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| Meet the Author |
ChrisChat:
Why did you write the book the book that brought you to MuseItUp Publishing?
Barbara:
I was participating in a Creative Writing Week for my Masters credit at Manhattanville College. Each summer the English department invited authors and writing professors to lead workshops. Students got credit for participating. If you were an education major you had classes in teaching writing.
I saw that one of the workshops was going to be led by Paula Danziger. As a teacher I had read some of her work and I really wanted to be in that workshop for Children’s Writing. The entry to her workshop was a 3 page beginning of a story. At the time my daughter was having self-esteem issues and eating problems and so I used her as the main character and I also based Jennifer Taylor partly on her. I had no idea of any of the other characters and I wrote the 3 pages and got into the workshop. When Paula saw my pages her first instinct was to slash through whole paragraphs and write Cut on almost everything I had written. She then sat down with me and rewrote the first paragraph showing me how short sentences were more powerful in this kind of writing. Then we had to keep working on our story and we learned how to flesh out characters and do plots. After the workshop was over I continued working on the story and soon I was realizing it could be a novel. I went to another workshop in the middle of writing it and it helped to bring the secondary character’s plot line to where it should be. I saw Paula at SCBWI events and showed her what I had written. She liked my last draft and that is when I decided that I would try to get it published. Paula was so influential for this book that I dedicated it to her. Unfortunately she passed away before it was published.
ChrisChat:
My question might seem a repeating of what you’ve shared; however, I’m hoping you can dive deeper into this subject…Creative Writing classes/workshops. Over the years I’ve been active online, I’ve heard the comments…you can’t teach creative writing. You’ve just shown a little of how that’s not true. But, how would you answer someone who said – you were shown how to edit your work. You can never teach someone creative writing?
Barbara:
Funny you should talk about being creative. Creativity is a state of mind. When we lived in Buffalo I took a fun course, Creative Problem Solving. It was part of a whole Institute for Creativity. In this course I learned how to solve problems by using questions and forming a plan using these questions. We learned to continue to question until we got to the heart of the problem. We had to do a project for this and mine was to make a weaving out of my dog’s hair. I learned to weave for this project and I also learned how to clean and use the hair as wool. Someone had a spinner and I spun it into wool. I did things I never thought I could do. Since that class I have used what I learned to solve problems both at home and in life. So you can learn to be creative.
In writing this is a little different. When I started my Masters work one of my required courses was a Writing Workshop. I had been in small ones for poetry, but I had never learned about the idea of writing. It taught us the Writing Process and we read the work of the people who were the originators of learning about the Writing Process. As I learned about the process I realized that I had been doing it most of it all my life without even thinking about it. Separating it out helped me to see how to go about examining my writing. Then I took several other classes in writing that taught me how to teach it to children. We learned what good writing looks like and how to show kids how to write without impeding their progress. In writing this is the most important part, because the first draft is when we are showing our creativity. When you are dealing with a creative process you don’t want to have any judgement until you are ready to finish it. So in first drafts you accept anything and you allow yourself to just write. After reading people like Ralph Fletcher and Natalie Goldberg who encourage this kind of writing I was able to do this kind of writing myself. I had always been one of those people who could write whenever I needed to do it. In the first class of the Writing Workshop I was one of the only people who started to write immediately when the teacher gave the assignment. I think my mind gathers ideas and sorts them for me so when it’s time to write the words flow if I’m interested in the topic. Once I was able to give myself this freedom to write my writing improved very much. I no longer kept anything back, knowing I could cut whatever I didn’t want.
Now to give a deeper answer to that person who says you can’t teach creative writing. That simply is not true. I have had great success with students who had never written anything at all. When you tell kids that they can write about anything they come up with some great stuff. When you don’t judge what they have written, but you teach them the basics of writing a sentence and show them how to enhance their writing, then you are helping them be better writers. The key element in teaching writing is not to judge, but it’s okay to comment and give suggestions. That is how I used to run my writing workshop lessons. I taught kids to accept what other people had written and only to comment with positive suggestions. Also I can credit people like Lucy Calkins, who is continuing to bring writing workshops to as many schools as possible. So yes, you can teach creative writing to people. Even adults have success when you take away judgement.
ChrisChat:
What does a mentor/friend like Paula Danziger mean to a new author? What did she mean to you?
Barbara:
Before I met Paula Danziger I had no idea what being an author meant. I didn’t know anything about character development or plot development. I had no idea what publishing was all about. She brought us into that world and shared her experiences with us. Also she gave honest criticism and introduced me to writing for children. She constantly showed me how I could cut my writing and the ways you can write a sentence for the greatest impact. Having Paula appreciate my story and want to critique it gave me confidence.
Paula Danziger was a very unusual person. She had a sense of fun about her and when you were with her you felt almost like you were with a kid. She loved purple sneakers and wore them all the time. She wore multicolored clothes and you never knew what would happen when she was around. I have almost all of her paperbacks signed and I have read them all. Her characters spring from the page and I wanted mine to do the same. Some might say she was eccentric, but the truth is I don’t think she cared about anything except writing and being true to herself. Of course she cared about her friends and her students a lot. I don’t think I had ever met anyone like her before I knew her and probably will never met anyone like her again.
ChrisChat:
Do you have any writing exercises/practices you use to “pump” your creativity, to get the ideas flowing? Any routines?
Barbara:
No, actually I don’t use anything to “pump” up my creativity. Ideas come to me during the day and at night. The best place for thinking is in the shower usually or right before I go to sleep. Sometimes a thought becomes a full sentence and then I write it down. Most of the time after I write down that one sentence a whole story appears in my mind and I start writing. I never know what the ending will be so it’s more like an adventure for me to see where it lands. I don’t have any routines, but I am always aware of what is happening around me and only rarely I will write down a thought or a phrase that I hear. I don’t have any routines at all. The only thing I always do is make sure I know my characters very well, so I do character studies always
ChrisChat:
You and I first met in an online writers’ critique group. How important do you think these groups are? How do they differ from beta-readers? Any advice on either, both?
Barbara:
I think critique groups are very important for writers. They provide a place where your writing can be seen by people who don’t know you, in an objective way. Also, you get to read other people’s writing and you can learn a lot from seeing other people’s work. Being in a critique group teaches you how to look at writing in general and helps you when you have to revise your own work. The comments from members may not always be comfortable for you, and sometimes someone doesn’t get what you wrote, but you use the ones that are most useful for you and revising is much easier. Usually if more than one or two people give you similar comments that is the time to look at that part and see if you can change it. Your idea may not always be the same as your fellow members, but at least you have a way to move ahead with your writing. Also, having the validation of your fellow members is very rewarding. I was in a critique group for my first book and it helped me so much. We still keep in touch and almost all are published authors. One won the Newberry Award. For my second novel I also used a critique group where we met, Chris.
Beta readers are different than critique groups, because it is a more intimate experience. With a beta reader you are asking someone to read it as they were a normal reader. I have used beta readers for both books and it was very helpful. For my second novel I exchanged chapters with another author and we each read each other’s writing and commented on it. I found this to be a much closer reading, because of the time you could spend on the work. My reader found a lot of places where my group missed things.
So I think you probably need both to make sure you know how your writing is seen by different people. The best is if you can find someone from the genre for which you are writing.
ChrisChat:
Because we’re online friends and you’ve shared your husband with us through Sunday Musings, how important was his support, in your writing? How can a spouse/family/friends support the writer in their life?
Barbara:
When I was writing my first novel the only place I could write was at the computer in my living room. Everyone was in there while I was writing and no one bothered me. My husband took care of anything that needed to be done. He understood when I was writing that I wasn’t to be disturbed. So he would take my kids out so I could be alone and write. They were older, but still they needed attention. He was very excited when he found out my first novel was to be published and even though he had to read it while in rehab after he had a toe removed, he did it on an IPad, which he had never used. He read it in a day and he told me he couldn’t stop reading it. His reaction made me feel so good!! He was a history major and mostly read adventure and non-fiction. I was thrilled.
I wrote After while he was in the hospital after a heart attack and bypass surgery. He never knew about it until later when I was getting it ready for publication. I had him read it. Then when it was accepted for publication he was very excited with me and we celebrated. Sadly, he was not here when it was published, but I know he would have been as happy as I was. Since the story is about my experiences with him it was very difficult to edit it, but I know he was proud of me for doing it. He didn’t believe in mourning, so he would have approved of my getting it done. I dedicated After to him.
ChrisChat:
Moving to your writing…how does someone start writing for a younger audience? What do you consider the most important item to remember?
Barbara:
I think the most important thing to remember when writing for kids is to write as if you were the character. Younger people want to go on your character’s journey and not be told about it. That’s why it is so important to show everything and tell very little. Even if you are describing something it should be in the context of the moment and relate very directly to the character. Having knowledge of how younger people think and talk is also very important. It’s not important to use slang or even talk about fads, but there has to be a way to connect to your reader. A lot of my reviews say that my dialogue sounds like I’m a teen. I guess it’s because I have had a lot of experience with teens as both a teacher and a mother. The other thing is to be honest and real. Your character needs to do and say things that make sense and that younger people can understand. I write reality, but even if you are writing fantasy you need to make sure that the character is someone who will appeal to your audience. That doesn’t mean that you write from a formula or that you are always thinking of this, but afterwards it doesn’t hurt to have someone younger read your story and make sure you are on track and you aren’t saying or doing something that wouldn’t ever be said or done.
The most important thing, though, is to never be teachy or talk down to your readers in any way. You need to write as if you are talking with them and not at them. Blatantly placing your “lesson” or moral directly in front of your reader will turn them off. However, if you make your character believable and their journey interesting and compelling your readers will want to keep reading.
ChrisChat:
Who is your character? Why her/him/them?
Barbara:
In my first novel, Carolyn Samuels, is a teen who is fourteen years old and starting her first day of high school as a freshman. She is a girl who doesn’t feel comfortable about her body. She is a size 12 and feels she is too heavy for fashion. Also she has a condition where she hyperventilates when she is nervous, which has caused her to be bullied by a “perfect” girl, Jennifer Taylor. Carolyn is a compassionate and smart girl who excels in Math and wants to be a cheerleader. Jennifer is an aspiring gymnast with a secret eating disorder. I decided on Carolyn when my daughter felt the same way about herself and also she had the beginnings of an eating disorder. Jennifer is every girl I ever envied in school.
In After, Lauren Walstein is a very different character. She has a long, lean body and is very athletic. She is a pitcher on her softball team and she doesn’t care much for clothes or fashion. She has a best friend, a boy named Joey, who she has known since kindergarten and they have been BFF’s excluding almost everyone else. When her father has a heart attack and needs bypass surgery Lauren and Joey grow closer.
Lauren has never had a real girlfriend before because of her friendship with Joey and she finds Jenny someone she has also known a long time. She has never thought of Joey as a boyfriend, but she finds these feelings begin. She wants a scholarship for her softball to get into college, so she has concentrated on this and ignored almost everything else. She does pretty well in school, but realizes after her father is in the hospital that she needs more than Joey. She bonds with her sister Dianne and her friend Jenny.
When I started writing the story, first called When My Life Changed, my husband was in the hospital and I was doing NaNoWriMo. Lauren popped out as a character and I went with her. She was able to show the emotions that I was feeling at the time. I made her the kind of girl my husband always wanted. He wanted an athletic daughter, but my daughters never were. So maybe I did it for him. Anyway, Lauren came out of nowhere and so did her character. The only thing that is at all the same is that she is Jewish like my first character. Joey is the boy I wished I had known when I was a teen. He also popped out of my head. Finally, her sister, Dianne is modeled on my own daughter. Dianne is the big sister who thinks of her younger sister only occasionally and is suddenly thrown together with her for long periods of time. She is always prepared and she is strong for Lauren when she needs to be.
ChrisChat:
Where are you now in your writing? Anything coming up?
Barbara:
Actually, I am in the middle of finishing up the sequel to If I Could Be Like Jennifer Taylor called Jennifer’s Story. I wasn’t thinking I needed a sequel, but my line editor gave the book to his daughter and after she read it she asked for a sequel. So for NaNo I decided to write the sequel. Of course, the first sentence rolled around in my head for about a week before I wrote it down that first day. Then it seemed like Jennifer was talking to me and telling me her story. So the writing was easy and I got to 50,000 words without finishing the book. So I haven’t gone back to it for a while, but I am going to finish it. Then I have another novel I had critiqued by both an agent and an editor of Knopf, at least the first three chapters of it. This one is completely finished, but they both said after reading only three chapters, that it didn’t have enough emotion in it. Also this has a ghost, so that is a real challenge for me. I don’t know much about how ghosts talk so I have to go back and revise this novel a lot!!! I also had the entire novel critiqued by a bestselling romance novelist and I have to look at her critiques too!! This novel is called Footsteps on the Sand and it’s about a boy whose parents inherit his grandfather’s beach house in the Hamptons. After a surfing accident he finds his grandfather’s ghost in his closet along with his old surf board and his journal.
Thank you so much for this opportunity, Chris. I do wish you had a photo of me here. Other than that I enjoyed your questions.
This was really a great interview, Barbara. So interesting! Thanks for posting and thanks to Chris for coming up with such good questions.
Thank you Ken and Anne. Yes, her questions were very thought provoking and she delved into some topics too.