Rx for Writers

Transcripts

Thursday, May 11, 2000

MODERATOR: is Kristi Holl, Web Editor for The Institute of Children's Literature. Kristi is the author of 23 middle grade novels, more than l00 short stories and articles for adults and children. She also taught for The Institute for l5 years before becoming the site's Web Editor.

Jane: is Jane Kurtz, author of thirteen books--picture books, novels, nonfiction, educational and professional books. She is also a teacher and frequent speaker at conferences and schools. Her most recent book River Friendly River Wild (which depicts the Red River flood of 1997, an event Jane and her family lived through) has already been extremely successful.

Names highlighted in blue are viewers who had questions.

Scheduled Event interviews on Thursday nights begin promptly at 8 Eastern, 7 Central, 6 Mountain, and 5 Pacific.

MODERATOR: It's great to be back this week! I'm excited to be talking with Jane Kurtz on the topic of "Turning All Your Writing Into Mystery Writing!" Jane will discuss how planting a "mystery" at the heart of the pieces you're writing will pull the reader in and help you make sales. Jane is the author of thirteen books now, but she confessed that she sometimes thought she would *never* reach her publishing dreams. Tonight she'll be sharing with us one powerful idea that has been key to her publishing success. Welcome, Jane. We're glad you're here!

Jane: Thanks. It's great to be here.

MODERATOR: Jane, for some background first, just how did you get started writing?

Jane: Well, I'd always loved to read, and I can't remember a time when I wasn't writing. My first story was published in my high school newsletter...so I know I was serious about creative writing back in high school. But I didn't set a goal of publishing a book until I was in my 30s and had kids of my own. That's when I fell in love with children's books.

MODERATOR: Did you sell your writing right away?

Jane: I wish! When I started out, I told myself that if I were going to be a doctor or lawyer, I knew it would take a while and a lot of education and I respected books at least as much as I respected doctors and lawyers. So I told myself I would give myself a ten-year apprenticeship to learn all I could before I gave up. Well, it did take about 10 years for my first major book contract.

MODERATOR: Did you have other jobs (including family) to juggle along with your writing?

Jane: Yes. I always worked except for a little over a year, after I moved to North Dakota, when I took some time to pour myself into my freelance writing. But even then I was taking care of 3 kids.

MODERATOR: What is a typical day of writing like for you?

Jane: I don't think I have any typical days. I teach part time at the University of North Dakota, go out speaking in schools and conferences once a month, and have 3 teenagers. So it's a busy life. But I love the variety. And even when I can't get sat down to my writing in a day, I'm always thinking about whatever project I'm working on--or sometimes several projects. I'm a multitask person :>

MODERATOR: You certainly are! Jane, let's define some terms before we go further. First, what is tension in writing? Is it life and death suspense? Reserved for the climax scene? Or what?

Jane: Definitely not reserved for the climax scene. I once read a piece of advice that said "start pulling the tension line taut at the very beginning of your piece and don't let it loose until the end." That turned out to be one of those little bits of advice that helped me a lot. After that, I always thought "tension."

MODERATOR: Why is mystery or tension important?

Jane: The easiest way for me to explain it to myself is that tension keeps the reader turning the pages. Sometimes a writer will grip me with absolutely stunning description or something else wonderful in his or her writing, but the most sure-fire way to keep me going is to make me feel a sense of tension. Will this person, who I've come to care about, get where she wants to go or fall into the abyss? It's a powerful feeling.

MODERATOR: Except for the obvious genre of mystery/suspense, how can you use this "mystery" idea to hook readers (and editors?)

Jane: One of the easiest mystery concepts to grasp and use is that of the cliffhanger ending. Think of the end of each chapter as a place where a reader might put the book down and never pick it up again. How can you pull your reader into the next chapter? I saw the power of cliffhanger endings to chapters when I was reading aloud to my own children. They had strong imaginations and mostly could not BEAR to have me put the book down with such a powerful mystery tugging at them. Usually, I had to read on into the next chapter where the cliffhanger was resolved so they could get to sleep. I thought about those experiences as I wrote my endings in my novel for young readers (2nd-5th grades), I'm Sorry Almira Ann. You can see that the title, itself, poses a mystery. Why would someone be apologizing to someone else in this book? Now here's the ending of the first chapter:

"Finally she was safe in the sweet, new grass. She turned and turned in the sun, feeling the grass swish against her legs. Wait! Over beyond the blackberry bushes, what was that sound? Something was moving. Something big. Sarah stopped still and listened. She put her hand on her mouth to hush the sound of her panting.

For a second, she thought it was gone. No. Just the pounding in her ears had got so loud. The something was still coming toward her with heavy footsteps."

Bernadette: Hi, Jane. What would you consider a good example of a book that has lots of "tension"?

Jane: Read the beginning of The Killer's Cousin. It's such a gripping beginning. Nancy Werlin, the author, does a good job of keeping that tension line taut. But I would say that just about any wonderful book has tons of tension. Harry Potter does. Holes does. Check out any book that keeps you turning the pages.

MODERATOR: Is the mystery element only useful in fiction? If not, how can it be used in nonfiction?

Jane: Jim Giblin is an excellent nonfiction writer. I just picked up a copy of one of his books, The Truth About Unicorns. First, the title itself poses a mystery that is going to make most readers curious, make them want to start reading to find that truth. The first page describes the typical picture of a unicorn.

Then Jim writes, "We've been told--and most of us believe--that no such animal as the unicorn ever lived. Still, its gentle, horselike image is fixed firmly in our minds, and we probably think that is the way the creature has always been pictured. If we do, we're wrong."

Look at all the mystery suggested in those few sentences. So, was there ever such a thing as a unicorn? And it we're wrong, how HAS the creature been pictured? Read the opening paragraphs of some nonfiction articles in children's magazines. How many of them pose a question or say something slightly confusing and mysterious? If you read something like this, you're going to want to read on:

"Is it possible that in the dense blue-green evergreen forests of the Northwest, high in the mountains where few people ever spend much time, a giant, hairy, gentle beast lives quietly, munching on berries, sometimes curling in caves? James Stewart thinks so." Or even... "What's purple and green and has fifteen legs?"

Lots of people have the idea of asking a question at the beginning of an article, but many of the questions I read aren't mysterious and interesting enough.

christine collier: Jane, when a magazine says they accept no unsolicited manuscripts and want a writing sample, just how much would this be? Just a few paragraphs?

Jane: I guess what I would do would be to send a short article, and make sure it's got lots of mystery and tension in it. Anything to show the editor that you are a terrific writer.

MODERATOR: You're very diversified: l3 books including picture books, novels, nonfiction and educational. Can this "mysterious" element be planted in each type of writing?

Jane: Yes, I believe it's necessary for most writing. In my educational books it hasn't been quite as important, because I've known I had committed readers who were determined to become better educators through reading my book, but even in my new book that I wrote with a school librarian, Terrific Connections with Authors, Illustrators, and Storytellers, we started out telling "horror stories" from schools. That creates a kind of tension. You want to read on to see how you can avoid having authors and illustrators and storytellers sitting around talking behind your back about what a horrible visit you sponsor :>

MODERATOR: That sounds like a book I'd like to read! Let's talk for a minute about specific ways to plant this tension and being deliberately mysterious. How did you do that in The Storyteller's Beads, for example?

Jane: Here's the opening of BEADS: "Sahay leaped up, tangling the thread she had been so carefully smoothing. The pounding of bare feet made her stomach chew on itself with fright. That sound! It was like the terrible day of running a year ago. She pushed the thought away and stooped through the doorway of her house, still clutching the spindle from her spinning."

Look at how many unanswered questions are raised in that first paragraph. Where is this story set that a girl would be spinning with a spindle? What are these bare feet running towards her? And, most of all, what is that "terrible day of running" she refuses to think about? Many kids have written to me to say that the first chapter pulled them in and made them feel they HAD to read on to find out what's happening. Some of the gaps are filled in pretty quickly. For instance, in the very next chapter, "Ethiopia" is named specifically and the reader knows that's where Sahay lives. But exactly what happened on the terrible day of running is only gradually filled in, and we only really learn why Sahay refuses to think about it when we get to the last chapter and realize she feels terribly guilty for having survived.

The bitter truth is that you will lose some readers by not spelling everything out. It takes a skilled reader to enjoy that feeling of mystery, to pick up on the subtle clues instead of having everything said flat out. But you'll gain other loyal readers. I happen to believe that's one of our jobs as teachers and parents, to help kids become readers who can predict, who can be tuned to clues, who can trust that they are in the hands of a pro who will help them get less confused as they go along.

Kevin: How do you know when you're being mysterious and when you're just confusing the young reader?

Jane: That's such a great question. Because the truth is that a lot of writers do confuse mystery with just being confusing. I read some openings of stories that sound something like this: "It stumbled into the room. The room was pitch black and it had to grope with its feelers to find a wall." Well, heck, now that I started into that, it sounded like a pretty good opening after all :> Let me try again. "She walked to school that morning thinking about her homework assignment." I mean...you might as well give the "she" a name right there. Why not? And you might as well have a sentence that is more dripping with danger, somehow. Like..."She never knew what it meant to be safe." Or conversely, you could say, "She never knew what it meant to be worried." That's a puzzling sentence, too, because it's unexpected.

I think half the secret of becoming a great writer is thinking in unexpected ways--taking risks with one's thinking. But back to the original question, let me also say that I think the answer comes through trying one's writing out on some trusted readers and seeing how THEY react. Some kids are easily confused. That doesn't mean you should necessarily ditch the plan because, as I said above, you will lose some unskilled readers by planting mysteries.

christine collier: How mysterious should you get with middle grade readers?

Jane: You know, I tend to write by ear, and that means I read a lot of whatever it is I want to write. I think most middle grade readers are excited about mystery--it's one of their favorite genres. But, again, try reading some novels written for that age level and see how much mystery they have. Look at The Storyteller's Beads. There's actually quite a lot confusing about that in the beginning. And yet middle grade students have mostly been able to navigate it.

Coleman: Hi, Jane. What about the mystery element in your query letters?

Jane: Another great question. Lots of people suggest using the cliffhanger ending I talked about above in query letters, too. I personally think, from my experiences with editors, that it's fine to go ahead and answer the question you pose in your letter, but it always helps to show the editor you can spark her curiosity, and I say "her" because all of my editors are women.

AnneKelly: In the business world, a good cover letter (when you're sending out a resume), is supposed to have a "hook". You want to grab the readers attention when they may be seeing so many cover letters. Is it the same way with cover letters with submissions?

Jane: Absolutely. You have to think of editors as people who read THOUSANDS of cover letters. Now different editors have different personalities and writing is a very personal business, which is why it's so tricky. I know some editors who would rather have you be pretty straight-forward in a cover letter. But back when I was agonizing over what to put in cover letters, I heard an editor say that he always paid attention to a "warm and literate" cover letter. You'd better believe that all my cover letters were warm and literate after that!

Dolly: Shouldn't cover letters be short and to the point?

Jane: As I said, some editors are going to prefer something short and very business-like. But my own opinion is that a writer should use the cover letter to prove to the editor that she is in the hands of a pro. It doesn't have to be long to be very interesting writing.

MODERATOR: Good points, Jane! Your new book, River Friendly River Wild is a very different kind of book. Were you able to have this "mystery element" used in that book? How?

Jane: River Friendly River Wild is one child's look at surviving the Red River flood of 1997, a flood that my family and I did live through and are still picking up the pieces from. Right after the flood, I ended up writing some poems that described what it was really like to evacuate my house, to watch disasters happen on TV, to come back and have to clean out a mucky, icky, flooded house. When my editor at Simon & Schuster saw the poems, she said, "If you can give these a narrative shape, we would love to publish this as a book." Well, to have a narrative shape, one has to have tension. I asked myself, what would add tension and mystery?

I thought about the fact that I had said we should leave our cat behind when we evacuated, since we'd only be gone a couple of days. (In fact, we were gone 6 weeks.) Many people did leave their pets. A pet rescue service even went around--people in boats--and got some of them out of flooded houses. Now, in real life, my daughter REFUSED to leave the cat, which had moved with us from Colorado 8 years before and had always been part of her life, so we did take our cat. But I asked myself, "What if I had gotten my way? What if we had left the cat?" I could instantly see that would add tension. Here's the poem called "Fleeing":

Most things you lie awake and worry about

Don't happen.

This

One

Does.

Sirens wooo woooo wake us up.

Wooooo, wooooo.

Everybody out.

I cry over Kiwi.

Max kisses Kiwi.

We grab our bags.

I blow kisses to Kiwi.

Max cries over Kiwi.

We rush-

Hush-

Through the midnight streets

Out of the silent city

Away from the river

Away from our home.

When they do get back to their house, Kiwi, the cat, is nowhere to be seen. What happened to Kiwi? And is she gone forever? I've done school visits where kids can hardly stand to not have me tell them the ending, resolving that mystery. Someone told me at IRA last week that she had teachers crying when she read it and demanding to know what happened to the cat.

Casey: How many chapters would be appropriate for the middle reader mystery?

Jane: I remember in those ten years when I was working soooo hard to get published that I read every scrap of information I could get my hands on trying to find out THE SECRETS. Do any of you do that? But you know what? I now realize THE SECRET is just terrific writing. And that's a round-about way to say that middle grade books vary a LOT in length these days. I see a real trend toward shorter books. I'm Sorry Almira Ann, for instance, was only about 100 typed pages double spaced. If you could pull off a compelling mystery of that length, I'm almost sure it would be published. And if you could pull of a compelling mystery in about 50 pages, I'm almost sure it would be published. But if it took you 200 pages and the writing was good enough, I'm pretty sure that would be published, too.

MODERATOR: Off the topic a moment, but would you mind sharing a bit about what it was like writing about a personally traumatic event in your life?

Jane: People said "you'll write about it" when they heard about the flood, but I was pretty sure I wouldn't. It felt too raw and traumatic. Then I was at IRA in Atlanta and my author roommate heard me talk in a workshop about getting kids to write about their real lives in non-rhyming poetry, which is something I completely believe in for all writers. She said, "What if you did that with the flood?" I came back to my first day of clean up and found it exactly fit. It was just what I wanted to do. I peeled off those yellow gloves from time to time and jotted down phrases that described what it was really like. And it was extremely cathartic. Something in human beings wants to share even the most awful of experiences, I think.

christine collier: Did you lose a lot of your writing in the flood?

Jane: I lost some of my older stories and I do miss them. Luckily, the parents of my daughter's best friend came over and helped us move a lot of things to our second floor before we evacuated. My office was in our lower level, so that saved a ton of my writing. It was a terrible feeling, I can tell you, thinking for 6 weeks that I might have lost it.

MODERATOR: What's the reception been like for your new flood book?

Jane: It's been so warm. Here in Grand Forks, I've signed about 600 copies of the book in the first month it's been out, and people come to my signings and tell me THEIR stories. The back of the book calls the writing "personal" and "searing," and I think when we open up our honest feelings, people want to read. Maybe they are just voyeurs :> But I like to think that it's one way we break through the isolation of being separate human beings and share in each other's pains and joys.

Kevin: Can you give us the name of your flood book again?

Jane: River Friendly River Wild. I think it's a great title and wish I could take total credit for it, but I think it really came out of conversations with some of my writer friends.

MODERATOR: Thank you. That's fascinating! Back to the techniques: How do you add tension or mystery with your choices of words?

Jane: Well, you know, that is a very interesting question because . . . is it the words, really? The first thing I should share is something that helped me with my own ideas of adding tension. Someone said, "Imagine that you step outside your house and look up and see a person taking one step on a high wire high above your head." That should produce an instant feeling of tension in most of us. But, now, imagine that you look up and see that person on the high wire, and it's somebody you know. It's somebody you really care about. How tense do you feel NOW? Writers need to learn the techniques for writing about people in ways that make them seem like real people. Because once the reader believes that person is a real person and then you put the character in hot water, give the character some important problems to solve. We are inevitably going to CARE. So the whole thing about finding the right words is learning how to create characters that seem real and then putting those characters in tense situations where they neeeeeed something that they can't seem to get.

Kevin: So your word choices don't really matter much, you mean?

Jane: Well, they matter immensely. But I used to think I was a great writer because I could use lovely descriptive words. And now I realize that isn't the thing that makes a great story writer. But words do matter a lot because they are all we HAVE to create characters and put them in tough spots. Unlike movies, which also can use wooowooo music and facial expressions and all kinds of other visual cues. Am I being confusing, here?

MODERATOR: It's not an exact science, is it? :) How do you add tension with pauses or waiting? Or can you?

Jane: Yes, I definitely think you can use pauses and waiting. I showed you one example of that with the opening of Beads. Sahay starts to think about the terrible day of running and then she pushes the thought away. You can have one character ask a question but have the other character not answer it. "What's wrong?" Sandy asked. Jon looked down. "Gotta go," he said. It's not the greatest writing in the world, but you see how I've created tension by opening up a mystery. Why doesn't he answer? I always wanted to show my readers exactly what was going on right away. Now I've learned to make them wait!

MODERATOR: Good examples! "Tension comes from the way in which you reveal information," says Gary Provost in Beyond Style. How can we arrange the order of our sentences to create this mystery or tension?

Jane: You know, a technique writers can master (or at least play around with) is making sure the most important or emotional information doesn't come until the end of the sentence. And we can also learn how to not hit the reader over the head with information, but let them come to conclusions for themselves. Again, giving an example of the first thing: "A puppy was in the box" vs. "She opened the box and lifted out a puppy." Notice how it creates just a tiny bit of tension to not know until the end of the sentence what's in the box.

MODERATOR: I find in rough drafts that I don't write with tension or suspense or mystery. How can you, in revising, milk the tension for all it's worth?

Jane: I actually think that we can train ourselves to put more mystery in our first drafts, although it's hard to do because we want to be in control of our first drafts :> We want desperately to know what's going on so we can let the reader know what's going on. Some writers find this works best for them. I'm one of many writers who likes not knowing, when I start a story, where it's going to end. Or sometimes I know the ending but not the middle. So in my latest novel, which will come out next spring, I threw a whole bunch of mysterious stuff in at the beginning, and I didn't know what part half the stuff was going to play in the story, but I figured it out later. If you do read your first draft and decide there isn't enough tension, ask what you can leave out to create more mystery. In my first draft of Beads, Sahay said in the first chapter that her parents were dead. In later drafts, that didn't come out until midway through the book, even though it's hinted at and most of my students could make an educated guess from the beginning.

MODERATOR: That tip right there is a great help to me! I always think of what could I put IN to make it more mysterious. Maybe I need to be thinking about what I could leave OUT to help the tension!

Kevin: Do you have writer friends read your rough drafts and tell you where it's boring or slow and needs tension?

Jane: If I'm not feeling too vulnerable, I do like to have writer friends read an early draft and simply tell me would they keep going. At that point I don't need to know all the problems or even all the good things. I do need to know if there's enough tension in there--and if they care enough about the characters--to keep reading. As long as they would keep reading, I figure I can fix a lot of other stuff.

MODERATOR: I've read that tension in nonfiction comes from unanswered questions and uncertain outcomes, but don't you HAVE to answer questions in nonfiction?

Jane: I can think of a few articles or books that ended on an unanswered question. Usually a different question than the one posed in the beginning of the article. To use my earlier example...you might have an ending to that mysterious monster beginning that said "So the picture of Big Foot turned out to be a fake after all. Now James Stewart is pursuing a picture someone sent him of the Loch Ness Monster." But, honestly, most nonfiction articles do answer their questions by the end. It's fine to answer at the end--if you've gotten the reader reading all the way through to the end, you've accomplished what you wanted! And incidentally there can be times in novels, too, where certain things get "solved" and you give the reader some relief from tension, maybe even get them to imagine that everything is fine before you hit them with the last possible problem, as long as there is still some BIG unanswered question to keep the reader turning the pages.

MODERATOR: Just because you have plenty of action scenes in your story or novel, does that necessarily mean you have enough tension? Why or why not?

Jane: I think it goes back to whether we care about the main character, whether we are invested in that person's life. If not, all the action in the world can't keep the reader turning the pages. You only have to read most kids' stories to see this. They are often FULL of action but short on characterization.

MODERATOR: Let me pause here a moment and let you answer some viewer questions...

Blue Phantom: Do you find it a problem, like I do, to fictionalize the truth?

Jane: Yes, I think it's hard to fictionalize the truth. Because you keep wanting to say "but that's how it really happened," forgetting that the writer's job is to make someone BELIEVE that could really happen and just saying "it really did" isn't enough. As I said about the flood book, I believe it's possible to be too close to painful material and not be able to write about it well. So sometimes it can help to create a character who is very different from oneself. With the novel that comes out next spring, the more I fictionalized, the more I found myself coming close to the emotional core issues of my life.

AnneKelly: What is IRA?

Jane: International Reading Association. They have a big conference that happens once a year. I just got back from the one in Indianapolis. Next year it's in New Orleans.

Maudy: What do you look for in your own writing to determine if it is your best?

Jane: I'm a voracious reader, which is a good thing. I've gotten to the point in my own reading life where I'm bored with a lot of books I pick up. So I read my own writing with an eye to whether or not I would put it right back down. The truth is that most kids haven't read nearly as much as I have, so sometimes you can get kids saying "this is a great book" when it's just a so-so book. So you can't really trust just whether kids like it.

christine collier: When submitting stories to magazines, would you say the fewer words the better? Say a magazine lists they take 1000 to 1500, would a story under a 1000 have a better chance? And are five hundred word stories a plus because it's so hard to write in that few words?

Jane: I, myself, have noticed that magazine articles and stories seem to be getting shorter and shorter. Have you noticed that in your reading? So I tend to believe that someone who can pull off an excellent story or article in 500 words is in GREAT shape.

AnneKelly: Should the cover letter reflect the type of article/story you're submitting, i.e., maybe it can be full of suspense when you're submitting a mystery?

Jane: Yes, I think if you manage to pique the interest of the editor as reader and maybe make her wonder about the outcome, she'll know other readers would wonder, too. Again, you have to realize that editors simply read sooooo many letters that they are among the most jaded readers you're going to get. So make every piece of writing you send to them sparkle.

MODERATOR: Does tension come from the story's action or the EXPECTATION of action?

Jane: I once learned in a class that the scariest moment is not the big terrible thing that happens to the main character, but the moment right BEFORE the big terrible thing. You know how movie makers milk all that tension of the moments leading up to a big scene. Think about those times when we're all yelling at the main character, "No...don't open that dooooooor." So we can try to borrow from that technique and figure out how to create it. You know, one of our jobs as writers is to manipulate our readers' feelings. It's kind of a scary job. But when you read (or watch movies) notice how someone has done it to YOU.

MODERATOR: Can you even apply this "mystery element" to the descriptive passages in your work?

Jane: The thing is, description is the servant of specific things you want to SHOW--it isn't in there to just be pretty words. For instance, here is the opening of the chapter called "Secret Plan" in I'm Sorry Almira Ann (note the somewhat mysterious chapter title).

"Sarah's sunbonnet didn't seem to keep the sun out even one little bit. The sun seemed to be reaching down to smack her on the head with every step. Her spirit had never felt so shriveled and small. The dust was a powder that burned into the skin. When Chatworth slogged by, she saw that his cheeks were peeling. "Are you all right?" she called to him.

His voice was hoarse. "The animals and I are famishing for water," he croaked. Sarah noticed that his lip was split. She wished she could take back the sharp words she'd said to him.

Now that chapter is full of description of what it was like to be crossing an alkali desert, but I'm also showing you Sarah feeling more and more miserable, realizing she's been mean to her brother and she has badly hurt her friend, Almira Ann, and might never be able to think of an adequate way to say "sorry."

MODERATOR: Provost said, "Tension is the heart of successful dialogue, and all of your dialogue should have it." Do you agree? Why or why not?

Jane: Utterly, but it's hard to learn how to do that. I study other people's writing that I admire to figure out how THEY did it. One of my best teachers pointed out that there should always be stuff going on under the surface of a conversation between your characters. So you might ask yourself, "What is my character thinking right now that she doesn't want to say? What is his worst secret that he would die if anyone found out?" Just knowing those things about our characters often prods us to leave things unsaid. And don't be afraid of silences. You can have a person ask a question that is not answered. You can have a person say something and have a long silence stretch out.

MODERATOR: Can you give us some other specific techniques for increasing tension in dialogue?

Jane: I've already referred to one. I once read a piece of advice that said, "Never have a character ask a question that another person answers." Now that feels odd. But how often have you seen that in real life? Aunt Nancy says, "Are you thinking about getting married any time soon?" Matt says, "Mom, have you seen those old sneakers of mine? I've been thinking about going for a run." Mom says, distractedly, "Does anyone remember what time I put the turkey in?" Know what I mean?

MODERATOR: I'm not sure I'm real clear on this. How does good dialogue create questions in the reader's mind?

Jane: Okay, here's an example from Beads.

"Go on and do what I told you," Father said. "Remember if anyone questions you, tell them we are leaving because of the famine."

Dawit made an angry sound. "I'm tired of always hiding. Can't we ever speak openly?"

"Do not grab a lion by the tail." Father's voice was sharp, but Rahel heard fear in it."

Now, notice that Father doesn't really answer Dawit's question. Or he answers it with a proverb. And if I've done my job, the reader should be able to pick up that Dawit is an angry, rebellious young man right now, even though I don't say that. And we should be wondering, what is Father so afraid of?

MODERATOR: How can you create tension in dialogue that's NOT spoken (like between the lines)?

Jane: A lot of that is created through gestures. It can be helpful to watch movies, especially old movies, to see how people communicate what they are feeling through a gesture rather than something they say. Now in a movie, you can SHOW the person grimacing or turning to stare out the window or starting to silently cry or whatever, but you can do the same thing in a story, using words... and the better you know your characters...and the better you know PEOPLE...the more you can use their little, unique gestures to show what's going on with them when they are not talking but are in conversations.

Kevin: Why OLD movies? Are they better at this technique for some reason?

Jane: I think newer movies have more props to rely on, like the scary music I referred to earlier, and other things. But the older movies had to rely more on the same tricks of the trade that writers have at their disposal.

Blue Phantom: The librarian at the elementary school where I work sent back a box full of books that he felt were just not quality enough to put out on the shelves. When I viewed the books I had to agree. Is there really that many poor quality books being published today?

Jane: That's interesting. Can you give me an example? What was poor in the quality, exactly? Do you mean poor quality in the way the books were constructed or in the way they were written?

Blue Phantom: The illustations and text. There didn't seem to be any values or learning.

Jane: I review books and I see books of ALL varieties of quality, both in the ways books are written and in the way they are constructed. It's sad because I know so many people out there are pouring their hearts into stories and trying to get them published, and it's so terribly competitive, so why would a publisher waste space on a lousy book? But, you know, it happens for various reasons--including pressure to get some books out in the world too fast--and wanting to have some inexpensive books (book club books can fall into this category sometimes). And it's no longer in fashion to be didactic in children's books, and SOME librarians and teachers still keep looking for that book that will teach a lesson, while reviewers are going to hotly criticize most books that teach an obvious lesson. I, myself, was raised in a pretty conservative home, and I must say that I think we've moved awfully far in the direction of bathroom humor and whatnot in books for MY tastes, but I'm clearly in the minority when it comes to book buyers.

Maudy: You talk about sharing with writer friends for input. Do you do this informally, or do you belong to a writers' group?

Jane: Maudy, I used to have a wonderful writers group back in Colorado. We met once a week and I learned a lot from that experience. Here in North Dakota, I have never found a group of writers to work with in that way, so most of my writing buddies now are long-distance, e-mail buddies, and we see each other only at conferences.

AnneKelly: How do you find a good writers' group to share with?

Jane: In Colorado, my group found each other through a class in writing we all took at the junior college. I know of people who put notices up in bookstores or libraries. And even someone who put a notice in the paper. And my own on-line writers group came through someone who posted a notice to a children's literature discussion group.

Kevin: You said you took ten years, or something like that, to get published. Is that reasonable for us today? How did you make the break?

Jane: I have heard, alas, that my own experience is not unusual, though I will also say that my kids were little at that point and I didn't have a chance to go to conferences where I think a writer can learn SO much and also make invaluable contacts. And e-mail is so useful, too. I think most writers, especially non-famous writers (who are not overwhelmed with fan mail) would be willing to respond to a serious question about one of their books. Why did you decide to do such-and-such in this book, which would be such a great way to learn. So I would hope that someone today could do it in a shorter time. Now, mind you, I was getting some things published during that 10 years, but my goal was to publish fiction with a major NY publisher and I knew from the start that would be a big goal.

AnneKelly: Do conferences help as far as getting published?

Jane: I think they help enormously. For one thing, it's a way to meet fellow writers and form a writers' group. It's a way to hear from authors how they did what they did to get published and pick up writing techniques. It's also a way to meet editors. This is such a personal business. Editors publish what they fall in love with. And it can be useful to meet an editor and understand her personality a bit and the kinds of books she loves.

Ducky: Have you always written books, or did you start with shorter pieces to magazines?

Jane: I actually haven't published THAT many magazine articles or stories, so I can't say that I think it's always a progression from magazine to books, but I did publish some pieces in magazines and also some educational, activity books before I published hardcover fiction.

sheila: Did you ever enter any writing contests before you were published? What do you think about them?

Jane: Yep. I was THRILLED when a couple of my pieces won contests because I think there is always that question, "Is my writing good enough? Am I kidding myself? And winning a contest was one little bit of feedback that I was getting close and that, yes, my writing was GOOD.

Kevin: Do you have more than one writing project going at a time?

Jane: Alas, yes. I am a total multitask person. I have way too many projects going at the same time. Right now, for instance, I'm polishing up a couple of picture books that are under contract, needing to do final revisions on the novel that will come out next spring, I'm somewhat working on a novel that is half (or maybe only a third) finished, puttering on a short story someone asked me to submit to an anthology, thinking about some picture books that are sitting in my "revise" pile, waiting to hear from editors on two books...and so on!

MODERATOR: I am in total awe of totally multitasked persons! I manage one writing project at a time!

AnneKelly: Is it confusing to be working on so many projects? Is it hard to focus on one when you've just been working on another?

Jane: I find myself wishing I were that way. It should be confusing. I can't quite explain why it isn't. I know when I'm involved in the actual work on one thing, my mind and heart is completely in that place. But I can move back and forth even within the day. It's harder when I'm working on, say, the first draft of a novel where I have to sustain a voice for a long time.

MODERATOR: I'm very impressed!! And I'm sorry, but we're out of time. Thank you so much for coming tonight, Jane! This advice on getting more tension into our writing should definitely lift us all to a higher level with our work!

Jane: Thanks so much for having me! And good luck to all of you on your writing.

MODERATOR: Next we'll meet back here for the next Open Forum. Please note this change! On Thursday, May 18, 2000 the "Open Forum" will be moderated by Mel Boring, a writing teacher for twenty years and an expert in the nonfiction field. Because of some school conflicts (my daughter is graduating this month and the l8th is Senior Awards Night) Mel has agreed to sub for me (Kristi Holl, your Web Editor) and field your questions so I can attend my daughter's events. You're in for a treat with Mel, as those of you know who have heard him speak before. He welcomes your questions on nonfiction, time management, getting started, writer's block, marketing, or anything else you'd like to discuss. If you have questions you want him to receive ahead of time, just email them to me at the webeditor address in this site, and I'll get them to Mel. And now, good night, everyone!

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