Message
In a writing workshop I once took, the literary novelist Ethan Canin told us that reading is "about connecting with a sensibility." This resonated with me as a writer because I know that when something I read compels me, it's because I feel like I'm connecting to a certain world view in a piece of writing, a specific take on a timeless theme, a fresh, original voice. A teacher I had in college used to like to say "there are no new plots, just new characters" - and I'd like to take that one step further. New sensibilities. Lucky for all of us writers - each of our sensibilities is truly individual. No one else in the wide world sees the way we see - through our unique experience, through our distinctive eyes.
And that's the heart of point of view.
Not just who's telling the story or how it's being told but the entire world view that an author translates through a piece of writing to a reader.
Different readers connect to different point of views, to different sensibilities. It's why I can read something and think "Wow, this engages me. I'm hooked." And the guy sitting next to me in the café can tell me he couldn't get through it. It's two sensibilities connecting - or not.
So that's why I think Point of View is essential as a writer and a reader.
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 Hold Still by Nina LaCour
This fall, I had the honor of being on an author panel with Nina LaCour and I'm so glad because it inspired me to read her book! In Hold Still, Nina writes so beautifully about loss and the redemptive nature of art. I love this book for so many reasons: the writing is luminous, the characters are well-formed and believable, and she really gets at the heart of what it means to let art heal you. In Hold Still, a young girl is suffering from the loss of her best friend and the book takes place over the course of the year she spends learning how to cope. Grief is never easy to write about - in fact, I think it's probably one of the most difficult themes because it can tip so suddenly into melodrama, but Nina handles it expertly. I especially appreciated the way she wrote the adults in this book - real, also grieving, and simply trying to do right by this young girl and her pain. Ultimately, this was a redemptive novel and it left me hopeful.
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 Writing Exercise
I can't even explain how much I love the title of this book.
Hold Still.
Write about what this phrase means to you; what does it mean to hold still? Why is this important as human beings? Next, go outside and simply hold still. What are you hearing, smelling, touching, tasting, seeing? Then take a minute to write it all down.
Take a minute to hold still.
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 Outside Reading School Project
In the novel, she finds her friend's journal. This journal becomes a portal through which she really sees her friend in a whole way. Choose another character in the book and create three journal pages for this character as if they were keeping a journal. Include drawings/pictures if you think this character would do that but mostly make sure to stay true to who this character is in the novel. Focus on what their voice would sound like.
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 Instructions for a Broken Heart
by Kim Culbertson
Sourcebooks Fire (May 1, 2011)
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 Holiday Gift Bag Idea
This holiday season, inspire the special people in your life to keep a song journal chronicling the soundtrack of their lives.
Bundle any combination of the following:
a Writing Journal, a CD, and/or an iPod
with Songs for a Teenage Nomad
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