Anna Staniszewski » Enchanted Inkpot

WIP Update: Keeping It Simple

annastan — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 13:00:53 +0000

I’ve been working on my new WIP, and so far it’s been going pretty well. As I was getting my new pages ready for my writing group, however, I realized that I might have too many things going on in the story. This is something I often get myself into. In trying to raise the stakes and give the character lots of hurdles to jump through, I sometimes go overboard and pack too many things into the plot. I’m going to see what my writing group says, but I have the sneaking suspicion there’s going to be some simplifying in my WIP’s future.

How are you all doing with your WIPs? Anyone else have to remind yourself to keep things simple?

Also, if you have a minute, hop on over to my new post on the Enchanted Inkpot: Does YA Need Romance?

Happy Monday!

What Makes a Book Event Successful?

annastan — Fri, 21 May 2010 13:29:07 +0000

Yesterday I had the pleasure of meeting R.L. LaFevers and hearing her speak about her books. For those of you who don’t know, Robin is the author of the Theodosia Throckmorton series and the Nathaniel Fludd, Beastologist series, both of which are filled with fantasy and adventure. She is also a fellow Inkie and agency-mate, so I was thrilled to be able to meet her in person.

Often at a book signing, the author might do a short reading, but Robin went in a different direction. She did a slide show of things that inspired her books (primarily Egyptian mythology). She also showed pictures of herself as a child, growing up with seven brothers in a household brimming with pets (including two bear cubs!!).

The audience was full of enthusiastic kids who were fully engaged in the slide show and Robin’s talk. They also asked great questions and were excited to hear about the upcoming books in both series. You could tell Robin has done lots of these types of events; she was calm and collected and a total pro.

After I left, I started thinking about the different types of book signings, readings, and other events I’ve attended. There are so many ways to approach them and I was wondering what makes them work. Asking questions and engaging with the audience always helps, as do pictures (especially of animals), but what else might make a book event memorable?

So I’m curious to hear about your experiences. What have been the most fun/interesting book events you’ve attended? Why were they so memorable? Are there things you think it’s best to avoid?

And since we’re talking about cute animal pictures, here’s one of a baby hippo that my husband sent me this morning:

NESCBWI Conference Highlights

annastan — Mon, 17 May 2010 13:33:02 +0000

On Saturday I headed up to Fitchburg, Mass. for the New England SCBWI conference. I only stayed for the day, but I left there mentally energized and inspired. The keynote speakers were Cynthia Leitich Smith, Marla Frazee, and Marla’s editor Allyn Johnston. Their speeches were all filled with brilliance. Here are some highlights:

Cynthia Leitich Smith

-Writing across formats [picture books, MG, and YA] will make you a better writer.

-Write a discovery draft and then delete it. Then you can start over with a clearer vision of what the story is about.

-”Write fierce. Be brave. Open your teeth and howl if you have to.”

Marla Frazee and Allyn Johnston

-In picture books, the “mother of all page turns” is the last one.

-”Endings should disarm us.” They should be satisfying and mysterious at the same time.

-You need to know what’s “at the core, the beating heart, of the story.” That’s what gives a book resonance.

I also attended workshops by J.L. Bell, Richard Michelson, and Kate Messner. I took pages and pages of notes – it was fantastic! And best of all, I saw lots of my students, friends, and internet buddies, and I even met some new people. It was like a giant party. Here are a couple of pictures.

This is me at lunch with some other clients of the Erin Murphy Literary Agency. From left to right, that’s Cynthia Levinson, Tamara Ellis Smith, me, Lynda Mullaly Hunt, and my wonderful agent Joan Paquette.

And this was me with some blogging buddies at the end of the day (we all have that “been sitting in a hot room for hours” glow). That’s Kris Asselin, Karen Schwartz, Heather Kelly, and me. Laura Pauling took the picture, and of course I’m a dummy and forgot to get one of her. But luckily there are lots of pictures floating around on everyone’s blogs. I wish I’d taken more pictures but the whole day was a bit of a whirlwind.

The conference came at the perfect time. My semester just ended so it’s time to dive back into writing. Wish me luck!

In other news, check out my post on the Enchanted Inkpot today: “Do You Read for the World or for the Characters?” I’d love to hear your thoughts, so please comment if you have a minute!

Mistwood Launch Party!

annastan — Mon, 03 May 2010 13:22:25 +0000

This weekend I had the pleasure of attending the launch party for Leah Cypess’s new YA fantasy, Mistwood. Leah and I are both members of the Enchanted Inkpot, so it was great to meet her in person. The event was a lot of fun, and of course I left with my shiny new signed copy of Mistwood (which has been promoted to the very top of my reading list).

Here are a couple of pictures:

That’s Leah on the left, me in the middle, and fellow writer and blogger Heather Kelly on the right.

And here we are with another member of the Inkpot, Nandini Bajpai, and her daughter. As you can tell, we were all very excited to have our shiny new copies of Mistwood. Did I mention the book is shiny? I’ve heard nothing but amazing things about it, so I can’t wait to read it!

And speaking of the Enchanted Inkpot, there is a great post up today on The Art of Revising a Novel that features lots of great advice – swing by and check it out.

Saving Your WIP and Question Time!

annastan — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 12:33:38 +0000

If you recall my post on beta readers recently, it was inspired by a question from my lovely friend Kate from high school. Recently she posed another question which I thought would make a good blog post: How do I save my WIP? Do I have different versions, or do I keep adding to one document?

I’m always saving new versions of my WIPs, but the way I’ve gone about this has changed over time. For a while, each time I did any sort of major revision, I would save the file with the title and the version number (i.e. “AmazingNewManuscript5″). After a while, however, this got to be pretty confusing, especially if I was switching back and forth between more than one computer. Now I save each new major revision with the title and the date (i.e. “AmazingNewManuscriptApril2010″).

For a while, I was using Subversion which my husband set up for me. It allows you to save different versions of documents and compare them. I realized that I hardly ever used this feature, however, so I’ve gone back to saving things the regular way. Here’s an example of what one of my WIP folders looks like:

This folder has actually become even more full in the past month as I’ve revised and renamed this particular manuscript, but you get the idea. Every time I get feedback from someone, I save that as well. Usually my WIP folders have an “outtakes” file where I paste any scenes that I cut out of the manuscript. That way cutting something doesn’t actually mean throwing it away.

And that’s about it. I’d be interested to hear how my saving process compares to what you all do. Also, if you have any questions about writing, reading, or life in general, please leave them in the comments. I’ll either answer them there or save them for future posts. Let the questions fly!

Finally, if you haven’t heard, the Enchanted Inkpot just had its first anniversary. Yay! To celebrate we’re having a huge book giveaway. Swing by and check it out!

Don’t Let Readers Hang Up on Your Story

annastan — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 12:31:15 +0000

Over the weekend a friend of mine was telling me how little patience she has for long voicemail messages. “Make sure you say the important stuff at the beginning,” she told me, “because after a few seconds I delete the message without listening to the whole thing.” When I thought about it afterwards, I realized this was a good (if somewhat extreme) lesson to remember in storytelling.

We want the stories we read to at least hint at the “important stuff” from the beginning. Even if we don’t see it up front, we need to know that it’s coming. If chapters go by and we still haven’t gotten to it, even the most patient reader is likely to give up. It goes back to what Donald Maass calls bridging conflict. It’s fine to save the important stuff for later on as long as you create some kind of tension that keeps us going until then. This way we know the story is leading us somewhere, instead of simply hoping that it will.

Sometimes creating that tension is just a matter of dropping in a hint at the beginning of the story, something that catches our interest right away. Let’s look at the beginning of Neil Gaiman’s Coraline:

Coraline discovered the door a little while after they moved into the house.

After this, the story fills us in on Coraline’s family and the new house; it’s not until five pages later that we actually see the door referred to in the first line. But that little tidbit clues us in to exciting things to come and keeps us reading.

It’s easy to put off the important stuff and trick ourselves into thinking readers need all that setup and backstory and explanation in order to “get” what we’re writing about. Remember when I cut twenty pages from the beginning of one of my WIPs a few weeks ago? I realized soon after that what I’d cut out was mostly setup. By chopping those pages and weaving the info in later on, I was able to get to the important stuff much sooner, hopefully preventing any future readers from hanging up on my story.

By the way, if you have a minute, swing by the Enchanted Inkpot today. I’ve written a post asking readers to imagine what became of their favorite fantasy heroes after their adventures were over. Did they become leaders? Hermits? Dentists? Come by and share your thoughts!

Learning to Give Feedback

annastan — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 13:49:57 +0000

Last week I had the opportunity to visit a sixth grade English class and do a lesson on revision. It was a lot of fun. The students admitted that revision is NOT their favorite thing, but they were still willing to give me a chance. We not only talked about why revision is important, we also went over why getting someone else’s feedback can be so helpful. We then discussed specific ways to be good critique partners.

What Should We Look For?

It was an interesting challenge for me to come up with concrete yet simple ways the students could go about critiquing each others’ work. The teacher had explained to me how difficult it was to get her students to give each other helpful constructive criticism. Finally I came up with four main things that I asked the students to look for:

1. Parts they liked or found interesting.

2. Places where they found themselves losing interest.

3. Places where they were confused or needed more information.

4. Places where they felt the piece was getting off-target.

Overall the students seemed to have no trouble using these four elements to indentify trouble spots in a sample essay I gave them. The teacher told me that she would be able to build off of these elements as they continued to work on their own writing throughout the year. I also had the pleasure of reading a few of the essays the students were working on. They were filled with creative energy and humor; I was impressed.

When Is the Best Time to Learn?

What I found particularly interesting about this sixth grade class was that they were doing any kind of peer feedback at all. I believe the first time I was ever asked to critique someone else’s writing was in high school when I took a creative writing class. It wasn’t until college that I was given any real method of giving constructive criticism. The fact that the teacher was introducing this concept in middle school blew me away.

And yet, as I spoke with the teacher, she mentioned that she wasn’t sure if students that young could fully grasp the kind of feedback that would really be useful to other people. A lot of the time they were afraid to say something too critical, or they would focus on rather small things (like the names of characters) that didn’t have much impact on the whole piece.

It left me wondering if there is a “good age” to start teaching students how to give each other feedback. Is this something that should be reserved for creative writing classes, or should it be part of all English classes? Should it be introduced in middle school, high school, or not until college? And how detailed do we want students to be with their feedback? Is it enough for them to identify the four elements I mentioned above, or do they need to have a stronger grasp of what, exactly, is/isn’t working?

I’m not sure what the answer is, but I’d l0ve to hear about your experiences with critiquing and your thoughts on when we could/should learn to give feedback.

On an unrelated note, there’s a wonderful post up on the Enchanted Inkpot on diversity in fantasy. It raises some really interesting and thought-provoking questions. Swing by if you have a chance.

Happy Monday!

Choosing a Point of View

annastan — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 13:03:55 +0000

Choosing the best POV for your story is an important step, but often people’s definitions of the different POVs vary so it can be tricky to know what you’re choosing and why you’re choosing it. Here’s my attempt at a simple breakdown of the most popular types of POV, with the pros and cons of each.

First Person

The story is told directly by a character (I) who is one of its central figures, someone who is present in all the key scenes. We experience the story as the narrator experiences (or experienced) it, and are privy to the narrator’s intimate thoughts. We are limited, however, by what the narrator knows or doesn’t know. If there is information the narrator has but doesn’t share with us, there’s a good chance we’ll feel betrayed.

I looked at the elephant, wondering why it was so tiny.

Second Person

The story is told by a voice that appears to be speaking to another character or to the reader (you). While the viewpoint can function much like first person, it is more difficult to convey the narrator’s thoughts and feelings, especially if they’re nothing like the reader’s thoughts and feelings. Unlike first person, second person can make you feel distanced from a narrator (which can be both a pro and a con). When used sparingly, this can be a surprising and effect POV.

You looked at the elephant, wondering why it was so tiny.

Third Person Limited

The story is told in third person (she or he) and features a character whose thoughts are known to us. Overall, this is the least intrusive viewpoint because it can be nearly invisible to the reader. Like first person, third person limited can show us a character’s intimate thoughts, but it also keeps us within the bounds of what the main character knows. Generally, a third person limited narrator can withhold information more easily than a first person narrator.

Sara looked at the elephant, wondering why it was so tiny.” OR “Sara looked at the elephant. Why is it so tiny, she wondered.

Third Person Omniscient Involved

The story is told from a viewpoint that may shift throughout the story. The narrator may show us the internal thoughts of any of the characters as well as his/her own. Often, the narrator’s voice is stronger than that of any of the characters, and we get the sense that the narrator is leading us through the story, showing us what we need to know. This viewpoint often keeps us at a distance from the characters, but it can be an effective way of underlining the themes and ideas of a story.

Sara looked at the elephant, wondering why it was so tiny. The elephant looked at the girl, wondering why she was so big. Neither saw the lion, eyeing them both hungrily.

Third Person Omniscient Detached

The story is told from a viewpoint that is uninvolved in the story. We see only the actions of the characters but are never privy to their internal thoughts. We observe the events of the story and are forced to guess at the characters’ motivations . As in fairy tales, characters are defined by their actions. There is no psychology and we must draw our own conclusions about the story.

Sara looked at the tiny elephant.

Ultimately, in choosing POV, the writer needs to decide how much the reader should know about the characters, about the story, and about the narrator. It’s also important to find the best POV for your type of story. For example, putting a story in first person but giving us none of the character’s internal thoughts most likely won’t work; the story would probably be more effectively told in third person.

For more detailed information on POV (including some not outlined here), I recommend Ursula Le Guin’s Steering the Craft or Orson Scott Card’s Characters and Viewpoint.

In unrelated news, make sure to check out this great interview with Kristin Cashore on The Enchanted Inkpot!

ALA Midwinter Recap

annastan — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 13:47:28 +0000

First, just a reminder that today is your last chance to enter my New Year Book Giveaway! If you want to win some free books, you only have until midnight tonight to enter!

Also, check out the fancy new search feature on the right-hand side of the page. A big thank you to my husband for making it happen.

Okay, now on to my recap of this weekend. I’d never been to ALA (Midwinter or otherwise) before, so I was in for a treat. There were books, and people excited about books, and more books, books, books! I was tempted to go crazy and grab every ARC I could get my hands on, but in the end I exercised extreme self-control. I did get one ARC, though, that made me jump up and down:

The best part of the day was getting to see people I’d only “met” online. I went out to lunch with a few members of the Enchanted Inkpot (aka Inkies). We went to the Legal Test Kitchen (which was great!) and chatted about everything from writing, to reading, to rabbits. Of course, I forgot to bring a camera, but here’s a picture I shamelessly stole from Nandini’s blog:

From left to right, that’s me, librarian Sarah Chessman, YA/MG author Deva Fagan, YA author Ellen Booream, YA author Alisa Libby, YA author Marissa Doyle, and hopefully-soon-to-be-published Nandini Bajpai. For more pictures, check out Nandini’s ALA post.

After wandering the exhibits and running into some of my lovely former students, I headed over to the ALA Tweetup. It was so much fun to finally meet the people behind the tweets. How often do you get to be completely surrounded by folks whose interests are almost identical to your own? It was pretty amazing.

At the end of the evening, I went home exhausted, excited, and a bit overwhelmed. There are SO many books out there, and more come out every month. It’s impossible to read all the ones that interest you; there aren’t enough hours in the day. Also, it’s humbling to be reminded of how difficult it is to make your work stand out once it’s published. It doesn’t necessarily mean your book isn’t amazing; there’s just a lot of competition out there. I suppose that means you have to try that much harder, and to keep writing for no other reason than because you simply love doing it.

Help a Librarian!

annastan — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 13:39:17 +0000

Since I managed to crash two computers yesterday, I’m going to take a hint and stay away from technology as much as I can today. But before I go, I want to send you over to the Enchanted Inkpot, where I interviewed a middle school librarian on the fantasy reading trends in her school. As you’ll see, her students tend to read the same old series over and over, and she’s asking for your suggestions on other titles to recommend. Why not head over and help her out?