Excrement My Dad Said

My father had a few memorable phrases. They ranged from the teeth-grating, “You don’t have to want to, you just have to do it,” to the disarming, “My opinion, not to be confused with reality.” My favorite was, “The only nice thing I can say about that couple is that they keep two other people from being miserable.” But today, I’m thinking of another of Dad’s phrases. “Some people have twenty years of experience; some people do the first year twenty times.”

I mention this because I recently attended the SCBWI-Midsouth 2011 Fall Conference in Nashville. Bear with me on this. I’ve got a point and I promise to get back to it. But first...

Road Trips
My wife and I take audiobooks on road trips. Given the distractions of driving, the best books are collections of humorous essays. For the conference trip, we had Howie Mandel’s, “Here’s the Deal, Don’t Touch Me.” He’s not always funny, but from developing stand-up routines at the foot of his parent’s bed, to dramatic acting, to cartoon voice-overs, he is always experimenting, trying to find his next level.

Which Reminds Me
Mandel’s book reminds me of Steve Martin’s memoir, “Born Standing.” Mr. Martin takes his comedy seriously. All that stuff with King tut, balloon animals, and silly hats was well practiced. He worked hard to figure out what made people laugh and why. He tested audiences and changed them as much as they changed his humor. Now he tours as a professional banjo player. His year one was definitely not the same as his year twenty.

Back to Nashville
At the conference I was lucky enough to meet Newbery winner, Linda Sue Park and attend her scene-writing intensive. She shared a lot of good writing techniques, but she taught us something more in her key-note address. She experiments. She educates herself. She finds challenging stories. Her most recent book, “A Long Walk to Water,” is different from her award winning “A Single Shard,” or her entry in the 39 Clues series, “Storm Warning.” Year twenty doesn’t look much like year one.

Excrement I Say
Here’s the point I promised at the start. It’s about us, as writers and readers. We’ve got to experiment. I’m experimenting now. My current work-in-progress—the reason I’m on this blog—is my first YA. I’m writing it to see if I can—and because my critique group came close to saying, “You don’t have to want to, you just have to do it.” Anyway. I shared the opening chapters at the conference, and while the critiquer’s opinion should not be confused with reality, I got a rave review.

The author does research while attending the 2011 SCBWI-Midsouth Fall Conference.

Don’t Turn Me Into My Father
What about you? What have you written, read, made, tried or tasted that’s new for you? Post a comment about your experiments. Otherwise I’ll have to keep saying it. “Some people have twenty years of experience; some people do the first year twenty times.” Don’t turn me into my father.