Pay Yourself First!

When budgets get tight, financial advisors will tell you to "pay yourself first," by putting any amount of money, even as little as five dollars, into a savings account. It occurred to me this morning that the idea of "paying yourself first" with money could also be applied to writing by "paying yourself first" with time.

Time in front of the computer is GOLDEN for writers. It used to be that when you sat down to your typewriter all you had to do was process your wonderful thoughts and creative ideas to the page. Now, when you finally find the time to turn your computer on, up pops email messages, twitter tweets, facebook posts and blog comments. Pay attention to them first and your day flies by with nary a new word or sentence applied to your manuscript.

Theresa, one of my critique partners, vowed to get up each morning and work on her manuscript for 3 hours no matter what. I think of her each morning when I sit in front of my computer. When I "pay myself first" that 3 hours often turns into 4 or 5 and strangely, I still find the time to email and facebook, twitter and blog.

Come on. "Pay yourself first" with time. You'll be glad you did.

When Students Have Questions

I don't know about you but when I give presentations I pack all the information I can into the alloted time frame with little left over for student's questions. Consequently, students bombard me at the end only to be whisked off to their classrooms before I can answer. This always bothered me. I felt something had to be done. Here is my secret to solving this problem.

I no longer take questions during my presentation/s but instead build in a "Student Press Conference." It is one of the components of the package I offer schools, i.e. two large group sessions, one small and a "Student Press Conference." I have to admit, teacher's LOVE it!

Here's how it works:

Prior to the visit, each teacher is asked to hold a brainstorming session in their classroom. They challenge their students to come up with a list of questions to ask me, the visiting author. This enhances the visit for students by expanding their questioning techniques as well as learning what might or might not be an appropriate question.

Each classroom teacher selects TWO Student Reporters. These Reporters will bring the questions from their classmates to the Press Conference

This small group of Student Reporters, 2/classroom, will meet with me at the end of the day to ask their questions in a press conference format.

It is the Student Reporter's responsibility to report my answers back to their respective classrooms.

During the Press Conference, I will sit with the small group (two/classroom) and go from student to student answering their questions one at a time. We will go around and around the room until all questions are asked or time runs out.

The "Student Press Conference" is held at the END of the day in whatever time frame is available. I've had anywhere from 20-minutes to 50-minutes. I stress the end of the day for good reason. If you have it in the middle of the day, students will be asking questions that you will be addressing in your presentation.

Additional tidbits:

1. The small gathering of Reporters might range in grade level from K to 5th or even 6th grade. All grade levels meet with me at the same time. This age/grade span has never posed a problem for me. In fact, some of the younger students ask more in-depth questions than the older students. And often older students will help the younger ones record my answers.

2. Some questions will be duplicates so you have to caution the students to listen carefully and ask a different question.

3. I've done this session on closed-circuit TV and/or allowed for it to be taped for selective viewing later. (Some teachers aren't interested in the Q&A session.) I've even had a class of gifted students record the session as part of their video/film making class.

4. On a few occasions, interested classroom teachers requested to have their students return to the auditorium to LISTEN IN on the press conference. In this case I sit on stage with the Reporters as they ask their questions. What is really great about this situation is that if you run out of questions, you can turn to the audience and take additional questions. This has happened on several occasions, much to everyones delight.

The "Student Press Conference" idea evolved out of a need to allow students to have all their questions answered, questions that go beyond the, "what is it like to be an author?" ones. You never know who you will touch in the audience. Something you say might just be the motivation that produces a Putlizer Prize winner or Newbury recipient down the road.

I just felt there had to be a more educational way of giving more to the students. "My Student Press Conference" fills the bill.

And as I said earlier, Teachers/Administrators/Parents LOVE my "Student Press Conferences." And I must admit, it's the best part of the day for me also.

If you try this, let me know how a "Student Press Conference" works for you.

Be Thankful for Helpful Rejection Letters!

Can it really be that many months since I "finished" my novel? Finish is in quotes because we all know that a novel is never finished until the editor signs off and sends it to print. I thought I was until an agent said otherwise and kindly - no, that's not the word, bluntly is more like it - turned it down. But, lucky for me, within the body of that, "no thanks," were several clear, concise suggestions for a rewrite.

The rewrite has begun and as I re-read that detailed rejection letter, I can only think how grateful I am for agents who take the time to make constructive suggestions, even when they plan to say, "no."

Tell me about a rejection that movitated and helped you.

Be Thankful for Delays!

Late last fall, I heard from two agents about a novel manuscript I'm trying to place. One loved it and the other had a lot to suggest. After much introspection, I decided that revision was in order. But since that time, life intervened. Family traumas and professional obligations, not to mention the holidays, jumped in to delay physical work on the project. I had spent countless hours mentally contemplating how to approach the revision and had settled on a new beginning, but I just hadn't had the time to do the work. The delay had been frustrating until yesterday when I opened a blog on revision that stopped me in my tracks.

The blog post was titled, Five Questions to Ask Yourself Before You Start Revising, an interview with Kendra Levin, an associate editor at Viking. Within the body of the post was a plot diagram. I've seen similar diagrams multiple times and am aware of the importance of the way your story builds, but this time, for some reason, it hit me smack dab in the face. My new attention-grabbing beginning just wasn't going to work. Starting with the definitive event that turns the character on his heels and begins his healing, is not the way to begin.

So, I'm grateful for delays. Had I been physically working on the revision over the last two months, I would have worked in vane. Now, when I open the computer and begin the process, I'll be on the right track.

I'm learning to appreciate delays.

Have you ever had a delay that changed your story for the better?

Rejections: How many is too many?

Does anyone get used to receiving a rejection letter? On the road to becoming published, we all face those dreaded rejection letters that arrive in our mailboxes or our email accounts more often than not. Each time one arrives it pounces on the old ego and shatters belief in the work just a little bit, until you can regroup, reanalyze and revise, if necessary, before sending it out again.

Last week, I listened to a teleseminar with Jack Canfield, one of the co-authors of the Chicken Soup for the Soul series which now number over 200 titles, and was shocked to hear that he and Mark Victor Hansen's great idea was turned down by 144 companies before Health Communications took a chance on it. One hundred and forty four rejection letters! Wow! That takes guts and fortitude and belief in the work and in themselves to keep sending it out again and again.

I was fortunate to have received only four rejections before my first book was picked up. I know I could have handled a few more but not one hundred and forty-four. Somewhere along the way I would have given up and I'm not the "giving up," kind of person.

We would do well to remember what Barbara Kingsolver, The Poisonwood Bible, said about rejection. She said, "Rejection doesn't mean your book is bad, it just means that the editor that will love your book doesn't live at that address." I love that!

Jack added that "rejection does not exist but in your mind. It is just a step along the way."

Here's to the process and the many steps we have to climb to reach our goals.

What do you tell yourself when another rejection arrives?

What Do I Work On Today?

Deciding which project to focus on today, is a constant challenge. When I'm at my creative peak, multiple ideas for stories other than the one I'm working on, pop in to stop the flow. I've tried grabbing a pad and jotting down the new idea, starting a whole new page to capture the thoughts, or just ignoring it. Nothing seems to work. Once the new idea was so strong, it forced me to set aside the manuscript I was working on and write an entire new story on an unrelated topic. It's as if my muse isn't happy unless I'm writing several things at once. Sometimes it's exhilarating but most often it's down right annoying.

This seems to be my problem today.

Three picture books were critiqued this morning generating great suggestions for change. And although all three are just about ready to send, they need further tweaking. Ideas for all three are rolling around in my head. But, there's also the novel manuscript that I've decided to completely revise and the next chapter from one of my critique partners. What to do? What to do?

Logic tells me to setup a schedule and complete them according to deadline even if that deadline is an artificial one. But that's the easy answer. It won't, however, stop the flow of ideas. Things could be worse. I could be hopelessly stuck in writer's block.

Am I alone? Does this happen to you? If it does, how do you handle it?

Critique Group or Collaborator Group? Crossing the line

When does a critique become a collaboration?

The wonderful critique group, of which I am a member, has been struggling with this question ever since a prospective member, who chose to go elsewhere, announced that we were too much of a collaboration group for her. Her comment shocked us into considering the possibility. Had we crossed the line?

According to Webster's Dictionary, critique is listed as "a critical analysis or evaluation of a subject, situation, literary work, etc." Collaborate, on the other hand,  means to "work together, especially in some literary, artistic or scientific manner."

In the broadest sense of the word, to collaborate would mean that we actively work together to produce each other's manuscripts. Our critique group does not do that. However, by very nature of being a critique group are we not working together, sharing opinion/s to make our manuscripts better?

What our group does do for each other includes looking for grammatical errors, confusion in plot and pacing, inconsistencies in the use of tense and POV, overuse of similar words, character description and growth, genre formatting if appropriate, story arc, endings that satisfy and I'm sure several other things I'm forgetting. And yes, we occasionally do this by showing and/or giving examples so that the writer has a reference for deciding to accept or reject the advice given.  If this can be misconstrued as collaborating then so be it.

I've come to the conclusion that we haven't crossed the line. A good critique group utilizes a little bit of both.

What do you think?