Indholdsfortegnelse for January 2017 i The Writer

Who would you be if you hadn’t read as a child? This is the question I asked myself throughout this issue. I expected to find some small personal truths: I wouldn’t still know the NATO phonetic alphabet by heart because of a beloved childhood book about a family at sea. I wouldn’t have fancied myself an amateur detective, sleuthing in the spirit of the Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, and Encyclopedia Brown. I wouldn’t have the urge to hide in the restrooms at closing time when I visit the Met (thanks very kindly, From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler). But the more I considered the question, the more lost I felt. Who would I be without these books? Less empathetic, certainly; less kind, possibly; an even poorer grammarian,…

“X-RAY READING” How do you learn to read like a writer? One way, argues Roy Peter Clark, is through “The Art of X-Ray Reading,” which happens to be the title of his new book. He describes X-ray reading as a form of close reading that looks beneath the surface of the text for the sources of writing power. Think of it as a form of reverse engineering used to discover the writing strategies invisible to the average reader. The subtitle of Clark’s book is “How the Secrets of 25 Great Works of Literature Will Improve Your Writing.” To test his theory, Clark volunteered to X-ray a selection of remarkable sentences submitted by the readers of The Writer magazine. These submissions turned out to be different in several ways, from length…

My first novel was a flop. Intentions were good: I’d never seen a girl like me in a YA paranormal, starcrossed romance like the ones I loved to read, so I wrote one. (Well, she was half-black, but still.) Unfortunately, that particular trend was on its way out the door, so despite the non-whiteness of my main character – which I thought made the story stand out – no editors were interested. Fine. On to the next thing: a contemporary YA novel about a black girl with bipolar disorder. I don’t have bipolar disorder myself, but I studied psychology as an undergrad, and I’ve always been bothered by mental illness stigma – especially in the black community. So I researched and then I wrote a thing. My agent submitted the…

Writing good fiction calls for creating both a strong protagonist and a solid plot. If you ignore either of these, your story can be fatally flawed. But there’s an aspect related to character that you must also pay close attention to – point of view. POV has to do with vantage point, or narrative perspective: whose eyes the story is seen from. Some characters have more at stake than others, more potential for conflict and change. You should gravitate toward these characters to serve as the “lens” for your stories. A second aspect of POV has to do with choice of person: First and second person lend intimacy, while third person establishes distance. When working in third person, many writers today choose the “third-person limited” point of view, which narrows…

Half of U.S. children under age 5 are non-white. But only 10 percent of children’s books in the last two decades featured multicultural characters. The math doesn’t add up. And one nonprofit organization is determined to even the playing field. Jennifer Baker grew up watching actor LeVar Burton as the host of the children’s television program Reading Rainbow. “That’s how I heard of the book Mufaro’s Beautiful Daughters,” the panel organizer for We Need Diverse Books says, describing the award-winning African tale written and illustrated by black author John Steptoe. “It was the most powerful thing,” she adds. “You had a black man introducing literature to kids who really enjoyed it, and it was fun and funny. We have fewer of those kinds of shows now. Social media [has] become…

Occasionally, while staring into the abyss of a rejection email, I imagine writers and editors to be two opposing entities: sworn enemies, constantly battling to wipe the other out; age-old foes; the dark and the light, etc. And, of course, it is the editors who are intrinsically evil, dismissing writers’ intelligent, well-thought-out pitches with a maniacal laugh like some sort of literary Simon Cowell. But then I come to my senses and remember that, in a previous life, before jumping into the murky ocean of freelancing, I was, in fact, an editor too. I recall the irksome sense of frustration that I felt every time I received a poor pitch; the struggle to fit constructive and kind responses into a busy schedule. You see, editors are people too. And my…

Girl scientists, inventors, comedians, magicians, artists, and writers between the ages of 5 and 10 have a new place in which to publish their creative projects. Kazoo, launched in the summer of 2016, encourages readers to post pictures of their work on the magazine’s Facebook and Instagram pages, as well as on its regular “Share” page in each issue. “We call it ‘a magazine for girls not afraid to make some noise,’” says Editor-in-Chief Erin Bried, who has two young daughters and a 20-year history as an editor for magazines including Self and Glamour. “I thought it was important to claim space for girls. They’re so underrepresented in so many areas of our popular culture.” The debut issue of Kazoo, funded by a Kickstarter campaign, sold out immediately. Bried added…

What’s in a fellowship? Sad but true: Money often stands in the way of a writer finishing the next best-seller. And it shouldn’t. There are many opportunities, including awards and grants, to get extra cash in order to quit your third job and devote more time to writing. Another option, a fellowship, is a bit more unique and intense. Here are some fellowship fast facts: What is it? A fellowship is a short-term opportunity to develop a work-in-progress while being provided a financial stipend and, typically, a workspace. How long? Depending on the program, fellowships can last for a few weeks, a semester or an entire year. How much? Relative to the duration of the fellowship, a stipend can be delivered monthly or in full. While living the high life…

Pierce Brown’s debut novel, Red Rising, a huge best-seller, was compared to The Hunger Games, Ender’s Game, and Game of Thrones; the book was chosen as one of the best books of 2014 by several publications, including Entertainment Weekly. The following two novels in the trilogy increased both Brown’s accolades and popularity. The novel tells the story of 16-year-old Darrow, a miner on the planet Mars. His life radically changes when his young wife is killed and a group bent on revolution recruits him. This blend of science fiction, thriller, and fantasy also explores topics such as justice, vengeance, and life inside a caste system. The world Brown creates is both complex and compelling. Prior to the success of Red Rising, Brown had attempted several novels; even this one initially…

INTERVIEW: Shannon Hale’s first book arrived in 2003, with more than 20 additional titles following in a dozen years. Hale is active on Twitter, keeps an updated blog on Tumblr, and is branching out into graphic novels. She’s got a full plate (including four children and a husband/sometimes co-author). But that doesn’t stand in the way of Hale actively speaking out on issues she feels passionate about. In February 2015, Hale started a conversation about how schools can sometimes perpetuate gender stereotypes when she wrote about a recent school visit. Only the middle school girls were given permission to leave class and come hear her speak. From her blog: “I talk about books and writing, reading, rejections and moving through them, how to come up with story ideas. But because…

The YA world has been taken by storm by Adam Silvera. His first book, the speculative novel More Happy Than Not, was a huge hit with both readers and reviewers. Fans eagerly awaiting his next book will not be disappointed. With the release this month of History Is All You Left Me, Silvera tackles serious subject matters, including love, obsessive-compulsive disorder, sexuality, and death. The poignant narrative follows Griffin, a young man with OCD, as he grieves the death of his first love, Theo – while at the same time navigating a complex relationship with Theo’s last boyfriend, Jackson. By using an alternating timeline (switching between present and “history”), Silvera cleverly provides a way to keep the somber and sad elements from overpowering the reader, while still creating an emotional…