All posts by Amber

Are you an order person or a chaos person?

Antics, Writing

I read somewhere (or more likely, heard on NPR) the idea that all people can be divided into order people and chaos people.  And while I tend to throw gross generalizations under the bus, I have to say there are very few people who inhabit the middle ground between order and chaos.  That’s not to say there isn’t a gradient.  Of course, there is.  But we tend to approach the world in one of these two ways.

In case it isn’t abundantly obvious, I am so totally an order person that sometimes I disappoint  myself.  I am a creative type too, but when I describe my creative process, you’ll never hear me saying things like, “I was swept away by inspiration” or “the muse took me behind the chicken coop and ravished me.”  Nope.  To do my best work, I like a clean desk and a clear goal.

(Which in case you were wondering is to write at least 1000 words a day or revise for a 2 hours a day).

But I am envious of chaos people.  Especially on days like today when the goal seems to invite drudgery.

At KidLitCon this last weekend, Richard Jesse Watson spoke about how he used his blog as a way to “play” creatively. He posts poetry, abstract paintings that he does for warm-up, and pictures of play activity.  If you look at his published works next to his blog, you’ll see how different they are.

I woke up this morning dragging and totally bummed out that KidLitCon is over.  I miss my friends, old and new, who are all so jazzed about children’s literature and art.  I miss fondling the piles of ARCs.  I miss the tweets buzzing around the room like so many hummingbirds.

I realize that I don’t doodle or collage or journal or free write.  My form of creative play is noodling around in the stories that are the very bone, marrow, and substance of the people around me.  I guess that’s how an order person plays with other people’s chaos!

I write like Cory Doctorow & James Joyce… A fun distraction for you writers! @iwritelike

Antics, Writing

Fun party game for you writers out there.  Cut and paste a section of your manuscript into the analyzer at I Write Like and out pops the name of a writer doppelganger.  I popped in the Angel Punk prologue (well, one of the many I have written) and got ol’ Cory.  The first page of the first chapter yielded James Joyce.  Does that mean my writing is incomprehensibly dense?  Try it.  It’s a hoot!  Post your result in the comments section so we can all feel good about ourselves.

Transmedia, Talk Back, and the Power of Story

Writing, , , ,

 

So my new project, Angel Punk, is a transmedia project, and I’m going to be on a panel at KidLitCon in a few weeks discussing transmedia.

“What the heck is that?” you ask.

Transmedia means storytelling through multiple forms of media: film, text, images, audio, blogs, tweets… you name it.

“How is that different from Star Trek?” you ask.

Good question.  Star Trek, Star Wars, Harry Potter, and other astronomically popular franchises started in one form of media,  a TV show, a movie, or a book.  It became popular and the story spread to other media forms.  Transmedia starts out in multiple places.  We recognize that there are multiple points of entry into a story both because some consumers prefer books or gaming or movies and because some facets of the story are more interesting to some readers than others.

One key component  to transmedia projects, however, is consumer (I hate that word but reader/viewer don’t cut it) participation.  More than ever we want to be a part of our favorite stories.  I have a quidditch t-shirt.  I geek out following Neil Gaiman on twitter.  I get sucked into online explorations of the Game of Thrones universe.  Most transmedia projects want talk back.  We want to know what people like and don’t like.  We want to include consumers in the process.  We want some collective consciousness on board for story telling.  If you think about it, it’s like that game where everyone takes turns making up a few lines of a story.  I love it!

See you around the social media fire pit for the next story session!

It’s my birthday and I want…

Antics

It’s my birthday.  I’m 41.  And I want…

… to keep taking risks (like jumping off rocks at Pen Lake this summer).
… to maintain my health so that flying leaps are always a possibility.
… to write words that turn into stories that turn into books that find readers.
… to be present for my family (even when sometimes I have to shut them out to write those words).
… to remember that time is a construct–there’s plenty of it for what’s important.
… to give compassion to others and myself.
… to embrace incongruities.
… to make the world a better place in my small way.

And I really want a nice led headlamp.  A girl has needs!  Eat a piece of cake for me today.  We deserve it!

 

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

My Reads,

This book is an absolute must-read!

I don’t care if you say that nonfiction is not your thing.  This book is your thing. Rebecca Skloot has written riveting story of both family and science.  You won’t be able to put this book down.  I promise.  Now get thee hence to a bookstore and BUY it because part of the proceeds go to help the family of Henrietta Lacks. Her cells changed the face of medicine and science and yet her family lives in deep poverty.  They deserve better.

And Rebecca Skloot deserves every one of the hundreds of accolades for this book.  She worked her butt off for ten years, risked her own safety, and pushed far beyond her own comfort zone to research and write this book.  She is a master storyteller!

 

Tom Thumb: A Man in Minature

My Reads,

I love nonfiction!

Here’s a book you won’t want to miss. Not just a book about smallness, it’s a big story of a remarkable man, who happened to be small.  He also happened to make a hell of a good thing out of a less than rosy set of circumstances.  Thanks, to George Sullivan, for telling the story of Tom Thumb: A Man in Miniature with skill and respect.

If you want to read a killer review/analysis of the book, check out the blog of the divine nonfiction writer, Laurie Thompson.

More on writing the unexpected…

My Reads, Writing

In Angel Burn by L.A. Weatherly, readers get smacked in the face by the unexpected premise: angels are bad.  We think they are good, but they invade our world and suck the life force out of humans, who are, as they are decimated by angel burn, beg for more.

This promo photo for Witches in Bikinis is another great example. Witches?  In Bikinis? Who wouldn’nt want to see that show.

My point is the same as last post: write the unexpected.  It works.

 

 

Writing Incongruities (or Mucking Out Stalls in Full Make-Up & Heels)

Antics, Writing, , ,

Recently, I spent the morning dolled up for the Angel Punk team photo shoot.  (Thank you, Levy Moroshan, for the gorgeous new picture on my home page.)  Wait until you see the mid-air jumping shots!  Hilarious to shoot even if I was a tad terrified about breaking an ankle in my heels.

Then I proceed to go home and muck out Sir William’s stall.  The photo to the left is his high fashion shot.  A neighbor was hanging around while I worked, and every time she got a glimpse of me, she laughed at the incongruity of my heavy make-up and less-than-glamourous activity.  (I did change my shoes!)

But the process of writing is like that: sometimes exciting and sometimes pedestrian; sometimes a red carpet walk and sometimes a work-out at the gym.  And the writing itself should be like that.  Forget the predictable.  Go with the incongruous.  It builds better story!



WHEREAS, the Writer is an experienced writer of heroes, scientists and adventurers…

Writing, , ,

Rarely do legal contracts amuse, entertain, or titillate.  But the contract I signed this week did all those things.  Do you see how excited I look posing in front of my Angel Punk post-it note plot/character board?  And the title of this post, you ask?  Actual quote from the contract:

“WHEREAS, the Writer is an experienced writer of heroes, scientists, and adventurer…”

That line got me thinking about another line, the line working writers need to cross from hobby writer to professional writer.  I spent many years as what I would call a hobby writer.  I wrote when inspired.  I wrote when I got dumped.  I wrote when I felt all Zen.  Words were a way to process my internal experiences and to understand my world.

I got very lucky with my first book.  Paddle My Own Canoe was written out of grief and as a tribute after my grandmother died.  I read it at her memorial service.  The editor who published my grandmother’s memoir was in the audience.  She approached me about publishing the poem, which we did the following year.

And thus I stepped over the line…  I put aside the other professional plans that I laid out.  My husband agreed that it was time to give writing the full-time chance it deserved.  For me that meant, joining professional writing organizations, taking workshops to improve my craft, printing business cards, and writing on a regular schedule.  But perhaps the most important step was claiming the title.

“What do you do?”
“I’m a writer.”

And now…  with four books out and a contract for a YA novel that will be out next year, I wear that appellation pretty comfortably.  I’m ready to take it up a notch.

“WHEREAS I am an experienced writer of heroes, scientists, and adventurers.”

 

Eddard Stark, Dumbledore, and Death as Plot

Writing, , , ,

For a story to work, and by work I mean, grab me by the throat and refuse to let me go, I must be fully invested in the characters. I want to fall in love, to believe in their reality to such a degree that if Eddard Stark walked through my door, I would say, “A mug of mead, Lord Stark?” not “Where’s the freaking costume party?”

(I know I declared my intent to discuss plot and yet digress to character.  I promise to get to the point.)

So in the space of one week, I watched the season finale of Game of Thrones and finished reading Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince to my children.  And…  well… two characters I fell in love with… they die.

Is that stupid story-telling?  Doesn’t that kill your plot (so to speak)?  What is the point of reading on if your favorite characters die?  That makes me think of BallyKissAngel. Thanks to Netflix, I was doggedly in love with Assumpta and Father Peter until – you guessed it – death reared its oh-so-permanent head.  I stopped watching.  

Why will I keep watching Game of Thrones and move right on to The Deathly Hallows but I won’t stick with BallyK?

Death drives plot forward when it is more than just death.  If the loss of a character turns the plot trajectory on its head by impacting other beloved characters so strongly that they start making different decisions, then it can work. Everything is different for Rob Stark, Arya and her sister when Eddard Stark falls.  And for Harry, his string of losses seems like more than anyone could bear.  No longer can he share his burden with Dumbledore.  Now his chance of successfully defeating Voldemort is slimmer than ever.

I have to know what happens!  I keep reading (or watching).

You writers out there, consider death.  By all means kill your characters, but make sure that what they stood for matters so much that the rest of the story will rise from the ashes like my buddy Fawkes.