Name That Novel #18

Let's try this one.... slightly more contemporary, but still a classic and well-read.

"Winston had disliked her from the very first moment of seeing her. He knew the reason. It was because of the atmosphere of hockey-fields and cold baths and community hikes and general clean-mindedness which she managed to carry about her. He disliked nearly all woman, and especially the young and pretty ones, who were the most bigoted adherents of the party, the swallowers of slogans, the amateur spies and nosers-out of unorthodoxy."

Good luck!

Congrats to Tina! 1984 by George Orwell.

Name That Novel #13

Contemporary, bestseller, an American saga and a very poignant take on human nature -- our flaws, our strengths, all of it set in the vast wilderness of Wisconsin. That said (a generous serving of clues, I must say) see if you can guess the title and author:

**I am giving some other hints, which I hope will bring in a winner. This story is about a mute boy who communicates well with dogs, and he goes on a long journey into the wilderness. The book came out in 2008, I believe.

"This will be his earliest memory.

Red light, morning light. High ceiling canted overhead. Lazy click of toenails on wood. Between the honey-colored slats of the crib a whiskery muzzle slides forward until its cheeks pull back and a row dainty front teeth bare themselves in a ridiculous grin.

The nose quivers. The velvet snout dimples.

All the house is quiet. Be still. Stay still.

Fine, dark muzzle fur. Black nose, leather of lacework creases, comma of nostrils flexing with each breath. A breeze shushes up the field and pillows the curtains inward. The apple tree near the kitchen window caresses the house with a tick-tickety-tick-tick. As slowly as he can, he exhales, feigning sleep, but despite himself his breath hitches. At once, the muzzle knows he is awake. It snorts. Angles right and left. Withdraws...."

There you are. Now, let's see what you can do with it. :-)

Okay, I don't think anyone is going to guess this one. So, drum roll please! .........

The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski

Name That Poet --- #1

I thought I'd mix it up a bit. So, here is a poem for you to ponder. If you can, name the poet, and as a plus.... the title of the poem.

my sweet old etcetera
aunt lucy during the recent

war could and what
is more did tell you just
what everybody was fighting

for,
my sister

isabel created hundreds
(and
hundreds) of socks not to
mention shirts fleaproof earwarmers

etcetera wristers etcetera, my
mother hoped that

i would die etcetera
bravely of course my father used
to become hoarse talking about how it was
a privilege and if only he
could meanwhile my

self etcetera lay quietly
in the deep mud et

cetera
(dreaming,
et
cetera, of
Your smile
eyes knees and of your Etcetera)

good luck to all of you!

And the winners are ...... Cara and JW with the answer: e. e. Cummings and "My Sweet Old Etcetera"
Congrats to you both. And if you want, take a winner button with you to place on your site.

Name That Novel #8 -- Back to the Classics

Returning to the past and another great, widely read classic: Title and Author, please.

"We didn't touch an oar, and we didn't speak nor whisper, nor hardly even breathe. We went gliding swift along, dead silent, past the tip of the paddle-box, and past the stern; then in a second or two more we was a hundred yards below the wreck, and the darkness soaked her up, every last sign of her, and we was safe, and knowed it."

Good luck to all!

Congrats to Cara for the correct answer: Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain.

Flashback: Another Way to Make Your Writing Pop and Sizzle!

"Jane was a shy girl. She never talked to anyone unless they spoke to her first. Maybe this was because she wasn't very pretty, wore thick glasses, and stood taller than most boys."

Seems like an okay description of Jane, right? Maybe if you were describing her to a friend in conversation or mentioning her in a letter. But for your novel or story? No. It's boring. At least if you wrote your character descriptions this way all of the time, it would be. So, what can you do about it? You definitely don't want your writing to be boring. What publisher would want to buy that? Come to think of it, what reader would want to read it?

Let's try this again with using flashback as a tool.

"Jane walked into the reunion, her palms sweating. She could see one of her classmates waving to her. Oh, God. Why did I come? She thought of turning around. This always seemed to happen. It never changed.

Her mother had taken her by the hand right up to the front door the first day of school. After some persuasion and a gentle push, Jane walked into the room and sat in the back row. All the kids were laughing and chattering. Jane kept fidgeting with her glasses. They felt heavy and awkward on her nose. One boy sitting next to her turned to stare.

'Your eyes look funny with those on. All big and goofy.'

Jane opened her notebook, brought it close to her face and studied the inside.

'What's a matter? You deaf?'

Jane popped out of the chair and scrambled over to another desk.

'Wow! You must be ten feet tall!'

Now, everyone was staring. Tears welled up in her eyes. Jane ran out of the room and out of the building.

'Jane Goodman! It's so good to see you after all these years. And you look great.'

Jane turned to see a face she would know anywhere. Even if there were a few creases around the eyes and grey in the hair. She smiled and nodded. Maybe this won't be so awful after all, she thought."

Now, if you will notice, the flashback to Jane's first day at school helps the character to come alive. This way, the reader begins to "know" Jane, become familiar with her. And in the long run, the reader will become "invested" in her character, care about what happens to her. When readers have this kind of empathy for the character(s) of a book, they want to keep on reading, they have to know what will happen.

Flashback is a wonderful tool, but there are a couple of warnings that go along with using it.

1) Don't announce the flashback with phrases like "it brought me back to" or "I remember the time" or even using ellipses ... Changing the scene with a certain look, (for example in mine the setting is the first day of school) and introducing it with the past perfect verb tense (in mine I used, "Her mother had taken her") is one example of how this works.

2) Don't announce the return from flashback with phrases like "that was in the past" or "I was brought out of my daydreaming". Just changing the setting with a few words or even a bit of dialog will work. (In mine I used: "Jane Goodman! It's so good to see you...")

3) While you are new to using flashback, be careful of the length. The longer the flashback, the harder it may be to transition in and out. Many use a separate line of asterisks **** or white space.

Overall, giving your writing a bit of variety with flashbacks to describe characters or to explain needed information without literally "explaining", i.e. telling instead of showing, will make your writing pop and sizzle off the pages, make your readers cry for more. And that's what we all want, don't we?

Description... How much is too much?

Description and Details... I often need to tell my students before, during, and after a writing assignment to include details... supporting details, sensory details, vivid, colorful, meaningful DETAILS! Of course, you need to understand that writing is like a tooth extraction for my wonderful kids. They want to know exactly how many words they need...right down to the last letter. No more, no less. Yet, for those of us who enjoy the written word, we create our beautiful masterpieces with those many, many words and phrases...maybe too many. I was reading in Stephen King's On Writing -- one of my favorite references on the subject -- where he states, "good description usually consists of a few well-chosen details that will stand for everything else" and "that it's as easy to overdescribe as to underdescribe. Probably easier." He continues to explain that what comes into your mind first, what you see first... those details are the most genuine and best to use. He's not big on physical description of characters, but rather description of time and place, i.e. the setting. I agree for the most part. Who cares what kind of handbag and shoes someone is wearing? Unless the shoes are going to be an important clue to a murder, for instance, it's unnecessary. I'd much rather hear about the character's character than the color of his or her hair. And as King puts it, "get on with your main job, which is telling the story" and don't bog down your writing with weighty details that bore your readers.

So, what do you think? Do you agree? What "details" do you tend to include in your writing?

Writing as Therapy?

I kept a diary when I was young. From age nine to twenty-one I wrote in those cherished journals most everyday. Sometimes the entries were mechanical and boring, other times quite insightful and interesting. The most fun has been digging them out of the cedar chest and reminiscing. What is most curious to me -- and it's not exactly possible to go back and ask myself -- is why? What gave me incentive to keep a diary? Was it trendy? Was it because of loneliness? (I was an only child.) Was it my way of thinking and talking about my feelings... what bothered me, what excited me, made me sad, angry, happy? And then later in life, as my writing expanded to short stories, song lyrics, and eventually novels, has that writing been for the same reasons? All I know is that writing became a part of my life, a very important part. A way of expressing myself. But is it or could this practice be labeled therapeutic? I think so. I've given it much thought. And that's my conclusion. Maybe it doesn't matter. Maybe it shouldn't matter, as long as it makes me happy. However, it's interesting to consider the "healing" power of writing. What do you think? Is writing more than the creative, informative, entertaining art form we enjoy? Is it therapeutic?

Setting the Mood & a Writing Prompt

What sets the mood? Descriptive words, for one, help to create mood. Your setting, your characters, your plot, all these are dependent on such words. You appeal to your reader's senses, help him/her become an active participant. I often tell my students when they are about to work on a writing assignment to be aware of this. Or when they read a story, look for descriptive phrases and what senses they address. I tell them that when they write a narrative piece, for instance, if they haven't grabbed the reader's attention this way, then they haven't done their job. If I read a scary tale, I want to sweat, to feel my heart hammer with fear. If it's about romance, I want to melt inside and recall my own first love or kiss. You want the reader to feel this is personal, written just for him/her, to exist inside that story and its characters. Not an easy task for the writer, is it?

Now, I'd like to know what you do with mood. How do you create it? Also, how do you make your reader become involved through the senses? Give me your opinions. For those of you who want to tell by showing an example, here's a prompt to play with:

The clock chimed eight. She sat waiting with little patience when finally.....

I can't wait to read what you have to contribute. I hope you enjoy!

In Your Opinion

I read an article online today concerning corporal punishment in the public school system. The statistics give pause to seriously think about the disparity throughout the U.S. For instance, did you know that 29 of our states have banned this type of punishment in public schools? Read for yourself and then give me your opinion. Should we allow it at all? Does it work? What about in your area's schools?

http://www.rr.com/view/content/story.cfm?storyId=5634946&view=NEWS&sSect=LP3-T2VGEN&trProv=NE_AP_19

Back to the 3 r's.....here we go again!

Less than 5 weeks...4 weeks... now, make that 12 days and counting. The think mode has to change, reset the alarm clock, write your lesson plans, buy your materials...ready, set, go! And you are off to another great year. You hope. Great expectations and enthusiasm are abundant, and probably will last...oh, let's say....umm....maybe for the first month, maybe even until the winter holidays, or at least until that first unmanageable student, that first hard-to-please parent, or... what gets to you the most? What is your biggest challenge? And let's address the flipside... what do you look forward to the most? What helps you get through and really make it a great year? Afterall, it's been said often enough, you get what you expect. So, after looking at the problems we have--and we should recognize those--we should find ways to correct them, or at least make them better. ( I refer to all the unmanageables, the hard-to-please ones, etc. They aren't going away!) So, what do you think? All suggestions on the table.