What writers can learn from Lon Chaney and silent film

Tonight my roommates and I went to the 1923 silent film adaptation of The Hunchback of Notre Dame, staring Lon Chaney as Quasimodo. I thought it might be interesting to see what the silent film genre and its actors have to teach me about my own work, and here is what I came up with:

Lon Chaney was extremely dedicated to his work. He spent lots of time and effort working with makeup and finding ways to contort his own face and body, without regard to pain, and it is for good reason he is called 'the man with 1,000 faces.' Chaney clambered up, down and around Notre Dame wearing a nearly 50 pound hump and harness that kept his body twisted and contorted. Thats what I call dedication. Now, writing and art don't generally involve facial and bodily contortion, (if it does, you may want to reevaluate your writing process), but emotionally and mentally, it can sometimes be torture. When that happens, remember Lon Chaney, and just be glad you're not galavanting around Paris with a 50 pound hump on your back.

Another thing Chaney demonstrates is this: The best monsters and horror characters are also somehow sympathetic. Chaney's Quasimodo obviously and poignantly craved affection; that is something every human can understand. We all fear the grotesque and unlovable within ourselves. If as an artist you are going for more then just blood and guts, you can look to Lon Chaney for an example.

One last thing I think we can learn from the silent film genre in general is what I guess I could call significant expression. I'm sure we're all familiar with the over-the-top style of acting in silent films, and we don't need to go that far. But I think that what we can take away from this is that every glance, movement, and action has an obvious meaning and deep significance. If everything your characters did, said, or expressed meant something important to the reader, how much richer would those characters be? Again, I'm not saying we need to be didactic or unnatural, but taking away the parts that don't mean much to your characters takes away the parts that won't mean much to your reader.

Anyway, there's my Halloween artsy experience. Hope all of you had a fantastic Halloween, and now that its over, happy NaNoWriMo!

Sarah Allen

Creative Writing Marketing

No matter if your writing the next best thing in the English language, without good marketing strategies, no one will know. I'm just beginning to find my way in the marketing world, and look forward to better, more advanced suggestions, but here are the basics of what I've found so far.

Duotrope

This is a great site for just plain old publishing your work. It is a searchable listing of thousands of places for you to be published. Find hundreds of publications that are looking for the kind of thing you write, and keep submitting until

Craigslist

This is an obvious one, but a very good one. Craigslist provides a listing of local writing opportunities, and you never know what gems of experience you'll find. Keep track of what writing opportunities are happening in your own town, and help build your local following. This is one to check regularly.

Twitter

This is also an obvious one, but a very good way of spreading news to hundreds of people at once. This is an incredibly useful supplement to your blog. Keep your followers aware of publication dates, readings, signings, etc.

GoodReads

You want people to find your book. This site is about people finding the next thing on their reading list. Its a perfect match.

YouTube

This is one I'm still trying to figure out. Obviously its for video, not text, but it is also one of the most popular sites in the world right now, and any creative ways of marketing your writing using this site will, I'm sure, be of great help. Perhaps video of readings, home-made book trailers, interviews, etc.

Flickr

This is in the same vein as YouTube, in that its for photos, not text. But again, its a hugely popular site, so any way of marketing through photo on this site has the potential of reaching tons of people. Here's another site similar to Flickr that can be used similarly: deviantART

Gaming Sites

Ok, so this one is a little weird, but there are lots of people on gaming sites that could potentially be turned in to readers if you can reach them. Besides, its fun! Just don't let gaming get in the way of writing. Here are a few big sites: Zynga, Neopets.

Social Networking sites

One of most necessary and useful online marketing tools. Here's a short list of the top ones:
Squidoo
Facebook
Myspace
Ning
LinkedIn

Random Interest

Look for local or national groups that may not have to do with writing specifically, but still are applicable to you. Make friends with people who love dogs, theater, medicine, or whatever it is your interested in, and you will have expanded and diversified your readership.

So there's the basics of what I know about reaching people and finding new opportunities. I hope these ideas are things you can use.
Sarah Allen

p.s. Here's a list of the top sites in the world, and any of them that you can use to market your creative writing will definitely help: Alexa

Creative Writing Notebook

There's a reason my first post is about writing notebooks:

How can you write if you don't have something to write with and something to write on?

I have carried around some form of notebook since I was in 8th grade, and it has been one my best weapons against writers block.

My notebooks are a sort of creativity dumping ground. I write down story ideas, little details, something neat that I saw, a cool phrase I overheard, or even just how bored I am sitting in class. I like to use the back of the notebook for titles, and those have become my favorite thing to jot down. Even if you never end up using anything from your notebook directly, its a great way to get the spark you need when you're completely blank.

I sometimes use creative writing notebook for businessy things as well. I jot down random ideas I have about marketing my writing, or a new outlet I hear about, or a new idea I hear about how I can make money with writing. Then I usually transfer this kind of information to a more organized list later. But for those random times when you hear about a neat opportunity, its always good to have a consistent, convenient way of recording it.

The notebook idea is useful to more then just writers. Wouldn't it be useful for an artist to always carry around a sketchbook? I can even see how it might be helpful for an actor to carry around a notebook to write down the small, significant details they observe in people going about their daily life to use later in their work. And it doesn't have to be an expensive, heavy, leather-bound thing either. Your kids old notebook from second grade works just as well, or even a few 3x5 cards you carry in your pocket. Or if your one Whatever works for you.

Just remember to always have it with you. At work, school, shopping, by your bed, wherever you go. When that sudden spark of inspiration comes, you'll be glad you did.

Sarah Allen

Friday Five

Yay for Fridays and feeling like maybe I'm getting over my jet lag! Here are my five things for Friday - what are yours?

1. Just joined a group of authors who all have their debut novels coming out in 2011. I'm so excited to get to know these other writers (several of us have the same agent and others I already know from other writing sites and groups) and share the journey to publication together. As we get closer to our release dates we will have more information on our blog about our books, the stories behind the story, as well as contests and giveaways. Check it out here.

2. Though it seems a little early it's starting to feel like Christmas to me. When my ipod shuffle lands on a Christmas song I start singing along instead of fast-forwarding. I guess all that programming that the retail stores do is starting to sink in. Anyway, I feel the urge to bake and shop. What about you?

3. NaNoWriMo starts Sunday which I'm excited to try for the first time this year. NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month and the goal is to write 50k words of a novel during the 30 days of November. You register on the NaNo site and log in the number of words you write each day. Lots and lots of people do it and you can buddy up with people you know and encourage each other in your writing. So it sounds pretty fun, (as long as I actually find some time to write and I can keep my plot going). I'm going to write the third book of THE FAERIE RING which is tentatively called THE UNNAMED as a working title. Wish me luck!

4. We're plotting up a great contest and giveaway over at The Enchanted Inkpot which will occur in November and December. But before we give out details on that you should check out some of the great interviews, one of which is with Janice Hardy whose debut novel THE SHIFTER just came out.

5. And finally, saving the best for last, I'm (hopefully) expecting to receive my editorial revision letter for THE FAERIE RING today. I know it may fall into next week, but I'm so excited to dig in and make the story all sparkly and good and to see what my fabulous editor, Susan Chang, has to say. It will be especially fun to re-read TFR since visting the sites in the book in person and being able to even more clearly visualize my setting.

Have a great Friday and a fun Halloween weekend!

To London, With Love

Dear London,

Thank you for a fabulous trip. We've loved your castles and kings and queens along with the underground and double decker buses.
Your pubs and cafes have been fabulous and we've loved your fashion. (If London fashion is any precursor to what we're going to be seeing in the States soon I can sum it up in four words: black tights and boots).

Your architecture and history are the stuff from which legends are made

and your parks have been spectacular.

Thank you for not raining on us for ten days. We've loved every minute of our visit here and can't wait until we meet again. =)

Paris Under a Temperamental Sky

We went to Paris yesterday. (It may sound like I'm saying that casually, but that statement is followed by many exclamation points!) We rode the Eurostar train from London, going under the English channel, which went by so fast, I'm not even sure when it happened. (I was sort of dozing after getting up at 4 am).

The weather was a little rainy when we got there, but our good weather karma followed us and it stopped shortly after our arrival. After lunch on the Eiffel Tower (about halfway up) we went on a riverboat cruise down the Seine, which runs through the middle of Paris. On a sunny day it would have been spectacular, floating past the Louvre and Notre Dame, etc. but our glass roof was covered with rain, so it made it a little difficult to see, but still a lovely ride. Later we went to the Louvre (though we didn't actually go through the museum, as we only had about an hour, so decided to save that for another trip to Paris. Our tour guide told us that if you stared at every piece of art in the Louvre for 3 SECONDS, it would take you four MONTHS to go through the place.):

Dan Brown fans might recognize this spot:

Anyway, it was an interesting day, but a bit long, as we had gone to WICKED the night before which was fabulous! (And interesting! At intermission the crowd went to the lobby for ice cream and beer, ate in the theater and left the remains on the floor!) But as many of you know - what a fantastic show!

Friday, we had a lovely lunch with a fellow writer, Sarwat Chadda, who also writes young adult novels and just had his first book come out last month. Sarwat is a fellow member of our group blog, The Enchanted Inkpot, and lives in London, so it was fun to get to meet him in person.

Also on Friday we rode the London Eye, which is down on the Thames across the river from Big Ben. It looks like a ferris wheel, but those are actually observation cars that carry about 15 people. The ride takes about half an hour and you have spectacular 360 degree views of all of London. As you can see, it was a warm, sunny day too! =)

Today is Sunday here in London and we're being lazy (SOME of us are still sleeping and it's noon!) as we didn't arrive back at the hotel from Paris last night until midnight. We had an old Scottish bus driver on the way home though, who knew London like the back of his hand, and he was brilliant, giving us lots of interesting nighttime sightseeing. I had the chance to ask him all sorts of questions about travel times to get from here to there so I would know if they make sense in my books, since as you may recall, I'm here doing research. =) Today I have to find out if the royals have apple trees in the 46 acres of gardens in Buckingham Palace....what a life!

On Kings, Druids and Harry Potter

Guess where we went today?



Yes, that picture of Stonehenge was taken by yours truly. Today. We stood on a hillside in the English countryside and walked around these stones, believed to date back to between 2500 and 3000 BC, although, scientists have found nearby postholes that date back to 8000 BC. While the site's purpose remains a mystery, it is confirmed that it has been a burial place for the dead as well as a place of pilgramage for druids. Also, as most know, the stones are astronomically aligned with the summer solsitice as well as other dates. Anyway, it was amazing and surreal to be standing there, in a place that is so iconic and filled with history.

Speaking of history....we also went to Windsor Castle too.

I can tell you this, if you ever come to London - you should come to both of these places. Unbelieveable. This picture is only one small fraction of the castle. It is the perfect English castle, complete with moat, that has been turned into gardens now. We weren't allowed to take pictures inside but the rooms are almost beyond description. So fantastically ornate! Such breath-taking history! The castle was built by William the Conqueror in 1066 and has been inhabited continuously by British royalty for almost 1,000 years. The Queen lives here on weekends and will be entertaining a state visit from India in these very rooms next week. We walked over the grave of Henry the VIII (he's buried in the floor of St. George's Chapel, along with numerous other Kings and Queens)with his favorite 3rd wife - Jane Seymour. He reigned from 1509 to 1547. There was a throne from one of the kings that dated to 1350. Anyway - not enough superlatives to do this place justice. Here's a shot of me and Carly making friends with the natives:


And a partial shot of St. George's Chapel: (You can't even imagine what the interior of this chapel looks like....if you haven't been here, you must come visit!)

Then finally, here's a shot of the Museum of Natural History that I mentioned in my last post. This building is so amazing! When you stand inside this grand room it feels like you've been dropped into a Harry Potter book. What you don't see is the exquisite, breath-taking detail. EVERYWHERE you look there is an animal or a plant carved from stone: birds and monkeys and beasts....

The English influences for Harry Potter are all over when you're here, from the English school girls in their skirts and knee high socks and V-neck sweaters with ties underneath, just like Hermione, to the platforms on the underground and does this not look like Gringott's Bank? (albeit a little staighter and we didn't see any goblins...)

We also went to Bath, which is a natural hot springs where the Romans built a public bath in 57 AD. Think about that date for a minute. Wow. But I'm going to save that one for another day. Did I mention I love London? =)

Her Majesty is in Residence

Stopped by Buckingham Palace to visit the Queen yesterday and it turns out - she was there (!) as evidenced by the Union Jack flying ... er..sort of....on the top of the palace.

We walked through Hyde Park a bit, so beautiful, then went over to the Palace and found the side door where my character, Tiki, from THE FAERIE RING, sneaks in and steals the Queen's ring. It's so amazing to be standing here looking at all these places that I wrote about.

Anyway, I really wanted to start this post with Oh. My. God. Because London is SO SO SO amazing! The buildings, the architecture, the history, the people - all of it is so fabulous! We went down to see Big Ben yesterday, as well as the Houses of Parliament and Westminster Abbey. We didn't get into the Abbey, as they had closed for the day, but we are going to go back tomorrow. Unbelieveable.



We've been riding the hop-on, hop-off buses, taking the tube and walking - everything is so close and easily accessible. I can see that it will take MANY trips to London to even begin to scratch the surface. SO fabulous! We went to the Museum of Natural History today - the building itself is awe-inspiring, (it was like being dropped into a Harry Potter movie) let alone the collection of natural history. Pictures from that little adventure tomorrow. =)

We're Here

We made it! Our flights were so smooth and on-time, it really was quite pleasant getting here, even though it took about 20 hours from the time we got up (at 2 am) to arriving in London at 6:30 am the next day. The one little glitch was that our hotel room wasn't going to be ready until 2:00 pm....that was when the lack of sleep kicked in! Luckily, they got us into our room early (sleeping in the hotel lobby had nothing to do with it, I'm sure...heh heh) and after a short 5 hour nap we were as good as new and off for adventure!

We went on walk-about and we're just down the street from the The Museum of Natural History (what a building! The gargoyles....) and the V&A and Harrod's. We had dinner in a lovely little cafe on Cromwell Rd and it turns out hookah-smoking is all the rage here - which, of course, immediately makes me think of Alice in Wonderland, (so sophisticated, I know).


This city feels very familiar already - what a fabulous melting pot of people and fashion and history! Can't wait for tomorrow!

London Calling

You recognize this iconic symbol of London? Well, now picture yours truly in the same picture. Yep - we're going to London.

Saturday.

Surreal, huh? I am so excited! I've never been to Europe *gasp* and I've been waiting for my daughter to get old enough to go with us. She is now 13-1/2 and so we are off on a London adventure.

Yep, we have ALL the touristy things planned - the Harry Potter tour =), Stonehenge, Windsor Castle, Harrod's, the V&A, The Strand, Buckingham, Paris, Charing Cross, Hyde Park, St. James Park, Grosvenor Square....oh, those last few stops sound vaguely familiar, don't they? That's right - it's the setting for my debut novel, THE FAERIE RING. So though it won't be 1871, I'll get to actually see all the places where my characters have had their adventures. Yay!

THE FAERIE RING, its sequel, DARK SHADOWS and my current WIP, ENIGMA are all set in London, as well as book 3 in The Faerie Ring series , currently entitled THE UnNAMED, which is going to be written during NaNoWriMo, writing gods willing.....

Also, I'm planning to have lunch with Sarwat Chadda, fellow memeber of The Enchanted Inkpot and author of the recently released awesome YA novel DEVIL'S KISS. How fun is that?

And yes, I did slip Paris in too. Just for a day, but long enough to have lunch at the top of the Eiffel Tower, take a boat down the Seine and go to the Louvre. Oh, and drive UNDER the English Channel. Did I mention surreal?

Anyway - that's what I'm off to do. I'm expecting my revision letter on The Faerie Ring any day and I'm hoping that I see it before I leave so I can be absorbing those suggestions along with the vibrance and history and ambiance of London.

Have you been there? And if so - what was your favorite part?

Interview with Uma Krishnaswami

As any writer knows, there are teachers along the way that guide your growth and understanding of the writing process; that help unlock the secrets of the craft so that the choice and order of the words you write have a purpose, an intention, a plan. Well, Uma Krishnaswami is one of those teachers for me.

Uma is a writer as well as a teacher. She has published numerous books: MANY WINDOWS (with Rukshana Khan and Elisa Carbone, Napolean & Co,. 2008); REMEMBERING GRANDPA (Boyds Mill Press, 2007); THE CLOSET GHOSTS (Children's Book Press, 2006); THE HAPPIEST TREE: A Yoga Story (Lee & Low, 2005); THE BROKEN TUSK, Stories of the Hindu God Ganesha (August House, 2005 and Linnet Books, 1996); NAMING MAYA (Farrar Straus Giroux, 2004); MONSOON (Farrar Straus, 2003); CHACHAJI'S CUP (Children's Book Press, 2003) and many more.

Additionally, she is part of the faculty of the M.F.A. program in Writing For Children and Young Adults at Vermont College. I had the pleasure of meeting her through several writing classes at Writers On The Net and I'm so thrilled to get the chance to talk to her today about writing and her career.

Kiki: Uma, thank you for joining me and sharing some insight into your writing career. I’ve had the pleasure of working with you through several online writing classes at Writers On The Net. I am in awe of your literary knowledge and often refer to you as the ‘walking literary encyclopedia’ due to your phenomenal knowledge of published works, both new and old. Have you always read? And how to you retain so much information about these different works?

Uma: I don’t remember learning to read, so I must have begun to read quite early. I don’t remember ever not reading. As for remembering book, I don’t retain such a dazzling amount of information as all that. Well, I retain some of it, but I also keep a running bibliography of just about every book I read, with a brief annotation. I started doing that after I began teaching at Vermont College. I was asking my students to keep annotated bibliographies, so I thought I should try it myself. It’s amazing how writing something down can help you remember.

Kiki: On your website you call yourself a child writer who writes for children and that your first poem was published at the amazing age of 13. Can you tell us about your writing progression? Did you continue to write through your teens and into adulthood?

Uma: I wrote off and on until I finished high school. College and then graduate school really knocked creative writing out of me for several years. It was during the years that I worked as a rehabilitation counselor, with young people who had disabilities, that I started paying attention again to the stories all around me, the stories of people’s lives. I wasn’t a terribly good counselor because I sometimes had trouble seeing what I needed to do to help people. I was just too engrossed in their stories. But I was always the one who volunteered to write case studies and journal articles and grants—all deadly stuff but it was good practice.

Kiki: You are also on the faculty of Vermont College MFA program , you teach other teachers, as well as teaching online classes through writers.com. Do you have a writing schedule? Do you have a system that allows you to balance your personal life with a writing life?

Uma: I’m letting of those obligations go, little by little. My First Steps class on writers.com is now being taught by VCFA graduate and writer Debby Dahl Edwardson. My work with teachers is now pretty much around school visits related to my books, which is a comfortable place to be. I love teaching at VCFA and I’m committed to that for the long haul. And my writing will never let me go, so I’m careful to make time for that. What else? A personal life? What’s that?

Kiki: I’ve noticed that your 2003 Monsoon is set in India and your 2007 Remembering Grandpa appears to be set in New Mexico. I know you split your time between the two locations. Do you give direction to the illustrator about the settings in your books?

Uma: Not directly. I usually keep a photo file with pictures and art sources that I can pass on to editors. When Jamel Akib was working on Monsoon, he ended up using a lot of my source material for the artwork. That was really fun to see.

Kiki: Your 2004 Naming Maya, a heartfelt story about change and trust, is your only middle grade novel to date. Do you plan to write any more MG novels?

Uma: Yes, I do. I have a middle grade historical novel currently under contract with Lee & Low, and a humorous middle grade slated for publication in 2011. I love the form of the middle grade novel, and feel I have at least a few more in me.

Kiki: Do you pick a specific topic to write about (some of your stories have been about loss of a loved one and adoption) or do story ideas just flow out?

Uma: They don’t flow out, nothing so lyrical. It’s more as if they come up to my window and press their little noses up against the glass, and hang out there making a racket. If I don’t let them in (which I never do, right way) they get more and more screechy and obnoxious until I start writing them out. Some go away and never come back, and that’s fine. Not every idea deserves to be written. It has to undergo the adoration test--you know, do you adore this idea enough that you can not only live with it in your head for the time it takes to write it, but can you then bear to see it in print for years to come?

Kiki: Many who will read this interview are writers and seeking publication. Do you have any words of advice for those just starting out or those that have been at it for a few years?

Uma: Write what you care about. Don’t pay attention to what’s hot and what’s not. Anyway, the books you see now reflect the acquisitions of two years ago, so it’s useless to try and follow trends. Cultivate your inner critic. Too many times we’re told the inner critic is a bad influence, to be sent away. That’s just not true. You can tame your inner critic so she does as she’s told. Bring her out to help you revise, so you can make the deep revisions that good writing requires.

Kiki: What are your favorite types of books?

Uma: I’ll tell you what I’m reading now. I like odd books, books that come at familiar subjects in unusual ways. Like Firmin: Adventures of a Metropolitan Lowlife by Sam Savage. It’s quite wonderful, the story of a rodent born in a bookstore basement who (literally) devours books. I’m also enjoying Carolyn Coman’s Sneaking Suspicions, reading it in small snippets and savoring young Ivy’s lovely see-saws between passion and crankiness. And my favorite picture book lately, that I was thrilled to see win a Batchelder Honor recently, is Garmann’s Summer by Stian Hole.

Kiki: You have a ‘peace page’ on your website, which I love. You talk of peace as a way, not just as a distant goal. Do you have plans to write any kind of book about this idea?

Uma: I rarely start books with a thematic idea like that. If it shows up in the form of characters inhabiting a setting, it’s possible. That said, I’m reading a beautiful nonfiction book that I wish I’d thought of writing—After Gandhi: One Hundred Years of Nonviolent Resistence by Ann Sibley O’Brien and Perry Edmond O’Brien.

Kiki: Your latest publication is a collaborative effort called Many Windows. Can you tell us a little about that?

Uma: It was something that two writer friends. Rukhsana Khan, Elisa Carbone, and I dreamed up one winter break. It changed quite a bit as we worked on it, grew from a picture book into a middle-grade collection for one thing. We divided up the characters and wrote segments, shared, revised, scrapped, rewrote. The whole thing took a couple of years because we’d work on it in between other projects. It is kind of a “peace” project if you will, or at least an “understanding and friendship” project.

Kiki: Any upcoming books you'd like to share with us?

Uma: I have two middle grade novels currently under contract and slated for publication in 2011. I hesitate to give you titles because they can change. Also if a working title already has an Internet life it always somehow manages to show up in Amazon and then I'm stuck with it forever. It'll be coughing and sputtering in my head whenever I use the real one! But I can tell you a little bit about each of them. The spring 2011 book will be historical, the story of a girl in a family with an unusual blend of cultures (Mexican and Punjabi Sikh) in California's Imperial Valley in the 1930's. That's being published by Lee & Low. The fall 2011 novel is from Atheneum. It's about a girl who moves from Maryland to India with her parents and finds that her favorite movie star is in the same town. It's a fast-paced story with a loving but tongue-in-cheek slant on the drama, romance, comic appeal, flashiness, and whopping coincidences of the genre of Hindi films now referred to as Bollywood.

I have a third book in the pipeline, a picture book about a tree and a road both growing along with the community they're in. It will be published in 2010 by an Indian publisher, Tulika Books.

Uma, thank you so much for stopping by and sharing your stories with us. I look forward to reading your new books and continuing to learn from you.

For more information on Uma visit her website or her blog: Writing With a Broken Tusk.