Frenzied Daddy

I’ve never done this sort of thing before. I think I’m going to start a “book club” specifically for parents reading “young adult” books. I’m already reading the books, it’ll be good to talk about them as well. And I was moved by an article Grandma P brought over about how eighth graders tend to stop reading so much. So my fifth grader who is reading hundreds of books a year (yes, really ) will probably be reading much fewer when she leaves middle school.

Middle school, by the way, is next year.

The Oregonian article reminded me how much better readers do in school; reading and writing skills are much improved in kids who read for fun. And one of the best ways to help kids read for fun is to help match kids to books they might like.

So, thinking about the flames in the discussion around The Golden Compass, I think I’m going to use that as a springboard. So, I’ll be looking for some sort of “reading guide” that’s not totally pro-or-anti Pullman, and I’ll be putting a… schedule(?) for lack of a better word.

I’m using the Portland Parents site for it, aiming it at other parents who are concerned about the same things. Let’s see how far I can take it. Wonder what we’ll read for March.

Last year Miss B’s writing really started getting better. Her teacher told us that, like all of her art, Miss B was a great writer. She couldn’t wait to see what Miss B got up to as she developed. Her reading really sparked up last year too, and over the summer I’ve been astounded at how voraciously she’s been reading. Now I’ve been subjected to her writing too; and I must say that I’m at least as proud as her mother is.

You can read some of what she’s written over at her blog. Please leave encouraging comments, or email me if you have discouraging comments. She doesn’t have an email address yet.

Or a myspace [shudder]!

As I learned “creative writing,” whether it was at an after-school class or at a meeting of young writers, one exercise kept coming back. Write a paragraph to describe someone. I did it a few times, where “few” means “a few hundred.” One of my favorites, not written by me, is “Aqualung” by Jethro Tull. Of the hundreds I wrote, I rewrote and worked on one in particular where some horsemen appeared out of the fog as a young man stood in the grass and took the time to describe the lead horseman in what I thought was great detail. But a description is more than a catalog of appearances.

Charlie Fletcher describes a character in Stoneheart and nails this technique to the wall.

George looked up. He saw a man made from tarnished bronze from the bottom of his army boots to the top of his tin helmet. The Gunner from the war memorial looked back down at him as he broke the revolver in his hand, shook out the spent shells, and reloaded in a movement so fluid that he didn’t seem to need to look at his hands while he did it.

He moved so fast that he snapped the reloaded revolver back together while the shells were still tinkling at George’s feet.

George felt his nightmare wasn’t over. He scooted away from the Gunner, but not fast enough. The Gunner grabbed him and yanked him back against the wall and then stepped in front of him. Protecting him.

Charlie didn’t explain the horse braids on one shoulder or go into every detail about how the creases of the bronze are a brighter color than the flat surfaces. He didn’t list all the features, and he left enough ambiguousness that your mind can fill in the rest. Stoneheart is full of descriptions like this; they’re very well done.

If I had any inkling that you could used character studies like this in a novel without sounding as wordy as Tolkien, I may have tried harder to pull it all together.

I’m responding to this post over on a scrapbooking board, but twisting it slightly from a “journalling slump” to a “blogging slump.” Well, not so much a “blogging slump” but “when there’s something I want to say but I can’t get it started.” The words get all balled up in a snarl of fishing line and then it’s a real pain to unsnarl them.

Physical, rhythmic things help a lot; hitting the elliptical or just going for a walk. The “priming the pump” image isn’t just fluff. So I’ve seen when I’m trying to get those thoughts in a line, if I can get into my head while I’m doing it, while I’m getting into the flow, that’s the best place. Which makes it hard for Ms B to talk to me or Miss K to climb up my back and sit on my shoulders while I’m thinking. That sort of thing keeps me in the here and now; which is good, but it doesn’t directly help the flow.

Another thing that helps is reading other things; I spend a lot of time (too much time) just browsing the internet, keeping up with other people’s blogs, you know, just reading. That helps because sometimes it gives me things to write about, or helps gel together the thoughts I have in my mind that want to come out too.

IT’S is always IT IS. If “it is” doesn’t make sense in place of It’s, then drop the freaking apostrophe.

We don’t write “her’s”, do we? Oh wait, you do? Nevermind then, you go right on being wrong.

This is a screenshot from Everquest 2. As you can see, someone did a half assed job of finishing the Djinn. I was going to post this and just say “Hey look at the funny thing we saw in EQ tonight, ” just like a post saying “Hey, look at this link.” It’s a copout. And — what gives? You want people to read your weblog, but you just give them a link and send them on the way away from your site?

I could use this to discuss how computer graphics are made; you can see the vertices of the polygons that make up this image, they just don’t have any surfaces. Probably someone just didn’t finish that. How’s that working for them?

But you know, we can figure out what it’s supposed to be. And probably that’s what the artist / programmer thought. “I’ll just rough this in- they know what I mean.” This is kind of scary- because I’ve actually thought that as I come close to finishing a project. “I’ll just leave this like this- the user will know what I intend.” I don’t realize that the user sees something like this– sure I know what the artist meant but, cmon pal, why didn’t we finish the job?

So, here’s a tip. Finish your jobs. Don’t offer half-assed copouts that look like “hey, here’s a link. Go check them out.” Talk about what it means to you, why you’re showing it, and what we can learn.

And yes, I admit that I’m a pretty bad example of not saying “hey go look at this.”

I found these over at A List Apart. They’re excellent advice for either webloggers or print-loggers, err, paper-writers. These are their headings, with my explanations or synopses, or just plain ole ’shoot from the hip responses.’

1. Write for a reason
   Well, duh. And make the reason more than just “I burped today. It tasted like pizza.” Although that could be interesting, in the right context. A few of my posts have been more filler than content, I’ll admit, but that falls into the ‘Write Often’ category.
2. Write often
   What if nothing exciting has happened since the last post? Write about something mildly interesting happening in the news. Write about something dorky. Do a book review. Prove to your readers that your life is more than “get up, go to work, come home, eat, sleep, get up.” Sometimes, I’ll admit, I do things just so I’ll have something to blog about. Or I’ll write about something really dull (woo, running over to the school and back).
3. Write tight
   Definately. Don’t use very too many words, ok? And also eschew obfuscation.
4. Make good friends
   Get some. Some of mine are better than I thought. Find like-minded webloggers who you can link to in times of stress.
5. Find good enemies
   Joseph Conrad wrote of enemies: “You shall judge of a man by his foes as well as by his friends.” (more enemy quotes). A good enemy is a foil for your own beliefs, someone strong who you can argue with. Be careful about treating them with respect. They may read your weblog too, and they can write … too.
6. Let the story unfold
   You’re a storyteller. Do it.
7. Stand up, speak out
   If you see an injustice, you have a voice. Use it.
8. Be sexy
   Sex is, according to my nonscientific poll, roughly 85% of the Internet Business Section is related to sex. The other 15% has to do with refinancing your home mortgage.
9. Use your archives
   Link to yourself, in your archives. Make your archives search-engine friendly. When someone is reading an archive page, make it easy to find out who you are and what you’re currently writing about.
10. Relax!
    We’re all just people. Well, maybe if Thomas Jefferson was blogging, you could feel a little shy. But he’s not.

I’m not posting this as an authority, I’m posting it as a fellow traveller on the path to authordom

Lose the passive voice.

What, you may ask, is the “Passive voice?” It’s the voice of “telling not showing.” When Snoopy writes “It was a dark and stormy night,” he’s using the passive voice. It slows down the narration and reduces action. It also uses more words. It’s the use of forms of the verb “to be” — is , was et cetera. Oftentimes, the verb gets hidden in a contraction. So, when someone says “this passage is in the passive voice,” they’re using it too. Look, I did it twice in the same sentence. Shake up your sentences by using a stronger, more active role.