Goals for November — Week 1 results

Last Tuesday evening, the file that held both of my talks for the conference ate itself.  Bye bye!  I had hard copies but had already begun updating one of them.

What does this mean?

Other than print things out and/or have back ups?  It means that all I finished last week was the two talks.  I didn’t lose a whole lot of work but it was a bit frustrating so I took a break.

I came home from the conference really wanting to submit to both Greg Ferguson and Jennifer Mattson, two of our speakers.  Guess I better get writing!

Those of you who attended know what a great day it was.  I’ll be sharing a bit of information and some of my impressions this week as well as information on various upcoming Missouri events.

If there is anything in particular that you’d like to hear about, drop me a line.

I took e-mail addys from a number of you who wanted critique group information.  You’ll be hearing from me today.

–SueBE

How We Say What We Mean

Years ago, I heard Vashanti Rahaman speak at a Missouri SCBWI conference on bridging the cultural gap.  Vashanti grew up in the British West Indies but she was discussing bridging the gap between her semi-rural midwestern life and the experience of New York editors.

What in your life might seem odd to someone else?

Repeat after me: The big silver thing is an ICE BOX.

It wasn’t until I was in college that I realized how odd some of the phrases in my family vocabulary are.  Some of my favorites:

Ice box:  You know what it is.  A pre-electricity refrigerator.  But my grandmother used this term interchangeably with frig.  Every now and again it pops up in my own vocabulary.

Feeling puny:  When you are just generically under the weather you are puny.

Taking a Morgan Street:  This is what we called bathing in the bathroom sink or in a wash pan when you were camping.  For years I thought it was “morgan streak” as in nude running about.  Now I wonder if this is a boarding house phrase, for bathing in a rented room with only a pitcher and basin.

Finnegan’s Best — what my grandmother called cough syrup.   Finnegan was a local pharmacist who sold boot leg in cough syrup bottles.  Yes, my dear little granny knew where the speak easies were too.

Think about the odd turns of phrase in your own family.  Is there something you would have to explain to someone else?

–SueBE

PAL Membership

I hope everyone is having as much fun as I am poking around on the new SCBWI web site and connecting to friends from all over.

I am surprised though that so few Full Members have updated their membership to PAL.  I know where these writers have sold their work, so I know they qualify to be PAL members.

PAL means Published and Listed and is reserved for those full members with sales to listed publishers.  If you are planning to attend the Missouri Retreat this spring with Randi Rivers, you need to be listed as a PAL member.

Here is how to update your membership:

1.      After you go to www.scbwi.org, you first have to log in.

2.      On the left is a menu bar topped by the selection “My Home.”  Choose “Manage Profile.”

3.      You should now see a screen that starts with “Personal Information” (your name etc).  Scroll down the page until you get to “Professional Information.”  You will see a bold heading that says, “If you are published in the children’s literature market… ” Below that you will enter the title of your book or magazine piece.

4.      The next bold heading is “Name of publisher(please only select from one drop down).”  Go to the appropriate heading (magazine, name of publisher, etc) and select the name of your publisher from the pull down menu.  If your publisher is not listed, there is a place to enter it.

5.      When you have done this, click on “continue” to update your profile.

If you selected your publisher from a pull down menu, your status will be updated in less than an hour.  If you had to type it in, it will take longer as this is done by hand.

Let me know if you have any questions.

–SueBE

I Did It My Way . . .

When I give out writing advice, I’m telling you what worked for me.  Take my suggestions and customize them to suit your own personality and work style.

My son's snaggle-tooth jack-o-lantern cake.

I do this with everything but especially where my family and holidays are concerned.  My son had several friends coming over for Halloween but at the last minute no one could make it before dinner.  We had planned a from-scratch pumpkin cake but I knew the kids would want their candy.  I had already baked the cake, but why fight?  Instead, we planned a laid back Sunday complete with the final decorating and munching on said pumpkin.  More enjoyable all around.

So, you want to do NaNoWriMo.  But November?  You’re joking right?   Your English comp class is gearing up toward their final papers.   You’re the one hosting Thanksgiving for 35 relatives.  Sure — write a novel in November.  I dare you.  Or you could do it in December when you have a week off work.  Or maybe some time in the summer when you aren’ t teaching.  If another time would work better, get a group of like-minded writers together and do it your way.  It may very well be the change you need to succeed.

Your critique partner wrote her novel in 15 minutes a day.  Good for her!   But if it takes you 15 minutes to get the juices flowing and your daughter only naps for 25 minutes at a stretch, get your husband to give you an uninterupted hour every Saturday.  No, it isn’t as much as 15 minutes a day, but if it will work for you then why not go for it?

Have the guts to do it your way and you may find yourself enjoying cake on an off day and making some progress on your various writing goals.

–SueBE

Rewarding Yourself

Last week, I told another writer about my “Rejection Jar.”

Several people liked the idea and added that they would also put together a “Reward Jar” since they, like many writers, need to remember to reward themselves for meeting various goals.

Not a bad idea, but I have to admit that I’m pretty stinking good at rewarding myself.  The rewards I give myself look an awful lot like the little gifts I give myself when a rejection hits hard.

Eduardo, a 2008 crochet project

• I knit or crochet.
• I do a sudoku or a jigsaw puzzle.
• Depending on the weather, I get my son involved in a squirt gun fight or a snow ball fight.
• I crank the stereo while fixing dinner.
• I try out a new bread recipe.
• I visit the local labyrinth.
• I relax with a good cup of coffee and a spot of chocolate.

Why do my two lists look so much alike?   Probably because the things that I reward myself with are also the things that recharge me.  And especially after meeting a tough deadline, I need to recharge.

Thanks for reminding me how closely linked the two ideas are — reward and rejuvenate after a rejection.   So what do you need to remember to do for yourself?

–SueBE

Goals for November

Ok, I may be the only Lady of the Gordian’s Knot who prefers monthly to weekly goals but oh, well.  It gives me more wiggle room if an assignment comes through.  Here are my goals for November.

1. Fine tune talk for beginners and send handouts to college.
2. Fine tune talk on rewriting.
3. Submit Q&A interview
4. Submit the activities pitch that I’ve been gathering ideas for.
5. Rework and submit a Christmas essay.
6. Work on fish picture book.
7. Research and work on zoo picture book.
8. Research and work on geology picture book.
9. Research and work on astronomy picture book.
10. Rewrite — and I really mean it — the chapter book.

Projects 6 – 10 keep getting pushed aside for other things, but I really want to have them wrapped up by the end of the year.  I’m seriously considering looking for an agent and want to have several strong NEW manuscripts ready to go.

With my husband home recuperating for one more week, work will be hit and miss but the first two things on the list must be done!  I’ll report on my progress next Monday.

–SueBE

Keep things in perspective

You know how it is.

Some days seem overwhelming.   You misunderstood your editor’s instructions and botched a job.   An assignment fell through. Your book is going OP.   The computer ate your draft.

One day last week, my editor, Susan, must have detected a note of frantic in my voice.  She sent me the following quote:

“All will be well and all manner of things shall be well.”

It sounded familiar, so I went on a hunt.  It is a reference to Julian of Norwich, who said, “All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well.”   She wrote this after she had a vision that God was holding the world, the size of a hazelnut, in His hand.

Right now, it is easy to worry.  The economy may be rebounding for someone somewhere, but I haven’t noticed.   Swine flu has the media on a rampage and people in fear.    I’ve spoken to a lot of people this week who are on the edge.   Who knows what else is around the corner?

Repeat after me.

“All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well.”

Really.

“All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well.”

Focus outward.

“All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well.”

–SueBE

Memory Triggers

"I've got this song stuck in my head!"

Whenever you read about using memory triggers in your writing, the author mentions smell and taste.  There’s no doubt about it.  Whenever I smell rose cologne I take a deep breath and relax.  That’s what my grandmother always wore.  Bread baking makes me smile.  My mother made homemade rolls for special occasions.

But music and songs really stick in our heads.  This weekend, my husband and I spent half an hour singing jingles for our son.  Oscar Meyer.  Armor hot dogs.  Alka Seltzer.  Chiquita Banana.  Almond Joy.  Klondike Bar.  We watch very little tv, and what we watch we tape to avoid the commercials, so I know these are OLD jingles.  Old.  But we remember them.

And have you ever gotten a song stuck in your head?  Maybe not even any of the words but just the melody.  My son sat in the hall while I was in choir rehearsal Sunday.  Later in the day, he walked by humming a few bars from Sunday’s anthem.  ”I think we sang it in choir last year,” he said, referring to his school choir.  Nope.  He’d only heard it a few times that day, but it stuck.

All of this said, I’m not sure how to use music in my work.  Sure, I get a few bars here and there stuck in my head.  I can even remember songs that I learned in Girl Scouts 30 years ago.  But I can’t write the melody into a story.

So far, its just something to hum, and noodle over, as I go through my day.

–SueBE

Working from Home

There is no doubt about it.  I am blessed in that I get to work from home.

No office attire.  No office politics.  No wondering who ate my lunch, took my liquid paper or ran up the long distance calls on my extension.

But there are also costs to working from home.  Sick kids, snow days and spouses recovering from surgery.  No one else is going to take the day off when you’re already there.

You also have to be prepared to say NO or be everyone’s emergency baby sitter and listening ear when they just want to chatter non-stop. You are simply way too easy to find.

But you will also find some surprises.  With my husband here this week, I was surprised to realize that my productivity has not dropped noticeably, not even Monday when we watched an episode of Smallville after lunch.

How can this be?  I know he’s not sneaking around doing my work.  I am doing a bit less housework although just what will go unnamed in case no one else has noticed.  And I haven’t had to do any interviews for my various articles-in-progress this week.  These interviews are very time-consuming.  I think that part of the reason that my productivity has not dropped is that when I work, I am working harder.  I have things to get done and I also want to spend time with my husband in addition to helping him with the various things he can’t do on his own.

Obviously, next week I might want to pay a bit more attention to how I spend my day.  It may yield some interesting, and productive, results.

–SueBE

No No NaNo

As a writer who blogs, I felt like I was breaking a sacred covenant by keeping silent while the writing world gears up for NaNoWriMo.  Why write about it?  I’m not doing it this year.

I tried it last year so I do know what I’m missing.  That’s not the problem. NaNoWriMo works really well for some people.  I know writers who swear by it.  Not me, I swear at it.

I am an immensely goal oriented person.  If I set a goal, I will do my utmost to meet it.  So if I commit to NaNoWriMo, I’ll work at it really hard.  But I already have a ton of writing to do including taking some projects I already started to final.

Hmm.  Rough out yet another one or take something to final?  For me, the answer seems pretty obvious.

If somewhere deep inside, you know NaNoWriMo is just not the path you need to take, then don’t.  Write what you need to write. Write what will move your craft forward.  It really is that simple.

–SueBE