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Text of the page (random words):
n the story don t get angry either amy s grandmother notices her sadness and tells her and her friends stories about eastern dragons perhaps keeping that adult anger in check helps keeps the power and agency with the protagonist because amy uses her grandma s stories as encouragement to take her own steps to solve her problem later kat zhang uses the backmatter to compare and contrast dragons from the two traditions but all the while leaves space for the reader both adult and child to do with it what they will since it stuck so closely to the child s viewpoint nothing in this story feels heavy yet i think both adult and child readers still come away having learned something that has heavy implications after having read this story as an adult reader i am reminded to consider whether i m seeing something only from my own worldview and to wonder what other points of view i might be missing and the child reader i imagine they would learn that there are lots of kinds of dragons and that some are fierce and some are wise and just but mostly i think a child would feel happy along with amy when at the end she shares her own eastern dragon with her classmates illustrator charlene chua shows the joy on the faces of the teacher along with the students this is an inclusive space where amy can express herself so most of all i imagine the child learns that spaces where you can be seen and express yourself freely are good happy spaces if anger was even a tiny fuel in the writing of this story it has clearly been transformed for both adult and child readers there is hope and possibilities forward and all while keeping true to the child s viewpoint have you transformed adult anger into hopeful stories for children what has and hasn t worked for you posted in writer s craft tagged amy wu anger ann braden character development hope picture books point of view writing craft leave a comment image march 19 2014 by jen lynn bailey free writing day one getting back into the habit of daily writing after 8 months of teaching this is what happened when i timed myself doing 20 minutes of freewriting today in the spirit of natalie goldberg s writing down the bones at first there was a great disconnect between my head and my hand one i did not remember with thoughts slowed filtered edited then the two linked up the writing became illegible and i think i may have fallen asleep since writing is likened to dreaming i will count that as a good thing posted in writing life tagged freewriting 1 comment may 21 2013 by jen lynn bailey process my story the story it is an unmatched thing of beauty to have people in my life who are writers i can talk honestly with them about my characters and they aren t concerned for my mental wellbeing i can share with them in the ups and downs of productivity fears passion there is however one thing i have found that is hard to talk about that s process perhaps it s because i m a new writer and i don t have a process to speak of perhaps it s because i fear restricting myself in that way this is my process when it may just be my process for this particular story perhaps it s because i fear that i should have a process and don t want to admit that really i have no idea what the heck i m doing just when i think i have my story nailed down i m back in the thick of it again process is the way in which a story is birthed we all do different things in order to conceive of a story sharon darrow wrote about hearing a voice that comes from a specific place and how those are inseparable ingrid sundberg is a proponent of method writing and inhabits her character even dying her hair if need be l marie is also doing a series about writers processes and so i think it s safe to say that we all do things differently i have made origami birds surrounded myself with bird photos poems taken long walks in the forest this has been helpful to me in terms of story conception but birthing birthing is a different matter last week i wrote very little but what i did write was fierce and it was resonant and after i wrote it i felt a sense of relief and closure i even said to a writing friend i think i have it now i think i have a full arc what i realized though was that while i do now have a full arc it is not my character s arc it is my arc i have figured out where this story comes from in me but now i have to move this thing from my story to the story and so i wonder when we re muddling through our works in progress do we need to find our own closure before we can shift and find closure for our character most of all i wonder am i now in a place to surrender to my character i feel like i ve been in a tug of war and i think i m dropping my end of the rope but i ve said that before i hope she takes that rope and runs who knows this time i might pick up my pen and follow her posted in writing life tagged process writing writing life 7 comments may 10 2013 by jen lynn bailey picture books protagonists and the wonder that is kevin henkes part 3 in parts 1 and 2 i shared the beginning of an essay about the apparent lapse kevin henkes had in keeping to the cardinal rule of letting the protagonist solve his or her own problem i was perplexed by the emotional resonance of his stories and wondered how this was achieved here s the last part of my essay robert mckee identifies a variation of the typical protagonist structure that he calls the plural protagonist here all individuals in the group share the same desire and in the struggle to achieve this desire they mutually suffer and benefit if one has a success all benefit if one has a setback all suffer motivation action and consequence are communal mckee 136 it appears that owen and his parents may be plural protagonists they both have the desire for the happiness and security of owen and this can be achieved when owen gets to keep his blanket we see through the pictures that the parents are just as distressed as owen at each of the attempts to rid him of the blanket thus the suffering is communal and when the mother solves the problem they all benefit the story is empowering and resonates with the reader because of this plural protagonist set up in sheila rae the brave louise and sheila rae may act as plural protagonists while louise does not appear in the text for six pages we see from the way henkes draws her eyes and positions her body that she is truly frightened while sheila rae performs her brave feats we can tell right away that sheila rae s desire is to always be brave but when sheila rae calls louise a scaredy cat louise whispered am not thereby showing the reader that her desire too is to be brave what is not so clear is how success and setbacks are communal in this work it almost seems that when sheila rae is brave louise doesn t have to be but when sheila rae can t be brave louise can be at the end louise states that they are both brave and fearless and they fearlessly walk backward into their home together it s as though at first there is not room enough for both to be brave but in the end there is while initially all three of henkes stories appeared to have protagonists who were short changed of their own empowering ending it is clear that henkes tweaked the typical protagonist norms to achieve reader satisfaction in both owen and sheila rae the brave he did this by linking two sets of characters together in a way that allowed them all to benefit the beauty of this technique comes from the fact that henkes eludes to an interconnectedness and sense of community in his work and this resonates with the reader there you have it my essay in three parts to me the idea of plural protagonists opens up a world of possibilities i believe in community and connectedness and am excited to explore how emotional resonance can be achieved when characters work in tandem rather than alone what thoughts questions or possibilities has it opened up to you btw check out ingrid s notes on the idea of working with connection it s a great post essay references henkes kevin chrysanthemum new york greenwillow books 1991 print henkes kevin owen new york greenwillow books 1993 print henkes kevin sheila rae the brave new york greenwillow books 1987 print lamb nancy the writers guide to crafting stories for children cincinnati oh writer s digest books 2001 print mckee robert story substance structure style and the principles of screenwriting new york itbooks 1997 print paul ann w writing picture books a hands on guide from story creation to publication cincinnati ohio writer s digest books 2009 print posted in writer s craft tagged community connection kevin henkes owen picture books plural protagonists robert mckee sheila rae 3 comments may 9 2013 by jen lynn bailey picture books protagonists and the wonder that is kevin henkes part 2 in part 1 i introduced chrysanthemum owen and sheila rae three of henkes creations it appears as though in each of these stories he breaks one of the cardinal rules of writing for children that the protagonist should solve his or her own problem but there is still emotional resonance in them how did he do this perhaps the protagonist is not who we think they are conventionally the protagonist of the story is introduced first his or her desire is shown to us upfront along with a concrete owen problem they have to solve they overcome obstacles that stand in their way and they resolve the problem in owen the reader sees how important the blanket is to him through text and pictures we see that the parents don t mind that he carries around this blanket judging by their neutral expressions on the third page the parents are introduced into the text on the fourth page along with mrs tweezers and suddenly owen has a problem but so do the parents could they be the protagonists of this story like typical protagonists the parents try to resolve the problem and each attempt fails then the mother gets the idea to cut up the blanket she solves the problem and so it seems that two possibilities exist 1 owen is not the true protagonist this story is about the adults and how they are influenced by mrs tweezers but how they care enough for owen to find a creative solution to the problem or 2 there are two protagonists and as long as one of them solves the problem the ending is satisfying sheila rae the brave it seems that henkes did a similar thing with the story of sheila rae the sister louise isn t mentioned in the text until the sixth page but the reader can see her astonishment at the bravery of sheila rae in the illustrations from the first page louise has her own story that is only visible from the pictures she wishes she could be as brave as sheila rae when sheila rae needs her she s there and she shows that she really is brave by leading the way home again the possibilities are that 1 sheila rae is not the true protagonist louise is or 2 there are two protagonists and the resolution by one of them results in a satisfying ending as owen and sheila rae both have their own set of desires and are introduced early in the story as is the norm for the protagonist the second possibility deserves further investigation in tomorrow s final instalment we ll look more closely at that second possibility and at what robert mckee calls plural protagonists posted in writer s craft tagged character chrysanthemum kevin henkes owen plural protagonists protagonist robert mckee sheila rae writer s craft 3 comments may 8 2013 by jen lynn bailey picture books protagonists and the wonder that is kevin henkes part 1 owen sheila rae the brave chrysanthemum i ve been looking at picture books again lately and i dug up this essay i wrote while at vcfa as it s somewhat long i thought it best to split it up into instalments posted throughout the week i ll provide references at the end part 1 looks at the way in which henkes appears to break one of the cardinal rules of writing for children one of the cardinal rules of children s literature is that in order for our stories to have satisfying endings the protagonist must solve his or her own problems unfortunately as ann whitford paul explains too often in writing for children a wise and well meaning adult steps in to show the way paul 111 kevin henkes appears to break this rule in his books chrysanthemum owen and sheila rae the brave yet chrysanthemum is the only of the three that truly falls flat in terms of a satisfying empowering ending how does henkes pull it off in the other two stories he does it with a twist the protagonist is not who you think they are this essay will first closely examine the breaking of the above rule and then pinpoint the way in which henkes managed to deliver a satisfying ending in both owen and sheila rae the brave the story of chrysanthemum is about a young mouse who is given the perfect name by her parents she fully believes this until she goes to school where she is teased and taunted because her name is too long and too flowery each day she comes home downtrodden her parents build her up with hugs kisses food and parcheesi but each night she has a dream that shows she isn t quite over it finally a new beloved pregnant teacher comes to the school and reveals that she has a flower name too in fact if she has a girl she is considering naming her chrysanthemum suddenly everyone wants a long flower name too and chrysanthemum s problem goes away chrysanthemum is a passive observer in this story and does nothing at all to solve the problem of the teasing and taunting the only thing that can be said is that chrysanthemum simply was chrysanthemum and everything turned out all right in the end although this speaks to empowering children to be who they are mrs twinkles still came in and saved the day without her the taunting would have continued in the story owen owen has a blanket that he loves and carries around with him everywhere no one seems to think this is a problem until the neighbor mrs tweezers alerts the parents that this isn t appropriate the parents try three strategies to get the blanket away from owen first owen reacts overtly he stuffs the blanket under his shirt at night when the blanket fairy is supposed to come and replace it with a big boy toy his parents could not get rid of the blanket as a result then he ignores the vinegar dousing trick by sticking the corner of his blanket in the garden and in his sandbox but in the end when owen s parents say no owen just cries he has no other way around the problem who takes over the mother does she cuts up the blanket into handkerchief like pieces and owen continues to carry the blanket around thanks to her great idea mrs tweezers thinks this is an acceptable alternative perhaps one could argue that owen s crying was an active way to get what he wanted but this is not the case henkes is extremely gifted at showing the reader the underlying emotions with cleverly drawn eyes and mouths and the eyes owen has when comforted by his parents are sad not sneaky or triumphant here crying equates to giving...