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.
Our surprise addition to our menagerie. Her favorite place to sit is on me while I type.
What an amazing month or two. Busy yes, who isn't, but we managed to travel home and spend much needed time with family. We had my entire extended family (except one niece who's currently overseas) in one room at one time. Watching my kids connect and reconnect with cousins and second cousins was magical. Once all the dust resettled, I did manage to sign up for Julie Hedlund's 12 days of Christmas program--12 days of inspirational exercises for writers. Day two's exercise included writing our surprises for the last year. On day three, we wrote about our successes, with the added prompt to blog about them--a thought I loved. So, here are my surprises and successes for 2015: Surprises:
Had three separate agents express interest in pitches and queries
Had an agent ask me to write an article for a blog she's involved with
Realized how much I like the agents I meet and want to be friends with them all
Understood an entire conversation in basic Spanish
Received an honorable mention for my Halloweensie story
Realized I really like writing for older children as well
Adopted a kitten my husband found in the gutter
Successes:
Narrowed down three strong picture book manuscripts
Wrestled my historical-fiction middle grade novel into a revisable edition
Wrote a picture book draft every month
Revised picture book drafts every month
Jotted down an idea for a new middle grade fantasy novel
Then came day four: Write your disappointments for 2015 (max at five), then make a big inner critic judgement about them, followed by a sound judgement. Whew, here are my five: Disappointments:
Twitter pitch got favorited, but MS rejected: I can write a pitch but not a story: If I can write an interesting pitch, I can write an interesting story.
Manuscript requested based on query, but MS ultimately rejected: This story is never going to work: If I can write a query, I can find a way to rewrite my MS.
Haven't found the right fix for the middle section of my middle grade novel: I just can't write: I have a good beginning and an interesting ending, which means I will find a middle.
Wasted too much time on social media: I have no discipline: I made valuable connections, which helped me learn more about the craft of writing.
Had too many days where I wondered why I was still writing when so many better writers are out there: I just don't have what it takes: Who cares, I am writing the stories only I can write.
There you have it. Perhaps if any of you are stuck in a similar place, these exercise might help. Give it a shot and good luck. And a very Happy New Year to all.
P.S. An excellent video to start off your new year:
My sides hurt. The above video is a celebration of bad Gaiman story knock-offs. The stories are deliciously terrible, and even better/worse with Neil Gaiman reading them. While they are fun, they're also great lessons in tiny packages. But I can't leave you just with that. Well I could, but the video below is too spectacular to pass up, but it's not short. Julie Hedlund interviews John Rocco about his Caldecott Honor book, Blackout and other events in his writing/illustrating career. Such fantastic info. Grab your lunch and settle in.
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.
Julie Hedlund and Emma Walton Hamilton are hosting a self-guided, online course on how to prepare a picture book query and manuscript for submission. The early bird price ends tonight at midnight (P.S. The deadline has been extended by a day, so tonight is the cut off for the early bird price), so I wanted to get this out while there's a few hours left: http://picturebooksubmissions.com The video above is a brief overview of the course, and the video below is a more in-depth explanation of the course and answers to many of the basic questions on how to prepare a query for submission. I took Emma's middle grade writing course and loved it and Julie is a power-house in marketing, so these two make a perfect teaching duo on how to put your best foot forward in submitting to agents or editors. Enjoy.
I'm thrilled I get to tell you about two fantastic courses coming up. First, Julie Hedlund has opened her How to Make Money as a Writer course. I'm fortunate to be in the beta course. I'm learning how to use social media to market yourself, how to market yourself off-line, and how to create the mindset of an authorpreneur. And now her course is open to everyone! Click here for the details: https://juliehedlund.leadpages.net/makemoneyasawriter/ I've also graduated from Mira Reisberg's Children's Book Academy--see my nifty graduation button?I took her course on writing picture booksandso enjoyed my experience with Mira that I'm tempted to take her illustration course even though I'm not an illustrator. But for those of you who are illustrators or who would like to be, I unabashedly recommend her illustration course. Check out her great introductory video with co-teacher Kristine Brogno, design and art director for Chronicle Books.
It's starting soon and if you register before Wednesday, you get a discounted price. I'm sorry for not posting this sooner, but I'm waist deep in work from our move and a few other unexpected things. I can't wait to share more with you about what I've learned from these two talented women. Have a great day!
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.
