Nourish Voice

Workshop: An Introduction to Writing for Children and Young Adults

“Write for the child within you.” Jane Yolen

Narration comes in many voices. There is the voice of the story, or idea and the shape it takes, and there is an author’s voice as well. Some storytellers can identify their voice fairly quickly and for some it takes time to develop. Like a musician, for some voices range across many notes and others take one sound and develop it deeply.

A guest author once shared that he tried to write across different ages and in different genres but every time he tried at some point his writing voice became a fourteen to sixteen year old male. So he stayed with that narrator and wrote deeply.

Author Jane Yolen has written in almost every age and genre in children’s literature. Story first, she says. She both listens to her characters and she searches for a connection. “Reach deep inside yourself and find out who you were before you became what you are, and then you will discover that the child is there, very much alive, and informing most of your adult decisions.”

Nourishing voice is an ongoing thread that begins with the seed of idea and develops throughout any project. As we study in this workshop we’ll be going into more details re voice and also see that voice is integral whether we’re discussing character or plot or tone.

For now though, begin to take notice as you experiment with ideas what voice you tend to lean towards. Is it quiet or noisy, tentative or firm, adventurous or cautious?

When you discover the voice that captures your heart chances are you discover the excitement and passion that writing for any age requires. Especially for children and young adults because our stories may be their first glimpse into imagination and new possibilities. 

Action Steps:

Go to: http://www.marcyweydemuller.com/resources.html and scroll down to 31 Creative Freewrites.

1.     Do brief freewrite notes on numbers 12 to 17 from the idea file. Give yourself 8 to ten minutes per memory to write down everything you can think of. Don’t stop for sentence structure or punctuation.

2.     Did your moments all fall into a particular age category or were they spread out? If, for example, most of your moments happened in grades 4 to six then you are leaning into a middle-grade voice connection.

3.     Which ones that you wrote connected the strongest either from a positive or negative reaction?

Share: Did any of your recollections surprise you? Why?

Read deep, marcy

Only Connect: Overview Basics

Workshop: An Introduction to Writing for Children and Young Adults

“An idea is something that makes a sound in the heart.” Katherine Paterson

Once in a while have you ever seen a movie, or read a book, that both friends and critics have given high applause to, and yet it has left you bored or cold or both? The quality is evident, no argument, yet still you just don’t respond. A strong possibility is that the storyline or the underlying threads did not engage your heart. It did not connect. Talent is a required component to any art form, but it is not enough if it doesn’t engage with the intended audience.  And for the example above, you may not have been the intended audience.

Only connection is as high a value as talent in literature for children and young adults. Actually it is probably higher. It is why some children will cling to a poorly written story, or ask to hear a song over and over that grates on our nerves. It may be a concept that doesn’t match any ‘rules’ of a genre, but readers inhale it like dessert. The classic storybook “Goodnight Moon” does not fall into ‘normal’ guidelines for writing to that age group, yet it affects all generations with its heart relationship to that whisper of falling asleep for a child without vocabulary to express their feelings.

Often when we are writing we are translating. We have an idea—a character—a feeling—a fear—a hope that we are trying to put into words, to first translate into something more tangible, and then second to share it with another person.

“One thing we can do is to share with children works of the imagination—those sounds deepest in the human heart, often couched in symbol and metaphor. These don’t give children packaged answers. They invite children to go within themselves to listen to the sounds of their own hearts.” Katherine Paterson

Old Testament prophet Habbakuk first saw a vision, and then was told to write it ‘plainly’ so that a runner could take it.  That’s the craft part of developing our ideas into form: poem, short story, or article that we can make ‘plain’, make our concepts understandable.

Only when we are writing for children and young adults it seems, sometimes, that we are crossing a culture gap as well as generational and we struggle to find the words. We need to find the connections that bridge our hearts, and at the same time keeps the imagination free to expand into new ideas—not packaged ones. New sounds—new stories—new art. Fresh hope.

Action Steps:

1.    Write a definition of dream either as a word or as a concept.

2.    Suppose you were trying to explain this word to someone who doesn’t speak your language. How would you do it?

3.    Then read, The Dream Keeper, a poem by Langston Hughes. http://allpoetry.com/The-Dream-Keeper

4.    What sound does it make in your heart?

Share: How does his poem connect with your feelings and definition?

Read deep, marcy

Workshop: An Introduction to Writing for Children and Young Adults

“Talent is not enough.”  Mollie Hunter

Welcome to this blog workshop. Over the next several weeks we’ll be discussing what defines quality for this field of writing, examining genres and techniques, developing critique and revision skills, develop written practice of the elements of fiction with an emphasis on craft, voice, and form, and take a practical look at the publishing market.

Whew!

We’ll take it all in small bites. And add in lots of space for inter-active questions, discussion, and guest bloggers. So, share your comments, and concerns, and questions, then if I’ve missed any they can be covered in their specific posts.

What exactly would you like to learn/accomplish in this field. Can you already recognize and define the various genres of children’s literature: picture books, chapter books, reader’s theatre, poetry, non-fiction, fiction, including historical-fantasy-contemporary, and multicultural. Or does it all seem a confusing melting pot?

         Why?

Without fail every book on writing for children from crib to college asks this question first. Why exactly do you choose to write for this particular age? Mollie Hunter says, “the freedom of the children’s writer can be assessed for what it truly is—freedom with responsibility.” Katherine Paterson says, “Connecting is a vital, not a minor function. Connecting is what you and I are primarily concerned with. That’s what imagination is all about.”

        What are your individual goals? What is your heart calling to you to write? And why might talent not be enough? Dig out a fresh journal or begin a new folder. Start jotting down a conversation with yourself as we explore this vibrant literature and begin to fine-tune your journey. 

Share: Which of the above quotes do you identity with? Which puzzles you?

Read deep, marcy

Strategy # 8 Hidden Secrets: Family History Cont’d

Build Your Story: 8 Strategies for Writing Innovative Setting with Impact

Family Heirlooms

What is it—either of value, or funny—catalogue the items.

The one item that my youngest aunt saved for me from this grandmother was a christening gown, made of intricate lace and exquisite needlework. Each child in the family had worn it and I was the last to inherit it. How she came upon such a rich garment from a lower working-class background was a secret that no one knew. But it traveled across the ocean with her and christened her next three children born in her new country.

 

What heirloom has a secret? Is it dangerous? What damage can it do to present relationships?

Family Reunions

1.     Do you remember? Ask the older generation questions; use tape recorders if possible.

2. If an artist do some sketches, or get pictures.
3. If talking about family history while at the reunion is not appropriate then set up appointments either in person or by phone.
4. If possible—do a group memory of a particular incident.
5. Ask—how did you get your name?
6. Family “secrets” Was the person really a scoundrel or just different from the others?

Share:  What reprobate is in your character’s family history? How does she think of him or her?

Read deep, marcy

Closing

Thank you for following this workshop. Soon it will be available in a workbook format if you would like to have all 8 Strategies in one place. The launch will be posted on this blog or sign up for my newsletter for other breaking news as well as giveaways. And please let me know if you have any questions that didn’t get covered so I can add them to the workbook.

I hope you will continue to drop by my blog for weekly writing prompts and conversation.

Sincerely Marcy

http://mythicimpact.blogspot.com

www.marcyweydemuller.com

Strategy # 8 Hidden Secrets: Family History

Build Your Story: 8 Strategies for Writing Innovative Setting with Impact

Exercise: 1) Write a letter to a relative in your past. What do you wish you knew about their circumstances or their feelings?

For example: I knew at some point in my life that my paternal grandmother had crossed the Atlantic in 1911 to join her husband. She had three young children under the age of ten. The full concept didn’t connect with me until I saw a ship from that era and the unit she and the children would have occupied. I was stunned at the deprivation, barely more than a narrow bunk, and wished I could know more about her courage to immigrate. All I had of her were a few pictures. (This picture is not of them)

2) Write a letter to a grandchild or great grandchild, niece, nephew in the future. What do you want them to know about their family—what do you feel is so important that it must be remembered?

Learning To Remember

Choose one of the journal suggestions from last week that involved a family event.

A 1. Make a list of what you do remember.

    2. Make a list of what you don’t remember.

B. What is a memory in your life that you keep going back to? Look for one or two sharp details.

Places to look or prepare for your character

photo albums with vignettes/anecdotes

photo album with or without stories, autobiography, biographical sketches.

a memory book either for individuals or whole family

family tree

a record of archives

All of these family memories have the potential to be turned into fictional episodes with secrets.

Exercise: Take a real incident in your own life and adapt the emotional and sensory reactions from the main character’s personality. Try reversing your own reactions. For example if you felt embarrassed at a remark that was made, but laughed at a joke have your character do the opposite.

Share:  What is the key sensory detail to that memory for either you or your character?

Read deep, marcy

Strategy # 8 Hidden Secrets: Reflective Journal

 Build Your Story: 8 Strategies for Writing Innovative Setting with Impact

Begin building a sensory journal for your main characters to give you fuel throughout the series. Tie it to the personal memories—both trauma and joy—and fix the location whenever relevant. Focus the emotional description. Next to each category list the senses incorporated and how the senses responded.

Journal entries for your protagonist’s:

• saddest day
•  happiest day
•  scariest
• challenging
• hopeful
• joyous
• disappointing
• despairing
• successful

Another way to develop a sensory language, and assist in character or physical location, is to keep a family journal. It’s an extension of the reflective journal, but this focus is on relationships, memories and communication. Look for threads where past history can connect with present history in your story world. The exercises can be interspersed between all three angles. And the key here is once again to connect the emotional, sensory layers that result. Consider writing it up for yourself first; next connect to a character, and then to her situation. Take some of your episodes as seeds and grow them into the opposite outcome.

For example, in one workshop a student mentioned that that she had “a heroine who goes back to the house she lived in, one that holds bad memories and one she accidentally burned down.  It's still in ashes.  What she doesn't know is that one person was killed there and one was badly burned and disfigured.  The house will play a crucial role in the story.” 

Share:  Did you choose a secret trauma or a secret joy? Why does your character need to keep it a secret?

Read deep, marcy

Strategy # 8 Hidden Secrets

Build Your Story: 8 Strategies for Writing Innovative Setting with Impact

“You don’t need a one-eyed, foul-breathed monster with a rusty knife, or an indescribable something (covered in slime), to conjure up terrors in the human heart.”  Sarah LeFanu

Introduction Secrets

Folktales, fairytales and legends hold a repository of universal shadows. Just as settings can be a link between internal and external ‘soul’ language, so does this literature connect our personal fears and shadows to find our way through darkness. They offer a childhood’s nightlight to all ages. We may not all be afraid of the same things but we connect with the heart pounding, dry mouth sensations when we see them.

It’s most often in the ordinary world that psychological fears can wreak havoc. Just the slightest noise or silence that is out of sync causes us to pause and listen. As pain is a warning that something is wrong physically, so fear warns us of danger. Our intuitive radar activates.  The ordinary world holds all our secrets that we like to keep in the dark until a situation reveals them.

Memory holds our emotional reservoir, both personal and public. Some memories are buried so deep that we don’t recognize them when they echo in the present. We have a fleeting pang or touch of comfort, and wonder why. What can happen to our secrets when our memories are erased or distorted?

Put yourself or your character in a situation where time has stood still and the world moved on. What has been lost? What has been gained?

Choose one memory that you would want to be able to guarantee remembering? Do you choose a comfort, or a warning? Why? How will it impact your story?

Share: Why did you make that choice?

Read deep, marcy