I have much to be grateful for, and as I start a new year, I want to be more aware of the amazing miracles that happen all around me. To start it off, the above video includes some awesome gratitude quotes compiled by Julie Hedlund, who is hosting her 12x12 Picture Book Challengeagain this year. See here for details: http://12x12challenge.com
Here's hoping you have a great year with many more miracles to come.
As a participant in Julie Hedlund's12x12 program I had the opportunity to do a guest post on her blog. I wrote about the symbiotic nature of writing as illustrated by the redwood tree. You can see the full article here. With just a few repeats, I've added some things about redwoods, and how they apply to writers, that I didn't add to the original:
Redwood tree roots grow relatively shallow, but they are able to withstand extreme conditions and reach remarkable heights because they intertwine their roots. Writers grow best when intertwined with each other. Be it critique groups, agents, editors, etc., we need each other to reach those impossible heights.
Redwood seeds are about the size of a tomato seed. A lot of people try to break into writing without any background in a writing-related study, but successful writers come from various backgrounds. Even a tiny seed of desire can burst into a towering tree with the right effort and nourishment. And when a beginning writer busting with desire plants his or her roots into the soil, it gives life to the whole forest.
Redwoods can sprout new trees out of fallen ones. Think of all those lousy first drafts that ended up in the bin. Consider them fertilizer for better ideas. No writing, no matter how bad, is wasted. Even bad writing can sprout something monumental, you just have to keep trying.
Redwoods contain a lot of tannin in their bark. This allows them to be largely fire, insect and fungal resistant. As a writer you need "tann-acity" (cue the drum roll) to withstand the fires of rejections, bugs of self-doubt and the fungus of bad reviews.
Redwoods don't produce resin or pitch, which aids in their fire resistance. Try not to produce pitch, the weepy sap of discouragement or negativity that will make those fires of discouragement burn hotter and longer. And don't throw pitch at others. It just guarantees that you'll get scorched in the process. But if you have been scorched, know that trees survive and even thrive when some of that dross is burned away.
Strong redwoods make every redwood strong. One writer's success does not weaken another writer, rather it strengthens the whole system. J.K. Rowling's success created thousands of new opportunities for writers. When we encourage and support growth in others, we strengthen the system that our own roots draw nourishment from. A tall tree isn't competition, it's an arrow showing us the direction our own tree can grow.
I'm still settling into to our new home, but had the fortune of watching the video above. It's an interview for SCBWI, of Julie Hedlund, author and founder of 12x12. The publishing world is adapting and Julie's interview exposes one way to think outside the traditional methods of getting published. It's definitely worth viewing.
On another note, I joined WriteOnCon for the first time this year. We had the chance of having agents view our queries and first five pages or first 250 words. I posted a middle grade novel I've been working on and a picture book. I can't say I got any agent comments, but I definitely benefited from the other writers' comments who graciously took time out to critique my stories. Forums like 12x12, Verla Kay's Blueboards (now the SCBWI Blueboards), PiBoIdMo, NaNoWriMo and WriteOnCon are all great ways to meet other writers and learn the ins and outs of the publishing world for anyone seriously considering a plunge into the world of writing. And to take a page off of Leandra's blog, here's my favorite line from my historical-fiction, middle grade novel that I posted in WriteOnCon:
I heard the screen door slam and saw my father’s shadow skirt the corner and disappear. The truck started up and the sounds of it pulling away masked the clanging of the pots coming from the kitchen.
Whatever my mom was doing stopped when Grandma entered. She rarely came out of her room, but when she did, we had to be on our best behavior.
I signed up for Julie Hedlund's 12x12 writing program this year. I've benefited immensely from all the resources Julie has offered, not the least of which was an opportunity to be selected as a beta student for award-winning author Emma Walton Hamilton's Middle Grade/Chapter Book course. I'm only one week into the 14-week course, but I feel like I've already had those light-bulb moments that I need to fix a languishing middle grade novel. Some of the tips that resonated with me were:
Each character needs to further the story. If not, the character needs to go or be combined.
Each chapter needs an ending hook to keep the reader wondering what's next.
Each page needs emotional or dramatic tension.
Don't preach. Let the story set up a scene that allows the reader to draw their own conclusions.
One of the exercise we were asked to do was to write down the dramatic question. What is it that the reader needs to learn or achieve by the end of the book? Keep that question in mind as you draft your plot. Emma also recommended a book on writing that intrigued me greatly: The Writer's Journey, by Christopher Vogler. Vogler uses the mythic structure explored by Joseph Campbell to outline an effective story-telling method. There's much more, but that was enough to get me going in a direction I needed. I'll update as the class goes on. Emma has a picture book class and now a middle grade and young adult class she offers through her site, http://justwriteforkids.com. She is a faculty member for Stony Brook Southampton's MFA in Creative Writing and Literature, which means I'm basically getting a college course on my computer at my own pace with an award-winning author to teach me. I'm so excited to have this opportunity and so is my poor novel. Have a great weekend. P.S. The video is Emma and her mother, Julie Andrews talking about writing and how it links up with other art forms. I love it. Perhaps because of my own acting background, but I thought if ever I do a school presentation, a reader's theater would be a great way to get children to interact with your book.
