Fade to Black

Last year, when I returned home from the Society of Children Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) Winter Conference, I felt compelled to sit down with my manuscript and rewrite it. And I did. Twice. From two different points of view.  It took me a year, but I think it is a much better manuscript, and I owe that to what I learned at the conference. This year, I don’t feel the urge to rewrite (thankfully), but I do feel the need to focus my writing efforts. And I suspect that if I manage to pull off the final polish of my manuscript and, gasp, actually send it out, I will owe that feat to SCBWI conference as well.

Sara Zarr, one of the keynote speakers and author of Once was Lost, devoted her talk to “Taking Care of Your Creative Life” and it resonated with me. One of the things she talked about was time management and she threw in funny bits about Twitter, Blogs, and Facebook and how they can creep in and take over your creative time if you let it. Boy-oh-boy is she right! Sometimes it is easier to read about what we need to do in our manuscript than to actually sit down and do it. It gives us a false sense of working.

When I first started this blog my concern with having one at all was that it would take away from my “real” writing and frankly, it has. I find that instead of working on the scene where I need to set the stakes for my main character, I’m freaking out about what I’m going to write here. I draft posts, never to see the light of day, and I spend time thinking about appropriate topics for a new person in the business to write about. While I’ve been writing, learning, marketing, and have self-published, I still don’t feel like I have enough to say – I’m an authority on being green and who wants to read that? And while it is good to write and good to set deadlines, I need to be using my limited time wisely. So I’m going to fade to black for a bit and come back when I have finished what I started. I believe in my manuscript and I need to take that final step.

So, off I go to write. If there is anyone out there reading, be well.

Image via Wikipedia

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Retreat, Regroup, Refresh

Sunrise at the Cabin

After last week’s post (despairing of invaded writing space), I decided to pack up my materials, some food, a shovel, and head for the hills for the weekend so I could write, undisturbed. No dogs nudging my hands off the keyboard for attention. No children running amok with Nerf guns, having battles in the living room, and hitting me in the head with foam bullets. No husband stopping by my desk to chat about the latest and greatest tool for wood-working that he just read about in Wood magazine. Nope, just me, my stuff, and the snowed-in cabin. Very Ernest Hemingway. Minus the beard, the pipe, and, well, you know, the shenanigans.

It was pretty darn quiet.

But I got so much done! It was great. I didn’t get a whole lot of creative writing done, per se, but I think what I did do, was just as important: I de-cluttered and got organized.

I have a binder where I store all the information relating to my story. At first, it was a file folder. But as the story morphed from a picture book format into a novel format, it became apparent that I needed something bigger. So I got the “Big Binder” as I refer to it as (not very creative, I know, but it works). I initially put my information in to it and loosely organized it. Big mistake. I should have spent time upfront organizing because I’ve wasted a lot of time since trying to find things I know I’ve already researched.  So this weekend I sifted through all the paper, discarded the unnecessary items, categorized what remained, and put it back under proper headings with proper dividers. So much better. Everything I need is at the flick of a sturdy, colorful divider tab. Divine.

The best thing about getting all this information sorted is that I now feel like I have a handle on the complexities of my story. I don’t have to remember who’s wearing what, whether or not I fully researched something, etc. By getting everything in its place and out of my brain, I can refocus on writing. I know that sounds so simple, but sometimes, it is the simple things that matter most.

 

Turn that Page!

Image via Wikipedia

I’m in the final stages of writing my first novel for middle grade readers.  It’s written.  Now I’m fussing over it as the editor brain takes over my writer brain and obsesses over plot lines, grammar, and that simmering question of whether or not it “works.”  It’s taken me three and a half years to get to this point, loads of rewrites, and lots of research.  Part of what I research is pertinent to my story, part of it is on the writing craft itself.  I’m now in the midst of making sure that my story is a page turner.  After all, writing for 8-to-12 year olds and competing with television, XBox, Wii, and the DSi is tough.  I know.  I have a 10-year-old.  Sometimes it feels like I’m living with a gnat instead.

But I digress.

I’ve been reading a variety of articles and blogs on the subject – Writer’s Digest did a good piece on it earlier this year:  How to Make Your Novel a Page Turner.  The article is chock-a-block full of ideas, but I am still struggling (okay, obsessing) with making sure my manuscript keeps moving.

So here’s what I’m doing now:  I’ve printed out the manuscript and on the top of each page, I summarize into one sentence what I think is happening on that page.  If nothing is happening to move the story along or it seems disjointed in some way, I rework it.  If too much is happening, I smooth it out.  I find this helps to tighten up the plot and roots out boring bits.

Image by Pratham Books via Flickr

We’ll see if my little method works.  I’m sending my manuscript off to a swarm gnats (a few 10 and 11 year-old test readers) in a couple of weeks.  If it gets their approval, then the next leg of the journey begins.  If not, then back to the drawing board.  If I can get those readers as engrossed as these children (see photo), I’ll be happy.