A good friend of mine has a crow friend named Craig. She built rapport by leaving him small treats (he’s fond of pancakes), and in return, he built piles of small, shiny objects for her visual edification.

Plenty of crows hang out around my house as well. One day, I came outside in a hurry and found two of them perched on a nearby branch, watching me. I didn’t have any gifts on hand and I was (you may recall) in a hurry. I gave them a cheery, “hello!” as I hurried down the walkway.

The taller crow cocked its head to the side and muttered a few things to its friend. In unison, those two, haughty corvids threw back their heads and guffawed. I’m not sure if you’ve ever heard a crow guffaw, but it sounds exactly like you might imagine.

Caaaaaaw, Caw, Caw, Caw, but make it spiteful.

Let this be a lesson to all of you: do not attempt contact with a crow unless you’ve placed the appropriate offerings before them. Otherwise, they will mock you.

What I’m Working On:

My children convinced me to read the middle grade paranormal mystery out loud to them in the evenings. It’s a fantastic way to gauge what hits home (and what doesn’t). Last night I read them the scene I was most looking forward to writing (it’s a very comedic moment), and we were all chuckling. Very satisfying.

Additionally, I’ve started a Scrivener file for my new project idea which makes it official. Right now, I’m collecting bits of worldbuilding and bobs of character analysis. I’ll be letting these ideas simmer for a while before I start writing.

On top of that, I was hit with a grand idea for a short story which, hopefully, I can crank out in October. Depending on how MFA residency week goes, and assuming I don’t catch one of the many plagues lurking in the alleys, ready to pounce on unsuspecting passersby.

Lastly! I had a lot of fun writing an article on Jones and Pratchett which you can read here.

What I’m Reading:

I picked up Gallant by Victoria Schwab which has a delightfully creepy house and an intriguing premise, although the ending was not to my taste. I also reread Elliot’s Four Quartets because it seems necessary to do so every five years.

I assigned The Scorpio Races to my first-year students for a variety of reasons, and I really enjoyed rereading that one. She makes the setting its own vivid character and weaves in mythology and a believable magic system effortlessly.

After that came a dark week where I read The Virgin Suicides for book group and Stolen because it was recommended by an author I like, and boy howdy. Boy howdy. I read widely because it’s my job, but sometimes I have to chase it with a classic.

Unfortunately, the classic I picked was Descent into Hell by Charles Williams. As the poet once said:

A Writing Tip

I sent out an open invite to shoot me writing questions on Instagram and received several great responses. I’ll get to two today and the others later.

Question 1. How do you teach showing vs. telling to 7th and 8th graders, or any age, really?

First of all, not all telling is bad. Steinbeck, for instance, frequently tells us something and then backs it up with a paragraph of showing.

One of the best ways to teach showing is through examples. Here is a paragraph from my story currently out on submission. Lyra is a thief in the middle of badly botching a heist.

What I’m not doing here is telling you that Lyra’s worried and high strung and trying to make herself feel better (and also a little bitter about the whole business). Instead, I’m showing you through her internal dialogue.

In addition to finding examples in fiction, you could put an emotion up on the whiteboard (hungry, scared, sad) and see how many different ways they can come up with to show that emotion. Have them use action, dialogue, and internal dialogue to accomplish this. Bonus points to the most imaginative. Remind them that the goal of writing is to give the reader 2 +2 and let them puzzle out 4. Show them a drooling dog and a roast on the table and let them figure out what’s about to happen.

Question 2 (more of a plea). Before you start writing, you plan every detail that is needed for the story. Then you start writing. And you get bored with the story after Chapter 3 because you know what’s going to happen. Help.

Boredom in the writer means boredom in the reader, so if that’s the case, you must stop and diagnose the problem. It sounds like you might be over-plotting and not allowing your characters any freedom to wander (which they need). If that’s the case, try throwing out the majority of the details you planned and see what happens. Keep the beginning, middle and end and a few key turning points, but approach each scene with a looser grip. Make sure you know your characters well so that the decisions they make in a scene are true, but trust them if they’re trying to go somewhere you weren’t expecting. If the only reason you’re writing a scene is “because that’s what needs to happen next to get them to point B” then throw out that scene and start over.

Another thing you might need to do is remind yourself why you wanted to write this story. And then, remind yourself why you wanted to write that scene. You had a good reason for it, right? What was it about that scene or story that sparked your interest in the first place? Sometimes I will make a note at the top of the page to remind myself what I’m most excited about (it could be the introduction of a new character or location, a neat new magic system element, or a funny joke I’ve been setting up).

That’s all for September, see you in October!

Christine