Gold Stars

My daughter and I recently participated in a 5K fundraiser at her school.  I was worried that I might need a cattle prod to coax her to the finish line, so I was very proud of her for achieving consistent forward motion at a reasonable pace.  At the finish line, Kate's best friend (who, at barely 6, ran every step of the race!) netted a ribbon, a medal, and a trophy.  Kate, meanwhile, had nothing but the pride of accomplishment.  This was not nearly enough, I discovered, as she burst into pitiful tears.  When I told her she'd done a good job, she sobbed, "No, I didn't!  If I didn't get anything, I didn't do a good job!"

Many parents I know bemoan the everyone-gets-a-trophy school of childrearing that seems so prevalent these days.  I hate it, too.  But the truth is -- I always liked my gold stars and worked hard to earn them.  I do get it.

Carmela's marvelous post on writing buddies also made mention of gold stars.  As writers, most of us must work hard at devising self-motivation strategies to get through the long and lonely slogging of getting and revising and re-revising a draft.  As teachers, we also expend endless energy on developing strategies to motivate our students to be interested, engaged, and -- dare we hope? -- enthusiastic.  My college-age students STILL find an occasional chocolate reward to be excellent incentive.

To this end, our local library has a summer reading incentive program, and this is the first year my daughter has been old enough to participate.   Read a certain number of minutes, visit the library enough times, and you get a prize, or two, or three.  I have to confess to mixed feelings about this.  Shouldn't we want to read for the sheer pleasure of the experience?  On the other hand... perhaps encouraging reading will result in a love that grows irrespective of the prize but might never have developed without it. 

How do you teachers feel about these types of rewards?  Do they seem to work over the long term? 
Ironically, I find that the reward I most love to give myself at the end of a long workday (besides a nice, tall margarita) is some time in bed with a good book.  Off to pour myself a margarita right now...  And tonight I am reading Uma Krishnaswami's latest after our fab library trip today -- it is so, so good!

Showing Up: Trying A Triolet

Our younger son came home for the summer from his first year of college and started a new job the next day. He had to report at 7 a.m., not easy for someone who learned in his first semester to schedule his second semester classes later in the day so he could sleep in. As I saw him out the door on his first day on the job, a line came into my head: Showing up is half the battle.

Of course, that saying applies to writing or any other kind of work, too. I was thinking about showing up at the page when I wrote this poem. I had been meaning to try the triolet form with its repeating lines, and the message seemed a good opportunity. So I thought about the form and the language during a long car ride. I forgot my rhyming dictionary, so my sister Judy tossed out rhyme after rhyme as she drove.

When looming tasks accumulate,
showing up is half the battle.
Tempted to procrastinate
when looming tasks accumulate?
Whatever you anticipate,
hoist yourself back in the saddle.
When looming tasks accumulate,
showing up is half the battle.

I worked on it again this morning when the old poem I thought I would post today turned out to be not nearly as well written as I’d remembered. (Ha! Surprise!)

I’m still not satisfied with this one. “Looming tasks” is vague. The tone is uneven, with some lines sounding more formal and others—especially line six—more casual. (I also thought of “Jump in your canoe and paddle,” but that seemed even worse! Plus I liked the connotation of climbing back on the horse, which seemed to fit better with the battle theme.) The unstressed syllables at the end of line six and the beginning of line seven throw the rhythm off.

But I learned from the attempt. First, the repeating lines have to carry a lot of weight, so they’d better be worth repeating. Second, “accumulate” is a long word to use in rhyming lines. If I were to start this poem over, I’d look for shorter rhyming words for lines one, three, and five.

I may keep revising this poem. I may also chalk it up to practice and attempt another form that’s new to me. Give it a try and see what you discover!

Writing Workout: Write a Triolet

From The Book of Forms: A Handbook of Poetics by Lewis Turco: The triolet “is built on two refrains: line one reappears complete as line four and again as line seven; line two reappears as line eight, completing the poem. The triolet rhymes ABaAabAB. [Note: Capital letters indicate repeated lines.] Lines may be of any length.”

Kathleene West gives this advice on writing a triolet in An Exaltation of Forms: Contemporary Poets Celebrate the Diversity of Their Art, edited by Annie Finch and Kathrine Varnes: “I find it’s best to be as specific and as nongeneric as possible, avoiding abstractions at all costs. . . . It’s also a good idea to avoid a complete reliance on end-stopped lines.”

More information about writing a triolet is available on Poets.org.

Today's Poetry Friday Roundup is at the Writer's Armchair. 

JoAnn Early Macken

Staying Motivated: My Buddy and Me

After recently celebrating our Second Blogiversary, I asked readers to submit questions they would like us to address. In response, Sue Ekins posted this comment:

"I have trouble motivating myself to write. How do you do that, especially when you are (or were) working a day job?"

I've struggled with this same issue even though, technically, I don't have a "day job" because I only teach part-time. As one of my students likes to say, "writing is hard." And some projects are more challenging than others. A few months ago, I shared a bit about my difficulties finishing a historical young adult novel that required a great deal of research. I'd tried to motivate myself in a variety of ways with mixed success. Then in January my co-blogger April Halprin Wayland posted about how she is inspired by her "tribes(s)," and she shared a brilliant Writing Workout. Here it is again:

April's Writing Workout: Working with Someone in your Tribe

1. Grab a buddy from your writing tribe.
2. Both of you write three commitments for the coming week. Don't set yourself up to fail. Don't commit to writing a novel in a week. Start out easy and see what you can realistically accomplish in seven days.
3. Set a deadline.
4. Select a "salary" you will pay yourself. The important thing is to pay yourself every week whether you've completed all three commitments or not. Don't business execs get paid even when they've had an unproductive week? It happens. This is not about whipping yourself. This is encouraging yourself. Put the whip away and take the paycheck.
5. Read your commitments to each other.
6. Check in with each other at the end of the week.

After reading April's post, I solicited a member of my critique group, Leanne Pankuch, to be my Writing Buddy. Unlike me, Leanne has a full-time "day job," so she has to be creative when it comes to finding writing time. Leanne and I followed April's guidelines with one minor modification to step 5: instead of reading our commitments to each other, we email them at the beginning of the week. In that email, we also set a time to connect by phone the following weekend.

I found it very motivating to put my goals in writing and to know I'd have to be accountable to someone at the end of the week. I didn't want to disappoint Leanne by not living up to my goals. That is precisely what I'd hoped would happen. But the rewards didn't end there. April's strategy also taught me how to set realistic goals that truly motivate me. For example, this was my first week's Commitment to Me:

1. Spend at least 6 hours revising my young adult novel—this includes thinking and planning time, but not research time.
2. Get to bed by 10:30 pm at least 3 nights so that I can get up early and focus on my writing before being distracted by other things.
3. Consistently log how I spend my “work” time.

While making this first commitment to myself was helpful, I wasn't as productive as I'd hoped that week. After discussing the results with my Writing Buddy during our check-in, I modified my goals for the following week to include one that read:

1. Add at least 500 words/day on at least 3 days for a total of 1500 additional words. (Current word count is: 61,022.)  

For me, a specific word count goal was much more motivating than a time-oriented goal. When Friday afternoon rolled around and I hadn't reached my word count, I resolved to get up early on Saturday to accomplish it before my check-in with Leanne. And I succeeded!

Another surprising plus: our weekly phone conversation ended up being more than simply a time to report on our progress. Leanne and I also talked about our process. We shared not only the day-to-day challenges that threatened to derail our writing goals, but also the difficulties we faced with the writing itself. Talking through my plot and character dilemmas with Leanne led me to finding solutions to those problems.

Partway through drafting this post, it occurred to me to ask Leanne how having a Writing Buddy has influenced her. Below is what she wrote. (Keep in mind, she had no idea what I'd already written about our relationship.)

My Writing Buddy and What She Does for Me

Carmela isn't judgmental.  She isn't cruel.  She also isn't a cheerleader and she doesn't give gold stars.  She is my equal--my colleague.  She encourages me to choose realistic and attainable goals and I--quite simply--don't ever want to tell her that I couldn't accomplish goals that were definitely within my reach.  For example, if I set a goal that I will add 1000 words a day to my new novel--that would be a very unrealistic goal and, consequently, I would have plenty of legitimate reasons for missing my total.  However, if I think about my week--as Carmela tells me to do--and figure out how much quality time I can realistically make for writing, I might set a goal of 1000 words for the entire week and then add a couple of supporting goals and  "voila!" there is no reason why I can't make all three goals.  So, I write on the train/bus rides during my commute from Aurora to Chicago and back, and I write during my lunch hour, . . . . And when I write, 20 words at a time, 30 words, 10 words, then I can make my goals.

And, if the week is winding down and I still haven't made my goal, then I'll sometimes even--gasp!--leave the shirts at the cleaners, tell my husband to make us some cream of wheat for dinner, leave the dishes for tomorrow and knock out those last few hundred words--Just so I can tell Carmela I made it!

Having a Writing Buddy is like the push you need from your friend to get your toboggan going down the hill. It makes the ride so much better.  It's so good you're willing to climb back up the hill--legs burning--and let her push you again.

Thanks, Leanne, for sharing your side of the story, and for being my Writing Buddy!

With the extra "push" Leanne provided as my Writing Buddy, I finally finished the draft of my historical young adult novel on May 23! Hurray! Of course, the work doesn't stop there. Leanne and I and two other writers have exchanged copies of our completed manuscripts. Later this month, the four of us will get together for a self-directed whole novel critique session.

Meanwhile, Leanne and I continue to set goals and check in with each other on a weekly basis. I am SO grateful to Leanne for agreeing to be my buddy, and to April Halprin Wayland for sharing her Writing Workout with us. I think EVERY writer could benefit from having a Writing Buddy. If you need help choosing yours, see the Writing Workout below.

Blogosphere Buzz

• Today kicks off a new feature in the Kidlitosphere: "Interview Wednesday." If you have a link to a Kidlit-related interview, or you enjoy reading or watching such interviews, visit today's post at Tina Nichols Coury's blog.
• Speaking of Kidlitosphere round-ups, the May Carnival of Children's Literature is posted at the Playing by the Book blog.
• It's not too late to sign up to participate in this year's 48-Hour Book Challenge being held this weekend, June 3-5, at the MotherReader blog. After watching from the sidelines for two years, I've actually signed up to participate. I'll be posting my reading log on my website blog.

Writing Workout:

Choosing a Writing Buddy

Here are some things to consider when choosing your Writing Buddy:

• Would the person you have in mind be willing and able to make a serious commitment to April's 6-step approach listed above (or something similar to it)?
• Would you be comfortable sharing your writing struggles with this person?
• Would you enjoy chatting with this person once a week, or every other week, about your writing progress?
• Would being accountable to this person help motivate you, either because you wouldn't want to disappoint her or him, or because you'd be embarrassed to fail in front of this person?
• On the flip side, would this person be understanding and encouraging even if you didn't achieve your goals, for whatever reason?

If, like me, you're lucky enough to be part of a critique group, I suggest you look for your Writing Buddy among your critique group members. If you're not part of a critique group, are you part of any writing organizations, such as SCBWI, where you might find a compatible buddy? Still no prospects? Consider friends who may need motivation sticking with creative goals in areas other than writing, such as illustrating, knitting, cooking, etc.

I encourage you to read April's original blog post on the topic. Then, if the idea of having a Writing Buddy appeals to you, give yourself a goal of finding one in the next week or so, and report back in the comments below.

Good luck and happy writing!
Carmela

For Our Faithful Followers. . .

    Yes, it's Memorial Day. I am not going to open a political can of worms by telling you how to spend your day (although "holiday" and "celebrate" never seemed appropriate words to use in connection with a day originally called "Decoration Day"...a day the families of Union soldiers "decorated" their graves.) Somehow along the way, Decoration Day became Memorial Day and Memorial Day became the unofficial first day of summer.
  
     I am choosing to honor the unofficial start of summer by frying myself at the beach. And being a writer of historical fiction, I am contemplating those who have served our country in the military, past and present.

However you feel about a particular war or "conflict" (Neither Korea or Vietnam was ever officially designated a war, to say nothing of whatever you call the current action in the Middle East), the important thing for a writer is to not allow the world to forget the men and women who believed in sacrificing their own dreams and lives in service to their country.

    I am from the generation whose parents were in WWII. "What did your father do in the war?" was a question we kids asked as a matter of course. My parents were Navy cryptographers. My father-in-law, a Naval commander had not one, but two boats sunk from under him in the Pacific. My first boyfriend's father was in the infantry invasion of Italy. One of my distant relatives who had lied about his age to get into the service, died at D-Day, age fifteen. I had brothers who fought brothers during the  Civil War.
            (This is my mom the WAVE, home on leave. Note service flag in window. The five stars were for my mother, her three brothers, and a young man who boarded with my grandmother.)

 So today, as you are sizzling up those cheeseburgers or trying to find a place to park your towel at the beach, remember.  It's not our personal politics that matter, but those of our ancestors. We should honor their choice. Memorial Day...a day of memory.

Posted by Mary Ann Rodman

Really? Do we have to talk about revision AGAIN? Happy Poetry Friday!--now rewrite that poem...

This week's Poetry Friday is hosted by the delicious poet
Heidi Mordhorst over at My Juicy Little Universe

So...rewriting.  Can't we just skip it?  Can't we just write something brilliant and then jump to that thick-carpeted Hollywood office where we're signing the movie contract based on our book?

I've been feeling discouraged this week, so here's a poem about my work-in-progress, another novel-in-poems which I'd hoped would be finished when I turned in the April 14th draft in my novel writing class.

Finished?  Heaven's no!  Now that I have notes on this draft, I'm messing with it again.  My book clearly needs a little more curry or cumin or molasses or heaven-knows-what.  *Sigh*  

NOVEL THOUGHT
by April Halprin Wayland

I'm walking quickly on this path

I edit words I see are chaff

I'm making characters three-dimensional

I've integrated the high school staff

(the stereotypes were unintentional)

I've cut the zoo scene and giraffe

though it was beautifully unconventional

I'm trying not to be inflexible—

and keeping it was indefensible

(though parts of it were quite exceptional)

If only I can reach that raft

and climb aboard, untie the rope—

I'll sail off with the final draft...

at least I hope!
x

2011 April Halprin Wayland, all rights reserved 

My novel writing teacher's shorthand for "I like this part" is a check mark at the end of the line or sentence.  It's an effective and easy way to compliment someone.  No need to put a smiley face or write, "nice"--just a simple check mark and move on.  It also allows the person who is critiquing the book to keep reading...to stay in the flow of the book while still commenting on it along the way.x

.

When my eight fellow classmates and my instructor had read my novel, I lugged the manuscripts home and read everyone's notes. Then I tossed the notes that were complimentary, the ones with lots of check marks and comments about how fabulous the book was. 
x
I mean, yes, yes--thank you, glad you like it--SO DO I--that's why I WROTE it, I want to say.  Let's get to the meat, the real nitty gritty, the stuff you couldn't stand, the poems that should be cut.  Isn't that why we're here?

But I was feeling pretty low.  So I reached into the recycling box and took out a handful of the compliments--the ones I'd so blithely dismissed.  I read them slowly.  I tried to keep my getting-ready-to-be-defensive voice from yelling back at them.  I just. Let them. Like. My words.

WRITING WORKOUT: What to do with the compliments

So what's your writing workout today? Simply this: Listen to the good stuff, too.

One TeachingAuthor's SHOUT-OUT!

Listen up, readers!

Today I shout THANKS! to those writers I taught and/or coached and/or read and took heart from who helped me survive an especially gray, cold and wet Chicago Spring. Their words and their Good News, whether emailed, snail-mailed, SKYPED or phoned in, helped me stay aloft these past three months.

How nice that in exclaiming my appreciation for these writers’ updates and continued connections, I’m also establishing a new TeachingAuthors feature - THE SHOUT-OUT!, with the accompanying chosen image, the megaphone.

So,
I sincerely thank (in no special order):

• Laura Murray

Putnam finally released this Florida writer’s long-awaited first picture book, THE GINGERBREAD MAN LOOSE IN SCHOOL. Laura and I first met at the 2006 LA SCBWI Conference. She worked oh, so hard, revising and readying for quick purchase this original take on a much-loved story.

• Steve Layne

Illustrator Ard Hoyt is already at work on Steve’s next  picture book, STAY WITH SISTER (Pelican Press, '12). Steve wrote the manuscript – a follow-up to LOVE THE BABY and SHARE WITH BROTHER, in my 2010 Fall Newberry Library Picture Book Workshop.

• Three soon--to-be-MFA-degreed writers – Ellen Reagan of Deerfield, IL, Helen Kemp Zax of Washington, D.C. and Chicagoan China Hill.
Ellen and Helen are off to Vermont College this July; China begins her coursework at Columbia College this Fall. It was an honor to recommend all. I know when each is published, I'll say, "I told you so!”

• Ricky Mickiewicz

A Chicago writer and illustrator, Ricky finally gathered the courage to ready his picture book

WORMEE  THE WORM for self-publication this June. WORMEE first showed his head and rings long
ago in a Newberry Library Workshop, long before graphic novels and ePublishing became the rage.

• Deanie Yasner
A newly-declared and mighty talented children’s book writer, Deanie bravely applied for and won a full
scholarship to Highlights upcoming Chautauqua. Her first-ever picture book submission brought a
response in less than 24 hours!

• My River Grove Elementary School Young Writers
During my four-day visit to River Grove, Illinois’ River Grove Elementary School this Spring, the school’s eager Young Writers in grades 1 through 5, supported by a caring faculty and literacy teacher Mary 
Chamberlain, wrote and illustrated R IS FOR RIVER GROVE ELEMENTARY: A ROYAL ALPHABET.

• Marge Facklam and Peggy Thomas

This award-winning Mother-Daughter Combo wrote their nonfiction hearts out in ANATOMY OF NONFICTION: WRITING TRUE STORIES FOR CHILDREN, published this month by the Institute of Children’s Literature. Marge lovingly served as one of my earliest mentors. I often share her Vassar Children’s Book Publishing opening remarks with my students: “In another life time, we children’s book writers were playmates.”

• Cheryl Klein

Cheryl’s SECOND SIGHT, a compilation of her insightful, manuscript-changing and writer-changing talks on writing, revising and publishing books for children and young adults, is now finally again in stock. I’m busily ear-marking pages and underlining passages to share with my writers of all ages.

• Holly Meade

Holly’s beautiful wood-cut illustrated picture book IF I NEVER FOREVER ENDEAVOR  

(Candlewick Press) hit the shelves this month too. The front flap copy describes the book as a “gentle

nudge for hesitant fledglings – of all ages and species – to step out, to dare, and to try. Who knows? If

you try, you might…fly!”

So, again, I shout out my THANKS! to those writers who shared their words and their Good News these past three months. You kept me flying, no matter the weather.

Happy flying to all!

Esther Hershenhorn

Book Club Bits

My neighborhood book club may keep our local winery in business, but we do a pretty good job on the reading front, too.  This fine group of ladies even inspired me to write start a Mother-Daughter Book Club book (too bad, though I started writing eons ago, someone beat me to the finished product).  I have several friends who started mother-daughter book clubs in real life, and I'm itching for the day my daughter is old enough for me (or, preferably, one of her friends' mom) to do the same. 

What about boys, though?  How come they always seem to be left out?  I was standing at the starting line of my daughter's school's 5K this weekend, having an awesome conversation with a neighbor's son about Rick Riordan and 13 Reasons Why, which was our (grown-up) selection this month, but which he read and discussed with great insight.

At any rate, this post is really about my husband, who teaches reading at a middle school.  Because of "specials" (band, etc.), the school has a one-period, no-credit class called CORE.  For next year, the prinicpal decided that CORE should involve a school-wide book club.  My husband is on the planning committe and was asking me for book recommendations with curricular tie-ins.  He was especially interested in multicultural books and books that dealt with issues of social justice (hello, Yankee Girl).   Because students rotate through the class, his school is thinking of buying kindles to increase interest and make it feel "cool" and different.  I'm putting this out there to the whole teaching community and piggybacking on Mary Ann's fabulous Summer Reading post.  What else would you do to make this experience a memorable one for the kids? 

Fostering group reading obviously brings a whole new dimension to a process that is typically thought of as a solitary experience.  As we look at social networking and sites like shelfari, interactive texts like the Amanda Project and yes, good old-fashioned book clubs... reading is more than what happens under the covers with a flashlight after bedtime.

The other night, I lay in bed beside my daughter, each of us reading a book -- hers, Marvin Redpost (thank you, Louis Sachar!) was the first book she ever decided she couldn't put down.  Deeply moved by the parallel experience, I said to her, "I love you so much.  Can you stay this age forever?"  She said, "No.  But I'll love you this much when I'm seventeen.  Maybe more."

Isn't writing for kids the best?

Tulip Insurance

In spite of winterlike Wisconsin weather that has overstayed its welcome, we've been rewarded with plenty of spring flowers. In our tiny yard, I've planted my favorite Angelique tulips (on the right in this picture) in various spots, and some of them are blooming right now.



This year (again), rabbits (or maybe squirrels) ate all the flower buds in one patch and left me the empty stalks. Here's a poem I wrote one year after a fierce thunderstorm wiped out a whole flower bed full.

Aftermath

The storm that filled the birdbath
broke the tulips.
Their delicate pink frills were
never meant to bear the weight of
all that water crushing down.
If we had watched by lightning flare,
we might have seen them filled to overflowing,
dumping cupful after cupful
into sodden flower beds,
lashed by roughneck wind
until they snapped.
Like fragile crystal goblets
at a brawl for hooligans,
they never were intended for that rowdy scene.
The storm that filled the birdbath—
the brute that crashed the party—
smashed the stemware,
littering the lawn with ruffled shards.

Because our springs can be chilly, unpredictable, stormy, and subject to hungry predators, I've learned to back up my favorite flowers by planting them in more than one place. Each year, at least a few of them survive to thrill me with my favorite pink blossoms.

Today's Poetry Friday roundup is at The Drift Record.

JoAnn Early Macken

Looking Ahead, Blogosphere Buzz, and our Blogiversary Contest Winners!

A HUGE thank you to all those who entered our Second Blogiversary Critique Giveaway Contest, and a special welcome to all our new followers!

Before I share the winners' names, I have a question for you, our readers. As we look ahead to our next year of blogging, we're wondering what topics or questions you might have for us. Do you have a burning (or maybe just "nagging") question related to writing or to teaching writing? Or some writing-related topic you'd like us to address? If so, we encourage you to either post your question in the comments below or use the "Ask the TeachingAuthors"  link in our sidebar to send it via email. (If you're sending an email, please be sure to include the words "Teaching Authors Question" in the subject.)

By the way: if you're an email subscriber and you haven't visited the blog lately, I encourage you to stop by and check out some of the new links in our sidebar. I've been adding to the sections "Websites of Note," "General Children's/YA Lit Blogs," and "Author/Illustrator Blogs." I've also updated the pages "About Us," "Markets for Young Writers," "Resources for Teachers," and "Workshops/Visits." And if you'd like to see if we've already addressed a topic you're interested in, see the "Subject Index of Most Popular Topics" near the bottom of the sidebar.

And now here are the names of our two critique winners:

• Susan Kaye Quinn, who requested a novel critique, and
• Katie Cullinan, who requested a critique of a fiction picture book

Congratulations, Ladies!

If you didn't win, don't despair--see the Blogosphere Buzz below for a link to a contest where you can win a manuscript critique from publisher Elizabeth Law!

Now for some Blogosphere Buzz:

• If your burning question (see above) has to do with the current market trends in children's literature, instead of asking us, read this post by author/agent Mandy Hubbard. Here's an exerpt: "editors are really short on MG and feel this market is primed to boom in the way YA has."
• Would you like a chance to win a 30-page manuscript critique from Egmont publisher Elizabeth Law? Then head over to the Cynsations blog! And while you're there, be sure to read Cynthia's great interview with Elizabeth and author Allen Zadoff.
• I recently stumbled upon the YA Historical Fiction Challenge over at the YA Bliss blog. If you enjoy reading middle-grade and YA historicals, check it out.
• Speaking of challenges, the annual 48-Hour Book Challenge hosted at the MotherReader blog will be here June 3-5. Sign up is already open.
• Congratulations to all the SCBWI Crystal Kite Winners! Beginning this week the SCBWI market blog is featuring a series of interviews with all the winners. Today's interview happens to be with my friend and fellow VC grad, Ann Angel, author of Janis Joplin: Rise Up Singing. Hurray, Ann!

Happy writing!
Carmela