a project on a “famous author” which included painting a picture of the person and dressing up like him/her. Can you spot the real Anna Staniszewski?

5. Finally, I did an event at B&N in Burlington, Mass. last night and got to meet some great young readers. Here’s a photo of the event (courtesy of Papa J Funk):

Okay, now that I’ve crowed about a bunch of things, I’m crawling back into the grading/writing cave.

What’s new with all of you?

Event Alert: If you’re anywhere near the Burlington, Mass. area this Thursday evening, I’ll be reading/signing at B&N at 7pm as part of a school book fair. Come by and say hello!

I’ve been doing a lot of driving recently, so I’ve been listening to a bunch of audiobooks. I just finished The Witch of Blackbird Pond which I hadn’t read in years. I was impressed with how well-written and well-paced the story was, and I thought the reader did a great job of bringing it to life.

I’m currently listening to Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver which I’ve been meaning to re-read. It took me a little while to get used to the reader’s voice, but now I’m totally sucked into the story all over again.

What I love about audiobooks is that when the reader is good, you feel like you’re really in the story. I’ve found, though, that a lot of the audiobooks I download from the library are pretty hit or miss, so I’d love to hear what audiobooks you’ve enjoyed.

Bring on the recommendations!

I’m a total over-thinker which can be a good thing while I’m brainstorming a project idea, but when it comes to actually writing, sometimes I totally psych myself out. The other day, I ventured out to the Writers’ Loft for some much-needed writing time. Since I’d driven 40 minutes to be there, I was determined to make it worth the trip.

And I succeeded! In the few hours I was there, I cranked out 3,600 words. Funny what can happen when you stop thinking about writing and just sit down to do it. (I also had the pleasure of finally meeting Jonathan Arntson in person!)

Yesterday, I was stressing about the end of the semester, final grades, deadlines, and all sorts of fun things. Then I decided to shut it all off and just write for an hour. And guess what? Another 1,000 words on the page!

This seems to be one lesson I have to learn over and over: The best way to get words written is to SIT DOWN AND WRITE THEM.

I think sometimes my brain takes over, and I start thinking about the plot points I haven’t figured out yet, the issues that I’m having with pacing, etc etc etc. But how will I ever fix those if I don’t have something on the page?

Of course I’m back to stressing today, thinking about all the things I’ve yet to figure out in my draft. I think it’s time to say, “Shut up, brain. I’m writing.”

Aaaand, apropos of nothing, here is a cat “running” with a tennis ball…

The other night, I went to see The Sapphires, an Australian movie based on a true story about an Aboriginal girl group singing for soldiers in Vietnam. I loved the music and the sisterly relationships, and overall I quite enjoyed the film.

There were elements in the story, however, that felt somewhat underdeveloped. As I was talking to Husband Ray about it afterward, I realized that it almost felt like the movie was sticking too closely to a certain structure which meant some things had to be left out.

This made me think about the way structure works in novels and picture books. Structure is a huge aspect of fiction, but sometimes I think it can be limiting.

In picture books, for example, the 32-page format means that the story needs to be very tightly structured. However, I’ve seen many students (and I’ve had this problem myself) not develop their characters or the layers of the story because they feel like they don’t have the space to do it. My advice to them is to let go of the structure and just explore the story. Once they have that down, then they can figure out how to tighten and reshape it to make it fit the format.

So I guess that’s the lesson for today. Structure is necessary, but sometimes it’s best to leave it at the door, especially in early drafts. Focus on figuring out your characters, conflicts, etc. Once you have those fleshed out, then find the strongest way to tell the story.

This is always such a tricky time of year. It’s the end of the semester which means reading final papers, grading, etc. I also have a looming deadline for THE DIRT WAR, and I’m not quite as far with it as I was hoping. I’ve been feeling a lot like this:

There’s been one thing saving me amid the madness: doing book events. I had a couple last week, and I have one coming up tomorrow in my hometown (details here). Doing events gets me out of my routine and interacting with readers, and it reminds me why I write in the first place.

Last weekend, I visited a book club at my local library and talked to them about my first book (which they’d just read). The girls had fantastic questions and insights, and I left there totally grinning and revitalized. I was excited to get back into my writing routine in order to create more books for those awesome readers to enjoy.

So I guess the lesson is: When you’re feeling stuck or overwhelmed, try to break out of your routine for at least an hour and do something that reminds you why you’re striving for your goals in the first place.

Copy edits for MY SORT OF FAIRY TALE ENDING are done! What do I do with myself now, you ask? Why, draft another book, of course! As I go ahead with the next project, I’ll be keeping in mind the advice I’ve found myself sharing with my students quite a bit recently:

Give your character a positive goal.

By that, I mean that instead of merely having your character react to the negative elements in the story, you should give your character something she’s striving for. It often works best if that goal is unrelated to the main conflict: perhaps she’s trying to get on TV or find her long-lost sister. Whatever that goal is, if she’s working toward it throughout the story then it makes her an active character and gives us something to root for.

Here’s an example from my own work. When I was writing THE DIRT DIARY, my critique partners helped me to realize that the main character had a lot of negatives she was reacting to in her life which started to make her feel like a victim. I realized that I needed to give her a goal that would make her happy and that didn’t involve undoing her problems (getting her family back together, etc.) but one that would help her achieve something new and positive.

I decided to make her love of baking into a goal: she desperately wants to win a baking competition at school. And what do you know, winning that competition would also mean a cash prize that would help her in her plan to get her family back together. By giving her a positive goal separate from her problems, I also gave her another method that she could use to solve the main conflict.

Even if the character doesn’t achieve her positive goal by the end of the story, it will still help her along in her journey and, ideally, make her realize something about herself by the end.

So how about you? Do your characters have positive goals they’re striving for, or are their goals solely related to their problems?