The Ink Splat is our monthly activity letter filled with inspiration sparking challenges and resources guaranteed to inspire your creativity. In this Ink Splat, the book and author spotlighted is The Neptune Project by Polly Holyoke along with an author interview! Submit a response to a challenge and you may have a chance to be published online! What are you waiting for?
The Challenge: Feeling Fear
If you want to write an adventure story, your characters are going to have to face terrible dangers. But to make those dangers vivid and believable, you have to help your readers feel what your main character is feeling. How do you personally experience fear? How do you feel, in a physical sense, before you take a long, hard test at school? Does your stomach get knotted up, or does your mouth go dry, or do your hands get all sweaty? Write a scene in which your main character has to face a monster, or conquer a challenge that he or she finds terrifying, and make sure you include many of the same sensations which you feel when you are scared.
Published Responses:
I was so nervous. Tane would know my secret! I was shaking like crazy as I nervously said the truth, “I was too picky.” I sighed. I would always be this way. “Well,” said Tane, “I am so telling Stensisa.” My heart dropped into my stomach. Then she came in. All ears had heard me get up. I did not know what to do.
-Maya
In 2nd period Aurrka went to gym. She got scared. She gt a knot in her stomach because she had to do the rope. In the middle she got stuck and the bell rang.
-Sara age 8 ½
She get butterflies in her stomach and throws up! (I mean actually swallowed butterflies!)
-Emilia
A boy ran “Ahhhhhhhh! No, no, no,” then he screamed. He stopped. I hear wolf. No wolf! Scratch the wolf ran. Then he killed it. “Food” he said.
-Anonymous
Submit your response HERE!
The Neptune Project by Polly Holyoke
With her weak eyes and useless lungs that often leave her gasping for air, Nere feels more at home swimming with the dolphins her mother studies than she does hanging out with her classmates. Nere has never understood why she is so much more comfortable and confident in the water than on land until the day she learns the shocking truth. She, along with dozens of other kids, has been genetically altered to survive in the ocean. These products of the “Neptune Project” are supposed to build a better future under the waves, safe from the terrible famines and wars and that rock the surface world.
But there some big challenges ahead of her: no one ever asked Nere if she wanted to be part of a science experiment; the other Neptune kids aren’t exactly the friendliest bunch, and in order to reach the safe haven of the new Neptune colony, Nere and her fellow mutates must swim across hundreds of miles of dangerous ocean, relying on their wits, their loyal dolphins and one another to evade terrifying undersea creatures and a government that will stop at nothing to capture the Neptune kids … dead or alive.
Interview with author, Polly Holyoke:
1. In Inklings classes, we talk about doorways into stories, and how some authors like to start with character, others with setting, others with plot ideas, and others with theme. How do story ideas start for you? How did the idea for The Neptune Project start?
My stories often build in the back of my mind over time. Sometimes I’ll get a plot idea all at once (one afternoon I plotted most of a ghost book while I was getting a cavity filled at the dentist !) but usually I take longer to figure out where my book is going. Sometimes my best story ideas come from the simple question, “What if?” So in the case of The Neptune Project, I asked myself, “What if a bunch of kids HAD to go live in the sea? What would it be like to give up everything they knew and loved on land? What would these kids’ lives be like once they actually were in the sea? On land humans are the top of the food chain, but in the ocean, there are many creatures which are stronger, faster predators than we are!
2. To write about an underwater setting, one that most people don’t experience very often, you probably had to do some interesting research. What kinds of things did you do in order to create your setting for The Neptune Project?
I was lucky because I’ve actually done a fair amount of scuba diving, and that experience made it much easier for me to describe the incredible world under the waves. I still watched lots of undersea television shows and movies, and Shark Week has become a kind of a summer ritual at our house. I also went swimming with wild and captive dolphins, which was some of the coolest research I’ve ever done!
3. What was the most difficult part of writing The Neptune Project, and how did you tackle that challenge?
I’m actually more of a history and English person and didn’t study much biology in school. So I had to really study up on genetics and the marine sciences to write this story. I loved learning about sharks and giant squid, but trying to understand the mechanics of gene splicing made my head ache. In the end, I reached out to some patient science teacher friends, and they helped me to understand what I couldn’t figure out from books and articles on the internet.
4. What was the most fun part of writing The Neptune Project?
My characters and the dolphins who protect them are telepathic, which means they can talk to each other underwater with their minds. It was great fun figuring out how to write telepathic dialogue. I ended up using colons instead of quotation marks when my characters are talking to each other telepathically. But I’ve written so much dialogue this way now, I often type colons when I’m supposed to type quotation marks! I particularly enjoyed writing dolphin dialogue. Many of the dolphins in this story became important and interesting characters in their own right.
5. Many of our young writers don’t enjoy plotting, because they like the feeling of being their own “first reader” and discovering what happens as they write, scene by scene. We play with planning tools that allow for planning a little ahead of time, and then also planning later, as part of revision. Do you have a plotting process that works well for you?
I love to daydream, and before I write a book, I try to daydream twenty different key scenes that will happen in the course of the story. Often I start with some of the most dramatic and intense ones because they are the most fun to imagine. By the time I’m done picturing those twenty scenes, I usually have most of my main plot points laid out. Daydreaming is so important if you want to be writer. Make sure you take time each day to shut off all the electric gadgets in your life, from televisions to computers to cellphones, and let your mind imagine and create!
Thank you, Polly Holyoke!
Visit the author’s website HERE.
Get the book on May 21 HERE.
