Reading to Tune the Writer’s Ear

I remember when my son and I were reading the 39 Clues series (a 10-book international treasure hunt series, tackled by several authors), there was one author in particular who could make the characters really come to life. When we read Book 4 we both thought it was the best book yet. When Book 6 came out, I had to stop reading to check who the author was—same one. Jude Watson, pseudonym of Judy Blundell.

This struck the writer in me. Blundell was likely following an outline and character sketches provided by someone else (I’m not sure how much collaboration they had on this project) and yet she had gone deeper with the characters than the other writers and I recognized her writing a second time.

The 39 Clues books are an action-packed series with red herrings, dead ends, danger, and explosions galore. But occasionally mixed in with the action are the character arcs of orphans Dan and Amy Cahill as they struggle to find out who they are and how they fit into this crazy family. 

If you check the reviews on Amazon for Book 4 you’ll see someone wrote “Best yet!” But the very next review is titled: “Not as good as the others.” 

This quote by A Kid’s Review made me laugh:

“Jude Watson tried to make a decent sized 39 Clues book by putting a crudload of sentimental feelings in the book and not a whole lot of action in the book. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a book with a good puzzle in it, but it has more feelings in it than any other book…” 

LOL, and it’s that “crudload of sentimental feelings” that I thought helped to round out the series, balance all that action, and add layers to a series that was zipping along on a surface level.

If you’ve been following Routines for Writers lately, you’ll know that I’m hyper-focused on character right now. This week I’ve been spending some time with my writer’s notebook—specifically, the section where I copy out passages that show character development. 

The book I’m analyzing right now is Judy Blundell’s Strings Attached, an upper YA book set in 1950s New York whose main character, Kit, goes to the big city to make her mark on Broadway. This book is a little more gritty than the kind of book I am normally drawn to, but it is so well written. I see that even more after I go back and look at specific passages. This novel is really built on a mountain of backstory, so much so that the flashback scenes get chapters of their own.

In the first eight pages I have notes on the main character showing herself:

• being surprised and rattled
• under attack
• hopeless
• jealous
• feeling stuck
• afraid for her (ex)boyfriend
• trying to be something she feels she’s not
• self-sabotaging herself
• facing the moral dilemma

Here are some samples:

p. 2 “Must be nice to have hope in your pocket, like loose change you could jingle through your fingers. I found myself jealous of everyone nowadays, even dimwits like Shirley.

p. 3 But Shirley didn’t believe there was a topic you couldn’t poke at. It could be the day of your mother’s funeral, and she’d tell you to change your hat.

p. 4 Why was he here? I sucked air into my lungs and stood with my chin up, braced for the hit.
“Billy?” I asked.
“No word,” he said. “He hasn’t shipped out yet.”
I blew out a breath while I slowly pulled on my gloves. The pull of fear eased. I could talk now.

p. 8 “You know this isn’t right.”
“No,” he said, anger in his voice now. “This is right. It just doesn’t look right. So don’t tell anybody, and nobody has to know.”

There is so much about this writing that I like. The unusual pairing of images, the crisp language, Blundell’s word choices. Lovely writing that sounds good to my ear.