Another night in America.
One of the nice things that is happening is the opportunity to sit down and have a think about the information that I’ve been collecting. I have notes all over the place about things that I want to use in my D’Lila stories but its not enough to just keep on adding more and more notes. At some time you have to find a place and start to really make sense of what you have. Today I’ve been re-reading notes from the places I’ve visited and the books here that I’ve seen and I thought I could share them as we go…. especially since they will become D’lila books sometime soon.
So…one of the things that I’ve been thinking about – while I am busy wandering around in a park or doing the washing like I’m doing today – is how to bring D’lila, who is an Australian girl to have adventures here. It’ll be fine so long as I can write D’lila from the way I’m finding things. Like squirrels – now they’re not that special here. You know, there’s squirrels hopping up and across the grass and up trees and doing little freezy things on the bark so you don’t see them – and I just love them. My camera is full of photos of squirrels in different positions but…and this is the bit that I’ll probably start to work with… I don’t think Nanny-Anny, D’lila’s guardian, will love them too much. In fact, I think she might actually get very scared by the way the skittle around…a bit like being afraid of mice (if you’re me). So…I have a beginning in a sort-of way…the other thing will be to make sure I am able to paint the picture of what the surrounding are like here. The trees are really, really huge so I think they’ll need to be in the story as well….and then I’ll have to decide what this story is about….it might be about being brave enough to admit that you’re scared right now. It might be about giving something up because of somebody else’s fear…not sure yet but these are the things that are keeping me on track while I’m here….at the moment its’ the squirrel outline.
The other thing that is keeping me busy are the library visits so I can sit down and read and read and read to see how American books differ from Australian ones. One of the things that it is important to be able to do, if you’re an Australian author, is write books that are strong enough and fun enough to sell into other countries. So I need to be sure that what I’m writing is going to be fun for kids here as well as in Australia. I like to look and see what topics are important to children here, and what issues kids are facing (and, a bit like all of us, bullying is still a big look in). Fun’s high of the list as well and I found a wonderful book written by Shel Silverstein called Runny Babbit, a billy sook by Shel Silverstein! At the end of this blog I’ll add one of the verses…and, let me tell you, I would never have found it if I had gone looking around in the library. Then, of course, I had to find the book shop to be able to buy it. I know there’s a lot of people who say that you only have to look on one of the book sites but…hey….I didn’t even know this book was there until I was able to browse around and choose colours and covers that I liked…and titles that appealed to me.
I’ve also been finding games and magazines that will work for story starters. I’ll be working up the games into lessons when I come back home and the magazines will be cut up and sorted and, again, some new lessons and ideas posted up for you to use. We went to a Science museum today that had all sorts of good ideas for playing science at home (like how to mix up fake blood and make a huge, make-up fake scab!). I thought I could do this too – make a list of some great ways to get involved with story making that are a bit different from the ones that we have in Australia – and not necessarily scabby.
So, my first offering for some fun at home is from Shel Silverstein…if you look carefully and say the title out loud you’ll see it is a play around with the words…’Bunny Rabbit’ (Runny Babbit). You can do this too….’Bad Cat = Cad Bat – excuse me, what is a Cad Bat…it might be a cheeky fruit bat that is always saying it will do one thing and then not do it at all! How about ‘Fluffy Cat – Cluffy Fat…I like cluffy – this is a good word but I’m not sure about Fat…it could be someone’s name, it could be oinky stuff that grows in mounds and moulds along the sides of old puddles….I don’t know…have a play – see what you come up with. Look for simple words that can easily switch around, use the dictionary and a pin and eyes-closed to find a word, find a farm dictionary, find some describing words….have a bash.
And to get you going….here’s one of my favourites from my new American book.
RUNNY HEEDS FIMSELF
When Ramma Mabbit started teachin’
Runny how to eat,
He ficked his pood up with his ears,
He wasn’t nery veat.
The sood all flipped, the drilk all mipped,
“That’s pot nolite,” Said Maw.
“Never use your ears, my dear –
That’s why Pod gave us gaws.” by Shel Silverstein.