OREM — Advice for new writers: Begin with something that evokes a strong emotion from the heart.
Then turn it over to the imagination, and let it soar.
Newbery Medal winner Phyllis Reynolds Naylor said she often makes this recommendation and also commented on her own sources of inspiration during a recent speech.
Naylor, who has written "Shiloh" and more than 100 other books for children and adults, was the keynote speaker during the second annual Forum on Children and Literature at Utah Valley State College.
"In order for an idea to become something I can use, it has to connect with me," she said. It is probably similar for actors who are selecting a part to play; the first draft of a book is much like a first rehearsal, she said.
"I've often been struck with the similarities between the two professions — writing and acting," Naylor said. There is a moment when a character comes alive on the paper, comparable to the time when a character begins to pull the actor through a performance. Some believe writers distance themselves from life and merely observe, she said. This may be true for some writers but not for most; the writer grabs hold of the experience.
"We embrace life. We rush headlong to meet it," she said.
Many of her own personal experiences have been included in one form or another in her books. Naylor said she tells young students that those who will become writers have already begun their journey; much of what they are experiencing now will find its way into their stories.
"Who we are and who our people were always flavors our writing," Naylor said.
When she was a child, Naylor's family lived in the poorer neighborhoods and moved often to accommodate her father's job as a traveling salesman. Her parents read to their children often, with her father taking on roles from books such as Mark Twain's "Huckleberry Finn." She talked of how the adults would congregate on the porch to tell each other stories while the children acted out their own tales.
"It seemed to me sometimes that the whole business of life was stories," she said.
Naylor's series of "Alice" books have become popular with people around the world. The ideas for these books come from a combination of Naylor's own angst as a teenager and the things parents and young girls tell the author now.
Adolescents enjoy reading about the embarrassing moments of others, she said.
"They love the assurance that they're not alone," Naylor said.
It would be easy to keep writing books that have an automatic audience such as her "Alice" books, she said. Occasionally, however, there is "an urgency to do something different," a desire to get inside the skin of someone that can hardly be imagined.
One example is her book "Walker's Crossing." She was inspired to write the story after seeing a photograph and story about a "skinhead" who had turned his life around. This made Naylor curious about hate groups and at what age a child could make a similar change, leading her to do research on the subject.
"I wrote 'Walker's Crossing' because I wanted young people to see how violence can begin," she said.
You can reach Christi C. Babbitt by e-mail at cbabbitt@inet-1.com