What I've Learned at the Loft: You Can't Jump the Line

I haven't blogged in a while. Certain shifts have happened that keep me from blogging. One, conversations have moved to twitter, tumblr and facebook. And I like to be where the community is. So, I'm splitting my time between all the e-stuff I love. Two, this blog is a little antiquated, and I know I need to move it to a nice and clean author website. (Which I'm not quite ready to do, because of number three...) Three, I've launched a writing community which is awesome and does a lot of good, but sometimes sucks up my time. Oh, and four, I'm starting to query agents again after finishing a revision based on agent feedback. Woo-hoo for me! That's a full-time job of sending emails, refreshing my emails, crying a little, and then refreshing again. :)

But I am still here, and thought that I might share with you guys some of the things that I have learned from building an in-real-life community.

Plus, the TED talk I was going to blog about today REFUSES to embed. :)

So, here's the first post in the series, What I've Learned at the Loft:

You can't jump the line.

If you are one of our cats, you CAN jump the turkey-leg-line.

Let me clarify a bit. I've seen people get publishing deals in a short amount of time. But mostly, those people had a very steep learning curve. They responded well to critiques, made adjustments, and rebounded (from crits or rejections) very quickly.

I no longer think that this business is about perseverance. Or maybe it's not solely about perseverance.

It's about quickly learning when something isn't working and making adjustments. 

Since I have founded a writing community whose members include published authors, some writers have approached me and asked me to "get them an agent." (None of these writers attempting to jump the line wanted to stay and join the community.)

Eeek! I'm not agented myself. I don't have a book published. And even though writers at the Loft have found inroads in publishing because they hobnob with authors further along in the journey than themselves, those Loft writers have also put in the time to critique, give back and support the community.

You can't just show up and jump the line. You need to try something and when it fails, you make adjustments. When a crit shows you where your ms is less than stellar, you make adjustments by revising. When you get a critique that doesn't jive with where your ms is going, you make adjustments by finding a new crit partner. When you query agents and don't get the response you wanted, you get more feedback on your query and you (all together now) make adjustments.

Sometimes it seems like people were overnight successes, or that they were in the right place at the right time. They probably were in the right place at the right time, because they paid attention to what worked and followed that. They made the right adjustments.

What is the hardest adjustment you've had to make in your writing career? An adjustment of expectations? An adjustment of what success looks like? Tell me!

Past, Present and Future, or How My Stupidity as a Parent Teaches me About Writing

I'm not a perfect parent. I happily share my mistakes with anyone who will listen, and I especially abhor parents who pretend that they are perfect--it just makes everyone else feel alone.

So, yesterday, my oldest son did something that made me mad. Yelling mad. Whipping shirt mad. Madder than I needed to get.

Today, of course, I'm thinking-thinking-thinking about it. And then...I apologized to my son. I told him I shouldn't have yelled. That I should have been calm about it. After all, he is only learning.

I wanted him to understand where I was coming from and why I got so pissed off.

I told him:

I don't just see you in the present. I see your entire past and all the hopes for your future all wrapped up in this one moment. It makes me super angry because this is the 1,000th time you've done this behavior (your past). I get angrier because I don't think that a thirteen-year-old should be behaving this way (your present), and I worry about your entire future because if you can't learn from this, I don't know how you will survive out in the real world (your future). That being said, I totally should not have gotten so mad! That was my baggage. My problem. You're an awesome kid and you're gonna turn out fine. :)

And this extreme reaction reminded me of writing. Specifically about why some portfolio pieces are so hard to write-- query letters, synopses, blurbs. It's so hard to come at those things calmly, with a clear sense of the project at hand.

I think these things are so hard not just because it is hard to boil an entire novel (or picture book) into tiny summaries, but also because as the creators, we see the entire history of our project (every single draft and all those revisions), we worry about what our project is at this moment (is it good enough to send to an agent/publisher), and we have this amazing dream of what this project might become.

Experiencing all that information at once immobilizes us.

So, when you are writing your query letter, your synopsis, your blurb, try to just think about what your project is today. If that makes you anxious, then you might need to go back and revise until your project is closer to what you dream it could be. If you still have trouble, ask one of your betas or a critter to help you execute the summary because that person won't have all the baggage that you do about your project.

Have you yelled at your kid recently? Have you yelled at your novel? :) What's your biggest frustration right now? I showed you mine--you show me yours!

Author's note: while composing this blog post, my daughter's birthday cake overflowed the pan and is now cooking onto the bottom of the oven. (Burning, in fact.) But that is another blog post entirely.

One True (Writing) Thing: About Self, Writing, and Community

I read a YA thriller yesterday. (Escape From Eden, by Elisa Nader--an author I met at a recent conference--she's delightful, by the way, and her book rocks!) In a fast-paced scene, (okay, it was all fast-paced with delicious twists at every turn) Elisa took a beat to describe the sound of blinds tangling as a door slammed shut.

And, I thought to myself, wow, that is exactly how that sounds. What a great nugget of truth.

It might seem unnecessary to bring that piece of sensory truth into the novel--it didn't advance the plot, it didn't strictly need to be there, but that one piece of truth lent reality to everything else.

By anchoring your reader to familiar things, it allows them to believe in all the made up stuff. :)

Knowing one true thing about your writing journey can show you the reality of how to advance your writing career.

A few years ago, I led a special interest group for first time conference-goers at the marvelous NE-SCBWI spring conference. I asked the writers/illustrators to think of that one thing that they needed to get their career to the next level. I mean, there isn't just one thing, but there is always that one bald truth staring us in the face. If I could overcome that, one thinks, I could go places. :) It was especially important advice for the conference, because attending workshop after workshop can be overwhelming. If you know what one thing you are trying to get out of a conference, then it changes the whole reality of the experience. You can take breaks instead of trying to take in every little piece of information. By focusing on what matters, you can learn how to do that one thing much more quickly.

Now, I meet a lot of writers on a daily basis. I talk with people who are interested in joining our local community, The Writers' Loft. I find out what they are writing and what they are looking for. Because everyone who wants to join a community is looking for something specific. And since I know our community of writers, since I attend writing conferences, since I read books about craft and publishing, and since I try to keep abreast of publishing news, I can sometimes connect people with what they need. That one true thing.

 You probably don't need to talk with another writer to find out what you need. (Although it certainly can't hurt.) It's probably that nagging irritating thought that won't leave you alone. If only I had time to write. If only I knew how to get this Picture Book into the hands of an agent. If only I had a great pitch for my book. If only I knew how to add tension to my revision.

Focus on that one true thing and go after it! No excuses. And, if you need a writerly friend, email me. Open invitation. I'd love to help connect you to the answer of your one true thing need.

Finding community doesn't have to be hard.

My one true thing? I am trying to not lose the thread of my writing projects while I grow my non-profit. My answer so far is that I am leaning on my writerly friends to keep me accountable for my writing, and I'm learning everything I can about project management. What about you? What's your one true writing thing right now?

Don't Piss Off the Universe

I think that all my advice can be boiled down to that one sentence.

Let's say it together.

Don't piss off the Universe.

The Universe is like my 7-and-11/12ths-year old daughter, Cowgirl.

The Universe loves kittens, as well as other things.

It expects you to read its mind and know just what to do.

It rewards you with the greatest stuff when you are completely open and hold nothing back.

It reacts best to kindness.

And, girl, oh girl, does it hold a grudge.

Don't Piss Off the Universe.

I've been thinking a lot about my brand as a writer and about who I am in the writing world. I try to be someone who treats others like we are all in this together. Because WE ARE.

On my good days, I want to be completely open to the Universe. Not in some incense-burning, kumbayah-singing perfection-wielding way, but in a confident, I've-done-the-hard-work, I'm-helping-my-fellow-writer, let's-get-to-the-next-weigh-station-together way.

On my bad days, I just strive to not piss off the Universe.

The karma version of Do No Harm.  

I just came back from the James River Writers Conference, and girl, oh girl, those folks certainly know how to make you feel like you're in it together, y'all. I get buoyed up for months by the sense of camaraderie I feel there. *waving to Erica and Donna (eh?) and Jon and Joe and Lisa and Vernon and Katrina, and well, everyone!*

And I am so thankful to have welcomed in the 40th member of the Writers' Loft in Sherborn--you guys rock, and never, ever piss off the universe. Thanks for making my risk this year anything but!

So, do you feel open to the opportunities in front of you? What happened the last time you pissed off the Universe?  Have any good news to share?

Pay Yourself First

I have officially gone the longest time without writing forward on my writing projects--I think it's been a full month.

I came across this post by Anna Staniszewski, who quotes another rockstar author, Jo Knowles:

"Always make writing the top priority in your life even if that means other things have to slide."

Quite honestly, I thought that quote was pretty harsh. Maybe it was just my mindset at the time, but I thought to myself, "I can't put writing first." I'm a mom. A wife. I compete in races so I stay in shape (because deadlines and accountability work for me). I volunteer for a local educational non-proft, help organize a writing conference, help teach at our church Sunday school, and last March, I created a non-profit writing community.

My days start out with me trying to figure out what is the BIGGEST fire to extinguish. And I'm pretty sure that you are all just as busy as I am. I mean, there are only so many hours in a day, right?

So my writing slides to the back of the to-do list.

But the universe started whispering to me. With Anna's post, and then with this post by another of my favorite authors/mentors, Erica Orloff--and what a beautiful post it is!

We writers lament about time management. But maybe we should take a page out of the financial management world.

When talking about finances, experts tell us to Pay Yourself First.

In order to get a future as an author, we need to start prioritizing and paying into it. Paying into our future. And if you are a writer, but you are not paying into your future--into your dream--then that dream will never happen.

So, that's my goal. I'm going to start getting my writing done first--just a little, before I do anything else. Because if I put aside a couple hundred words here and there, pretty soon, it'll grow to be a whole book.

And that's my future.

(Also, I get really crabby when I don't write.)

How do you envision your time/project management? How do you protect your writing future?