literature

Who’s talking? POV, Voice, and Narrator as explained in Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird

beccakinla advice, authors, fiction, finding agent, finish that novel, literature, publishing, recommended reading, review, reviews, style, submissions, teachers, writer, writing, writing process Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 5 Comments
book cover

Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott

There are few books that come up with my writer friends more often than Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird. In the same way that I feel like I’m not quite smart enough because I’ve never taken Calculus, I’ve felt like a slacker because I never got around to reading it.

And I should have felt guilty–because it’s great.

Okay, so it has a lot of rather vulgar language, but Lamott’s writing is so funny, and yet so useful, that I’m pretty much in love with the book.

One of the interesting bits of advice that Lamott gives writers is a gem she attributes to the author Ethan Canin. The most important way to improve your writing, he says, is to employ a likeable narrator.

Here’s the thing that struck me about this advice: for many, many years, I always wrote in third person. Continue reading →

2 Major differences between writing a picture book and writing short stories

beccakinla advice, authors, book, books, children, children's books, editing, editors, illustrations, literature, manuscript, picture books, publishing, revision, stories, submissions, submit, words, writer, writing, writing process Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 2 Comments

So the folktale project turned out to be an eye-opening experience for me.

scissors

Am I a writer, or a barber?

When I first started writing for kids, I didn’t really understand the difference between short stories and picture books. I’d submit short stories to book publishers, and picture books to magazines who published short stories. Selling Raizy and being guided through revisions by Devorah Leah Rosenfeld, the editor at Hachai, schooled me in the differences between the two media. After a couple years, I started writing regularly for children’s magazines, and her lessons allowed me to jump between the two formats.

2 Major differences between picture books and short stories:

 

1) The length differs significantly in the two formats. Oddly, an entire picture book has about half the words (sometimes less) as a short story for a kids’ magazine.

2) The illustrations in a picture book replace almost all the description. And the only words that could appear in a picture book text are ones that drive the narrative forward. When I learned this lesson, my picture book writing attained a sharpness that it had previously lacked.

Continue reading →

How to Increase Literacy Through Changing the Genre of Classroom Materials

beccakinla books, literacy, literature, recommended reading, reluctant readers Leave a comment

When I said, “change genre” in the title of this post, I meant it literally. Many advocates of reluctant readers have in the past mentioned that U.S. school rely too heavily on fiction–especially certain kinds of fiction–to teach students. Studies of boys’ reading preferences have pointed out that boys frequently prefer non-fiction selections, but that their schools often rely on fiction. Students sometimes complain about the value of reading short stories and novels in the long term. Are they really going to need to know the major characters and plot points of Lord of the Flies, Catcher in the Rye, or Moby Dick as adults?

Now a study in New York City schools described in today’s New York Times online adds evidence that increasing the use of non-fiction in classrooms has concrete benefits. Students using an experimental–mostly non-fiction–curriculum scored better on reading comprehension assessments. They also internalized the content of those pieces sufficiently to increase their scores on tests of social studies and science knowledge. The NY Times article mentions that this is particularly useful, as classrooms have generally reduced the amount of time they spend on those subjects in an attempt to improve students’ scores on standardized test that focus on reading and math skills. Interestingly, the students that participated in the study were largely from lower socio-economic backgrounds.

The study has its opponents, and I would never say fiction should be tossed out of schools (I love novels! I love short stories!), but I hope that this study will prompt school districts to reconsider their current balance of classroom materials.

Exciting 2012 AJL Conference Announcement

beccakinla AJL, association of jewish libraries, conferences, Jewish, june 2012, literature, los angeles, pasadena Leave a comment

AJL - The Association of Jewish Libraries

Wahoo! 

In 2012, the national AJL conference will be held in the Los Angeles area! It will be Sunday, June 17th in Pasadena, at the beautiful Langham Hotel. All the info will soon be on the www.jewishlibraries.org website.  Writers, librarians, teachers, illustrators or parents can attend the entire conference or opt only to visit select daytime events. One highlight is hearing the winners of annual Sydney Taylor awards speak. The wonderful librarian Lisa Silverman of Sinai Temple Library says that attendees will have opportunities to meet a lot of people in the field. (She also assured me that the food will be kosher.)

Because of this exciting local event, Lisa informs me that they will not be holding a West Coast Children’s Jewish Literature Conference this April. That’s too bad, but I’m very excited about the opportunity to attend the conference without having to book plane tickets or a hotel! Pass on the info to any L.A. area book-lovers who might be interested. Additionally, if you want to present a session at the conference, you can still submit a topic until December 31st. Follow the link below:

http://www.jewishlibraries.org/main/Events/AnnualConvention.aspx

How sharing literature, movies, and music can lead to important conversations with your kids

beccakinla birds and the bees, books, boyfriend, boys, control, girls, literature, marriage, mom, parenting, relationships, teens Leave a comment

I just read this interesting article in the Chicago Sun-Times about how reading/watching the final episode of the Twilight trilogy is a great jumping off point for mothers to address serious issues with their teenaged daughters. http://www.suntimes.com/lifestyles/9007549-452/vampire-fantasy-can-spark-real-life-dialog.html

Almost (but only almost!)

beccakinla literature, novels, persistence, summer, writer, writing process, ya novels, yetzer hara Leave a comment


(photo by Ian Britton)

Well, my goal for the summer was to finish my first solo effort at a novel and…I didn’t quite finish.

Ugh.

I’m probably just 3,000 words shy of a complete first draft. After ditching my original draft of “Part 3,” I had a good think and outlined a new path for the rest of the book. However, I’m having problems bringing myself to sit down and finish.

What’s my excuse? Instead of spending quality time with my keyboard, I’ve been spending quality time with humans (my husband and kids, now back in school), and I’ve been actively looking for more freelance work.  I finished a writing project last week and submitted something else. It’s not like I’ve been wasting time doing nothing. On the other hand, I have wasted a lot of time blogging, reading weird science news (justifying it as research), and listening to music that’s too noisy for effectively focusing on a computer screen.

It’s time for a completely non-professional attempt at psychoanalyzing myself. I definitely need to figure out why I don’t just sit down for a couple nights and crank out the rest so I can get over it.

1) I used to write for fun. It was relaxing, and even escapist. I still love writing. I’m still very enthusiastic about this project. However, writing has been reclassified in my brain over the last 9 months as a professional exercise and not a hobby. It’s actually work.

2) I think I’m a little freaked out about finishing the first draft because I know it will be…a first draft. Like, not perfect. Like, potentially terrible. I guess I have to just accept that it will start out that way, but trust that it’ll eventually improve.