Seize the day

Writing Novels: 5 Things that Don't Work

2012-01-21T17:00:00.006-06:00

I am spending the month sharing this and that about my novel writing journey. Today I'm going to chat about 5 things that have absolutely not worked on my journey. Perhaps my missteps will help you.

1. Changing POV because someone suggested it -- I have changed the POV from first person to third person and back again a number of times because either a critique group partner, a teacher, an agent or an editor suggested the move. My experience with this advice is that the first couple of times it was a good exercise but ultimately I learned that POV is a decision that a writer must chose from her internal sense of how their story should be told. You need to dig into your self and find your POV. Never change POV unless it is an internal decision. If someone suggested it, you better go into it with your reasons and no one else's.

2. Hurrying -- I have found you must let your novels grow at their own pace. Revisions must be performed at their own pace. Get to know your rhythms and don't rush. I know that the whole NANOWRIMO thing helps some folks move past procrastination but this advice is different. Every author finds a natural rhythm to create books. You may find you are not as fast as other writers. My best advice if you are slow, embrace it and don't hurry. Find agents and editors who can relate to your natural rhythms.

3. No Project Management -- Novels are big projects and they need project management. If you do not have a document aside from your book filled with character sketches, setting notes, outlines or summaries, spread sheets with scene pacing, etc., I doubt your novel is going to fly. I know my won't. Get a three ring binder, a beautiful blank book and some note cards or try ONENOTE or SCRIVNER or DRAMATICA and move into the world of successful novel creation with decent project management.

4. Focusing on the first chapter -- Oh, I have done this and I have seen so many others do this. A novel is a journey through multiple chapters. You must balance your attention on each chapter. If you have rewritten that first chapter 40 times and you have not rewritten your fortieth chapter 40 times, you are messing up. Every chapter must recieve balanced attention to create a master work.

5. Staring at the computer screen -- I found that my novels were not getting polished enough because I was not searching out the reader experience. I find that I must print out my novel to get a good sense of where I'm at. Write a book that is shelf ready. I put my books on my Kindle. I change the fonts. I read the book aloud and then listen to the recording while reading them at the same time. Search out the experience of a reader reading your book. This will help you create a viable novel.

I hope my thoughts here help you write your own work. Come back next week. Seize the day.

This week's doodle is "From My Sketchbook":

Something true but I don't understand it.
Great, big, serious novels always get awards. If it's a battle between a great, big, serious novel and a funny novel, the funny novel is doomed. Neil Gaiman

Writing Novels: Memory

2012-01-14T18:05:00.005-06:00

Hi, peeps. I'm taking January to talk about writing novels (not selling them.) Novels change me. On each journey, I find a piece of myself and leave it on the page. My second novel was a very different experience than my first. I knew in a moment. This novel came to me in a flash. It was born of a memory, you know that memory, the one from childhood, the emotional rich memory that somehow dwells in the now, not in the long ago.

For me it was when a tornado ripped through my parents property when I was 13-year-old. I was alone, my family had gone into town. The sun was shining, but part of the sky just slapped down and hit the Earth. I watched as the dozen or so outbuildings were ripped apart behind the house. Trees were torn out of the ground. The house shook like it made out of pixie sticks. That memory still haunts my dreams.

The memory boiled up during a writing exercise and when it did I knew I had a book. I was taking one of Peggy King Anderson's most brilliant classes. If you live in the Seattle area, really try to work one in your schedule. The exercise was write a emotion rich memory and rewrite that memory as fiction. She encouraged us to write the first memory that came to us. The pages poured out of me. I left class and couldn't stop writing.

Then I switched to a fiction voice, and immediately a character seemed to jump out of my head onto the page. This girl, I knew, I knew her as well as my own children. It was electrifying. Chapters grew. This was nothing like my first novel. I had no outline, nothing. I just wrote. And in maybe six months, I had written a middle grade novel. I rewrote the whole thing and in a year had a solid draft.

This one brought me close to the bone. It made me understand that wildness could be a real asset in writing a novel. I wrote everywhere. I took my laptop the ballet practice, gymnastics, band, and the school queue and I'd balance it on my steering wheel and write. I didn't waste a moment.

I hope you mine you memories, folks. Energy lurks there that will propel your work forward. See you next week.

This week's doodle is a personal fav. I call it, "Yoda was wrong. Try there is!"

My quote this week is another one to tuck in your soul. I really wish RWE and I had been friends.

Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense. Ralph Waldo Emerson

Writing Novels: Genesis

2012-01-07T11:11:00.009-06:00

Hi folks, I thought I would take a few posts and discuss my novel writing process. First, the disclaimers, one, I've never had a published novel, and, two, my process is like chipping away at a marble with a firm belief that there is some great art in my mess of words. That said, I have written several novels and have learned a thing or two in the process.

It took me a while to write my first draft, about seven years all together. I did have four children in that time so that slowed me down some. The lack of a good idea slowed me down too. I started several novels, I'd get 30 or 40 pages in, and the whole thing would fizzle. I'd grow bored with the project; some other idea would come to me, and I'd find myself chasing the new idea. I found after a while that I kept circling around one idea -- human fragility, especially our minds. I finally got a draft together of a story that began as a picture book. The first idea of it came to me back in the late eighties.

I wrote character sketches of each of the main characters, and I also worked on creating a pile of unrelated what-if scenes about my novel idea. I created a complex timeline for the book. I drew maps. I also wrote a synopsis for each chapter. Then I began to work every day and over the course of about two years I created a solid draft. It was a such a feeling of power. I printed the whole thing in a paperback size and took it to the local printer and placed it in comb-binding. I can't tell you what euphoria I felt. I really had unrolled something that felt quite original up next to every other book I had ever seen. At least that what I felt.

I sent it out and immediately got some feedback that shocked me. The readers disliked my main character. They felt she was so negative, impossible to empathize with, I can tell you now that was a shattering blow, because I liked her, really, I loved her. Out came the box of tissues and a good messy cry ensued. Then I rolled my arm sleeves and worked some more.

Even though these professionals didn't care for her, I decided it must be my writing that was the problem. I loved her. I decided to try some different tactics to get others to see what I saw in this character. I also began to learn one of the most important "writing lessons." Novels dwell somewhere in our souls, and they must be teased and tricked out onto the page to truly come to life.

I went about that work. I wrote the whole novel in first person and then wrote it third person, trying to find a way to reveal my story so that everyone in the world could connect to it. After that, I sent it to a few publishers and was surprised this time when quite a number wrote back, expressing that I had many many good ideas but my story still lacked BIG TIME. There were paragraphs about my many problems, and I didn't have a clue how to fix the things that they were concerned about. So I just told them thank you for the advice, and, after curling up with a box of tissues and having another good cry fest, wrestled with the manuscript some more on my own, to see if I could shape my book into something viable.

How did I do this? I tore apart scenes and rewrote and rewrote them. I expanded side characters. I dug as far into imagery as I could. And I made that main character as honest as I knew how. My work paid off to a small degree. Folks began to like the main character, but they kept saying the book as a whole just failed to hold them, failed to make them love it. And finally, after showing at few more times and no one else really giving it a look, I shoved it to the back of the closet. Many call this trunking the manuscript.

My manuscript is still in the back of the closet, not forever though. This one, I believe deserves the light of day, but I need to be a more seasoned writer to take it on. Whenever I have a good idea about it -- I have had several, I pull it out and write some notes on it, I then I tuck it away. I put it away in hopes my novel skills will grow enough some day to do the book justice. I am still hopeful.

So what did I do then? I started another novel, the essense of novel genesis to me.

I hope that you keep wrestling with your art and don't give up.

Here is a pencil drawing I call "Piano in the Wilderness".

This week's quote is good advice.

When writing a novel a writer should create living people; people not characters. A character is a caricature. Ernest Hemingway

The First Day

2012-01-01T00:01:00.001-06:00

Ah, another year, is here. I feel open to endless possibilities. I hope this new year I find so many more ways to find community. I long that dormant dreams spring to life, that new things come to all our doors. I dream of a shifting of the tides to better days. I believe above all things that if there is anything in us we don't like, we can change. I stretch open my arms and welcome this new year.

I have some simple goals. I want to be more sensitive to others. I hope to dive into the deepest thoughts. I welcome explosions of insight. I'm hungry for good company. I want to be a decent friend. I am always so humbled by the people I know. I'm blessed to know the best of the best.

Here's to a year of beautiful things springing from the dirt. May the creator of all things shine upon us. May we find peace. May we find good words. May we find the art of our soul. And as mother always said to me, may you find the desire of your own heart.

As you can tell, I am wanting spring. So here is my doodle: Louisiana Iris.

The first quote of the year, a foolish notion.

Oh wad some power the giftie gie us To see oursel's as others see us! It wad frae monie a blunder free us, And foolish notion: what airs in dress an' gait wad lea'e us, an' ev'n devotion!

In case you can't piece it out:

O would some Power the gift to give us
To see ourselves as others see us!
It would from many a blunder free us,
And foolish notion:
What airs in dress and gait would leave us,
And even devotion!
Robert Burns

Fathomless

2011-12-24T17:29:00.003-06:00

Christmas Poem 2011

Dry,
Dust,
Crackled
Trees withered,
And now finally rain,
The drenched Earth rejoices
So hungry after the long summer drought.
We are unaware as the great engines spin.
Our one star in the curved arm of the Milky Way.
And we live another year on our blue ball marble
Hung by God, and wonder at the mysteries of dust
Come alive, and the door opened to glory in the highest.
This year the whispers of eternity ask me to put aside the thoughts
That slow my spin, they assure me of fathomless love and unending peace.
A soul candle flares with this light, here I am, dust brought to life
Oh, and I like the dry earth,
I stretch out my arms
And take in long
Awaited rain.

I will be back next year with more reasons to seize the day.

Here is my Christmas doodle.

My quote for this day:

The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned. Isaiah 9:2

Hobbiton

2011-12-16T21:41:00.007-06:00

Hi folks, I'm going to dip a little into Middle Earth here, and if you don't have a clue what that is, I'm sorry! I have the kind of family that has long discussions on whether they are elves, ints, hobbits, dwarfs, human, orcs, or wizards. I certainly am a hobbit. Around the holidays, breaking out the 10 or so hours to watch the extended version of The Lord of the Rings always seems like a good idea. This year has been no different.

So what does my LOTR jag teach me? What does my hobbit-self feel? I've launched out on a great journey too. My goal -- the life needed to tell a story about there and back again. Is any life less than a journey with a terrible burden? We all suffer. We all face dangerous waters and treacherous enemies. We all carry heavy things that have scarred us without and within. We all start out with a sense of purpose but find ourselves embroiled in great battles. Horrendous battles come and we face down unspeakable evils.

We form fellowships. They grow and flourish. We argue, we let each other down, we say our callous words and bring up all the dirt, and hopefully we bend to higher angels and find good moments -- we forgive each other, we believe each other, we hope for each other. Sometimes,we watch our fellowships shatter with no way to hold together the shards of broken bonds. But still, we press on. Our little battles are all part of much greater battle that rages. We live on a war torn planet, none of us have much control. My heart's cry is to see good triumph over evil. We take comfort in the fact that death is nothing to fear, but shining shores are ahead.

It's been a tough week for me -- the car's is probably totalled (son is fine, so much to be thankful for). And between writing articles, I have faced the deep waters of pressing on as a writer, hungering ever to write that stirs the soul and realizing I will have to face down my own weaknesses to do that. And over and over the Lord of the Rings has spoken to me. Thank you, J.R.R. Tolkien. I can imagine we could have been friends. I thank Peter Jackson, too, for making the movies. I can imagine we could be friends too.

And to my friends, let's live for greater things. Peace.

Here is a doodle: "Window into my imagination.

Here is I think my favorite LOTR quote from the movies:

Frodo: "I wish none of this had happened.
Gandalf: "So do all who live to see such times, but that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us."

from Lord of the Rings

Flurry!

2011-12-10T12:19:00.005-06:00

Hi, folks, it's the busy time of the year for me. It's not even thinking about snowing here, but my life is a flurry! For some reason I always get work in December, and this one is no different. I've got fifteen articles to write, a thousand or so essays to read, a novel revision to finish, a story start to polish, and a sample book for a company. Whew! My head is spinning.

I must Christmas shop sometime! My husband time is out of the country for the holidays. He's off fixing nuclear machinery in the middle of the Atlantic on the JOIDES Resolution. They are studying the Earth's crust under the ocean.

The crazy thing with all this stuff to do, I'm out of control with reading right now. Oh, my, I have a big stack by the bed. I'm also writing my own stuff. Fitting it into the corners of my life. And of course, I've got a organ and brass concert to go to and the Christmas light festival, and some pecan pie baking is my future too! Whoa! this is a crazy time of year.

The most important thing I know is to keep it all positive. Oh, believe me, it is a struggle. To me the sky is falling. Me and Chicken Little are soul siblings. So my hourly assignment is to not complain, enjoy my life, and write in every margin I can find.

Just a reminder, I hope that you give my picture book a look and help me win a library for Sul Ross Elementary. It's called "The Big Fuzzy Coat." I am quite pleased with it. Please consider giving it a vote if you indeed know what Facebook is. Select the following link and choose "like". http://meegenius.com/challenge/the-big-fuzzy-coat-by-molly-blaisdell. Pass it on please.

Peace, friends. Seize the day.

No doodle this week. I'm entering the local baking contest with my Christmas Package Lemon-Raspberry-Macadamia-Nut Bars. Here is the pic.

Here is a quote to think about. Perhaps we should try to be this kind of busy bee. :)

Here, on the river's verge, I could be busy for months without changing my place, simply leaning a little more to right or left. Paul Cezanne

The Big Fuzzy Coat

2011-12-02T19:16:00.003-06:00

Ah, hello, friends.I entered a contest that requires folks to vote for your work. I'm not the "popular sort" and it has quickly become apparent that this contest is about people who can really connect with media and are social butterflies of this world. I have always been a worker bee with a few of the best sort of friends in the universe. Still I'm giving it my best shot.

My friends are busy this time of year, and I tend to hang out with the Facewhat? crowd. You have to be on Facebook to vote in the contest. So the votes haven't exactly been rolling in yet. This is not me whining. I'm just trying to look out at the world and perceive it. Part of me is down. I've had just tons of asthma attacks this week to the point I just don't want to get out of bed. It's taking everything just to breathe. So what am I learning. Writing books is hard work. Promoting books is hard work. There is a lot of hard work in the universe.

The truest thing I know is trying is important and taking risks is important. Putting yourself in the public eye takes bravery. And if you speak and find that your are not a roaring lion but instead you are more of the quiet voice type -- that's nothing to worry about. Do the little things of your life with great love.

I hope that you give my story a look. It's called The Big Fuzzy Coat. I am quite pleased with it. Please consider giving it a vote if you indeed know what Facebook is. Select the following link and choose "like". http://meegenius.com/challenge/the-big-fuzzy-coat-by-molly-blaisdell. Pass it on please.

If you don't know what Facebook is, it is nothing to be worried about. You can read my story anyway, and I think that you will like it.

I'm forgoing this week's doodle for my recent masterpiece. I made a lemon meringue pie. Here is the pic:

Here is a Bible quote that always sticks with me. It gives a sense of the deep waters the flow unseen.

And, behold, the LORD passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the LORD; but the LORD was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the LORD was not in the earthquake: And after the earthquake a fire; but the LORD was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice. 1 Kings 19:11

Without Knowing

2011-11-27T14:32:00.008-06:00

Hi, folks. Today is sort of momentous for me. This is post 500 for Seize the day! I love this journey.

I think one of the great joys of writing is that in some deep way beyond the mechanics and craft is something indefinable beyond the knowing. My books always seem bigger than me. So much bigger. I'm just the poor sap showing up and trying to carve out of the rock mass of words a new shape. Maybe a weaver analogy works better. I find myself picking up the threads of emotions, relationships, and wisdom and weaving them together to find wholly unexpected patterns.

I don't have words to explain it but as I write the same energy that is revealed by the perfect execution of a double cabriole jump by a ballet dancer or the punch in my soul when I turned the corner to gaze on Monet's Waterlilies at the MOMA in New York -- a painting no photo can seem to capture -- the subtance of these feelings sneak onto my pages. As I carve my words, I feel memories of the moment I glanced up at the night sky to have my breath taken away by a rare fireball meteor or the day I came out of the post office to find super perigee moon rising. The feeling of those unexpected encounters fuel my pages with something indefinable and something beyond the words.

I sometimes write notes in my margins at the surprise the words bring to me. I hope that you open to more -- beyond the words, beyond the page. I hope that you move beyond what can be known and let the unknowable settle into your work. Take the time to make something for the ages, take the risk. Seize the day.

Here is this week's doodle. I did this a couple of winters ago. I call it Washington at Dawn. And yes the indefinable spark was in this view.

I decided that it was not wisdom that enabled poets to write their poetry, but a kind of instinct or inspiration, such as you find in seers and prophets who deliver all their sublime messages without knowing in the least what they mean. Socrates

Help! Need Chocolate Cream Pie recipe and some writing tips

2011-11-19T14:35:00.007-06:00

Hello, friends. Another week has raced past. We are rolling toward Thanksgiving here in the States at amazing speed. I am working on a feast but I could use a really good recipe for Chocolate Cream Pie. So if you have one, post it here.

To my NANOWRIMO folks -- keep it up! I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. You can do this!

I discussed with a friend this week the bonding that comes with sharing a recipe. I have a few that go way back. The cornbread my grandmother made, the kolaches from aunt's friend, my mom's sauteed green beans -- I think you can say a lot with food. I noticed that lots of writers just skip over the food in their stories, ignoring the bonding potential. I often write a scene with two characters making pancakes or sandwiches or something. It helps me explore surprising character connections. I don't always keep the scene in the work, but I do write it. Break some bread and see where it leads.

Thanks for dropping by. See you next week. Seize the day.\

Don't laugh at me. Here's another tip I use to make it real. I make covers of the books that I dream to publishing some day. Here is the cover of one the books I'm dreaming to see in print; my doodle this week is my dream cover of Fractals.

Writing is like walking in a deserted street. Out of the dust in the street you make a mud pie. John le Carre

Longing

2011-11-12T07:47:00.004-06:00

Hi, folks, I'm off speaking at the SCBWI Brazos Valley Conference today. I think the big lesson for me this week is accepting myself, warts and all. I long for things. I long to see far off places that I've only read about in books. I long to write books that children in those far off places will love. I long for my life to make a difference in this world. I long for so many things there is no way to put it all into words. The clock keeps ticking.

I've been told by many that as you get older this longing will lessen. I have not found that to be true. I comfort myself that I am in good company in this world of longing -- think about how many longed to go to the moon and never got the chance. A little birdie gave me some good advice the other day, to just accept that I long for things. I think this is echoed in the old folk song Mr. Rabbit -- "Every little thing is going to shine, shine, every little thing is going to shine.

Be yourself and seize the day! Back next week with more stuff.

I did this doodle when I was 18 or 19. I've been longing since I can remember. Here is "Ship at Sea."

This is the quote.
A book is good company. It is full of conversation without loquacity. It comes to your longing with full instruction, but pursues you never. Henry Ward Beecher

Corn

2011-11-05T18:54:00.003-05:00

Welcome, welcome, I hope that you are taking time for your art this week. If things haven't been going the way you want or worse your house of cards was kicked over, you must rise up. Overcome. And what if you stumbled, or what if you fell, you must forgive yourself if you have come up short in any area. You must because your work is valuable.

Dear artists and writers, you must plant regardless. If you push a seed into the earth, something is bound to come up. No special super skills needed. This simple process of sowing and reaping governs art. What comes up is surprising, unexpected, and the yields are greater than you can imagine and sweeter than your dreams. There are reasons to turn up the earth. There are reasons to plant the seeds.

And these reasons are not always easy to see. Seeds go into the ground tiny, hard, and insignificant. Then comes the water and rain and up springs so much life. I have this full memory of being in a corn field and picking corn as a young teen. I was somewhere near DeRidder, Louisiana.

The corn stalks were twelve feet high and were covered with ears. The rows stretched out so far I couldn't see the ends. I dropped each fat ear into a woven bushel basket. Wind made the stalks rustle like voices. The world had turned to corn.

Each ear was over a foot long and was as big around as my arm. I hauled that basket down that row. I pulled back the silky tassels of one ear. And slipped my finger tips across the golden kernels. I understood the power of a kernel.

My seeds are stories. You may paint, or sculpt, or weave, whatever. These seeds of art, transfer and multiply the truth. We plant them, and they grow into surprising verdant patches that at can take over entire fields and reshape the land.

Do that this week. Give it your all.

This week's doodle is Self-'ll.

This week's quote should strike a chord.

A light wind swept over the corn, and all nature laughed in the sunshine. Anne Bronte

Press On

2011-10-29T10:38:00.004-05:00

Hi folks, I'm writing children's books in the margins of my life right now. Things always heat up to rocket ship busy at this time in of the year. I'm writing and reading for hire. I'm doing the full time mom thing, and in every extra space of time, I am writing my books. My assurance for success comes from my steadfast belief in the next step. If you press on and refuse to give up, you are bound to end up somewhere. I don't know if there is any particular way to keep pressing on -- endless short sprints, slow and steady, I think either works. Just be sure you are taking more than one step.

So where does all this pressing on energy come from? I look up at the stars and think, wow, we are like a speck of dust in a vast universe and then I think about men building their towers to the heavens. They are so sure they getting somewhere. And I have to say, I laugh a bit. For me, I hope my writing is making space in this world for some folks who don't really get much space -- you know -- the ones who have had their towers kicked over, the ones who must rise from the dust. I mean the smart ones and fast ones, the beautiful ones and the capable ones often get the lion's share of the pie, survival of the fittest and all. I'm working on making sure the ones who weren't even going to get a sliver of pie, get a whole slice. The thought of putting some balance in what seems like a skewed universe just charges my soul. It's like rocket fuel to my existence.

So get out there and pull on the yin or push on the yang. Let's bring the balance that stories bring to the world. Press on! See you next week.

This week's doodle has the fancy name "Landscape 3".

Here's a nifty quote to tack up on your bulletin board:

Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan, 'press on' has solved, and always will solve, the problems of the human race.Calvin Coolidge

Now For The Ultimate Creative Advice

2011-10-22T17:04:00.005-05:00

Hi folks, yes, today I'm going to share the ultimate creative advice, so don't go away. I love fall because new books are rolling off the presses and that makes me want to dance. The only thing, I have been a little glum lately is there are parties happening up in Seattle to celebrate books that I totally believe in and I can't go. My critique friends are busy setting the world on fire with their stories. Just out or coming or out in the next couple months are these books:

Stasia Kehoe Ward's Audition
Holly Cupala's Don't Breathe a Word
Louise Spiegler's The Jewel and the Key
Janet Carey's Dragonswood.

I'm just saying, the company you keep can make a huge difference in your work. What a crop! They just fit writing into their lives and I'm happy to have traveled some of that road with them. We've had lots of hot cups of tea and shared lots of pages. I learned the most important stuff ever on my journey with them. If you are showing up and working every day, don't doubt your dreams! Don't doubt them for a minute.

Here is the ultimate creative advice, search out like-minded souls and work with them. It doesn't have to be a troop. One person can be enough. Share your dreams. Keep each other honest. Encourage each other to stay on the journey. All that rubbing shoulders makes your work sharper. It does. There are no rules to how to set up the connection; you and your kindred spirits will figure it out. I know that I'm telling you to take a risk. It's a real one. This process doesn't always work. Sometimes sharing your journey can end up hurting. I've seen the downside, and I still believe the deep connections creative souls share.

Don't journey alone, friends. Seize the day.

This week's doodle: "Magenta Cat".

Quote for the week:

Really great people make you feel that you, too, can become great.Mark Twain

Collaboration

2011-10-14T18:35:00.013-05:00

Hi, folks, the writing journey is full of twists and turns and surprises. I am always trying to challenge myself to try new ways of writing. I love to explore new forms: graphic novels, screenwriting, novels in verse, post modernism, grown-up stuff, whatever comes my way.

Each new challenge brings more to me as a writer. I will be honest; these plunges into new writing can lead to some spectacular success but to just as spectacular failure. You have to be willing to take risks and be willing to fail big time to reinvent yourself through form.

One recent project I worked on was a resounding success. Author Holly Cupala wrote DON'T BREATHE A WORD. I had the opportunity to collaborate with Holly and artist Realm Lovejoy to create some exclusive content to go with the book. I wrote the graphic novelization for a short section. The work was challenging and it sparked up unused parts of my brain.I was a bit of glue to meld together Holly's story-telling and Realm's art.

I do love collaboration. I learn so much through this creative process. My collaborative gurus come from the music world. One group was the the Beatles and the other is U2. True collaboration is about making the others in the team shine. It's about giving everyone room to make mistakes and then the room to recover, and it's about listening to and hearing each other. It's about creating art as many with one voice.

Finally, consider trying a collaborative project. You don't have to dive in deep at first. My first collaborative baby steps were the open critique sessions of SCBWI in College Station in the mid 90s. My first baby steps included advice from Kathi Appelt and Donna Cooner. From the beginning I stumbled into some of the finest artists on the planet. Each collaboration has shaped my work in some way.

Find a avenue for collaboration to bring something new to your work. Seize the day.

We forgo today's doodle to give you a peek at the awesome novel, Holly Cupala's DON'T BREATHE A WORD. Watch Holly's website for opportunities to access this exclusive graphic novel content.

.

Here is the quote for the week:

"Individually, we are one drop. Together, we are an ocean.” Ryunosuke Satoro

Goodbye, Golden Coffee Cup

2011-10-08T11:07:00.004-05:00

Hi folks! Glad you dropped by. If you are a long time visitor, you know that I hold my motivational event, the Golden Coffee Cup, every year in November, but no more. I'm discontinuing it. It's had a good run for five years and that certainly was tons of inspiration, but it's time for me to let it go. I need to refocus all my energy on the art of writing children's books.

I'm a little like a woman who knows about a treasure in a field but has not been willing to sell everything she has to go buy that field and mine the treasure out of it. So enough of that. I want to pull that treasure out and share it with the world. I can't begin to express how deeply I feel about creating a book that lasts for the generations to come.

I'm a plain woman with simple ideas. I wake up every morning and try to be better than the day before. I believe everything I do is an investment in what I will be. I can always change who I am, no matter what anyone says. I measure my wealth by the company I keep. And this I'm working on: Respect my work and don't let any voice especially my own devalue it.

I'm not a fast writer and I need more time to work. It's taking me a lifetime to achieve something that I hope will touch the hearts of young readers now and for years to come. I'm going to let my simple values guide me here. I'm not going to get the job done if I don't go all in. I don't know if I can do it, but I can give it my best shot. I have learned one thing about bravery. It's about being afraid and going forward anyway.

For writers, check out the Nanowrimo, for a month of writing inspiration. Seize the day will continue for all with its weekly inspiration. And now its time to face the looming question: What's next?

My doodle for the week;

I call this: "Roses on the Balcony".

My quote for the week:

There is an end to everything, to good things as well.
Geoffrey Chaucer

Three Little Birds

2011-10-01T08:31:00.005-05:00

Hi folks, I hope that you are taking time to write. I know it's hard work to put words on the page, and you may get discouraged sometimes. Here's a little secret I've learned. Some days I feel like my work is brilliant. Other days it's more like "at least I did something." Still others I actually feel like a two-bit hack who on her best day can write a grocery list. The secret is this: none of my feelings have any significance. The only thing important is that I show up.

I've met so many writers that feel desperation to create something good, something that will reach readers. Heck, I'm one of them. This morning the light of dawn nudged me out of my dreams. I was still sleepy, and I certainly was not about to pop out of bed. I was in the lazy place half-way between sleeping and waking. The whole sky was bathed in a rosy hue, softening the rough edges. Ah, then I understood what the universe was trying to say to me. I'm just like the birds singing at dawn. The sun has shown up. We have a new day to live, a new day to explore; it will all turn out in the end.

Wake up and let go of all the noise. While you have today, keep trying. Let hope speak to you in rosy sunrises or three little birds singing out your door. In all bleakness that is the world -- the evil sprung from Pandora's box, hope is here. Show up and spin out your stories. Your gift will make a place for you. No worries. See you next week.

This week's doodle is called "Three little birds."
'

Here is today's quote is also the inspiration for this post:

"Three little birds
Pitch by my doorstep
Singin' sweet songs
Of melodies pure and true,
Sayin', "This is my message to you-ou-ou:"

Singin': "Don't worry about a thing, worry about a thing, oh!
Every little thing gonna be all right. Don't worry!"
Bob Marley

Reinvention

2011-09-24T10:30:00.004-05:00

Hi, peeps! I've got 24 articles to power through this week. I'm also digging into my WIP. Lots of pans on the burner, I hope I don't burn anything. I'm making another painful cut this week in the WIP. I'm not sure that I'm really a reviser but more of a reinventor. I'm writing stories the way I learned to write. Mema would get out a big mess of purple hulls and hand me a colander. I would shell peas and she'd tell stories. The thing about her stories that always stood out to me is they got better over time. This kind of reinvention means that I toss out whole chapters and try to take the story in a whole different direction to make a better story. That's just the way good writing works for me.

This idea of reinvention is a big one for people who write these days. Books are in flux, the whole industry is in flux. We are all in adapt to survive mode. A part of me wishes that I would have born in a time in history when technology wasn't changing so much. But vain wishes aren't a profitable use of time; I have to embrace this: "We have to decide what to do with the time that is given to us," like Gandalf said in Lord of the Rings. Mema was about telling rip-roaring stories. Her stories made me a better person. I hope that my stories do that. That's what I'm doing with my time.

So I work. I open the files every day and I work. I hope you find your purpose and your pursue it with all your heart. See you next week for more reinvention. :)

This is a doodle on the back of a church bulletin. I'm calling it "Parakeet and Girl">

Many persons have a wrong idea of what constitutes true happiness. It is not attained through self-gratification but through fidelity to a worthy purpose.
Helen Keller

Hunger

2011-09-17T10:05:00.006-05:00

Hi, folks. It's still hot here but not as hot as it was, and I'm majorly grateful for that. I'm working on my WIP this week. Writing a book reminds me of an old story in the Bible of Jacob wrestling with an angel. The angel wrenched Jacob's hip so hard that Jacob would limp for the rest of his life. The angel wrestled with Jacob all through a dark, long night. Finally, at daybreak, when the angel figured out that Jacob wasn't going to let go for any reason, the angel asked him what he wanted. Jacob replied, "Bless me. I'm not letting go unless you bless me." And the angel blessed Jacob because he had struggled with God and with men and had overcome. Writing a book feels like wrestling an angel.

Mixed in my angel battle are these moments that always come to me at dawn. I woke up this morning with a overwhelming feeling of hunger. Not for food -- I yearn for readers. I also yearn to uncover something of this world within the fictive dream. I work over words, sentences and paragraphs, chapters and read that WIP for the umpteenth time in hopes I can draw something out that shakes the foundations. Anything that can be shaken, will be. I'm into revealing what is left after the storms of this life, the stuff that is unfailing: our faith that things will work out in the end, our hopes of the future, and our love for each other.

The task is so much better than me. I get the feeling that I'm an old bucket in a field and I'm hoping for a decent rain. That's saying I don't know if I can do the thing I want to do. I can only try. So pull out your computers, pens, pencils, whatever you need to create shared dreams and work. I think the wrestling is a good thing. I think that hunger is a good thing. This journey is worthy. I think that's something many artists struggle with. Art doesn't generally put sacks of green paper in the bank. It will garner lots of roll-your-eyes comments like, "What do you really do?" and perhaps, "Why don't you do something useful with your life." Gosh, that stuff can't needle into you. Some folks do find a wide audience, but I haven't met one that didn't have a long inward struggle to get what she wanted on the page. I haven't met one who hasn't felt the hunger.

So take it from someone who's been traveling the road for a while, take it from someone who gets wrestling with angels, this journey is worth it. Rise up. Keep on the road. Carry on.

I call the doodle this week: "Two trees".

My quote for the week:

The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself.
Friedrich Nietzsche

Imaginary Friends

2011-09-10T07:57:00.004-05:00

Hi, folks, I've been a big fan of imaginary friends my whole life. I believed stuffed animals were real as child. I had a little elephant - Pinky, who was seriously one of my best friends. After I'd given Pinky the Velveteen Rabbit treatment, I moved on to Buddy Bear. Me and my sisters had George and Susie and their parents and one of my favorites -- Hound Dog Bert. We wrote some stories of a superhero cat too. I was a rather dreamy child. I try to stay close to that child. I think that to create stories you need to be in touch with the child you were.

Think back to childhood and let yourself inhabit those memories. I think it's especially important to journal the events that you have an emotional connection with. To what end? To what purpose? For me, the way art works is I stir up my imagination with sights and experiences. I follow my muse and read stacks. I wake up my memories by thinking about them, I daydream about stuff, I chat with friends about my ideas and watch for their eyes to light up, and then I know I'm onto something. That's basically the genesis of creative process for me.

I hope this peek at my process helps jog loose something in you and you find deeper creative vision. Come back next week!

This week, I give you the doodle "Imaginary Neil." 'cause in the right universe we are good friends. ;)

Anyway, here is a quote for the day:

In the final analysis, a drawing simply is no longer a drawing, no matter how self-sufficient its execution may be. It is a symbol, and the more profoundly the imaginary lines of projection meet higher dimensions, the better. Paul Klee

I Contain Multitudes

2011-09-02T08:00:00.001-05:00

I'm going to ramble some this week. I plan to scatter my thoughts like chicken feed; maybe something here will give you a little jolt. I hope so.

This week I continue the painful revision of my WIP. I move forward in little packets of about 50 words. I've sliced out a 2000 word scene and am slowly replacing it with something that actually moves the story forward. This is another brick in the wall of achieving phenomenal success in novel writing or perhaps another brick in the wall of stupendous failure -- I'm not about halves. I comfort myself with the bravery of trying.

I had lunch with friends Candy Fite, Nisha Coker, J., SCBWI BV RA Liz Mertz, and Tammy Hensel. J. said some profound stuff to me about writing what excites and infuses the soul. I'm working on that deep honesty. What does my heart yearn to write above all things? I'm not sure. I'm thinking about that. Something inside me want to dive into far flung universes and fantastical stuff. It feels like a good road, but I worry I might be too mundane to pull this off. Do you worry about stuff that?

On another note, I've learned so much about accepting all of me in the last couple of years that I'm going to toss out a thought or two. I think Walt Whitman was getting at something I've discovered too. He said this: "Do I contradict myself? Very well, then, I contradict myself; I am large -- I contain multitudes." I am the bravest person I know and the biggest chicken too. I can rise up and fall just as hard in the same hour. I am certainly multitudes, and some of the folks in this crowd aren't worth two cents, I just accept it.

Well, that is is some wandering blogging. I hope something connects.

Here is a doodle:

Quote for the week:

Just like moons and like suns,
With the certainty of tides,
Just like hopes springing high,
Still I'll rise.
from Still I'll Rise by Maya Angelou

Tension

2011-08-27T07:38:00.004-05:00

Hi, folks. I hope you have written pages and pages of great stuff this week. A friend of mine was reading my work in progress and said it was exciting up to a point and then the story lost all tension. Ouch.

Tension is a part of storytelling. Lack of story tension for me is almost always the same cause, I am afraid to bring my character on scene during the "bad stuff." The side character dies but my main character hears about it. I have to make the brave revisions and bring my main character into the thick of things.

Things always seem flat if the action is happening outside the page. I see this in work often. The author hints at a relationship but doesn't take the plunge to define it and show it in the present but reveals it through a flashback or vague dialogue.

Another misstep, the bomb blows up and we read a strong account of it from the main character's mailman. And, yes, if one of the important characters in a story dies, be sure that Luke is standing there screaming as Darth Vader offs Obi Wan Kenobi. I mean get the main character on scene.

I hope you look for opportunities to create tension this week. Open your work and ask yourself what is not here. That should help. See you next week with more good stuff.

The doodle this week: "Flower".

Tension is the great integrity. R. Buckminster Fuller

Better than Yourself

2011-08-20T09:06:00.005-05:00

Hi folks, I hope you are writing. I'm working on a novel right now, and I thought that I had really gotten the thing together. I have all these beautiful sentences, and I'm right, the writing is gorgeous, but it's not producing the right stuff in my readers. I have to cut the sentences because I'm info-dumping and also just pulling away from the central plot. I had to have a good cry to do these cuts. I've been working on this book for a long time. I'm the slowest writer ever. I really am.

My advice is: it's okay to cry, but don't give up. I think being kind to yourself is a good plan. It really helped me to go back to a draft in 2003. (I said I was working on this for a long time). I see my fear there -- fear to reveal my character, to let anyone see into the window of her soul to know her anger, her desperation, her hunger. I've been slowly carving out the shape of this thing. I stand by the cuts and additions I made then. I must be brave and stand by the ones I'm making today. I want so deeply to express to others what I know.

I struggle with verbal communication. I talk too much, don't listen enough, blurt out the wrong thing at the wrong time too often, have to say things 20 times to get to what I mean. I'd be lost if it weren't for the written word. I want to spin a story about what it means to be hungry to know things and yet have little access to knowledge and how that hunger shapes you. I'm summoning up all my courage. Calling out the better angels of sacrifice and endurance and doing the bravest hardest thing I know: saying what I mean.

If you are truly going to create something worthy, it's going to hurt. It's going to be wonderful too. Open up and let it happen. Peace.

I'm posting a silly doodle of a story I love: Noah's Ark. Noah was supposed to have taken about 120 years to build the ark after he got wind of the vision of it from the creator of all good things. It takes time to do something truly amazing that will lift other above the floods in this world.

Always dream and shoot higher than you know you can do. Don't bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Try to be better than yourself. William Faulkner

Watering

2011-08-13T10:50:00.006-05:00

Hi, folks! We are having the biggest drought ever here. Folks are losing plants all over the place. One of my bushes in the front yard is looking mighty parched. I'm not sure it is going to make it. It needs extra care. So what does this have to do with writing? The thing about the drought we are experiencing is that it is likely a sympton of climate change and not just an isolated event.

I feel this huge shift in the writing industry. No one seems to know what is going to happen. Online books are driving down book prices. It seems like fewer people are reading than before in recent history. Libraries are disappearing. We are in the midst of a huge "climate change" event in terms of books. It's hard to narch forward when the ground is shifting under you.

This is the season and time to be inventive, to be entreprenurial, and to be evolutionary. These are the skills that will propel you forward in a changing times. I ask you this week to take risks, to open yourself up to revolutionary ideas. Don't worry if you are a mouse at heart. Mice are very adaptable. I tell myself this a lot.

Peace, friends. Good things are ahead if you are willing to go with the flow. Open up.

I call this week's doodle: "Oahu".

Human knowledge has been changing from the word go and people in certain respects behave more rationally than they did when they didn't have it. They spend less time doing rain dances and more time seeding clouds. Herbert Simon

Martha Weston Grant

2011-08-06T07:23:00.005-05:00

Hi folks, I'm in Los Angeles this weak at the SCBWI International Summer Conference. The Hairston family on a journey to honor and remember Martha (Hairston) Weston). Martha published 50 picture books and easy-readers as an illustrator and/or author. Her first middle-grade novel was published shortly before her death.

Martha took time to encourage others in life and still her generous spirit is giving and has reached my way. I'm the 2011 recipient of SCBWI's Martha Weston Grant funnded by the Hairson family and that's why I'm at the conference.

I'm the author of 30 easy-readers and picture books, and I dream of seeing my YA books finding a home -- the hearts of teens all over the world. Thank you, Hairston Family! Thank you, grant committee! Thank you, SCBWI! I will to honor Martha's memory in every way, specially by generously giving back to others.

I know, short post. I'm kinda busy. I hope you all do whatever you can to inspire others this week and every week. Life is about each other more than anything else. See you next week.

This week's doodle is called: "Mom and son".

I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I intended to be. Douglas Adamas