READ LIKE A WRITER

With my recent departure from my steady full time job I am trying to be resolute (can you try to be resolute?...) in becoming more serious about my writing.  Thusly on the days I do not get a subbing job, rather than devoting my solitary hours to cleaning my house, which by the way is desperate for some attention, I am spending a good portion of my time on the computer searching for any and all information I can find regarding my craft.  

My search today brought me to the New Hampshire Writers' Project, where I discovered a very helpful article,  Children and YA by David Elliot:  Writing for Children and young Adults 101.  In the article, author David Elliot expounds upon the importance of a writer to first and foremost be a READER!  This is something I truly struggle with, and have struggled with all my life.  I can remember in College having an assignment from my professor, David Crouse to interview a number of Authors/Editors.  Each and every person I interviewed stressed the importance of reading as a writer.  At the time, though I loved to write, I didn't think I liked to read, and therefore was doing everything I could to prove one didn't have to read to be a good writer...oh the naïveté!  I now truly understand that to enrich your own talent you need to study others' and observe their techniques and styles.  Not to mention it's quite helpful to know the current trends...cuz times, they do change!  

David points out, however, it's not enough just to read, but we need to read like a writer:  We need to ask questions about the Point of View, the techniques the author used to make us care, the amount of dialogue, and so on.  He challenged us to write an annotated bibliography of the School Library Journal's "Top 100 Picture Books" which is one of the first assignments he issues to his students. 

The number one picture book listed is Where the Wild Things Are, by Maurice Sendak.  

This is a well known book, however I can't recall ever reading it before today, which truly astonished me.

 Here's my attempt at the assignment:

1. Sendak, Maurice.  The Library.  New York:  Harper Collins Children's Books, 1963.

Max, wearing his wolf suit and causing some mischief, was sent to bed with no supper.  His room transforms into another world where max sails to where the wild things are.  Max becomes the "King of all wild things" but grows lonely, and so, sets off to return home where "someone loves him best."  There he finds his supper waiting, "and it was still hot. "

Sendak uses repetition of both phrases and words.  The repeated phrases are found on Max's journey to where the wild things are, and then on his return, only the phrase has been inverted, bringing the reader full circle.  One of the most famous lines from the book, "they roared their terrible roars and gnashed their terrible teeth and rolled their terrible eyes and showed their terrible claws," is found when Max first arrives, and is repeated when he's about to depart for home.  The repetitiveness of the word "terrible" is extremely effective here.    

Sendak also uses the word "and" a lot.  I feel it gives the story continuity and a dream-like flow.  I also read Worst in Show by William Bee today, and though Bee's story has only 687 words compared to Sendak's 1,200, I found Sendak's to be a quicker read due to the "and" sentences.

Out of the 1,200 words, there are only 8 lines of dialogue which are short and simple.  In the beginning of the story Max tells his mother, "I'll eat you up!"  which is what get's him sent to bed, in the end the "wild things" tell Max "we'll eat you up - we love you so!" which again brings us full circle, tying the story up with a pretty little "wild" bow.

I found the story to be about repentance and forgiveness.  Max decides to give up his Wild Kingship to return home, and when he arrives he finds a hot supper waiting (mom has forgiven...). 

Now it's time to look at my own writing with some fresh eyes!  I'm going to evaluate my work to see if I haven't yet, how I might utilize some of these techniques...stay tuned!