Anna Staniszewski » Enchanted Inkpot

5 Picture Book Recommendations

annastan — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 15:37:20 +0000

It feels like I’m all over the interwebs today! I have my first ever post up at YA Outside the Lines in which I talk about my 2012 writing goal, mainly my quest to Just Write. And I’m also talking about my love of “light fantasy” over at the Enchanted Inkpot. Stop by and share your thoughts!

I’ve been in picture book land recently, partly because I’ve been working on a new picture book project and also because that’s what my writing class has been focusing on for the past few weeks. So in case you’re curious about some of my favorite picture books, I’ve put together a list of five titles I often recommend to people:

Shark vs. Train

This book is hilarious! I love how the title alone draws you in. The way the story escalates in terms of intensity and humor is just brilliant.

It’s a Book

Again, hilarious and really smart. For anyone who’s worried about the influence of technology on children, this is the book for you.

Officer Buckle and Gloria

This is an older title that still holds up compared to newer books. I love the humor and the relationships in the story.

Bark, George

I use this book in my class and some of my students are put off my how bizarre it is, but that’s part of why I love it! The ending makes me laugh every single time.

The Red Book

I’m a big fan of wordless picture books, and this one is so fascinating. I love that it’s not only a good story, but it’s one that makes you think in an abstract way.

What are some of your top picture books recommendations?

A Writer’s Fears

annastan — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 13:04:44 +0000

First off, if you have a minute, pop on over to the Enchanted Inkpot where I’ve interviewed Dawn Metcalf about her brand new YA novel, LUMINOUS.

I’m going to bare my soul a little bit today, if you don’t mind. For years I’ve dreamt about having a book published, and that dream is finally coming true. But with that reality comes something I didn’t expect: Fear. That fear was definitely heightened when my ARCs arrived on Friday. I was thrilled to be holding them, but I was too afraid to actually read them because what if I hated every word?

Writers are fantastic at asking “what if”? And here I am asking: What if it’s terrible? What if people hate it? What if it’s not funny? What if I could have done better? Writers are also notorious for being insecure–I think insecurity might be a built-in part of the writing process. The fear and insecurity might not be logical, but they’re still there.

Yup, this is me:

Luckily, I saw a wonderful post by Lisa Schroeder on fear and gratitude yesterday. She advises focusing on gratitude instead of fear. This is, of course, fantastic advice. It reminds me of another great piece of advice I heard from Erin Murphy: “Appreciate what you have instead of focusing on what you haven’t achieved yet.” I’m trying. I really am. Maybe I can replace that fear with chocolate?

How about you? How do you deal with your writerly fears?

Learning to Write

annastan — Mon, 23 May 2011 11:47:55 +0000

Not too long ago, someone (I can’t remember who!) linked to Joe Konrath’s post on marketing. At the end of his post, Konrath listed several inspiring quotes on writing. Many of them rang true for me, including: “Hard work trumps talent. Persistence trumps inspiration. Humility trumps ego.” But there was one quote that didn’t sit quite well with me:

When you’re learning how to walk, you don’t take classes. You don’t read how-to books. You don’t pay experts to help you, or do it for you. You just keep falling until you learn on your own.

I do understand what Konrath is saying, that no one is going to do the work for you. If you’re serious about writing, you need to put in the time to develop your craft. But what doesn’t quite work for me about Konrath’s analogy is that children don’t learn how to walk all on their own. They learn from watching other people, and they have adults encouraging them along the way.

Similarly, writers learn from others by reading work they admire and by learning all they can from people who are further along in the journey. A writer needs to put in the time to perfect her craft, but she also learns from the feedback she receives from critique partners, beta readers, teachers, agents, and editors. Writing might feel solitary, but learning how to write is anything but. If we try to do it all on our own, we might just end up crawling for the rest of our lives.

By the way, if you have a minute, check out my post at the Enchanted Inkpot today on how it feels to read/write fantasy.

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!