How to Catch a Reader: Make Up Cool (Fibs) Stuff! • by Natascha Biebow

From Calvin & Hobbes by Bill Waterson

Can you tell the truth from a bunch of made-up imaginings, er . . . fibs, when someone is spinning a really good yarn? Do your stories masquerade as believable ‘truths’?

One of the most admired qualities of storytellers is their amazing ability to convince readers that their yarns could be true, and maybe really ARE true . . .

This is because the premise and their characters are believable, which makes readers want to go the story’s journey. And, in doing so, they are helping readers to figure out some important stuff about their world.

Take REALLY REALLY by Kes Gray and Nick Sharratt:

When Daisy gets a babysitter for the first time, she eats her mum's note and tells the her sitter all kinds of more and more elaborate fibs – testing, testing, but also working her way through this new experience. All the while, her fingers are safely crossed behind her back!

From Really, Really by Kes Gray and Nick Sharratt

In OLIVIA SAVES THE CIRCUS by Ian Falconer, Olivia is invited by her teacher to tell the class about her holiday. 

The story starts innocuously enough – Olivia’s mum took her and her brother to the circus. But then . . .

. . .  the circus people were off sick and only Olivia could do all the acts!

She was Olivia the Tattooed Lady, Olivia the Lion Tamer, Olivia the Tight-rope Walker, the Clown, and Olivia the Queen of the Trampoline, and Madame Olivia and her trained dogs. She was FAMOUS!

From Olivia Saves the Circus by Ian Falconer

From Olivia Saves the Circus by Ian Falconer

Olivia’s teacher is skeptical. “Are you sure, Olivia?”

“To the best of my recollection.”

From Olivia Saves the Circus by Ian Falconer

Her deadpan response is of course what makes the story humorous, however, it is also a beautifully observed picture of the lying game.

So why do children (and grown-ups) tell fibs and stories?

Young children can’t actually tell the difference between a fact and a lie until they are around two years old. This is because they don’t have the ability to get into another person’s shoes yet. The first lies they learn to tell are those where they say they deny doing something.

From the age three, young children also begin to tell white lies, such as to hide a surprise or to thank someone for a present even when they don’t really like it.

Take the classic NO ROSES FOR HARRY by Gene Zion and Margaret Blog Graham. 

Harry is a white dog with black spots. On his birthday, he is given a lovely homemade jumper from Grandma. But it has roses on it. “It was the silliest sweater he’d ever seen.”

From No Roses for Harry by Gene Zion and Margaret Bloy Graham

THE LIE: It wouldn’t do to tell Grandma. Harry wears the sweater dutifully, but he’s sure the other dogs will laugh at him. 

From No Roses for Harry by Gene Zion and Margaret Bloy Graham

Eventually, the sweater unravels and a bird makes a nest out of the wool. Harry doesn't tell anyone.

From No Roses for Harry by Gene Zion and Margaret Bloy Graham

But then: disaster! Grandma is coming to visit!

From No Roses for Harry by Gene Zion and Margaret Bloy Graham

THE SORT-OF-TRUTH: Harry feels compelled to show Grandma what’s become of the sweater (she thinks Harry has been incredibly generous). Best of all, at Christmas, Harry gets a new sweater – white with black spots. This time, he loves it!

From No Roses for Harry by Gene Zion and Margaret Bloy Graham

Being able to tell a fib or a believable story is often a way in to becoming socially acceptable, on the finely balanced scales of weighing up right and wrong. It’s also a sign that children are developing important cognitive skills such as ‘theory of mind’, the ability to recognize that others have different beliefs or feelings than they do, which develops slowly in the preschool and kindergarten years.



In Sarah McIntyre's poignant story THE NEW NEIGHBOURS

the whole tower block is convinced that the rats who have moved into the ground floor are "big, dirty, thieveing, dangerous rats" before they have even met them . . .

From The New Neighbours by Sarah McIntrye

But when they finally get to meet the pair of tiny, neat and friendly new neighbours in person, the friends are hugely embarrassed by the rats' kind invitation to come in and share CAKE. Lettuce doesn't want to admit the crazy stories they'd made up, so she fibs:

From The New Neighbours by Sarah McIntrye

So, if I’m a writer, can I fib as much as I like? Will I be believed?

In John Burningham’s JOHN PATRICK NORMAN McHENNESSY, THE BOY WHO WAS ALWAYS LATE, the lines between what is true and what is a fib are seemingly clear until the tables are turned and the grown-up teacher fibs. Or is it everything John has been saying really The Truth?

John Patrick Norman McHennessy spins all kinds of yarns to convince his teacher why he is late for school. He has met a crocodile, a lion and even a tidal wave! Of course, his teacher does not believe him.

From John Patrick Norman McHennessy by John Burningham

But when his teacher is captured by a big hairy gorilla, John replies there are no such things as big hairy gorillas. Who’s telling what truth and what is the fib?

I would venture that telling made-up ‘truths’ is something authors are wired to do. As I tell stories, I reach back into my past, I tell about encounters and observations from last week and dig deep for tales inspired by my childhood. I embroider. My stories are inspired by where I’ve been and where I want to go, and this helps me find my bearing on what is true for me today. By telling stories, I am making something ‘real’, even if it’s a big fat fib, conjuring it up in my mind’s eye.

We tell stories about things we need to be true.  

We tell stories about things we wish were true.

We tell stories to avoid punishment or consequences.

Lying requires the child to hide the truth, plan up a story about it, tell someone about it, and remember it! So, we began practising our storytelling ‘lying’ skills right from when we're preschoolers.

Of course, as children get older they also develop their moral compass, so they can distinguish between right and wrong, what is made-up and what is true. They are encouraged to tell the truth.

Like in THE TRUTH ACCORDING TO ARTHUR, where Arthur tells all kinds of alternative versions of what really happened when he borrowed his brother’s big bike, accidentally wrecked it and scratched Mum’s car. 

An alien did it! . .  . A super cool princess borrowed the bike!

From The Truth According to Arthur by Tim Hopgood and David Tazzyman

The bike was really a robot! . . .

From The Truth According to Arthur by Tim Hopgood and David Tazzyman

Arthur tries bending, stretching, disguising it, hiding, and ignoring The Truth . . . But eventually, when Mum asks what has happened, Arthur looks The Truth straight in the eye and confesses. It’s not nearly as interesting as the stories he was telling, but Mum is pleased he told The Truth.

A fun game I like to play is to imagine what the world will be like in the future. Will it be one where we can fly everywhere rather than use a car on a road? Wouldn’t it be spectacular if I could just go and see my mum in Brazil for a cup of tea and then be back in London in time for dinner? Will robots deliver our post?

If I can’t tell a story or a weensy-fib-imagined truth, I can’t invent the future. If I can’t imagine what we might invent to fill the gaps in our world, to solve our current problems, then I might be powerless to change anything. Stories help young readers feel empowered to imagine and to make stuff up.

When a story resonates, the reader will nod and say, “Yes, that’s true! Now listen to what happened when . . ." and tell his or her version of this ‘truth’. And so we are all linked by a circle of fibs, a circle of stories. (But we should really tell The Truth.)

_________________________________

Natascha Biebow, MBE, Author, Editor and Mentor

Natascha is the author of The Crayon Man (coming in 2019), Elephants Never Forget and Is This My Nose?, editor of numerous award-winning children’s books, and Co-Regional Advisor (Co-Chair) of SCBWI British Isles. She runs Blue Elephant Storyshaping, an editing, coaching and mentoring service aimed at empowering writers and illustrators to fine-tune their work pre-submission. Check out her Cook Up a Picture Book courses!

Digging Deep to Find Your Character's Emotional Journey by Natascha Biebow

Writing is hard. Not only because you have to put your bum on seat and dedicate the hours, not only because you have to dream up super-original ideas with a new take on what’s already been published in a very crowded marketplace, not only because you invest in a story and then someone may not share your vision, but because you have to dig deep inside yourself to be able to seamlessly convey how it really feels to be your character.

So how do you do this? I’ve previously blogged on the importance of asking your characters difficult questions to discover their true motivation, so you can write from a place of knowing. This is an important first step. But, now how can you use this to take readers on a compelling and satisfying emotional journey?

The trick is to BE the character. If you ARE the character, you don’t need to tell the reader all the external stuff that is going on, because they will be in the character’s shoes as well. So you can show not tell.

Get into your character's Olympic running shoes! (From Sky Private Eye and
the Case of the Runaway Biscuit by Jane Clarke & Loretta Schauer)

Stories are about change. So, if there is no conflict, there is no gripping story. In picture books, authors have to set up the problem and resolve it quickly within just 32 pages. There isn’t time or space to ‘tell’ . . . The relatively easy bit is often figuring out the plot arc, the external journey of change. For example, the story is about a runaway gingerbread biscuit, the farmer who has some cows that type, the time Arthur met The Truth, or what happened at Lily and Blue Kangaroo’s birthday party. 

The action in these plots could be interesting . . . but so what?

IF the author writes from a place of knowing and adds an internal emotional journey of change, the story will be one that has heart. 

Readers will experience the character’s thoughts, beliefs and behaviours in the face of adversity. They will become so engulfed by being in the main character’s shoes that they become the character. So, when the character is sad or uncertain, the reader cries and worries for them. When the character laughs, the reader laughs, too.

It can be helpful to break these two story arcs down in two strands, using the three-act structure. For example, in HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU, BLUE KANGAROO! by Emma Chichester Clark:

	ACT ONE	CONFLICT	ACT TWO	BLACK MOMENT	ACT THREE
Plot arc	Best buddies, Lily and Blue Kangaroo are having a birthday party. The theme is pink. Lily dresses top to toe in pink.	Everything is pink themed! Lily is so caught up in her party, she forgets Blue Kangaroo.	Lily’s friends arrive in pink party clothes, give her pink presents, and a magician even conjures up a pink rabbit. Lily loves it!	Mum brings in the birthday cake. It is a pink kangaroo!	Blue Kangaroo tries to make himself pink. When he can’t, he hides in the bedroom. Lily finally misses her special friend. When she finds him, alone wrapped in a blue sock she understands immediately.
Emotional arc	Blue Kangaroo shares everything with Lily – even birthdays.	Blue Kangaroo isn’t sure he likes the pink ribbon Lily ties round his neck.	Blue Kangaroo is the only one who is blue. He bets Lily wishes the magician could make him pink, too.	Blue Kangaroo is NOT pink . . . Lily’s forgotten about him – he falls off the chair in the excitement of the birthday cake moment.	Lily changes into a blue outfit and declares, “I love blue and I love you!” She recognizes that she needs to include Blue Kangaroo. Her friends all admire him, but there is only one Blue Kangaroo – and he is Lily’s.

When you write from the heart, you are right there in the moment with your main character. You don’t have to tell the reader what the character is doing or feeling. The narrative shows it. Like this:

When you successfully tell a story that has a compelling emotional journey, everyone – agents, editors, librarians, booksellers, parents, grandparents and children – will say 'aw' and want to READ IT AGAIN AND AGAIN!

 ________________________

Natascha Biebow
Author, Editor and Mentor

Blue Elephant Storyshaping is an editing, coaching and mentoring service aimed at empowering writers and illustrators to fine-tune their work pre-submission.  

Check out my small-group coaching Cook Up a Picture Book courses! Natascha is also the author of The Crayon Man (coming in 2019!), Elephants Never Forget and Is This My Nose?, editor of numerous award-winning children’s books, and Co-Regional Advisor (Co-Chair) of SCBWI British Isles. 

Openings with a Promise – the Emotional Journey of Your Character • Natascha Biebow

 
I love it when as a writer you realize that other creative people face similar struggles or challenges with their craft. 






Like when I attended the SCBWI conference in LA last summer, I was heartened to hear how Drew Daywalt, the author of the NY Times bestselling The Day the Crayons Quit, waited six years for his agent to find a publisher who ‘got’ his book and wanted to publish it.

 

The Day the Crayons Quit
by Drew Daywalt and Oliver Jeffers

Or like how Jon Klassen of I Want My Hat Back fame was stuck because:

“… I had a problem in that I didn’t like drawing characters. I like drawing scenery and inanimate objects and I especially liked it back then. The challenge of making a piece where the subject wasn’t a living thing was really fun, and I liked how quiet the effect was.”

I Want My Hat Back by Jon Klassen

I recently received a gift. It was one of my favourite kinds of books – the story of a fellow writer. As I savoured the book, its pages, beautifully designed windows into E.B. White’s life and writing, I realized a few things:

Some Writer! by Melissa Sweet

• E.B. White kept a journal and he finished each entry by asking himself a question that he could think about as he was drifting off to sleep.

from Some Writer! The Story of E.B. White by Melissa Sweet

 

from Some Writer! The Story of E.B. White by Melissa Sweet

Yes! This is such a good technique – to mull the questions of the day, of the story, of a stuckness that becomes unstuck in the subconscious of slumber. I love to do that too!

• In his column One Man’s Meat for Harper’s Magazine, he wrote in 1982 about the influence of moving to a farm in Maine, where “confronted by new challenges, surrounded by new acquaintances – including the characters in the barnyard who were later to appear in Charlotte’s Web – I was suddenly seeing, feeling, and listening as a child sees, feels and listens”.

from Some Writer! The Story of E.B. White by Melissa Sweet

I thought about this. As I read on . . .

• It took E.B. White a year of revisions to settle on the iconic opening for Charlotte’s Web. 

Charlotte's Web by E.B. White, illustrated by Garth Williams,
published 1952

In Some Writer!, Sweet includes images of White's original manuscripts, complete with crossings-out and musings in the margins. 

I learned that E.B. White tried at least six different tacks to nail the opening of his most famous book. First:

“Charlotte was a grey spider who lived in the doorway of a barn.”

Then: “I shall speak first of Wilbur.”

Then: “A barn can have a horse in it, and a barn can have a cow in it, and a barn can have hens scratching the chaff and swallows flying in and out through the door – but if a barn hasn’t got a pig in it, it is hardly worth talking about.”

After a year, White wrote: “At midnight, John Arable pulled his boots on, lit a lantern, and walked out the hoghouse.”

Next, he cut to the action: “Where’s Papa going with that hand ax?”

Which was shortened to: “Where’s Papa going with that ax?”

opening chapter from Charlotte's Web by E.B. White

I was struck by this journey to find the way into the story. The story was there all along, wasn’t it, but it was only when White cut to the emotional core of the characters’ emotional journey and told it like child might experience it that it felt right.

In previous blogs about creating compelling openings and using “show, don’t tell”, I wrote about the importance of:

• showing readers through the character’s body language, action and dialogue

• including the answers to the questions who, what and where to create a compelling opening

• clear character motivation – why?

• creating vivid, detailed scenes

But, connecting these elements with

• the promise of the characters’ emotional journey and

• “seeing, feeling, and listening” like a child

is what will really hook readers into the story and get them to keep turning the pages.

When we read the opening line of Charlotte’s Web, these elements come together almost effortlessly. But the weren’t effortless at all . . .! 

E.B. White with his beloved dog

Wow, some writer!

  

________________________

Natascha Biebow
Author, Editor and Mentor

Blue Elephant Storyshaping is an editing, coaching and mentoring service aimed at empowering writers and illustrators to fine-tune their work pre-submission.  Check out my small-group coaching Cook Up a Picture Book courses!

Natascha is also the author of Elephants Never Forget and Is This My Nose?, editor of numerous award-winning children’s books, and Regional Advisor (Chair) of SCBWI British Isles. 

What motivates your characters? by Natascha Biebow

Hmmm, see this cake?

Yes, you know you WANT it.

Why?

Well, it’s delicious and chocolaty and will make writing and illustrating go much more speedily, won’t it?

But do you NEED it?!?

An author recently sent me a story about a bunny character who wants something. “Bunny wants more blerks,” she told me.

“But why?” I asked.

Author: “Because Bunny’s family hasn’t had blerks much and blerks are good.”

Me: “But why are blerks better and why aren’t the other things Bunny’s family had before good enough? . . . Why does Bunny NEED a blerk?”

Author: “Well, um, I’m not sure . . .”

Time for some brainstorming about character motivation.

When I read stories that don’t work, it’s usually because the character’s needs and wants aren’t clear enough, so that when I finish reading the story, I find myself asking, “So what?” This is because I am not taken on the emotional journey that the writer thinks she is taking me on.

For example, another author once sent me a story about a boy who sets off to see the world. He meets all kinds of fantastical creatures, including a one-eyed Irk. Then he meets a kind of octopus monster that nearly eats him up. The Irk (who happens to be nearby) saves him in the nick of time and they go back home.

It’s a perfectly good story with a beginning, middle and end, but what I want to know is WHY did he go on this journey. When the boy gets home, what has he achieved? Yes, he’s met some extraordinary creatures, but so what? What is on the page is a series of discoveries put into a loose sequence, but no real narrative tension or resolution. So, the reader is left feeling a little unsure about what the book is really about and what has been resolved. This story is missing a clearer sense that, as a result of his adventures, the main character has grown and changed, or helped another creature or saved the day in some way, or discovered something extraordinary and useful for all of us, or something that explains why all these fantastical creatures are how they are …

When thinking about motivation, writers need to ask themselves some key questions about their characters in order to figure out the story:

What does your character:

WANT?

NEED?

FEAR?

LOVE?

 . . . Then, dig deeper and ask, “Why?” each time.

You can also think about what your character wears, likes to eat, does all day, etc., but these are all back-story that, in the case of picture books, may not necessarily be essential. But, the more well-rounded the character is in the your head, the more alive it will be for young readers.

The answers to these questions don’t necessarily need to feature in the text, but they do inform the internal logic of the story.

More often than not, once I start asking these questions, the author really does know what motivates her character. But, she hasn’t incorporated this into the book.

To get to the bottom of motivation, writers have to know WHY their character does things.

Why?

If you know why a character behaves in a certain way or what makes them tick, then you are addressing what the character NEEDS. What your character needs informs the emotional plot of your story. The result is a book that carries emotional weight, that so-called ‘aw’ factor that you hear editors bandying about. If you have a book that only has an action plot – what your character WANTS – what you have is a list of actions (like the example above) and the result is a flat story, where the reader doesn’t necessarily want to re-read the book again, because he’s asking ‘so what?’

Also, if you dig deep to find out your character’s motivation, you will make them multi-layered, like real people, and therefore believable. Readers need to know what floats your main character’s boat, what makes him jump out of bed each morning (or not).

So, for instance, in Harry the Dirty Dog by Gene Zion:

Harry WANTS to avoid taking a bath – he even fears it a bit perhaps, I suspect. This leads to the action plot where he goes off exploring and getting dirty. But, what he discovers through the course of his adventures, is that what he really NEEDS is to be loved by his family, and that means taking a bath . . .

Here are some other examples of characters that have clear motivation:

The 3 Little Pigs need . . . 

. . .  to find a new home. Why? To survive the wolf!

Dr Hoof needs... 

to help people. Why?

© Garry Parsons and Diana Kimpton

Because helping people makes him feel good inside (plus he’s a doctor!).

Billy needs . . . 

his parents to listen to him when he tells them there are sea creatures living in his bucket. Why?

 © Garry Parsons and Kes Gray

 © Garry Parsons and Kes Gray

Because if they don’t, he won’t feel valued, plus the sea creatures in his bucket may be endangered.

These motivations lead to ACTION.

If you know your character’s motivation, you can up the ante. You can increase the conflict in your story by putting your character into a situation where his motivation is challenged – his buttons are pushed and you put him under stress.

For instance, in DANDYLION by Lizzie Finlay:

Dandylion is a sunny, exuberant character, who is motivated by a sense of fun and is completely uninhibited. He wants to have a good time at school, and is so unselfconscious that he doesn’t notice he’s different.

 © Lizzie Finlay

The turning point in the story comes when the other children tell him that he is too different, like a weed.

© Lizzie Finlay

All of a sudden, Dandylion’s motivation is challenged. He doesn’t know what is right. Should he conform, or should he forge ahead with being different?

To come out of his muddle, he must first suffer and wrestle with this moral dilemma. 

© Lizzie Finlay

 The emotional plot leads him to change internally and develop emotionally as a result of external action.

© Lizzie Finlay

This is what gives the happy ending weight and takes readers on a satisfying journey.

So, talk to your characters and find out what really motivates them. And maybe offer them a piece of cake.

Natascha Biebow

Author, Editor and Mentor

www.blueelephantstoryshaping.com

Blue Elephant Storyshaping is a coaching service aimed at empowering writers and illustrators to fine-tune their work pre-submission. Natascha is also the author of Elephants Never Forget and Is This My Nose?, editor of numerous award-winning children’s books, and Regional Advisor (Chair) of SCBWI British Isles. Check out my NEW onine picture book coaching courses!