Sentences and Barbara O'Connor

[lurban]

Recently Grier Jewell at Fizzwhizzing Flushbunker reviewed Hound Dog True and said this:

"Hound Dog True had me at the first sentence and held me in its enchanting grip until the very last page. (As I read this, I kept thinking, did Barbara O'Connor change her name to Linda Urban?)"

Could a person be paid a higher compliment?

Comments

[annemariepace]

Thanks for the link to all of those amazing revision posts. I just read the first one but will go back later to read them all.

You are a master of finding good stuff online. :)

And I'm happy that someone you admire likes your work. I'm not surprised, just happy.

[lurban]

Barbara's revision notes are really interesting, I think. Her ear is so finely tuned and it really directs most of her line-level edits. If you read her edited sentences out loud you can really tell the difference.

[annemariepace]

I read the sentences Barb picked out from HDT. Question: when and how do you write those little beauties? Do those gems of sentences tend to come when you're in the zone and they just pour out like you've got a muse or do you work at them or both? And do they tend to come during the first draft or during revision or both?

[lurban]

Thanks for all these questions -- I'll try to answer them in a later post, but in short: Some are gifts that come when I'm truly "in character" and drafting. Others don't seem so swell until I start cutting extraneous words in revision. I'm going to look at some drafts of HDT and see if I can find some examples.

[annemariepace]

I would like that.

[lisa_schroeder]

What do you know, two of my favorite authors in one blog post!! :)

Off to read her revision notes now, though I'm afraid they will make me feel quite inadequate at this writing thing.

[lurban]

They shouldn't. What Barbara shows in those revision notes is how the small details add up. How they can make a difference to the reader -- and also to the writer. Rather than making you (or me, for that matter) feel inadequate, they validate the time we spend on the tiny stuff. Its actually pretty energizing!

[barboconnor]

We have a MUTUAL ADMIRATION SOCIETY.

smooch smooch

hug hug

thank you

(And I'll go to my grave saying that that coatroom scene with Star is just about the greatest scene in a children's book EVER!!!! Seriously. Those pages on the floor! Ogre! I felt every heart beat of that scene.)

[lurban]

smooches in return, baby.
And thank you.