by
Robert Locke, Pseud. Clayton Bess
As always, the primary goal of my author's visits is to encourage the students to think of authorship as a possible
career for themselves, fun and rewarding not only emotionally but remuneratively.
In the VOICE and CHOICE presentation, I start with how I happened upon my first story—a true story told to me
by the mother of one of my students in Liberia, West Africa—how I was compelled night after
sleepless night to begin to write the story, how I chose to tell the story with the narrative VOICE
of a Liberian father, and how the story changed in a very significant way from the original true
story by the CHOICE that the heroine must make during the precipitating incidents.
I will read selections in the opening pages of
Story for a Black Night
in order to point up the
Voice and Choice message. Then I will turn to my more recent book
A Ghost in Silence to read from the first chapter which is a riveting drama of a family uproar at the dinner table witnessed by the
confused 10-year-old narrator Dillon. Dillon doesn't fully understand the issues of the sudden conflict
between his parents and his beloved older brother Chazz, but he understands that he must find a way
to intervene and bring the family back to harmony.
Dillon's VOICE is very different from the unique African tribal VOICE of Momo in
Story for a Black Night
but what the storytelling has in common is that the very nature of the story itself must be confined by
the limited language and understanding of a narrator who can't know or understand the entirety of his own
story, so that the reader finds him/herself in that delicious situation of actually knowing more about
the story than does the narrator.
Dillon's CHOICE is very different in nature from that of the heroine in
Story for a Black Night yet
there is literary illumination in the mere discussion of the mere fact that both heroine and hero
MUST MAKE a choice.
The readings and the student participation in this presentation should last about 50 minutes, but if there
is time for more, I would also like to bring into the presentation the possible collaborations between
author and illustrator in children's books.
A Ghost in Silence is chock full of illustrations
in large part because the illustrations by David Rauscher demanded changes in the story itself, changes
that advanced the story in major ways. The point here is that an author must be open to make revisions,
to rewrite and rewrite and rewrite, to expand and contract the story in dynamic ways.
Teachers, I have found, are very keen to hear me talk about rewriting to their students. Young people are too
often content to write their ideas and then move on without ever bothering to rewrite. My message to the
students is that they are the god, the creator of their own words, and they need to find the joy of working
and reworking their words and ideas until they make the best story they possibly can. The message seems
to get across when I talk about how I work on my own revisions, particularly in regard to this collaboration
between illustrator and author, which is unique.
By way of contrast to the collaborative work of author and illustrator in
A Ghost in Silence I
point to the illustrations in the French and Mexican editions of
Story for a Black Night,
also in
The Truth about the Moon which were completely non-collaborative. That is, those stories were
completed and those illustrators were brought into the final product without any input or advice from the
author, which is the regular plan of most publishers, and often very likely a mistake in my opinion.
Along the way in the VOICE and CHOICE presentation, most particularly when there are lively Q&A sessions, there is usually
much discussion not only about the writing of a story but about the publishing of a book, garnering reviews,
awards, and ultimately the distribution of the book to the public and to libraries.
As always, I am open to the ideas of teachers and librarians to mold my presentations for their particular classes.
Contact: Clayton Bess
Copyright © 2009 Robert Locke
All Rights Reserved