Before I get to the post topic, I have a request. Right now my only website is on the larger HarperCollins website. There\u2019s a link to it on this page, below on the right, called \u201cOfficial Website,\u201d which it is, and many thanks to Harper for creating it. However, my husband and I are planning a separate, new site. (I\u2019ll continue the blog, although it may move and I\u2019ll announce the change and you won\u2019t get lost.) So, I have some questions and I may have more as we progress: Do you visit author websites? If you do and when you do, what\u2019s the reason? What do you want in a site? What would you want on my site? (We don\u2019t yet know what\u2019s technically possible.) What do you like in sites you\u2019ve visited? What do you dislike? Have any sites left you feeling frustrated or disappointed or annoyed? Why? And if there\u2019s anything else you\u2019d like to tell me about author websites, please do.<\/p>\n
On April 8, 2010, Jen wrote, How can you tell when your story is sounding too familiar, like from something you\u2019ve already written, or something you\u2019ve read. I don\u2019t want to be stealing any ideas from anyone, but sometimes when I write, the story starts to sound much of a muchness to what I\u2019m reading, or at least parts of what I\u2019m writing. I don\u2019t do this on purpose, but still it happens. Or I\u2019ll use a similar plot twist that I thought was entertaining. I also enjoy suspense, and like to use that extremely in my writing. But I want my story to be fresh, and don\u2019t want to bore the reader in the first chapter, because it\u2019s a previously used idea. (Or because I\u2019m taking too long to jump into the plot. Or I jump into the plot too fast!) I like the concept of parallel universes, or doors between different realms, but it\u2019s been taken many times. How do we make an old idea still new and exciting? I don\u2019t have a problem with coming up with ideas. I have many, many story ideas, but it\u2019s just a few that sound unoriginal.<\/i>
\nLast December 9th, I wrote a post about predictability, and I don\u2019t want to repeat what I said then, so I suggest you take a look.<\/p>\n
When I wrote Ella Enchanted<\/i>, I kept worrying about a sequence of four words that I thought I might have lifted from a song. Turned out I hadn\u2019t. My four words were different, but even if they had been the same it wouldn\u2019t have mattered. They were just four ordinary words. None of them was supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, which might really have caused me trouble. Sometimes we (I) worry too much.<\/p>\n
Writing is imitating. We imitate life and books and movies. Being a good imitator is valuable for a writer, maybe essential. Also when I was writing Ella Enchanted<\/i>, I reread Jane Austen, and started sounding like her on the page, and my critique buddies asked me what was going on, and I had to deliberately quit.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s a prompt: Read ten pages of Jane Austen (or more if you can\u2019t put her down). Pay attention to how she structures her sentences. Write or rewrite a page in your current story imitating her voice.<\/p>\n
Or pick a different writer with a distinctive voice, maybe Mark Twain or Charlotte Bronte or James M. Barrie, and imitate him or her. Try more than one if you\u2019re up to it. This is excellent practice, because it makes you a more flexible writer and more aware of word choice, sentence and paragraph shape and length, approaches to dialogue, and every other aspect of bringing a scene to life.<\/p>\n
Before I started to write the first book in the Disney Fairies<\/i> series, Fairy Dust and the Quest for the Egg<\/i>, I reread Barrie\u2019s Peter Pan. My intention was to approximate his style in my book, but I couldn\u2019t do it; he\u2019s such a supple writer; however, I noticed that he used the expression \u201cof course\u201d a lot, so I threw in many repeats of \u201cof course\u201d and hoped they would convey the flavor. I just looked at his book again a minute ago and noticed that he used semicolons frequently; hence this sentence and the one before it.<\/p>\n
Imitation is not plagiarism. You shouldn\u2019t copy another writer\u2019s exact words into your stories, at least not more than four of them! Plagiarism is unethical.<\/p>\n
Having said that, actual copying isn’t a bad exercise, as long as that’s all it is, an exercise. When I wrote The Fairy’s Mistake<\/i>, I had never written a chapter book before, and my editor sent me samples of other chapter books. Before I started writing my own I typed out one of Paula Danziger’s Amber Brown<\/i> books – every word! – to see how she did it.<\/p>\n
Here’s another prompt:: Copy a page of a book you love. Have you learned anything?<\/p>\n
Ideas can\u2019t be copyrighted, only the expression of an idea in words. Still, we want to be original. I recently read a book that, in one aspect only, reminded me of Holes<\/i> by Louis Sachar. I love Holes<\/i>, and I liked this other book, but I wished the author had thought of something else in this single area, or had at least referred to Holes<\/i>. If the main character had said something like, My life was just like Stanley Yelnats\u2019s<\/i>, I would have been happy, because the similarity wouldn\u2019t have seemed sneaky.<\/p>\n
A book that does a masterful and open job of connecting to another book is this year\u2019s Newbery winner, When You Reach Me<\/i> by Rebecca Stead, which builds on an earlier Newbery, A Wrinkle in Time<\/i> by Madeleine L\u2019Engle. Art builds on the art that went before. We take the old and rework it into something new, and Rebecca Stead did this ingeniously.<\/p>\n
(By the way, When You Reach Me<\/i> is historical fiction that takes place in New York City in the 1970s when the city was much less safe than it is now. I hope you\u2019ll read the book if you haven\u2019t already, but I don\u2019t want you to get the wrong picture of present-day New York.)<\/p>\n
If you’d like to take your main character into an alternate universe, you can. But you want to create your own alternate universe and your own way into it and not remake Oz and a tornado. How to do this? One way is to start from scratch with questions: Am I writing a funny story or a sad one or a total tragedy? Am I writing a mystery? A funny story, for example, will call for a different, goofier universe than a serious story.<\/p>\n
What kind of characters inhabit this world? Fairies? Dragons? Philosopher eagles? A combo of different sorts of creatures? People?<\/p>\n
Who is your main character who enters as a visitor or an escapee? Maybe she isn\u2019t human. She may be an animal or a plant that has somehow become ambulatory and able to think and communicate. Or it’s a rock or a paper clip. Anything can succeed if you make it succeed.<\/p>\n
Is this a happy universe or a troubled one? How does it connect to the world your traveler starts out from? It may or may not connect, or you may find out as you write.<\/p>\n
You all know that I rely on lists, so for this project I would write a bunch of lists. I might list some of the aspects of the real world that I love and aspects I definitely do not love. You can use this list to develop your world. Long ago, I read a short story about an alien who adored earth because we have food and we eat. In his home galaxy there was no such thing. Your main character could enter a world without birds and any concept of flight, for example.<\/p>\n
List basics: size, time, light, colors, sound, smell. Write down how your world might express these basics. In Terry Pratchett\u2019s Discworld<\/i> series, light moves slowly. Remember, for your own creation, some – probably many – aspects of the new world should be what we\u2019re used to or the reader will feel lost.<\/p>\n
What problem or accident causes your character to leave? If what she left behind was pretty good, she may just want to get back. Before you decide, explore the possibilities.<\/p>\n
What are the problems in the new place? Make a list!<\/p>\n
Write down possible means of entry into your invented world, other than a door or a wardrobe or a rabbit hole. Maybe the way in could be connected to your main character\u2019s character. Suppose she\u2019s great at math, and one day she walks into math class and none of the problems add up. The teacher looks exactly like Mr. Mikan, except this Mr. Mikan has bushy eyebrows. She\u2019s in. That simple. I\u2019d guess there are lots of ways to do this.<\/p>\n
What might befall the main character once she enters? Make a list. There are many more possibilities than getting back home or saving the new world. What else can you come up with?<\/p>\n
I keep blathering on about lists because I think they\u2019re a key to originality. Lists free your mind to wander where you\u2019ve never been before. You write down seven ideas that seem boring, old, over-used, and then the eighth is a surprise, and the thirteenth is too. Or you may have to write twenty options before you get to the fresh one. Keep going. And every so often glance back at the ideas you scorned to see if you might be able to breathe life into one or two of them.<\/p>\n
There are prompts throughout this post. I hope you try them and save them and have fun!<\/p>\n
And, if you want to, please share your thoughts on author websites. Thanks!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Before I get to the post topic, I have a request. Right now my only website is on the larger HarperCollins website. There\u2019s a link to it on this page, below on the right, called \u201cOfficial Website,\u201d which it is, and many thanks to Harper for creating it. However, my husband and I are planning […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[251,62],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=217"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":495,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217\/revisions\/495"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=217"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}