Category Archives: The Writing Life

I HAVE AN—

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Editing1 IDEA! In fact, I have a gazillion ideas. When the writing muse flies over, she scatters idea seeds that sprout like Washington mushrooms, and I gather them. Some I place in my computer Idea File in categories like Novels, Picture Books, Magazine articles, and Miscellaneous. I’ve had ideas arrive as titles or as characters. Some get expanded into outlines or synopses. Some have only a paragraph.

Other ideas live in my office closet. In a red storage bin, there’s a plastic idea box. The lid no longer closes. The bin holds not only that box but also scraps of paper, index cards, napkins, bank deposit receipts—all with ideas jotted across them: titles, characters, or what-if questions. Ideas and more ideas all hoping to become stories.

I’ve noticed that ideas sometimes present themselves when I’m focused on the routines of life. My morning starts with cereal and the local paper, where ideas jump off the pages. Some ideas find me when I walk in the neighborhood, pull weeds in the garden, grocery shop, or take a shower. In a restaurant or in a checkout line, snippets of conversation might contain ideas for characterization or even a hint of plot. (Perhaps I should put Author and Eavesdropper on my business cards.)

The muse has been known to slip ideas into my brain at night, as I settle into bed. On a recent wintry evening, as I pulled the covers up chin high, a title popped into my brain: PURPLE SNOW. This idea arrived with a couple sentences: Ever since preschool I’ve always been the first one in my classroom in the morning. Until today. Immediately my brain started with the WHO? WHEN? WHERE? WHY? and more. NAMES? AGES? DO THESE SENTENCES HINT AT THE PROBLEM OR NOT? All hard to answer because I don’t know the characters or the problem yet. What does purple snow have to do with this story? I don’t know that, either. But I suspect I’ll find out.

PURPLE SNOW is one of those ideas that’s sticking with me. Those are the ones that demand attention, insist on being written. They never let go. I have several in files on my desk right now in various stages of growth. They can get downright obnoxious, intruding when I’m reading or working on something different. They refuse to go away, to be quiet, to behave and wait their turns. They will not go in the closet with the patient ideas.

Most amazing is when I’m visiting my writing partner, Stephanie Jacob Gordon. We can’t travel anywhere together without ideas pouring forth. And it’s not unusual for the phone to ring and for Stephanie to say: “Listen to this” followed by an idea or two or three. Two heads do have more ideas than one.

Are you bombarded by ideas? How do you store, handle, sort them? How do you choose the one to write next or does it choose for you? And what do you say when someone asks: “Where do you get your ideas?” I usually say: ”They come from everywhere.”

Sharing My Addiction

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In the writing industry, I have taken on many roles. Those that come to mind at the moment: fiction writer, non-fiction writer, copywriter, creative director, editor, publisher, freelancer, news-and-magazine reporter. I’m not so much crazy as…addicted.

Since I penned my first poem as a girl, I have become addicted not only to the act art of writing but also to the business and the science of it. In an industry where so little is certain, one thing I am certain about is that, if you want to be a successful writer, you’d better be an addict!

And it’s not easy being an addict, as any addict will tell you. I also am a wife, the mother of two teens and three dogs, stepmother to three adults, Grandy to five delightful tots, a dutiful daughter, a field-hockey timer and so on. Yet every day, in every direction I look, it’s the writing I feed. In every occupation I undertake, I find promising characters and potential plot lines to fuel my addiction.

In the sauna at the gym I am approached by a withered, bone-thin woman wrapped in a rough white towel: “Do you have a band-aid?” she asks.

“I’m afraid not,” I answer.
She twists her neck from side to side. “How about a comb?”
I begin to wonder if she is homeless and somehow managed to sneak in to use the showers. Perhaps she is the locker thief we have been warned about and is living in the supply closet.
Oops, no. Someone gives her a band-aid and now she is pulling a designer sweater over her head.
End of story? Not for me. I like my scenario better. As I dress, I outline my homeless-locker-thief plot. The old woman might slip into another story. Or maybe I’ll use the thief plot and turn her into a–.

I pick up my teenage son, who is text-fighting with his ex. I sneak a peek at the screen: “I guess I just don’t mean anything to you.” Ah, love gone wrong for a future locker thief. Another plot kernel pops.

Years ago I found out I an not alone in my affliction. I joined The Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) and got a wonderful gift: a community of sane people who just happen to be crazy in the same ways I’m crazy. I’ve learned much from my peers and my experiences. And perhaps the most important lesson I’ve learned is one I already knew, albeit intuitively: If I want to master my craft, I must completely immerse myself in it.That’s not crazy; that’s just good research.

I run into a cafe, my writer-vision goggles telescoping around me. I watch flakes drift onto an expensive black suit; a huge ruby glows in the mouth of a skill ring glaring from the gnarled hand that brushes away the dandruff. I activate my other writer senses and detect whiskey on the fermented breath of the man in the line behind me. My writer’s radar picks up a snippet of hushed, urgent conversation….

Welcome to our blog. Now tell us, what dastardly plots and skulking characters did you come across today? Pull up a chair, get comfy and spill. Who knows how we’ll be able to use whatever you tell us about yourself.

 

Writing for the Long Haul

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Sometimes at writing conferences, I give talks to other writers, new or established, about writing for the long term. It’s hard to get that first book published, sure, but it’s also hard to stay published, given the industry’s ups and downs and twists and turns. At no time has that been more true than today as changes in technology affect us all. (There’s also self publishing, but that’s a whole other topic.)

I’ve been publishing with established publishing houses for over two decades–okay, well over two decades (reluctant grin!) but I still remember the early years when I thought I’d end up a little old lady and still be trying to publish my first book! And I well remember the amazing thrill of The Call–when you hear for the first time that you have an offer on your manuscript–an editor actually wants to publish it. She/he likes your work, is sending a revision letter to help you polish (yet again), is sending a check for real $–wow! Now, I’ve been in love, married, had two wonderful children, so I won’t say it was the most wonderful day of my life, but it certainly ranks high on the list! I’ve now published over 50 books, for every age level from chapter books to adult, but they’ve been mainly for young adult (YA) to middle grade (MG) readers. I can tell you the thrill never fades. And the fun comes not just in selling manuscripts, seeing your books on the shelves of stores or libraries, or signing books for your readers. The act of writing, of creating characters and stories–the process itself is and must be a particular pleasure (tho hard work, too, at times) if you want to be a writer for the long haul.

Early in my career, when rejection slips and letters descended like a New England blizzard, my family knew that I had to be left alone for a few days to work my way out of the dark hole that rejection threw me into. A hug was acceptable, but I didn’t want comforting speeches. When they heard the click-click of the keyboard, then they could stop tiptoeing around me, and life would be back to normal: Mom was writing again. Because a writer needs not only talent, constantly honed to make his/her writing skills sharper, but persistence as well. As Winston Churchill said, you never, never give up!

My visual metaphor for a genuine writer is that of old time lumber jacks who, for fun and games, would challenge each other to race on a rotating log in a river. They’d run very hard to make the log go round and round until one or both fell off into the chillly water. Running very hard to stay in the same place, like Alice and the White Queen–this is what authors do most of their careers–and when the inevitable dunking comes–you just climb back on the log and you start again!

Writers write because we love to do it, we love spinning our stories, creating our characters, growing our worlds, working with wonderful editors, and even the crazy ins and outs of the publishing industry will not defeat us.

Writers write, and we love every minute of it!