Belletrinsic

After I tweeted about my niece sticking a bell in her ear and her father, when he was the same age, sticking a lima bean up his nose, someone suggested I turn the story into a children’s book. So here’s my humble attempt at writing a picture book.

I put a bean up my nose and what did it do?

It grew and grew and grew until a tiny green vine came out.

I put a bell in my ear so I could hear it better.

When I turned my head, it rang and rang and rang.

I put a penny in my mouth and swallowed it down, down, down.

Pennies taste really yucky.

I put glitter in my eye and blinked and blinked and blinked.

All I saw was sparkly blue.

I put some glue in my belly button and it dried.

I pulled and pulled and pulled to get it out.

I stuck a string around my finger and twisted, twisted, twisted.

My finger turned red and purple.

Mommy took me to a doctor and this is what he said.

Don’t put beans up your nose.

Don’t put bells in your ear.

Don’t put pennies in your mouth.

Don’t put glitter in your eye.

Don’t put glue in your belly button.

Don’t put string on your finger.

It will really hurt.

So he took them all out and I feel much better.

I thought I’d compile a list of my favorite books that have been banned at one point or another. (There is no rhyme or reason to the order.)

• The Awakening by Kate Chopin
• The Giver by Lois Lowry
• Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling
• Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor
• A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
• Grimm’s Fairytales
• several books by Roald Dahl
• Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare
• Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White
• Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut

Now tell me: What are some of your favorite banned books?

(Here’s where you can find some lists of banned books: http://www.abffe.com/bbw-booklist.htm ; http://www.adlerbooks.com/banned.html ; http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/banned/index.cfm)

I will not join your Facebook page.

I will not read your messages.

I will not be your biggest fan.

I will not like it more than spam.

I will not join your Facebook page.

I will not join at any stage.

Do not invite repeatedly.

Do not send them heatedly.

Do not get mad when I ignore.

Do not unfriend me if you’re sore.

I will not join your Facebook page.

I will not join at any stage.

I will not forward to my friends.

I will not have those friendships end.

I will not be guilted into this.

I will not feel bad for what I miss.

I will not join your Facebook page.

I will not join at any stage.

I would not like it in my feed.

I would not like what I would read.

I would not like to pimp your stuff.

I would like to say enough!

I will not join your Facebook page.

I will not join at any stage.

Due to me being down with Giardia (don’t ask), I’ve slacked off a bit on posting on my regular schedule. Next week I should be back up to snuff but until then, feel free to browse the archives.

I’ve been sick—really sick—these past two weeks. I’ll spare you the details, but let’s just say I’ve been to three doctors within that time period. Each of them had the same thing to say. “Tests came back normal. It’s probably just the stomach flu and will go away soon.”

Well, I got tired of waiting, so I took my health into my own hands. Yesterday I went to a naturopathic doctor, i.e. someone who combines traditional holistic healing with modern scientific medicine.

The thing that made me appreciate this approach was the desire of the doctor to understand my overall health, not just what was bothering me at the moment. He asked many questions to get to the root of my health so we could bring my body—and thereby my health—back into balance.

As you probably know, I like to relate things from my personal life to writing. You might be asking how this could possibly relate.

Let’s think for a moment about a book that you’ve written. When you’re revising and editing, do you use a checklist of items to look for? Passive voice. Check. Spell check. Yep. Consistency of protag’s hair color. Got it.

That’s good. I’m glad you have specific things you look for, but sometimes I think writers forget about the big picture, just like those doctors concerned only about the present problem instead of the overall health of the patient. We’re so involved in finding all the nitpicky little problems with grammar, punctuation, and plot that we forget to look at the general health of the story.

Is the overarching story interesting? Does the plot make sense? Are your characters realistic and act according to their personalities? Is there tension, involvement, and genuine emotion?

To answer some of the bigger questions I’ve taken to reading my story as a story, just like I would any other book. Does it grab me and keep me reading? Yes, it does, and that’s a good thing.

Sometimes we let ourselves get bogged down in the details of writing and publishing, forgetting why we started the journey. Telling stories. Communicating. Sharing information. Making connections.

So today, I want you to think of the overall health of your story. Look at the big picture. Take a holistic approach to your writing and see if you can’t make the overall story better.

Communicating. That’s what happens when we write anything down. We take a piece of information and relay it to another person

After writing Monday’s post on Joss Whedon, I thought a lot about something he said during an interview that I quoted in my post. He said, “What I want to be doing is just using the medium to communicate.”

That thought has stuck with me these past days. Communicating. It’s what I do as a writer, as an editor. I take information and present it in a usable format. With nonfiction, it is essential. But with fiction, is communicating as important?

Without communication between us as writers and those who read our stories, nothing happens. It might be a good story, it might be exciting and fun, but without communication, it means nothing in the larger picture.

And what is that larger picture? It is life. It is meaning. It is hope and trust and love and fear and every powerful emotion humans experience. To take words on a page and make them mean something more than the letters that represent them is extraordinary and an ability not all possess.

A few months ago, I heard an incredible speech about this communicating we do as writers. You can see my whole post about it here, but I want to revisit some of the things I learned.

”

No book lives until it is read. The reader partners in the experience in creating the written word. How that works is that the writer places symbols on a piece of paper, and the reader later comes along and interprets those symbols and make them come to life.

“The meaningful experience in all literature takes place in the white space between the words. Minds connect the dots and fill in the blanks. It is what the reader interprets the words to mean, how they are personal, that creates a meaningful experience.”

That is what I mean by communicating, and I’m pretty sure what Joss meant as well. We create a world in our heads, but it doesn’t become real until someone sees or reads it and gives it life. But more than that, communication happens when the audience has a meaningful experience with those words, that story. It adds meaning to their life and enriches them.

When I really think about it, that is why I write. I want to tell a good story, yes, but more importantly I want my words to add meaning to someone’s life because other writers have done the same for me.

Why do you write?

Recently I started paying attention to the TV shows that book people find fascinating. I normally don’t watch TV, but I decided that with the profusion of
TV on DVD it would be easy to catch up on entire seasons at my leisure.

And how does this relate to writing? It’s the storytelling, baby. Thought the mediums differ, the principles are the same: hook your audience with a great story.

One of the best of these TV storytellers is the cult icon Joss Whedon. The creator, director, and writer of such shows as Buffy, Firefly, Dollhouse, and the recent Emmy-winning Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog is frequently touted as a storytelling genius, and for good reason. If you’ve watched any of these shows, you know that the plots are fascinating, the dialog witty, and the action intense.

But telling a great story isn’t the only thing to consider. He said, “Star Wars . . . really was the first movie that I can think of where it was based entirely on existing movie structures. It was one step removed. It was a story about stories. And obviously, they all are, to an extent. But I feel like, to me, that’s kind of distancing; that’s not what I want to be doing. What I want to be doing is just using the medium to communicate.”

Communicating. That’s it then. The key to storytelling is communicating with your audience, sharing something with them and then listening to their reactions. That’s how Joss has built a cult following—by creating stories that speak so clearly to people that they obsessively watch everything he creates.

But that isn’t all. Joss also said, “The story is in charge, the story that keeps on speaking to me, that says there is much more to tell about all these characters.”

Joss is one who doesn’t run after trends or strive for mass appeal. He told the stories that spoke to him and in turn people seek out his stories. It’s a lesson writers—whatever the medium—should learn.

I saw a discussion today about breaking the rules of writing and grammar. I’ll give you a moment to go read that.

Now, the thing that a lot of writers don’t understand is that yes, you can break rules once you completely mastered them, but it takes most writers years of writing and extensive study before they can get to that point.

Take, for example, an artist. Art and writing are similar in so many ways, and this case is no different. A young man—a prodigy—named Pablo Picasso started drawing at the age of ten. His early work isn’t what you’d imagine from the later master of cubism and surrealism.

Look at this painting above. (First Communion. 1895/96. Oil on canvas. Museo Picasso, Barcelona, Spain.) Picasso painted this at the age of fourteen. During his youthful instruction, he painted in the traditional manner of the time. He was a master in classical style of painting.

In the intervening years, his style developed and changed. From there he went through his blue period, on to the rose period, then on to cubism and finally to his later periods of exploration.

Throughout his career he mastered each technique—and invented several of them. Take, for instance, the painting at right.

There is a beauty in the painting, something evocative and sensual even though the style is completely different. Though not all people may like this style of painting, they can’t deny that it is masterfully done.

Now to tie this back to writing. Picaso studied art for years, first learning the rules of art before striking out on his own to explore and create. Yes, this does go along with the theme of “know the rules before you break them,” but there is something important here that many writers don’t understand: you have to master the rules before you break them. Not just know them, not just learn them. You have to master them.

So how do you do that? Educate yourself, not necessarily through formal studies at a university, though that will help. Study language and writing. Read the masters, both modern and classic. Incorporate the rules of grammar into your writing. If you really struggle with punctuation, take a class at the local community college or a continuing education course.

Your literary education is up to you. Don’t sell yourself short by declaring that you’re “breaking the rules,” at least not until you know them as well as you know your own soul, because that is what you will be putting on the page. Become a master of the language, and then explore, create, and craft new rules. Don’t just say you’re breaking them.

With all the recent debate over book covers, it’s important for writers to understand how covers are created.

(See http://justinelarbalestier.com/blog/2009/07/23/aint-that-a-shame/ for more information on one debate on covers.)

Now, each publisher is different, but there are common elements that stay the same. Those common elements include cover image(s), title and subtitle, byline, and font, and cover blurbs. Whether your book is fiction or nonfiction, for children or adults, these elements make up the cover.

Some things publishers also have to consider involve the audience: age, sex, and culture, among other things. The cover should be aesthetically pleasing and attention grabbing while accurately portraying the contents of the book.

Most publishers have an art department or team of designers that they use to create the book cover and interiors. They take each of these elements and incorporate the suggestions of the editor to create several options for the cover.

These options are then reviewed by the editorial team, and revisions are requested. Finally, when all of the elements combine to make a great cover, it goes to sales and marketing for review. They offer suggestions as well, followed by more tweaks, or even a major revision of the cover.

Publishers have come under fire recently for their choice of covers. The thing is, designers, editors, and sales and marketing teams aren’t perfect, but they do have a lot of combined experience. That experience helps them to make educated decisions about what will sell in the market. They may not get it right every time, but their rate of success is much better than if the writers created their own covers. (For example, look at covers that self-published writers create. They generally don’t look nearly as professional as what an established publisher will create.)

Now, let’s dissect several of my favorite covers to see why they work so well.

The Willoughbys

The first time I saw this book in a store, I knew I would buy it. There’s something simple but elegant about the cover. It’s primarily black and white, but a small cutout reveals the red case of the book beneath. The title and illustrations are hand-drawn, giving it a unique look. It is classic and classy at the same time.

The most interesting thing to me is that this is a middle-grade novel, geared toward 8–12 year olds. This is something that might appeal more to an adult’s eye. But since adults are generally the ones who purchase books for children, offering a more sophisticated look appeals.

As for the contents of the book, it is a play on a traditional Mary Poppins–theme, but with spunk. That fits with the style of the cover—traditional with a twist.

The Enchantress of Florence

The most appealing feature of this cover is the textile feel of it. It’s a thicker paper that has a touch similar to wallpaper. It is luxurious, as are the colors and design of the cover. Gold foil rests on top of a beautiful yellow in an intricate scroll design.

If you look closer at the orange background, you’ll see a silhouette of a woman in a seductive position. That is especially telling since the text is sensuous and evocative. Again, color, font, and image combine to make something special.

Stardust

This isn’t the first edition of the book cover, but it is my favorite. There is no image, per se, but more of a design. This cover runs contrary to the others that we’ve discussed—the content is not easily devised from the cover. But still, it works well because it is a beautiful design.

The linear fonts complement the swirling look of the illustration, as do teh colors. It is simple but elegant at the same time. And this is one case where a cover blurb takes up more space than the title or byline, and yet it doesn’t overshadow either.

I could go on about dozens of covers, picking out what I like about covers and why they speak to me. But I’m interested to hear what you have to say about book covers. What appeals to you? Do you buy books because of the cover? I’d love to know which covers have jumped out at you.

I’m a bibliophile. I’ll admit it. My dad loves to tell people how I started reading at the age of four, when my older sister sat me down and taught me how to read simple books. When I was in the first grade, I outread my classmates by several hundred books. (I tore through about 900 total that year.) Later, I would hide out in the bathroom with a book so I could get out of doing chores. I think my parents saw through that, especially when I didn’t come out for a few hours.

The point? Reading has always been an integral part of my life, one that was nurtured and fostered by great children’s programming on TV. The most notable of these was Reading Rainbow, a show dedicated to getting kids excited about books.

After airing its final episode last week, I wonder how children will be introduced to reading. Will there be another program to step in and take its place? How will kids be introduced to the love of books in homes where reading isn’t as important as what’s on the TV?

When I eventually have children, they will be surrounded by books. They will learn a love of reading by example, but I hope that children who may not have that example in their homes will still experience the joys of opening a book and discovering the adventures that lie within.

To the producers and contributors of Reading Rainbow I say thank you. It is a cultural icon that will sorely be missed.