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KAREN HESSE'S CHOICE OF LANGUAGE
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From: Bowen, Brenda <BBowen>
Date: Thu, 5 Feb 1998 17:25:19 -0500
Thank you, KT, for the invitation to write more about Out of the Dust.
The wonderful Chris Raschka says "the form dictates the story," and in the case of Out of the Dust, it is true: right from the start, the language for this book came out as poetry -- spare, pared-down language that mirrored the land. When Karen sent me the first draft, she was worried: would readers accept it? was it too daunting? should she rewrite it in prose? But because it seemed to make so much intrinsic sense, I endorsed Karen's belief that if Billie Jo needed to tell her story this way, then this was the way it should be told.
One thing we did do in editing the manuscript was to take out any references to physical writing. At first, Karen had Billie Jo *actually writing* the poetry, but that brought up too many questions to be credible: if she were actually writing, then: where did she get the paper? how come it wasn't destroyed by the dust? didn't it hurt her fingers to write after the accident? how on earth did she learn to write in this style?
So in the second draft, Billie Jo was simply expressing herself this way internally, not committing her thoughts to paper. By excising references to Billie Jo as a writer, the poetry became more credible. It was simply the form the narrator needed to employ to tell her story.
Here's one thing I *still* don't understand about writers -- how they say they write a story in order to find out how it ends. To me, there's something miraculous about that -- how can they not know! -- but then, that's why I'm the editor and she's the writer. When Karen started Out of the Dust she didn't know whether Billie Jo would stay or leave -- it was only when she had completed the book that she "found out" where Billie Jo's path would lead. (There were changes from one draft to another, though. BJ went to Hollywood in an earlier version, which didn't seem to work with her character. So the trip on through the mountains was substituted instead, and I think made the book much stronger.)
And yes, of course Karen thought about the burning scene, and its effect on children. But as many of you have pointed out, children deal with tragedy every day -- in real life, not just on TV. There is something healing about seeing Billie Jo lose her mother (every child's fear), grieve her, come to terms with the cause of her death, and renew her love for her father. Karen has spent many years as a hospice worker, and feels that death is an important part of life. Many of her books deal with grief. Death as a gratuitous plot device (The Lion King!) leaves children unable to process it; death as a natural part of life can provide catharsis.
Brenda Bowen
Received on Thu 05 Feb 1998 04:25:19 PM CST
Date: Thu, 5 Feb 1998 17:25:19 -0500
Thank you, KT, for the invitation to write more about Out of the Dust.
The wonderful Chris Raschka says "the form dictates the story," and in the case of Out of the Dust, it is true: right from the start, the language for this book came out as poetry -- spare, pared-down language that mirrored the land. When Karen sent me the first draft, she was worried: would readers accept it? was it too daunting? should she rewrite it in prose? But because it seemed to make so much intrinsic sense, I endorsed Karen's belief that if Billie Jo needed to tell her story this way, then this was the way it should be told.
One thing we did do in editing the manuscript was to take out any references to physical writing. At first, Karen had Billie Jo *actually writing* the poetry, but that brought up too many questions to be credible: if she were actually writing, then: where did she get the paper? how come it wasn't destroyed by the dust? didn't it hurt her fingers to write after the accident? how on earth did she learn to write in this style?
So in the second draft, Billie Jo was simply expressing herself this way internally, not committing her thoughts to paper. By excising references to Billie Jo as a writer, the poetry became more credible. It was simply the form the narrator needed to employ to tell her story.
Here's one thing I *still* don't understand about writers -- how they say they write a story in order to find out how it ends. To me, there's something miraculous about that -- how can they not know! -- but then, that's why I'm the editor and she's the writer. When Karen started Out of the Dust she didn't know whether Billie Jo would stay or leave -- it was only when she had completed the book that she "found out" where Billie Jo's path would lead. (There were changes from one draft to another, though. BJ went to Hollywood in an earlier version, which didn't seem to work with her character. So the trip on through the mountains was substituted instead, and I think made the book much stronger.)
And yes, of course Karen thought about the burning scene, and its effect on children. But as many of you have pointed out, children deal with tragedy every day -- in real life, not just on TV. There is something healing about seeing Billie Jo lose her mother (every child's fear), grieve her, come to terms with the cause of her death, and renew her love for her father. Karen has spent many years as a hospice worker, and feels that death is an important part of life. Many of her books deal with grief. Death as a gratuitous plot device (The Lion King!) leaves children unable to process it; death as a natural part of life can provide catharsis.
Brenda Bowen
Received on Thu 05 Feb 1998 04:25:19 PM CST
