Writer's brain takes a Left Turn

Today I gave up on the book I had been trying to piece together. Put it aside and went back to revising my will - which I should have been doing months ago.  

Completed my will revisions and turned back to my writing... and decided I actually didn't want to work on it anymore. My brain took a complete left turn and began shoving ideas for a similar but quite different book.

Ho-Kay. Off I go on a new bit of writing, one that needs a lot MORE research than the one I've abandoned. But it tickles my interest more, which means my readers will enjoy it more - when it's finally done.

the writer who also works at a day job

The curse of being a writer who also has a full time job to support the family.

Every time I left work for a week of writing, or a week of research trips, or a week of speaking to a series of schools and libraries, the staff at work would say, "have a nice vacation."
I'd reply, "No.  I'm just going to my second job."

Good Rejections

Wow. My fastest rejection ever. 
Yesterday, with high hopes, I sent (emailed) a manuscript to an agent who had come several times to talk with our local SCBWI group. This morning I woke up to a rejection. 
Fastest. Time. Ever.
The nicest thing about it was that she actually responded instead of simply deleting my email and leaving me hanging. I appreciate that.

Last week I got another good rejection. 
What was it?
It was a hand written letter from an editor.  

We writers appreciate people in the business who go that extra step to Let Us Know what's happening.  

Uma Krishnaswami

One of the marvelous faculty members of Vermont College of Fine Arts, Writing for Children and Young Adults has been interviewed on Cynsations Blog.

(Yes, I know that's a very long name for my grad school.  We usually write it as: VCFA WCYA.)

Anywho, check out Uma Krishnaswami - On thriving as a long time, actively publishing children's author.

Writer's Quotes -

"You don’t get stuck because you’re not a real writer. 
You get stuck because you are, 
and the ‘stuck-ness’ is part of the deal." 

Wise, wise words from author Jess Keating to the writer in all of us.

So - You've written a Picture Book

and now you are wondering if it's any good.

Here's what Kate Messner does about that. She has many picture books published by traditional publishers and knows.

Click here for her latest blog offering which she calls - Picture Book Math (and why you should write something new).

Jane Yolen - On the Writing Life

Another wonderful quote from Jane Yolen, the Hans Christian Anderson of the United States of America:

Today I want to talk about the Everyday-ness of writing. How the extraordinary must become ordinary.

Just as I do my morning exercises to get these old bones moving, I write every day. Every single day. Sometimes it's a chapter, sometimes it's a poem. Sometimes I make lists of things: nouns, verse to revise, ideas for new books, suggestions for stories with my children (in case you haven't been paying attention, they are all writers!).

Even if I am ill, traveling, caring for a sick husband, running around a convention, walking the Royal Mile--even then I will manage to write something. Because being a writer means that kind of commitment. It doesn't have to be something for publication (though what does get published is almost always a surprise.) It i something to get the brain, the heart, the imagination, and the fingers coordinated, working together. Not strangers but a good team.

After my big back operation, part of my recovery was to walk a mile (or more) a day. As the amazing nurse Donna explained it to me: if you walk a mile at a good steady pace (mine is fast) outside, taking in the fresh oxygen, your spinal fluid moves up and down oiling the spine. Well, that's what writing every day does. It keeps the fluid moving about our brain, oiling its parts. Writing needs such fluidity.

Yes, life happens. It interrupts all our careful plans. A person from Porlock, an auto accident, a shooter in the movie theater, or more happily twins born, a friend stopping in for tea, your book winning the Caldecott, your editor calling to say you won the Nebula, your agent messaging that you sold a book, falling in love.

But the bottomest of lines is this: if you are a writer, you write. And you turn all of life's hiccups into poetry or prose.

How lucky are we--accidents, incidents, handicaps, heartbreaks all become research, become prompts. So don't ignore them, but use them. Every day.

Every single glorious, bloody day.

(quoted from a Facebook Post on Monday, August 24, 2015.)

Writers Rules

Rules writers live by:

Patricia Wrede says, "Editors don't make house calls. You've gotta send your manuscripts out.
Wash, rinse, and repeat."

 Phillis Whitney said, "A manuscript in a drawer can't sell." 

I can't remember who coined the phrase, "BIC"  
That's a basic writer's rule - Butt in Chair.  
You sit and write.  
Every day.

Jane Yolen puts it another way: "I show up. Not only every day at my computer to work.I show up by sending a mss. out again and again. If someone asks for a revision, I show up. If I meet a new editor at a convention and they seem interested, I send her something. If I figure out a new way to rewrite the book--I do that ASAP and send it out again."

This has always impressed me about many writers.  
I roomed with Josepha Sherman at many an ALA conference and watched her work the exhibit area. Talking to editors, checking out the displays. 
And every evening? (after we had hit publisher's parties that she always seemed to be able to get invited to) She would sit down at her computer and write and send book proposals to every editor she had talked to that day who seemed interested in her ideas.  
Sometimes she even made appointments with editors ahead of time to meet and discuss proposals. Which she would then type and email to them so they would have it when they got back to their office.
Since she wrote fantasy as well as many other things, she did the same at Science Fiction and Fantasy conventions, both local and WorldCons.

Do you have a rule you stick with to keep you writing every day?

How to be a Happy Author

Actually, many of these suggestions for an easier, happier writing life, brought to you by the wonderful agent, Rachelle Gardner, can be applied to every aspect of life.

Click on over and decide for yourself.

Writing by Water

Busy
Busy
I love living near the ocean (even if it is on the wrong side -- I'm not used to the ocean being WEST of me and I still tend to head East to get there -- which makes me end up in the desert, not the ocean -- but that's another story.)

I love sitting in my car, by the water, working on manuscripts on my laptop while watching the tide roll in.  One of my favorite spots is by Dog Beach (an area where dogs are allowed on the sand, off leash)  in Del Mar where the San Dieguito River flows into the Pacific.  It's a real water fight when the tide is roaring in and the river tries to push out against the tide.

Where do you like to write?

The Writing Life -- Exposed

There's a new post up at the Blogging Authors' blog, describing and demolishing a lot of those myths that non-writers have about writers and authors.
(Writers being the term for all of us who put words down and try to make them sparkle enough to insure our manuscript will attract readers.  Authors being those lucky enough to not only get published, but who also are read and enjoyed by others. -- my definition.  The older definition used to be -- we are writers/ authors are those dead white guys studied in schools in English class.)

Anywho --
Click on over and find out why Oprah won't call you about your book, and other facts of the writing life.