When I have Time

The great Jane Friedman posts such useful information on her blog.

Last week I tweaked my blog in response to a comment made by John McIntyre about having difficulty following the links on a black background....So I changed the background and tweaked colours and generally played around with the site. I am not ditching my space photos...but I did check that they still look ok on the background. As I was doing all these changes I noticed the Great Jane had posted a list of red flags that editors look for, as a result of a webinar that Jane and Alice Pope (Editor of Children’s Writers and Illustrators Marketplace)ran that day on her site. I made a mental note to go back when I had time and post a link....ah the killer words in that last sentence -when I had time-

So belatedly I post this for you to peruse and then you can all go over to Jane’s blog and look at the other great things she has posted since then.

For my blog readers, here are the common problems that we identified during the webinar:
• Flashback on first page
• Too much backstory or explanation, slowing story down
• Waiting for the protagonist to appear (or unclear protagonist)
• Starting with an alarm clock or ringing phone
• Lots of characters introduced on first page
• Ordinary day stuff (getting out of bed, walking to kitchen, etc)
• Ordinary crisis moment without distinct voice or twist
• Too much telling about the story, not enough showing
• Nothing happens -- no action or problem
• Interior monologue: in character's head, just lots of thinking, no acting or interaction with anyone else
• Predictable story start or story line without a unique take
• More of a journal entry (stream of consciousness), and not a story
• Wrong starting point; not starting at a point of change
• Too confusing, not enough reason or motivation to figure out what's happening

Ahh so... I had a nagging feeling about one of my novels and this helps to put it in perspective. Thank You Jane!

However the novel will have to wait for, When I Have Time. The big words...Today I had two must reply emails, a funding form to investigate and my blog to write, in the time the baby is asleep, which is the only time I get uninterrupted. So of course I answered four must reply emails, sent five urgent ones, followed up the funding app and am now just attacking the blog....countdown to baby wakeup is on...

Conference is morphing all over the place....we are in the middle of confirming speakers and making arrangements and waiting on funding...and and and...It is just going crazy but in a good way I hasten to add....I know you are all waiting....some not so patiently...we are working hard...the next time I blithely say ‘oh lets hold a conference....” Hold me down...wash out my mouth... So if you know you want to come to Wellington around the 18-20 September you might start looking at flights....
yikes baby awake....

Maureen

pic is of The planet... (the novel feels so far away at the moment...)

Finding the time...

Book Review from The School Library: Learning Media.

Bones By Maureen Crisp

Illustrated by Robert Calvert.

(Kiwi Bites series Puffin)

Despite the back cover blurb, I feel Bones is less a mystery story than a small and delightful study in both human and canine psychology, as well as a fascinating lesson in police procedure.

What would happen if your dog began bringing home suspiciously human-looking bits of skeleton? Bones answers this - allowing the reader to look in on a realistic police operation as well as the reactions of the individuals at the centre and on the periphery of the investigations. (I like the cameo from two elderly rubberneckers: ’Police are so young these days,’ said Carol to Mavis... ‘Almost babies.’)

By the end of the book, the mystery of where the bones came from is solved, but not the mystery of how they got there. The book hints at a possible sequel. Perhaps we will find out then?

****************************************************************************************

I received a copy of this review from Penguin recently. I would love to know who the reviewer was.

I remember when I was writing Bones, the list of people I made sure I interviewed to get the facts right. And the extra gruesome things I found out from the police and the pathologist that didn’t make it into the book. I am so pleased this reviewer picked up on this.

I think if we write for children we have a duty to make sure that we do get it right. I know that growing up in a medical family, if something was glaringly wrong in hospital procedure on TV, my mother would continually rubbish the programme so in the end no one could watch it.

And she was unrepentant...’It should be accurate.’

My Mother-in- law is the same, she write Romance novels. Her big issue is that the occupations of her main characters must be believable and accurate. You won’t find her writing about inherited millionaires and sheiks. So in her library (and she does have one...dewey-ed, of course,) you will find all sorts of textbooks and journals about the most amazing jobs out there. If you want to hunt for sunken treasure there is an international journal just for you...That was a good subscription she told me...Lots of exotic jobs in that industry...Plenty of romance there. Of course she interviews people too...to make sure her plots are believable.

It is the attention to detail -the believable worlds you create- that stay with the reader and give them a much richer reading experience. For five years our eldest child would discuss over dinner the implications of magic and plot from the Harry Potter series....and now our middle child, the one that never stays still, has begun to devour the books...guess what the dinner conversation is...?

So a sequel, huh?

I would have to get the Mars novel done, (I hate leaving unfinished work. (unless it’s housework and that nags at me,) and a few other plotted stories...and there’s this little conference I’m convening. Oh drat...finding the time...

Maureen