Take Joy: A Writer's Guide to Loving the Craft
Jane Yolen
One of my favorite short stories as a child was "Words of Power" from The Faerie Flag by Jane Yolen. I don't know exactly how old I was, but it was right at the time I had claimed words for myself, too old to be read to, old enough to have free run of the library, checking out everything and anything that looked interesting.
And I read many other Yolen books over the years, some of which have stuck with me, though never in the same way, and many of which have been lost in the recesses of the great lost library in my brain. (Indeed, part of the point of these reviews is to keep more books out of that great back storage room, as there are things on my have-read list from _last year_ that I know look back on and say "what on earth was that about?")
So I picked up her little book on writing with much confidence that there was _something_ for me in it, just as I had often found something in many of her 250-odd books that had come before it.
And once again, like the Faerie Flag book that started the journey nearly twenty years ago, it was almost as though Yolen had tapped into my soul and created this book just for my reading. Even her final interlude "A Wish from the Winter Queen", felt like it was for me, just me, specifically, and that I would punch anyone in the face who told me that such a thing was unlikely given that the illustrious writer and I have never met.
Of course, having the discerning mind of an adult, that great puzzle-solving intellect that ruins the suspension of disbelief, there were moments that rang less true, times when I thought "this is _not quite_ the book I needed. She has _not quite_ got me right, in this book she created just for me."
I think of the following from the chapter "mind over matter":
Yolen is at her best when she is writing about what she cares about, about that which is important to her to pass along. And while her take on these important fundimentals is, as usual, beautiful, it lacks the soul of some other passages when she's more invested in the information she's transfering. That the book felt it needed to cover these basics was, I think, it's weak moment. Like the watermelon slice on the cover, there was so much to savor from Yolen's *joy* in writing, that these basic facts became much more like seeds-- fun to spit, but much less edible.
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Jane Yolen
One of my favorite short stories as a child was "Words of Power" from The Faerie Flag by Jane Yolen. I don't know exactly how old I was, but it was right at the time I had claimed words for myself, too old to be read to, old enough to have free run of the library, checking out everything and anything that looked interesting.
And I read many other Yolen books over the years, some of which have stuck with me, though never in the same way, and many of which have been lost in the recesses of the great lost library in my brain. (Indeed, part of the point of these reviews is to keep more books out of that great back storage room, as there are things on my have-read list from _last year_ that I know look back on and say "what on earth was that about?")
So I picked up her little book on writing with much confidence that there was _something_ for me in it, just as I had often found something in many of her 250-odd books that had come before it.
And once again, like the Faerie Flag book that started the journey nearly twenty years ago, it was almost as though Yolen had tapped into my soul and created this book just for my reading. Even her final interlude "A Wish from the Winter Queen", felt like it was for me, just me, specifically, and that I would punch anyone in the face who told me that such a thing was unlikely given that the illustrious writer and I have never met.
Of course, having the discerning mind of an adult, that great puzzle-solving intellect that ruins the suspension of disbelief, there were moments that rang less true, times when I thought "this is _not quite_ the book I needed. She has _not quite_ got me right, in this book she created just for me."
I think of the following from the chapter "mind over matter":
In the classic texts on writing-- which I have to admit I studied avidly, trying to find a way into this chapter-- four main points of view are discussed: Omniscient, First Person, Limited Omniscient, and Objective.
Now it's been years since I have given any serious thought to defining point of view. So here are some ideas about these four points of view, cribbed liberally from others.
Yolen is at her best when she is writing about what she cares about, about that which is important to her to pass along. And while her take on these important fundimentals is, as usual, beautiful, it lacks the soul of some other passages when she's more invested in the information she's transfering. That the book felt it needed to cover these basics was, I think, it's weak moment. Like the watermelon slice on the cover, there was so much to savor from Yolen's *joy* in writing, that these basic facts became much more like seeds-- fun to spit, but much less edible.