January 29, 2010

If you’re a plumber hired to unclog my drain, but I catch you sitting and looking out the window, I can, in all fairness, say you’re not working. If you’re my cleaning lady, but I catch you rocking in a chair staring into space, I can say justly that you’re not working.

What about writers? Not so easy to tell!

Thinking vs. Writing

According to Wallace Stevens, “It is not always easy to tell the difference between thinking and looking out the window.” It’s also not always easy to tell the difference between thinking and going for a walk, between thinking and washing dishes, between thinking and daydreaming, and between thinking and grazing in the fridge.

Why is this true? Lots of thinking precedes writing. For fiction writers, thinking about characters, getting to know them, listening to their voices-all this happens in the head while “thinking.” Plot twists and turns give birth while “thinking”-and woe unto the writer who skips thinking and writes the first thing that comes into her head.

Although all this pre-thinking is critical, that isn’t all the thinking you’ll have to do. Even while working on revisions, you’ll find yourself thinking and staring out the window, thinking and walking, thinking and grazing. You understand that “I’m thinking” means ”so please don’t interrupt.” Chances are, your family won’t. Instead they will walk into the room where you’re “thinking-writing” and say, “Oh good, you’re not doing anything. Can you hold the ladder for me?”

Thinking in Disguise

That’s why I prefer to do my thinking in private if I can. Otherwise it just seems to invite interruptions, often at a critical moment when I’ve just about figured out my theme or where the climax scene needs to go.

If I’m home alone, that’s no problem. If it’s in the evening, though, or on a weekend, I weed flowers or fold a load of laundry or wash dishes when I need to think something through. (Nobody bothers you when doing chores-they might get roped into helping.)

Reap the Rewards

Contrary to the life of a plumber or housekeeper, a lot of the writer’s real work happens when she’s looking out the window. Sometimes my clearest thoughts, my best insights for how to fix things, come when I’m not thinking about the piece of writing at all.

Give yourself enough of this “mindless” time, and you’ll be amazed what bubbles up to your conscious mind. Despite the heckling you may receive, during this thinking time you’re a writer at work. And the pay-off will be huge.

October 16, 2009

A year ago, I urged you to sign up for the free Muse Online Writer’s Conference. It’s been running this week, October 12-18, and my brain is over-stuffed at the moment. (Next time I won’t sign up for 28 different workshops!)

I’ve attended lectures on voice, overcoming creative blocks, writing tight, plot points and tension, enjoyed Q & A with agents and editors, pitched my middle-grade novel to an agent and got a “go ahead,” and so much more. Forums contain lecture notes and assignments, plus postings of lessons with feedback. The handouts were especially good, and I have a small binder full.

It was also especially helpful to me this year for health reasons to be able to sit in my good office chair, sleep in my own bed, eat my own food, and get up and walk around when necessary. I Skyped with a writer friend a couple of times this week (who was also “attending” the conference via her computer.) Discussing some of the workshops was helpful.

Don’t Miss Out!

It’s been a full week, and admittedly I got behind on the assignments. Next year, if I’m lucky enough to get one of the 1,000+ spots available, I will have to be more selective. I was, admittedly, like a kid in a candy store–where the chocolate was all free!

There are so many wonderful things about the Muse conference, and directors Lea Schizas and Carolyn Howard-Johnson are to be commended for the tremendous amount of work they’ve done to give writers this chance.  I’ll let you know when it’s time to sign up for next year’s conference. You don’t want to miss this opportunity.

October 7, 2009

I attended a terrific writers’ conference last weekend in Austin, TX, and during the social time, we discussed various career challenges, the economic downturn, puny sales of well reviewed books, and other writer maladies common to us all.

Are there ways to get out of this slump? Yes! I found such a list of great ideas today on Janet Kobobel Grant’s post. (Janet is an agent with Books & Such, and we met at Mt. Hermon eighteen months ago.)

“Many of us have the misconception,” Janet writes, “that the toughest part of developing a writing career is finding a publisher. Nope. In actuality, most careers have a slump or two built into them. These often occur just when you think you’ve built up some momentum, such as when you’ve written and had published about six books. What kind of advice can an agent offer at this crucial moment in a career? Everyone’s situation is unique, of course, but here is a peek at some of the advice I’ve given.”

I thought Janet’s career advice was very helpful–and it’s given me some new ideas about a couple projects. Thanks, Janet!

September 9, 2009

“Blogs are like a box of chocolates…” Isn’t that how the saying goes? I love opening a new box of candy–the picking and choosing, the sampling, the enjoyment!

Well, in today’s blog, I’m offering you a box of chocolates from various blogs I read. Here are some of the best I’ve read lately. Pick and choose. See what looks good to you. Enjoy!

Take Your Pick

You’ll want to give yourself a whole weekend for this particular blog entry. It will take that long to check out the 100 Essential Tips and Tools for Writers of the Future. It covers marketing, creativity, niche writing, finding paying work, and much more.

How can you think outside the box and create a novel that is unusual and meaningful? In this hurry-hurry world, what can we do to unleash our hidden creativity? Author Gail Gaymer Martin gives you ten great ideas here.

When you land an agent, here’s how NOT to make your agent worry. Read Agent Wendy Lawton (Books and Such Literary Agency) on this subject.

If you’re hoping to write full-time, you need to do career planning. Here’s a realistic step-by-step guide from top literary agent, Chip MacGregor.

Time to Sample

Open your box of chocolates, settle back in  a comfy chair, and enjoy this sampling of some fine articles!

June 22, 2009

How do you make good use of the notes and information gleaned at a writer’s workshop or conference?

A woman in my weekly critique group spent last week in Honesdale at one of the Highlights Foundation Founders Workshops on novel writing. The rest of our group was “pea-green with envy,” as Scarlett O’Hara said. From the enthusiastic email we received from her, she learned as much as she’d hoped and came home greatly encouraged. This Thursday at our critique meeting, we are setting aside an hour or more for her to share with all of us what she learned last week.

The book Networking at Writer’s Conferences: From Contacts to Contracts (Spratt and Spratt) has a section about what to do after the conference is over. In a chapter called “Where Do You Go from Here?”, the authors talk about returning from the world of the conference to your world of day jobs and the outside world clamoring for your attention. Before you get caught up in it again, how can you retain what you learned from your conference? I hope our friend’s mini-presentation at group on Thursday will do just that.

“Before you file them away [the conference notes]  for the future, review them (and your postconference evaluation) for new ideas, new information, and new possibilities gleaned from your conference…If your notes contain any gems dropped by conference speakers, post the most encouraging statements in your office or writing area where you will see them often–preferably every time you sit down to write.”

Share the Value

When our writing friend gives her talk to us on Thursday, I think it will help all of us. It will certainly be a treat for those of us who couldn’t attend the workshop to learn some “members only” insider tips and insights and techniques for writing deeper. I think the sharing process will also help my friend “cement” her revision ideas and talk through her critique suggestions.

I will also make sure she posts those very encouraging comments from the workshop leaders on her writing wall beside her computer. She will need the reminders as she delves into her four-week revision process.

 

Conferences are expensive and time-consuming to attend. So be sure you are well prepared beforehand, work hard during the conference, and take the necessary time to follow up when you get home. Sharing your new-found insights with other writers is one (generous) way to do this!

What thing(s) do YOU do when you get home from a conference or workshop so that you retain what you learned? Share some ideas!

May 20, 2009

How many voices try to tell you what to write, when to write, and how to write? What voices do you listen to?

This morning I was reading a section of stories called “Obedient to One Voice” in the book Behind the Stories by Diane Eble. One author (Patricia Sprinkle) talked about her dream to write mystery fiction, but that for six years she wrote anything but fiction. She took any assignment that offered to help pay the bills. “And it was a struggle in every way, including financially. But then when I started writing fiction, things began to work out. Again and again, when I choose to do what I truly believe I need to be doing instead of listening to what all the voices around me are saying, God is incredibly faithful in confirming that this is what I need to be doing.”

Various Voices

Sometimes we lose sight of the joy in our work–we can even experience a dreadful writer’s block–if we listen to the wrong voices. It’s true that we can all learn from others, and we need to be able to take constructive criticism. BUT the voice deciding the course of your career, your subject matter, and how you present it should be your voice.

Sometimes we allow voices of parents and other family members to dictate what we should write or judge whether our stories are “good enough.” Extremely few relatives are qualified to judge your writing. Parents may be trying to live their dreams through you; siblings may be jealous. Whether you’re fifteen or fifty, you may still be allowing family members to make your writing choices for you.

Sometimes we allow suggestions from our critique group to change our manuscripts, even when their ideas don’t ring true at all for us. Or we knuckle under to the more experienced (or outspoken) writer in the group, writing humor (because he loves humor) and giving up our historical mystery idea (because historical anything is too hard to sell.) It can be difficult to go against the group opinion, but think carefully before you toss your idea overboard.

Sometimes, like Jane Austen, we’re told by publishers and editors (in magazines, at conferences) that certain themes are popular now and make the most money. Our desires (our themes and subject matter) now sound old-fashioned or boring. Will we scrap our passion for science-fiction set in Italy to write gothic romance in the moors then? Not if you want to enjoy your writing.

Is there a voice you can trust? Yes, I believe there is. Go back to when the writing bug first bit you. What did you like to write? What subjects intrigued you? What was your writing process like? How did you like to write–barefoot in pajamas, longhand in bed, on a laptop at the library? If you were following your inner voice, you probably experienced a level of excitement about your writing that stands out in your memory.

The Voice of Your Choice

“If you find yourself blocked and uncertain as to what to do, could it be that the voices of other people are drowning out the voice of the Lord?” Patricia asks. “Is God asking you to take  a step of faith in a direction others may not understand? The choice is yours. There’s a safety on one side but on the other, freedom and joy beckon.”

March 30, 2009

After mentioning a five-year dry publishing period last week (Do You Get Rejected?), I received several emails asking what I did during that time to stay financially afloat and keep on writing.

A Previous Recession

When my book career began in the 80’s, I had five or six relatively easy years with my editor Gail at Atheneum. We did eleven hardcovers together before Gail lost her job in a corporate take-over and downsizing. The publishing industry then was a lot like it is today.

At that time, I got two manuscripts back. Within six months, all my books went out of print– so there was almost no royalty income then. My last two books in a Christian series were not published either. (I found out much later that this happened to a lot of writers.) This horror was followed by five years of no new books, sending out proposals, rewriting proposals, writing queries, and spending a ton on postage and photocopying costs when I was making zilch on my book writing. (There was no online writing then, no email submissions, etc.)

Getting Out of the Slump

Then in a bookstore I found a book called Making It On Your Own: Surviving and Thriving on the Ups and Downs of Being Your Own Boss by Paul and Sarah Edwards. In the marketing section, a statement leaped off the page. This one piece of advice jump-started my disappearing career. “You need to experiment until you discover what particular combination of your skills and abilities at what price will be valuable to what group of people within the current economic realities.”

It said to experiment, so I tried different things to see what might work. The following year I wrote a story for an anthology, entered several contests, did some short manuscripts for children’s magazines, wrote some writers’ articles. I created a new workshop on revision and did eighteen months’ of school visits with it.

Time to Evaluate

The next step recommended by the book was  to use the 80/20 Principle on your experiments. So I sat down with paper and pencil and analyzed: “What 20% of my work has generated 80% of my income?” In other words, what strategies had worked for me? Where should I be putting the bulk of my energy to survive this financial writing slump?

Well, I had bombed on contests and all fifteen short stories; I did sell the story to the anthology; my fastest response and most money, though, came from writing articles for magazines and doing the revision workshop. More than 80% of my income was coming from that 20% of my work.  So (while I contintued to write my middle-grade fiction novels) I concentrated on those two things to pay the bills.

Down the Road…

During that time, some nonfiction articles became a series for Children’s Writer, which turned into ideas for “Support Room” articles when I became the Institute’s first web editor. A few years later, those ideas sparked my book, Writer’s First Aid, as well as several articles for the SCBWI Bulletin.

The slump eventually ended, as it will again for writers struggling in the current recession. After five years of selling no books, I sold four of my middle-grade novels in one year. If I had quit writing my fiction during that recession, I would have had nothing to sell when publishers started buying again.

So during this slump, I plan to do the same thing: find ways to stay afloat to pay some bills, but also keep writing middle-grade fiction and studying and learning. This too shall pass.

January 21, 2009

Do your writing first! Leave the dishes and your exercise routine and everything else–and just write. Haven’t we all heard that advice a hundred times?

I have–and I’m still no good at it. But from this point on, I will be!

Accountability, thy name is Donna!

In the online class I’m taking this month, we were encouraged to pair up with what is called a change coach. We hold each other accountable and encourage each other to pursue our goals. And we’re supposed to confront (nicely) when our partner isn’t keeping her commitment.

My change coach is Donna McDine, the middle-grade novel reviewer at the Writing for Children Center. A graduate of the Institute’s course, she also blogs at the “Write What Inspires You!” site. We noticed this week that while we both have great written goals, put in lots of hours, and truly LOVE to write–we weren’t getting much writing done on our own projects. (We wrote for others, critiqued, reviewed, taught, and blogged–but by the time we got around to our own books, we were too tired or it was evening and others needed us.)

Ready, Set, Go!

So, we made a deal, Donna and I. We have committed to writing first thing each morning on our own projects. I’m aiming for a minimum of an hour daily. If we can do more, great. But Monday through Friday, we’ve promised to spend time on our books first. When we’re done, we’ll email each other to say how long we wrote. It won’t take us long to send that email, but since I’ll know Donna is waiting for my report, I bet I get the writing done.

It’s on our schedule first now. And we’re planning ahead for success. We’re taking time before we quit each day to set up our desks with all the materials we’ll need to get started right away in the morning. One iron-clad rule we agreed on: absolutely NO Internet until the writing is done.

Do YOU write first thing each morning, before you get caught up in the day’s demands? If so, what are the tricks YOU use to make it work? We can use all the tips you have as we try to establish this new habit!

December 24, 2008

Imagine for a moment that you are flying to an exotic island.  An hour or so into the flight the pilot announces over the intercom, “I have some good news and some bad news. The bad news is our radio is out and our navigational equipment is damaged. The good news is we have a tail wind, so wherever we’re going, we’ll get there at a rate of six hundred miles an hour.”

(from Calm My Anxious Heart by Linda Dillow)

Momentum is great, but…

In your writing career, are you like the passengers on the good news/bad news plane ride? Are you barreling ahead at a lightning pace, but your radio is out and your navigation system is damaged? Are you traveling at 600 mph in your writing, but leaving the direction to chance and gut feelings?

These days, with the emphasis on the “platform” expected of writers, this is an easy mistake to fall into. We are told by marketing experts that we need to have a website and a blog (with up-to-the-minute search engine optimization), podcasts, teleseminars, newsletters, and Amazon “shorts.” We also need to be “seen” on social networks (like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn) and quickly gain literally thousands of “friends” and “followers.” We need to read dozens of other writers’ blogs and leave links back to our websites. Doing even half of this takes hours every day, leaving you with the feeling that you’re zipping along through cyberspace at lightning speeds.

But what about your writing time? Are you flinging yourself out there to build a platform without a functioning navigation system? Do you know where you’re headed–and why?

Chart Your Own Course

If you try to jump on every bandwagon that comes along, you’ll continually rush, rush and wonder at the end of the day if you accomplished anything. You will miss valuable hours to study your craft, read books in your area of interest, and WRITE.

Be sure, if you’re building a platform, that each leg of it supports what you want to do as a writer. For example, with this blog and my website, my overall goal is to help other writers. I announce blog posts on Twitter and in ICL’s free newsletter, plus link back here and to my website from other writing blogs. I don’t do all the other stuff. There’s no time–not if I also write.

To reach young readers, I have two separate websites for them with contact forms so they can email me with their questions and problems. I’ve developed some lovely relationships that way. I spend anywhere from thirty minutes to two hours each day during the week on platform building. I know many writers who are so caught up in it that they have almost ZERO time to read and write. They feel as if they’re zooming along at 600 mph, but they’ve lost their overall direction. Whenever I ask them if the merry-go-round is worth it, I have NEVER had someone say “yes.” They always say, “I sure hope it will pay off someday.”

Listen to all the marketing advice out there, but don’t jump on every bandwagon. Evaluate each idea, determine if it’s something that would fit the purpose of your writing, and still leave you enough time to write. You don’t want to get to the end of your writing days and realize you’re clear off course. Chart your own course and determinedly stick to it.

December 19, 2008

In less than two weeks, it will be 2009. Now is the time to set some goals for the new year. The main question you need to answer is this: how will you get from where you are to where you want to be?

Get It In Writing

In “writing life” workshops, I’ve used an exercise to help you get to where you want to be. I recommend buying a spiral notebook for these exercises. You want a place to keep your notes and ideas about your goals.

Allow yourself two or three hours to work on these three exercises. Do them alone, or with your writing group. I’ve been working on this for myself during part of November and this month.

1) Honestly assess where you are in your writing and illustrating career. Consider and answer these questions in writing. How many hours per week do you actually practice your craft? (Use a timer.) How many books/stories/articles do you read in an average month (of the type you want to write)? How many queries per month do you send out, if you’re a nonfiction writer? Do you have a daily writing practice of some kind, such as journaling or writing exercises from a list of prompts?

2) Visualize (and write down in great detail) your ideal writing life. Describe a perfect writing routine, the physical writing environment of your dreams, your image of wonderful family support, etc. We all have an ideal image in our minds of the perfect writing life. Write it down. (Mine involves such things as porch swings, hot chocolate, journaling, and reading Jane Austen on breaks.)

3) List three things you would attempt to write if you knew you could not fail. Image yourself in your ideal writing life. There are no risks here, no rejections, no bad reviews or bad writing days. If you knew everything you’d write would sell, what kind of writing would bring you satisfaction and fulfillment? Dream bigger than you’ve ever allowed yourself to dream before.

An old adage says “plan your work, and work your plan.” That’s especially appropriate for goal-setting. Find more ideas on goal setting for writers here:
“Setting Effective Writing Goals”
“An Approach to Goal Setting for Freelance Writers”
“Setting Goals for Your Writing Business”

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