Motivation

I find it funny that my kids will never willingly pick up anything off the floor, but when the chocolate chip bag spilled all over the kitchen, each child jumped up immediately to help me. They couldn’t shove the chocolate in their mouths fast enough.  It made me laugh, and I had to take a picture.  Who knew that all I needed was a little chocolate to get them moving?

The characters in our stories are just like my kids.  They need the right motivation to get them going.  They need a little chocolate.  We as writers need to figure out the driving motivation behind our characters.  We need to know what drives them.  What excites them.  What gets them moving.  Motivation is important in stories.  It helps determine how the plot unfolds, and brings out conflict.  Without motivation, the story falls flat.

So it’s time to spill a little bit of chocolate on the floor, and see if you can find your character’s motivation.      

Amazing

Kids are amazing. They can come up with anything simply by using their imagination. When my youngest daughter was sad because she couldn't go inside Minnie Mouse's house in Disneyland, my older daughter built one for her out of a cardboard box. The two of them played for hours in the makeshift house. It was amazing. And my youngest was never again sad about not being able to go inside Minnie Mouse’s house. To her, she had been there, and now she could visit it anytime she wanted in her own room. All it took was a cardboard box and imagination. As a writer, I want to do be just like them. I want to take my piece of paper and imagination, and create something amazing.

Quirks

My son loves to collect rocks. Big rocks. Little rocks. Large rocks that I trip over on my front step. Rocks that go unnoticed in his pockets, and end up in my dryer clumping around. (That’s always fun.) Yes, my son definitely loves rocks.

The other day, I went upstairs to clean the bathroom, and I found a fresh set of rocks next to his bathroom sink. I assume he found them at some point during his day at school, put them in his pocket, and brought them home. He most likely remembered them when he was brushing his teeth, and put them next to the sink. So thoughtful of him.

But as I moved the rocks so I could wipe the dried toothpaste smeared all over the counter, I couldn’t help but smile. This is my son. It’s his quirk. And it makes him him. And, at the end of the day, I love this about him.

So what are the quirks of your characters? What makes them them? And what makes you fall in love with them?

Burned Toast

The other day my daughter asked me to make toast for breakfast. Our toaster had not been working all that well, and it would sometimes forget to pop the toast out. I would have to remember to pop the toast out myself by hand, or be stuck with burned toast. On this particularly morning, I was busy getting too many things done in too little time, and I forgot about my daughter’s toast. It came out black, and not very appetizing.

I told my daughter that I would make her new toast, because the first piece was gross. She told me that she still wanted it. I said, “No, you won’t like it.” She then proceeded to throw a tantrum (she’s two after all), because I would not give her the black toast. I tried to tell her again and again that she would not like it, and that I would make her a new piece. She was having none of it.

Finally, I gave up and gave her the burned piece of toast. She happily stopped crying, took her toast, and proceeded to eat the entire piece. I was shocked. I never would have eaten that piece of toast. But my daughter did, and she liked it.

As I thought about this moment with my daughter, it reminded me of my writing. Sometimes, as writers, we want to force our characters to act a certain way, because we think it is the way they should act. But we shouldn’t force our characters to do anything. We should let them develop. We should learn about them and understand them. And we should definitely let them decide whether or not they like burned toast. Maybe we wouldn’t eat it, but our character or daughter just might.

Just About Anywhere

One of the great things about writing, is that I can do it just about anywhere. Some of my recent favorite places to write are: the shower, while rocking my daughter, the car, on walks, during bike rides, outside with my son and a Popsicle, while cleaning the bathroom, while doing dishes, and late at night when everyone is asleep (my favorite).

7th Annual Idaho Conference on Youth and Childrens Literature and Writing

Two weeks ago, I attended my first SCBWI conference, and I can’t even begin to say how much I enjoyed it. Learning from professionals in the industry was amazing. Mingling with other writers was fun. And getting to spend the entire day focused on nothing but writing was perfect. I loved the entire day. I couldn’t write fast enough in my notebook. I wanted to capture every moment. I wanted to remember it all. It was a wonderful experience.

I learned many things from the different authors who presented, and from literary agent, Sean McCarthy. They each gave wonderful speeches and presentations that helped me to learn more about the craft of writing for children. I also had a critique with Sean that I found very informative and helpful. He was kind, thoughtful, and he gave me comments and suggestions on my manuscript that have been beneficial towards my revisions.

Some of the main things I learned from attending this conference were:

• Readers need to feel at home in a book.
• Readers need to see themselves in literature.
• How will children interact with your text?
• What will your characters do that will be visually stimulating?
• We need to care about the characters.
• The transformation of characters is what readers keep going back for.
• Just because it is well-written, doesn’t mean it will sell.
• Clearly see how a character is different from beginning to end.
• Fresh, original concept
• No one can do character like you can.

These are just some of the many things I wrote down during the conference. There are so many more.
I am so glad that I attended the conference. It was a fantastic experience, and I would tell anyone who has the chance to attend an SCBWI conference, to do it. It is worth the money and sacrifice. I will definitely be attending next year.

I want to end this post by quoting author, Matt de la Pena. “If you’re good, and do the work, you can do anything.”