2011 - this is the year...

Writing Resolutions:

#5 Keep up my new blog on Christian grandparenting: www.peekinthenest.blogspot.com

#4 Focus my writing for publication on Bible stories for children

#3 Take part in the May NaPiBoWriWe - creating 1 complete manuscript a day

#2 Work with Harold Underwood on a specific manuscript

#1 Enjoy the support and encouragement of The Best Critique Group in the Universe!

Writing...and Publishing

We attended a writing conference this summer. I had an online class working on a specific manuscript. We met monthly to critique (in the nicest possible way!)and we still love to write. Some of us make progress on big projects. Some of us flit from one little project to the next. And we still love to write.

It would be so...urbane? sophisticated? mature?... of us to simply love writing and do it for its own sake! And never care if the only people who read it are our families and critique group.

Here is my dirty secret: I want to see the Javalina Brothers in a school library. I want Victoria Dragon to be on the display table at Borders. I want a stuffed Tuk-tuk! Under all the "love to write" is a desire to move to the next step: getting published.

So every year I wait for the Children's Writer's Market to emerge and - clutching my yellow highlighter - I flit through the first pages of the Publishers Index knowing somewhere is the editor who is waiting for Danny Lion! Flitting becomes slogging very quickly as one entry after another "is not accepting..." Well, think of all the time I have saved by not contacting THEM! Or them. Or them...

Ah, the route - they say at conferences - is long and difficult. We noticed. Is it interminable?

So I am trying this year to squelch the Insane Hopeful Direct Publisher Contact Gene that drives me to the SASEs and focus on agents. Most of them take e-mail. All have websites and useful contact information. Many have not said "no" yet...

So that is hopeful...

Feedback

We assume the best feedback comes from our Blog Buds when we meet once a month for critique night. But who else?

My spouse is very kind and gracious - heck he said my sermons were good every single week! So he has figured out his role is to be supportive but not critical.

For that I have to turn to my children. Child A is an artist and writer himself so he is ready to share his opinion on story lines that are too cutesy, rhymes that do NOT work, art that would gag a maggot. Child B is a lawyer.perfectionist and can stop a typo or comma issue that I am waaaaay too close to see.


Lately I am looking to the grandchildren for authentic feedback as well. Can the three year old be spellbound by the "Princess and Too Many Kittens" without having pictures? What does the seven year old really think of the Lizard's Talent Show?

I had a chance to work with Harold Underdown in a workshop recently and his feedback was terrific. The kids, however, are cheaper.

Stuck in the cocoon

In my perfect writing world, I move from the creeping caterpillar of an idea, consuming green leaves of research, then cocoon briefly as I let the ideas flow from brain to keyboard, and emerge quickly as a complete and glorious butterfly, ready to soar to the editors.

Reality: lots of great ideas are stuck in the cocoon! They have been jotted, noted, filed, researched, started and…stuck. I soooo wish hours of playing BeJeweled was the answer!

And yet in my last career (counting retirement as a full time job!) I never once showed up at church on a Sunday morning without a 10 minute homily. That was 5 pages, double spaced, researched and ready to go!

So the answer for me must be deadlines. It helps to have someone or somewhere a particular piece will go. A SCBWI conference, an assignment at an online writing class or (mostly) my critique group keeps me plugging away.

On the other hand I just discovered Chuzzle….

Which comes first: fantasy or fact finding?

I love ‘em both: creating ideas and digging deep in research. Even when I am writing pure fiction – a dragon waiting for wings to grow – there are things to learn.

I use two sources: children’s books at the library where I am employed and the internet. That wingless dragon book leads me into the mythology section for dragon traits and the picture book area for the ways others have pictured dragons. Then I comb the internet for difference between Western and Eastern dragons, and always check to see if anyone else has recently published a story about wingless dragons! If so I might as well put it in a file for next decade or work on it until it is really unique.


For years I focused on Bible storybook writing where there is only one source: the Bible. Publishers vary on how close to Holy Scripture the story has to be. Can I introduce talking animals? Can I put words in anyone’s mouth or only use direct quotes? Can I fill in settings with information I know is culturally accurate? Then I research the abilities and interests of the intended reader. What are children at various ages capable of understanding about terms like “crucifixion” and “incarnation”? What is the attention span of each age? (Pictured: Robin Currie's Baby Bible Stories about Jesus, Cook Communications, reissued with new art, 2009.)

Recently I may have found my real place in the publishing world: Edu-tainment: fun stories that teach new ideas and cultures with words introduced in glossary or sidebars. Who doesn’t want to know more about the arctic or the Sonora desert?