The most remarkable part of Lena’s story as a demonstration of the power of dialogue is the last quarter, where four characters respond to a traumatic event. This section, beginning with the “No!” spoken by the narrator and continuing to the end, depends heavily on dialogue. It could almost be a play. Notice that, although the lines spoken by Sandy, Carrie, Mom, the narrator, and Mrs. Hall are often very short, we get a clear sense of how each character differs from the others and how they relate to each other as family, friends, and neighbors. This is accomplished through the narrative that accompanies the dialogue.
Teaching Writing
Juvenilia: an introduction via Jane Austen, the Brontës and others
Juvenilia is the name given to creative work produced by recognized authors and artists when they were children and young adults. The late eighteenth and early nineteenth century was a fruitful time for juvenilia, especially that of writers. Jane Austen, the Brontë family, and Dante Gabriel Rossetti, amongst others, among others, wrote extensively when they were young. Many of their manuscripts have survived, and a few are available on the Internet. The childhood and adolescent creative work of authors who became famous provides interesting comparison with the work of children and students we know in our lives. As editors of Stone Soup we have published extraordinary work by young writers, work that compares favorably with the best juvenilia. What makes writers, though, is not what they write as children and teenagers, but that they keep on telling stories throughout their lives. The juvenilia you will find on the Internet, in your local libraries and in the creative work publish in the pages of Stone Soup will provide entertainment for yourself, for your children, and for your students. And remember, after getting lost in the world of Jane Austen and the Brontë family, come back to us for the latest and most wonderful work by young people, being written today! To get you started on your journey through juvenilia, we have pulled together some links for you below. If you are interested in the original manuscripts, many of them tiny, handmade and handwritten books belonging to the authors, the British Library web pages have some excellent images and short articles of and about them. Jane Austen (1775-1817) Love and Freindship [sic], circa 1786, age 11 (see also our post on the 2016 movie by Whit Stillman with the same name, but actually based on a later novel, Lady Susan) Frederick and Elfrida, circa 1788, age 12-14 The Three Sisters, circa 1790, age 15-16 You can read more about Jane Austen’s juvenilia, and see images of some of her original hand-written notebooks, at the British Library website. Charlotte Brontë (1816-1855), Emily Brontë (1818-1848), Ann Brontë (1820-1849), (and Bramwell Brontë, 1817-1848) The young sisters and their brother created entire imaginary worlds–such as Emily’s Gondal and Bramwell’s Angria– which they wrote about prolifically in their youth, and produced tiny handwritten newspapers and magazines for themselves. The Brontë Sisters Web by Mitsuharu Matsuoka More links from Great Britain about the Brontës There are notes about and images of the Brontës’ notebooks, and an interesting video of a discussion about the Brontës’ juvenilia (in which experts handle the tiny original materials), at the British Library website. Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882) Poems written around 1843, age 14-15
A young author talks about getting published: Tara Prakash, 11
After we featured her self-published book, The Hunting Season, in our Saturday Newsletter, we asked its young author Tara Prakash to write something for us about the process she went though. From here, it’s over to Tara. The Hunting Season by Tara Prakash, age 11 I got inspired to write The Hunting Season when I went to Wyoming and explored Yellowstone and Grand Tetons National Parks. We saw a lot of bears on that trip and I kept wondering what they were thinking about and what was in their heads.That was when The Hunting Season was born. So when I got home, I wrote on Microsoft Word a story about what I thought the bears would be thinking about, what their fears were and what events exploded excitement into them. I wrote whenever I could. Between my soccer practices and basketball games, every open time I got, I would sit at the computer and write. The plot never got boring or the long amount of time it took to write in never got to be too much. I sometimes got frustrated though, when parts of the plot didn’t match up, like a puzzle piece that didn’t fit. My parents’ friend, who is a self published author, told us about Create Space, the self publishing company. Then, my nanny and I uploaded the Word document into Create Space, and Create Space helped us format the book; we scanned my cover artwork so it would show, we wrote a summary of the book on the back, choosing the color, font, size, etc. Then, from Create Space, my dad uploaded the book to Amazon and we chose the price to set it at and I wrote my ‘About The Author’ there. After it was out to the public, my dad emailed my school teachers, my friends, my sports team coaches, and family, and family friends. Once my teacher bought it and left a five star review then lots of my friends bought it, leaving reviews and giving me compliments at school. I started the story at age nine and finished the story right as I turned ten. I turned was almost eleven when we got it onto Amazon. If there’s one thing I learned during this whole process, it’s this: Keep on writing. All writing starts with one great idea. You can find a copy of The Hunting Season on Amazon.
