“When you’re choosing a book to read, you want to think about yourself. Ask yourself, ‘Who am I?’ ‘What are my interests?’ These questions will help you pick a book to read.”
This is a quotation from something Hadley wrote when she was in 4th grade. I think it illustrates quite well how different my oldest daughter and I are. Hadley is a solid, old soul. I live like I’m brand new. If someone asked me how to pick out a book to read in 4th grade, I’d break out into a sweat and probably start to cry.
This has to do in part with the experience I had in school growing up. Beginning in first grade, I was told what I could and couldn’t read, and this was based on a test score. So between the ages of 6 and 23, I learned that whatever I brought to the page was not enough. Thinking about myself and what I might be interested in would never occur to me.
It wasn’t until a January morning when I was newly Mrs. Feyen and newly a teacher and standing in a small library in the one hallway school I taught in that two 11-year-old girls gave me back to myself:
“What do you like to read, Mrs. Feyen?” they asked. “We need some recommendations.”
That afternoon, I paid a visit to the public library where a librarian kindly showed me to the Newbery section. I took a road trip with Sal and her grandparents. I sat in Oklahoma during the Dust Bowl with Billie Jo and I thought about poetry. I traveled to medieval England and became an apprentice to a midwife. I learned, along with Jonas, the importance and vitality of memories. I went to Galilee during the time of Jesus and also to Connecticut during the Salam Witch Trials.
All these years later, it is the library that might be the only place where I can enter exactly how I am and with no requirements, no standards reached, no answers obtained, and I can pick as many stories on whatever subjects I choose. It is the library where I can ask myself not only, “Who am I?” but, “What would I like to become?”
We are 48 hours from turning over a New Year. There’s no doubt 2020 has thrown us all an infinite amount of curve balls and I think many of us might be anxious making any plans. Except when it comes to who we are becoming, there’s no stopping that. Find a few stories to help you along the way.
Those of you who have stories following you around begging you to shake them loose, here are some of my favorite books on writing:
The Art of the Essay: From Ordinary Life to Extraordinary Words I think this book is fantastic. You can read and get five free reading/writing prompts here, and the book itself is filled with lessons on how to write an essay. I refer to it often.
Reading Like a Writer: A Guide For People Who Love Books and For Those Who Want to Write Them – I picked this one up over a decade ago, and it is hefty, but totally worth having on your bookshelf throughout your writing career. Each chapter takes a look at an aspect of language: Words, Sentences, Narration, Dialogue…..
On Writing Well: The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction I bought this book in Charleston, SC in a used bookstore called Blue Bicycle Books which I think is just the cutest name for a bookstore. This book is part method, part inspiration. It is the kind of book that will seep into your writing probably without you knowing it. I think it’s like having a great meal – both food and friend/family wise – and knowing the evening will stay with you for a long time, but being unsure why, exactly.
The Art of Memoir I adore Mary Karr. Every time I read or refer to this book, I get schooled. She’s taken her lectures and written them into a book, so it’s for sure a “teacher-like” style, but she’s the kind of teacher you’d want to rise to the occasion for.
The Common Reader This is our girl Virginia Woolf, who doesn’t suffer fools, and who basically knows all the things about writing. In the first conversation I ever had with Lauren Winner, she asked me which books I read, and it felt a lot like sitting in the doctor’s office and having her ask me if I’m eating my veggies and putting on sunscreen. “Get a copy of The Common Reader,” she told me, and it kind of felt like she was sending me to detention, but anyway, I got it. It’s a fabulous little book, but it is intimidating. It’s not the kind of thing you can read before bed. uch like Reading Like a Writer, in that McEntyre takes one aspect of language except she writes from the perspective of being stewards of it. So yes, we ought to write well, as Francine Prose suggests, but McEntyre raises the stakes and suggests that we ought to write well in order to be good stewards; in order to commune with one another, and keep in communion with one another. I think it’s an important read for those of us who think of storytelling as a vocation.
Handling the Truth This is another one like Zinsser’s and Karr’s. Loads of great information and ideas here, and the writing is accessible and warm. I refer to it often.
A Syllable of Water: Twenty Writers of Faith Reflect on their Art This book does explore the intersection of faith and writing, but I don’t believe it is exclusive to that of Christians. However, because I do practice the Christian faith, I could be biased. I do think that first and foremost, the book explores strong writing, and the importance of strong writing (much like McEntyre does). But the writers do look at it from a lens of Christian faith. So, for example, they think of revision as a form of redemption. Obviously, it’s not THEE redemption, but it is a way to feel and experience a redemption of sorts.
Here’s to a year of becoming.
And for those of you who have stories you’ve written and are looking for an editor, check out my Manuscript and Editing Critique page.
Hiring Callie as a writing coach was the best decision I made after finishing the second draft of my novel. I knew I needed a trained eye who could help me see blindspots. Callie’s manuscript and character analyses were so helpful, and her recommendations strengthened my manuscript overall. The best part was our call, after she’d read and edited the manuscript, where we got to talk shop and I could ask her all my questions! Her feedback was invaluable and she was so incredibly encouraging. Working with Callie was the boost I needed to finish getting my manuscript ready to submit! – Joy Thompson
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