Each episode of Cabin Tales focuses on one aspect of creative writing, such as setting. They include original spooky stories, excerpts from creepy classics, and writing tips from authors like me. The stories are deliciously monstrous – ones you might tell around a campfire to scare your friends – so Catherine warns that they’re not for very young listeners.
Cabin Tales also encourages young writers to share their own stories with fun weekly prompts. I hope you check it out!
I’ve been having fun drawing my Kan’t Draw Komics, which I started because I’m a terrible artist. You can read more about that in this post. Here are my latest ones.
As author Jane Smiley said, “Every first draft is perfect, because all a first draft has to do is exist.”
May your story garden thrive!
Personally, I’m not sure the revision stage ever ends. That’s one of the wonderful and challenging parts of writing.
Note: Many writing friends have asked to hear about my MFA journey, so I’ll be posting about it regularly. To read Part 1, go here.
My first six-month semester at the Vermont College of Fine Arts (VCFA) started with a ten-day residency in snowy Montpelier, including dorm life with a roommate who was wonderfully matched to my habits, cafeteria food that I did not have to make or clean up (thankfully), and lovely welcoming traditions designed to help me make the most of my residency. It was a jam-packed schedule of inspiring and insightful lectures by faculty and graduates, readings by everyone, nuts-and-bolts workshops, and so much more.
During the residency, they have a saying: “What happens at VCFA, stays at VCFA.” It’s a time to focus on craft rather than Instagram posts and Tweets. So what is it like? It’s mind-bogglingly busy. I could barely text my family, or remember where to be next. It’s event after event with generous, enthusiastic writers in rooms that are steeped with creative energy. It’s a marathon of insights and laughter with people who love writing for children as much as I do.
For me, winter feels like a great time to start an MFA. To borrow from Persephone imagery, the seeds are resting under the snow in preparation for spring, and my ideas are gestating too, ready for the deep exploration of writing craft that will bring them new life.
So how does the program work? I’ve created my own independent study plan for this semester, with the help of my wonderful faculty advisor, Liz Garton Scanlon, author of numerous books for children, including the Caldecott-honored picture book All the World, illustrated by Marla Frazee.
Here’s what my study plan includes:
Process Discussion
I’ll have an ongoing discussion with my faculty advisor about my writing practice and process, including drafting, revisions, frustrations, and successes.
Creative Writing
My focus this semester is on writing picture books. I’m stretching my writing muscles to try a totally new genre, which is scary and fun because I have a LOT of picture books to write over the next six months.
I’m particularly excited about this writing because I’ll be able to both write and revise manuscripts, based on feedback. I’m fascinated by the revision process, since so much of our craft lies in that stage.
Reading
This will include an annotated bibliography of all the books I read, so that I’m reading with an eye on writing craft (i.e., what works and how I can use these techniques in my writing).
Critical Essays
I’ll be writing monthly critical essays on topics that relate directly to my writing craft. These are not papers on literary analysis, but on craft analysis.
To tell the truth, the critical work didn’t appeal to me when I was first considering this program. I wanted to focus on my creative work. I wasn’t an academic. But after I wrote a critical essay for my application, I began to understand its value. I wrote about establishing multiple point-of-view characters (using Caroline Pignat’s wonderful young-adult novel Shooter), since I’m currently writing a novel with three points of view. As I wrote my first draft, I kept thinking about my essay, and I feel it helped me hone my various points of view. I can just imagine how much my craft will improve as I incorporate more analysis into my writing practice. I’m already a convert.
Critiques
As part of the Picture Book Intensive semester, I’ll also be interacting with four other writers at various stages of the program in an online forum, where we’ll critique one another’s work and share insights from reading and analyzing books. I’ve been workshopping with these students during residency, and we’re already a tight-knit group. I trust their insights, and I love their enthusiasm.
Back at home now, I’m diving into work and trying not to worry about the crazy amount of writing I’m aiming to accomplish between now and mid-June. Hopefully, I can get my sea legs quickly and balance all I want to accomplish. Then I’ll head back to Vermont for my second-semester residency in July, which I’m already looking forward to.
In January 2018, I’ll travel to Montpelier, Vermont, for my first ten-day residency. I hear that it’s a magical whirlwind of lectures, workshops, and readings from morning till night. I hear that I’ll meet like-minded writers eager to learn more about craft. I hear that I’ll form life-long friendships and be changed in ways I can’t yet imagine. Bring it on!
After the ten days, I’ll return home to work on my critical and creative projects from a distance with my faculty advisor for my first semester. I’m very happy to announce that this semester will be a picture-book intensive, which you can read about here. I’ll be studying with four other MFA students, a faculty advisor with an expertise in picture books, and a professional illustrator.
Like most children, my enchantment with literature began with picture books read aloud to me by adults. As a young girl, I “read” The Story of a Fierce Bad Rabbit by Beatrix Potter to myself long before I could make sense of letters on a page. I liked to capture members of my family and recite my version of the story, over and over. In the book, Potter portrays a fierce, bad rabbit who bullies a nice rabbit and steals his carrot. At a young age, I could already relate to the bullying. Yet what fascinated me was how a man with a gun comes along and shoots at the fierce, bad rabbit. This rabbit ends up with no tail or whiskers, and the nice rabbit avoids the hunter’s gun. There will be justice in this world, Potter’s book told me, although you may not get your carrot back.
When my own children were young, I read them too many picture books to count. Now that they’re twentysomethings, we still find time to read aloud new books I bring home, and we regularly quote from old favorites. “A promise is what you were given and a promise is what you got,” my partner will sagely say, based on A Promise is a Promise, written by Robert Munsch and Michael Kusugak, illustrated by Vladyana Krykorka. “Strength is for the wise, not the reckless. –More cake, please,” my daughter will recite, quoting young Patrick Edward in Monster Mama by author Liz Rosenberg and illustrator Stephen Gammell. Picture books built the foundations of my joy in reading and, later, in writing. As children’s poet Charles Ghigna wrote, “It is the joyous power of picture books that turns young listeners into readers and readers into writers.”
Although picture-book writing is an art I’ve admired for many years, I’ve only begun to experiment with the form recently. With this semester, I hope to learn skills that’ll apply to both short-form writing (the sound of language, how to think in pictures, economy of language) and long (story structure and depth of characterization using few words).
I’ve been prepping for my first semester by reading at least one book by each of the VCFA faculty. It’s been a wonderful exploration, and a great way to get to know them from a distance.
As I count the days until it starts, I’m sure the semester will be full of trials and joys. Will I get across the Canada-US border without trouble? Will the winter driving in Vermont be treacherous? How will I adjust to residence life? Will the workload overwhelm me?
All I know at this point is, when I talk to recent grads of the program, they tell me they’d gladly start the whole process again, if they could.
I’ve been a writer at heart since I personified my toy cars as a young girl. At age ten, I wrote comic books about a girl named Lucky Lisa and the dog I wished I had. At age seventeen, I scribbled angst-filled poetry about the meaning of life. In high school, I knew I’d try to write for publication, although I thought I’d have to take a sensible job first and write professionally once I retired. Imagine my surprise when, after ten sensible years as an educational book editor, I found the courage to quit my full-time job to make room for writing.
Since then, I’ve dedicated myself to learning writing craft through hours at my desk as well as through workshops like Peter Carver’s Writing for Children class at Mable’s Fables Children’s Bookstore, CANSCAIP and SCBWI conferences, screenwriting seminars with John Truby and Robert McKee, and personal critique groups.
Although I’ve achieved much with my writing, I feel the burn to learn more. How can I better translate my characters to the page? Deepen my revision process? Understand the emotional journey of readers and how writing craft guides it? I’d like to explore new genres and techniques. I’d like to discover new ways to mentor emerging voices.
For me, the Vermont College of Fine Arts is the place to do this.
