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    Live Writing: Breathing Life into Your Words
    Live Writing: Breathing Life into Your Words
    Live Writing: Breathing Life into Your Words
    Ebook116 pages2 hours

    Live Writing: Breathing Life into Your Words

    By Ralph Fletcher

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    About this ebook

    A practical guide for how to make your writing come alive, by the bestselling author of A Writer’s Notebook and the ALA Notable Book Fig Pudding.

    What is “live writing”? It’s the kind of writing that has a current running through it—energy, electricity, juice. This book is a young writer’s toolbox for bringing writing to life. But instead of awls and hammers, this toolbox contains words, imagination, a love of books, a sense of story, and ideas for how to make the writing live and breathe.

    Perfect for classrooms, Live Writing is full of practical wisdom for young writers, from bestselling writer Ralph Fletcher. Aspiring writers will devour these tips for how to make their words jump off the page!

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateAug 24, 2010
    ISBN9780062014917
    Live Writing: Breathing Life into Your Words
    Author

    Ralph Fletcher

    Ralph Fletcher is the author of many well-received books for children, including the novels Fig Pudding and Flying Solo, and the picture books Twilight Comes Twice, Grandpa Never Lies, and Circus Surprise. He lives with his family in New Hampshire. Visit him online at ralphfletcher.com.

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    • 4/5
      Some of the quotes in this book are great. She also wrote the Writer's Notebook. I believe she may be writer of children's books.

    Book preview

    Live Writing - Ralph Fletcher

    1

    THE WRITER’S TOOLBOX

    My wife gave me a gas grill for Father’s Day. I was pleased by this gift until I noticed that all the pieces came packed into a small box.

    It does have to be assembled, but it shouldn’t be hard, my wife told me. The guy at the store said it wouldn’t take more than forty-five minutes or so.

    I groaned. I have never been much good when it comes to putting stuff together or building things around the house. Saws, tape measures, wrenches, and power tools all give me a bad case of die willies. I usually avoid buying any appliance or toys that have to be put together.

    Forty-five minutes, huh? I needed five solid hours to figure out the directions and put the gas grill together. By the end I practically had smoke coming out of my ears.

    My father-in-law, on the other hand, can fix just about anything. The year after I wrestled with that gas grill, he gave me a toolbox as a birthday present. Inside I found three different kinds of screwdrivers, two wrenches, and a set of needlenose pliers.

    It’s hard to fix anything without the right tools, he told me. Every year I’ll buy you a few more tools for this toolbox, and I’ll show you how to use them. It’s not rocket science. Little by little you’ll learn.

    Here’s the most amazing thing: it worked! Now that I had the tools, I could actually fix some simple stuff. No, I’m not about to go out and build a house, but I’m getting better. I’m no longer afraid to repair a screen door or replace rotted boards on our deck. I’m gaining confidence and even enjoying it once in a while. My father-in-law was right: having the right tools made all the difference.

    This book is based on the simple idea that every writer has a toolbox. Instead of awls and hammers, a writer’s toolbox contains words, imagination, a love of books, a sense of story, and ideas for how to make the writing live and breathe. I wrote this book to give you some practical strategies to throw into your toolbox. I hope you’ll try them, because these are ideas that can make you a better writer.

    This book is titled Live Writing, and you may be wondering what I mean by that. Most of us have read (and written!) the opposite kind of writing—dull, drab language that is about as interesting to read as a city phone book. By live writing I mean the kind of writing that has a current running through it—energy, electricity, juice. When we read live writing, the words seem to lift off the page and burrow deep inside us. My goal in writing this book is to help you make your writing come alive.

    Has this ever happened to you? You’re in gymnastics class, trying to do a vault for the first time. All the kids are edgy: vaulting looks hard and scary. But one kid looks eager. And when his turn comes, he goes flying toward the vault, hits it, spins into the air, flips over, and lands on his feet. For a second or two everybody watching forgets to breathe.

    The ability to vault, ski, hit a golf ball, sing an opera, fix a doorbell, or draw a human figure seems to come easily for certain people. People like that don’t seem to struggle or practice like the rest of us; they’re just good at whatever it is. We say She’s a natural tennis player as if that person were born knowing how to breathe, drink milk, and hit a two-handed backhand smash.

    The same thing is true for writing. Maybe you’ve known a boy who can dash off a report at the last minute and still get an A. Or a girl who can write circles around everyone else in the class without even trying. All the stuff most people sweat—organizing ideas, using interesting vocabulary, finding a snappy conclusion—is a cinch for that person. Hanging around such people can become pretty annoying.

    Once I was lucky enough to spend a summer day with Cynthia Rylant, who is one of my very favorite writers. Rylant has published many different kinds of writing—poems, picture books, novels—and I was terribly curious about how she goes about the process of writing.

    How often do you have to revise what you’ve written? I asked her.

    Oh, I don’t revise much at all, she said. For me it usually comes out right the first time I write it. I guess I’m lucky that way.

    I felt like throwing up.

    Here’s the good news: most of us are not born writers. We were not born with a pencil in our tiny fingers. And very rarely do the words flow clear and sparkling the first time we try to write them down.

    Most of us have to work at our writing.

    That’s the kind of writer I am, and I am not ashamed of it. I’m not a natural. Not a born writer. I have had to work hard to become the kind of writer I want to be. And I’m still not there yet.

    I think of myself as a student, a craftsman, an apprentice. Like any apprentice, I know I have to learn my trade the old-fashioned way.

    How? First, by writing. A book such as this one can be helpful, but I believe that the best way to learn is by doing. I need to be writing on a regular basis, every day if possible. The writer’s motto should be: Never a day without a line of writing.

    Second, I seek out books and writers I can learn from. Cynthia Rylant, William Steig, Katherine Paterson, Gary Soto, Ken Kesey, Toni Morrison, and Jack London are just a few of the authors I admire. These writers are vastly different from one another, and I have learned different things from each of them. As I read and reread their books I think of myself as standing right beside their shoulder while they work.

    Third, I need ideas about what makes writing work. I care so much about my writing that I want to make it better. But how? How do I craft a lead sentence that will grab my readers? How can I create characters who come to life on the page? How can I let readers get a real sense of where my story is taking place? How can I make my voice, the sound of my writing, natural and authentic?

    If you want to improve your writing, this book is for you. Perhaps you like to write but you have the feeling that your writing lacks something. In these pages you’ll find dozens of practical tools for improving your writing. We’ll break your writing into parts, examine each part, and then help you put it back together again.

    Each chapter concerns one particular aspect of writing: beginnings, endings, character, et cetera. The examples I use come mainly from three places: the writing of other young writers like you, writing by published authors, and my own work. These are not just theories; these strategies have made me a much better writer. And you can use them not only in fiction and personal narrative but also in poetry, nonfiction, and even persuasive writing.

    HOW TO USE THIS BOOK

    There’s no one way to read this book. You might decide to read the chapters in sequence. But it could be that you’re more interested in sharpening your leads than in creating a sense of place. In that case, you may prefer to skip around and start by reading the chapters in which you’re most interested.

    You might read the book quickly, cover to cover. But you might find it more useful to stop after you read a chapter, go back to your writing, and actually try out some of the suggested strategies.

    Some people read with pen in hand, taking notes as they go along to list ideas, books, excerpts, and so

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