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.
|
|
 The Sky is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson
This is a great book - funny, heartbreaking, genuine. But that's not why I'm writing about it. I'm writing about it because the writing is, simply put, beautiful. This newsletter is called Point of View, so obviously I'm really interested in books with a fresh voice, with luscious writing. For me, this book just floats because of the language. Yes, this is a book about grief. I was talking it up the other day and brought up the loss of her sister (we know this in the first paragraph) and my friend said, "Another dead sister book?" No, no, no - I had to explain to her. This was not another dead sister book. This book was, well, luminous. The way Nelson tells this story through the lens of sweet, awkward Lennie is fresh and new and I just felt like I was so present in her story. I was right there with her and that's what a really arresting point of view will do - hug you tight and make you feel everything she's feeling, see everything she's seeing. The true beauty of this book, though, is in the details - the "lunches" her grandmother packs, the little slips of poems Lennie writes and leaves places - Nelson's world is so specific and real. And lastly, I just have to mention the title! That's just the best title I've seen all year. |
|
 Writing Exercise
Take a piece of paper and rip it into five slips. Now tuck these away in something you carry around with you: your purse, your bag, your guitar case. Over the next couple of weeks, take ten minutes to pull out a slip of paper and just write a poem on it. Have these poems capture the surrounding you're in when you write them: the smells, the tastes, the light, the sounds. Then tuck it back into your case (I would suggest just leaving it somewhere for the wind to catch it like in the book but I can't in good faith encourage littering :).) And this way, in a few months, you might find them, pull them out, read them...remember.
|
 Outside Reading School Project
Make a list. Think of all the things in your life that make you who you are. Not just that you like to write or that you like pizza but really make an ongoing list of the little details of your life that make you who you are: you like pickles on tuna sandwiches but nowhere else, you always pack a sticker in your lunch and then leave it somewhere, you sing the same song over and over, you like the way the cement smells outside your house when it rains...keep this list over the course of reading this book...see how long it gets.
|
 Instructions for a Broken Heart
by Kim Culbertson
Spread the word - IFABH comes out next month and it just got a great Kirkus review!
"Culbertson balances the story between teen angst and a nice Italian travelogue. The author has a flair for evocative descriptions. . . The major strength here is in the literary quality of the writing, although teens may be more interested in the characters' relationship." -- Kirkus Reviews
Sourcebooks Fire (May 1, 2011)
|
 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
|
|
|
