Favorite Books of the Semester

I just sent off my end of semester materials. I’m officially done with my first semester of graduate school. (I’m still waiting for my mentor’s response to my packet, though.)

I’ve already begun reading for next semester. I’ve been reading books by the faculty members to help me get a feel for their writing styles. I also have a huge reading list ready to go.

My classmates and I have been sharing our favorite books from the semester, so I thought I would post mine here:

Picture Books:

• A Tree is Nice by Janice May Udry
• Flotsam by David Wiesner (wordless PB)
• Cook-A-Doodle-Doo by Janet Stevens & Susan Stevens Crummel
• Nothing by John Agee

Chapter books:

• Frog and Toad Are Friends by Arnold Lobel
• Saying Good-Bye to Grandma by Jane Resh Thomas (dealing with death)

Middle Grade:

• Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbit (has a prologue)
• The Boggart by Susan Cooper
• Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech (frame stories)
• The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin (mystery)

Young Adult:

• The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman (omni POV)
• Brisingr by Christopher Paolini

Non-fiction:

• One-Room School by Raymond Bial

Poetry:

• Call Down the Moon: Poems of Music edited by Myra Cohn Livingston

Craft:

• The Power of Point of View: Making Your Story Come to Life by Alicia Rasley

I hope that you enjoy! Oh, and I try to never spoil the end of a book without clear warnings. :-D Let me know what you thought of Brisingr, Carolyn!

It’s Weird to See a Backbone Walking Around without Any Other Bones or Flesh

I’m having even more trouble than usual this packet period. I just want to procrastinate so much. I have a story idea in my head, but I can’t flesh it out. I have a couple of characters with very unique qualities that give me the bare bones of a plotline. Not even, really. More like the backbone of a plotline. I can’t figure out where to go from here.

In addition to my inability to get something on the page, I’m having trouble with my reading. I’ve mostly read one craft book this period, The Power of Point of View by Alicia Rasley. Actually, I haven’t even finished it yet. I’ve read a few chapter books and excerpts from other books for POV examples. Maybe its okay if I mostly read craft books this packet since I didn’t read any craft books for my last packet. I got a few books on writing for young people at the library. I need to read those.

I feel kind of lost right now. I think I need to go do something mindless with my hands while listening to rock music. Then maybe I can get this plot to work! Maybe I should draw a picture of my main character. Or do laundry. I need to do that anyway.

Anne M.

From My Point of View . . .

Several people have told me that I need to work on point of view (POV). Most of the people in my workshop told me that I kept switching POV’s. I asked them if they thought maybe I should use a different POV, and they suggested omniscient as opposed to third-person. I tried that only to have my mentor tell me that I have no clue how to write omniscient (not surprising considering I’d never tired it before) and that I wasn’t telling the story from my characters’ points of view.

So, I picked up a book called The Power of Point of View by Alicia Rasley. I like it so far. Actually, I like it better than all of the confusing and conflicting advice that I’ve been getting from other people. I think that I’ve finally figured out what’s going on.

Omniscient POV isn’t trendy right now. First person is the trend. At least half of the readings that I heard at the residency were written in first person. Since this is the case, writers have been telling me that I can’t write in anything but first person or deep third (deep third is basically first person without the “I”). However, I don’t like to read first person very much, so I’m not too fond of writing it. More importantly than that is the fact that only particular stories can be told in first person. Some stories just don’t lend well to a first-person POV.

Just because I like to write stories in non-deep third-person or multiple third-person doesn’t mean that writing that way is wrong. According to Rasley, I can even start a scene in omniscient and then move in to third—something I had been told was taboo. It’s like someone said at the residency (Marion Dane Bauer?). She said that an editor told her she wasn’t a picture book writer when what he really meant was, “This isn’t a picture book.” People have been telling me, “You can’t write light-penetration third,” when maybe they should have said, “Light-penetration third is an okay POV, but you need to work on it. You don’t have a handle on it yet.”

Now, I’m not saying that I don’t have problems with POV; I definitely have some things to work on. Although, I do feel that a lot of my issues have to do with voice and character rather than directly with POV. I have trouble developing character voice, and I have a tendency to remain distant from the story. This affects my POV, but it’s an issue in and of itself.

Anne M.