Finds in my Files and my Fridge
The Files Find
I was cleaning out some of my computer files and found an idea I’d jotted down for a magazine article. It still sounded interesting to me, so yay! I think I’ll pursue that one again. It’ll be fun to see what happens.
The Fridge Find
I was cleaning out the fridge and found some coleslaw. . . from Thanksgiving. . . Canadian Thanksgiving. . .October 13th.
Gack!
Seeing what happened there was NOT fun.
© Lizann Flatt, www.lizannflatt.com
No part of this blog may be used without written permission from the author.
No part of this blog may be used without written permission from the author.
How Can I Quit Reading?
I love to read. I have a pile of books to read that my friends have lent me. I find it hard to leave a school book fair without buying something, and I have real trouble resisting just one little bookstore book purchase. And through all this I keep going to the library to borrow more.
Writers are supposed to be readers, aren’t we? But here’s the problem:
I’m coming to the conclusion that if I read less I might actually write more. As in, if I put some of that time into my own writing I might have more to market. If I start reading, and if it’s a good book, I have real trouble putting it down. I want to finish it right away. So what can I do?
I could quit cold turkey. But what would I do without a book when I wait for one of my kids at skating or jazz or hockey practice? What would I do without a book when I have to take them to some appointment or other? What would I do without a book when I’m waiting for dinner to cook? Oops, maybe that one I can do without. (Yes, I have been known to stir dinner with one hand and read with the other!)
Anyone else have this problem? How do you moderate your reading habit?
© Lizann Flatt, www.lizannflatt.com
No part of this blog may be used without written permission from the author.
No part of this blog may be used without written permission from the author.
Hazard of the Profession
So I’m sitting in the stands in an arena, because I am in arenas a lot between my kids’ figure skating or hockey, and I’m reading a book. But since I write for kids I’m reading a book for kids: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Roderick Rules by Jeff Kinney. After my daughter got it out of the library and gobbled it up, then my son grabbed it and declared it a winner, so it was my turn at last.
Okay, so anyway I’m reading it and chuckling away when another skater’s mother walked by behind me. She checked out my book, and I’m sure it wasn’t just my imagination that “my” book’s graphic presentation, the large typeface, the cartoons, caused a raised eyebrow. She proceeded to sit down in the next seat section and pull out a Norah Roberts paperback.
Guess I’m not up to that standard of reading yet.
Har!
© Lizann Flatt, www.lizannflatt.com
No part of this blog may be used without written permission from the author.
No part of this blog may be used without written permission from the author.
All Together Now, One, Two, Three:
Another one of those writing things that bugs me (see previous rant on screaming) is when writers have their characters say things all together or altogether or they all answer in unison. It always makes me stop short. It kicks me out of that story world. Yes, if you’re old enough to have heard a record scratching then I hear a record scratching. Insert said sound.
Do people act like this in reality? Does more than one kid say the exact same sentence at exactly the same time?
“We want some of your chocolate chip cookies, Mommy,” the three kids all said together.*
* [Don’t even get me started on the proliferation of chocolate chip cookies in stories]
Come on, no way, right? Are they reading a script? Are those kids robots? So don’t write that in your stories.
I get that sometimes people will say sort of the same thing more or less together. Maybe everyone cheers or boos or hollers or something. That’s fine. But not in complete sentences.
Maybe it’s more like:
“Mom, can I have a cookie?” Carson asked.
“Yeah, me too,” said Mark. “Chocolate chip, please.”
“And me!” added Stanley. “Don’t forget me!”
Wordier, definitely, but definitely more realistic.
So does this “all together thing” ever work? Are you dying to tell me you’ve seen it in: insert title here? Yes, you know there are always exceptions. But the one I can think of is a lot of years old. The Little Engine That Could by Watty Piper has reams of characters saying the exact same sentence at the exact same time (“said all the dolls and toys together”). So why does it work?
Simple: It’s old.
So it’s allowed to sound old, or okay, old-fashioned. Think of the precedent set by all kinds of voices reciting a single sentiment in unison: the chorus in Greek tragedies. Hey, it works too, but like it’s a Greek tragedy. Is that the flavour you want to invoke for your writing voice?
So yes, if you want to create an old-fashioned feel or a folk tale or a large tale or even a bunch of robots then by all means give it a try. But don’t insert this in the middle of your modern story or you’ll hear that record scratching (oh, okay, maybe a CD skipping…or the sudden silence of crickets chirping after someone yanks your iPod ear buds outta your ears).
(Disclaimer: Lizann really does enjoy her work as an instructor for the Institute of Children’s Literature, where she can help writers not to do this. Unless of course they really want to.)
© Lizann Flatt, www.lizannflatt.com
No part of this blog may be used without written permission from the author.
No part of this blog may be used without written permission from the author.