Dougal Trump V God Of Small Things…

 

I wanted to love A God of Small Things. It sounds clever, it looks clever, it had great reviews – everyone I spoke to had loved it. I was going to love it. I was going to be swept into another world, my heart was going to rip in two with the terrible events in the story – I was going to come to a deeper understanding of the caste system, of the rise of communism in India – the legacy of colonialism.  The OrangeDrink LemonDrink Man was going to haunt my dreams.

For I am a Serious Reader.  I belong to book clubs. I keep Goodreads updated ( well I did before the buy out – see, I even know there was a buy out – I am an informed woman).

I stroked the lovely matt cover, turned over the first page and read….

Ah.

Oh.

Gosh it took a long time.

I even quite liked Velutha but…

I still wasn’t all that bothered when what happpened happened.

Hmmm. Lot’s of nice scenes interspersed with a lot of other words. Boy, was it hard work. I don’t like my books being hard work. I want to fall into a world and be swept along by it, good or bad. Why didn’t that happen? What’s wrong with me? Which part of my brain is failing to connect with what is clearly a Work Of Art?

When I finished it, I ditched it with some relief and picked up Dougal Trump’s new book.  Yeah yeah, I know, it’s a kids book. It’s got a shiny red cover and a cartoon boy on the front. I’m a middle aged woman , reading this is work OK? I wangled a review copy, I’ve got to read it and review. Got to.

Ah ha ha ha!!!

It’s hilarious.

Well constructed, fun, tightly plotted, a world I happily fell in to. The little snippets  dropped in from each character somehow,  amazingly in so few words, deftly draw Dougie’s world.  My bath water went cold as I turned page after page.

Damn it all.   I see myself as a sophisticated book club lady!  Turns out I’m harbouring an inner small boy.

Come to think of it, last time I went to actual  book club I cycled back over a field using a wind up pig torch in lieu of light and fell in a ditch when I tried to stop.

Maybe I should just give in to it?

 

 

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Stephen King, Back to Haunt Me.

I love the satisfying structure of circular stories.

Wuthering Heights was my favourite book for years.  Catherine and Hareton coming together at the end turns the book into one of hope. Out of all that ugliness, all that sorrow, come  two people capable of kindness, strength, love.

J K Rowling does a similar thing in Harry Potter.  I know some people don’t like the end – the happy ever after – but I do.  Not the marriages, but how the orphaned Ted Lupin isn’t shoved in a cupboard like Harry was. Ted is surrounded by loving families and treasured.  Hope out of sorrow.

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Hip Hip Hooray, Words&Pictures on its Way!!!

SCBWI’s Words& Pictures is going ONLINE. This is very exciting news because, madly, the lovely editor has given me a job.

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School Visits – A fantastic post from Juliet Clare Bell

I had to share this with you.  Not yet having the proper qualifications, I’ve never done ‘author’ visits .  

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Ten Essential Picture Book Elements

Sorry for the delay SCBWI friends – here, at last, are my notes from the Winchester Conference Picture Book  Intensive. The aim was to explore the essential elements that make  a breakout picture book with Sarah Frost, Commissioning Editor for picture books at Hodder, and Author/Illustrator Melanie Williamson.

The morning session covered the ESSENTIAL  basics:

1.  Title:

A great title should be  memorable, intriguing and match the tone of your story. Rhyme or alliterate, highlight the theme of your book, try and use the main characters name,  is there a catchy refrain from your story that you could use?  e.g Time for Bed, Sleepy Head Be short snappy specific. Check to see if your title has been used before! Be immediate – get attention fast.

2. Popular themes:

Bedtime

Siblings/new baby

Mum/dad

Love

Hugs

Worries

Importance of kindness/sharing

Counting

Feelings

First experiences of toddlers and things they’ll face when they’re growing up – eg potty training

Friendship

Pets

Growing up

Accepting difference

Facing fears.

3. Character:

What is unique about your character?

Is your characters name memorable?

Do they have friends or family?

How do they live?

Are they a goodie or a baddie?

What mood are they in?

Will they appeal to boys or girls?

4. Narrative plot:

Your story should have:

A beginning middle and end;

A problem that needs to be overcome which might then lead to

Conflict;

A resolution to the problem and satisfying ending;

A distinctive shape – cumulative, circular or in a question and answer format;

Not be a set up for other  stories.

5. Setting:

Can your story move between locations/settings – makes things more fun for the illustrator!

Be playful, try the unexpected;

Children are often more willing to accept unusual settings than adults;

Setting helps a child become involved in the story;

Setting can help set the mood of a story;

A white background will keep focus on the character and emotion;

6. Audience/Voice:

Consider your audience – both children and adults who buy the books;

Can your picture book have different layers to broaden its appeal?

Find your voice – individual, energetic, lively…

Is your unique personality coming through in your writing? E.g The Great Dog Bottom Swap

7. Your book should be great to read aloud:

Think about:

Rhythm

Repetition

Rhyme

Word play

Voice

Flow

Onomatopoeia

Sensory words

Similes

Length

Emotion

Animal noises

8. Think about the relationship between words and pictures:

Leave space for child to interpret story

Pictures can tell a part of the story that the words don’t

Pictures can add detail and humour

Pictures can tell a different story from the text

Text and illustrations should not be saying exactly the same thing

Give the child some element of control by having illustrations revealing what’s not said

Set your illustrator notes in seperate column so they don’t interrupt the text

Think about page turns and pacing

You need to tell your story in limited words while:

Increasing tension/suspense

Varying  rhythm

Creating excitement, drama and impact

Creating a ‘big reveal’ moment

9. The physical structure of a picture book contains:

Full spreads, vignettes, panels and frames )these can all be used to manipulate pace);

12 double spreads but it can stretch to 14 plus single page.

10. The ending – things to think about:

Match tone of your ending to the tone of your book

Can you bring your story full circle?

Could your ending have a surprise/twist?

Try to have your end in sight when writing;

A great ending can send the reader straight back to the beginning again.

The morning session carved an editorial pathway for the picture book script I’ve been sweating over but the hands on afternoon session gave me a little time to play with it.

We spent time looking at each of the above elements in detail – playing with our characters – interviewing them to give them depth. Writers played with storyboards to help visualise page turns. We had fun!   When you really examine your own writing, bearing the above  in mind, you might be surprised at what you’re missing.  I was.

Thanks Sarah and Melanie – you were inspirational and a tiny bit bonkers – in a wholeheartedly good way .

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Writing Comedy: Lin Oliver on Humour with Heart

Lin Oliver and her dog Dexter

Lin’s breakout session at this year’s SCBWI British Isles conference in Winchester was inspirational.  I’m grateful and delighted to be able to share her FIVE BIG THOUGHTS and TWELVE SMALL TRICKS on my blog.

Lin began her session with some observations:

• Graphic funny novels give you pace, speed of reading and entertainment – funny writing needs this
• Humour often comes out of pathos – when you write something funny you may also be writing something sad.
• Illustrators can add a comic element to a picture book text.
• In middle grade  books you can have some character attitude and word play but be aware at 7+ that children are just getting familiar with language – think about comic inventions of plot instead and avoid puns
• Steve Martin wrote: writing about music is like dancing about architecture, it’s the same for comedy.

Lin’s FIVE BIG THOUGHTS

1. Writing comedy involves taking risks – follow your weirdness – kill the side of your brain that’s linear and logical – as long as the world you create is consistent you can do whatever you want. Push boundaries – look for humour coming in from all angles.
2. Comedy must come from the truth – you have to recognise something in it – feel like ‘that could happen to me’. We are all one banana peel away from disaster. When writing – mime your own embarrassment. What resonates always has a kernel of truth.
3. Comedy must evoke empathy – your comic villain can be one dimensional but the villains we all love, we have empathy for – Gru from Despicable Me
   

   Gru – A villain with heart

4. Don’t try to struggle uphill when you’re writing comedy – invent a situation that has inherent comic potential – a vampire rabbit or a zombie goldfish (you can’t have those, they’ve already been done)
5. You are only writing for one audience and one purpose to amuse yourself – if you try and write to make kids laugh it will backfire on you. So think, who are you – what makes you laugh? Is it visual comedy;  the victory of the underdog;  contradiction; playing off how people see themselves to how the world see’s them; listening to the things children do? Find out what it is and work with it.

Lin’s TWELVE SMALL TRICKS

1. Think of funny titles – set up the expectation of laughter.
2. Use character names to announce your character but that are also funny use character, quirks or unusual professions Professor Haddock, Fish Doctor.
3. Use surprise – banana peel – sudden turn of events
4. Use incongruity – like Kindergarten Cop – either in character or plot
5. Use discomfort – like getting the giggles at a funeral – works for kids because they’re always expected to behave in a certain way but life can divert their attention
6. Use reversal of roles – where there’s an expectation of a role and character get them to perform the opposite –e.g. a gourmet chef judging a junk food contest
7. Exaggerate – language and what happens – e.g. it was so cold sounds froze in winter – so what happens in spring – havoc! This is comic exaggeration – embellish stories with it.
8. Play with nonsense and comic rhyme e.g. pelican/bellycan – the longer the rhyme the better – and nonsequiters
9. Be specific – specifics are funnier than the general -e.g.: ‘fish’ is not as funny as  ‘flopping flounder’ or mowing grass is not as funny as drawing an image of someone sitting on a mower with bum hanging over the seat.
10. Give your characters attitude; very important for teens or tweens – doesn’t work so much for younger kids unless you can write it very clearly – read out loud – act it to make sure it works.
11. Use funny sounding language – k is funny – pickle is funny – consonants are funnier than vowels because they bang up against each other – it might just be a theory but trust your ear.
12. Be aware of timing – keep it snappy and pacey – use dialogue and think about language

Will these tricks make you funnier? Try this example

Rowing a boat isn’t funny

Rowing a boat upstream – more interesting

Lose an oar and add some strange characters – mix in the unexpected and you’re starting to be funny.

Good luck – have fun and thank you Lin Oliver!

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A Casual Vacancy – A review

This isn’t a review site but sometimes a book comes along that I want to shine a little light on.  Of course, this one doesn’t need my tiny torch – it has the benefit of the Great Big Shiny Spotlight Of That Name:

JK Rowling.

It needed the name because I don’t think anyone else could have got this book published.

And it deserved to be published.

For the first quarter of the book I kept thinking, these characters are all hateful, not one of them has a redeeming feature, there’s so many of them I can’t keep track of who’s who – it’s like being stuck behind the curtains in Privett Drive only with out the magic, it’s dull and petty and…and…and… I might even have given up if  my book group hadn’t selected it as our next project.   I ploughed on and slowly, the ugly natives of Pagford burrowed under my skin like scabies until I couldn’t wait to pick the book up, to scratch at the  sore like Howard Mollinson scratched at his giant belly, sinking into the horror and misery, clutching at the glimmers of love and hope.

It’s a mosaic of flawed lives. It is both difficult to read and compulsive. This book hurts. It’s  Dylan Thomas meets Eastenders.  It’s  a classic in the mould of Dickens and Hardy. We aren’t told what to think – the poor aren’t seen as any worthier than the wealthy, the social worker and the nurse are almost brutally neglectful of their own families – everyone is far from perfect and they are exposed with a cut throat honesty so that you can not help examining yourself in the light of their failings – and their victories.

I don’t quite understand why it was called ‘A Casual Vacancy’ and not  ’The Ghost of Barry Fairbrother’.  Barry haunts every page, every life – maybe that’s why, it was too supernatural a title for such a shockingly alive testament. JK?  I’d love to know…

Whatever it’s called, I sobbed through the last ten pages, tears are bubbling in my throat as I type, this book has a magic all of its own.

 

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Writer’s Tricks: Getting Started.

I knew this series was ambitious.

Only my second post and I’m stuck – in more ways than one.

I good few days ago I sent my current script to Lovely Agent. Until she sends it back asking what were you thinking? and have you entirely lost your marbles?  (she won’t really say that, she’s far too nice) – I am BETWEEN BOOKS.

I have things to write. Oh yes I do. I have two different ideas for teen novels  - both of which I’ve roughly  sketched out and both of which have fully formed main characters. They even have a couple of chapters written.  And I have an almost plotted 7+ book –  the second in a  series involving an over dramatic mouse and a boy with more money than parents  (books 1 and 3 are already out on submission).

Oh yes. I have plenty to write. And what advice do we  give those waiting to hear ‘news’? Get on with the next book.

And what have I done?

I have painted the bathroom and  the bedroom ceiling. I have made a tentative farm budget and caught up with the washing and the ironing. I’ve  completed all my critiques and competed in the Sussex Open Fencing Championships. I’ve even started Christmas shopping…

I am not Getting Started.  I am having a little snooze on the starting line.  So this post is a cheat – can you wake me up? How do you get started ?

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Mrs Bung’s Guide To Word Counts – 14+ ( that’s not the guide, that’s the target age)

I am fast approaching the end of the final edit of my current manuscript which, obviously, is turning me into a gibbering wreck.

Is it too mad? Have I moved too much towards humour and too far from the original dark idea? Can I really keep chopping all these words out and still have a book?

And there it is.

The WORD COUNT issue.

It was 60,000 words. Then it was 56,000 words. Now I’m at  55,000  and dropping. Panic is setting in. So it’s time for one of these – a Word Count Blog, where I can justify poring over the word counts of other books and comparing them to mine. Want to play?

There is No Dog – Meg Rossoff – 56118

The Knife That Killed Me- Anthony Mcgowan – 45422

Almost True – Keren David – 94254

1984 – George Orwell – 88942

The Amber Spy Glass – Phillip Pillman – 156664

Angus, Thongs and Full Frontal Snogging – Louise Rennison – 41958

Before I Die – Jenny Downham – 69548

Oliver Twist – Charles Dickens – 155960

The Selfish Giant – Oscar Wilde – 1642

Withering Tights – Louise Rennison 55170

My extensive research reveals that as long as I hit the narrow window between 1642 and 156664 words, I should be fine.

Fun isn’t it?  Now go on, ask me another.

PS Here’s some I prepared earlier: http://mrsbung.wordpress.com/2011/06/10/word-counts/

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Fifty Shades of Facebook: Or how to cheer a catless friend.

If Fifty Shades  lived up to the hype  I could forgive the dreadful writing but it isn’t sexy, it’s just depressing. How many times can you describe someone in exactly the same way? I get it, OK? Grey’s a Control Freak who’s control freakery is freakily controlling. I’m not thick. I understand. I don’t need to be told this every other paragraph. And why do the words  Holy Crap and Holy Shit end every other sentence – really, apart from ten year old boys, who litters their thoughts with so many toilet references ?

No. Not sexy. Not Mummy Porn.  Read Jilly Cooper if you want sexy, at least she can tell a cracking story.

I gave Fifty Shades of Drivel  140 pages of my time but I was already fed up and it was making things worse.

And why was I fed up? Because, apart from the disastrous weather we’re having,  I am once again catless.

Bobby the  Rescue cat has packed up her fur and moved out.

I’m not altogether surprised. She and Diesal had problems.

Diesal has only read the first two words of the  labrador handbook:

1. Eat everything

He missed the critical next bit:

…. as long as it’s dead. Don’t make things dead in order to eat them.

This isn’t usually a problem with cats, he attempts to eat them, they smack him round the head a few times, he learns due respect.

The rescue centre thought Bobby would be well up to this task as she’d attacked every single one of the helpers at the cattery. Sadly, she hadn’t read  the feisty cat manual;

1. Beat all other life forms into submission. If they are too big to eat,  assume they are put on earth to provide you with food or comfort by whatever means  necessary. If they fail to do this, treat them  with withering disdain, they are of no use to you. You are a cat. You are afraid of nothing. You scratch the eyes of the face of danger. Especially when danger comes in the shape of a giant idiotic dribbling labrador.

In the five months she was here Bobby came downstairs twice. Both times when Diesal was  asleep, and both times  to tell me I’d have to get rid of the dog if I wanted her to stay.

I didn’t get rid of the dog. She didn’t stay.

So, catless and with reading material that made me want to poke my own eyes out with a stick, I turned to Facebook and found this:

http://wethreecats.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/fifty-shades-of-ginger.html

Suddenly the world seemed brighter.

Thank you Jackie Morris.

It’s time to move on.

I let go Fifty Shades of Stupid and picked up the breathtaking ‘A Monster Calls’.  And  I can let go of Bobby. Another little monster will call.

One day.

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