Dreams & Ice Cream

Maupin House

Last week a member of my SCBWI critique group sent out an email, wondering how to deal with the stress of submissions. I wrote her a (probably-too-long, from-the-heart) response.

Another member chimed in after me.

The head of our group, Carol Baldwin, asked for permission to share our group support experience, word for word, with the world.

Chasing Your Dream--With a Little Help from Your Writing Buddies and Ice Cream 

 

Please stop by and drop us a comment over on Carol's site. 

 

About Carol:

 

Dauntless leader of the Charlotte SCBWI critique group, at-large member of the Women's National Book Association Charlotte board, writing teacher, and great friend to all aspiring authors...

 

 

 

Since I was a child I have loved reading and have maintained a journal off and on for more than 30 years. My book, Teaching the Story: Fiction Writing in Grades 4-8 (Maupin House, 2007) reflects these twin passions of reading and writing. "If you want to write, read!"

The Writer's Roller Coaster

Coney Island Cyclone

I'm fresh off the roller coaster that was the SCBWI Carolinas conference. I have a few things to say.

1) Go to a conference near you and make some good friends.

2) Participate, even when it hurts.

3) Listen to what the experts are really saying.

4) Don't drink the coffee.


So, here's the correlating WHY:

1) A writer needs friends in this process. Online friends are good. Real live, huggable, hand-holding ones are better. I can't imagine how I did without the support before. And each time I attend a conference, the bonds get stronger.

• After you get a critique - good or bad - you need to share. Immediately.
• When you have one great AND one not so great review, then you need help to focus on the good again. Immediately.
• Friends are great for reminding (gently, and much later) that you should not forget the bad either, because that is how you get better. You know what I mean?

2) Participation is hard. It's easier to just sit and absorb. If you want to get the most out of the conference, even at the risk of melting away in your seat under the laser beam eyes of the expert, do it.

•  After you recover from the meltdown, you end up asking yourself the hard questions.
•  Hard questions make your writing more focused - as in, the very next day epiphany focused. (This was a plot workshop. My plot was fine, but leaning toward average at the end. Now it will be awesome.)
• Friends are very helpful with the meltdown situation. (ref: point 1, above)

3) If you are lucky enough to have your work reviewed (in front of hundreds of people), your ears will ring. Between thudding heart beats, you will try to listen very carefully, but you will only hear half of what the experts say.

It's good to have friends listening to the criticism at the same time. You can always review the feedback with them later. (ref: point 1, above)

A couple of my friends got picked. One of them focused on the negative comments. Weeding out the harsh to find the seed of goodness is hard. I haven't spoken much to the other yet, but she's stronger than me, so I'm not worried.

Then mine was read.

Gasp! The last few pieces scored editor comments like: "Annoying." or  "Irritating." or "Too many like this." My sample was from the second round of revisions from my NaNoWriMo project. There was no way to magically remove my submission.

"There's nothing wrong with the writing," says one editor. "Want something more special to start."
I'm thinking: That's a Meh! response, but I'll take it after the comments the last few people got. It is, after all, only an early attempt at the beginning for this manuscript.

"I'm intrigued. Want more details on the setting," says the second.
I'm thinking: Another Meh!, but I'll take it. This guy is HARD to impress. Besides, I cut so much to keep inside the 200 word limit, and you all know my setting details can be too detailed sometimes.

"Swearing is a cheat. Find another way to show emotions," says the third. "Also, damn sounds out of context with the world."
I'm thinking: 1) No swearing is a good rule to remember. 2) Maybe I should make a list of world specific words for each character - one more problem a sci-fi/fantasy writer needs to deal with!

4) The coffee is mediocre at best. Also, when your heart feels like it might burst out of your chest, caffeine is probably a bad idea.

And finally, as SCBWI President, Stephen Mooser reminded: A writer's career is like a roller coaster. You can't keep your eyes closed the whole time. You have to put your hands up and scream if you want to enjoy the ride.

Second Sight by Cheryl B. Klein

amazon.com

The NY SCBWI conference was full of information, but time only allowed for three breakout sessions. So I snagged my roomate's notes from the brilliant 'revision' session, and ended up grabbing the speaker's book too:
Second Sight by Cheryl B. Klein.

Second Sight is an obvious pun, which I love, but the book does equip a writer with the laser vision required for a tough edit. Plus, Cheryl Klein is a superhero - I mean -  a Scholastic editor who worked on the Harry Potter series. Enough said, right?

Some of the included ideas:

1) Run a plot checklist to identify the dominant plot threads in your work - www.cherylklein.com/plotchecklist.html
This one is relatively easy, so try it.

2) Create a book map, scene by scene, for your entire manuscript. No skipping around.
For me, this is the holy grail. It helped me put my writing into perspective like nothing else I'd ever tried. It holds a writer accountable for the content of every scene, spots plot holes and redundancies, and you really should try it. Ms. Klein refers us to www.anitanolan.com/theend.html, where there are some really great tips, like highlighting aspects of your manuscript in different colors. I like to use the highlights for plot threads, but she uses them for other reasons too. You'll have to head over there because there really is too much to cover in a quick book review.

3) Make a minimap using one-line summaries for each chapter.
This is not as easy as you'd think, and it's best done after you've completed the bookmap.

4) There are some repeated ideas, since the book is a compilation of talks she gave at various conferences. Repetition is actually a good thing because sometimes you need to hear it more than once. I read it one talk at a time, over the course of a few weeks. I don't recommend reading it all in one sitting. Let your brain absorb the ideas, read the next section, and then take out your pretty, new highlighters.

This post will end up spilling all the beans. I need to stop. You need to get the book. I'm sure $16.99 isn't too much to pay for amazing advice that can take your writing to the next level.

Bottom line: I've read books on craft, and some on revision, but this is one of the best by far because it gives me the tools to help my writing shine. And I'm not just saying that because Ms. Klein signed my copy. ;)

Reflections on the SCBWI National Conference

via wikipedia

I want to sing like the birds sing,
not worrying about who hears or what they think.
― Rumi

I just got back from the SCBWI National Conference in New York City.

Wow.

There was so much information to absorb. I flew home last night, exhausted. All I've been able to do today is organize my thoughts, and I'm not very far along in that task. Enter: the blog post. You, my dear bloggy friends, are my unsuspecting therapists for this session. ;)

Attending a writers conference does two things for me:

1) It gives me plenty of revision homework.

and

2) It injects me with creative energy. Good thing I'm not taking Rumi literally - my words are really all that sing well around this house.

If you recall, last week I posted about my two manuscripts, and which I would present to the editors for a critique. Old Kitty got her wish. (Yay!)

I read the first 500 of my MG work, Mist of Kavala, to Scholastic editor, Jenne Abramowitz. Her list includes lots of humorous middle grade fiction. While my MS is not humorous fiction, she really encouraged me by totally buying into the sci-fi premise of my story. Maybe it was the adrenaline, but I thought she was nodding her head and smiling at me like: "Go for it." The boost to my fragile writer's morale was priceless. Now, I do have to work on formatting a few things, and the rest of the story needs a thorough edit still, but I think maybe I'm on to something.

In the afternoon, I met with Kari Sutherland from HarperCollins. I read the first 500 of  my YA Fantasy, Burnt Amber. Can I just say that I've been working my butt off on this MS? I've revised, and revised, and revised again. I totally get the word RE-VISION. Apparently, the work paid off. She said BA has an authentic teen voice. I translated that to: "the voice works".  She might as well have told me I won the lottery.

So what does all this mean? Were they just being nice to me because I was sitting at the same table? Will the self-doubt never end?

Other conference highlights:

• I met people I've only seen in thumbnails on the sidebar of a website. Puts things into perspective like nothing else, I tell you. I really want to query some of them now, and some others I don't think would be a good fit at all.
• I attended amazing breakout sessions given by editors from important publishing houses. For example, Wendy Loggia from Delacorte gave pointers on the sensory elements she looks for in manuscripts. I love the way she thinks, especially since I dream in deckle-edge.
• I met lots of authors. Cassandra Clare, Katherine Erskine, Chris Crutcher....there's a long list of awesome for this conference.
• I made some new friends from the Carolinas and beyond.

Most importantly, I learned that I shouldn't give up on this dream of mine. Ever.

Two-faced Transition

wikipedia

2012 is supposed to be a year of transition. I didn't come up with this idea - the Mayan calendar says so: "End of Great Cycle". I'd like to thank them for the heads up because, personally, I think beginnings are scarier than endings. I know because I write them. -- I'm 100% sure my writer friends agree with this assessment.

You don't have to be a writer or a Mayan to understand. I'm thinking Janus is a pretty good example of what I mean.

Thankfully, Wikipedia is up today, free and unfettered:

In ancient Roman religion and mythology, Janus is the god of beginnings and transitions, thence also of gates, doors, doorways, endings and time. He is usually a two-faced god since he looks to the future and the past. The concepts of January and janitor are both based on aspects of Janus.

So here we are, January of transition year 2012. What am I doing? Transitioning.

I've got one manuscript to the point where I will not touch it again without an agent looking at it first. I've got another just coming out of the gate, with plenty of room for improvement.
The problem: I've got an SCBWI conference this week and I don't know which to submit.

One is a YA fantasy designed for girls. The other is an MG Sci-fi designed for boys. Two very different sides of me, both important. One is a huge part of my past, with plenty of connections to my time as a young woman in Turkey. The other is my present and future, with teen/tween testosterone-filled adventure crammed into the work. I'm writing under the influence of my boys.

I love both manuscripts, and I'm starting to feel like Janus. Look back? Or look forward? Can't I have both?

My flawed plan: I have the first 500 of each polished to a high shine - read: best of my ability. I'll know what to do when I walk through the ballroom doorway because Fate will decide which editor/agent sits across from me. I'll ask them which they'd prefer to see.

Only one itty bitty problem -- I won't be able to sleep until its over.


Janitors are so underappreciated, btw.