Climbing Mount Baldy… Today

When I started the climb up Mout Baldhead in Saugatuck, Michigan, today, I was totally surprised with how out of breath I got going up the steps. Usually I only stop once or twice in order to catch my breath. Today, I took four extended breaks, thankful that I was alone so no one could witness my pitiful upward trek. I blamed it on my lax winter activities. Even with reasonable excuses, this need for extra rest upset me… until… on my way down a bit later, I passed two groups of people going up and noticed that each of them, too, struggled and often stopped for extended rests, even more and longer than I had. And considering I am quite a bit older than any of the other climbers (and, no one in the other groups was younger than an older teen), it all gave me pause.

My wonderment and reason came together as I considered it all. At last I decided on the cause of my/our panting: lack of oxygen! There were no leaves on the trees, and not even a pine tree offering its needles for oxygen. So, I concluded that I was not an old foggy, that I was not out of shape; I just needed air.

(That’s my story, and I’m sticking to it.)

Really Happy and Really Sad News

Two reasons for my l-o-n-g time since no blogging:

1) My children’s book, THE TOWN THAT DISAPPEARED, is now out. It is a middle grade historical fiction, set in the late 1800′s, about a town which became buried by moving sand dunes as a result of clear-cut forestry. The photo at the top of this blog shows the decaying dock pilings from the era, with the “new” (1906) channel markers in the background. Since my 12-year-old MC is a secret knitter, last Saturday, Your Local Yarn Shop in Battle Creek hosted my book launch. It was a success.

About two months ago, I contacted teachers I knew to do school author visits. Teaching about writing, and history, with kids — what FUN! As a former teacher, being in schools and around kids is closer to my first than second nature. So far, I’ve presented in three schools and talked to seventeen classrooms of students, K-4. One teacher friend scheduled me to speak to every class in her school, except the first graders who couldn’t arrange a time that day. I haven’t sold a single book as a result of those visits, BUT… kids! I love their curiosity and willingness to learn. And I feel so happy when they are proud of me for doing something hard. (The book had about 25 rewrites, one exciting, accepting “editor’s call,” which came with a rejection one year later because one seller convinced the group that “no one buys historical fiction.” And now the book’s in print, and on Kindle.)  How well children know the joy of a success. The book and launch and school visits have been a wonderfully wild train ride so far, and a good distraction. I have one more station stop at a school today before I focus on flying off. Literally.

2) The really sad news concerns our son who lives alone, 2,000 miles away. Last fall, the surgeon successfully removed the cancer from his body. During the past four months he went for doctor check-ups with a big A-OK each time. Then, on the Thursday of my first school visit, we received a call from him.  In the month since his last visit, the cancer had come back with a vengeance and had spread throughout his body. Yesterday, he started his first round of chemotherapy, with the port not working, and then poking an IV in one arm, and  not working, so poking his other arm. Today he’s in for 11 hours so the doctors can do tests and fix the port before he does his next round of chemo. Rough start for his poison treatments.

But God’s timing is always right. Our son is in his 20′s, so doctors have given his expected recovery rate a high success. Although he is far from family, he has many friends, and many who work in school districts. In his area, Spring Breaks are at different times, so at least in this first month or so, he will always have friends willing and available to drive him to and from the hospital, and even stay and sit with him. I will fly down at the end of this week to be with him.

And, personally, if we would have gotten his news any earlier, I would have said, “The heck with my stupid book! Family means everything!” I would have dropped my writing project, and there would have been no book launch nor any school visits until who knows when.

So be it trains, planes, or emotional roller-coaster rides, what remains sure is that I know who I am and whose I am. I am certain, beyond any doubt, that God’s timing is always right.

Post-Story Writing… and a Year Off Submissions

So you’ve finished your first draft — HURRAY! Serious huge accomplishment! [applause continues on until fade out]

Then you revised cover to cover, sent it through a critique group, revised again, set it aside for a year while you work on another project or two and read some books on craft, come back to the original story and nearly chuck the thing, but decide you like the plot and characters, so you rewrite it instead. More critiques, more revisions. Finally, you’re confident it’s good enough to send out to editors or agents (which is another whole research bit). Are you done with your writing concerning this story? Hardly.

Post-Story Writing

You have the query letter to draft for email and postal contacts. The query has become such an art unto itself that there are courses and books written concerning this 250-word letter.

There is the pitch you will need to… well,… pitch your story in a very short time to an editor or agent or anyone else curious about what you do with your unsocial life hunched over your computer, or so you tell others. Pitches are normally one sentence (less than twenty-five words; ten is even better). If the intended party goes, “Hm. Tell me more,” then you have the two-sentence pitch, and the paragraph-pitch ready. (Related to the pitch is the logline. A logline is similar to a pitch, but used in film making. It’s that one sentence description you read on movies or episodes to determine if you want to watch it or not.)

Of course, you also need your synopsis – telling the whole 50,000 words from nail-biting beginning hook to wonderful climax, all in one, two, or six pages. Depending to whom you send your query decides which synopsis length you must have ready.

Recently, a task slated for the publishing house’s copy editors, some editors and agents now request flap-jacket copies. A flap-jacket copy is that short story tease you find on the inside flap of a book jacket cover.

This is all post-story-writing-pre-book-contract. After the contract come a whole different set of marketing and promotion writing you must do, again, something which used to be jobs done by others than the author.

It’s important to respect who you send your writing. It’s essential to research what she or he requests  in a submission. You need to know how to make your work shine in the various aspects of post-story writing.

Realizing all this, and dealing with my personal submissions…  There have been some years where I made it a goal to make a submission to an editor or agent once a week  — not the same story and not the same editor, of course. I’ve tried the Jane Yolen bit of keeping twelve stories out at all times, which is nice when one acceptance rules twenty rejects. But having faithfully attempted to follow other people’s suggestions, and after fine-tuning these different elements of post-story writing, I’ve made a decision on this Labor Day, 2012. I’m taking a year off of submissions to editors or agents. Instead of spending hours writing and rewriting various post-story necessities, or spending hours researching which editor or agent would be a perfect match for my story, and even ignoring contests or free submission days from editors and agents, I will spend the next year in raw writing (first drafts) or revisions. Discipline, Sandy. Be strong. Resist giving in. Until Labor Day 2013.

Our Writing is Getting Better!

One thing I read from an editor from Ellen Jackson’s list is (paraphrased) that 20 years ago this one editor took 30 stories to the acquisisions group, and only three were good and so they published three. Today this same edtor takes 30 stories to the acquisisions group, and 27 of them are good, but they still only publish three of them. In other words, writing is getting better, like OUR writing! But that also means that competition for us is getting stronger. Although I have tons of magazine articles written, I hope for that traditional publication of a novel. I’ve made it three times to aquisitions group meetings for three different manuscripts.

This makes me think again about why do I write? And you — Why do YOU write?

*Do you feel like you’ll explode if you don’t write-write-write?

*Is it a tale needing to be shaped by you like a bit of marble under Michael Angelo’s hands?

*Do your characters tap you on your shoulder in your sleep, whispering more of their adventures and background?

*Is it a family story for your decendents to laugh and cry over before author-you kicks the bucket?

*Do you think you’ll make barrels of money and get to travel to exotic places with your loved ones?

*Do thousands of story ideas itch to be written down?

*Are writers some of the most awesome people you know?

My personal answer: yeah, sure; all of those, and more. How about you?

My thread of hope is knowing that Emily Dickenson only published 8 of her 400+ poems in her lifetime. However, I MUST NOT give in to the whimpy artist’s depression. (Oh, how cliche, and how difficult to resist. I am an artist, yet I shall prevail! The battling writer writes on!)

Writing About Touchy Subjects and Wild Burros

I’ve been thinking about touchy subjects and wondering why they are such. I think I’ve got it figured out. These sensitive subjects fall into one of two categories: 1) You can be very emotional about said subject, or 2) your intended recipient can be very emotional about it.

Most people dread conflict. This can be a good thing if it keeps you safe. But conflict is essential in interesting writing.

In life, it’s simpler to avoid differences of opinion or experience. However, by doing so, you end up locking yourself in your little box and don’t let any of “them” come in. You also allow eureka moments pass you by.

I’m reminded of wild burros in South Dakota. The first time to the park, we stopped our van as they surrounded us. They rubbed against our vehicle with us safe inside, windows up and doors locked — because everyone knows how those smart animals can climb in cars and drive away. Only a few minutes of having twenty burros lick with their huge tongues and rub their dripping noses along every window did we decide to try to break from the herd so we could throw up and then get to a car wash before heading home.

The next time to the park, I saw someone get out of their car and hand feed the animals bread slices.  The burros didn’t trample each other, or her. They also didn’t excrete all over her car.  She talked to them and pet them. They weren’t even rude to each other, but waited patiently for their turns.

We started saving up end-pieces of bread and stuck them in the Burro Bag in the freezer. When we got a full bag, we’d head south to the park to hand-feed and stroke the wild animals. (Warning: This is NOT a suggested activity with bison or grizzlies.) We never again had to wash our van after a visit to the Wild Life Loop.

Moral of this story: If you stay in your glass house, and only view the world from inside your locked vehicle, you will get slimed. But by getting out among those who are different, you may find you will delight in their company.

NaNoWriMo and The Artist’s Way

THE ARTIST’S WAY by Julia Cameron is a 12-step program for creativity. I am in the middle of this 12-week on-line course. I’ve kept up with reading the book chapters and the Morning Pages. (I haven’t missed a morning in 6 weeks.) The Artist’s Dates have been sketchy some weeks — sometimes literally, as I spend an hour or more sketching on a sketch pad. But mostly, the course has me thinking. All of that is good, but what I have found is that I have not been doing my own story-writing very much during this course. I complete my Morning Pages, and then must somehow feel that my daily writing duty is done, so get on with the other things to do which crowd my life. So my second half of this course must be story-writing discipline.

The good news is that I will be participating in NaNoWriMo this year. By participating the past two years, I discovered something very interesting which I have heard a gazillion times before: it’s okay to write junk. NaNoWriMo stands for National November Writing Month and by the last day of November participants are supposed to have completed 50,000 words of a book. However, they also encourage you to simply write, like by throwing a oragatang into the story one day. I “won” the past two years — i.e., reached my 50,000-word goals — but also knew most of what I was writing WAS junk, even if it was story-related.

Some of my junk included something like Morning Pages to unclutter my mind before I got story-writing motivated. It also included autobiographies on the main characters — which turned out to be GREAT for finding their voices. And I wrote a whole lot of backstory or thinking-thoughts dealing with the characters and plot. None of these got into the actual story. In fact, two years ago, when I went back to revise, I took those 50,000+ words and cut away all the junk down to a 3,000-word skeleton. That skeleton was then built up to 27,000 words over the next couple of months and for the past 13 months, has been in the hands of an editor who is excited about it (but not enough to offer me a contract… yet; please keep your fingers crossed.)

So on through the last week of October, and onward to NaNoWriMo. Wishing you all disciplined writing time.

How Much Social Networking?

Admittedly, I’ve been too busy lately to keep up with others’ blogs. I struggle just with planning out my AAA — Aggressive April Attack  with daily humor posts & writing daily poems & revising a novel). I’ve resorted to turning Darcy’s Fiction Notes into a weekly message since I was not getting around to reading so many of her posts. As much as I bow down to Darcy’s wisdom and writing advise, lately, I don’t even read those grouped posts. Today, I read a couple of her most recent ones — one was on social networking. She said to start small. Here were some of her suggestions of setting small goals: Make a goal of 10 comments a day. (Or do similarly on Facebook, posting daily and liking 10 things daily. Or new video daily and 10 comments on others. Or Tweet once a day and message 10 others.)

 

So… I didn’t comment or read anything more. It was just too daunting for this writer. Maybe I’m just unique that it takes me L.O.N.G. to write out even the simplest response (like this), because it gets me thinking, because it stirs a response, because I want to word my response well. You see, I’d rather spend more of my valuable writing time actually writing or researching or revising or submitting than responding to posts. Sure, doing what Darcy says gets your name noticed, published or not, and I love her gumption and challenges, and marketing (getting your name out there) is definitely a related topic. Responding to her post here on my blog has taken writing thought time. Off to write a poem and revise some more.

 

National Poetry Month Challenge

 

Today starts National Poetry Month. Therefore, my April Challenge to anyone willing to accept it, is to write one poem a day all month long.

Okay, here’s my problem: I’m a horrid poet, and know it. I can’t even tell the Longfellow joke right. Sure, I own a few books of poetry and even a couple rhyming books, but, yikes! A poem a day! Who is crazy enough to accept such a challenge? Wait, wait! Aren’t couplets considered poetry? Why, yes, Sandy, they are. Even kids could write two sentences which end with a rhyme each day. What about songs? They are merely poems under another jacket cover. Okay, I’ll get my creative juices going, accept my own challenge, and see how disciplined I am to see how many poems I get written this month. Who knows? I may even be inspired to write more than just a couplet a day.

The Farmer’s Almanac let me know that April comes from the Latin word aperio, meaning “to open or bud,” because plants begin to grow this month. Perhaps… just perhaps some poet will begin to bud this month as well. Good luck to all you poet challenge accepters.

(BTW, today also starts National Humor Month, so if you wanted to swing on over to my Humor Blog ( http://sandycarl.blogspot.com ) you will find one antidote or personal story or joke every day during April. Somehow, that seems so much easier to do than a poem a day. Who thought of this, anyway? A poem a day. Yeesh.)

No Moving Body Parts!

When I first started in this writing business (for real), I was in a critique group with a wonderful well-published author who wrote in a completely different genre than I. When she’d come across some of my phrases, like “Her eyes dropped to the floor,” Barb would waggle her finger at me and say, “No moving body parts!” I guess I did it often enough for the phrase to stick in my head.

Today I came across a critique from someone in my critique group, of someone else’s writing. The critiquer had highlighted that the submitter used the phrase “her eyes darted around the room” twice in as many paragraphs. It was the repetition which she’d pointed out. But for a flash, I remembered Barb’s words and imagined the heroine eyes floating from the body and moving quickly around.

So, here is my question concerning this phrase: Can eyes dart (they do within sockets), or should they not dart (detached from the body)?

Other Posts on our Voice Workshop

Here are two other bloggers/perspectives from my critique group, who also took the Voice Workshop, and “reported” about it on their blogs:

From Rose Green:  http://rose-green.blogspot.com/2011/03/voice-workshop-part-1.html

From Jaclyn McMahon: http://dramaquill.wordpress.com/author/dramaquill/