December 7, 2011

At the beginning of every new year, I make a list of middle-grade books I should read and study, since that’s the genre in which I write. They are award winners mostly, or books recommended as “must reads.”

Most teachers encourage you to read a wide variety of books, and I always start with the best of intentions. But time to read is short for everyone.

Me and My List

Occasionally a book on the list really grabs me, and I sail through it. But more often than not, I have to really push myself to finish.

These popular books are well written, and for the most part, they deserve the honors and sales records they’ve garnered. However, many just aren’t “me.” Either I really don’t like them for some reason (subject matter, language, depressing ending) or I lose interest because I know that I never want to write a similar book. With time to read so very short, I hate spending it reading something I just don’t enjoy very much. I always feel guilty about it, but I finish few of the “must reads” on my list.

Freedom!

And then I read one of the free ebooks I downloaded from the NaNoWriMo give-away last month. It’s called How to Be a Writer: Building Your Creative Skills Through Practice and Play by Babara Baig. Listen to her advice for writers:

You need to learn how to read as a writer. What that means, first and most importantly, is that you need to read for pleasure. Never mind all the books you think you should read; what do you want to read?… Find a writer whose work you admire and feel you can learn from — choose someone whose level of skill you sense you could achieve someday, not a writer whose way of writing feels unattainable…You may want to choose a writer whose books focus on subjects that interest you. Then immerse yourself in this person’s work and see what you can learn.

Even though I agree with this advice, you’ll find plenty of teachers who will say the opposite. This is just my opinion based on years of trying to read the children’s books and adult books I “should” read. Nowadays I start them, but if I just don’t like them after ten or fifteen pages, they go back to the library unread. I’m giving myself the freedom from now to read what I love.

And with that said, I’m ready to dig into a book I bought for my birthday. I love P.D. James novels, and I love Jane Austen. Guess what the new James novel is? A lover of Austen herself, she just published Death Comes to Pemberly. I expect I’ll finish this one!

 

August 22, 2011

I love what author Bob Greene says in “Free entertainment, for life,” an article on CNN.com. It resonates with everything in me.

“Are you a person who loves to read books? If so, you’re set for life.”

Good News for Book Lovers

At first, Greene lists the “not so cheery” conditions of the current writing scene: Borders book stores closing, the digital ebook revolution, the difficulty of selling books now, etc. So what, he asks, is there to be so cheery about? His answer:

“Just this: There are so many wonderful books that have been written over the centuries, books that will thrill you and make you cry and change you and bring laughter to you and keep you up all night. Even if you did nothing else for the rest of your life but read, you would only be able to get to the most infinitesimal percentage of books that you would be destined to adore. They’re just waiting for you — waiting to be found, right now…And in most cases, even in these rugged and scary economic times, they’re free.”

Still Free!

He’s talking about public libraries. (Read his whole article, if you have time.) In my city, I’m sure there are millions of books in print to choose from if you count all the branch libraries. Even when I lived in a very small town, I could get books on interlibrary loan.

So…this is my question for you. What books have you read this past year that you would rank in the top five spots of “best books for the year”? They don’t have to be new reads either.

As Greene points out, “A book that was stirring and lovely when it was written — whether 15 years ago or 60 years ago or 150 years ago — does not lose its power just because it sits on a library shelf for decades at a time with no one pulling it out.”

I’ll Start

Some of my favorites this year have been:

• Margins (nonfiction) by Richard Swenson, M.D.
• Firefly Summer by Maeve Binchy
• several British mysteries by Charles Todd (w/ hero, Ian Rutledge)
• The Help by Kathryn Stockett
• O! Pioneers by Willa Cather

How about you? Now that school is starting again, and you might have time to settle down with a good book, let’s recommend a few titles to each other. I’d love to know which ones you liked–I will look for them!

August 17, 2011

One oft-repeated bit of writing advice is to read your work aloud when editing. It’s a good idea–up to a point. Beyond that point, you can be hurting your manuscript.

An example of that happened yesterday in my critique group (where we read our manuscripts aloud). Two of us totally misinterpreted a story’s ending until the author read her chapter aloud. Her voice inflection and humorous tone gave the last line in the chapter an entirely different meaning than what we had assumed.

Therein lies the problem.

More Harm Than Good?

Reading your work aloud near the end of your revision process is helpful. It can ensure that your dialogue flows well and sounds like real people speaking. It helps you catch where you’ve used a word twice in the same paragraph or sentence. But for editing’s early stages, reading your manuscript aloud can do more harm than good. Why is this?

According to editor Pat Walsh (78 REASONS why your book may never be published & 14 REASONS why it just might): “Even books with a conversational tone suffer when recitation is used as editing, because the flow needed to sound ‘right’ differs from the flow needed to read ‘right.’”

This editor dealt with a writer who constantly revised using this “read aloud” method, and his work was over-written and full of excess verbiage. He would call and read it aloud over the phone to the editor. One time Pat reversed the process to make a point:

“I read it to him [instead]–in a monotone. I left all feeling, emphasis, and cadence out. He was silent for a moment and then stammered, ‘But it doesn’t sound good when you read it like that.’ I told him that is the way it reads on the page and unless he wanted to follow every person who bought his book home and read it to them himself, he had better get to work on improving his writing.”

On Its Own Two Feet

The written word and the spoken word are related, and reading your work aloud can be beneficial during final stages of editing. But beware of using it early on and throughout the revision process. It can mask weaknesses you need to correct.

Even when you do read it aloud, force yourself to read in a monotone. You will get a much clearer picture of the quality of your writing. The words on the page need to do the work, not your vocal interpretations. As the editor said, you won’t be following your readers home and reading your work aloud to them. It has to stand on its own.

[Hopefully no one will remind this repeat post. Life and health issues have interferred.]

July 18, 2011

I’m always shocked when people tell me, “I don’t like to read.” And I used to be stunned when wannabe writers told me that.

What poverty! I can’t imagine what life would be like if I didn’t love words.

For So Many Reasons

How do I love words? Let me count the ways:

• When I’m happy or want a reward for a job well done, I pick up a good book and read for pleasure.
• If I want to know something—from how to be a better grandma to planning a trip to England—I read to learn.
• If I have a personal problem, I look to books where people have shared their struggles and ideas for overcoming.
• If I’m hurt or afraid, I turn to my journal to sort myself out and talk to God about things. By the time I’m all written out, I feel much better and often I’ve arrived at a solution to my problem.
• And I get to make a living by staying home and making up stories.

What wonderful gifts, to love to read and to love to write. Today, instead of focusing on the frustrations of revision or marketing my work, I’m just grateful for the God-given desire I have for words.

What does reading (or writing) mean to YOU?

June 6, 2011

I have a confession to make. Being a children’s writer has taken away much of the joy in browsing the children’s sections of book stores.

Oh, I love book stores themselves–the brick ‘n’ mortar kind, plus anything online. But if I want to enjoy my book store visit, I avoid the children’s section. Until recently, I thought I was the only one who found the experience intimidating.

Book Store Phobia

I was reading in Eric Maisel’s book Deep Writing about a much-published, midlist women’s fiction author who wanted to “break out” and write a really solid book, but one that also had commercial success. “She finds her first step appalling but necessary: to spend an afternoon in a chain book store strategically browsing bestselling women’s fiction. She knows just which inner demons this visit will activate–feelings of envy, a vision of herself as a failure, a sense that others can effortlessly play a game whose rules she either doesn’t understand or refuses to understand.”

This phobia struck me early in my writing career, thirty years ago while I was still a student at the Institute of Children’s Literature. It happened when I did my assignments on studying the markets, reading children’s magazines and books. As instructed, I browsed book stores, seeing what kids liked and what publishers were doing.

Deadly Comparisons

At first, it was fun, but eventually I realized I was dreading the book store visits and magazine reading. It had stopped being fun. Instead, it left my already shaky self-esteem even lower. I couldn’t imagine ever studying my craft long enough to be able to write like the books I was reading.

After being published for several years and finding my books on the shelves in stores, I fully expected the “I’ll never be good enough” feeling to pass. But our minds, when left to themselves, are tricky things! If I found my books on the shelves, I’d wonder why they hadn’t sold. If I didn’t find my books on the shelves, I hoped they were sold out, but I never had the nerve to ask if they’d ever been on the shelf in the first place.

Back in the Saddle

The phobia seems to be a thing of the past–almost. While browsing now, I remember that the book I am holding is probably a collaborative effort between the author and his/her agent and editor. I remind myself that it undoubtedly went through a gazillion revisions even after it sold. Even if the process is intimidating, we need to know what is being published in our field. In other words, it’s like the book by Susan Jeffers that says Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway.

Does anyone else deal with this book store phobia? I hope it’s not just me!

February 25, 2011

Being sick for ten days recently taught me some lessons.

1) I’m too busy. It’s no wonder I have trouble getting any writing done, much less enjoying it. I’ve noticed for months that I was having a lot of trouble settling down and actually doing my daily writing. I was great at telling other people how to do it, but not good at it myself. So when I was extremely ill–but still getting more writing done than usual–it got my attention. Why was that?

It was because I was running a fever and couldn’t see people or I would spread the plague. Each morning I’d stand in the bathroom, shivering, and take my temperature. If it was over 101, the solution was simple: cancel all meetings I had that day. Most days I cancelled more than one meeting or appointment. In ten days, I cancelled ten things. Two things I really minded (babysitting my grandkids). Eight things I didn’t mind much at all. (And truthfully, five of the things I was thrilled to get out of.)

After being home a week, I realized how lovely it was to be home. I didn’t enjoy being sick, but I loved being able to stay put. And just from being home more, I wrote more. Usually just fifteen or twenty minutes at a time out of sheer boredom, but it all added up. And a lot faster than my “well” days when I pushed myself to write.

The result? I resigned from an office that requires about six or seven hours per month and two meetings per month. I plan to back out of a few more things when my terms are up.

2) The second lesson I learned when sick was that I’m online too much. I had sort of realized this for a long time, and had a goal of not getting online until noon because email and Facebook and surfing ate up too much time. But when sick, I just wanted to be curled up on the couch with the heating pad, blankets, cough drops, and a book. (I don’t have a wireless laptop, thank goodness, so that wasn’t an option.)

After ten days of only being online maybe an hour every other day to attend to editor email and post a blog, I realized how much more I was enjoying my days–even sick! I’m not even sure why, but I find being online too much quite agitating. I don’t read or watch things that are disturbing, so it’s rather a mystery to me, but I definitely notice it.

I’m feeling much better now, but yesterday I deliberately stayed offline because I didn’t need to blog, and I wrote and read and took my book outside and sat in the swing (which I hadn’t done in months) and noticed things (cardinals, daffodils coming up, lawn furniture needing scrubbing). I got the reading done that I needed to do for a class, but it was calming.

3) The third lesson I learned while sick is that I don’t read enough good books. I read a lot of articles online, or books that don’t challenge me but are entertaining before I drop off to sleep. But good books? Challenging books? They’re hard to find.

When my fever dropped after a week or so, I headed to the library for some new books. I had been re-reading classics on my shelf which I loved, but I was ready to concentrate on something new. I brought home six brand new books–I was the first to check them out.

I only ended up reading one of them all the way through, and it was only so-so. The others-many by bestselling authors–I only made it through about fifteen pages. Apparently the trend now in adult books is to switch viewpoints every two or three pages (one book had seven viewpoints in fifteen pages), and it was like being jerked around on a badly edited movie screen. I couldn’t keep track of the characters, so when they got murdered or whatever, who cared?

Leave a Suggestion

If you’ve read a fiction book for adults in recent years that really grabbed you, leave a comment, okay? I love recommendations. In recent years I’ve enjoyed books like The Help, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society, Folly Beach, and The Secret Life of Bees. Good gripping character stories-do you know any like that? Part of the life of a writer is feeding your mind with good writing.

December 15, 2010

In a newsletter yesterday, links were given to the eleven best and most popular 2010 articles from WritersDigest.com. They were retweeted on Twitter, e-mailed to friends and shared many times over the Internet. 

While many of us can’t afford to study for a masters degree  in children’s literature, we can all make good use of the free resources on the web.

Here are those eleven articles. They’re “meaty” articles. Read the ones that interest you. You may want to print some of them out and re-read them from time to time. It’s how we learn!

The Eleven Best

1. 17 Writing Secrets
2. Basics of a Solid 3-Paragraph Query
3. Your Novel Blueprint
4. What Agents Hate
5. 8 Basic Writing Blunders
6. Publish Your First Book After 50
7. 9 Questions to Ask Your Main Character
8. The Anatomy of a Writer’s Website
9. 10 Tips for Querying an Agent
10. Finish Your Novel in 4 Simple Steps
11. Steve Berry’s 8 Rules of Writing

This will keep you–and ME–busy for a while. Never stop learning and practicing your craft. One of the nicest by-products of study will be a rise in your confidence as a writer. Yes, writers write–but writers study too. Enjoy it!

March 29, 2010

What have you given up in order to have time to write?

When I started out, giving up my hour of pleasure reading in the afternoon (the kids’ naptime) was the biggest sacrifice I made. I loved that hour of escape where I rose above my daily chores and relished adult language and words longer than one syllable. Yes, I could still read at night when the kids were in bed, but by then I was too sleepy to keep my eyes open.

Are You Sacrificing TOO Much?

We’ve talked lately about tracking your time and then sacrificing some of your current pleasures in order to write. And yes, time for pleasure reading may have to be cut back drastically in the “learning years.” Like many writers, my pleasure reading is now used as a reward. (I often set my timer and write for thirty minutes, promising myself a ten-minute reading break for each thirty minutes of writing. I love those reading breaks!) I try to read at bedtime too, but I still fall asleep too quickly.

I once had a student who read five romance novels per week, every week. Really! I had no problem recommending that she turn 75% of that time into writing time. Most of you don’t have that kind of time to read for pleasure–and I don’t either. You may only have thirty minutes to an hour for pleasure reading. And when you give it up, you’re losing a writer’s #1 most favorite pastime: reading.

Short-Term Sacrifice

If you’ve given up pleasure reading in order to write, I hope you will be able to add it back to your life soon. I think writers need to read. (And not just books on craft or books in the genre you hope to publish in.) Reading for pleasure nurtures our soul–and keeps us in touch with what readers want.

So how can you balance this while you’re learning to write, especially when you’re juggling a day job and/or a family? Make use of alternative methods. Discover books on tape, and listen during car pools or while washing dishes. Discover books on MP3 players like Playaways, or download digital books from your library, and listen to them while you run or garden.

When my time was the shortest–when the kids were small and I was working another job in addition to the writing and school visits–all I could carve out for pleasure reading was fifteen minutes per day. It wasn’t enough time to finish a book in a month–and I couldn’t figure out the plot in those little bits.

During those years, then, I re-read the classics on my shelves. Consequently I’ve memorized whole chunks of Pride & Prejudice, Little Women, and other favorites. Since I already knew the plot and characters, I could relax and just enjoy seeing old friends for fifteen minutes each day.

No Time to Read

I know a good number of full-time professional writers who have given up pleasure reading altogether. They said they just don’t have time. What do you think about that? Is pleasure reading something you’d give up in order to have the writing career of your dreams?

Why–or why not?

July 8, 2009

The most common complaint I hear among writers–especially those who have published and are writing seriously–is that they no longer have enough time to read for pleasure. By the time the necessary writing, blogging, marketing, and studying is done, the day is gone.

Like most busy people I know, reading for pleasure is relegated to the end of the day after crawling into bed. If my eyes will still focus–less and less likely these days–I can’t stay awake for more than three pages. Reading for pleasure had almost become a thing of the past.

Until last week.

Enter the Playaway

Do you know about the nifty books-on-MP3-players called Playaways? I had never heard of them until last week at my local library branch. They’re recorded books, but not on CD like most audio books. They come on tiny MP3 players (weigh less than two ounces and are smaller than a deck of cards). Playaways feature both fiction and nonfiction, new titles and old classics. You check them out like books on your library card.

As it says on their website (where you buy or rent Playaways): “Welcome to Playaway, the world’s first pre-loaded digital audio player. Playaway is the easiest way to listen to a book on the go. Simply plug in the earphones and enjoy. No Cassettes or CDs. No Downloads. Just Play.”

If this interests you–but your library doesn’t have any Playaways yet–encourage your librarian to check their website before July 15. Until then, they are running a “buy two, get one free” deal.

Reading on the Run

Playaways have really improved the quality of my daily life. I know that statement sounds over the top, but it’s true. After being on the computer all day, my eyes are too strained to read for pleasure on my breaks. NOW I take my 15-minute breaks, put in eye drops, grab my earphones, and close my eyes. Someone with a beautiful reading voice reads a chapter or two of my favorite mystery or English novel.

I’ve also listened to the MP3 novels while doing dishes, sweeping, cooking, gardening, driving, and during my daily hour-long bike ride. I don’t mind the chores anymore–a miracle in itself–and I’m getting to enjoy my pleasure reading again.

Implications for Writers

Both adult and children/YA books are on Playaway now, so children’s authors can also keep up with their reading of new titles this way. I will be interested to see if “Playaway rights” shows up in my next contract. For sure, from now on I will be reading my work aloud before the final proofing to make sure the story sounds good out loud!

Time to fix my omelet for lunch. But first, let me slip that Playaway into my pocket. I’m dying to find out how that murder mystery ends!

December 8, 2008

Today is my birthday. Before I open any of my gifts from family and friends, I already know what my favorite gift is going to be. It’s one I decided to give to myself.

Always Running, Faster, FASTER!

I’ve been writing and publishing since my kids were babies. They’re in their twenties and thirties now, having babies of their own. Many of those growing-up years were either single parenting years or times when the family relied heavily on my income. Slowing down to read more or study my craft was not an option. The 50+ hours of work per week needed to generate income: writing books, teaching, speaking, writing test questions, doing private critiques, etc.

Whenever I thought about studying more, reading more, taking more time to grow as a writer (versus making every hour a billable hour), I would promise myself, Later, when things slow down and the cash flow eases up. Even when that day came where I could cut back, I found that the very idea panicked me. I had drummed into my head for so many years that freelancer warning, “If you don’t work, you don’t eat.” You learn to go without paid sick days or paid vacations–much less time to study one’s craft.

If Not NOW, When?

For several years, I’ve been having a discussion with a dear writing friend who would also love to slow down and study and spend time to improve her writing. It’s a dream we’ve both had for a long time. We’ve done motivational workshops, learned how to “work smarter, not harder,” streamlined our work habits, multi-tasked until we met ourselves coming and going. And what did we do with the time freed up by all this smarter working? We worked more, took on more projects, learned how to do website design/blog/Twitter, and lamented ever finding more time.

The Tipping Point

What pushed me over the edge into making the decision to give myself the gift of time? I went to a writer’s workshop Saturday in Austin, a “first pages” workshop hosted by Cynthia Leitich Smith where Cynthia and HarperCollins editor Jill Santopolo critiqued three opening pages from every workshop participant. One of the many things that struck me Saturday was Cynthia’s broad knowledge of what’s being published. I asked her on break about her reading schedule. She reads a juvenile/YA novel or a stack of picture books DAILY. Most times, I’m embarrassed to say, I do well to read a children’s book a month (usually something a friend has had published.) We learn so much about good writing from reading. I’ve always known that. But at some point–while trying to keep food on the table–I had let that part of my writing life lapse.

Cynthia is an instructor for the famous Vermont MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults. Jill had been one of her students. Several writers in the audience had completed their MFA program as well. While I don’t have the $$$ to do the two-year program, I can make the time (if I really want to) to read widely what is currently being published. I can study the excellent writing books on my shelves that have gathered dust after I only read the first chapter or two. I always intended to finish the books later–but later had not yet come.

Now is later.

Starting today, I am giving myself the gift of time to study and read. I think if I do my writing/teaching/moneymaking activities in the morning that I can read/study my craft in the afternoons. I’ve wanted to do this for years, and given the economic times, it’s a smart career move too, I expect. We will all need to become better writers. And if not now, when?

Maybe you can’t afford to work part-time yet. I know that situation is a reality for many of us. But if you can squeeze out even a daily hour to read current books in your field and study a writing craft book, I encourage you to do it. I can’t wait! It’s going to be a very good year.

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