How to Write a Book by Dan Brown

Play Dan Brown Libs! Just fill in the blanks to write your own bestselling novel.

A handsome, brilliant, superhuman man named ______ happens to be doing something in the famous city of ________ when the local Secret Service-level police force named _______ drops by to accuse him of the awful murder in the book's introduction of a brilliant person named _______.

The protagonist eventually joins forces with a beautiful, sexy woman named ___________. Somehow, they end up being wanted by every police force in the entire country of _______.
During the inevitable vehicle chase, there's lots of time to come to the brilliant realization that a secret society called _______ is involved. The society members include every famous person that ever existed.

Many, many pages pass. The protagonist performs countless feats that are physically impossible, no matter how many laps a day they swim in the Harvard pool. Endless information about symbolism, secret societies and the city of ______ is recited... all of which ends up having very little to do with the plot. The bad guys go to a ridiculous amount of expense and effort to keep the _______ safe, which ends up being a relatively unimportant object.

The villain is not the person the reader thought it was going to be, but is instead ________. Someone named ________ who was supposed to be dead suddenly resurfaces at exactly the right moment. The handsome protagonist and sexy woman end up exonerated, in a hotel room, having lots of.... room service.

The end.

The book sells millions of copies.

Tom Hanks and a much younger woman star in the movie.

If you want to write a book by your favorite children's author, try this post.

How to write a book by your favorite author in ten steps or less

I love it when I read a great book and then find another book by the same author with a similar plot. Sometimes I get so familiar with an author that I can predict the plot of a book before I open it.

Here's an example:

Basic Harry Potter Plot Summary

1. Harry is at the Dursleys for the summer and he’s miserable.
2. An event happens before Harry gets to school. After it’s over, Harry visits Diagon Alley (or Mrs. Weasley visits it for him) and takes the train to Hogwarts.
3. Harry arrives at Hogwarts and finds out who the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher is (who is always someone Harry’s met before school started).
4. Harry gets a lot of homework and Quidditch practice and games happen.
5. Major events occur on Halloween and/or Christmas.
6. Harry, Ron and Hermione are trying to solve a mystery.
7. Harry and friends study for exams. In the afternoon after the last exam, the answer to the mystery is suddenly discovered.
8. The climax of the book occurs and something terrible or miraculous happens. Harry meets Voldemort and narrowly avoids death. The climax lasts all evening and takes up several chapters of the book. At the end of it, Harry ends up in the hospital wing.
9. Dumbledore explains it all.
10. Harry deep in thought about whatever happened during the climax, takes the train home and dreads another summer with the Dursleys.

Of course, there are deviations to this structure in various books. Harry doesn’t take the train to Hogwarts in Chamber of Secrets, he doesn’t meet Voldemort in Prisoner of Azkaban (although Voldemort is discussed during the climax), he doesn’t play Quidditch in Goblet of Fire, etc. But basically, if you think about it, the events listed above happen in Books One through Six.

**Begin spoiler alert. Don’t read the comment below unless you’ve read the Half Blood Prince and Deathly Hallows.**

One of the things I love in Book Seven is that Dumbledore STILL explains it all. He doesn’t let a minor thing like death stand in his way of summing up the entire plot and explaining every mystery that’s happened during the book.

**End spoiler alert**

Stock plot summaries can work for lots of books. Take a look at this one:

Basic Amelia Bedelia Plot Summary

It only takes five steps.

1. Mrs. Rogers gives Amelia Bedelia a list of things to do and then leaves the house.
2. Amelia Bedelia bakes a pie before she starts working on the list.
3. Amelia Bedelia does every item on the list and takes each task literally.
4. Mrs. Rogers comes home to find that the house is a big mess and that Amelia Bedelia hasn’t done anything correctly.
5. Amelia Bedelia’s pie makes everything better again.

This always makes me wonder. Hasn’t Mrs. Rogers figured out by now that Amelia Bedelia is an incompetent maid? Why doesn’t she hire someone else? Amelia Bedelia can open a bakery and contract on the side with Mrs. Rogers to bake pies.

And it's not always plot devices. Some authors seem to have lists of characters that often appear in their books. Here are several reoccurring characters from one of my favorite authors:

L.M. Montgomery's Stock Characters

For those of you who have just read Anne of Green Gables series, believe me, these characters surface in nearly every other L.M. Montgomery book.

Primary characters

• A female ingénue who is deeply in love with the house she lives in. She often has a teaching degree and sometimes a college degree (unusual for the time period). She has a creative imagination and writes stories and sells them to magazines for a small profit. She is usually (but not always) an orphan. The story is always told for her point of view.
• A handsome, perfect male who grew up with the female ingénue. He crosses signals with her multiple times and moves away (a letter is usually lost or destroyed.) But he always manages to come back three pages from the end of the book at the perfect moment and declare his undying love.
• An older female who takes care of the ingénue in a strict and no-nonsense way. She is usually not the ingénue's mother.
• An older man who falls in love with the ingénue. He proposes and is engaged to the ingénue, but she only sees him as a friend and she eventually breaks the engagement. (Not in the Anne books, but in many others).

Secondary characters (optional, but usually included)

• A wonderful housekeeper that the family couldn’t live without who has a mother that occasionally gets ill.
• A gossipy female neighbor who does beautiful needlework and feels there's a enormous difference between Presbyterians and Methodists. (Presbyterians are always favored.)
  
• A female friend who's had a rough life and only opens up to the ingénue.
• A female friend or sister that dithers for years over which of two identical men she should marry, and then falls in love with a third man and marries him immediately.
• A rich, crotchety elderly woman who dies and leaves her fortune to the ingénue.
• Small children who have big imaginations and provide amusing stories about adventures and local people. (The stories are typically the same from book to book.)
• A town doctor who makes house calls. (In the Anne books, he’s a primary character).
• A town minister.

Setting

• A farm on Prince Edward Island near a small town, where everybody’s primary occupation seems to be keeping track of the entire life histories of everyone else.

There are a few obvious exceptions. The Blue Castle is the only book that is not set on Prince Edward Island. And the male hero and the ingenue are together and happy for half the book and not just the last three pages. And Kilmeny of the Orchard is an exception because it's told from the man's point of view, not the woman's.

Conclusions

I love these kinds of books when they're written by a favorite author. Sometimes it's great to find many variations on the same theme. And just because stock characters or basic plot points are used, doesn't mean the books aren't original and delightful.

Also, it makes me intrigued about an author's life and when I see obvious patterns, I like to research them. A lot of it tends to be based in fact as authors frequently write what they know.

Compare the stock characters to L.M. Montgomery's actual life. Her mother died shortly after she was born and she was raised by farm on Prince Edward Island by her grandparents. She had both a teaching license and a college degree. She fell in love with the perfect boy- someone she had grown up with (her cousin) but didn't marry him and married an older man who was a Presbyterian minister instead.

Unfortunately, though, I'll never get to read a Harry Potter book again for the first time. And after a trip to Prince Edward Island and a careful search through tons of used bookstores there, I think I've exhausted all the new-to-me L.M. Montgomery books. But, by knowing the formula, I can also appreciate departures from it. I love Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and The Blue Castle, precisely because they break the mold.

And sometimes, only one book really rises to the top. I liked The DaVinci Code and read other books by Dan Brown. I was disappointed that not only were they all the same, but The Da Vinci Code (which still had flaws) was the best.

A Plea

If you found this post by googling "Anne of Green Gables characters" or "Harry Potter plot summary," please don't use what I've written above for any kind of informational purposes. They're just generalizations, and I hope that you read the books discussed above if you haven't before. Despite what I said, each one truly is unique and I've enjoyed every one. (Some more than others, of course).

Your Turn

How about you? Is there an author whose plot summary, typical setting and stock characters you know even before you start reading one of their books? Post it below. If you chose to write your own post about it, I'd love to see it and please include the link in the comments.

Which children's book author would you like to meet?

In the past few weeks I've gotten a change to hang out with Emily Gravett and Jennifer Holm, two of my favorite children's book authors. Stay tuned for details... including how long it took to write and illustrate Orange Pear Apple Bear and the name of the newest (and yet to be published) Babymouse book.

This got me to thinking. Due to a lucky combination of working in book stores, attending conferences, being active in the Kidlitopshere, and founding a book club, I've had the chance to meet many amazing authors and illustrators in the last few years. And, I hope to meet many, many more.

This leads me to ask a few questions.

1. Which authors\illustrators have you met or talked to via e-mail? Which experience were the most meaningful to you?

2. Which authors\illustrators would you most want to meet or to e-mail you? (Caveat: they have to be alive, so that it would actually be theoretically possible to meet them or receive e-mail from them).

I have to mull about my answer to Question 1 a little longer.
Question 2 is easy though. J.K. Rowling, of course.

How about you?

New Books by Mo Willems

I was flipping through the Hyperion 2009 spring children's catalog today and noticed this:

Naked Mole Rat Gets Dressed: Coming January 6, 2009.

It's about a naked mole rat named Wilbur who likes to wear clothes. I saw a sample page in the catalog... it was pure Mo. I'm hoping to get my hands on an advance copy in the near future.

Also, two new Elephant and Piggie books are being published soon.

Are You Ready to Play Outside? Coming October 28, 2008.

Watch Me Throw the Ball!: Coming March 17, 2009.

As I've mentioned before on this blog, I'm a big Mo Willems fan. (For a goofy picture of me standing next to Mo, see this post). And I've noticed that I get two kinds of reactions to Mo at the toy/book store where I work. About half the customers are huge fans of Mo, and the other half haven't heard of him.

Why are so many people not aware of him? Because he's so new to the children's book scene.

His first book: Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus was published in March, 2003. That was only five years ago. Take a quick look at his complete bibliography, and see what he's published since.

2003

• Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! (2004 Caldecott Honor book)
• Time to Pee!
  

2004

• Knuffle Bunny (2005 Caldecott Honor book)
• The Pigeon Finds a Hot Dog!
  

2005

• Leonardo the Terrible Monster
• Time to Say Please!
• The Pigeon Loves Things That Go! board book
• The Pigeon Has Feelings Too! board book
  

2006

• Edwina the Dinosaur Who Didn't Know She Was Extinct
• Don't Let the Pigeon Stay up Late!
• Knuffle Bunny video (2007 Carnegie Medal Winner)
• You Can Never Find a Rickshaw When it Monsoons (illustrated travel journal for adults)
  

2007

• Knuffle Bunny Too (2008 Caldecott Honor book)
• Elephant and Piggie: Today I Will Fly!
• Elephant and Piggie: My Friend is Sad!
• Elephant and Piggie: There is a Bird on Your Head! (2008 Geisel Award winner)
• Elephant and Piggie: I Am Invited to a Party!
  

2008

• The Pigeon Wants a Puppy!
• Elephant and Piggie: I Will Surprise My Friend!
• Elephant and Piggie: I Love My New Toy!
• Elephant and Piggie: Are You Ready to Play Outside?

2009 (through March 2009)

• Naked Mole Rat Gets Dressed
• Elephant and Piggie: Watch Me Throw the Ball!

Mo loves to use exclamation points! 14 of the books listed above (or nearly 3/4) have exclamation points in the titles!!!

By the spring of 2009, Mo will have published twenty one books. And, he's won five major awards along the way: 3 Caldecott honors, 1 Gesiel, and 1 Carnegie. Plus, the majority of his books are bestsellers. It takes many writers and illustrators a lifetime to do what he's done in five years. And let's not dismiss the six Emmys he won as an animator for Sesame Street.

Pretty unbelievable, isn't it?

Which of his books do you like? See the poll in the sidebar.

Kindred Spirits

Lucy Maud Montgomery is one of my favorite authors. If the name sounds familiar, it's probably because you know her most famous book: Anne of Green Gables.

Oddly enough, that isn't the book I like best. Oh sure, it's the first one I discovered and I think it's great, but she wrote other books that I fell in love with even more.

Although most people only know the first book in the series, L.M. Montgomery actually wrote eight novels about Anne. Here are my favorite Anne books:

• Anne of the Island. Anne goes to college and rejects suitors right and left. I think this book may be the one I like the best in the whole series. It has a lovely timeless quality to it.

• Anne's House of Dreams. This book chronicles the first few years of Anne's marriage. There's heartbreak and love in it and it's wonderful to see Anne grow up and her relationships develop. I have to say, though, that I recently re-read this book, and found it contained far more sexist attitudes towards women than I remembered.
  

• Rilla of Ingleside. This book contains the story of Anne's daughter growing up during World War One. I learned a lot from this book when I first read it, and the images of war it presents have always stayed with me.

I also love the series of books about Emily of New Moon. My favorite book in that series is:

• Emily's Quest. This is the third book in the Emily series and is quite haunting in parts. It moves me every time I read it. Also, this is the series that I've always considered to be the most autobiographical of L.M. Montgomery, so I think the occasional sadness and despair in it affect me more.
  

And, I can't forget the two books about Pat of Silver Bush.

• Mistress Pat, the second book in the series, is the one I like the best. There's something intriguing about Pat's devotion to her house. Also, aspects of Pat's story are similar to Emily's, which I've always found interesting. I think it contains my least favorite male name, though. The hero's name is Jingle. That's never really worked for me.
  

Another book I like (but it isn't part of a series) is:

• A Tangled Web. This book brings all of L.M. Montgomery's major stories together in one book. It's like reading short versions of all her other books.
  

I've read every book that L.M. Montgomery wrote. What's my favorite book of all? Hands down, it's:

• The Blue Castle. It's not very well known at all, and it's the only book she wrote that is not set on Prince Edward Island. It's about a woman, Valancy Stirling, who is told she only has a year to live. She completely reinvents herself in a wonderful way. I think this is the most romantic of all of L.M. Montgomery's books.

Why am I mentioning this author now? 2008 is the one hundredth anniversary of the publication of Anne of Green Gables, which was originally published in 1908. There are lots of celebrations going on in honor of this famous red-haired orphan.

Interested in more about L.M. Montgomery? The best and most comprehensive book I've ever found on the subject (and I found it when I was visiting the site of the author's childhood home on Prince Edward Island) is called The Lucy Maud Montgomery Album. This five hundred page book is an absolute masterpiece, complete with rich essays and photographs from both family members and scholars that chronicle and honor the life of this wonderful author. It's being re-released in March 2008.

There's also a new Anne of Green Gables book about to be published called Before Green Gables. It's a prequel to the first book, and is written by Budge Wilson. See this post by Cheryl Rainfeld for more details.

Do you have a favorite book by L.M. Montgomery? Let me know in the comments, or vote in the new poll on the sidebar.

Don't let the pigeon read this post!

Okay, I admit it. I'm a Mo Willems junkie.

Now that I've got that confession out of the way, let me share with you a great interview with Mo posted at Babble, a parenting web site. Thanks to Pirate Ninja Mommy for the link.

My two favorite things about the interview are the picture at the top with the pigeon and the duckling reading a copy of Knuffle Bunny Too... and Trixie Willems' response to her teacher when asked if the Knuffle Bunny books were real stories.

Now that I've started doing storytimes, I seem to be becoming a bigger Mo fan than ever. Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus, The Pigeon Finds a Hot Dog, Knuffle Bunny and Today I Will Fly! are just perfect read alouds. I also like The Pigeon Loves Things that Go and Time to Say Please. I haven't attempted Leonardo the Terrible Monster yet, but I recently saw a colleague do wonders with it. I've read Knuffle Bunny Too aloud- but I find it a bit more difficult.

I'll never measure up to MotherReader in terms of Mo Willems fandom (read this post on The Cybils blog to see what I mean)... but when I took a look at previous posts, I saw that there's a lot more about Mo on this blog than I realized.

Here's what I mean:

In this post about my favorite children's books to re-read, I mention two Pigeons and a Knuffle Bunny.

I list Knuffle Bunny as one of my favorite books to read with my son, in this post about 100 books to read to your child before they start school.

This post contains a great quote from an article Mo wrote.

In this post, I wrote about where to find an incredibly stylish (and cute) Pigeon t-shirt.

I posted some of Mo's early Sesame Street videos.

I wrote a review of Knuffle Bunny and a review of Don't let the Pigeon Drive the Bus.

And I talked about my son's reaction to the Knuffle Bunny video.

Plus I've meet Mo twice... if you count thirty seconds at a book signing, and being in the audience when he was accepting an award. Yeah, you're right, that doesn't really count.

This is more serious than I thought. I might have to give him his own category.

And you thought this blog was just about Harry Potter. =)

Speaking of Mo Willems...

...one of my library school professors quoted him in class tonight. And it was a great quote, so I wanted to share. In an article from Scholastic's Parent and Child, Mo Willems said that "Books aren't temples; they're playgrounds. They're meant to be played."

I think that's a great concept. Check out the rest of the article: "Make Reading 'Mo' Fun." It's about fun and creative ways to read with kids, and well, it's by Mo Willems, so it's funny.

Don't let the pigeon wear this t-shirt!

Want a totebag or t-shirt of your favorite children's book character? Check out Wonder Shirts, which has fantastic original artwork by Mo Willems, Kevin Henkes, Tomie dePaola, Edward Gorey, Arnold Lobel, James Marshall, Susan Saltzman, Garth Williams, Will Hillenbrand, Leo and Diane Dillion and Betsy Lewin. All the images promote reading, such as this great Pigeon t-shirt with the slogan "Driven to Read."

Thanks to Tricia at the Miss Rumphius Effect for telling me about it.

Pronunciation Guides

Wondering how to pronounce the name of your favorite children's author?

There's a great article that Jon Scieszka wrote for the Horn Book about how to pronounce the last names of well known children's writers and illustrators. The article was written in 1996, and there have been some new additions to the ranks of children's literature since then... but it's a terrific starting place (and really, really funny).

Thanks to the child_lit listserv, I just found out about this fantastic resource on TeachingBooks.net. It has sound clips of children's authors pronouncing their own names (and if they don't know how to say it, who does?) with great stories about the origins of their names.
I highly recommended it.

If you're interested in how to pronounce character names and spells from the Harry Potter books, check out Scholastic's Harry Potter website. They have a great pronunciation guide for just about everything having to do with the boy wizard.

The one author's name missing from all the websites above is J.K. Rowling's. According to her biography on her official website, here's how you pronounce her last name: "'Rowling' (the first syllable of which is pronounced 'row' as in boat, rather than 'row' as in argument) lent itself to woeful jokes such as 'Rowling stone', 'Rowling pin' and so on."

By the way, if you're wondering how on earth to pronounce Jon Scieszka's last name- it rhymes with Fresca.

And if you want to know how to pronounce the name of the title character in Knuffle Bunny, see the bottom of this post.

Mo Willems Sesame Street animation

I'm a big fan of Mo Willems. You may have already guessed that from my review of Knuffle Bunny.

Mo started out as an animator for Sesame Street. I watch a LOT of Sesame Street (well, my son does, and I watch it with him) and I've had many guesses about what Mo animated, but it's nice to have some actual titles and images to go along with my suspicions. Thanks to this mention by Fuse #8, I was able to find three examples of his early work on Youtube.

Check them out:

Tommy LePlaid

A spokesman talks about the letter L

I have a small octopus on my head

I loved watching these because they're so different, and yet so similar to his later work.

Check out Mo's blog.... he has a brief mention of the videos and a sneak peek at one of his upcoming books. I love seeing sketch by sketch versions of final images.