Reader Question: Directing your writing

Posted on by March 23, 2011
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Whenever I get an idea and trying to write it, my thoughts/plot goes all over the place. When I start writing it out, I find myself veering off into a whole different direction than I intended to. What can one do in this scenario?

I guess first I’d say that sometimes veering off in a different direction isn’t such a bad thing. Maybe it means that once you start writing, your creative intuition is seeing new and exciting ways the story can go. It can be fun to explore different avenues and see where you can go with a story before settling on one definite storyline. What you originally imagined for the plot might not actually be the best approach! (I find it rarely is for me.)

But if it bothers you not to know how the story’s going to go before you sit down to write, I recommend outlining. That’s what I do before I start any of my books. I write a lot of notes brainstorming what might happen, until I’m pretty sure I’ve figured out the best and most interesting story that could develop from the premise and characters. And then I write out, point form, very sketchily, what’s going to happen step by step, in the approximate order it’ll appear in the story. That gives me a good guideline to follow when I start actually writing, and it makes it much easier to get through the first draft without writing myself into a corner I can’t get out of.

Even if you outline, though, I don’t think you should ever get too stuck on following that outline. New ideas always occur to me when I’m in the middle of writing the story, and often better ones than I had before, so I’m always ready to adjust my outline to make the story stronger as I go, even if it means taking it in a direction I hadn’t considered.

Kids writing class in Toronto

Posted on by March 22, 2011
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For those in the Toronto area, I wanted to mention that I’m going to be leading a writing workshop for kids aged 9 to 12 on Saturday afternoons in May. The workshop is free, and will take place at the St. James Town branch of the Toronto Public Library, near Sherbourne and Wellesley. I’m going to be taking the participants through all the stages of writing a story, from brainstorming to drafting to revisions, and they’ll end the class with a printed “anthology” of their collected work. 🙂

For more details and the number to call to register, click here.

If you know any kids that age who’d be interested, or their parents, please pass the info on!

Tools of the Trade: Laptop

Posted on by March 21, 2011
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My notebooks and index cards are essential for me to brainstorm and plan out my stories, but I couldn’t write them down without my laptop computer. The one I’ve been using for the last four years is an iBook G3:

It’s an older model–they stopped making them more than seven years ago–but that serves my purposes better than a flashy new one. Macs last a good long time, so I was able to buy an older used computer for about a third of the price of a new Mac laptop, and it’s still running without a simple problem. Certain functions like internet browsing are rather slow, though, which means that while I can fact-check details now and then as I’m writing, I find the speed too frustrating to be tempted to start browsing instead.

It’s also handy being used to writing on a portable computer, because I can pretty easily get into the writing zone wherever I bring it: public transit, coffee shop, retreat.

But because I do the vast majority of my writing at home, the main reason I write on a laptop is it just feels better than the desktop computer, just like brainstorming feels better to me with pen on paper than fingers on a keyboard. This is one of those inexplicable creative things that I’ve never been able to quite figure out. But something about having the device I’m writing on sitting on my lap, as close as if it were a book, and being away from my desk, makes the words flow more naturally. Maybe I’m able to relax more, because it feels more casual? Hard to say. All I know is, I love my laptop!

The music of Give Up the Ghost: “Elsewhere”

Posted on by March 18, 2011
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Getting close now! The ninth song on the unofficial Give Up the Ghost soundtrack is Sarah McLachlan’s “Elsewhere”:

I guess I picked this one for the theme of making choices that people in your life might not understand. Cass’s mom bugging her to be more social and make lots of friends when she’s just not a bubbly happy-go-lucky girl like her sister was. Tim wanting to be left to find his own way back to (he hopes) his mom. Lots of mom stuff. 😉

I love the first verse in particular, because I think it relates well to the place Cass starts to find herself in toward the end of the book, becoming aware of how much she’s been holding in and for how long, and finding a sort of peace with the past.

For Japan

Posted on by March 21, 2011
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I’ve been watching the news on Japan somewhat obsessively over the last week. In theory, I’m supposed to be heading over there for a book research trip in three weeks. In reality, well, I am waiting and seeing, and hoping more for the locals’ sake than my own that the situation starts improving soon, as I’m sure many of you are too.

Want to help? Here’s a list of sites where you can donate directly, by country. You can also contribute while potentially winning some rather awesome prizes by bidding on the many book and writing related prizes at Authors for Japan.

The most useful news sites I’ve found are The Lede via The New York Times and the NPR’s coverage (including live blogs), both of which are updated frequently with the latest bits of news, though not always the same news, which is why I’ve been watching both. The Lede also has a live stream from a Japanese news source, with English translation.

For anyone over there, or with friends or family in the country, may you and they stay safe.

Reader Question: What I won’t write

Posted on by March 16, 2011
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What genre or story plot are you likely to never write about?

I don’t believe in saying never, because there have been things I thought I’d never write, but then I got just the right idea or my perspective changed, and I did after all. So. What I think it is unlikely I will write:

-A book in which nothing supernatural, fantastical, or science-fictional happens. I enjoy reading realistic books, but when it comes to writing, I find I need some sort of speculative “what if” to keep my interest engaged.

-A picture book. I need more words than that. Chapter books and early readers also unlikely; I will not discount upper middle grade, however.

-An adult novel. I have hundreds of ideas written down and so far none of them would work better as an adult novel than a YA novel. I think my creativity is just inherently programmed toward writing for teens. However, I’ll admit this is more likely than either of the above.

Um… I think that’s about all I can safely eliminate. There really aren’t any topics or plot lines that I find so distasteful I can’t imagine ever going there–in fact, I find there’s often a lot of value in going places with your writing that make you uncomfortable!

Flashback: Perspective

Posted on by March 15, 2011
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Haven’t done a proper flashback post in a while, so I thought it was about time. Newer blog readers, see the An Introduction to Flashbacks link at the bottom for an explanation.

October 5, 1995 (Megan is 14)

I was thinking this afternoon on the way home from school, thinking about how it’s possible that someone likes me, and I don’t even know, maybe don’t hardly know them. It’s kind of a weird thought, you know. Someone could be watching me and wishing I would notice them, or maybe even thinking I like them back. I don’t know, it just seems really strange to me.

It also occurs to me that B could be anyone. It just happened that I got to know him. So I could be in the same situation, or similar anyway, with almost anyone. That takes away some of the specialness of it, but also some of the worry. What it means, quite basically, is that if things die out with B, there will always be someone else just as good. I don’t know. Maybe B is better than that, but I don’t really think so. I’d like to, but I don’t.

—

An Introduction to Flashbacks
The Flashback Cast
The Flashback Timeline

Foreign rights, foreign readers

Posted on by March 14, 2011
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March is a big time for foreign rights and children’s books, because the largest conference dedicated to international children’s publishing happens at the end of the month: the Bologna Children’s Book Fair. Many agents and publishers, including mine, will be heading to Italy to pitch their current and upcoming books to industry folk from all over the world.

I’ve been getting quite a few e-mails asking about if and when my books might be available outside North America, and in other languages. Unfortunately, I don’t have much (okay, any) control over this. If I had my way, every book I publish would be available everywhere! I can tell you what’s already out there or in the works:

The Book Depository is a great site for buying books, mostly English language, from just about anywhere in the world–they ship to almost every country, for free! They carry Give Up the Ghost in hardcover and paperback (preorder) and I’m sure they’ll have The Way We Fall once it’s released.

For foreign language editions, these are the translations that will definitely be appearing:

Give Up the Ghost: Currently available in Romania from Leda Books; forthcoming in Germany.


(The Romanian version of Give Up the Ghost)

The Way We Fall (and, in most cases, its sequel): forthcoming in Brazil, Czech Republic, Germany, Italy, Russia, Slovakia, and Spain.

Don’t see your country there? Don’t worry, if there’s enough interest, books can get picked up in other countries well after they’re published. (Give Up the Ghost, for example, had been out for nearly a year when it sold overseas.) As a reader, you can even help the process along. If there’s a book you’d love to see in your country, write to your favorite publishers and tell them so!

In the meantime, I can tell you that I’m planning a giveaway especially for international readers when the Give Up the Ghost paperback comes out. So keep an eye on this blog!

The music of Give Up the Ghost: “Displaced”

Posted on by March 11, 2011
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The seventh song on the unofficial Give Up the Ghost soundtrack is a melancholy tune from Azure Ray, “Displaced”:

There’s definitely a lot of melancholy in GHOST, and I think the lyrics speak to the questions Cass has to start asking herself. “Am I making something worthwhile out of this?” Feeling displaced from her old life; feeling that no one makes it through life unharmed. And “Watching you run/watching you fall/fall into me” is a pretty good description of how her life and Tim’s collide. You could even think of the reference to the “friend of all friends” as meaning Paige. 🙂

I think this is a perfect song for Chapter 11, after the “victory” Cass thought she wanted doesn’t go at all as planned.

Reader Question: Book to screen adaptations

Posted on by March 10, 2011
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This question’s a two-parter:

What is your favorite book to movie or book to TV show adaptation?

I find that screen adaptations of books almost always fall short (often far short) of the book. If a movie sounds interesting and I know it’s based on a book, I try to read the book before I see the movie, because I assume the book version will be better and I want my experience of it to be unaffected by other interpretations.

This isn’t totally the fault of the adapters. Stories are told in books in very different ways than on the screen, and it’s hard to translate the techniques of one medium into the other effectively. Plus a 400 page book would take up at least 4 hours of screen time, which is generally not acceptable, so cuts have to be made somewhere.

There are, however, a few screen adaptations that I think capture the source material almost perfectly. My favorite book-to-film adaptation is Watership Down:

The animation is unique and fits the subject matter (both styles, one for the rabbit myths and one for their regular life), and while the story is cut down, the conflicts and plot points are merged in such a way that you don’t feel you’re missing anything (unless you’ve recently read the book and are looking for it). Everything that makes the story great is still there, and well-paced.

My favorite book-to-TV adaptation is the BBC mini-series of Pride and Prejudice, the one staring Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth:

Colin Firth. Do I really need to say more? Okay, I’ll also say that because it’s a mini-series, it covers the events of the entire book (I’ve never compared but I think nothing’s been left out), which means it keeps all Austen’s clever dialogue and the development of a multitude of colorful characters. The acting is excellent, the drama and humor so well done that the five hour run time never feels too long. It’s like someone took the book and fed it through some sort of magical audio-visual transformation machine. 🙂

Would you like to see this happen to your books?

Absolutely. I love great movies and TV just as much as I love great books; I think there are all sorts of things you can capture when you have visuals and audio that you can’t on the page (though the reverse is also true). I’d be incredibly excited to see one of my stories brought to life that way. And it doesn’t hurt that a movie or TV series raises awareness of the book itself, potentially bringing more people back to the original story. (That, I suppose, is the consolation prize if the adaptation is one of the not-so-great ones!)

Tell me, blog readers: What are your favorite book to screen adaptations? Or, on the flip side, which ones made you cringe?