Writing Friends

Friends who write. Friends who critique. Friends who cheer you up and give you pep talks. They're the best!

Here's an interview just posted by my friend Helen Hemphill.  As she notes, I met her a while back, as we both might be inclined to say, at the excellent Rutgers One-on-One Conference. That would be New Jersey, where I happened to be living.
The way I remember it was that we were possibly the only two Southerners in the entire auditorium at the start of our day. And we found each other. After that, we both signed up for a terrific Highlights Founders weekend with Carolyn Coman. Possibly one of the best writing treats you can give yourself, by the way.



I love Helen's books (my favorite might be Long Gone Daddy- so funny and so beautifully written), and I was honored when she asked if she could interview me about my own first novel.  

Here it is! Click right here. 

Related post: Writing/ plotting is Hard Work

The Sky is Everywhere

I've already gone on enough about how much I liked this young adult novel. I especially like when a book surprises me like this one did. So I won't add much to my previous post, except that there's a terrific interview with Jandy Nelson up over at the Tollbooth blog. There are 4 parts, 4 different blog postings. Be sure to scroll through and read them all.

A few things she said will stick with me today as I talk writing with my smart, original, amazing critique group.

Here's a bit of that interview, with Jandy, quoting a book I plan to check out very soon
(And I'm thinking what he says about voice might just hold true for a few other Life Things!):



Obviously not because I wrote it quickly, but because I wrote it like I was talking to myself or a friend and it never occurred to me that voice is just that—who you are but on the page, and so it is who your character is too, right? It’s so simple! That floored me! There’s this fantastic and very helpful and inspiring quote about this by Les Edgerton who wrote Finding Your Voice. He says,


". . . no matter what you write, there’s a good chance that someone else may do the same thing better. There’s only one thing another writer can’t do better than you. And, it only happens to be the most important thing a writer can possess. Yourself. Your voice. They can’t get your personality on their page. And, since a personal voice is the single most important component of writing and the single most important element leading to success, no matter how good the competition may be, you’ve got an edge on them by simply being you."



Related post: The Sky is Everywhere

The Dreaded Cliché.

Over at the Through the Tollbooth blog, there's a great posting about clichés. And you won't be surprised by the list, even though it's already a year old. I guess a cliché becomes a cliché when it's overused, over time. Right?

So here's the list. Take note, the source is Oxford University (the one in England) and they're not really calling them clichés, just overused phrases. But be sure to click on over to Carrie Jones' posting on The Tollbooth to see her thoughts about clichés in writing.

What do you think? Got any others that really bug you? (How about the verb forms of bug...)

Oh, and check out #8. And I always thought that was a Southern thing. Then again, we Southerners learned how to talk from our British/Scottish/Irish forebears, didn't we.

Top 10 Overused Phrases
1 - At the end of the day
2 - Fairly unique (oxymoron)
3 - I personally
4 - At this moment in time
5 - With all due respect
6 - Absolutely
7 - It's a nightmare
8 - Shouldn't of
9 - 24/7
10 - It's not rocket science

The Voice

On the question of voice in writing, I've heard lots of advice:
"Channel your character." "Write a letter in the character's voice." "Read it aloud till it sounds right."
Lots of workshops, many articles, entire books devoted to that mysterious concept of Voice. But what, really, is voice in a novel or a picture book?

Honestly, I haven't really tried to figure it out, and maybe that's because I hear my characters speaking to me, and I'm afraid if I think too hard on it, they might disappear. Many sound distinctively southern, but they all sound as if they are talking. Does that make sense?

I know voice is more than that. And here is a really good explanation by a writer who knows what she's talking about. Still, I'm glad to read that it does little good to think about it while you are writing. Good to know.

Read Marion Dane Bauer's interview on Through the Tollbooth:

I don’t think we are born with our voice. It does come ...through reading and the practice of writing. I do think, however, that our voice rises up out of who we are and that it does little good to think about voice when you are writing.
Concentrate on knowing your character. Your perceiving character will impact your voice in every story even when you are writing in third person. And concentrate on writing the very best you can. Voice will simply be part of the package. You will know you have fallen into the voice that is right for you when you can feel the energy behind the words.

Plotting, Structuring, Figuring it All Out

I think writing is hard work. Writing fiction is really hard work. I may give it up any day now. But before I do, I'm figuring it out. So I've been spending time reading Helen Hemphill's checklists over at Through the Tollbooth. Trying to put her plotting tips into action. Because I know how smart she is and how good her books are.

And yesterday I ran across this by James Scott Bell, on one of those many writing emails I frequently delete. The Q-Factor! How brilliant. Sneak your tricks in before you need them. Don't wait till you actually need the cufflink that turns into a saw to show your character wearing it.
Bell knows how to explain things so well that most everybody will get it.