I have read and heard over and over that it is important for a writer to write every day.  I set up a writing space in my room. I put “minimum 15 minutes writing time” on my to-do-list. I thought this was “making writing a priority”. It went well for awhile.

 Then—my day-to-day life took over and swallowed up all of my “writing time”. It seemed I could not find 1 minute to write, let alone 15. (Has this happened to you?) Family member needs demanding to be met, squeeze out any hope of “writing time”.

 What to do? First I’m quite sure berating myself about my poor time management won’t help. A “cliché” just came to mind: “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again”. (Of course writers should NEVER use clichés, so I have broken a rule here.)  In other words, I mustn’t give up. I must re-evaluate. I must use determination to carve out those precious 15 minutes of writing time. I must persevere. It will be worth it! How about you?

 Whatever you do, keep on writing…

 Angel Blessings, Susan

Thursday, July 29, 2010
By (Rev.) Christina Laurie

This week I am worship leader at our church, which means I open the service and read the scriptures. One passage I will read Sunday is from Hosea, the Old Testament prophet who lived in the northern kingdom of Israel and prophesied from 753-715 BCE.

He wrote to illustrate God’s love for His sinful people. Although prosperity lived in the land, it was the upper classes who were doing well, but they were oppressing the poor. God was angry because the people turned away from worship and valued their possessions more. They broke promises, both to other people and to God.

In chapter 11, Hosea uses two phrases that touched my heart this week. I thought of them particularly in relation to my care of my grandchildren and to many parents who sometimes are so strung out with family care and providing good homes and surroundings for their children.

Hosea, in bringing God’s message to the people says, “I (God) led them (the people) with cords of human kindness, with bands of love.” (11:4a). What beautiful phrases!

“With cords of human kindness” reminds me of discipline. We need to lead and feed our children with love, kindness and proper behavior. Sometimes the rope is taut, sometimes slack. It is always loving. Its object is constantly the well-being of the beloved, our child. This challenges me not only to be a disciplinarian but also not to be too rigid in my teaching. Sometimes our children need to be guided and at other times they need to be nurtured.

“With bands of love” reminds me that love for my children and grand children is constant and strong. Just as bands that hold together items that otherwise may flutter away, I need to hold my love strong and constant, a support for those who come after me. My love for them teaches them to love also.

Hosea was talking about God’s love for us – for the people of Israel that Hosea cared so much about.

May you be happily loving this week.

Greetings;
This week heralded the culmination of a life-long dream. Many years ago, I visited the EIGHT COUSINS bookstore in Falmouth center. It was and still is one of the best of children’s bookstores and I dreamed that one day my children’s book would be for sale there. The dream has become reality for WERFUL AND THE CAPTAIN is currently being featured in EIGHT COUSINS front window! What an immense joy to be able to say, “I am a children’s author.”
My story is written for children in the 5-9 age group, and it shows what trouble a small tugboat can get into when dealing with a huge cruise ship. Much of the story actually happened in Bermuda a few years ago. I was on the cruise ship when mayhem erupted and I ran for my notebook to record and thereby remember everything witnessed. (Serious writers are never far from a notebook or computer.)
Back at home, I set the non-fiction happenings into a fiction story—so much of fiction evolves from real incidents—and then set about combining fact and fiction into a story suitable for children. Because my manuscript (rewritten too many times to count) dealt with Bermuda, it seemed reasonable that a Bermuda publishing company might be interested. (Before sending manuscripts out to publishers, it’s so important to research first to see if the publisher is even interested in your subject matter.)
The publisher accepted my manuscript and asked if I could include some history of the island so I took out all of my brochures of Bermuda, scanned them, and then researched historical facts. Next, came the job of incorporating them into the story without it sounding too dry. I decided to have the tugboat captain’s dialogue deal with showing the young children he took for rides what was important and what was fun about their home. Dialogue is a wonderful tool in a story. Six-hundred words later, the publisher received the re-written manuscript and e-mailed me it was acceptable. The saying, “…dancing on air,” is putting it mildly.
It would take another year, I was told, to see WERFUL published. That was depressing, but I soon recovered. Hope is a wonderful thing. Then catastrophe hit. My publisher suffered a fatal heart attack and everything and everybody at the company went on hold. By the time his wife had recovered and decided to take over the company herself, another year had passed. (The normal time-frame for a book being published averaged a year and a half to two years.) Now, another year’s delay. I kept faith and set about working on another book to keep my mind from fretting. (So many non-writers think that because a manuscript is completed, it will hit bookshelves within a month. I wish!)
Many people have asked, “…where did the name, Werful, come from?”
I smile and say, “It’s a surprise. When you read the book, you’ll see.”
When EIGHT COUSINS’ owner, Carol Chittenden, accepted my work for sale in her store, all the time spent writing, revising, and WAITING fell into focus.
Success supersedes every disappointment. May you soon experience such joy.

Karen!  Well, actually she was the only one to enter.  So lets look at her entry and see what she did.

The required words are blue.

She is within the word count and its about a house renovation. 

“Randy typed an invitation to his Renovation Party. His fellow robots meticulously maintained their owners’ homes, so they rarely got to enjoy rough jobs like knocking down walls or ripping out cabinets.

All too soon, Randy would be back to polishing the pineapple candlesticks and washing the cloudy windows. Again.”

What I like; The alliterations.  RRRR.  She thought about this.  It makes it even more playful because if the pattern she pulled from her theme, Robot.    Randy, Renovation, rarely, ripping. 

Second She uses M.  Meticulously Maintained.  Next, she uses P.  Polishing the Pineapple candlesticks.  And finally, W.  Washing windows.   

Randy the Robot.  How cool is that.  Instead of writing about walls coming down she created a childrens character using one of the required words and came up with this really neat theme. 

She has been able to write a complete picture by describing who, what, where, why and inferred when.  

The one word Im not sure I care for is the final word.  “Again.”  I know she needed the word, but it doesnt connect to the invitations or the renovation.  The prior sentence is complete and dramatic enough to stand alone.  

So, that being said, a better word (I think) would be attached to invitiation.  To describe the atmosphere more clearely.   Simple , like electronic, or metal.  Or ”Excited, Randy typed…”  That way we know immeditely what the mood is.

These simple word games are crucial to learning how to develop a picture book.   50 words could be the first 10% of your book, which needs to express who, what, where, when, why and how.  If the author doesn’t capture its audience in the first word, then the next fifty must. Word fifty-one may be too late. 

Congrats to Karen she did a wonderful job.  Look for your gold star for your forehead!

Mary Grabowski

Spider Bubble Outline

I am happy to report that I found the spider bubble method of outlining fun, easy and helpful (see photo). I must confess that the picture represents my second attempt. My first attempt didn’t work quite right. I did it all in one color and used all lines. In my second attempt I realized using different colors for the levels was helpful in following the ideas. I used the bubbles for the main plot ideas and the spider legs coming off of them for supporting ideas.

 Prior to doing the outline I felt like I didn’t know what to write next for the book. Now as I peruse my spider bubble results I see many choices. I can pick a bubble and start writing. I don’t have to write in linear order. I can piece it all together later. I can change my mind and add new bubbles or delete one. I can also add or delete spider legs as I need to.

 So what’s next, you may ask? Be still. Float my mind. Ask my writing Angels for inspiration and write down whatever comes. Have conversations in my mind with my characters. Listen to what they say to me. Make notes on the spot if I hear from them during the day (or night). This is how I am working to write my first draft of Izzy B’s notebook.

 The rewriting will be a whole new ball game. I keep hearing that “writing is re-writing”… First things first, though. Pick a bubble and write… 

Angel Blessings, Susan

Greetings;
Your skillful use of dialogue can show readers a character’s strengths or weaknesses by how each person relates to another. Is she or he speaking in anger, shouting, whispering? The wording used by each character can signify origin, intellect, social standing, home location, and even time. Eg: “Mom,” Mogie called, “it’s already eight o’clock. I’m going to meet Toothy. Can I leave now?”
Suppose I wrote: “Mom,” Mogie called, “It’s already eight o’clock. I’m going to meet Toothy now.” With little wording change, Mogie is shown as more independent in the second sentence.
Conversations are good tools for providing clues to where the story is heading.
Eg: “Mother Hedgehog warned me, ‘Never go near Farmer Brown’s garden,’ but I have to catch one glimpse of those wonderful vegetables Toothy Rabbit found there.”
That one sentence provides conflict, a woodland setting, and Mogie Hedgehog’s need to know surpassing his good sense. It also introduces another character, Toothy Rabbit, who is Mogie’s best friend. When a reader wonders questions like, will Mogie disobey his mother? Will he get into trouble? Will Toothy go with him or stop him? you have instilled interest in your reader and he or she will read on. Success!
Note: Since that story sounds close to the Peter Rabbit tales, one must include a unique twist to interest a publisher and that hook must be in the first sentence of the query.
Dialogue has the ability to bring a reader into the present from a back-story portion of a story. Time and place can change by utilizing a new paragraph with dialogue.
However, to preclude or conclude every conversation with “said” becomes tiresome and ultimately the reader grows bored and turns on the TV. The same can be said of writers who over-use their handy thesaurus for words that mean “said”. If the dialogue is an extended conversation—say two pages or more—it’s all right to insert “Jane said” or “Susan said” occasionally so your reader doesn’t begin to wonder who is talking.
It’s good to insert a bit of action with your dialogue, but beware of a sentence like, “I’m not leaving,” he hissed. A person can’t talk and hiss at the same time. (and especially since there is no -s- sound in those words) Nor can they seethe and speak simultaneously. If you want action with the dialogue, you can place a period at the end of the sentence and use another sentence.
Bad example: “I’ll always remember you,” she laughed.
One can’t talk and laugh at the same time.
Better: “I’ll always remember you,” she said with a laugh.
Or: “I’ll always remember you,” she said, laughing.
I hope you have a better feel for dialogue now and its importance in your story. If there is no dialogue, your words may sound like a journal of facts rather than a showing of emotion.
Bottom line: Keep dialogue realistic and age appropriate. Children know when it isn’t, and they are our audience.
Be well. Linda

Okay, So last time many of you answered and only one was chosen. 

Same rules; 50 words, use all six keywords, post it in the comments section by Friday at noon and write within the theme.

Type

Cloudy

Robot

Candlestick

Pineapple

Rough

The theme on this round is “House Renovations”

The prize will be announced next Saturday but will include Bragging Rights to round  two!

Good luck,

Mary

Greetings;
Our seven-year-old granddaughter Molly stayed with us this week, and what fun revisiting childhood through her eyes while participating in a sand sculpture day and having lunch at the Mashpee Commons Tea Room with its three-tiered tray of tea sandwiches and bite-sized desserts, just the right size for small hands. There was also sea-side fun where I joyfully observed Molly making friends and sharing her beach toys with those younger than she. At home, we baked cookies, laughed, and watched Kid’s Jeopardy together with Molly remarking, “I like watching Jeopardy. It makes me smarter.”
There is much to be learned, especially for a children’s writer, in spending quality time with a child and observing their actions, conversations, and reactions, for each character in a children’s short story, be it child or animal, must portray a real child’s thoughts, actions, and speech to be believed.
Although this paragraph isn’t about writing, it is about creativity with and for children. One afternoon, I took out a play recipe and Molly and I made play dough. Later I thought, I should share this recipe with creative friends so the children they know can have fun too, so here it is:
-Spread a few Tablespoons of Flour on your counter to roll finished dough in.
-Mix in a medium pan: 1 cup Flour, ¼ cup Salt, and 2 Tablespoons Cream of Tartar.
-Add: 1 cup Water, 1 Tablespoon Vegetable Oil, and 2 teaspoons Food Coloring, your choice of color.
-Stir constantly (I use a long wooden spoon) over medium heat (#4-5 on stove) for about five minutes. It looks globby as it turns into dough.(Like cream puff mix does when mixing in a frying pan.) When the mix gloms(kid word) together and forms a ball, remove pan from heat.
-Remove the warm dough ball and roll it around in the counter flour. Squish and punch it for a minute turning it over and over.(kneading) Molly loved that.
-When cooled, place dough in an air-tight plastic bag and store in the fridge until kids visit. If they’re already with you, the play dough can be used right away. Molly played for over two hours making animal shapes and rolling out long snakes with her hands. What fun to take those make-believe animals and fashion a story around them.

One of my favorite Irish blessings is: “Grandchildren are gifts of God. It is God’s way of compensating us for growing old.” So true.
Be well and have fun this summer. Linda

Thursday Blog – July 8, 2010
By Christina Laurie

Many writers overlook an important part of writing: setting. Setting, or sense of place that is conveyed by the writer, can give us clues to the story and the characters. To eliminate description of the character’s surroundings is to leave the reader in limbo. Some details of “place” are important to relate. For me setting is a very important part of the story.

Setting must do one of three things. First, it gives the reader a sense of place and where the story is taking place. Secondly, it can reveal something about the character. And thirdly, it moves the story forward.

Setting can give us a sense of place as in Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are. We understand the place from the drawings, which direct Max and the beasts into action. The place begins in Max’s room but shifts into the forest that grew out of his room. From the private boat, Max ends up where the wild things live and the adventure begins. For young picture books the illustrator shows place in his/her drawings.

When setting or place reveals something about the character, it is more subtle. The mist over the ocean tells us that the heroine is depressed. The bird songs in the forest give us a sense of happiness. An example of this is in my unpublished book Nimbulous Night, where the setting of the sunset and the beach set the scene and portray a mood of magic and peace.

When setting is seen through the character’s eyes, we receive a limited view of the world. However, we also discover what the character is like. For instance, in Sara Pennypacker’s “Clementine” books, we have a definite sketch of what Clementine is like. She observes her friends, classmates and teachers in a ten-year-old voice that gives us a great idea of what she’s like and how she sees the world. In Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland, Alice’s comments tell us about her surroundings, which give us a view into her character. As she compares the rabbit’s world with hers, we learn about what she does and what she likes in her world.

When setting moves the story forward, it comes from the author’s eyes. Robert McCloskey’s Time of Wonder is a good example of this. The story is basically setting as the “you” moves through the playful days of summer and the fierceness of a hurricane. “You” experience the varying moods of the season through the descriptions of the seasons and its moods as the author relays it.

Several questions should be asked when dealing with setting. What can you do to make the scenes fresh? Are there any peculiarities in the scene? What’s left out? How does the setting convey what is to come? How does the author use words/phrases?

Look at your story. Do you have a setting in each scene. Do you convey mood by the use of setting? Have you set each scene?