INTERVIEW WITH GRACE LIN: Where the Mountain Meets the Moon Post #7

After reading and examining Where the Mountain Meets the Moon last month, we StorySleuths had some questions about writing process and writing techniques that we couldn’t answer from the text itself. So we asked author Grace Lin if she would answer our questions for us, and she graciously agreed. We’re grateful for her responses, which we are posting below, as they gave us insight into the special considerations and challenges she faced in writing Where the Mountain Meets the Moon.

1. Were all of the stories based on traditional folktales or did you write some from scratch?

The stories were a hybrid. A lot of them were based on traditional tales that I tweaked here and there, embellishing myths that were little more than a line. For example, at Chinese New Year, it is common to find pictures of two plump children dressed in red decorating doorways. These children are called Da-A-Fu. Why? I researched and only found a very short summary of them: they were two spirits transformed as children sent to destroy a green monster that was terrorizing a village. There were no details of how or why or what village, but it was enough to spark my imagination. So with that, I created the twin characters of A-Fu and Da-Fu in Where the Mountain Meets the Moon who destroy the Green Tiger.

2. At first it seems like the stories are independent stand-alones but clearly they are tightly interwoven--seemingly unimportant details become significant, minor characters reappear in larger roles--what process did you use to weave it all together?

Not a very organized one! Every time I wrote a story I would think, does this have a purpose with the rest of the plot? If there were at least 2 threads that could tie it to the larger story then I kept it. If there weren’t, I cut it. It was really just a lot of obsessive thinking.

3. We were so taken by the ending. We always hear that refrain that the ending should be a surprise, and yet inevitable. When Minli got to the old man and he would only answer one question -- wow! Of course! It was just perfect. We wonder at what point you knew what the ending would be.

I knew the ending about the questions before I wrote the book. Where the Mountain Meets the Moon is very loosely based on a folktale called "Olive Lake," though I changed it quite a bit. In the folktale, the main character is only allowed to ask the God of the West a limited amount of questions, so the structure was already there! All the additional ending elements--Fruitless Mountain turning fruitful, etc, I had planned before I started writing as well--I like to have kind of an end goal so I know where I am going when I write.

However, one also has to be flexible as they write too! For me, all the storylines with the Book of Fortune and the Secret of Happiness came pretty late and those, I think, are the real heart of the ending.

4. What was your revision process like?

I actually enjoy revision. It's writing the first draft, that initial output, that kills me! And my editor, Alvina Ling, is not only my editor but a great friend so I really trust her opinions on my writing...and she understands when my writing is quite rough.

But I don't really have a clear organized process. I write the first draft the best I can, send it to Alvina and wait for her response. Usually she has a really good idea of what to do with it and then I get to work. I like the retooling of the story; I feel like revision is when the story really starts to sing. After my first draft of Where the Mountain Meets the Moon she told me I needed at least 10 more chapters and I should show the parents' side of the story. I cringed at the 10 more chapters but showing the parents' side was an idea of genius!

5. What was the most challenging aspect of writing this book?

This was a very emotionally challenging book for me. I think the best way to explain why would be just to direct you to the speech I read at the Josette Frank Award.

6. Could you share one writing tip that you learned in the process of writing Where the Mountain Meets the Moon?

With Where the Mountain Meets the Moon there were so many story lines that I was afraid that things might get lost on the reader. So after each major change my editor had other people in house read it and I had other friends read it to make sure things were clear. I really learned the value of a fresh reader! Sometimes it's important to have someone who knows nothing about the story, someone who is not even a writer, read the story, just to make sure it hangs together--though I would suggest using them only towards the end—when you are fine-tuning, not at early draft stage!

Many thanks, Grace, for your writing and for your articulate explanations of how you researched, structured and created Where the Mountain Meets the Moon. We are looking forward to reading your books that are currently in the works—especially the two companion books to Where the Mountain Meets the Moon—Return to Sky and Needle at Sea Bottom!

StorySleuths’ Tip # 75: With thanks to Grace Lin: “Sometimes it's important to have someone who knows nothing about the story, someone who is not even a writer, read the story, just to make sure it hangs together--though I would suggest using them only towards the end—when you are fine-tuning, not at early draft stage!”

GEEKTASTIC: Alvina Ling Q&A

When we selected Geektastic for our January book, we found the story behind the book on editor Alvina Ling's blog, Bloomabilities. Did you know that when the project went to auction, Alvina submitted her geek-creds in a formal resume?

Given Alvina's clear enthusiasm for the project, we asked her to share her thoughts on writing and editing short stories. Alvina's responses to our questions follow:

1. As an editor, what do you look for in a short story versus a novel?

Well, as GEEKTASTIC was the first short story collection I've edited, I can't profess to being an expert, but I will say that I look for almost the exact same things in a short story as I do in a novel: strong voice, compelling plot, fascinating characters-just in a shorter form!

2. What nugget of advice would you offer to our readers interested in writing short story collections?

To be perfectly honest, if you're looking to be published in the Young Adult or children's market, short story collections are not the best way in! They're really tough sells, especially in the trade (bookstore) market, and most publishers aren't actively looking for them. In the case of GEEKTASTIC, however, it had such a strong and obvious hook. The title itself says it all. If you're writing a short story collection, I would make sure you have a very clear hook/theme. Some good examples are 21 Proms by David Levithan and Daniel Ehrenhaft, and Grl2Grl by Julie Anne Peters.

3. What craft elements do you consider critical for short stories as compared to longer works?

Again, I don't profess to be an expert with short stories, but I would say that short stories need a tighter, simpler plot with fewer back stories and side stories: the story will need a beginning, climax, and end, the same thing that a good novel needs, but all of this must happen within a shorter word count.

4. What is different for you in terms of editing a short story collection vs. editing a novel?

Well, in this case the collection was edited by Holly Black and Cecil Castellucci. The way we decided to handle this was that Holly and Cecil would work with the authors until they felt that the story was final, and then I would edit it. Because of this, by the time the stories reached me, for the most part they were in really good shape. Plus, all the authors are pros! So I actually did very light editing. In a few cases, what I mainly did was suggest places to tighten and cut for some of the longer stories.

5. Were you surprised by the direction of any of the stories in Geektastic?

To be perfectly honest, I didn't know what to expect, so once the stories started coming in I was pleasantly surprised by all of them! But to name two that I was probably surprised by most: I loved that Lisa Yee's story turned our definition of "geek" upside-down. I also loved Kelly Link's story--we had specified that we didn't want genre stories--so no science fiction or fantasy, etc. Kelly's story had a bit of fantasy in it (or shall we say, an alternate reality?), but we were happy to let that slide because the story was so awesome.

Thank you, Alvina, for taking the time to answer these questions!

Alvina Ling is senior editor at Little, Brown Books for Young Readers. In addition to being editor for Geektastic, she was also the editor of Grace Lin's middle grade novel Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, which won a Newbery Honor earlier this month.

MULTIPLE VIEWPOINTS: Geektastic

Before I begin a conversation about Geektastic: Stories from the Nerd Herd, I should make a bold admission: I am not a geek. However, I married one and gave birth to his two clones. I am mired in geekdom, which served me well reading this collection of short stories. In her blog, Alvina Ling who edited this book for Little, Brown says, “Sure, some of the stories speak mainly to hard-core geeks, and non-geeks might not get all the references. But that's kind of the point. This is a book for geeks, by geeks; but it's also a book for past geeks and future geeks.” 

So there were references I did not get, but with assistance from my trusty coterie of resident geeks, I was able to figure most things out, and who knows? Perhaps I am a future geek. Since reading the book I have invested in a DVD collection of the BBC’s original Dr. Who. It’s a start.

But on to a discussion of craft! The story I’ll focus on here is the first one in the book, “Once You’re a Jedi, You’re a Jedi All the Way,” which was written by the brainchildren behind this book, who are also its editors, Holly Black and Cecil Castellucci.This is the story of a forbidden romance between Arizhel, a Klingon warrior and Thomas, a Jedi knight, who meet at a sci-fi convention. It is written in two first-person viewpoints, and those characters are distinctly different from one another right from their opening lines:

Klingon:

“I awake tangled up in scratchy sheets with my head pounding and the taste of cheap alcohol and Tabasco still in my mouth. The spirit gum I used to attach my nose ridge and eyebrows sticks to the sheets as I roll over. Immediately, a wave of nausea makes me regret moving and I try to lie as still as I can until it passes.” (p. 1)

Jedi:

“A Jedi is never supposed to give over his passions; he is always supposed to be in command. But last night, at some point between Coke Pluses, Master Sven must have spiked mine with a little bit of rum. My being such a lightweight might be a contributing factor in the mess I find myself in this morning.” (p. 4)

When writing in multiple viewpoints, the writer faces an additional challenge—that of making the multiple voices ring true and clear and different enough from one another that the reader always knows who’s head she is in. I would argue that the reader should be able to close her eyes, pick a page at random, and by reading no more than a sentence, be able to identify which character viewpoint is the active one.


Perhaps it is easier to create distinct first-person viewpoints when writing as co-authors. Look at books like Armageddon Summer, by Jane Yolen and Bruce Coville, and Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist by David Levithan (also a Geektastic contributor) and Rachel Cohn, in which the team of authors have succeeded in creating two clearly distinguishable character voices.


Easier, perhaps, but there are plenty of examples of extremely well done multiple viewpoint stories written by a solo author. I think of books like Witness by Karen Hesse, or the fabulous picture book Voices in the Park by Anthony Browne. In both cases, the author creates a cast of easily recognizable characters through the use of language, character attributes, gesture – all those things that combine to create voice. In Browne’s case, visuals add to the distinctions between character perspectives, but in the end, even without those things, the story would succeed because the voice of each character is clear and sharp and different from all the others.


Why, you might ask, am I even discussing this? Isn’t it obvious that the characters in a multiple viewpoint story must be distinct? Yes, but I have read stories, both published and unpublished, where the voices are so similar as to become indistinguishable. As the reader, I get lost, because the uniqueness of voice is what grounds us in a character and keeps us firmly rooted in his story. If the voices are too similar, the characters start to seem like one person and the story becomes confusing.


It is not enough to have greatly different details about each character–-hair color, eye color, gender, problem. The way each character speaks, the essence of him, must be different from every other character in the story for a multiple viewpoint novel, or short story, to work. Not sure yours is working? Flip to a random page, read a sentence, and see if it is instantly clear whose head you are in.


StorySleuths Tip #1: When writing in multiple viewpoints, be certain that each character’s voice is unique and distinct.