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A Moving Experience

By on August 10, 2012   /   Book Lists  

I’m happy to be settling virtually into the Mixed Up Files clubhouse, and settling physically into my family’s new home in rural New England. While boxing and unboxing all my worldly possessions, I’ve given a lot of thought to “moving experiences” in literature. Authors most often use relocation as a plot device, but it can also highlight a book’s theme, demonstrate character traits, or show an aspect of the setting.

Plot Moves:

This is the most straightforward example. Typically there’s a character who encounters a new kid in class, or is a new kid in class, or has to deal with a friend or family member moving away. The move might be permanent, like Pip moving to London with great expectations, or it might be temporary, like Alice’s visit to Wonderland. The important thing is that if Alice decides not to follow the White Rabbit, the entire rest of the story fails to take place. The character’s move is what moves the plot.

Thematic Moves:

Into the woodsC.S. Lewis’s The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe features a group of siblings who are relocated to the countryside during the WWII bombing of London. They then discover a magical gateway and move again, this time into the land of Narnia. That second move is necessary to the plot, but what about the first? Wouldn’t this story have worked just as well if it had been otherwise unchanged but instead had the siblings discover a portal in their own long-familiar London home?

Lewis used the initial move to introduce a theme and ratchet up the tension. These kids, moved from bomb-battered London to a seemingly safe environment, suddenly find themselves in more danger than ever. Out of the frying pan, into the fire. The move has created ironic tension, because the pastoral countryside is not the sanctuary it was made out to be. The themes of danger and safety are integral to the book and make the story more impactful.

Character-Revealing Moves:

The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin presents a group of unlikely characters who compete to solve a mystery and earn the inheritance of a wealthy eccentric. At the start of the book, every one of these future contestants moves into the same apartment complex, which makes it possible to tell the story in a compact space. It’s a practical move, necessary to the plot, but it also spotlights the manipulative nature and social engineering skills of Sam Westing as he entices all of these people to uproot their previous lives even before the contest and its stakes have been introduced. If any of those families had decided to stay put instead, the entire intricate plot would have begun to unravel. By the end of the book, we see exactly how manipulative Westing has been, but it all starts with that big collective move.

A World-Building Move:

Harry Potter's luggage tagConsider the Harry Potter series, in which Harry moves from his uncle and aunt’s house to Hogwarts for each school year and back again for the summer. In his first year, Harry moves twice. First, he moves to a part of the wizarding world that’s a single semi-permeable wall away from the world we live in. From there, Harry and the other first-year students move by train to the pure magic of Hogwarts, which is as far removed from the muggle world as one can get. Most of the characters who make a similar double-move are muggle-born, like Hermione. Others who are native to the wizarding world only have to move once, like Ron and Draco. Every student is in for a magical year of new experiences, but readers have been introduced to a caste system that plays out more and more in later books.

How else have you seen a move used in your favorite books? Let me know in the comments, and thanks to everyone who helped me move my words onto this blog.

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The Three Biggest Mistakes Authors Make on School Tours

By on August 8, 2012   /   For Teachers  

As a teacher, I spend 180 days a year with tweens and teens. I’ve observed students in many teaching scenarios, including while other adults (guest authors or newbie teachers) tried instructing or entertaining them. The sessions that tend to bore the kids and stress out the presenter fall prey to three mistakes—all of which come from not understanding the audience.

Teaching or presenting to tweens and teens can be an intimidating task. After all, kids can be honest—i.e., brutal—about whether they like your book, subject matter, or you, and/or are often noticeably uninterested in what adults try to share with them. As a veteran teacher, I mentor new teachers and student teachers who have some of the same fears authors bring along when entering the classroom or auditorium. The advice in the post is the same advice new teachers get. Even when an author may have some background experience working with large groups of kids, it’s important to note that no author’s presentation—just like no curriculum lesson—will ever go off perfectly or exactly the same each time; this is because each group of students is different. So in order to ensure that luck is on your side more often than not, you can prepare each presentation based on the needs of the audience rather than the topic.

There are three things to keep in mind any time you’re teaching or presenting to kids or teens—three big mistakes not to make:

Mistake 1: Thinking It’s About You/Your Book

But wait, didn’t the librarian or that teacher invite you to come to the school because their students love your book or they’re going to love your book? And don’t you have this great activity that will help    students learn the craft of writing or what makes compelling characters? This all may be true, but you need to remember that with tweens and teens, the entire world revolves around them—not you. (Unless you’re J.K. Rowling; but even then only some kids are persistently orbiting the Potter Universe.) There are likely to be students in attendance who are reluctant readers, who haven’t heard of you, or aren’t thrilled about your genre. So you have to do the heavy lifting: you need to figure out a way to make what you’re presenting seem connected to them and their world, to make it relevant for them. For example, when I teach junior high students about the elements of fiction each fall, I start with movies, not novels or short stories. Why? Because I know all of my students watched one if not one hundred movies over the summer. Movies are what the majority of them know and are passionate about when it comes to their experiences with “story.” When discussing fiction genres, we talk about music genres. When discussing conflict, we talk about sports and teams. Help the kids see that what they care about is actually connected to what you’re trying to explore with them, thus making it relevant. Figuring out how the content of your presentation relates to something teens already    care about will get them involved—which does wonders for author anxiety and your success in school tours.

Mistake 2:    Failure to Ask Questions

One of the best ways to get kids and teens involved and to help them make connections with your content is to ask them questions. There might be some trial-and-error on your part as you experiment with the right questions to ask, but teaching and presenting are just like writing: it takes practice to do them well, and that includes learning from previous attempts. Use both closed and opened-ended questions (yes/no answers and opinion-based answers, respectively). For example, recently I went to hear two of my author friends present at a library. In part of the program, they talked about books they were forced to read in school. One of them asked the simple question, “Anyone here ever been force to read a book they didn’t like?” Then he paused as many hands from the audience flew up, tightening the kids’ connection with the presenters. Later, as the duo started discussing heroes, they asked the group of tweens and teens “what makes a hero” and then took three to five minutes and let the audience do the teaching. From my seat in the back, I could see how engaged and attentive the kids were. Most of them had never read either of these authors’ books, but because the authors brought the kids into the presentation, their audience was hooked.

Mistake 3: Forgetting to Mix It Up

Remember that kids have limited attention spans. Each of us can focus on a task or subject for only a limited amount of time before our minds wander and we become distracted. I’ve even heard that companies like 3M and Google dedicate something like 15% of the employee workday to free time—knowing that employee concentration suffers otherwise. For tweens and teens, the magic number is also fifteen—ten to fifteen minutes, that is. Every ten to fifteen minutes you want to switch topics, move to a new activity, or change your instructional approach from lecture to discussion or from discussion to something hands-on, etc. Whatever you’re doing, figure out a way to break up your gig into ten-to-fifteen-minute segments.

Now it’s time to practice what I preach. You’re blog reading attention span is almost up. I hope these ideas help. Let me know what’s worked for you in reaching your audience. As a teacher and writer, I love to teach and I love to learn—everyone can improve their craft.

Bruce Eschler teaches junior high school students most of the year, writes speculative fiction for kids as much he can, and is hoping he’ll soon be done with his pesky doctoral program. He has occasionally been spotted at www.bruceeschler.com.

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Using Your Resources

By on August 6, 2012   /   Book Lists  

Hi, Mixed-Up Filer’s! May I just say MUF’s as in Moofs? Let’s go with that.  I coined it, so my pronunciation.

Anyway, since this is my first real piece for MUF, other than the interview I conducted with Shana Burg, which if you haven’t read it, why on earth not?? Go on and do it now. I’ll wait………… (whistling)…………………………(glancing at my watch)……………….Ah, there you are! Welcome back! Wasn’t she great? Anyway, as I was saying, since this is my first post, I decided to ask our fearless-leader, the Lord-High, Elissa Cruz, (I’m not sure why, but that’s what she makes us call her) Anyway, I asked her what should I write about?

Her reply was a simple, “Whatever you want.”, which seeing as how that will most likely be the last time she ever tells me that, I thought I’d take advantage of her edict and figured that the best thing to do for my first piece, would be to first introduce myself, and then explain how I came to be a member of this site. And then, I will discuss resources. And what do I mean by resources? I mean, taking advantage of everything at your disposal to help on your writing.

But first let’s start with, how did I become a part of MUF? It’s kind of a funny story actually. You see, like my esteemed-colleagues, I love middle-grade books and I love to write. Also like them, I had to apply to become a member of this site. However, unlike them, I had to apply many times. Many, many times. Did I say many yet? Anyway, after my thirty-seventh application, I received a very lovely e-mail from the aforementioned Elissa Cruz, asking me, that if she agreed to let me become a part of MUF, would I please stop sending the weekly delivery of rhododendrons to her house? Well, from experience, and as Jenny Finkel, the girl who I asked to my prom over seventy-three times, can attest to, I can sense when I’ve worn someone down. So, I readily agreed and here I am!

Now, about this post. I know, I know, get to the point already, Jonathan. Well, give me a second, I was just about to! See, I love to read Middle-Grade, which I guess tends to help if you’re writing for a site dedicated to it. But, I also love to write Middle-Grade, and that’s what I want to discuss. Writing and using your resources. Resources are plentiful for writers, but I’m just going to mention a few. Let’s start with this site (shameless plug). There are many different reasons why people come to sites such as MUF, I mean besides hoping to read one of my posts. Take why I came for example. Even before I became a member of MUF, the reason I always loved coming here, was to find out about what books were out right now in Middle-Grade. Mixed-Up Files gives a really cool and in-depth monthly release list, which invariably led me to buy one or more of those titles listed…every time. Yeah, I’m like a kid and have absolutely no will-power when it comes to books. Or comics. Or DVD’s. or… Okay, yeah. I see it too. I think I just might have a problem. But anyway, I checked off what I was interested in and knew what books to be on the lookout for. And if you read the author’s interviews, you probably noticed that time and again, the thing that’s mentioned most is “How’d you get my number, Jonathan?” But after that, the other thing that was mentioned a lot, was the importance of reading in your genre. It’s good to know what’s out there. Not just to get a glimpse of the marketplace, but because reading helps you improve your own writing.

And speaking of the author interviews, they are another feature to take advantage of. Usually, the authors wind up giving tips about what helps them or about their writing routines. I realize that what works for one, might not work for others, but I think even if one thing helps, it becomes worthwhile. You just might pick up something that you haven’t considered before.

Commenting on the articles is good too. It’s never a bad thing to ask further questions and reach out to others. You might get answers to something you’re interested in or get help about an issue you’re having. And I don’t just mean this site. While, I want you to stay here and spend as much time as possible on Mixed-Up Files, check out others as well. Different sites have different perspectives. It can only help you to see what benefits you (but, of course always come back home to MUF 🙂 )

Network and market yourself. And by networking, I don’t mean trying to make connections in order to see what somebody can do for you and help you out. Some actually do think it’s about that, but know up front, there are NO shortcuts. It’s about the work. It always comes back to that, doesn’t it? Your work. I know it may sound funny coming from someone who hasn’t been published yet, but nobody can say that I’m not putting in the work. That’s what counts in the long run. Nobody cares how many Facebook friends you have, if your story is in terrible condition. It’s how well you are able to revise and do the work and do what needs to be done to get your story in the right condition to be sold. And while the work is what counts, I’m just saying that using your resources, might make the work easier.

With that being said, still network. I know it sounds like a contradiction from the previous paragraph, but it’s not. Connect with other writers. Critique groups, conferences, etc. As for Facebook, use it! Join pages dedicated to writing. Friend other writers. I don’t mean bombarding specific writers with questions, because that’s a quick way to get unfriended. But, I am constantly amazed at how friendly the writing community is. I’ve seen people throw a writing question out as a status and been surprised by how many others rush to respond to it and help out their fellow writers. I’ve friended writers on there and discussed writing with, but haven’t yet met. And weird thing is? You come to feel close to these people and root for each other. But, if you’re a writer, you understand. You get it. Writing is a lonely, solitary profession, but perhaps could be a little less so when you’re sharing your experiences with others going through the same thing.

Well, that’s it for now. Elissa placed me on a strict word count and I’m getting close to it. It’s been a lot of fun and before I go, I’d like to first of all, thank my good friend, Lester Sherman for helping me with the research necessary for this article. But, even more important, I’d like to thank, Elissa Cruz, because in honor of my first post, she has vowed that if I receive over 500 comments from different, individual users, she will post pictures of herself wrapped like a mummy. Yes, a mummy. So, what are you waiting for? Comment away!

Jonathan Rosen is a high school English teacher, living in South Florida. He writes middle-grade geared toward boys, because he finds they share the same sensibilities and sense of humor. Jonathan has lived all over the world and is hoping to eventually find a place that will let him stay.

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