15 Authors

I've been tagged on Facebook for the 15 Authors meme. It says: Don't take too long to think about it. Fifteen authors (poets included) who've influenced you and that will always stick with you. List the first 15, or as many as you can recall, in no more than 15 minutes...

Here's mine. My criteria for choosing: I had to have books by them on my current shelves and had to have read more than one book.

Thomas Hardy, Agatha Christie, John Le Carre, Shakespeare, E.B. White, Jane Austen, J.K. Rowling, Philip Pullman, George Eliot, Virginia Woolf, Ursula Le Guin, Robert Browning, Tom Robbins, Lemony Snicket (Daniel Handler), Bill Bryson.

(I think you can tell I was an English major.)

Comment of the Week

I spotted these wise words in the comment box of agent Sarah Davies' blog. They are the words of Blythe Woolston, whose website can be found here.

Secretly, in my heart of hearts, I write to please myself, and it is only a happy accident when it pleases anyone else.

Amen, sister, from all of the writers who write from their hearts.

Microfiction Monday: Divorce, Cactus-Style

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it's the world's best meme, coming to you from Susan at Stony River. One of the highlights of a dangerous writer's week. Enjoy.

Jorge was kicking himself. He never should've badmouthed Marta's cooking. Not when SHE was on the ponkey and they were 90 miles from home. (138 characters)

(Remember the ponkey from Microfiction 6/6/10? He's back!!)

The One Thing A Writer Absolutely Must Do

Okay, who thought I was going to say READING?

Wrong.

That's not to say that reading isn't necessary, important, uplifting, and thoroughly spiffy for a writer's soul. Every single writer interview you read will have the writer attesting to the singular importance of reading. But, for me, the one thing a writer absolutely must do is...

EAVESDROP.

My wife will attest that I am the Michael Phelps of eavesdropping. Apparently, whenever we are within earshot of anyone else in a restaurant, say, a glazed look comes over me and she can just tell that I'm being a shifty-eyed snoop.

The thing is, I'm not being snoopy for snoopy's sake. It's all done in the name of research. For the continual honing of my writerly skills, I must listen to dialogue, how it's paced, the word choices made by everyone--from glamorous socialite picking at her arugula to arrogant tycoon tooting his business-acumen horn. I must understand the topics that exercise the minds of middle-schoolers as well as society matrons. I MUST LISTEN TO EVERYTHING.

I'll finish with a story. The other day I had my youngest in tow at the grocery store. It was near lunchtime, a fatal time to shop, and the wee bairn was eager for a corndog. I acquiesced, as the corndogs are near the sushi counter and I fancied sushi. We took our seats next to a couple of grungy, unshaven types who were deep in conversation. (At least the older one was. The younger one nodded his head in the way of a giddy apprentice whenever the mentor cracked open his lips.)

It soon became apparent that Mentor was retelling the plot of his novel. Genre: Fantasy. He rambled on about "she" who, as far as I could tell, had been captured and taken to the villain ensconced in The Darklands. (I would occasionally lose the thread of things because corndog-boy-who-must-have-father's-attention-at-all-times would tell a joke and expect me to guffaw. And why is it always the Darklands in these fantasy novels? Why can't it be Lollipop Land, where everything seems benign, but lurking beneath the placid and successful exterior is a horror that would turn your bones to a foul brew?)

Mentor rambled on. What did I learn? Well, I had front-row seating on how NOT to pitch your magnum opus. I also noticed how every time Apprentice tried to get in a word, Mentor would shuffle about in a bag and look thoroughly impatient and uninterested. (That is certainly a behavior I might one day give an unsavory and self-absorbed character.)

It wasn't my finest eavesdropping hour, but it did remind me how important it is for a writer to notice everything in his or her surroundings. So, eavesdrop away, dear writers. (And let me know if you hear anything juicy.)

What a Great Idea for a Blog!

Now that I've launched myself screaming and flailing into the blogosphere, I find I'm making new friends and visiting interesting sites on a regular basis. One of my recent finds was this great blog, Books Dudes Will Read. A mother--who's a teacher and writer--and her middle-school son review books together.

This is a topic close to my heart. I write middle grade fiction. I have three "dudes" of my own. I want my novel to be read by dudes, and want to find ways to encourage dudes to read more. So, I am giving a high five and some huge thanks to the Dude and his mom for this awesome blog. I'll use it to expand the reading horizons of my own middle-schooler.

Oh, and they're running a contest right now to win a copy of S.A. Bodeen's The Gardener. Head on over, leave a comment, and become a follower. It sounds like a good book to try to win. (And keep fingers crossed for me!)

Craft Book of the Month: The First Five Pages

Week 2: Dialogue

In my salad days, when I was green in judgement--and anyone who can tell me which Shakespeare play those lines come from earns a gold star--I belonged to a writers' group that had a very interesting modus operandi. Basically, any interested writer could show up at this Chinese restaurant. Newbies were put in groups of 3 or 4 and that was that. Talk about luck of the draw!

In my group that first night were two other young guns and one older woman. We all read a few pages from the manuscripts we were working on. The woman, who was obviously enthralled by her pages, read line after line of terrible dialogue. Of course I can't remember it verbatim but it was along the lines of "I just talked to John, who was best man at our wedding" and "I had lunch with our-daughter-in-law, Janey, who has blessed us with our three grandchildren..." It was awkward indeed giving feedback--I still remember the sensation of squirming in my chair while we tried to point out that people didn't talk like this. End of the story? The writer was disgusted with us and never returned to the group.

If only she had read Noah Lukeman's take on dialogue. Lukeman writes:

Dialogue is a powerful tool, to be used sparingly, effectively and at the right moment. Dialogue is to the writer what the veto is to the president: it gives you great power and authority. If you overuse it, people will have to submit, but they will resent you for it; if you use it wisely, they will applaud your control, your willpower.

Lukeman covers five common ailments in dialogue.

1. In Between the Lines (Chapter 6), he talks of the use of "he/she said," how often to use it, and where to place it in the sentence.
2. Commonplace (Chapter 7) warns against using everyday dialogue ("Hello, how are you?") in the mistaken belief that dialogue has to be "realistic."
3. In chapter 8, Informative, he warns against using dialogue to convey backstory, which was what ailed the writer in my above-mentioned writer's group.
4. Chapter 9, Melodrama, advises us to use silence or action to convey drama, rather than having a character rant and rave. (His example: "Jane could yell and curse at Frank for twenty lines after he tells her he's been cheating on her, or she can turn and take off her wedding ring and flush it down the toilet.")
5. Finally, in chapter 10, Hard to Follow, Lukeman warns against overuse of dialect and writing that is cryptic.

Most of these dialogue mistakes, as Lukeman points out, are mistakes a more advanced writer knows how to avoid. So, if your first five pages have made it this far, The Bigger Picture awaits. This is sheep-from-goat-separation time--and what I will focus on during our two remaining Wednesdays.

Have a good week, writing dangerously!

Microfiction Monday: "Li'l Pink's Wolf Stew"

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it's the world's best meme, coming to you from Susan at Stony River. One of the highlights of a dangerous writer's week. Enjoy.

Li'l Pink, I worry about the wolf. Be careful.

I'm not worried, Mama.

Why ever not, dear?

Who do you think was in yesterday's stew?