Summertime

Summertime means great disruption for many writers -- kids home, vacations, camps, endless driving.  Summertime in the Ford household is bliss (mostly, when the kids aren't fighting).  We're all on summer vacation!  While many writers struggle to maintain a normal schedule over the summer, summer is the time when I find my groove.  I can carve out writing time nearly every day -- often on the deck or even at the community pool (yay). 

Last summer I took a great novel workshop; this summer I'm taking an equally great picture book writing class.  In addition to the end of the semester, this year the beginning of summer coincided with a day-job change for me.  Suddenly I have actual spare time -- time to read, time to exercise.  I wish it would never end!

My daughter, lapping me in the page count department, is currently writing an "American Girl" book -- the doll's name is Lilly, and she is primarily preoccupied with playing with her "nextstore nabor." So far we have managed to avoid purchasing an actual doll.  Please wish me luck on that front. 

What the Fords are reading this week:

Kate:
The Tale of Desperaux
The Secret Garden

Patrick:
Baseball Mouse by Syd Hoff

me:
Signed by Zelda by Kate Feiffer
Dumpling Days by Grace Lin

Happy reading and writing to all! --Jeanne Marie

Writing Workout

In my picture book writing class, I've noted that many, many ideas stem directly from real life.  A simple, single incident, after all, can be transformed into a whole book.

Coincidentally, my daughter just found a little notebook given to me by the wonderful Phyllis Harris.  It was made for the express purpose of recording the crazy things my kids said.  I had, sadly, let my trasncription duties lapse, but I was hugely amused by what I'd recorded and forgotten.  So was my daughter.  This exercise is a spin on the traditional writing journal... If you have kids -- write down what they say.  It could be a gold mine someday.  At the very least, you will preserve some priceless memories forever.

Brain Draino or You Can't Fail

     Hey gang, it's Friday and I'm not April. If you've tuned in for April's wonderful poetry, you can stop reading now. It's summertime and the schedules are crazy (as in I forgot to write my Monday blog...and didn't even know until Tuesday because I hadn't opened my computer in two days.) Hence, here I am to continue the current thread of "Unblocking Creativity."

   I live in an older house with iffy plumbing. Something is always backing up, leaking, or just plain not working. Kind of like my brain a lot of days.  While I have published ten books in eight years, I have been working on another book for the same eight years.  It's a YA historical fiction verse novel in three voices.  Think that's enough of a challenge for someone who has never written YA, poetry or anything multi-voiced?  I believe this is known as "leaving your comfort zone."

    I don't like leaving my comfort zone. It took me so many years to find my comfort zone, I am in no rush to leave it.  I could happily write middle grade fiction and picture books forever. Unfortunately, this story that will not leave me alone.  While I was writing Jimmy's Stars and First Grade Stinks and A Tree for Emmy, this other story was also living in my head. And it wasn't living there quietly. At least once a week, one of the characters whacks me on the head and says, "Hey, you!  You thought us up, now do something with us."
 
     I don't usually have this problem.  Sure, it always takes me a long time to write any book, but I am usually confident that I will finish, eventually. On the other hand, I've never taken eight years to write something, with no end in sight (even though I have the entire book outlined, and written three drafts).

     Let's face it. I am intimidated by my own creation.  Sometimes I see my three main characters as those giant heads on Easter Island...big and scary and something I don't want to get very close to. This leads to all kinds of brain clogging thinking ("Who do I think I am trying to write this particular book?"  "Nobody will ever want it." "Why am I even trying to write poetry?")  The next thing I know, I have closed my laptop and am playing endless games of Words With Friends on my Kindle (I keep hoping to be matched up with Alec Baldwin some day.)

      I am afraid that I am not good enough to write this story that is so very important to me. If I could only write one more book in my life, it would have to be this one.

    So here is my brilliant quote (a little Draino for the brain, if you will).

   What would you do if you knew you couldn't fail?


   I have no idea who said this originally, but it is something my husband says at least once a week. Unlike me, he is all about pushing the envelope, waving bye-bye to comfort zones, a shark in constant motion. (OK, he's not sharklike at all, except that he never stops moving and thinking.)  I doubt his brain plumbing has ever clogged with self doubt.

    What would I do if I knew I couldn't fail? Well, duh. I'd sit down every morning for however long my crazily unscheduled life allows, and sneak back into my characters heads. I know them so well...but apparently, they also know me, and my weaknesses.  "Go ahead," they taunt me. "Just try to get me right on the page. I dare you."

     I am not a person who takes dares. And here we are, back in my comfort zone, my Kindle ready to take me away from dares and defeat.

     My favorite writing guru, Anne Lamott has the same problem, which is reassuring. She devoted an entire chapter in Bird by Bird to those nagging, whiney, inner critics. When her channels get clogged she appears to have panic attacks. I just turn into a non-writing slug. She suggests lots of deep breathing
to get herself "back in the creative stream."

    Deep breathing doesn't work for me.  Making myself aware of my breathing makes me hyperventilate. A hyperventilating, non-writing slug.  Not good.

    What brings me back is a leisurely lap around my jungle-like backyard, reminding myself I can't fail. I know these characters. I know this story. I cannot fail. The Easter Island heads turn back into normal-sized humans. They stop scowling, and invite me back to their world.

    Alec Baldwin will have to wait.

Writer's Workout---All good physical workouts should start with a warm-up and end with a cool down.   I find that brain clog most often happens when I try to just jump into my story, because I am trying to get as far and as fast as I can before my brain poops out.  I make the same mistake in exercising. Both writing and exercise go much better if you make yourself spend ten minutes or so warming up.  Here are some warmups that work for me.

1. Music--a few minutes listening to whatever kind of music puts you in a creative mood. Since I am usually writing something historical, I listen to music of that era. This is not permission to listen to
the entire CD of Abbey Road or Dark Side of the Moon. Ten minutes, tops.

2. Pictures--I have a small collection of old postcards and photos (not family pictures, pictures of strangers I've picked up at flea markets). Meditating on one of those for a few minutes will send me back to my story.

3.  Having a conversation (on paper) with one of my characters. I will ask the character a question that has been bothering me, and then listen for the response. Often, I find my character answering a completely different question...which tells me that I didn't ask the right question!  They aren't mean about it....they are just reminding me where their story is going...and that I can't force them to go where they don't want to go.

4. Reminding myself of my successes--This sounds kind of egotistical, but a therapist suggested it to me  when I first began writing, and it works when nothing else will. I have framed copies of every writing award I won as a kid (thanks to my mom who actually hung them in our den...much to my embarrassment as a teenager). I have a shelf of the books I've already published. I have a couple of plexiglass doodads that seem to be the form that awards take these days. (I have three identical awards for three completely different honors....I have to look closely at the etching to see which is which!)  In the days before I had awards, I had "nice rejection" letters to remind that yes, I can write and I cannot fail.  

Well, that's not entirely true.  You can fail...but only if you quit.

Posted by Mary Ann Rodman

Keeping the Channel Open

We're in the midst of a series of posts sharing quotes intended to provide everyone with some mid-year inspiration. I don't know about you, our readers, but these quotes  have already helped me, especially the one April shared last week from Marla Frazee. In particular, I was struck by this sentence:

"The more personal and heartfelt the story is for the author and/or illustrator of the book, the more universal the emotion that can be gleaned from it."

These words opened my eyes to a problem with my current work-in-progress: I wasn't putting enough of myself into the story. This was probably due, at least in part, to the fact that the novel is based on the life of a girl who lived nearly 300 years ago. Reading the above quote reminded me that I had to find a way to connect with my protagonist on an emotional level if I wanted my readers to do so, too. After thinking more about my character and her situation, I did indeed find some things we have in common. I'm currently reworking the story to make that "universal emotion" come through. Thanks so much to Marla, and to April for sharing her words!

The quote I'm sharing today is one I recently gave a dear friend of mine who I'll call Debbie. For years,  Debbie's dreamed of writing a screenplay or novel. But, as so many of us do, she put more practical pursuits ahead of her dream--earning a living, helping out with the family business, raising her daughters. Now that her older daughter has graduated college and her younger is away at school, Debbie has more time to pursue her dream. Yet she's still hesitant. So for her birthday, I gave her a blank journal, a pen, and this quote from Martha Graham:

"There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all of time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and it will be lost. The world will not have it. It is not your business to determine how good it is nor how valuable nor how it compares with other expressions. It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open. You do not even have to believe in yourself or your work. You have to keep yourself open and aware to the urges that motivate you. Keep the channel open."

Funny thing is, as I typed up this quote to give to my friend, I realized I needed it as much as she did. I'd begun to doubt the value of my work-in-progress and to question that anyone could ever care as deeply about it as I did. Reading Graham's words reminded me that I was uniquely qualified to tell this story simply because I cared about it in a way no one else could.

So, after printing out Debbie's copy of the quote, I printed a second for myself. It now sits on my desk as a daily reminder to "keep the channel open."

I invite everyone to try the following  Writing Workout with Graham's words in mind. (You can read the rest of the quote at goodreads.com.)   

Writing Workout

Keeping the Channel Open

One way to "keep the channel open," is via timed freewriting. I first read of this technique years ago in Natalie Goldberg's Writing Down the Bones. In a timed freewriting session, the idea is to keep your pen moving without pausing and definitely without editing. (I recommend doing freewrites with pen and paper rather than at a keyboard.) If you find yourself stuck, you write something like "I don't know what to write next but I'll think of something soon." If your mind wanders away from your main topic, that's fine. Just keep writing.
For today's Writing Workout:

1. Open your journal to a blank page, or take out a blank sheet of paper.
2. At the top of the page, write: What idea is calling to me that I keep pushing aside? What might happen if I pursued it?
3. Set a timer for 10 minutes.
4. Write a response to the above questions. Try to write without stopping. Don't edit yourself. Keep the channel open and let your thoughts flow until the timer goes off.   
5. If you get stuck, write: I don't know what to write next but I'll think of something soon. Write it multiple times, if necessary.
6. If you can, come back and tell us how the exercise worked for you.

You can read more about timed-freewriting at Getting Started: Freewriting, which includes a freewriting example.
Happy (free)writing!
Carmela

It's never too late...(redux)

It’s never too late to announce a TeachingAuthors Book Giveaway Winner.

So, congratulations, Kathy Mazurowski, the winner of Natalie Ziarnik’s debut picture book, Madeleine’s Light: The Story of Camille Claudel (Boyds Mills Press)!

I happen to know that Kathy is a true Becomer, (a la the George Eliot quote I shared Wednesday), newly-retired from teaching and eager to now write full-time.

Thanks to the readers who entered this Book Giveaway, sharing the folks they would have liked to meet when they were young.

Answers ranged from Kathy’s Shel Silverstein to Tom Edison and Mary Martin.
My choice? Hopalong Cassidy’s side-kick Lucky.
Really and truly.

Since it never hurts to hear something twice, and today happens to be Poetry Friday, I offer up a Henry Wadsworth Longfellow poem that shares Eliot’s sentiment.

Enjoy! And, Happy Becoming!

Esther Hershenhorn

“It is too late! Ah, nothing is too late—
Cato learned Greek at eighty; Sophocles
Wrote his grand “Oedipus,” and Simonides
Bore off the prize of verse from his compeers
When each had numbered more than fourscore years;
And Theophrastus, at fourscore and ten,
Had begun his “Characters of Men.”
Chaucer, at Woodstock, with his nightingales,
At sixty wrote the “Canterbury Tales.”
Goethe, at Weimar, toiling to the last,
Completed “Faust” when eighty years were past.
What then? Shall we sit idly down and say,
“The night has come; it is no longer day”?
For age is opportunity no less
Than youth itself, though in another dress.
And as the evening twilight fades away,
The sky is filled with stars, invisible by day.
It is never too late to start doing what is right.
Never.”

It's never too late!

More years ago than I care to count, I mailed myself a lovely greeting card with the following message hand-printed on an antique press:

“It’s never too late to be what you might have been.”

The words belong to English novelist Mary Ann Evans whose pen name was George Eliot but I took them to be mine and shaped them into a mantra of sorts.

Of course I had to tweak Eliot’s words, changing the be to become.

I love that verb become and the infinite number of ever-changing nouns and adjectives it can take on in a lifetime.

It brings to mind the often-quoted words of Jean Karl who founded Athenem and first published authors Phyllis Reynolds Naylor, E.L. Koenigsburg and Judith Viorst.

“A children’s book respects…..a child’s capacity to become.”

Becoming is very much on my mind this morning because tonight begins my Summer Workshop “The Write Place,” a facilitated children’s book writers group, at Chicago’s Newberry Library.

Each of my twelve writers declares a project for the six-week workshop – revising a picture book manuscript, defining a book’s setting and world, developing a novel’s plotline, creating a synopsis, and has the opportunity to share his work and progress in a supportive environment.

Usually, I begin the workshop by reading aloud a children’s book certain to inspire, encourage, and like all children’s book, offer Hope.
Last year I read my students Holly Meade’s picture book If I Never Ever Endeavor.
Other years I’ve read Peter Reynolds’ The Dot, Ruth Krauss’ The Carrot Seed, William Steig’s Brave Irene.

This year, though, I realized it’s the 10^th year I’ve offered this workshop!  Revisiting the rosters of the last nine years, my teacher’s heart quickened:  so many of my students had
realized their writer's dreams!

So tonight, I will share my Students’ Success Stories and how it clearly wasn’t too late for them to become – a writer, an author, a reviewer, a blogger, a teacher, an MFA candidate, an MFA-degree holder, a writing community leader, proud, committed, professional, connected.

One of those students is author Natalie Ziarnik, whose interview appeared last week and whose debut picture book Madeleine’s Light: The Story of Camille Claudel you can still win if you enter our BookGiveaway by midnight tonight.  The clock is tick-tick-ticking away!

Speaking of which, remember: it's never too late!

Esther Hershenhorn


Writing Workout

 I encourage my writing students to begin an Author’s File and then commit to paper their story’s story spark, their vision for the project when published, a working biography, attempts at answering the questions they’re certain to be asked once published – i.e. Why do you write for children?  What’s your favorite children’s book?  When did you begin writing?

But what about their vision for themselves?

Here’s the writing assignment I’ll be sharing tonight:  visit www.futureme.org and write your future you an email!  Send along some words of inspiration, or as the website suggests, “a kick in the pants.”  The best part is: you can pick the day and year the email will be delivered to you in the future!  Just follow the website’s directions re choosing an email address.

    

Putting Away Childish Things

It's the last week of school in Frederick County.  Three more days until my baby is a kindergartner.  My daughter said yesterday, "This is how I transport myself back to my childhood" as she broke forth with the theme song to "Dora, the Explorer."  Then she laughed and said, "I know I'm sort of still in it.  But not really.  Because I'm growing up."  Oh, how she is.  And I have to confess, a part of me wishes we could remain in this golden moment of our (and their) lives forever.

From Madeleine L'Engle (courtesy of www.goodreads.com):
“I am still every age that I have been. Because I was once a child, I am always a child. Because I was once a searching adolescent, given to moods and ecstasies, these are still part of me, and always will be... This does not mean that I ought to be trapped or enclosed in any of these ages...the delayed adolescent, the childish adult, but that they are in me to be drawn on; to forget is a form of suicide... Far too many people misunderstand what *putting away childish things* means, and think that forgetting what it is like to think and feel and touch and smell and taste and see and hear like a three-year-old or a thirteen-year-old or a twenty-three-year-old means being grownup. When I'm with these people I, like the kids, feel that if this is what it means to be a grown-up, then I don't ever want to be one. Instead of which, if I can retain a child's awareness and joy, and *be* fifty-one, then I will really learn what it means to be grownup.”  


Whew!  That makes me feel a little better.

My husband plays in a community band, and we drove an hour yesterday to a local band festival.  I was listening to the (very good) group before his and found my elementary school band director playing first trombone.  I approached him afterward -- I'm sure he had no idea who I was -- and told him that he'd been my teacher thirty years ago.  He shook my kids' hands and encouraged them to take up instrumental music.  Then I saw his skin was thin, mottled, he used a walker -- he must be at least 85.  But he was there, his face the same, his ability to play undiminished.  I told him that I played my flute into adulthood, and that I'd met my husband because we were both playing in the church choir.  He was a wonderful teacher, and I was so grateful for the chance to tell him what an impact he had on my life.  All these years later, I can remember the metal band chairs, Philip Garrant on clarinet to my right, Marty Martin on sax behind me, the sweltering room, the chalkboard where Mr. Taylor taught us about time signatures and offbeats.  I'm quite sure I can still play his arrangements of "Rudolph" and the theme to "Star Wars." 

Because I'm an army brat, I don't have an old family home or neighborhood to go back to.  All of the people from my early childhood who are not related to me have essentially vanished.  I cherish the memories, but I can't describe how much it meant to see him again. -- Jeanne Marie

P.S. Don't forget -- there's still time to enter our picture book giveaway! Don't miss your chance to win an autographed copy of Natalie Ziarnik's debut picture book, Madeline's Light (Boyd's Mills Press). See Esther's Student Success Story Interview with Natalie for details. 

Writing Workout  

Here's an exercise that will need to be adjusted for each age group, but my college students had great fun with it.  As we discussed audience and purpose, I asked each to write:

1. A text to a friend describing a night at a party.
2. The speech given to a parent later that night explaining why the student had missed curfew.
3. The email sent to me explaining why the student would not be in class the next day.

We shared around the table and had some good laughs.  Have fun!

Poetry Friday, a Giveaway, a Writing Exercise and a Quote From California's Poet Laureate--how lucky can you get?!?

.

Howdy, Campers!

Yes, it really is National Flip A Coin Day!  Holidayinsights.com says:

This tradition dates back to Julius Caesar...[who] would take a coin and flip it to make decisions...The correct answer was "heads", which of course carried his image on the coin...Use this method of decision making...for everything you do today.

Today is also my day to share an inspirational quote that inspires my writing.  But which one--which ONE?!?  Oh, that's right...toss a coin! 

Actually, no.  No coin.  Because there are a gazillion quotes I love--my Quotations file is overflowing!  So here are two I want to share with you today because I love you deeply.  (Also, because I just had coffee.  The two feelings are related.)

This quote is from an interview with Caldecott winning illustrator and author, Marla Frazee:

"I set All the World in a place I love – the central coast region of Southern California – and populated it with people and things that I love. I stopped worrying that I wasn’t representing every place, every person, every possible experience. And I hoped that through this personal expression of mine, others would find their own personal meanings as well. I do believe this to be the over-arching philosophy behind most of the books I’ve fallen in love with over the years. The more personal and heartfelt the story is for the author and/or illustrator of the book, the more universal the emotion that can be gleaned from it. We see this again and again. But it’s hard to remember. It is so easy to go to a place of, “Well, that’s just about me. No one will care about that.” But actually, if it comes from a true place and is spoken from the heart, people do care. A lot."

Take a deep breath.  What a relief...right?

This next quote helped me after I emerged from my office and told my husband that I love-love-love slaving over (this is...writing) my daily poem...but then, what's the point?  Who cares?

I'm a native Californian, and poet Juan Felipe Herrera  (whose lyrical Calling the Doves/El Canto de Las Palomas changed my writing life and inspired me to write my first novel in poems) is our new Poet Laureate.  His quote in a recent Los Angeles Times article, helps me keep writing a poem a day:

"Amazing things can happen when you are just going for the poem, when it’s just pure.  You may be living on saltines, but you are giving all your life to this, and great things can happen."

(p.s: I like saltines)

WRITING WORKOUT

1) Write a poem about a coin toss.  Or write on a topic that's been niggling at you, asking for your full attention.

2) Think about what Marla said.  Make it yours--from a true place, from the heart.

2) Think about what Juan said.  Give your life to this and great things will happen.

*     *     *

And hark! There's still time to enter our picture book giveaway!  Don't miss your chance to win an autographed copy of Natalie Ziarnik's debut picture book, Madeline's Light (Boyd's Mills Press). See Esther's Student Success Story Interview with Natalie for details. 

Poetry Friday is at Carol's Corner today...thank you, Carol!