Story Seeds / Writing Tips # 10 - Hurrah for an Idea Notebook!

For the next few months my blog is featuring writing tips gathered from my own experience of growing story seeds into published books. 

Story Seed: “I don't want to be the cat. I always have to be the cat. I hate being the cat!”

          I opened my idea notebook and there they were...three sentences of dialogue spoken at least four years earlier. It had become totally lost among the thousand other things that had happened.  But I was on the search for a story idea...and here it was.

(c) 2013 Ruth Ohi 

Book Title: And You Can Be The Cat (illustrations by Ruth Ohi, Annick 1992)

The Writing Tip: Keeping a notebook, journal or diary is a huge benefit to a writer -- we've all heard that one more than once!  A beginning writer, however, sometimes feels that she or he has to officially sit down and capture every nuance from a certain moment in time for it to count ...and that can lead to avoiding the task entirely.  
     So here's my trick.  I give myself permission NOT to write down every last detail. My goal is always "just get a few words down on paper."  I often do indeed write more but even a single line is better than letting a great idea (character, location, oddball thought or snippet of dialogue) slip away. 
     Here are some of the shorter bits and pieces that speckle my notebooks:
      - an unusual way of looking at a common-place event
      - a theme that particularily speaks to a child's view of the world
      - a bit of humour ... that lovely unexpected touch
      - strange and amazing facts
      - an idea that screams "story!" even though I have no idea as yet how to build it into something with a beginning, middle and end. 

    The original three lines of dialogue never did get written into the actual story itself. The pacing of the tale called for action not discussion at that point (another thing I'll talk about in future posts). But it all began with the immediacy of that moment -- and a tiny bit of its associated emotion -- being captured on paper. 

        Write those ideas down!





(c) All Rights Reserved. All blog text(except comments by others) copyright Hazel Hutchins.

Story Seed / Writing Tip #9 Zig Limple Plip Snurp

For the next few months my blog is featuring writing tips gathered from my own experience of growing story seeds into published books. 

(c) 2013 Ruth Ohi

The Story Seed: It was something a friend told me that sprouted this book idea. “My little guy talks non-stop except it's not really words, it's just sounds--- like a baby magpie. It's driving all three of us crazy.”

The Book: Katie's Babbling Brother (illustrations by Ruth Ohi, Annick 1992)

The Writing Tip:  

    Tip #1 : Sometimes you have to give up something very good in order to make your story even better.  Magpies are a medium-size bird, rather like a black and white crow.  Their babies really do chatter away in some language that sounds almost human and I LOVED the fact that my friend used them in her description. But right away I had a problem. Not everyone knows what a magpie is. 
         Would it work if I wrote it as babble instead?  "Bimble dee izzer? Gararumph iggle de snorkum zot! Sisbah yup yup.”  Hey! I really liked the babble!  And I soon discovered, while reading early drafts aloud to children, that they totally delighted in the babble language. This would work even better than I'd thought!      

   
Tip #2:  Look at the world through a child's eyes.  With the babble firmly in place, I began to write.  However it soon became clear that the story wasn't working.  The babbling was good but the family parts - especially the bits about Mom and Dad - were boring. What was wrong?

           Experienced writers will have guessed my error. Because I'd gleaned the story seed from an adult, I'd unconsciously adopted an adult point of view. I'd used Mom and Dad's frustration as the main focus for the plot. But a kid's story should NOT be about an adult problem.  It should be about a kid's problem! 
            I couldn't write from the baby brother's point of view - he didn't even have a problem.  He was perfectly happy just babbling away.
             That's when I realized the real problem in the story belonged to five-year-old  Katie. She had a little brother whose non-stop noise drove her crazy but, even more importantly, it stole all the attention away from Katie herself. Yes - that was where the story was to be found! 
              (Katie's unorthodox solution to her problem turned out to be a bit of a stumbling block to my wonderful publishers for a year or two... but that's a blog for another day.)
     



(c) All Rights Reserved. All blog text(except comments by others) copyright Hazel Hutchins. 
 

                     

Story Seed / Writing Tip # 8 - Find a Great Ending!

For the next few months my blog will be featuring 1) the tiny, real-life seed from which one of my stories unfolded and 2) a writing tip that helped the seed grow into a finished story.  

The Seed:  My central character was a 100-year-old talking cat on his ninth life. As you can probably guess, if the cat was on his ninth life it meant that the story teller (me!) pretty much had to kill him off in the final chapters of the book.

(c) 2013 Ruth Ohi

        Somewhere around chapter 7, however, I realized this was a story I was never going to finish. I simply could not bear the thought of killing this cat! I'd have to give up on the book entirely.

         Suddenly, however, a small idea jumped forward.  Maybe there was a way I could keep the story completely honest, fulfill the "nine lives" scenario and ensure that no animal died in the telling of the tale.
          I began to write again with renewed energy and determination.  This was a story I would definitely finish after all!

The Book: A Cat of Artimus Pride (Annick Press1991, illustrations by Ruth Ohi, novel ages 8 - 11)

The Writing Tip: Do you have trouble finishing your stories? The best writing tip I know for people who start stories and never finish them is to sit down and think up a truly great ending. But don`t stop with only thinking of it -- actually write that part of the story. It can be a few lines, a paragraph, maybe an entire page but at least get something written down. The physical writing will help your ending become a strong and concrete goal.
         Is it even possible to write the ending of a story when you haven't finished the in-between bits?  Of course it is!  It's another way I keep energy in my novels.  I write the fun parts, the exciting parts.  I let the energy of those moments spill out onto the page and grow in all directions.  I will, of course, need to add connective bits at a later time -- but often not as much as I think. 
        Besides resolving the plot, here are my three favourite things to incorporate into the ending of any story:
           - an element of surprise
           - a revealing shift at the core of the central character
           - and (if the story can possibly carry it) a touch of humour.
And yes, some stories must have sad endings. But not this one!


  (c) All Rights Reserved. All blog text(except comments by others) copyright Hazel Hutchins.

Story Seed / Writing Tip # 7 - Lurking Beneath the Suface

(c) 2013 Ruth Ohi

The Seed:  It was story-time at Canmore Library and the wonderful librarian had the rapt attention of even the youngest child.  This story-time deserved a book of its own!

The Book:  Nicholas at the Library (Annick Press 1990, illustrations by Ruth Ohi, picture book ages 4 - 7)

The Writing Tip:  The strength of any story comes from emotion, honestly portrayed. But emotion very often has hidden layers.
     In the published story, Nicholas and the librarian jump in and out of books (with the help of the "librarian's emergency ring") to return a lost chimpanzee to its story-book home.  It's a great romp - but the mission is important. And to get that little bit just right, I unconsciously drew on something deeper, something that had happened when I was a child myself.
     I was eight years old and sitting in the truck watching helplessly as Dad walked the brushy area where a cow had recently given birth. The cow was visibly upset. But nowhere could Dad find the newly born calf.
     "The coyotes must have got it," he said, shaking his head sadly as he came back to the truck.
     This loss mattered to him in a way I'd never seen before.  A cattle herd is part of the livelihood of a farm but, even more important, farmers see themselves as protectors of their animals. And then my eight-year-old brain did a lovely jump backward to earlier in the morning when I'd been helping him move cattle from one field to another.
     "Dad, do you remember that one little calf who didn't want to cross the road?" I asked hopefully.  "The one I really had to chase?"
     Suddenly my dad was smiling again. And off we went to the rescue!
      A story-chimpanzee returned safely to its book; a newly-born calf returned to its mother. They were the same story, although I didn't realize it at the time.  It was only years later, while looking through early drafts of the story, that I found a small hint of connective tissue that only myself (or someone who has been around animals at birthing time) had  would recognize.
      And the writing tip from all this? Even as a writer needs to be aware of the basics and absorb all the information available (here and elsewhere!) about plot, character, dialogue, pacing, theme, etc. -- please also be aware that to find a story's true potential sometimes you just have to trust your instinct and follow the magic of "story" itself.

Nicholas at the Library became part of two lovely literary celebrations! 
     - In 1999 it was given to Grade One students across Canada with the sponsorship of The Canadian Book Manufacturers' Association for Canada Book Day.
     - In 2000 it was given to a whole new cohort as the first TD Bank Financial Group (and now annual) "Grade One Give Away during Book Week with The Canadian Children's Book Centre

The Canadian Chidlren's Book Centre is an excellent resource for writers, teachers, librarians, parents, caregivers and lovers of great books for kids. Visit them at http://www.bookcentre.ca/

  (c) All Rights Reserved. All blog text(except comments by others) copyright Hazel Hutchins.

 

Story Seed / Writing Tip # 6 - Have Fun with Language Itself

In celebration of the fun I've had writing for kids, every week my blog will be featuring 1) the tiny, real-life seed from which one of my stories unfolded and 2) a writing tip that helped the seed grow into a finished story. 

(c) 2013 Ruth Ohi  - Thanks Ruth!

The Story Seed: “Mom, what colour are my eye yolks?”

That question alerted me to the fact that my son was using words in an unusual manner. Over the next few weeks I heard him come up with the wonderfully descriptive (but hitherto uninvented) terms “loaves of hay”, “the beak of the car” and “I'll help you hatch the peas”. I was never quite able to fit those expressions into a story but when Norman first asked for “more” and Leanna explained the term he should use is “bigger”.... I knew the same playfulness of language was at work.

The Book: Norman's Snowball (Annick Press, 1989, illustrations Ruth Ohi, picture book, ages 4-7)

The Writing Tip:– If an idea doesn't work one way, turn it sideways and try a different twist. I made sure Norman embraced the joy of his new found mastery of that one word in the English language with all his energy.  It also allowed me to use another writing technique that is very effective when an author is working on a picture book manuscript - repetition.  The three together - energy, playfulness and repetition - make this book one of my favourite read-alouds when I do class visits.
                 This was also the first of my stories to be illustrated by the wonderful Ruth Ohi. I'll mention her more than once over the next postings.  For anyone who has met Ruth, enjoyed her presentations or read any of her titles (she writes her own stories as well as illustrating for other authors), you will know that the adjective "wonderful" is not an exaggeration.  I have been so lucky to have had her bring many of my characters to life!


  c All Rights Reserved. All blog text(except comments by others) copyright Hazel Hutchins.

Story Seed / Writing Tip # 5 - "Ordinary" Objects

For the next few months, every week my blog will be featuring 1) the tiny, real-life seed from which one of my stories unfolded and 2) a writing tip that helped the seed grow into a finished story. 

The Seed: In the bottom of the kids' dress up-box was an old green jacket that seemed to have appeared out of nowhere. That sense of mystery was enough to get me writing! 

The name of the young artist is unfortunately lost in the mists of time.

The Book: Casey Webber, The Great (Annick, 1988 - novel, ages 8-11)

The Writing Tip: Even an ordinary object - like a jacket - can become a great story seed so long as you think about it in different ways. Some suggestions are:

• Is the object associated with a sad time in a character's life? 
• Is it something a character doesn't have but desperately wants?
• Is it a threat? 
• Is it part of a puzzle, something to be figured out in order to solve a mystery?   
• Does it have a magical quality? 
• Does it reveal something deeper about the central character?
• Can the basic traits of the object be used in unexpected ways?

For this book, whenever Casey put on the jacket, he became invisible. There are so many different ways to think about the act of "disappearing".... a single story seed can sprout an entire vine laden with possibilities! 

              An interesting sideline to the writing of this book is that I spent several weeks doing a small but “active” bit of research. My hard work resulted in only one short line of actual text but when I visit schools, it's how I end my presentation. As the young artist who drew the picture above has depicted, writing can be fun in more ways than one!

Story Seed / Writing Tip # 4 - The Magic of a List

In celebration of the enjoyment I've had writing children's books, every week my blog will be featuring 1) the tiny, real-life seed from which one of my stories unfolded and 2) a writing tip that helped the seed grow into a finished story.

(c) Lisa Smith

The Seed: New snow had fallen and our family was packing up for a winter picnic. My two-year-old was rushing around like crazy. If there was this much excitement, there had to be a story! Even with my husband helping, however, it was too hectic to find my notebook and really write. Just before I headed out the door, I grabbed a scrap of paper and made a quick list of the last four things I'd put into the back packs...

The Book: Ben's Snow Song

The Writing Tip: If you can't do any other kind of writing...make a list! All afternoon that scrap of paper with it's four words, so patiently sitting on the counter at home, became a gathering spot for my thoughts. The magic of a list is that, even while it helps you focus, it almost begs for your thoughts to expand as well.  Soon all my senses were reaching for words and phrases.  The sound of the skis on the snow. The happy buzz of chickadees. Words repeated in my head to the rhythm of our movement through the trees.
                               Sunlight, shadow, sunlight, shadow.
                               Cold and quiet, 
                               world of snow.  
Have you ever noticed how a list becomes a poem?  
          When we stopped to build a fire, the crack of the wood being split, the smells of roasting hot dogs and the taste of gingerbread men all joined in. 

          No matter how well things seemed to be turning out in the list/poem department, however, I knew I must not forget the basics.  Every story needs a crises.  This is a gentle little story so the crises could be gentle as well - but it is there, complete with resolution.        

          

(c) Lisa Smith

 Lisa Smith did a perfect job of giving the illustrations the wintery freshness and the family warmth they needed. More of Lisa's lovely art can be seen on her home page lisa@lisasmithillustration.com

By the way, it's not just when I'm in a hurry that I use lists. I also use them  

• to overcome writer's block (a form of "free fall" )
• to internalize the age and interests of my young characters
• to broaden a story plot (lists help to both focus and expand)
• to try and pin down an illusive theme
• to come up with a stronger and more surprising ending
• to keep track of the problems I know exist in a manuscript but  haven't quite figured out how to fix yet 
• to plan what I'll work on during my next writing period so that when I do return to a story I'm off to a running start

Happy writing, making lists and enjoying the great outdoors in whatever way the season allows... until the next blog!  
  c All Rights Reserved. All blog text(except comments by others) copyright Hazel Hutchins.