Vicky Burkholder

Birthdays: Antonio Frasconi (1919), Harper Lee (1926), Lois Duncan (1934), Diane Johnson (1934), Alice Waters (1944), Kit Williams (1946), Christian Jacq (1947), Terry Pratchett (1948), Carolyn Forché (1950), Amy Hest (1950), Roberto Bolano (1953), Ian Rankin (1960)

Antonio Frasconi won Caldecott Honors for his artwork.

Harper Lee won the 1961 Pulitzer Prize for Literature for her book “To Kill a Mockingbird”.

Quote: “The first draft is just you telling yourself the story.” – Terry Pratchett

“People generally see what they look for, and hear what they listen for.”
― Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird

“The one thing that doesn’t abide by majority rule is a person’s conscience.”
― Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird

Tip: If you’re writing a series, set up a consistency spreadsheet with character names, attributes, cars, house, etc., settings, anything that you might need to keep straight. Do this with your first book and all following ones so you know who’s who and what’s what.

Jumpstart: Today is your character’s birthday. What’s the best gift they’ve gotten? The worst? From whom? Why was it the best or worst?

Birthdays: Marcus Aurelius (121 AD), John James Audubon (1785), Anita Loos (1889), Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889), Vincent Alexandre (1898), A.E. van Vogt (1912), Bernard Malamud (1914), Patricia Reilly Giff (1935), Marilyn Nelson (1946), Natasha Trethewey (1966), Lisa Unger (1970)

Vincent Alexandre won the 1977 Nobel Prize for Literature

Patricia Giff is a two-time winner of a Newbery Honor

Natasha Trethewey won the 2007 Pulitzer for Poetry and was the US Poet Laureate in 2012

Quote: “A true conservationist is a man who knows that the world is not given by his fathers, but borrowed from his children.” ― John James Audubon

“First drafts are for learning what your novel or story is about.” – Bernard Malamud

Tip: Similar to the previous day, when used as a name, Mom and Dad are capitalized (I love you, Mom). When used as a designation, they are not: (She’s my mom).

Jumpstart: You are a newly adopted puppy or kitten. What is your new home like? How do you feel? What is your new family like? Write this scene from the new pet’s point of view.

Birthdays: Walter De La Mare (1873), Maud Hart Lovelace (1892), Ross Lockridge Jr. (1914), Dorothy Salisbury Davis (1916), J. Anthony Lukas (1933), Ted Kooser (1939), Padgett Powell (1952), Melvin Burgess (1954), Dinesh D’Souza (1961)

Ted Kooser was the US Poet Laureate from 2004-2006.

Quote: The most important part of religion isn’t in any church. It’s down in your own heart. Religion is in your thoughts, and in the way you act from day to day, in the way you treat other people. It’s honesty, and unselfishness, and kindness. Especially kindness.

Maud Hart Lovelace

“Just keep writing, even if you’re writing rubbish. Once you have something down, you have some material to work with. It’s all in the edit, so don’t be fussy on the first, or even the second or third drafts. Or, get away, leave it alone for a while. Have a bath, don’t think about it, then try again. Sometimes you need to leave a problem in the back of your mind before it comes together.” – Melvin Burgess

Tip: Capitalization: when using terms like “the queen”, or “the president”, “the general”, etc., they don’t get capitalized. They do when used as a name: Queen Elizabeth, President Kennedy, General Grant.

Jumpstart: If you could live anywhere, where would it be and why? Be specific.

Birthdays: Anthony Trollope (1815), Carl Spitteler (1845), Elizabeth Goudge (1900), Robert Penn Warren (1905), George Oppen (1908), William Goyen (1915), Doris Burn (1923), Clement Freud (1924), Shirley MacLaine (1934), Brian Garfield (1929), Sue Grafton (1940), David Morrell (1943), Karan Mahajan (1984)

Carl Spitteler is a Swiss poet who won the 1919 Nobel Prize for Literature.

Robert Penn Warren won Pulitzers in both literature and poetry.

George Oppen won the 1969 Pulitzer for Poetry

Quote: “As much as I like it when a book I’m writing speeds along, the downside can be that an author becomes too eager to finish and rushes the end. The end is even more important than the first page, and rushing can damage it.” – David Morrell

Tip: Try not to use colons, semicolons, or parentheses in fiction writing. They clutter things up, especially in ebooks. Stick with the basics of periods, commas, question marks, etc.

Jumpstart: You are at a family reunion. Your great-aunt Bertie pulls you aside and whispers in your ear. What she says is so shocking, you can barely handle the news and you have to pretend like nothing happened so others don’t get curious. What did she say to you? Why did she tell you?

Birthdays: William Shakespeare (1564 est.), Edwin Markham (1852), Ngaio Marsh (1895),  Halldor Laxness (1902), Avram Davidson (1923), J.P. Donleavy (1926), Charles Johnson (1948), Pascal Quignard (1948), Michael Moore (1954), Carlos Maria Dominguez (1955), Arthur Phillips (1969)

Halldor Laxness is an Icelandic writer and the only one from there to win the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Quote: “It is often much harder to get rid of books than to acquire them. They stick to us in that pact of need and oblivion we make with them, witnesses to a moment in our lives we will never see again. While they are still there, it is part of us.” – Carlos Maria Dominguez

Tip: In dialogue, ellipses (…) are used to indicate a trailing off, hesitation, or that something is missing. An em dash (—) is used to indicate an abrupt interruption.

Jumpstart: If money was no object and you could go anywhere in the universe for a vacation, where would you go and why? What would you do? Who would you take with you? (Remember, I said “universe”. Don’t limit yourself to this world, or even this time!)

Birthdays: Henry Fielding (1707), Immanuel Kant (1724), Germaine de Stael (1817), Ellen Glasgow (1874), James Norman Hall (1887), Kurt Wiese (1887), Vladimir Nabokov (1899), Paula Fox (1923), Janet Evanovich (1943), Louise Gluck (1943), John Waters (1946), Paul Davies (1946), Wendy Mass (1967), Eileen Christelow (1943), Andrew Hudgins (1951), Chuck Wendig (1976), Marie Phillips (1976),

Kurt Wiese won the Newbery Award for “Young Fu of the Upper Yangtze”

Paula Fox won the 1974 Newbery Award for “The Slave Dancer”

Louise Gluck was the US Poet Laureat from 2003-2004 and won the 2020 Nobel Prize in Literature.

Quote: “One who makes himself a worm cannot complain afterwards if people step on him.” ― Immanuel Kant

“Stories need conflict across the physical, emotional, intellectual and spiritual spectra. Accidents, betrayals, cataclysm, desperation, excess – these are the letters in the alphabet of conflict.” – Chuck Wendig

Tip: Use of I, me, myself: Most people know to say the other person’s name first when it happens at the beginning of a sentence along with “I” (Mark and I saw the CEO), but when it happens in the middle or end, they get confused. (The CEO met with Mark and me). In this case, you can figure it out if you take Mark out of the picture. You wouldn’t say: The CEO met with I. “Me” is needed.” As for “myself” use it only if saying “I” or “me” doesn’t work: I kept the secret to myself.

Jumpstart: You come home late at night after a long, tiring weekend at a conference. All you want is a hot shower, decent food, and your own bed. You pull into your garage and go into the kitchen—to find lights blazing, cameras rolling, and strangers smiling at you. Your friends got together and had your house “remade” for you. It is totally NOT your style. What do you do?

Birthdays: Charlotte Brontë (1816), Alistair MacLean (1922), Elaine May (1932), James Dobson (1936), Helene Prejean (1939), Thomas McMahon (1943), Kole Omotoso (1943), Patrick Rambaud (1946), Barbara Park (1947), Jeannette Walls (1960)

Helen Prejean was a Roman Catholic sister who wrote “Dead Man Walking”

Quote: “I am not a novelist, I’m a storyteller.” – Alistair MacLean

Tip: When punctuating dialogue, remember to use a comma or question mark (or exclamation point) with a verbalized tag and lower case the word following if it’s not a proper noun. Use a period and upper case with non-verbal tags: “I can’t do that,” she said. “Can I do that?” she asked. “No, you can’t.” He shook his head.

Jumpstart: You’re in a museum, browsing around ancient artifacts. Someone pushes you and you stumble, breaking a case and an ancient sealed vase. A strange vapor escapes. What happens next?

Birthdays: Edward L. Beach Jr. (1918), Peter S. Beagle (1939), Ian Wilson (1943), Philip Margolin (1944), Mary Hoffman (1945), Sebastian Faulks (1953), Robert Crais (1953), John van de Ruit (1975), Rebecca Makkai (1978),

Edward Beach Jr. was an American submarine officer known for his novel “Run Silent, Run Deep”

Peter Beagle was known for his book “The Last Unicorn” adapted into an animated film.

Quote: “I run the writing as a business, with one overworked and overstretched employee – me! But she has a very understanding boss so that if I as worker ask me as employer for a day off the answer is always yes.” – Mary Hoffman

Tip: “That” is often a throw away word. If you can read your sentence without “that” and the sentence makes sense, you can probably delete “that”.

Jumpstart: You’ve found an unlocked cell phone on the sidewalk. While checking for an owner, you look at the contacts list and find your own name and number. But there’s no one else on the list you recognize, and you’ve never seen this number before. Who owns the phone and why do they have your name and number?

Birthdays: – José Echegaray (1832), Richard Hughes (1900), Etheridge Knight (1931), Candy Gourlay (1962), James Franco (1978),

Jose Echegaray won the 1904 Nobel Prize in Literature

Quote: “Make your characters interested in something. Striving for something. In need of something. Good at something. This will make them likeable and interesting.” – James Franco

Tip: Clichés are words or phrases that are overused and should be cut out. Some of the more common ones include: gentle as a lamb; black as night; burning the candle at both ends; hit the nail on the head. Go through your manuscript and see if you use too many clichés.

Jumpstart: Thomas Hinkey was hanged for mutiny, sedition, and treachery for plotting to kidnap George Washington. He was one of Washington’s bodyguards. Imagine you are there before he is captured and tried, and you are aware of the plot. But to expose him is to expose something illegal you did. Would you tell, and thus save Washington’s life? Or stay quiet and out of sight? Why?

Birthdays: Anatole France (1844), Gertrude Chandler Warner (1860), John Millington Synge (1871), Dorothy P. Lathrop (1891), Howard Mumford Jones (1892), Tristan Tzara (1896), Berton Roueche (1910), Garth Williams (1912), Kingsley Amis (1922), Carol Bly (1930), Diane Middlebrook (1939), Tracy K. Smith (1972)

Anatole France won the 1921 Nobel in Literature.

Dorothy Lathrop won the 1929 Newbery Medal for “Hitty, Her First Hundred Years”

Howard Jones won the 1965 Pulitzer for Nonfiction for “O Strange New World”

Tracey K. Smith won the 2011 Pulitzer for Poetry for “Life on Mars”

Quote: “Your readers expect a story, a story that answers the question, ‘So what, why do we care about what this person has done?’” – Diane Middlebrook

Tip: Many people confuse the words then/than. “Then” refers to time (we will do this first then that) while “than” is a choice (I’d rather do this than that)

Jumpstart: Take the first line from any book and write it into a paragraph, first as a mainstream book, then as a mystery, horror, science fiction, fantasy, and romance.