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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 Dash and Lily's Book of Dares
by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan
There are so many things to love about this book: it's fun, it's festive (takes place over the holiday season), and it's a humorous love story. Dash is a typical sardonic teen who finds a journal from another (less) typical teen in a bookstore. There's a dare. He takes the dare and this sends the two characters on a journey to find each other (but mostly themselves). Love this concept. The thing I loved most about this book, though, was Lily. Lily was a refreshing, original teen character mostly because she was so full of light. She loved her family, Christmas, walking dogs, reading and managed to love it all without being sappy or annoying. She was just Lily. And Dash needed a Lily. Even cooler, Lily needed a Dash. Ultimately, this book is about what we think we want and what we actually need. And it's about loving the small things in life because it's these small things that build our world. And building our world is the biggest thing - it's everything.
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 Writing Exercise
Dare yourself.
Dare yourself to write something today.
Sit down with an empty page and write the word "dare" at the top. What do you dare?
Each day, when we wake up in the morning and put on our shoes or sip our coffee or brush our hair, we're taking a sort of dare - a dare to live in the world in a certain way. What dare did you take today?
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 Outside Reading School Project
It would be so fun to teach this book in a classroom setting and give the kids "dare" journals. Unfortunately, there a few (ahem) adult scenes in this book and I know I would have some angry parent emails about it...so I can only recommend it to the students who I know have parents who won't mind some of these scenes. But if I had a student reading this book, I would suggest he or she get a blank journal and write something in it - an observation, a favorite movie, a feeling - and hand it to someone they don't know with the idea that that person will write back. And forth. And back. And forth.
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 Instructions for a Broken Heart
by Kim Culbertson
Sourcebooks Fire (May 1, 2011)
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 Need a gift?
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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