I've also been getting into Carl Hiassen's work. Man, that guy is prolific. He just keeps turning out book after book and he writes a column in the paper. Can you say carpal tunnel?
Jerry Spinelli's EGGS is also on my nightstand. Quick read, quirky story, quirkier characters. Love his voice, it's so much different than anyone else's.
It's got me thinking about what sets published writers apart from each other besides the kinds of stories they tell (genre). It has to be style and voice. The more I read and reread, the more I realize how many different styles can work. Gary Schmidt uses dynamic, poetic prose to weave intricate plots. Spinelli utilizes his unique voice to parallel what's happening in the story. Hiassen has monopolized the Florida environmental issues, and boy has he done it well. Will the conservation well ever run dry? Probably not. Sherman Alexie. Wow, does he nail the main character's voice in True Diary or what? And he does it while spinning a hilarious tale.
You may have noticed that all of these writers are males. I know, I know. Lois Lowry, Linda Sue Park, and Gail Carson Levine, they all get props from me too. But you have to understand that I'm a guy who writes middle grade with boy protagonists, so I'm going to naturally lean toward authors who do the same. Considering what I write, they are the ones I can learn the most from. Perhaps you should do the same.
Who are some of your favorites? Who have you read and reread and learned from?
Richard Peck? Shel Silverstein? Beverly Cleary? Katherine Paterson?
Edgar Allen Poe?
I'm like you in that I prefer to read male authors. Love Spinelli (I've read everything by him that the town library has). Love John Green's intelligence, wit, and ability to write hilarious dialogue. Christopher Paul Curtis, for his willingness to break conventions and his humor. Kate DiCamillo for how she says so much with so few words. Stephen King--voice.
ReplyDeleteAnd I agree with you that voice is the usually the thing that sets writers apart. I also think it's what allows one writer to succeed where another would fail.
One thing about which I disagree with King is the idea that story trumps all else. I think voice is more important. I'll read a book that doesn't even have a plot if the voice is engaging and especially if it's funny. Even in King's own work, some of his premises are rather simple; it's not always his stories that are so good, but the way he tells them.
Give anybody else the idea for Cujo, and you'll likely get a cruddy story.
Have you read The Tiger Rising by Kate DiCamillo? My favorite of hers. She claims to have been rejected about 400 times over 10 years before her manuscript landed on the right editor's desk at Candlewick. That's persistence!
ReplyDeleteI agree with you about King, though I do really like On Writing by him.
I do like Christopher Paul Curtis but I couldn't get through his latest Elijah of Buxton, it was difficult reading because of the dialect and just didn't work for me. I can only imagine a 10-12 year old trying to read it.
I've read all of DiCamillo (except the latest Mercy Watson books) and my favorite is Despereaux, but I really like all of her work. I had heard about all of her rejections and in her instance, she may have gone on getting rejected but for a fair bit of serendipity. I believe the story is she was working at a bookstore when a Candlewick rep came in. They got to talking, she showed him Because of Winn-Dixie, he liked it and took it to an editor, and the rest is history. (And on a related note, I always wonder if a good query letter can be written for Winn-Dixie. Not much actually happens in that book. Girl meets dog. Dog helps girl make friends. Friends are interesting. Just goes to show that good books don't always have strong premises. I use this as an example for my students that good books are good because of their characters, more so than their events.)
ReplyDeleteI also love On Writing--I've read it four times.
Agree about Elijah. It's my least favorite of his big three. I love Watsons, though, if only for its unconventionality. There is essentially no plot for much of the book, just a bunch of hilarious scenes and then, out of nowhere, BOOM!, the church bombing and suddenly the whole thing becomes very serious. It's another book that probably would never have been printed had it gone through the typical process. How many agents/editors would have been okay with the idea that the main problem in the story doesn't occur until the book is damn near over? As it happened, the novel was sent to the Delacorte Yearling contest and discovered that way. My guess is, without the humor at the beginning, it would have never seen the light of day.
My daughter and I love Spinelli's STARGIRL books. The first is written from the boy's perspective, which you might be interested in.
ReplyDeleteAlso, ONCE UPON A MARIGOLD, you would think would be all about a girl, but it's not really...lots of boy stuff.
Loooove WHERE THE RED FERN GROWS...we're reading it aloud for the scecond time at our house.
Oh! FARMER BOY in the LITTLE HOUSE IN THE PRAIRIE series is perhaps the best book in the series, but overlooked by a lot of males, because it's in the LITTLE HOUSE (traditionally girl) series.
And we love the HERMUX TANTAMOQ (spelling?) series...and DESPEREUX (spelling again?).
Hey
ReplyDeleteI definitely got some names for future reading from this. Thanks.
As for me, the writers that I am most into are:
1. Larry McMurty
2. Stephen King
3. William Goldman
4. Carl Hiassen
5. John Irving
I try to read pretty much anything I can get my hands on (and yes, this includes supermarket romance books. Fabio on the cover = good times), but any time I see anything by one of those five authors, I'm going to buy it.
For YA and middle grade, I think the two writers that I've learned the most from are Dave Yoo and Jonathan Stroud. Those guys are awesome.
Great topic. It's fun to think about this kind of stuff.
Ben
www.benjaminesch.com
I also really like Stephen King. I began reading him in college. Anyone read THE GIRL WHO LOVED TOM GORDON? It's great.
ReplyDeleteI also recommend reading Gary Schmidt. He is one of the best pure writers out there. Paul, he actually teaches at Calvin College in Grand Rapids. Big family, low profile, that's about as much as I know about him. His books are upper middle grade/YA:
LIZZIE BRIGHT AND THE BUCKMINSTER BOY
THE WEDNESDAY WARS
TROUBLE
Thanks for the comments. Great discussion.
I've had mixed results with Schmidt. I loved loved loved Wednesday Wars. Best book I read last year. But I never finished Lizzie Bright and I could never get into Trouble. Too slow of a build. I give a book fifty pages and that one didn't have me. His writing is gorgeous, but he sometimes gets too caught up in it to the detriment of story, in my opinion.
ReplyDelete