Writing Wrongs

July 17, 2006

Over on Romancing the Blog, there�s talk of the book from your childhood that defined your reading or writing habits for the rest of your life? Or a book you�ve never been able to forget.

Oh, sure. We could be here all day.

Growing up, I absolutely loved the Betsy-Tacy books. They�re not as well known as the Little House on the Prairie series. I have to admit upfront that I grew up in the town where Betsy did (Deep Valley is actually Mankato, Minnesota). I lived in the section of town that the books described as �Little Syria,� and had a weekly paper route where I delivered papers to Betsy�s, Tacy�s, and Tib�s old houses. And even in junior high, I thought that was kind of cool.

So maybe I�m biased. I liked Betsy better than Laura Ingalls. Betsy wanted to be a writer and she actually wrote, which impressed me. But she always made her heroines perfect, and even at a young age, I could tell that this didn�t make for an interesting story. Certainly Betsy, with all her flaws and imperfections, was far more fascinating.

I remember wanting to tell her to stop, that wasn�t the way to write a story. Hence, I learned characterization.

I also loved the Trixie Belden books. In fact, I still have in my possession (well, not in my possession, it�s at home) my Trixie Belden fan club card. No joke. I�ll have to scan it one of these days.

Again, making the obvious comparison: Trixie to Nancy Drew, I liked Trixie better. Show of hands. How many of you were annoyed by Nancy�s obvious perfection? Yeah. I thought so. Me too.

I so wanted to be a girl-detective. But immediately, I knew that it wasn�t practical, so I dreamed but never really schemed (that sound you hear is my mom�s sigh of relief). And really, Trixie & Co. did some pretty risky things--relatively speaking--in the name of solving the mystery. But that was part of the package. I understood that this was the story world, and in the story world, it was okay for these things to happen.

And thus I learned suspension of disbelief.

I could go on--and just might--about other books that I loved and that inspired me. Just wait. I think I have a week�s worth of blog posts about this.

Charity Tahmaseb wrote at 10:54 a.m.

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