Author Skype with Matthew J. Kirby

Thanks to everyone who came out for our final Laie Young Writers Club meeting for the year, including author Matthew J. Kirby, who joined us by skype. Mr. Kirby is the author of The Clockwork Three and Icefall, plus several upcoming titles like The Lost Kingdom, Infinity Ring Book 5: Cave of Wonders, and a new series called Quantum League. He wins the LYW Author Medal of Honor for pulling over and finding an internet cafe when he realized that we'd made a mistake about what time zone he was in! We are eternally grateful.

Here are some of the thoughts Matt Kirby shared with us:

• His favorite part of being a writer is the writing process, but his favorite part of being an author is traveling.
• Plot is very important, but you don't need to use a formulaic plot structure. A story needs form, not formula.
• The beginning of a story creates a contract with the reader. If you promise the reader something, you have to deliver.
• The way to get emotional power into a story is to get yourself into a place where you can feel what the characters are feeling. If you can't feel it, how can you write it?
• The most important thing you can do to be a successful writer is to write. So many people would like to be writers, but they're not really working on anything. Get in the habit of writing something every day.  

After a fun and motivational visit with Mr. Kirby, we had chocolate cake and said good-bye to one of our founding members, Amber Carlson, who will be leaving for college next fall.

The Laie Young Writers Club will be signing off for the summer, but we'll be back again next fall. Until then...

Keep writing!

Author Skype with Tim Wynne-Jones

Today we had a video chat with Tim Wynne-Jones, a Canadian author who is just completing his thirty-sixth book. He's written picture books, novels for children, novels for adults, radio plays, and we even found out he wrote songs for the television show, "Fraggle Rock." With all of that writing experience comes great wisdom. He was able, for instance, when asked what the main difference between a novel and a short story is, to say that a short story is short.

When asked if it was better to write in first person or second person (or third person), he said that first person can be fun to write and to read because you're pretending to be someone else, but it can also feel claustrophobic because you're trapped inside one person's head. Third person point of view gives the reader a little more distance and a little more space to watch a character from the outside. Second person point of view, which Tim Wynne-Jones used in his book "Blink and Caution," isn't very common, but in that case the second person point of view took on the role of someone watching the character over his shoulder and talking to him, trying to help him but not being able to.

Tim Wynne-Jones said he usually doesn't outline a story, but instead writes several drafts. For instance, the book he's finishing now took twelve drafts, and at one point it was six hundred pages long. Now it is only three hundred pages, and at his very favorite stage of the writing process. The story is all there at last, and everything is about polishing, making every word be the right word in the right place.

To the question of how do you get emotion into a story, Tim Wynne-Jones suggested that a writer needs to understand what every character wants. The most interesting stories come about when two characters aren't necessarily good or bad, but have different, conflicting things that they want. Even more interesting is when a character gets what he wants, but then discovers that he didn't want it after all!

After studying architecture for three years of college, Tim Wynne-Jones joined a rock band and started writing songs. He found he enjoyed this so much that he wrote more and more, and eventually began publishing books. We'd like to thank him for giving the world so many great books to read, and for taking some time out to visit with us today! Mahalo!

It's a PLOT!

Aloha young writers! Our lesson this week is on plot: what is it and how to create one.

First, I'd like to describe what I mean by plot by contrasting it with story. Although we sometimes use these words interchangeably, they aren't the same thing.

Story describes change. It focuses on character experience, on outcome. For example, in a "Cinderella story" some poor, downtrodden individual gets a lucky break and then all dreams come true. A typical love story consists of boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl in the end. Or maybe girl meets boy, girl discovers boy is some kind of strange sparkly vampire, girl likes him anyways (go figure).

Plot, on the other hand, is in the details. How exactly does the narrative go from point A to point B? Stories can be recycled again and again by the infinite possibilities of plot. Who is our Cinderella? What is this person's dream? How does the lucky break come about? These questions are answered by the plot.

One of our club members said, "So story is like muscle and plot is like the bones." This is especially true in understanding how both need to be strong. You can have a perfectly plotted but weak story. It will just lie there and languish. On the other hand, without a sturdy plot, you've got a story blob.

If you have to sacrifice one for the other, then go with story. Bones are great, but you can do without them. Think about what an octopus does with muscle alone.

So, back to plot. You, the author, are a story travel agent. A story walks into your head and says, "I want to go from Seattle to New Orleans." Now it is your job to create an itinerary. Drive to the airport, hop on a plane? Go by bus? Go by train? Stop in Denver, Salt Lake, Dallas, or Oklahoma City? The how, when, and where of the journey is the plot.

There are two main ways to create a plot. You as the story travel agent may say to the story, "Get in, I'll take you there!" and you hop in the car in Seattle and drive in a general south-east direction. Eventually you'll hit the Gulf Coast... hopefully... and then you can drive around a bit until you get to New Orleans. You and your story can have a thrilling adventure.You never know what you may discover along the way. You may end up in Galveston instead and your story could decide that Galveston is where it really wanted to be all along.

On the other hand, you can get out the maps, schedules, and brochures, and carefully plan a route. See Yellowstone park on the way. Pick out every road, hotel, diner, and rest-stop. This way, you know exactly where your story will go and what it will take to get there.

Most writers find a balance between these two methods. I usually have a general destination in mind, with major plot points planned along the way, but I love to take my story on scenic routes. If I see a roadside state park, I'll turn off the highway, get out of the car, peel off my shoes and socks, and go wading in the nearest stream. I like to stop in the desert in the middle of the night, get out, and stare at the stars. These moments of exploration and wonder are what I write for, moments of unexpected revelation, when the story can tell me what it's really about.

Now, to finish up, a few words on basic plot structure:

A plot begins with an exposition. This establishes the starting point of the story. What state is the character in at the beginning of the journey? At some point there's an inciting action, which prompts the character to begin a process of change. After that comes the rising action, where the character meets mounting resistance to the needed change. Things get worse and worse until it appears that all is lost, and then something happens to turn it all around, and clear the way for the character to achieve change. This turn-around point is the climax. After that comes resolution, as the character actually steps into the new order of things, and the denouement, where the character's new resting state is established, or at least hinted at.

Happy plotting! Keep writing!

Author Skype with Heather Dixon

We had a delightful skype visit today with Heather Dixon, author of Entwined, which made the ALA's Best Fiction for Young Adults list and was in the top ten for romance in 2011.

Heather talked about writing romance, especially about the importance of keeping the romantic relationship in suspense. She also shared some of her writing process with us, which includes ripping out and rewriting entire portions of her books. As a storyboard artist, she says she's used to this sort of thing.

To get to know more about Heather, read her charming and hilarious blog, Story Monster, where you'll see her storyboarding skills in action.