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Peace Garden Passage

a portal of petals featuring the writing of Roxane Beauclair Salonen

Home / Writer Spotlight: Shannon O’Donnell

Writer Spotlight: Shannon O’Donnell

I’m pleased to have an especially bright light on Peace Garden Writer today. Shannon O’Donnell resides in my home state of Montana and, like the people who formed me from infancy, claims the profession of teaching for her day job. Her efforts to change the world one child at a time begin each morning at home through mothering her three children, and continue when she enters the school building where she works as a high-school English teacher. But “Mrs. O’Donnell,” as her students know her, is no ordinary teacher. She’s exceptional in her tireless efforts to connect, encourage and inspire. 

A few years back, Shannon began expanding her reach from classroom to blogosphere, and in the process, has picked up nearly 1,000 followers to her blog, Book Dreaming. Being privy to this, I couldn’t help but wonder what sort of writing tools she’s collected in her file cabinet. Happily, Shannon agreed to share a few with us today.

Book Dreaming Shannon and Daughter

The Need to Bring Others Along

I’m honored to be featured on Roxane’s blog. She’s one of my favorite people in the blogosphere, and someday I WILL have coffee with her.

One of the most surprising things I’ve learned along my writing journey is that no matter who we are, we need help. No matter how well we write, we need help. No matter how many times we proofread, we need help. NO ONE can navigate these waters alone.

I teach high school composition, and I try to hammer into my students’ heads the importance of showing vs. telling. We work and work and work on ways to write more descriptively, incorporating more of the senses and stronger description and more powerful verbs . . . As adult writers ourselves, we understand the importance of “showing” our readers, rather than “telling” them information. Right?
I found my critique partner through blogging long after I’d finished my manuscript. I was thrilled to finally have another pair of eyes as backup. Imagine my shock, though, when I found notes in the margin letting me know that I was “showing” rather than “telling” in parts of my story. What?! That’s not possible. I KNOW BETTER, just ask my students! In spite of that, I had not fully followed my own rules.
Here’s the problem: we are often blind to errors or holes in our own work. We know what we mean. We know how we want our readers to feel, think, and understand. We don’t always write as clearly as we think we do, though.
One of my favorite writing gurus, Ralph Fletcher, once shared a letter he received from an editor pertaining to a new picture book he’d submitted. It was intended as a companion to a previously published (and hugely successful) story. The editor corrected things in every single stanza, pointing out details that were missed by both Ralph and his agent. Ralph is a HUGELY successful, multi-published author in children’s fiction and non-fiction, as well as writing resources for teachers. The man is brilliant. It doesn’t mean he can do it alone. None of us can.
Moral of the story: Make sure you have people (not family) to critique your writing. Consider hiring a freelance editor if you can afford it. Your writing will be MUCH stronger if you make this journey with others.

Note: Shannon added separately that picture books and middle grade literature are her passion, and that her blog, Book Dreaming (visit if you can), “began as a way to reach out to others in the writing community. It is a mixture of book reviews and writing-related information. I chose the name because my blog gives voice to the dream of being a published author one day.” 

Q4U: What do you think of Shannon’s advice? Have you ever run into the problem she’s outlined, and what did you do about it?  

And by the way, Shannon, we will have coffee someday. You can count on that!

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Comments

  3. Such sage advice! I’m excited to check out her blog 🙂 Oh goodness, we used to do critique circles in college, and it was so illuminating to see how others perceived my writing and its flaws. Its so easy to get caught up in the details of our “story” and not account for the broader perspective. Thanks for the wise advice and the gift of another blog/writer to check out!

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  6. Thank you for introducing Shannon. She’s pretty neat and has some wonderful advice. I look forward to hearing more. And grab that coffee! 🙂

    Reply

  7. Shannon’s lovely! Yay for such a fab post – thank you Roxane for hosting her here in you lovely blog.

    I thoroughly agree that a fresh pair of positive critical eyes are always needed to spruce up one’s ms. Getting help always helps! 🙂

    Take care
    x

    Reply

  11. Shannon’s one of the brightest spots in the bloggy-verse! 🙂

    Great advice too. It’s soooooo hard to let someone else read the stuff we’ve written – but it’s the only way to get better!

    Reply