Friday Feedback: Liza Wiemer and the WHY of it all. . .

Hey, shiny campers!!!

I'm back from the amazing #nErDcampMI and super excited to have met several Teachers Write campers there, at least briefly! What a wonderful place #nerd camps are. Nora Raleigh Baskin and I had a GREAT time, and I urge you, if you have a chance, to check them out and see if there's one popping up anywhere near you!



Meanwhile, back to real life. Luckily, I am super ridiculously excited to have Liza Wiemer here today to talk about the WHY of it all.


Liza is the author of Hello? about which, SLJ said, 

"Readers will appreciate literary references to Ralph Waldo Emerson, the 19th-century transcendentalist essayist and poet whom Emerson is named after. Chapters open with Emerson quotes. Savvy popular culture fans will savor references to everything from Frank Sinatra's signature songs to Led Zeppelin to films like Psycho and 500 Days of Summer. The author successfully ties these threads together without weighing down the narrative."

Doesn't that sound good? Okay, well don't take it from me or just them: Hello? was also named a Goodreads YA Best Book of the Month, November 2015, and Paste Magazine said, “Hello? is one of the most original novels of the year… If you’re looking for something incredibly different...push this to the top of your list.”

I have it on my Kindle and cannot wait. 

            

So, without further ado, here's Liza talking about the WHY of it all:

If you’re a parent, a pre-school teacher, or have ever been around two and three and even four-year-olds, you’ve most likely been pestered with “Why?” Why?” “Why?” After a while, it can get annoying. And eventually the message gets through: Stop asking why! Which stifles our natural curiosity. We learn to mind our own business. To stop paying attention. Or if we do notice something different, witness something painful, hurtful or perhaps interesting or amazing, we don’t necessarily stop and ask why.

But “Why” is the most important question. It’s the key to unlocking a story. It creates depth, meaning, and understanding. “Why” is the revealer of secrets, the motivation for behavior, the unveiling of hidden wounds or a unique talent.

Here’s an example -- and with #3 being the piece I'm putting up for "feedback"  -- which illustrates how “Why” can transform a story. It's not from a WIP exactly, but from my own life. Consider this my excerpt. As I reveal more, pay attention to whether answering "why?" becomes the key to motivation, to making the story compelling. 

1. When I was twelve years old, a Mormon who said hello to me saved my life.

2. When I was twelve years old, my family was whitewater rafting in Utah. My fourteen-year-old sister and I shared a raft. A Mormon couple, whose raft had popped, asked my sister and me if they could join us. They said they’d give us five dollars each if we’d help them out. Twenty minutes later, I fell into the water and the man grabbed my shirt and threw me into the raft, saving my life. At the end of the trip, he gave my sister and me the money.

3. After coping with a brutal divorce and hating my mother for breaking up our family, her idea to take a three-week RV road trip with my future stepfather, stepsister, and stepbrother was an omen for disaster.  My fourteen-year-old sister, my seven-year old brother, and I, at twelve, had no desire to blend our family with strangers. To make the situation worse, my mother cleaned out my savings account to pay for the trip. Without telling me! I had at least fifteen hundred dollars; money I was saving for college. This combination set into motion an event that changed my life forever.

 By the time we reached the Teton Mountains in Wyoming, I considered running away and living like Grizzly Adams. To this day, I can put myself into that space, staring out the laundromat windows, longing for freedom. While folding my soon-to-be stepfather’s underwear, my sister convinced me to stay.

            As our grumpy group traveled west, we stopped somewhere in Utah to go river rafting. I partnered with my sister. It was a beautiful day, and as we meandered down the lazy river, we exchanged hellos with a young couple as they passed us by.

Fifteen minutes later, we came upon them, drenched, standing alongside their deflated raft. The man called to us and explained that they’d hit something sharp, tearing through the raft’s skin. He held up the shredded rubber as evidence. “Could we go down the river with you?” he asked. “It’s too far to walk or swim. We’ll pay you. Five dollars each.”

            The question of safety never crossed my mind. He explained that they were Mormons that no harm would come to us. And, if doing an act of kindness wasn’t motivation enough, the promise of money definitely was a strong incentive. My sister and I welcomed them, and the couple took over paddling.

            Twenty minutes later, a storm came out of nowhere. Pitch black. Thunder. Lighting! A curtain of rain pelted us. The raft dipped, dived, and spun out of control with the treacherous torrent. Before I could secure my life preserver, the raft smashed into an outcrop of boulders and I flew into the water. Down, down, down. The current dragged me along. Face toward the sky, I stared up as my back bumping along the bottom. With no control, nothing to grab ahold of, I knew I was going to die. And somehow, I found peace with it. I accepted it.

            Until a hand fisted my shirt and I was thrown into the raft. The man saved my life.

            Soaked to the bone, we finally made it to the drop-off point. The man pulled out his soggy wallet and removed two five-dollar bills. My sister accepted hers, but I refused. “You saved my life. I can’t take that.”

            “But you have to,” he said. “You helped us, and I promised.”

            Shaking my head, I stepped back. No. I couldn’t take payment after what he’d done for me. If their raft hadn’t popped, if my sister and I had been in alone, surely both of us would have drowned.

            The man held out the five dollars. “Please,” he said. “I made a promise, and when I give my word, it’s important people know they can count on me. By taking the money, you’re doing me a favor. You’re allowing me to fulfill that promise.”

            Reluctantly, I took the money. And learned a life-long lesson. Your word is everything. If you can’t follow through on a promise, explain why. Because otherwise your word means next to nothing. To this day, I try my best to only make a promise when I know it’s one I can keep.

***

           

            For today's Friday Feedback, share an excerpt that you have transformed by asking why. Make sure you dig deep, then deeper, then deeper still.  I look forward to reading your excerpts!

*Campers, please note that Liza's story is longer than the excerpts you should share for feedback (I know, I know, it's unfair, but it would be too much for Liza (and me!) to have to read and give feedback to. So please limit your excerpts to the usual 3 -5 paragraphs. And remember that anything posted past the end of the business day Friday will not necessarily be read by Liza. Anything posted past midday Saturday won't be read by me as I will already be gearing up for next week's Friday Feedback plus a mid-week post!

A huge thanks to Liza for hosting! If you want to read more about WHY from her, you may go HERE: Create rich characters by asking WHY. And please check out Hello? and order a copy for you and/or your students today!

xox Liza (and Gae!)