Writing Priorities

I don’t think anyone can tell you how to prioritize your life. After all, we all need different things and are at different points in our lives.

There was a time when I’d gladly put in 100 hours a week at my real job. There was a time when I was Room Parent, Cub Scout Den Leader, classroom writing workshop volunteer, stray dog fosterer and community activist (Yea! We got the new library built).

I believe it's important to write down your goals, so you have some idea where you're heading. But setting rigid benchmarks, on how to prioritize goals and the time necessary to achieve those goals just doesn’t work for me.

So now I have to come clean. My introductory sentences are just my personal rationalization for a failure.

Yes, last week I failed Katia Raina's Gimme 31 challenge.

Failure is such a harsh word. But if you could see me, you’d see a big smile on my face.
It's not because I'm loopy.

A few days ago I had to prioritize, and a family member’s illness was clearly more important than anything else on my to-do list. But here’s the part that is making me smile. After I “failed” I got back on board. Okay, so I won’t get in the prize drawing. But I joined the challenge to follow my dream. That’s the real “prize.”

Whatever happens on one day, doesn’t change my determination or my dream.

And not only am I back on board, but in the next days I more than made up for the day I missed. With laser-like focus I have been writing, revising, repeating.

Julie Hedlund’s 12x12 picture book group submitted query letters for critique by the amazing author, editor, reading advocate Emma Walton Hamilton yesterday, and I was ready! In a few days, the window will open for submissions to the incredible February agent, Stephen Fraser, via the same 12x12 group. And I’m ready!

Writing is hard work. I think Malcolm Gladwell might have been wrong in his book Outliers when he said that people who become extraordinarily accomplished in their fields have to put in about 10,000 hours at their craft. For writers, it may be even more. But that doesn’t discourage me. Uphill battles are just a little extra exercise. 

And I can use a little extra exercise to burn off the amazing chicken tangine I made last night. (Thank you NY Times Diner's Journal!)

Up, down. One, two. I’m off!

Why I joined the 12 x 12 and a Giveaway!

Last year I jumped into several writing challenges with both feet. Two great ones are targeted to picture book writers.

In November, I completed Tara Lazar’s PiBoIdMo challenge. But if you write picture books and you want someone nudging and inspiring you All Year Long, that would be Julie Hedlund. Her challenge is the 12 x 12.

Coming up with picture book ideas is hard. Completing the manuscripts. HARD. Sometimes I found myself abandoning a great idea, because more great ideas came along. The competing voices in my head were a tough audience to ignore.

But to complete the 12x12, you had to stick with it. If I had the time, I could work on a hundred manuscripts at once, but I don’t think many of us have that sort of time (or energy!). I had to learn to pick and choose.

Like PiBoIdMo, the 12x12 has great posts on craft and inspiration. In fact, reading (and re-reading) the posts was often the best way to get “unstuck.” My writing problems aren’t new--they're just new to me! The “ah-ha” moments from reading about craft were priceless.

The one twist for me this year is—I’m not dead set on “winning” the challenge. I know, how can I admit that, the horror! But hear me out.
After last year’s 12x12 I have a stack of completed manuscripts, begging for time and attention. And as much as I want to keep writing more—and I certainly plan to keep writing more new manuscripts, and I’m hopeful that I will complete at least twelve—I also believe that my primary goal for 2013 is to separate the wheat from the chaff and get the wheat out to market! That means I need to focus on polishing, revising and submitting.

A completed 12x12 manuscript isn’t necessarily a polished, ready-for-submission manuscript. This became abundantly clear to me as the last year progressed and I went back and re-read the manuscripts from earlier in the year. And it wasn’t just that I am (hopefully!) becoming a better writer all the time. Nope. Manuscripts just need to sit and steep awhile. Getting a critique is great, but it's often only with time that I can really "get" what the critiquers meant. Coming back with fresh eyes is invaluable to me.

If I'm still working on revising last year's manuscripts, why did I re-join the 12x12?
This year, it's BIGGER and BETTER. In addition to the Facebook community there are manuscript critiques and special submission windows to agents who accept picture book manuscripts! Critiquing other writers and having my work critiqued is just what I need this year.

So, with the help of the writing community there, no matter how many new manuscripts I write in 2013, the year’s going to be a success. Hope to see you there!

To celebrate all the help I’ve received on my writing journey, I’m giving away a copy of one of my first publications!

For a chance to win Chicken Soup for the Dog Lover's Soul, you'll need to do two things:

 1. Be a follower of my blog
2. Leave a comment with your contact information so I can contact you to  get a "real" address if you win. Remember you can use (at) and (dot) instead of @ and . so the internet gremlin bots can't read your information.

Pretty easy, huh? Don't look back, just do it!
I'll pick a random entry one week from today, on January 18th. Good luck!

Meet Katia Raina and the Gimme 31 challenge

Today I am guest posting on Katia Raina's blog.

If you haven’t met Katia, I encourage you to click over (above) and say hi. Katia is just starting the MFA program in Writing for Children and Young Adults from the Vermont College of Fine Arts. She writes novels for young adults and is represented by Jessica Regel of the Jean V Naggar Literary Agency. Her first novel, “Castle of Concrete,” will be published by Namelos.

But she is writing YA and I write picture books and middle grade fiction. What do we have in common you might ask? We’re both moms with two kids, but that isn’t the important bit. We "met" online when I became aware of Katia's commitment to her craft.

The writing community is amazing. It doesn’t matter what you write. I’m sure there are outliers, but the folks I have been fortunate to meet in person, online, are generous spirits. This is a concrete example of a win-win community. Katia and I both have dreams. Writing dreams. Dreams to be the best writers we can be. And we are sharing her "Gimme 31" goal to pursue the dream EVERY DAY.

Check back with me here on Friday for my post on another amazing writing community—Julie Hedlund's picture book 12x12 'ers. It doesn’t matter what you write—the inspiration is out there!

Please leave a comment for me or Katia. We’d love to hear where you find your writing inspiration! Thanks.

Winning - Picture Book Writer Style

December is the finale for the 12 x 12 in 2012 challenge. 

When I sat down in January with my notebook of 2011 PiBoIdMo Ideas (Thanks, Tara!), the challenge seemed like a gimme. A picture book should be no more than 1,000 words (preferably under 500) so that works out to 6,000 to 12,000 words—in a year. The NaMoWriMo folks would bust a gut thinking anyone could be stymied by word counts like this.

But it wasn’t so easy. Wholly apart from the demands of home and hearth, part of the problem for me was that I don’t just write picture books. I write middle grade novels and nonfiction. Carving out time to really focus on twelve new picture books was—a challenge.

The great thing was, amazing writers posted their own stories of success and words of encouragement on Julie’s website. These mental nudges were a gentle reminder of what I wanted to do. The dust bunnies and weedy garden could wait. Other writers revved my creative engine and brought me back to my own picture book stories. 

I love picture books and I’m glad I completed the challenge even though all twelve aren’t shiny works of art yet. I love thinking about the way words and art play off each other in good picture books. I love the sudoku-like challenge of completing a story arc in 28-30 pages.  And maybe I shouldn’t admit it, but I love the way new picture books smell.

One unexpected bonus of the 12 x 12 challenge is I finally started this blog! On the same day that Julie posted a December 12^th date for the end of year success party, a critique friend talked about choosing the perfect website moniker. What was I waiting for? I put my jets in gear. Photos are yet to come, but the process has begun. I’m way out at the beginning of the learning curve, so I’d be grateful if you’d leave your comments and suggestions about the blog/website experience. 

Thanks for visiting!