Laurel’s Comments (group member since Feb 25, 2012)

Laurel’s comments from the Q&A with Laurel Snyder group.

Absolutely will do! Or we could just get a dinner?

Rosanne,

Lovely to meet you!

I think part of the length question is about what you read. I tend to love shorter books myself, and so that's a lot of what I read for fun. I suppose the structure (simpler in some cases) for a book like that might trickle into my own writing. Also, yes, I cut! I slash and burn. There'a marvelous quote I often repeat, “Your language becomes clear and strong not when you can no longer add, but when you can no longer take away.” [Isaac Babel] I try really hard to follow that rule, though I never get it close enough to the bone. I try harder each time, to strip away.

As for Portland, I'd LOVE to! I might be out there in September.

Julie wrote: "Dear Laurel,
Thank you for the invite into this Q & A group! My students love Bigger Than a Breadbox, so you have a bit of a fanbase at my school, where I am the school librarian. Lately I have b..."

Sooooo lovely to meet you, Julie! I also loved Wonder. I'm itching to get my hands on Ivan, but I need to finish revising my new book before I break into another middle grade. I don't want to steal someone else's ton/voice!

Yes, yes, yes! I think this is a dominant instinct in contemporary parenting-- that the job of a parents (esp one of means) is to keep kids happy. So we don't take them to funerals, let them watch the news, explain racism. You name it. We make an imaginary world for them. We tell them they are special in every way. Etc. This isn't a black and white issue-- some kids need some elvel of "protection" I think. But most are going to be unprepared when they run into discomfort. There's a GREAT book about this (and I loathe parenting books) called Blessings of a Skinned Knee.The Blessing of a Skinned Knee: Using Jewish Teachings to Raise Self-Reliant Children

Mr. SHarp, You are incredibly kind. And also, your readers are special kids. They've been taught to love books by someone who knows how to teach by modeling...

I'll look them up! Thanks so much for the rec.

ABSOLUTELY! And those relationships can be built one by one, as you'd build any friendship.

Yes, exactly. Outlining is critical for a tightly woven plot, I find. Not always what a book needs, but for me (plotting is hard for me) increasingly important.

I feel like people don't always appreciate how hard plotting is. The genre/literary divide is so silly this way. Easier for me to write "good prose" than to weave a compelling plot.

Welcome, all!

Lindsey, I'll totally check those out. GoT is unusual for me, but I've gotten totally absorbed in it.

I have a big TBR pile growing beside my bed, in prep for a YA I want to think about, which I've outlined. But YA intimidates me, so it's a SECRET.

Frume Sarah wrote: "Baxter the Pig Who Wanted to Be Kosher...has even been used in religious services.

And was a HUGE hit!!!"

HEEEE!

Tara,

It helped that when I was waiting for the first book to come out, and my son was just getting active, my husband LOST HIS JOB and I was pregnant and we had NO INCOME and NO INSURANCE.

I called my agent and said, "I desperately need money to pay the medical bills, so that my child is not born in the back of a car. What can I do to sell another book?"

SOmetimes, maybe, the best thing for us is a really hard situation. We learn to do what we HAVE to do. You know?

Now I have a shed in the yard, where I can escape the little demons: http://laurelsnyder.com/?p=1555

:)

Oh, I agree. There are so many awesome new books.

But one thing that bothers me is that I feel like the PACE of books is speeding up. Kids want more/bigger/faster energy, in large part because that's what we feed them. If they read Riordan (which is awesome, but...), they come to expect action on every page. As in TV or movies. Then it's hard to sell them on slower books, and I can't imagine what this will mean for them as adult readers.

I recently tried some older books with my kids, and it was interesting. We read the Wonderful O, and the Iron Giant, and Mrs. Piggle Wiggle. They totally loved them, but in each case it took a day to adjust to the pacing...

It's just something I think about, as an author. I like books with humor and action, but I like small moments in them as well as big ones.. You know?

Welcome, Lynette!

How on earth do you balance two novels at once? Tell us your secrets!!!!

And here, have a scone.

:)

Ach, it is SO hard, and this doesn't change. It's a challenge each time. Every now and then something unexpected happens (like my last book got a New York Times review, or Penny Dreadful was short-listed for the EB White Award) ) but obviously I have NO control over that.

I follow three rules:

1. I don't do things I hate to do, because we aren't good at things we hate, and it shows.

2. I try to be very available and myself in social media. Because if you're a phony people know it.

3. I try to think outside the box, do something different for each book. Because if you get too stuck on the traditional things (which you rarely have control over) you get disappointed.

In concrete terms, the best thing you can do is connect with actual kids. Last fall I skyped with 100 classrooms. I know this sounds insane, but it was AMAZING. I didn't push the books or anything. I just made myself available to teachers, and I think, in the end, that boosted sales. And in some cases it resulted in media as well. Teachers read the book and wrote study guides. Kids blogged about it. I think that building your actual community is much better in the long run that trying to promote by talking about yourself. Does that make sense? Also it's good for everyone, and it's fun.

The other thing I'll suggest it that it's always good to go beyond the bookish world. I write Jewish picture books, and the Jewish community has been AWESOME in helping spread the word. One of my books, Baxter the Pig Who Wanted to Be Kosher, is now in a ton of synagogue bookstores, and has even been used in religious services.

SO if you have a book with a food tie-in, try to build inroads with the food world. If there's a nature theme, talk to gardening stores, etc. You'd be surprised the places books can sell.

Is this at all helpful? Happy to answer more specific questions...

These are great questions!

Most of the characters in my books are inventions, though I LOVE to steal names from friends (so like, almost all the names in Penny Dreadful were stolen from friends of mine.

In ANy Which Wall, the main characters are loosely based on my siblings and me. And in Bigger than a Bread Box, Rebecca is based on me, as a kid. That's the closest I'll ever come to writing a memoir (and was hard to write for that reason).

I didn't used to outline, but with each book I find the outline becomes more involved. I think this is just that I now do the meandering/prewriting in my head, in the months leading up to a first draft. SO the process is the same, but now I put it on paper.

That said, the endings are almost always different than I think they'll be. Because by the time I get there, in the first draft, the characters have become far more real, and so they sort of take over. Does that make sense? What about you???

Hey Tara!

I love how the idea of fantasy has changed lately. It seems broader to me. Does that make sense?

I love a lot of these books too, but a few of them I haven't read. Will add to Goodreads right now.

I'm just finishing the last Gam of Thrones book. My husband got me hooked. Next on my list is The Heros' Guide to Saving the Kingdom.

I find I have to craft my reading list so that what I'm reading doesn't affect what I'm writing TOO much. I just turned in a new draft (the companion to Bigger than a Bread Box). So for a split second I can read whatever I like. But when I'm back to revising again I won't read middle-grade, for fear of stealing from it.

I loved sad books as a kid. Dicey's Song?

I experience this as a parent myself, just not wanting my kids to be sad. I get that. But I think kids are tough.

When my first son was born, I was working as a programming professional at a non-profit, and I left that job because I could not afford to pay a nanny on my salary.

I got VERY lucky, and my first novel was pulled out of slush shortly after that. Nw I find myself in the amazing position of getting to work-from-home while my kids are small.

But writing books with small kids underfoot is NOT glamorous. I'd love to talk to other working parents about the experiences thay're having. DO any of you write with kids? How's that going?

My most recent novel is about a family that's really struggling. There's a magical element too, but divorce/separation is at the heart of the story. I was surprised to find a lot of adults didn't think kids should need to read about something so sad.

I wonder if you agree?