Category: Writing (Page 64 of 73)

Images as Stimulus

May 1, 2011 / Katie L. Carroll

At the 2011 SCBWI Poconos conference, the session called “Writing Not Waiting” was taught by editor Robert Agis. He started us with some writing exercises, which I actually participated in whole-heartedly (sometimes I don’t connect with the writing exercises in these types of workshops and can’t really get into them). He gave us a line that we were to use as a catalyst to write. It didn’t matter what we wrote, just that we wrote something.

It was surprisingly freeing. I haven’t just sat and written without a defined purpose for a long time. I always feel guitly about doing that because I think I should be spending time on my current project or my blog or revising or creating freelance puzzles. These exercises reminded me that sometimes you need to sit and write freely and that it is not a waste. It will actually allow you to work on your own writing without the pressure of making things perfect (which is impossible anyway…perfection, that is).

That’s one of the things I’ve been struggling with lately and relates to the whole getting-back-to-my-true-self goal. I haven’t felt free while writing. I keep getting caught up in all the things I don’t know about my characters and the setting or all the things I haven’t researched yet. And my obsessive need to explore all these aspects of the story ad infinitum is holding me back from discovering the very things I’ve been obsessing over (and sucks all of the fun out of writing). Writing without judgement or too much thought may be just what I need to discover more about my story.

So in my ever-growing effort to be a better person/writer, I took some advice from Robert. He talked about using images as a stimulus for writing. He recommended taking stock images from websites and doing Internet searches to find photographs that represent characters or settings in your story. They can be there to act as “can openers” for your writing. Here’s the can opener I created for my mermaid story.

Some of these are from my own photos from Tahiti (where the story takes place), others are Internet images and ones from magazines. The ones with writing on the bottom are English/French/Tahitian translations of popular words and phrases. The other writings are about black-pearl farming (which is the future trade of one of the main characters).

SCBWI Poconos Conference 2011

April 25, 2011 / Katie L. Carroll

Every year at the Eastern PA SCBWI Poconos conference I learn something new. I always enjoy this conference, but there wasn’t a single speaker or session I attended that disappointed. Here’s some insightful nuggets that resonated with me not only as a writer but as a person (these are not written with quotation marks because I often paraphrase when I’m taking notes, but I think the ideas the speakers intended are all intact):

Even when you think something isn’t relative right now, write it down. You will change. Something extraneous now may be exactly what you need later.
There are no secure boxes. Do whatever you want to do, and do it wildly, purely, uncensored, even regrettable. Do it as hard as you can. ~Donna Jo Napoli

There are so many things out of our control, and we, especially children, are trying to figure things out and how to control our lives.
Write what you want to know. You’ll experience what you never imagined. If you take the chance, something will change, not just your manuscript…you! ~Suzanne Morgan Williams

Don’t worry about how long it takes, worry about making it right.
Nothing can make you feel worse than to compare yourself to someone else. It’s important not to beat ourselves up. We all have our own journey, we should celebrate our own journey.
Never give up because you might be on the one yard line, and you just don’t know it. ~Donna Gephart

Part of the fun for me is when I get to go out with my giant turkey head and do book signings.
They told me you probably shouldn’t show so much penguin butt. ~Lee Harper

This year I also learned that no matter how childish an idea seems (like going on the swings on a lovely spring day), never be too ashamed to share it with others (especially if you are at a conference full of people who create books for children). They might just want to join in on the fun, and you might make a friend in the process.

I think the most important thing I took away from this conference was to live and write with more freedom. As an adult, I think I’ve gotten away from expressing my true self. There isn’t one reason for this that I can pinpoint, but I blame some combination of worrying about what others think of me, trying to follow all the “rules” of society, and in general just being too self-aware.

It’s time for me to let go a little. To do and not think. To write drafts with more abandon. To be more relaxed when I send query letters. To not be afraid to let my true personality show through. What have you been working on lately?

NYC Teen Author Festival 2011

April 6, 2011 / Katie L. Carroll

A few weekends ago, my twin-not-twin sister and I took a trip to the publishing capital of the world for the NYC Teen Author Festival. There was a week’s worth of workshops and readings, but we were only able to go for the massive book signing that featured more than 45 authors at Books of Wonder.

My sister is an avid YA reader, so she was super-excited to meet some of her favorite authors. I was excited as not only a reader but also as a YA writer because the kidlit world is full of such generous people who are always willing to talk and offer encouragement.

Australian YA author (trust me when I say that there is some seriously awesome kidlit coming from down under) Melina Marchetta admitted that she was nervous that no one would know who she was, which was so surprising because she wrote the 2009 Michael L. Printz Award winner Jellicoe Road. I mean she has some serious U.S. fans, one of whom is my sister…I think the main reason she wanted to trek all the way into the city was to see Melina. I picked up a signed copy of her new book The Piper’s Son.

Two authors who “I know” from Verla Kay’s blueboards that I was looking forward to meeting were Maggie Stiefvater and Danette Vigilante. I have been dying to read the final installment of the Wolves of Mercy Falls Trilogy, which is called Forever. Unfortunately, it isn’t out until July 12th (which just happens to be my b-day), so I had to settle for having two books I’ve already read signed: Shiver and Lament. Maggie wanted to know which one I liked better and I copped out on my answer by citing reasons why I like both…Shiver because of the fantastic love story and Lament because of all the fantastical elements.

(There’s my sister, Maggie, and me…picture courtesy of the person standing behind us in line!)

Danette signed The Trouble with Half a Moon for me. She commiserated with me over the fact that I’m on the agent hunt. Surprisingly, Maggie told me that she actually like the process of subbing to agents. I don’t know that I’ve ever heard another author say this (maybe she’ll switch places with me for a little while…that way I can try my hat on as a best-selling author and she can wait on pins and needles to get e-mails–mostly rejections–from agents).

(Here’s Danette and me…this one my sister took.)

I also had a really nice chat with Sarah Beth Durst, who I didn’t really know that much about, except that she wrote a retelling of East of the Sun and West of the Moon called Ice. She signed my copy as my “future reader.

Finally, I met the tired-looking and prolific David Levithan (he organized the Festival) and had him sign Will Grayson, Will Grayson (now I just have to track down his co-author John Green and get him to sign it too) and Emily Lockhart, who signed The Boyfriend List (I didn’t remember to bring my copy of The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks, so I’ll have to catch up with her another time).

Events like this always make me dream about the day I get to do a book signing in NYC…it’ll happen someday…or at least I keep telling myself that! And don’t forget to check out my tsunami post and comment to help raise money for Japan.

Are You Jealous?

March 6, 2011 / Katie L. Carroll

Time to make you’ll jealous again. The hubby and I are off to Tahiti! This will technically be a working vacation for me because I plan on doing some research for my mermaid story, which happens to take place in French Polynesia.

I hoping to step out of my comfort zone and talk with some of the residents of Moorea about life on the island. I’m also hoping to be able to visit a black pearl farm because one of the main characters (not the mermaid!) is a pearl farmer. And I downloaded Real Mermaids Don’t Wear Toe Rings by Helene Boudreau and The Mermaid’s Mirror by L.K. Madigan onto my Nook.

Okay, I do plan on spending a ton of time relaxing on the beach and snorkeling and basically doing nothing at all. See everyone in two weeks!

The Possibilities of Dreams

February 28, 2011 / Katie L. Carroll

Dreams—both sleeping and waking—are funny things. I’ve always been a very vivid sleep dreamer. As a young child, I had a reoccurring nightmare that I was being chased by wolves. Eventually those nightmares gave way to ones in which I was stalked by dinosaurs. Then I had a period in which most of my nightmares were end-of-the-world scenarios.Most recently I’ve been having dreams in which I am running late for some type of engagement (sometimes I’ve reverted back to my school days, other times I’m late for work) and I just can’t seem to get where I need to go. These don’t invoke the same fear as my wolf, dinosaur, or apocalyptic dreams, but a great deal of anxiety goes along with them.

I think these reoccurring dreams are a manifestation of anxieties or fears I am having in real life. The real-life fears have nothing to do with wolves or the end of the world, but this is how my brain interprets the fears and anxieties of my waking life in the dream world.

The nightmares, though, aren’t the hardest dreams. I wake up from nightmare with my heart racing and my body chilled from a cold sweat, but pretty soon I realize It was all just a dream. The hardest dreams are the ones about my dead little sister, Kylene (and forgive me here for displaying a little emotion…something I hate to do in any kind of public forum).

It’s not that these are scary dreams in which she’s coming back from the dead to haunt me or anything. No, they’re usually quite pleasant. Often we’re kids again, but sometimes I’m an adult (she was 16 when she died, so she is never really older than that in my dreams). We may be off on some adventure, but often we’re just hanging out.

(Here I am reading to Kylene when we were kids…I know, my hair is terrible and she’s cute as a button!)

While I’m having these dreams, there’s always that little something niggling me in the back of my mind. That voice that’s saying Something isn’t right here. You know when you’re dreaming and you’re in a place you know in real life, like your house, but it doesn’t look like your real-life house, yet somehow you just know that it is your house. That’s the feeling I’m talking about.

Sometimes the revelation of what’s wrong comes to me while I’m dreaming, but the full meaning of it doesn’t hit me until I’m awake. And that something is that my sister is dead, and even if the dream felt completely real to me, I know it wasn’t because people don’t come back from the dead.

And that’s the hard part of these dreams: that moment when I realize It was all just a dream, that my sister really is dead, and she’s never coming back. For a split second, the raw emotions are all too real and even though it’s been almost nine years since she died, I feel like it’s only been minutes and I’m losing her all over again.

But it isn’t all bad because maybe sleep is a place where you can bridge the gap between life and death. Maybe she can come back to life, even if it’s only for a little while in my subconscious. Or maybe she really is coming to visit me in some spiritual form (a little far-fetched for my logical mind, but I suppose it’s possible). And you know what? Even if it was just a dream, I got to see my sister again and that’s worth all the pain of remembering she’s gone.

That’s the beauty of dreams: they open up a world of possibilities. Like black holes, we don’t know all that much about them. They’re one of life’s great mysteries. And I think that these dreams we have in sleep help fuel our dreams in life. I dream in sleep and I feel my sister is alive again. And I dream in the waking world to become a published writer, so that my sister can live again in a fictional world.
But waking dreams are a discussion for another post. What have you been dreaming of lately?