It's a struggle!

I can honestly say that struggle is not a word I use very often.  My son, however, loves to point out whenever I am, in fact, struggling.  Whether it is with the computer or straining to reach something that he can grab without so much as rising onto his toes, he's right there with the raised eyebrow and the wry tone in his voice saying "Strugglin'?"  So where is he now?  Not that I need confirmation.  I am all too well aware that I am struggling.  I'm long past our submission deadline and I'm about to blow the extension.  

The truth is that I have been struggling with writing all summer.  I'm not exactly sure why.  It is probably because everything I have already written needs revision which isn't nearly as much fun as the initial crafting.  I'm still struggling with the agent vs editor submission dilemma and, of course, trying to choose the right ones. If I am really honest I can admit that I am struggling to accept that I don't have anything that is quite ready to be sent out.  A year ago, I thought I had three straight to the bookshelf slamdunks.  A year of research and working with my writers group has taught me otherwise*.  A good story and a good, marketable story are two different things.  But it is hard to change your vision, rethink the rhyme and the reason, to make the stories better.  And so, I struggle.  I procrastinate and I open document after document without any clear purpose and I get frustrated.  And I accomplish nothing.  And, as Julie Andrews sang in The Sound of Music, "Nothing comes from nothing, nothing ever could..."

Maybe I should call Julie - she wrote some terrific children's books;  The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles being an all time favorite in our house.  Of course, she'd probably have me singing about raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens and, THAT, would really be a struggle!

*Ed Note:  My writers group has been incredibly helpful, encouraging and spot on with their critiques.  My only complaint is that they are honest brokers of the truth and that can be very humbling.

Consider yourself invited!

My sister's youngest is turning 7 next month and so my latest writing effort, and only completed effort in awhile, is her invitation.  Since I posted some of Regan's invite back in June, I thought it was only fair to let Leslie see her invite in print as well.  Her theme this year, after two years of dog themes, is cartoons.  She'll probably be a vet someday because she is all about animals and was from the get go.  Read on to see all the fun you'll be missing:


Bugs is missing a tail – Quick pin it on!

Then hunt for your prize out on the front lawn.

Next give the piñata a really good whack,

‘Cuz when the cartoons start you’ll want a li’l snack!

Last but not least, with your stuffed friend in tow*

We’ll snuggle into the couch to watch a great show.

This invites the real deal; it’s no hoax

So RSVP today, cuz… "that's all folks!"


Add in some cute Warner Bros clipart (that I don't feel comfortable copying to a public site) and you've got yourself an invitation.


On the 'real' writing front, I am helping to coordinate the first meeting of the Hoosier Links for the Indiana chapter of SCBWI.  Their mission is to create opportunities for writers and illustrators to meet more frequently locally to supplement the limited number of bigger conferences that can be coordinated each year.  We invited about 40 from our geographical list and are expecting about 20 for the gathering.  It's always inspiring to get a bunch of creative souls together, so I am hoping that this, along with the energy from the start of a new academic year, will be just the ticket to jump start my writing projects.  Otherwise, I'd better watch out because someone just might drop on anvil on my head.  

Powerless

That's what my house was for 75 hours this weekend.  Without power. Lacking electricity.  And yet, life went on.  Pretty much as normal.  A few more dirty clothes accumulating than usual.  No whir of the air conditioner.  A wet pony tail for me rather than blown dry locks.  And yet, by hour 62, we were all a little less vibrant, bored with each other, bored with ourselves, frustrated by our inability to make things work the way they usually do.  There was plenty to do and plenty that could be done and yet, nothing we wanted to do except that which was impossible without power.  Why did we feel so unplugged?  Creatures of habit, slaves to life's conveniences...maybe?  I'm not really sure.  I am only sure of something I have suspected my whole life.  I would have made a lousy pioneer woman.

Wanna go for a ride?

Yesterday Conor passed the first hurdle toward his ultimate goal of getting his license - the practical driving test.  He's actually a good driver so it took, as he foretold, about 15 whole minutes to prove it to the instructor who then stamped his permit, gave him a thumbs up and sent him on his way to merrily hurl his breakable body along in 5,000 pounds of steel at speeds far too fast to make sense to anyone but the delighted 16-year-old boy behind the wheel.  Ain't life grand?  Tomorrow, he'll take the written test and it will be official.  He'll have a lousy picture of himself (smiling but showing no teeth as required in Indiana) on a laminated piece of cardboard that will say to the world, "I have arrived.  I have been tested and found capable."

I guess that's a little bit like it must be once you can say you are published.  You can hold up your publishing credential for the editor/agent and say, "I have been tested and found capable.  Wanna go for a ride?"

What makes a story a story?

This weeks submission to the critique group was another revision of my very first book idea: Mrs. K and her Little Red Wagon.  I wrote it initially as a tribute to my mom after she died almost 7 years ago.  It's still a tribute to her, but I have tried to make it more universal and make her more of a character (although anyone who knew her would say she was quite a character).  I mean, of course, more of a character in the literary sense.  Still, I am struggling with the fact that it isn't really a story in the truest sense of the word.  Oh sure, there is a main character: Mrs. K.  There is a setting: the beautiful lakes of the north woods (Wisconsin though I don't say so).  There is action: boating, tubing and skiing.  There is a beginning where we are introduced to Mrs. K, a long middle where all the action happens and Mrs. K proves repeatedly that she is generous, fun and patient and an end in which the children and Mrs. K recap the days events in their own way.  But it's not so much a story with a real plot and conflict as it is a 'day in the life'.  It's a series of vignettes and could probably be retitled Scenes on a Lake (which would ensure that no one will ever buy it).  So the question is: Is that enough? 

It is, of course, written in rhyme, but if I wrote it in prose it would go like this:  The neighborhood kids ask the bare-footed lady next door to take them out in her boat.  She agrees and they scramble to get ready.  She drives really fast and they love it, except for the no wake zone.  Then they go tubing, which is wild.  Then they go skiing and she is really patient for kids who can't ski very well.  Then she puts the boat back into the hoist and goes inside to play scrabble with her friend, while the kids roast marshmallows and brag about their adventures.  Well, now it's clear as mud.

I think before our meeting our Thursday, I will do a little searching of current titles at B&N with this question in mind.  I seem to remember reading lots of books to Conor when he was little that fit this structure, but I need the reassurance of finding and reading them again now.  

(So much about this publishing process would be easier if my memory wasn't shot to hell!  Kevin Kline played a character named  Otto in A Fish Called Wanda that is oft-quoted at our house.  He'd be given a series of instructions and at some point he'd always say "What was the middle thing again?")

Does this count as published?

I just emailed my niece's birthday invitation rhyme to my sister.  She's turning 10 this week and we started this tradition on her 6th birthday.  Back then the theme was bugs; this year she's having a softball party (after school gets out so I'm delivering it right under the wire).  Here's a snippet:

Swing for the fences in the batting cage,
Then we'll have some wiffle ball fun.
Whistle a fast ball across home plate, 
Then score the winning home run!

My sister will print it up on some cute paper and send it out to Regan's friends and their moms will all RSVP with gushing comments about how cute and clever the invites were.  I'll demur with "oh that, I whipped that up in 15 minutes..." but the reality is that I will eat it up with a spoon.  Brian says I'm a little bit of a praise whore (and that is truer than I like to admit), but now that I'm caught up in an industry where there is often so much rejection and negative feedback, it's doubly important to find outlets that help buoy your spirits and inspire you to keep creating.  And these invites, which I also do for her younger sister, are really how I got my start in writing.  Conor's birthday invitations were some of my best work.  My favorite was his fourth birthday where I seamlessly melded a dinosaur theme with a gymnastics party.  It was genius ... and really wowed the other four year olds :-).

My nieces, though, are among my biggest fans and since they live far too far away, I love that we have this special connection once a year.  They understand that I go to all this trouble on their invitations just because I love them.  With the rest of my projects, I need to remember that I go to all this trouble just because I love writing.  Anything else (praise, publishing, etc) is just gravy!

Hey, I've got an idea...

The last post was on this little book/assessment called Strengths Finder 2.0.  If you haven't read it, you might check it out first for a little background (the post, not the book).  My 5 top strengths came out as Ideation, Responsibility, Strategic, Learner and Input.  Nothing listed that made me cock my head to one side and say 'huh'?  After all, from the time I was 5 years old, my mother described me as the responsible one.  My brother, 13 months older, was the cute one.  My mother swears that I was also cute, but my brother was definitely not responsible.  Anyway, that's fodder for the therapist, not the blog.

The Ideation topping the list helped me understand my 'process' both at my day-job and in my writing.  The Insights section tells me (among other things) that: Because the printed word feeds your mind, you frequently generate original plans, programs, designs, or activities.  It's very likely that you recharge your mind by creating ideas for new projects.  This occurs even before you have completed your current assignment.

This may explain why I've been feeling like I have adult-onset ADD lately.  I'm not lacking focus, I'm just hyper-creative.  I like that explanation so much better.  At work, I've been driving my teammates a little crazy with all my plans, suggestions and possible new programs.  With writing, I've got eleventy-seven different projects all in various stages of development: this month's critique submission was a memoir/essay for a magazine titled The Truth About Santa Claus. I've been working on my secret project a little, but not enough to have it ready to go.  I started revising my very first book about my mom and her boat, Mrs. K and her Little Red Wagon, to make it a little more universal. I've got a query letter in the works to submit In This Chair to another agent.  I've been reading some other early chapter books to try and wrap my head around where I need to go with Bring Your Tools to School.  And of course, there's this blog which is what I write when I tell myself I don't have time to really write.

I may need to develop that Responsibility strength a little more.  All the fabulous ideas in the world won't amount to a hill of beans if I don't push some of them all the way to the finish line.  (This race image makes me giggle because, in 23 years of marriage, my husband swears he's never seen me run.  However, in all things, he is right there behind me with all the encouragement and support a girl could ever hope for so, in that way, this image is dead on!)  I know the finish line is out there.  It's just that I'm still a little fuzzy on the length of the race I entered.  5K?  Marathon?  Either way, it starts with that first step.

The Right Fit or, maybe, the Write Fit?

I took the assessment in Strengths Finder 2.0 recently because I'm evaluating it as a tool to use to help our students make sound choices, find their best path etc.  I love the concept behind it, which loosely stated, is that we should build on our strengths in order to maximize our potential and, more importantly, to be happy with the process.  Tom Rath states that, "When we're able to put most of our energy into developing our natural talents, extraordinary room for growth exists."  Makes sense, right?  However, many of our evaluation methods tend to focus mostly on our weaknesses.  Grades, performance reviews, counseling, and/or meetings with your agent/editor/critique group, for instance.  Where are we lacking?  What can we improve?  How can I rewrite this?

A great example is children's grades (and with finals starting tomorrow for my 16-year- old this is a hot topic in our house):  When a child comes home with a 98 in Math, most parents don't say "Way to Go" and suggest the child go do more math.  Instead they say "Yikes, what happened in Biology.  75?  You better hit the books tonight!"  But maybe this child isn't a scientist.  Maybe he can work really hard and all he'll ever earn are Bs and Cs in Science.  Face it, this kid is not going to cure cancer.  But think of all the amazing things he can do if he's good at math and, if he actually likes it, it won't even feel like work!  The book states that the adage "You can be anything you want" should be written "You can be more of what you already are."  Don't get me wrong, this isn't a get out jail free card.  I don't think we should use it as an excuse not to do things we don't like or need to work at, but as we're prioritizing and making choices, we also shouldn't try and fit a square peg into a round hole. 

Case in point:  One of the speakers I heard this past year was the General Counsel from Hewlett-Packard who was also a classmate and friend of mine at ND.  We hadn't seen each other since he graduated as an Engineering major in 1984.  Imagine my surprise that he was now the GC at HP.  He told the students a great story.  He said that when he applied to law school at Villanova, the admissions director told him that he had the lowest GPA of any student they'd ever accepted, but because he'd done exceptionally well on the LSAT they were going to give him a chance.  (I'm thinking he made the most of that opportunity.)  He explained that he'd really always hated engineering - both in school and as a career (short-lived as it was).  He stuck with it because the conventional wisdom at the time was "you're good at math and Engineers get jobs."  Conversely, he loved law, loved arguing, loved organizing the facts.  Once he played to his natural strengths, he was infinitely more successful and really, really happy to get up and go to work everyday even though he worked awfully hard.

I'll post more later as to my specific strengths as identified by this assessment and how they tie into the pursuit of great writing.  But for now, I think it's good to be reminded to take stock of what you do well every day and start there.  All too often, we are driven by thoughts about what isn't working and we lose sight of all that is working beautifully.

Here's the wind-up...

One of my pitches struck out today!  I'm not surprised, really.  It was a long shot.  And that's what makes the whole thing so grand.  I totally stepped out of my comfort zone and swung for the fences.  The result ended up being more of a bunt than a homer, but the bat connected with the ball. And I think this business is all about the at bats.   Every time you strike out, you just have go to the end of the batting line up, take a few more practice swings and then dig in at home plate one more time.  No one hits a home run every time - some never do, but occasionally you get on base and that is enough.  (God I love a good sports analogy!  You'd never know that I was only on the softball team in 7th grade because no one got cut.  Eighth grade was a very different story.)

I don't really love baseball, but I do love a good story.  So here's the abbreviated version of my pitch: One of the great things about working at the College of Business at Notre Dame is that we get some truly awesome speakers to come in to talk to our budding capitalists about their story.  This spring we had the CEO of a major grocery store chain that emphasizes organic food & good stewardship of the earth (the only other thing I'll say is that I wish we had one in South Bend).  As I listened to him speak, all I could think about was that his core message would make a great children's book.

The General Counsel happened to be sitting in front of me and when the lecture was over, I tapped her on the shoulder.  Please reread that line.  I am not by nature a shoulder tapper.  I am much more of a nodder from a distance.  Those of you who are bold and gutsy will think I am incredibly lame (deservedly), but this was a big move for me.  Especially when the words that came out of my mouth had nothing to do with my day job, nothing about our students and instead asked if her company had (of all the crazy things) a children's book.  To her great credit, the GC was incredibly gracious as I blurted out my idea and she even seemed enthusiastic about the concept.  I spent the weekend figuring out what rhymes with sustainable seafood and sent a slightly more composed pitch early the following week  She forwarded  it on to someone in their Education department and today (about 6 weeks after the tapping incident), that person passed because they have bigger fish to fry.  She did end her note by saying I should contact her if I write the book anyway because they would consider selling it in their stores.

At the very least, that's a ball and not a strike, which means I'll live to swing again another day.  Let's play two!

Ignorance is bliss...

...at least it was for my writing critique group members.  Just finished up my critiques of everyone's submissions for tomorrow's meeting.  I reviewed all my notes from Saturday's conference first and tried to incorporate what I learned into my comments.  No surprise that all this new knowledge makes me sound more critical.  With any luck, my thoughts are more on point and more helpful as well.  I'm working under the assumption that it's better to hear it from me (and the rest of the team) so they won't hear it from an agent or editor.  Or worse yet, hear nothing because their submissions weren't quite ready to be sent out.  I know that my skin is getting tougher and tougher as I move through this process and hope that they can also 'weather' the winds of suggested change.

One of the tips that I drew from was Donna Gephart's* comment that characters aren't described, they are revealed through action, thought and dialogue.  It makes perfect sense with respect to picture books since the illustrations will show you the character and we've been schooled not to limit the illustrators options by describing the way a character looks.  However, it seems less intuitive in a chapter book or novel where you're trying to paint a picture for the reader.  What images enrich the story for the reader and what gets in the way of their own imprint and imagination?  I guess if you can answer that, you're well on your way to a finished story.

* I'm pretty sure they told us that Donna's latest novel How to Survive Middle School had an initial printing of 100,000 copies and sold out in the first week!!  Wow.

Leap and the Net Will Appear

This zen expression was first introduced to me by a greeting card in Whole Foods Market in Vienna, VA.  Shortly thereafter it showed up in my classroom at Westbriar Elementary School to encourage my students to be risk takers in their thinking.  Now it figures prominently in my story Bring Your Tools to School which is based largely on my experience in the classroom.

With my submission for this week's critique meeting, I'm trying to follow my own advice (for a change).  Often, as I go through my oh-so-ordinary life observing the world around me, the thought bubble over my head reads "That would make a great children's book."  Sometimes, I add the idea to my list of future topics.  Sometimes, I forget the thought almost as quickly as I had it.  This month, though, I have taken bold steps to start a couple balls rolling down non-traditional paths toward publishing.  Will either of them turn into a real opportunity for me?  That is still the BIG question, but I have to say that there is great satisfaction in just following through on an idea.  Those who know me well will agree that bold and decisive are not adjectives that leap to mind to describe me.  Small victories are still victories.

One of the things that was stressed at yesterday's conference (which was terrific, BTW, and will be blogged about later in the week), was the value, nay the necessity, of making and maintaining connections in the industry.  Jay Asher, who wrote 13 Reasons Why (and has been on the bestsellers list for 60 weeks), had some fairly hilarious stories about how he went about gaining notice and making contacts at conferences.  Let's just say that if any of this pans out...it will make a great story!

What's football got to do with any of this?

Notre Dame has a new football coach. That's big news around these parts.  His name is Brian Kelly and he came to speak to a group of our freshman this week.  During the Q & A, one of the students asked his thoughts on recruiting players who were interested in playing for the NFL.  His answer was something to the effect of "I recruit players who want to play for Notre Dame.  And if they come here and work hard, they may have the opportunity to play for the NFL one day.  But I recruit players who want to play for Notre Dame.  That's the experience I'm focused on and that's where they should be focused." 

I think I may have lost my focus.  When I first started writing, I wrote because I had ideas and stories that I needed to put on paper.  It was fun and I kept the stories to myself mostly.  After about a year of mucking about with them, I felt ready to share and all the positive feedback made me think about publishing.  With the help of my critique group, I've whipped at least one of them into great form and have been focusing lately more on the path to publishing than the writing.  I'm "showing off for the scouts, instead of working on my game."  Perhaps this is why I've been feeling somewhat disgruntled about the process.  I need to take a page out of Coach Kelly's playbook and write and revise because I enjoy it and want to keep improving.  If I work hard, one day I may get published, but I've got to keep my eye on the ball.

I imagine Saturday's SCBWI conference will be like the Blue Gold Game last weekend here at ND.  No winners, no losers, just lots of excited folks who love the game.  It will be good to part of the pep rally!

A shot in the dark

No time for a real blog post tonight and, thanks to a lacrosse game and a stint in the snack bar, tomorrow's not lookin' real good either.  I did take the 30 seconds needed to make my daily entry in the HGTV Green Home giveaway, however.  It's really quite lovely and I've never been to Cape Cod.  It has some wonderful spots to curl up and write.  So which is the bigger longshot - winning a house or finding an agent or editor who'd like to publish one of my stories?  I'm thinking that Vinnie the Bookie doesn't like the the odds in either case.  But it's like Wayne Gretzky said "You miss 100% of the shots you don't take."  Some shots are a little wild, but every once in a while you get lucky! 

Must.write.words.now.

It's 10:20 on Sunday morning; the whole day is ahead of me and yet, I already know it won't be enough.  So I'm trying to prioritize.  The fact that "post to the blog" ends up at the top of the priority list tells you something about my path of least resistance approach to getting things done on Sunday.  Checking email was actually the top thing and the blog gets rolled into that under the rationale of "might as well as long as I'm at the computer."  Of course, I could work on my real writing but that takes a level of concentration I don't feel just yet.  The deadline is looming, however.  Submissions for our next critique group are due on Friday and I'm headed to the SCBWI MI conference on Saturday.  It would be good to feel like a writer when I get there.  Right now I feel like a poser (to borrow a term from my British nephews).  They say that physical activity is good for the brain so I think I'll try a cob-web clearing walk around campus and see if inspiration strikes.  Stranger things have happened...

The F Word

No, not that one.  F is for Feedback.  Feeling flush (before I got our tax bill), I paid to have Bring Your Tools to School edited by an agent that freelances on the side.  The fee was actually quite reasonable and the fantasy was that she'd read it and beg to publish it.  It's called a fantasy for a reason. 

On the plus side, she said my writing was strong, clean and clear and that I captured the emotion that I was striving for.  I read those two sentences frequently.  The rest of the four paragraphs started with "That being said..."  Not my favorite lead in.  She made a lot of excellent points and suggested that what I had written was a terrific start and now needs layers to develop the main character and a couple of the supporting characters.   She asked questions that will help me frame my changes and made suggestions that indicate she read the text thoughtfully.  It was well worth the money.

And I hate it!  My writer's group thinks it is an amazing critique.  They are so excited for me because now I know exactly what I need to do to take my story to the next level.  It's a perfect road map for revision.  Did I mention that I hate it?

Here's why (if you are still reading and pretending to care): The story started as a way to convey a lesson I created when I taught gifted and talented third through sixth graders.  Students were given a tool kit to help empower them to be active, risk taking learners.  In my mind, the main character is the tool kit.  The students in the story are necessary, but secondary.  I picture this, at least in part, as a story that teachers will read to the class and use the original lesson in some way.  Developing all these characters, and tension between them, blah, blah, blah diminishes the role of the tool kit in the story.  That worries me.  This started as a picture book, but felt incomplete so I added to it and now see it as an early chapter book with illustrations like a Nate the Great book.

But I will read the books that the agent recommended would be good models and I will spend some time with my characters and see if I can develop them in ways that enhance the main idea of learning and the classroom dynamic.  And hopefully, one day, I'll be posting that the story is so much better as a result and I can't believe I ever thought it was done.

And maybe I won't hate it.

Oops, I buried the lead!

It's possible my first three posts were a little too laden with my angst and frustration with the publishing piece of this adventure and the joy involved in the actual writing may have gotten overlooked.  There was an article in the WSJ today that said spouses should make a list of ten things they like about their spouse and carry it in their wallet.  IF I write that list I probably won't post it ;-) but I thought I'd see if I could make a list of 10 things I like about writing.  So here goes, in no particular order:
1) I like to rhyme really odd words like leiderhosen (I don't know I'm just supposin').
2) I like the act of filling a blank page with all sorts of scribbles, scratch outs, arrows and lists of rhymes for a variety of words.
3) I really like sharing my writing with people who don't write because they are always way more impressed than they should be.
4) I like having an excuse to read children's books even though I'm not reading to my son or a classroom anymore.
5) I like having to keep a note pad near my bed because some of my best ideas come to me in the middle of the night. (I've become very good at deciphering notes written in the dark).
6) I absolutely love when an idea comes together and all the pieces start to fit even if the words aren't quite perfect yet.
7) I like feeling creative.
8) I like that it is something I can do anywhere with no special supplies.
9) I like that I can create an emotional response in my readers and love to see people tear up or smile and laugh as they read something that I wrote.
10) I like that my efforts are fueled by hope and possibility, even if they are sometimes derailed by angst, frustration and fear.
What's on your list?

It's not you, it's me.

Rejection in the publishing world is the equivalent of the dating brush off - and every bit as hurtful and unhelpful.  I finally heard today from an agent I had queried on Feburary 14th.  The submission guidelines said they responded to all queries in 2-3 weeks.  They got the first part right; they responded.  It was the standard rejection:  Thanks for your submission, but it's not right for our agency.  In other words, it's not you, it's me. 

While I'm happy to have closure, it would have been nice to have something to work with.  I know that rejection with comments is not the industry standard and these are busy folks, but would it have taken so much longer to add a line or two about why it wasn't right?  Why am I not their type?  Is it something I can work on or is it a fatal flaw? Was our timing just off or (gasp) did they meet someone else?  If they actually read the submission then they must have some opinion, helpful or otherwise.  Please share.  Writing is, at its core, a tough industry for your self esteem and most writers I know are harder on themselves than they should be.  Why compound the problem by making us wonder about what might be the problem?  We're sure to assume the worst. 

There is a stereotype out there that authors are often a bit eccentric.  You can argue the chicken and egg theories, but I would assert that they probably weren't that way before they tried to become published.  I'm just sayin'...

Please sir, may I have some more? Time, that is.

In keeping with the title of the blog, the month of April has been all about road trips.  Easter found us in Memphis for vacation, then we traveled to Nashville, Cincinnati and Columbus for a combination of college campus touring, high school lacrosse games and a work conference for me.  Yesterday's road trip was to Indianapolis for more HS lacrosse.  In total, about 6 hours of driving and 7 hours of bleacher sitting to watch 4 games.  Our son figured prominently in the 2 JV games, and did see the field for a few minutes in the last Varsity game.  It was a beautiful, sunny, but windy day.  With only 2.5 more years of our only child at home we are trying hard to relish all the hours spent in pursuit of his goals since, all too soon, he'll be off on his own and we'll be wishing we had a game to go watch.

However, and this is the point of this post, these road trips don't leave much time for writing.  And, I find, life in general doesn't leave much time for writing.  Given that the income stream from my writing endeavors seems very far away (and often non-existent), I  am going to keep my day job.  8 to 5, every day, all year - with a little time off for good behavior.  Layered on top of the job are my son's activities and all the related feeding, laundry, shopping & forms to sign, quality time with my wonderful husband, household responsibilities, the pursuit of a social life (of sorts), attempts at incorporating exercise into my routine, and the all-important sleep component of my day.  Confession: I am not a morning person and can be a grouch all day if I am at all sleep-deprived.  And please don't misinterpret my venting.  I am blessed to have such a full life.  I get that and I do try to appreciate it.  It's because it is a good life that I am loathe to let things go in order to write.  I don't deal well with chaos and disorder.  I'm not a true artist in that sense; there's definitely some anal-retentive tendencies that drive my every day priorities.

But all the books, blogs and articles say you have to write every day.  And you have to research editors and agents.  And you have to work at your craft and revise, revise, revise.  And you have to have a blog.  And, and, and...  It's that last and that leaves me a little frustrated.  There simply aren't enough hours in the day and my creative muse is a random creature at best.  So I wonder how others carve out time from their busy lives to feed and nurture their writing habit (or any other talent or hobby for that matter) every day??    Warning: Please don't suggest getting up at 5:00 a.m. and writing before work - I know that works for some but all I'll be able to write is zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.  Thoughts?

Peer Pressure

How many times have I said "Don't be swayed by peer pressure." As a parent of a teenage son, as a former elementary school teacher and in my current job advising college students, I use many variations of the old favorite, "If everyone else was jumping off a bridge, would you?" And yet, when my writing critique group said (repeatedly), "You need a blog. Everyone's doing it. Everyone's expecting you to do it. You can't wait until you feel ready, until you really need it...you need a blog now!" what did I do? I came home and started a blog. Another stunning example of Do as I say, not as I do!

Of course, it's not really the same. This is a professional activity, not an irresponsible action that I'll later regret. Right? This has a purpose, it's not a waste of my time. Right? This is yet another outlet for all that creativity that might ultimately lead to something like all those queries sent to agents and publishers, and contests entered, and time spent on internet research...

Anyway...it's a journey. Moving from writing rhyming birthday invitations for my son to actually crafting picture book texts has been a circuitous journey. Starting a critique group and growing as a writer has been a joyful journey. Heading down the road to publication is a long, long journey. Taking that journey with supportive friends makes it bearable. That point was reinforced at our meeting tonight by our resident sage, Karyn. There's a lot that can make the journey hard, even painful, but if you share it with other like-minded, fun, creative people it's like a road trip - and I love nothing more than a good road trip.