Month: October 2012

Teachers Write: What’s your character’s knot?

I’m working through a novel revision right now with a huge focus on character. Specifically, I’m studying the growth of my main character throughout the book, because if a character doesn’t grow and change…well, there’s not much of a story to be told.

I’ve been reading this book, which I recommend:

Jeff Gerke’s PLOT VERSUS CHARACTER takes a hard look at what we really need to make our characters live on the page. Every character, Gerke says, should start with a knot, which he describes like this:

I refer to your character’s problem as his knot. If you’ve worked with ropes much, especially in a nautical setting, you know they have to run smoothly through eyelets and pulleys and across capstans. A knot in the wrong rope at the wrong place can result in irritation, delay, or even disaster

So it is with your character. There he is, going along fine, minding his business, when something causes a knot to form in the rope of his life. Maybe he sees it and begins working on untying it. Maybe he sees it and doesn’t work on it. Maybe he doesn’t see it at all and the problems it’s causing are happening in his blind spot.

Whether he knows about it or is working to correct it or not, the knot is messing up his life.

                          ~from PLOT VERSUS CHARACTER by Jeff Gerke, p. 85.

Good stuff, this is.

So today’s prompt is this:  What is your character’s knot?  Remember that when we talk about a knot, we’re talking about a character’s internal problem, rather than the bear that may be about to eat him or her. I’m not denying that’s a problem, but it’s not the kind of internal struggle we’re talking about here.  If you have a work-in-progress, write a little about your main character’s knot (or your antagonist’s knot… bad guys have knots, too, you know!)  If this doesn’t fit what you’re working on right now, try writing about the knot of the main character in one of your favorite books that you’ve read. What’s Harry Potter’s knot? What about Katniss?

Write away…and feel free to share excerpts & thoughts in the comments if you’d like!

Amazing Readers (and one tarantula!) at Fox Run Elementary!

I’ve been at a different San Antonio elementary school every day this week, spending time with amazing kids, teachers, librarians, and parent volunteers – and today was no exception.  My morning at Fox Run Elementary School started with a special welcome on the school’s morning announcements.

These girls do the announcements live on school-wide television every morning!

Librarian Cari Young, who coordinated my week of visits, heads up the library here and did an amazing job getting her readers ready for today’s presentations.

She also introduced me to her library guest, Gordon the Tarantula.

Gordon is on loan from the regional educational center, which loans out not only the usual books and A/V supplies but also live animals.  Gordon’s visiting for two weeks, and while he’s in the library, kids are invited to write his diary.

What does the tarantula have to say?

Such a fun way to get kids thinking about point of view and voice!  My favorite entry from the spider said, “I need to shave my legs.”

Throughout the day, I signed lots and lots of books…and one cast.

Thanks so much, Fox Run readers, for an amazing day in your school library!

Teachers Write: Soundtrack of a Place

Home has a soundtrack. Other places do, too. And today’s TeachersWrite prompt starts with the sounds of a shopping plaza in Texas.

I’m in San Antonio wrapping up a week of school visits right now – my first time in Texas, and I can’t stop noticing all the little things that are different here. The size of the crickets (enormous!) and the sounds of the birds. The trees around my hotel swarm with grackles at night. We have the occasional grackle up north where I live, but certainly not in these numbers, and certainly not at this volume.  These birds are loud! But one of the librarians who’d picked me up at my hotel the other day had barely noticed them.  Probably because they’re part of her everyday soundtrack.

And that got me thinking….  All places have a soundtrack, whether that place is a parking lot in Texas or a hospital in London, a grandmother’s kitchen in India, or a hockey rink in Alberta.

Write a paragraph or two describing the soundtrack of your place.  This can be the place you call home, a place from your memories, or a place in a piece of writing you’re working on. (Write in your character’s voice if you’d like!)  When you describe the soundtrack, listen for the different levels of sound, too – from the loud honks, to the medium-range notes and voices, to the quiet buzz that underscores everything.  What’s the soundtrack of your place?

Feel free to share in the comments if you’d like!

My Day with the Huebner Huskies!

When I’m visiting a city for school or library visits, I always love to see the area, so I was thrilled when San Antonio librarian friends Cari, Sue, and Natalie asked if I’d like to join them for dinner on the River Walk last night. We enjoyed some great Mexican food, the weather was perfect (it’s no longer outdoor dining weather at home!), and the view was spectacular.

After dinner, they took me to see the Alamo because you simply cannot leave San Antonio without having your picture taken at the Alamo.

Mission accomplished!  From left to right, that’s Natalie Watts, me, and Cari Young. It’s fascinating to me that this gorgeous historic site is right in the middle of downtown San Antonio, next to a mall, in fact.

The next morning, Natalie picked me up for my visit to her wonderful library and introduced me to the stellar Huebner Husky readers.

I gave presentations for the K, 1st, and 2nd students – then had lunch with these great ladies.

Kristin and Rachel are PTA library volunteers who help keep the place running. Today, in addition to taking care of breakfast (breakfast tacos!) and lunch for my author visit, they were getting ready for the school’s upcoming Scholastic Book Fair.

In this picture, they’re working on something I thought was too cool not to share.  They create a teacher wish-list board, with pictures of all the teachers and tiny folders where they can put slips of paper with the titles of books they’d like for their classrooms.  Parents who visit the book fair check out the board to find their child’s teacher and take a slip if they’d like to purchase a book for the class library.  Kristin and Rachel say by the end of the book fair, those slips of paper are almost always gone, and the kids have great new books to read in their classrooms. Neat, huh?

After lunch today, I spent some time in individual classrooms, visiting 5th graders who hadn’t seen a presentation but wanted to know about research and writing, and chatting with first graders who won a “private Q and A session” in the library drawing.

Then it was back to the library to finish signing books for the kids before dismissal time. We finished the last batch with about five minutes to spare!

I was heading out for a quiet dinner with my book tonight, but when I got to the restaurant, one of Huebner’s second grade teachers, Jillian Curtis, rushed up to say hi.

Jillian happened to be eating out there with her husband and invited me to join them – something I appreciated so much because I’ve been missing my family at night.  An evening of great conversation with new friends was the perfect way to end the day.

Thanks so much, Huebner Huskies!  It was truly a joy spending the day with such fantastic readers, writers, and thinkers.

Thank you, Wetmore Elementary!

My day started with a big Texas sunrise on the way to school, where I was greeted by this sign…

…this life-size image of the school principal.  (This was my first clue that the lead learners at this school have a great sense of humor!)

…and a whole bunch of smiling faces!

I really wish every school could have a librarian like the women I’ve met in San Antonio this week. Wetmore Elementary’s Cynthia Baker and Jean Ann Johnson were hopping from the minute Cynthia picked me up this morning, setting things up, handling the book signing, and making sure every group arrived at the library ready to talk books, reading, and writing.  Cynthia apparently book-talked my titles so well that they ran  out of a couple titles, but Cynthia and Jean Ann sprang into action, made a few phone calls, and hustled over to the Scholastic Warehouse and Barnes and Noble so that kids could have signed copies of the books they’d requested. Here we are at the end of a very busy day!

From left to right, that’s Jean Ann, me, and Cynthia.

I also had a little fun, informal time with kids at the library later on.  Charlie and Cole are both reading my mystery, CAPTURE THE FLAG, so they challenged me to a game.

While I love presenting to big groups of kids, I also really enjoy the quieter conversations that happen when they stop back later to have books signed, or even when they’re on their way back to class.  One boy who’d been fascinated by my story about Champ, the legendary Lake Champlain monster, stopped to ask if I’d heard about chupacabra.  I hadn’t…so I had him write it down in my notebook to research later on.  This is what I found. Fascinating stuff…and a story that just might make its way into one of my books down the road.  Yesterday, a girl at Harmony Hills suggested an idea for a future Marty McGuire book, and that’s in my notebook now, too.

Thanks so much for a great day, Wetmore Elementary readers! Everything your principal and librarian told me about how awesome you kids are is 100% true, and I so loved spending the day in your school library.

Meeting Readers at Harmony Hills Elementary

Day Two of my week of school visits in San Antonio brought me to Harmony Hills Elementary School, where amazing librarian Angie Oliverson had the library decked out in banners for all of my books. I especially loved this one with the mini-tornadoes!

The hallway near the library was full of fantastic student art. Second graders had illustrated their favorite scenes in SEA MONSTER’S FIRST DAY.

Watch out, Andy Rash…I think some of these kids may be after your illustrating job soon!

I gave presentations to three different groups of kids, ranging from Pre-K to fifth grade. You can tell by their faces just how enthusiastic these readers were!

I also popped in for a little extra time with one fifth grade classroom where the students have been reading EYE OF THE STORM.

While they ate lunch, I signed books, and we chatted about everything from tornadoes to favorite books to future plans (one girl told me she’s going to be a lawyer!)  I have no doubts she’ll make it – and truly, I see all of these kids doing great things. Thanks, Harmony Hills Elementary School, for a magical day!

Thank you, Tuscany Heights Elementary!

I’m visiting Texas for the first time this week and just finished up the first of five days of elementary school visits in San Antonio.  Tuscan Heights Elementary has a simply wonderful staff, student, and family community, and it was so much fun spending time with their 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders this morning.

Third grade reading superstars!

Fabulous Fourth Graders!

First-Rate Fifth Graders!

I talked with the kids about how reading made me a writer, shared some of my favorite research stories, from kissing frogs to exploring a tropical rain forest, and then the students had great questions.  My favorite inquiry of the day?  “When you kissed that frog (research for a frog-kissing scene in Marty McGuire) did you like it?”

As soon as I could stop laughing, I did answer. “Not so much.”  While frog-kissing is most definitely not on my list of things to try again,  I did appreciate the insight it gave me as to Marty’s predicament. 🙂

I got to meet so many great readers and writers, including Tessa, who recently wrote a proposal to get a Writing Club started at her school.

And of course, I got to spend time with Tuscany Heights Elementary’s dynamic lead-reader, school librarian Sue Keuntz.

Thanks to everyone at Tuscany Heights Elementary for such a warm, wonderful welcome.  Tomorrow, I’m off to Harmony Hills Elementary – looking forward to another great day with Texas readers!