Posts Tagged writing tips

Cogheart Adventures: Interview & GIVEAWAY with Author Peter Bunzl

By on February 12, 2020   /   Author Interviews, For Kids, For Librarians, For Parents, For Teachers, For Writers, Giveaways, New Releases, Writing  

In the fall of 2014 I attended my first SCBWI-British Isles conference and met Peter Bunzl. Another Scoobie (as SCBWI is affectionately known in the UK) friend was in his conference critique group and introduced us when it was over. A second friend was in the same group and said that Peter’s excerpt had literally made her cry. Soon we all joined together in a middle grade critique group regularly meeting up back in London; and I too was immediately taken by Peter’s steampunk adventure novel about a girl and her mechanical fox searching for her missing airship pilot and inventor father.

A few months later we celebrated Peter getting an agent, and a few months after that we celebrated COGHEART being sold as the lead title in Usborne’s 2016 list. It came out in September 2016 and was simultaneously chosen as Waterstones Book of the Month; a huge deal for a debut. Four years later Peter’s fourth COGHEART ADVENTURE book, SHADOWSEA has just been released in the UK, and the award-winning first three volumes —COGHEART, MOONLOCKET, AND SKYCIRCUS are now available in the US with Jolly Fish Press. (SEE BELOW FOR HOW YOU CAN WIN ALL 3 BOOKS.) I am so pleased and excited to welcome Peter Bunzl to The Mixed Up Files!

The 1st Cogheart Adventure Moonlocket: Cogheart Adventure #2 Skycircus: Cogheart Adventure #3

 

MD: Hi Peter, thanks so much for joining us!

PB: Thank you for having me, it’s lovely to be here!

MD: The world in the Cogheart adventures is so much fun with mechanicals (mechanical animals and people) and other distinctive and unique details. How did you come up with the world of the Cogheart adventures and did anything help you with your world-building?

PB:  Thanks! The inspiration came from reading about the clockmaking geniuses of the 18th and 19th Century who built the first automata and androids. It was their desire to create artificial life – or an illusion of life – which really chimed with me as a writer and animator. Someone who’s primary goal it is to make people believe in imaginary characters with all their heart. 

Those tales of clockwork robots and their creators helped me envisage a fictional Victorian world where mechanical-people and humans lived side by side. A world which begged the question: What makes us human, and could that spark of life ever exist inside a machine?

MD: Your story worlds are a cool mix of imagination and historical accuracy. When you are planning and writing a book, what kind of research do you do? Do you use mood boards or other visual prompts?

PB: Research plays a big part in the crafting my stories. I use Pinterest to save inspiring images and create mood boards for my projects. I collect Victorian photos of interesting looking people and locations. I also use Evernote to save research documents. Historical descriptions of the places the characters visit etc.

For the steampunk aspects of the story, I read about real airships, like the Graf Zeppelin and the Hindenburg. There’s lots of zeppelin battles in the Cogheart Adventures. I didn’t stick to the physics of flying, because I saw from great steampunk that you don’t have to, but I tried not to go too wild as this is an alternate reality not a total fantasy world.

In terms of the Victoriana, I wasn’t a fanatical researcher, quite the opposite. I prefer fiction that give a flavour of the era, rather than dry history books. So I read a little bit of Dickens for the atmosphere, Treasure Island for the adventure, and some Penny Dreadful type books like: Hooligan Nights and Mord Em’ly – for their sensationalist accounts of Victorian street life.

MD: Did you intend Cogheart to become a series? Once the emotional arc was completed for the characters at the end of the first book, how did you navigate creating compelling emotional journeys for your characters in each of the subsequent books? Did you find it difficult?

PB: In the beginning, I never intended to write a series after Cogheart, but when my agent, Jo Williamson, originally sold the book in the UK it was for a two book deal and it became apparent that the publisher wanted a sequel.

The lucky thing was, after writing the first book, I had a lot of different left-over bits and pieces that never made it into the story. And those became the basis for each of the subsequent adventures.

The obvious choice for the second story was to make it more about Robert’s family, because his history had barely featured in Cogheart. So that became Moonlocket. I had an idea that I wanted to write about a magician and a mysterious locket and that fed into the story too.

I had a couple of other left-over scenes from Cogheart. One where the characters visit a travelling circus. This eventually became Skycircus. There was also a pitch that the publisher turned down for book 2, that eventually became the basis of Shadowsea.

The moral of the story is nothing is ever wasted. So don’t throw your excess ramblings!Shadowsea, the 4th Cogheart Adventure

MD: Had you always intended to write for children?

PB: I actually set out to write for Young Adults first of all, but along the way my story turned into a children’s book because the plot and ideas were much more suited to that age group.

As soon as I realized that was the way it was going I wrote a little Post-it for myself with the words: MARVEL, MAGIC and HUMOUR on it. So I knew the things I needed to add more of in the edits.

The more I wrote the more I discovered that my ideas fitted well into the middle grade bracket. Before I was writing, I worked for ten years in the animation industry on various projects. I wrote and directed my own short films on the side and my scripts often featured child protagonists, so to me it didn’t feel a great leap from that to writing children’s fiction.

MD: How do you find the words and rhythm that characterize your stories?

PB: I don’t think anyone has ever asked me this question before! Thanks.

I suppose it has a lot to do with voice. Your voice as a writer, but also the specific voice of the story, which is either directly the character’s, in a first person book, or in a third person’s story like the Cogheart Adventures, it is part character-voice and part narrator-voice.

As you write a book, you start to get a strong idea of which of those is required, where and when. It has a lot to do with how the book sounds as you read it in your head during the editing process, and with who the characters are.

The Cogheart Adventures are written in third person, but the narration is always close to our heroes. Apart from the prologue, you never see or hear anything they don’t themselves. I would describe that style as ‘close third person’ or  ‘over the shoulder’.

It has moments of free indirect style, where the narration is almost directly Robert and Lily’s point of view and you try to weave their words and thoughts into what they are experiencing. And moments which are more straight up narration.

Narration can’t be too intrusive, in my opinion. For me it should paint an exciting visual picture, but fade into the background in terms of its opinions. Although I feel it can be more stylized at the beginning and end of a story, where you’re trying to draw a reader in or wrap things up.

MD: What authors or creators have had a strong impact on your work?

PB: As a young reader I adored the quirky British fantasy of Diana Wynne Jones, Roald Dahl and Joan Aiken; I was forever popping into the bookshop to see when the next Terry Pratchett was coming out. More recently I loved Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials series and his Sally Lockhart books, plus I enjoy a bit of Dickens, and greatly admire Mervyn Peake’s incredible Gormenghast stories.

They all influenced me in countless ways – some for plotting, others for character or worldbuilding; or poetic language, strange names and humour. When a stunning sentence leaps out at me from a book I underline it so I can refer to it later when I need writing inspiration.

MD: Your attention to detail and the images you create are often very visual. Do you find that your past work as an animator and filmmaker influences your writing?

PB: Coming from a background of animation and film, means that I will see the story very vividly in my head. As I write it unspools like a movie.

My years studying film also taught me a lot about story structure. How to tell a story economically and cinematically. There’s a grammar in film in the way you structure a sequence of shots that’s similar to the way you structure clauses and sentences in fiction. I’ve read some great books on both editing processes that highlight those similarities.

Each shot, or each sentence, should ask a question that’s part-answered and part-added-to by the next one and the next one. And yet each answer also withholds information until you’re ready to reveal it. That’s basically how to create the illusion of a developing story with suspense. It’s when you have the elements in the wrong order that it jars and seems off.

MD: What do you enjoy most about being a full-time children’s author and what do you dislike?

PB: I love meeting readers. Especially kid readers, because if they enjoy your book they’ll tell you so in no uncertain terms. They say things like: “You’re my favourite author of all time!” “Better than Roald Dahl!” “One of the best books I’ve ever read!”

Those kind of comments are ace, especially if they tell you personally or write you a letter with pictures of the characters they’ve drawn. All of their feedback is such a joy and it’s one of the best parts of writing children’s books.

The worst part is when you see a disparaging adult review online. Especially when they say things like: “I tried to read this book, but it seems like it was written for kids”. Don’t read bad online reviews, that’s my advice. Somehow they stick to your brain much more than the good ones. Maybe it’s their spikes that make them sticky.

MD: Your record of four books in four years is remarkable! And these are not short chapter books, these are 140-page middle grade novels with tight plotting and beautiful language.  The UK tends to have a much shorter lead time for publishing than in the US, which is exciting in terms of seeing your book come out with a relatively short turn-around, but it also must be an enormous amount of pressure. What advice do you have for other writers—whether they are just starting out or already mid-career— in terms of ‘just getting it done?’ What does a typical day look like for you?

PB: Write what you love, not what you think the market is looking for. That way you will always have some joy in doing it, even on days when that joy is buried deep and seems unaccessible.

In terms of my writing process, I sit down at a desk and try and write for a few hours each day. I write on the computer and I use Scrivener, because I love the way you can keep all your documents and chapters together but separate. It lets you see the structure of your novel in one window and jump between different parts.

When I’m not writing I have a notebook for the ideas that come at odd times, and a writing diary where I try and keep track of my word counts and how it’s all going – just a short note for each day, so I know if I’m on track or not. That way you can assess your own progress. Give yourself a small gift if you hit your goal for the week or month, and a bigger gift if you finish the whole book.

MD: I’ve noticed that boys and girls equally enjoy your books. Can you speak to any secret sauce you’ve put in, or why you think your books are so appealing across what are sometimes considered traditional gender lines?

PB: I have no idea why this is. I think maybe because the books have both a boy and girl hero, who are equally brave and courageous, equally strong and equally good at problem solving and getting each other out of trouble.

I really don’t think books should be gendered anyway. As long as it’s age appropriate, boys and girls should be able to read anything they like without the publishing industry, or parents, deciding: “oh, pirates and space are for boys” or “princesses and cooking are for girls”. It’s nonsense. What’s more important is writing a good story that’s inclusive and empathetic and can appeal to everyone.

MD: Peter, thanks so much again for joining us at MUF. Your insights into your work, the writing process and writing philosophy are fabulous. Is there anything you’d like to add about your books to the writers, librarians, teachers and avid readers that enjoy our blog?

Peter Bunzl: Author of the Cogheart Adventures

PB: Thank you. If you are looking for more information about my books, I  have a website: peterbunzl.com which has updates and links about all my books. It also has a great amount of teaching resources, created by me and the publisher and by teachers who sent me their brilliant suggestions and ideas. I am pretty active on twitter: @peterbunzl and instagram: @peter_bunzl so feel free to say hi over there too!

Thanks again Peter! Cogheart Adventures are available wherever fine books can be found.

Jolly Fish Press is giving away a copy of all three books to one lucky winner! Enter BELOW for a chance to win.
a Rafflecopter giveaway

(This giveaway is only available in the US.) The contest ends at midnight on February 19th and the winner will be announced on February 20th.  GOOD LUCK!

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When Life Gets in the Way: Writing through Tough Times

By on January 22, 2020   /   Articles, For Writers, Health, Writing, Writing  

Four months after my debut novel, Kat Greene Comes Clean, was published, my father went missing. It was late December, bitterly cold, and he left without a coat. And his cane. At 95, my dad was extremely frail, and he suffered from dementia. I called 911 in a panic.

Within minutes, NYPD detectives flooded my parents’ Manhattan apartment, asking questions and taking notes. They issued a Silver Alert, and promised to find my dad. “The old guys never get far,” the lead detective assured me. “Don’t worry.”

My mom wasn’t worried because, like my dad, she has dementia and had no idea what was going on. But I was a nervous wreck. New York is a big place, and my dad was probably confused, hungry, and cold. I feared the worst.

Afternoon turned into evening, and then into night. Finally, my father was located at the Empire Hotel, two blocks from Lincoln Center. He had taken a cab, the fare paid in coins from a velvet Alexander McQueen makeup bag. If I found this detail confounding, imagine my surprise when the hotel manager informed me that my dad had checked himself into a room, raided the minibar, and owed $685 plus tax. I would have paid anything, of course. My dad was safe.

But then, four months and three health-care aides later, my dad went missing… again. This time, he was found wandering the streets of SoHo, with a broken finger and lacerations on his face. He was rushed to the hospital, where I met him in the ER. He wasn’t as lucky this time. He developed a severe kidney infection and, after half a year in hospice care, passed away at home. He was 96 years old.

Now, I know what you’re thinking: This story is depressing! You write funny stuff. BE FUNNY!

I wish I could. But at the time, there was no room in my life for humor—or for writing. I tried, but I didn’t have the emotional bandwidth to succeed. I was always on edge, waiting for the other shoe to drop. And it did. Again, and again, and again.

I’m still dealing with my fair share of stress (my mom now has advanced dementia), but I’ve found a way to balance life-related responsibilities with my writing. Here’s how you can, too:

Adjust your expectations. If you’re going through tough times—and, like me, juggling a zillion things at once—there’s no way you can be as productive, or as focused, as you were before. Think about it: Your brain has to work overtime just to keep up! Plus, stress has a sneaky way of sapping your emotional and physical energy. So, if you can, cut yourself some slack. Set realistic, manageable writing goals. If you’re used to writing 2,000 words a day, write a thousand. Or five hundred, or 250. Or whatever number your schedule, and emotional energy, allows. If you don’t hit a specific target, that’s okay too. Just write every day, even if it’s for 15 minutes. You’ll feel good for having done it.

Try journaling. Expressing your thoughts and feelings in written form is an excellent stress-management tool. It’s also been shown to be highly therapeutic. So, if you don’t keep a journal already, now would be a good time to start. You don’t have to write pages and pages; just a few lines a day. Or one line, if that’s all you’ve got in you. Just get your thoughts (and more often, your frustrations) down on paper, and see where it leads. There are many ways to journal, but if you find that journaling is not for you, give yourself permission to stop. You can always try again later. Or don’t. Make (or break) the rules as you see fit. This is something you’re doing for you.

 

Limit social media. It’s tempting to mindlessly scroll through social media—or binge-watch Netflix, or spend hours searching YouTube for cute-kitty videos—when you’re stressed and in need of distraction. (When my dad was sick, I played Wordscapes until my vision was blurry.) But the hours you engage in unproductive phone activities are hours you can’t get back. Plus, screen time wreaks havoc on your concentration. Removing apps from your phone is the obvious solution, but it’s unlikely you will do this (I still have Wordscapes on mine). Instead, think of screen time as a reward for writing time. Five hundred words = fifteen minutes of Wordscapes; one thousand words = an episode of 90 Day Fiancé (or pick your poison). The point is, you’re allowed to zone out when the time is right—but don’t make a habit of it. Your time is too valuable to waste. (For advice on how to walk away from social media completely, check out this post from Salon.)

You do YOU. Writers often compare themselves to others. That’s what we do. But as Teddy Roosevelt famously said, “Comparison is the thief of joy.” He was right. Knowing that your friend’s debut MG novel sold eight billion copies and has been optioned for a movie starring Kylie Jenner (or Kendall Jenner, if you prefer) while yours is languishing in a bargain bin at Costco is a fact of life—but don’t dwell on it. You have enough on your plate to worry about! By all means celebrate your friends’ achievements, but don’t let their success(es) overshadow your own. Sometimes getting out bed in the morning is enough.

Practice self-care. This should be a given, but if you’re busy looking out for others’ needs, you tend to ignore your own—or put them last. This is understandable (I’m guilty of this, too), but try to put yourself first once in a while. Squeeze in a run, or have coffee with a friend. Get a massage, if that’s your thing, or sneak out to a museum or art gallery. Catch up on your sleep; eat Frito’s Corn Chips. Dance. Whatever it takes to bring you to your happy place, do it!

And finally…

Expect setbacks. It’s important to remember that most things in life are out of your control, like when a parent develops dementia–and dies. When a child is sick or disabled and needs constant care. Unemployment; bankruptcy; a house fire; divorce… You can only do so much to keep afloat emotionally. Sometimes, it will feel like an impossible struggle. You’ll miss deadlines. Bills will go unpaid; birthday cards unsent. For every step forward, you can expect two—or fifty—steps back.

Grieving isn’t linear, and I miss my dad every day. Still, he would have wanted me to keep writing, and that’s what I’m trying to do. I hope you will, too.

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STEM Tuesday–Dinosaurs/Paleontology– Writing Tips & Resources

By on January 21, 2020   /   Dinosaurs/Paleontology, STEM Tuesday  

 

Backmatter Matters

Imagine you wake up in a strange place. Although the place does not feel threatening, just being there is jarring because you don’t know why you are there, or how you got there. You don’t know what to do or how to interact. That’s what reading a nonfiction book might be like, if it weren’t for the mighty powers of peritext.

Peritext? What’s that? All of the elements in a book that are not in the main body of text. In STEM nonfiction books, peritext can be paramount.

Pick up a nonfiction book from this month’s list and search out those elements. There’s the cover (front and back) and maybe some flap or cover copy; these introduce you to the book and give you a preview of the author’s “take” on the topic. There’s a copyright page and, most likely, other standard elements such as a table of contents, glossary, and index; these give you context, a map to guide your journey, and help when needed. But there may be more—much, much more.

Consider how different the book would be without all of that. What would the reader miss? What do each of those elements actually do for the book? 

Before I began writing professionally, I essentially ignored peritext. I rarely read any portion of the backmatter (everything after the main body of text). One day, a writer friend told me she reads every word of the endnotes—I was astounded. Who would do that?

Then I tried it with a book I loved and realized just how much I had been missing. These elements are designed for the inquiring mind! As a reader and writer, it is worth studying the peritext and pondering its value. Peritext invites us into the reading experience and launches us into the next one.

Try this:

1. Ask a friend to select a nonfiction book that you have never seen. Have them binder clip together the pages that contain the main text. (Note: peritext includes illustrations and chapter titles, etc, but let’s focus on the frontmatter and backmatter for now.)

2. Study the peritext (no peeking at the main text). Jot down a list of what’s there.

      • Is there a table contents? An index? What about a timeline? Anything interesting about the endpapers?
      • Ask yourself: Who uses each of these elements? Who creates them? Do any serve multiple purposes?
      • Now, read the material. From the peritext, what impression do you get about the book?
      • What questions are sparked in your mind?
      • If these elements are illustrated, jot down notes about them as well.

3. Skim the glossary or index.

      • Do some entries surprise you?
      • What questions do you now have? Are you now more, or less, eager to read the book? To read other material on the topic?
      • Search for clues to the core of the book. Not the topics covered, but the theme, the big ideas, the conclusions. (Don’t forget the covers.)

4. Finally, read the entire book.

      • Consider how well the elements in the peritext support the main text.
      • If you were the author, illustrator, editor, etc. would you have done things differently?
      • What factors might impact what’s included in the backmatter? (FYI, typically the author creates most of the backmatter and other publishing professionals create most of the frontmatter and covers.)

As an author, this is how I look at books. I want to know what is there, why it is there, and how it is used. To help me inquire, I started a running list of the elements in various books. Just off the top of your head, you might remember books with recipes, timelines, acknowledgments, bibliographies, or an author’s note, but you would be amazed at the variety. And think how much each of those elements can vary, not only in content, but also in presentation. In some books, the backmatter was even more interesting to me than the main text. 

Backmatter isn’t limited to nonfiction; however, it seems to be more common and extensive in nonfiction. Why? What types of fiction include extensive backmatter? What if more fiction included backmatter?

Try this:

1. Read a book that has limited backmatter.

2. List at least 3 elements which could have been included.

3. Create 1 of those elements for the book. (You might have to make something up for the sake of the exercise.)

4. Share it with a friend and ask if the added element is valuable.

If you’re not careful, you will now find yourself picking up books and flipping to the backmatter before you read the frontmatter. You’ll be noticing how cool it is that the glossary of Dining With Dinosaurs only includes words not already defined in the main text. (So smart—those are the only ones a reader should need in the glossary!) You might start wishing every historical text included a visual timeline like Dinosaurs: Fossils and Feathers (Science Comic Series). And when you begin to write your next piece, you might start thinking about the backmatter before the front matter. This is what reading like a writer will do to you!

 

Heather L. Montgomery can’t resist writing backmatter–the ulimate playground for a nonfiction writer. She almost let it take over her upcoming book, Who Gives a Poop? The Surprising Science Behind Scat (Bloomsbury, September 2020). Aren’t you eager to dive into that? For now, you’ll have to be satisfied with the perimatter in her 15 other STEM titles. www.HeatherLMontgomery.com 

The O.O.L.F Files

Just a few more dino books because you can never have too many…

The First Dinosaur: How Science Solved the Greatest Mystery on Earth, written by Ian Lendler, illustrated by C. M. Butzer. In this 220-pager, Lendler carefully lays out how the idea of dinosaurs came to be. Beginning with a bone discovered before the concept of dinosaurs—or even fossils—existed, Lendler walks readers through a wealth of scientific studies to share a story you want to know. This book is likely to blow young minds (and yours).

Dinosaurs By the Numbers (A Book of Infographics), written and illustrated by Steve Jenkins. In classic Jenkins style, this fact-packed book is sure to please dino lovers. Maps, graphs, size-comparisons, all formatted on clean white space do an excellent job of accentuating dinosaur facts and extremes. And, there’s an illustrated table of contents–such tantalizing peritext!

When Sue Found Sue: Sue Hendrickson Discovers Her T. Rex, written by Toni Buzzeo, illustrated by Diana Sudyka. This picture book tells how a curious girl grew to be an inquisitive scientist who discovered the most complete (and likely the most famous) Tyrannasoarus rex fossil ever found (so far). Perfect for kids who are collectors and those who yearn to make their own discoveries.

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