Conversations: Spine and Form

• Truth is an eternal conversation about things that matter, conducted with passion and discipline." ---Parker Palmer

Twitter conversations, on the other hand, are a confounding cacophony about things that matter, conducted with passion and almost no discipline! Yesterday's chat with my editor, Cheryl Klein, was like that, and yes, I enjoyed it tremendously (when my head wasn't spinning.) 


I did try to impose some order for you by posting a transcript here.  I would also like to share two of the questions Cheryl prepared for me in advance (most of which we never got close to getting to) and my answers.


Part of the reason I'm sharing this today is that Linda Urban (CROOKED KIND OF PERFECT, MOUSE WAS MAD) and I are having a nifty conversation about spine and form over on her blog. Linda initiated the back-and-forth, but I had also been thinking about some of the same stuff because of these two questions Cheryl asked me:

• Cheryl: OPERATION YES has a unique structure that alternates two primary points of view through all of the first section (Plan A), then integrates them in Plan B, then spirals out through the world from there. Was this structure pre-planned? If not, how did it evolve? 

Sara:  I think I knew early on that this story was going to be carried by more than one character. After all, how can you write about the power of community through just one POV?

But in the book's beginning, Bo and Gari are focused on themselves, their own POV; it's only when they are jolted into thinking about the bigger picture that that spiraling out happens. And by the very, very end, even the reader of the book is invited to be part of the largest circle.

• Cheryl: You use multiple points of view in certain sections throughout. This is generally regarded as a writing no-no. Why did it feel right or important for you to break the rule here? Did you set any new rules or guidelines for yourself in using this technique? 

Sara: I don't think it's a no-no if you have a reason and a plan. I used the technique to build tension---see the food fight scene!---and to show the falling apart and then the widening of the circle of community, as each character turns from their own private battles to uniting in one mission together as a class.

Also, since the book's about the stage, the dramatic or cinematic viewpoint seemed like a natural fit.

I realize it was a risk to attempt this, but I trusted you as my editor to show me where it was working and where it wasn't. That's the only rule I had: does it serve the story?

• More leftover questions will be posted next week!
  
  

Jody Call Contest! Win a Copy of Operation Yes

This is a reprint of a post at my OperationYes blog. I'm posting here to send you there, but also because I know some folks have difficulty commenting at an iWeb site. So, backup plan is to leave your entry here. Okay?

Also, an archive of the Twitter Chat between me and my editor, Cheryl Klein, is here. 

SOUND OFF! Jody Call Contest

What’s a jody call? It’s a song used to make a difficult job easier. In the armed forces, military members chant them during PT (Physical Training) to help everyone stay together on a long march or a run. Units also use jody calls to build up their sense of community.

In Operation Yes, Miss Loupe teaches her students jody calls because the back and forth rhythm is like the give and take of the improvisational theater games she’s introducing. But maybe she’s also stealthily building her team in Room 208!

Here are some real life jody calls:

They Say That in the Air Force 

They say that in the Air Force, the chicken's mighty fine

One jumped off the table and started marking time

Refrain:

Oh, Lord I wanna go

But they won't let me go

hooooooooooooooome

(last word stretched out over 8 paces, and a "Hey" on the right foot to

end the refrain)

They say that in the Air Force, the biscuits are mighty fine

One rolled off the table and killed a friend of mine

They say that in the Air Force, the pancakes are mighty fine

You can try to chew them, but you're only wasting time

They say that in the Air Force, the bed's are mighty fine

But how the heck would I know, I've never slept in mine

They say that in the Air Force, the mail is so great

Today I got a letter dated 1948

They say that in the Air Force, the toilets are mighty fine

You flush them up at seven, they come back up at nine.

They say that in the Air Force, the tents are waterproof

You wake up in the morning and you're floating on the roof.

Jody calls don’t have to rhyme. But they do have to have a rhythm:

Alpha Flight

Everywhere we go - oh

People wanna know - oh

Who we are

Where we come from

So we tell them

We are  Alpha Flight

Mighty Mighty Alpha Flight

Rough - n - tough Alpha

Straight shooting Alpha

Better than Bravo

Big baby Bravo

Better than Charlie

Chicken chicken Charlie

Better than Delta

Dumb-dumb Delta

Better than Echo

Icky icky Echo

We are Alpha

Mighty mighty Alpha

So here’s the challenge: Make up a jody call and post it in the comments. (Anywhere from 2-12 lines.)

RULES:

It must be related to children’s books in some way.

It doesn’t have to rhyme, but it must have rhythm.

Keep it PG clean

The drill sergeant says you may use one of these lines to start with, but you don’t have to:

I don’t know but I’ve been told... (or it’s been said...)

Every book we open...

They say that in the library the ____ is mighty ____ ...

Prize for the best three jody calls:

A signed copy of OPERATION YES, delivered to your door by a man or woman in uniform. (That would be the postal uniform.)

Deadline: October 16, 2400 hours, EST

(that’s midnight for you civilians.)

Judge: Brig. General Mike Holmes, who is unlikely to know any of the contestants, but is still a great reader of children’s literature. (Really. Not kidding. Don't try to slip War and Peace by him as a children's book.)

Want TWO peeks inside an editor's brain?

Twitter chat with me and my editor Cheryl Klein 
Wednesday, September 30 at Noon, EST

Twitter.com

Hashtag: #YESChat

Tweeting from @saralewisholmes and @chavelaque

Questions answered at the end of the chat

Twitter help: InkyGirl's Twitter Chats for Writers

How to win a signed copy of Operation Yes

revealed at the end of the chat!

Conversation will be archived

One more amazing thing: Cheryl just posted an essay at the Scholastic On Our Minds blog. She tells how reading an author's blog---yes, this blog you're reading now---helped her acquire Operation Yes.  (I'm suddenly terrified in hindsight!)