Mary Amato

Writing with Humor, Heart, & Grit

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Judith Viorst on Writing

September 20, 2013 by Mary Amato Leave a Comment

Read Jessica Goldstein’s engaging interview with Judith Viorst in the Sept 1 issue of The Washington Post. Here are my favorite excerpts:

“‘I am obnoxiously disciplined,’ said Viorst… Viorst gives herself quotas. She polishes the pages. She tells the children whose classrooms she visits that ‘I’m not a writer. I’m a rewriter. I go over and over and over. A million times.'”

and

“Writing, she said, hasn’t gotten easier with time, and one of the biggest misconceptions about children’s books is that they take little effort or brainpower to produce. … ‘I don’t count on inspiration,’ she said. ‘Inspiration follows pushing yourself, pushing yourself, pushing yourself.’

Filed Under: Writer's Blog Tagged With: Jessica Goldstein, Judith Viorst, revision, writing tips

Exformation

July 24, 2013 by Mary Amato Leave a Comment

“…great short stories and great jokes have a lot in common. Both depend on what communication theorists sometimes call exformation, which is a certain quantity of vital information removed from but evoked by a communication in such a way as to cause a kind of explosion of associative connections within the recipient.”

–David Foster Wallace on humor in Kafka.

Filed Under: Writer's Blog Tagged With: David Foster Wallace, exformation, humor, writing tips

Slicing a Yam

June 18, 2013 by Mary Amato Leave a Comment

Yes, I collect beautiful sentences. Here are two from Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.

One character describing the way another character speaks: “It reminded him of slicing a yam with a newly sharpened knife, the easy perfection in every slice.”

Describing how a boy from a rural village describes his first sight of the larger, affluent town:  “…how the bungalows here were painted the color of the sky and sat side by side like polite well-dressed men, how the hedges separating them were trimmed so flat on top that they looked like tables wrapped with leaves.”

from Half of a Yellow Sun

Filed Under: Writer's Blog Tagged With: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, writing tips

Accidents and Obsessions

January 19, 2013 by Mary Amato Leave a Comment

hairspray

“I never purposely thought I was making a movie that was any more commercial than any of the other ones. I was just accidentally obsessed with something that was appealing to more people.” John Waters on Hairspray in an interview in The Washington Post (1/19/13). My italics.

Love the way he puts this. Reminds me of why it’s better to follow your personal obsessions and passions rather than trying to write the hit.

Filed Under: Writer's Blog

Hearing through New Ears

January 16, 2013 by Mary Amato Leave a Comment

Mary Amato reading in Jefferson City, MOAt the 2013 Golden Globes, Quentin Tarantino (Django Unchained) thanked a group of friends to whom he reads his scenes aloud. “You don’t tell me what I’m doing wrong…” he said. “Reading it to you helps me to hear it through your ears.” So important! But kind of hard to find friends who have the time to sit and listen to you read an entire novel aloud, eh? Well, whenever I teach a writing class, I always encourage students to read their own work aloud and imagine that the room is filled with an audience. If you are able to put yourself into the mindset of your audience while you’re reading, you will be hearing your work as if for the first time and you’ll discover lots of mistakes–and insights– for revision.

Filed Under: Writer's Blog Tagged With: Mary Amato, Quentin Tarantino, reading aloud, writing tip

Wish Poems

December 18, 2012 by Mary Amato Leave a Comment

See my guest post about writing wish poems on the Pencil Tips Writing Blog.

Filed Under: Writer's Blog

What Should I Write?

December 12, 2012 by Mary Amato 7 Comments

Writers who want to cross that threshold from amateur to professional often ask whether they should focus their attention on a project that seems marketable or write whatever they want to write. Look at it this way…whatever you write might not get published, even if you believe it is a marketable idea; so why not spend your time writing what really speaks to you? Write what you need to write.

“Go to your bosom, knock there, and ask your heart what it doth know” (William Shakespeare, Measure For Measure), and remember amateur comes from the Latin lover.

Filed Under: Writer's Blog Tagged With: writing tip, writing tips

A Letter to your Children

October 22, 2012 by Mary Amato 3 Comments

 

After giving my SCBWI talk, which included a personal story about how I had wished my mother had written me a letter before she died, I came home and took a walk with my husband along the canal. I spotted this piece of graffiti. I have already written my letters. If you’ve been thinking about it, take a moment and write yours. They can be very short. “I love you” goes a long way.

Filed Under: Writer's Blog

Stuck?

October 17, 2012 by Mary Amato Leave a Comment

A student wrote to me saying that she was having trouble with the climax and ending for her story.

My advice?

Try writing out a simple outline of what happens in the story. Work on that outline so the story make sense and comes to an ending that you like. Don’t write a new scene or revise an old one until you’re really happy with the outline.

Filed Under: Writer's Blog

How to write when your character is a little crazy

August 10, 2012 by Mary Amato Leave a Comment

pencil amato write e

I am hard at work on the next novel, and I’m using a different process. Usually I find the voice of the novel first (Is it the voice of the main character? Is it the voice of a narrator?) and then I write my rough draft in the voice. So, I started this project by writing in the voice of my main character, but it quickly became difficult. What is happening in my character’s life is emotionally hot and overwhelming; and so I found that her energy was too scattered and unstable to follow. My story wasn’t moving forward; it was just a hurricane of her thoughts and anxieties. So, I gave my character a sedative and put her to bed and then I wrote a rough draft in a completely unattached voice, just describing what was happening to her. Behold: a coherent plot emerged. Now that I know what the story is about, I’m revising from the beginning, releasing her voice, allowing her to be fully present in her completely whacked out way.

Filed Under: Writer's Blog Tagged With: Teaching and Learning, writing process, writing tips

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Humor and Heart

I give voice to the funny, sad, messy, and wondrous stories of life, especially the stories of children and young adults. My mission: each book has humor and heart. If you are a teen and/or you're looking for info about my books and music for older readers, please check out my www.thrumsociety.com site.
Learn more about my mission and resources.

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