A Prayer for Owen Meany |

It’s Fun Friday, and for me, it’s even more fun than usual – the kids storybook parades at school – where they must dress up as a character in a book (my 9 year old is a witch THE WORLD’S BEST FAIRY TALES and my lil guy a pirate from a new children’s book HALLOWEEN) and then I have a mother-daughter road trip to see the SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE tour.

The storybook parade got me to thinking what character from a book would you like to be for a day? I think I’d pick OWEN MEANY from John Irving’s A PRAYER FOR OWEN MEANY, not only because we named our youngest after him, but because it would be fun to be a little boy with a big voice and play with my son.

And you? Leave us your answer in comments today – the character and the book and author and you’ll be registered to win our Impulse Prize we posted on Monday, the pink mirrred tin of peppermint gum.

shelfdiscoverytilead We also got some more fun news from one of our queenBs, who has started a Shelf Discovery Reading Challenge, so if you’re hankering for teen classics, join her challenge for a chance at great prizes. I’ll be signing up, too and hope to get my daughter to read some of them with me. So Atta-babe, Julie P. Great idea and good luck with your challenge. -ML

One of the best pieces of advice I’ve heard from a conference was this: read your scene out loud. As we write, we’re getting the story channeled with bits of static, like a radio station that’s out of tune. Especially in the first draft, it comes how it comes, right? So when it’s time to edit, instead of just re-reading what you’ve written silently, read it aloud to catch the rhythm and cadence you may not pick up on otherwise.

For me, it aids in catching the overused words and dull words, too. You can more easily “hear” the problems in your sentence structure. Like too many simple sentences in a row, or vice versa, too many long ones. Too many phrases or not enough? It’s extremely effective for dialogue, because our ears are naturally attuned to dialogue all day long. You can tell if it sounds natural, and if it’s boring, you’ll want to stop reading it.

In addition to reading your own writing aloud, read your favorite authors and favorite stories aloud to see how they do it. Great writing should have flow and reflect the writer’s voice. Let me hear those voices, out loud! Check out this fabulous first sentence (read it aloud):

“I am doomed to remember a boy with a wrecked voice – not because of his voice, or because he was the smallest person I ever knew, or even because he was the instrument of my mother’s death, but because he is the reason I believe in God; I am a Christian because of Owen Meany.”

- John Irving, A Prayer For Owen Meany

My favorite book of all time. Look back at all the choices Irving made. He didn’t just say I remember, he said, I am DOOMED to remember. He didn’t say Owen had a funny voice, but a WRECKED one. Then he gives us huge character details (smallest person I ever knew) and then shockingly, (the instrument of my mother’s death.) Again, he didn’t say Owen “caused” his mother’s death. INSTRUMENT is so much more powerful. The structure is gorgeous. While your results may not be Irving-esque, you can most definitely go through this process to improve the rhythm, cadence and punch of your story.

Raise those voices, and good luck to you!

- by Malena Lott, author of Dating da Vinci & The Stork Reality, editor of Athena’s Bookshelf

Tag Archives: A Prayer for Owen Meany

Storybook Parade & Atta-babe

Read out loud.