When Words Fail, Make Puppets

I'm at a blank! 

I know my plot, my scenes, 

my characters and their backstories to the nth generation.

I have tidy rows of index cards in Scrivener

spelling me all the way to the end.

I know what NEEDS to happen next

but I just can't picture WHERE it happens.

On a ship? In a shack?
(Sounds like something from Green Eggs and Ham)
Outside? Moonlight? Storm clouds? Hammocks? Dock? Bridge?

This is no end of frustrating!

I recently read this advice from author Molly Blaisell
about writing novels. 

One of the gems she writes is to Stop Rushing Yourself.

So I'm playing with the kids. 

A fruit box puppet theater is a good way to try different settings for the novel...right?

While a fruit box has a perfect open shape 

for marionette-style puppets, 

my kids wanted stick puppets.  

So I cut a hole big enough for four pairs of hands 

plus puppets.

Sugar Snack helped me paint. 

He's in love with "orangey."

 

A bamboo garden stake made an easy curtain rod.
The bunk bed ladder niched over two chairs became the base.



I scribbled with my carved bamboo pen
and India ink for the backdrops.
A chateau to start.



And a throne room for all of the kings and queens and fairies.



I sketched a few royal personages and let the kids color.

I think they're inspired by all the makeup I wear.

Especially the lipstick.

Pip and Winnie made necessary extras:
fairy godmother, more princesses, knights, horses and a dragon.
We cut out our people and glued them to foam core board
(with glitter glue, no less).



Once our people dried, I cut them out with kitchen shears
and skewered them with extra long toothpicks.
(Nice, safe toddler play!)



Happy discovery: puppets from family photos!
Same principle: I cut out our people, glued them to foam core,
cut them out with kitchen scissors
and stuck them with toothpicks.

Birdy and her cousins go for a ride...

Sugar Snack wanted to see his puppets better, 

so we inverted a shallow box 

and poked holes in it with a screwdriver.

Now we can do dioramas. 

Has the writing blank gone away? 

Uh... blank what? 

Did you say something about writing? 

I'm off playing with puppets.  

 

How do you deal with your writing blanks?

A picture book that rises above the competition:
Have you seen Balloons Over Broadway by Melissa Sweet?
This book tells "The True Story of the Puppeteer of Macy's Parade."
The story is fascinating; the art is a beautiful combination of painting and collage.
  

You can even print your own puppets and activities from the book here.  Fun, and free!

And speaking of Melissa Sweet, she'll be presenting at the SCBWI Western Washington conference, April 21-22. 

Are you coming? 

If you're a writer or illustrator in the Northwest and want to hone your craft, 

and get connected with writers, illustrators, agents and editors, I highly recommend it! 

Check it out here.

Another clever treasure from Melissa Sweet:
Carmine, A Little More Red 

 
Did you see Bonnie Becker's name up there? She's the author of one of our favorite picture books, A Visitor For Bear. I am so excited to hear Bonnie Becker's thoughts on writing!

So, there you have it.
The next time you're at a writing blank, try puppets!

Secrets, Stairs and Story Smithing

We had a secret staircase.

Not a gloriously hidden one in an old castle.

If we had one of those I probably wouldn't be a writer.

The mysteries of life would already be solved.

No, our secret staircase was one of our 

visit-the-grandparents landmarks, 

like passing the over sized grasshoppers churning for oil 

in the flat fields, or smelling salt and coconut oil as we neared the beach.

My parents drove to the end of a neighborhood street 

and abandoned their three starry-eyed mountain kids 

to traverse down a maze of hidden staircases

and find ourselves by the end.

Or, at least, find our avocado green station wagon,

panting away at the bottom.

Our secret staircase.

from The Secret Garden,

illustrated by Inga Moore

Secrets can be beautiful, gossipy, or horrifying.

Secrets are what we hang our hats on as writers.

We need secrets,

and mystery

and questions

to tell stories.

Questions to help unleash your story:

What are my Main Character's greatest secrets?

longings?

Who does she listen to?

trust?

Who needs her help?

What are her vices?

temptations?

What does she care about?

What changes her?

Who loves her?

What Questions do you ask your story?

Do you have secret staircases,

-places or memories that represent a portal into mystery, 

danger and espionage, orphans and castles,

imagination 

and the great What If?

Secrets are why we read books,

why we keep turning the pages. 

So, writer friends: 

How do you weave secrets and mystery into your writing?

I'd love to know!

Powerfully Mysterious Picture Books:

The Secret Box - Barbara Lehman

Rainstorm - Barbara Lehman

The Mysteries of Harris Burdick - Chris Van Allsburg

Snow Moon - Nicholas Brunelle

The Secret Circus - Johanna Wright

from The Mysteries of Harris Burdick
by Chris Van Allsburg

Books with Deep Secrets for older readers:

The Secret Garden, by Frances Hodgson Burnett, 

illustrated by Inga Moore, Candlewick Press

from The Princess and the Goblin
by George MacDonald, ill. Jessie Wilcox Smith

The Princess and the Goblin - George MacDonald

The Princess and Curdie - George MacDonald

Wolves of Willoughby Chase- Joan Aiken

Dragon's Keep - Janet Lee Carey

What Artists Play

When we were small, my dad played artist games with us. 

Games like:

Animate Your Lunch

Can Anyone Decipher Daddy's Handwriting?

Guess the Picture Book Illustrator

But my favorite game by far was Hide.

All it required was a pen, paper and an alphabet letter. Restaurants and waiting rooms loved us - those quiet kids in the corner, smiling as we turned our "H" or "A" into ladders, hats, baskets of fruit.

We gave my dad the hardest letters we could think of, but he still transformed "Q" into a Sistine Chapel masterpiece.

Another favorite dad game was Think Pinks,

a kind of rhyming word war.

He'd start me out with a pairing...

Clunky monkey

and I'd retort with

jolly dolly 

or burly squirrelly, thin pin, tall ball, long song...

You get the idea: rhyming ping pong.

I guess you could call it Poet Training.

Maybe that's where I got my word games obsession.

We made chameleon viewfinders this week.

I cut chameleon shapes into mat board 

with my trusty kitchen shears

and then took the kids to the beach. 

(in January. It was freezing. Nice, huh?)

Scavenger hunt! 

Which skin worked best?

Sugar Snack tried himself as camouflage

and Birdy tried to dive in. Brrr!

Once we warmed up at home, we made chameleon floats,

Rose Parade style.

I scribbled pages of chameleons, gave the kids paintbrushes, glue and grain

and let them loose.

After taping on Popsicle sticks, there was a chameleon float parade. 

Little petals of rice and lentils bespeckled our floor for days. 

We may not play a strategic game of backgammon, 

but we artists know how to make messes, 

and how to play with our words!

Some excellent chameleon books:

Blue Chameleon by Emily Gravett is simple but brilliant.

Her soft, playful art is lovable, and just look:

chameleon as a sock!

chameleon as a boot!

How cute can you get?

Chameleon's Colors by Chisato Tashiro found its way in Pip's owl bag.

I love the vibrant colors and feel of this book. Clever, clever, it makes me want to have a paint party.  

A Color of His Own by Leo Lionni is a gem, even after being in print for thirty-six years.

  

Curious George Learns the Alphabet by H. A. Rey is a great example of the game Hide.