Guest post - Jane Yolen - Development in a novel

Another rambling thought (about blocking out novels this time) from Jane Yolen:

A thought about writing novels. I reworked chapter 15 of my current novel and in the process added 300 words, mostly to define and redefine characters. It's a travel chapter, not much plot, really at base simply getting us from there to here. But a necessary trip for three reasons: setting up setting, plot, tension. And along the way I realize the last part of the chapter was really the beginning of the next chapter.

I find with novels (I still consider myself a novice, though I have written over 60 of them!) that I have to re-learn how to write them each time I start a new one. And what did I learn today?

1.Unlike picture books and poetry where compression is the guide, novels need to breathe, need specificity to make them live. What kind of trees, what color of eyes, is this spring or winter and what makes the difference?

2. Yet adding for the sake of bulk is not what is needed. Again, specificity is key. But also threading in what came before. I will have to go back and thread in a whole lot of stuff. This draft is more about getting the story told, start to finish. The next draft I will take careful notes about my characters who I have learned a lot about during this draft: what they wear, look like, facial tics, what they know (or don't know). What has someone said before, and do I repeat it too often or not enough? Do I make reference to it? Is it key to their development.

3. In fact development is probably the most useful concept in writing a novel. In poems metaphor and the lyrical line quickly follow compression in importance. In picture books one has to always be aware that the book needs to be visual at its core, else what can an illustrator draw? But novels are all about development--plot development, character development, philosophical development/sub=textual development.

Have I told you how I hate to plot?????

Jane Yolen - On the Writing Life

Another wonderful quote from Jane Yolen, the Hans Christian Anderson of the United States of America:

Today I want to talk about the Everyday-ness of writing. How the extraordinary must become ordinary.

Just as I do my morning exercises to get these old bones moving, I write every day. Every single day. Sometimes it's a chapter, sometimes it's a poem. Sometimes I make lists of things: nouns, verse to revise, ideas for new books, suggestions for stories with my children (in case you haven't been paying attention, they are all writers!).

Even if I am ill, traveling, caring for a sick husband, running around a convention, walking the Royal Mile--even then I will manage to write something. Because being a writer means that kind of commitment. It doesn't have to be something for publication (though what does get published is almost always a surprise.) It i something to get the brain, the heart, the imagination, and the fingers coordinated, working together. Not strangers but a good team.

After my big back operation, part of my recovery was to walk a mile (or more) a day. As the amazing nurse Donna explained it to me: if you walk a mile at a good steady pace (mine is fast) outside, taking in the fresh oxygen, your spinal fluid moves up and down oiling the spine. Well, that's what writing every day does. It keeps the fluid moving about our brain, oiling its parts. Writing needs such fluidity.

Yes, life happens. It interrupts all our careful plans. A person from Porlock, an auto accident, a shooter in the movie theater, or more happily twins born, a friend stopping in for tea, your book winning the Caldecott, your editor calling to say you won the Nebula, your agent messaging that you sold a book, falling in love.

But the bottomest of lines is this: if you are a writer, you write. And you turn all of life's hiccups into poetry or prose.

How lucky are we--accidents, incidents, handicaps, heartbreaks all become research, become prompts. So don't ignore them, but use them. Every day.

Every single glorious, bloody day.

(quoted from a Facebook Post on Monday, August 24, 2015.)

Why Picture Books are Important

Why Picture Books Are Important,

And Why They Are for Everyone

(A guest post by picture book author and all around great guy,  Rick Walton )

Picture books are often seen as literary baby food, the stuff we feed children until they have the teeth to eat real food.

I would argue, however, that picture books are not baby food. They are not just for young children.

In fact, I would argue that picture books are perhaps the most important literary format that we have.

Here are 10 reasons why I believe this:

1. They are the first books that children fall in love with, that turn children into lifetime readers. Lifetime readers become lifetime learners. Lifetime learners become lifetime contributors.

2. Picture book language is often more sophisticated than the first chapter books that children read, and therefore an excellent way for children to learn language. It is here that children, and others, can learn vocabulary, imagery, rhythm, shape, structure, conciseness, emotional power.

3. The picture book is the most flexible of all literary formats. You can do almost anything in a picture book. This flexibility encourages creativity, in both writer and reader. It broadens the mind, and the imagination. And given today's challenges, we desperately need more creativity, broadened minds. Imagination.

4. The picture book, with its interaction between text and illustration , with its appeal that the reader analyze that interaction, helps develop visual intelligence. It helps us look for meaning in the visual. And since most of us are surrounded by, and inundated by visual images our whole lives, visual intelligence is an important skill.

5. Some of the best art being created today is found in picture books. Picture books are a great resource for art education.

6. The picture book appeals to more learning styles than any other format. It is read out loud for audible learners. It is written and illustrated for visual learners. It often asks you to interact with it physically for kinesthetic learners.

7. In fact, the picture book, of all formats, is probably the best format for teaching an idea, getting across a point. Because picture books are short, all messages, knowledge, ideas expressed in a picture book must be boiled down to their essence. They must be presented in a way that is impossible to misunderstand. If you want to learn a difficult subject, start with a picture book. If you want to express a powerful message, a picture book is one of the most powerful media for doing so. Many middle, upper grade, and even college instructors have recognized the value of using picture books in their teaching.

8. The picture book does more than any other literary format for bonding people one with another. As a child sits on a lap and is read to, as a parent, a grand parent, a teacher, a librarian reads to a child, extremely important connections are made, bonds are formed, generations are brought together.

9. The picture book also has the broadest possible age range of audience. Few four-year-olds will appreciate a novel. But many grandparents enjoy a good picture book. I have read picture books for upwards of an hour to groups including toddlers, teens, parents and grandparents, where all were engaged.

10. The picture book is short, and can fit easily into the nooks and crannies of our lives. Five minutes here, 10 minutes there, plenty of time for a complete literary experience.

Picture books are poetry, adventure, imagination, language, interaction, precision, and so much more.

Picture books are not books that children should be encouraged to "graduate" from.

For picture books have something important to say, to give, to all ages, all generations.

Picture books are not just books for young children.

They are books for everybody.