How to use this Page

I've been having so much fun using all the new info on my picture books!  Before the intensive, my mentor (Joyce Sweeney) said that almost all writers are strongest in one genre, and that I was primarily a middle grade writer.  After seeing several manuscripts I've revised since the intensive, Joyce said that I am definitely a middle grade AND picture book writer.  Wahoo!  Hard work, always looking for new techniques, reading and analyzing zillions of picture books, and belonging to several amazing critique groups really does pay off!

Lisa gave us great questions to ask when revising. I can’t include all of them, but here are a couple important ones to think about:
• Does the main character solve his or her problem? (I think this is one of the most important things to keep in mind!)
• Does a secondary character hijack your story?

Naughty main characters
Even if they’re naughty, they still should have something likeable about them. Word choices can help…like The Recess Queen. Other great ones to check out are: The True Story of the Three Little Pigs, The Wolf’s Chicken Stew, Elinor and Violet, A Visitor for Bear.

There are so many stories with animals who stand in for humans, because they’re universal. Animals can represent every sex, race, and it’s often hard to tell if they’re rich or poor. It blurs those lines and allows the character to do more. It’s hard to tell what age most animals are, so they can often represent both a child and an adult. It also allows a character to be naughty. Kids aren’t very forgiving of other children, which could make them dislike a naughty main character…but they usually don’t have a problem with a fuzzy, adorable troublemaker like Peter Rabbit. Maybe that’s why he’s here a hundred years later!

Don’t use personification unless it’s really needed and you can do it well. It’s very hard to do! Some great examples are: The Very Small Pea and the Princess to Be, Giant Meatball, and When Moon Fell Down.

If you use an adult as the main character, there must be something very childlike about him or her. Some fantastic books that do this well are: The Old Woman Who Names Things, Saving Sweetness, Mrs. Toggles Zipper, Mrs. McBloom, Clean Up Your Classroom.

Watch for redundancy in your manuscripts…but remember that it isn’t all bad. Repetition for emphasis is okay. Learn to spot the difference!
Read it out loud and see how it flows. Page turns are scene separators. They’re almost like time travel devices!
See if you can work in the rule of threes…it can be in sentences, scenes, or maybe even the big picture. Also look for places to use alliteration and other kinds of word play.
Go back to the beginning to bookend the end of the manuscript. You can make it go full circle, or have a shocking surprise ending.


Alexandra Penfold likes humorous picture books with quirky bits parents appreciate. She often doesn’t love gross humor or manuscripts that are overly sentimental. She doesn’t seek rhyme—it needs to be exceptional.

She spoke about favorite first lines. Some favorites mentioned by the participants or authors and agents who let Alexandra know ahead of time were: The Big Red Barn, Th

Add a Comment

My next Mixed-Up Files post goes up on Wednesday, and I can't wait to share part two of Ruth McNally Barshaw's interview.  You can check out the first one here.  She included a writing and illustrating exercise that many of you loved...and she has another wonderful writing and illustrating exercise ready for Wednesday and a list of books that helped inspire her to become an author/illustrator!  Plus, Ruth has an extra-special giveaway planned.  She'll randomly choose two winners to receive a personalized copy of Ellie McDoodle: Have Pen Will Travel, which has a brand new paperback reissue coming out tomorrow that includes sketch lessons and other extra goodies on the back pages.  Ruth will sketch in each book--and the first name chosen will also receive an incredibly special original sketch!  I'll give you the details on Wednesday (both here and on the Mixed-Up Files blog).

I had so much fun interviewing Ruth, and want to wish her a happy birthday today...and happy book birthday tomorrow.  :)  

As most of you probably know, I'm proud to call Joyce Sweeney my mentor and friend.  I feel so lucky to be in her weekly workshop/critique group.  My writing has improved so much with her guidance, and she's helped many writers break into this business--which resulted in 32 bean ceremonies.  If you're not sure what that is, check out this awesome interview that Cynthia Leitich Smith posted of Joyce in Cynsations!

I heard about Joyce's incredible critique group at my first FL SCBWI conference, and couldn't believe that some writers drove way over an hour to attend her group...until I met Joyce at a conference critique.  Her feedback has always been spot on, and has helped me dig deeper than I ever thought possible.  She's helped me find my strengths and improve my weaknesses, and has encouraged me every step of the way.  Thank you super-mentor Joyce, for everything you've done to help me and so many others!  

I recently ran Joyce's Success Story in the FL SCBWI listserv, and would love to share it with all of you!  You'll notice that she said she has given away 30 beans so far...that's because two of her peeps have sold their manuscripts since she wrote this! 
 

Florida SCBWI Success Story!

 Joyce Sweeney

 

My success story is going to be long, because I've been a writer for a long time -- since 1984!  During that time, my career path has taken some interesting twists and turns.  I wanted to be a writer when I was eight years old and I remember taking this aptitude test in the second grade that made me really mad.  It said I would be happier as a teacher!  I remember tearing it up, thinking that piece of paper would actually stand in the way of my writing dreams.&nbs

Add a Comment

It felt incredible to finish up my Mom Wars revision!  Thanks to my amazing critique groups and beta readers, I dug deeper than I ever thought possible.  So far, I've only sent it to one amazing agent who really liked the beginning and praised my voice when she heard it at a conference.  It felt wonderful to send new hope out after working on my middle-grade novel for so long!  I'm probably in for a four month wait, and decided that I'm going to try to hold off contacting any other agents until after I have it critiqued at the Orlando Workshop...just in case I find a way to add a little extra sparkle. 

Lolly spent most of her time curled up next to my chair while I revised, she happy danced when I finished, then put on her rock star glasses to celebrate.

So...what's next for me?  Well, I decided to take a short break. I participated in Paula Yoo's NaPiBoWriWee challenge, where the goal is to write 7 picture book drafts in 7 days.  This challenge helped me organize my ideas and then let them flow, instead of trying to use every single piece of information I know about picture books in the first draft (which could cause a person to stare at a blank page for a really long time).  That's why I love challenges like this!  There's plenty of time to incorporate all that wonderful info, revise, revise, revise, run it through my critique groups, and revise a zillion more times.  Besides getting over Scary Blank Page Syndrome, it also helped me experiment with different formats I might never have tried on my own.  And I love when I have an idea, start to get to know my characters, and the manuscript takes a totally surprising twist.  At the end of the week...I had 8 brand new picture book manuscripts.  Wahoo!  I can't wait to revise them.

Huge congrats to all my friends who tackled this challenge.  It was so much fun cheering each other on in the NaPiBoWriWee Facebook group! 

I ended up taking a few more days off from novels, and revised a bunch of older picture books.  I couldn't decide between Sock-a-palooza and Cake-tastrophe for my other Orlando critique.  I brought them both to my weekly group yesterday, and received fantastic advice.  They loved both manuscripts, but Cake-tastrophe was almost ready to go as is (a few tweaks, and I had to take something out of the manuscript that I love...but I could definitely see why it could be stronger without it).  Sock-a-palooza is so much fun, and I love the new changes!  There were a couple of larger ones though, so I want to let it sit for a bit after this revision, and run it through at least one critique group again.  I have a feeling I'll end up bringing the first page of this for a critique at the Picture Book Intensive I'm taking in Orlando with Alexandra Penfold and Lisa Wheeler.

It's amazing how long it can take to really revise something right, and I'm determined to do my best not to submit anything before it's 100% ready.  Whether that means a zillion rounds of picture book revisions, or finding the perfect place for a plot point in a novel that I thought was almost ready to submit.  Mom Wars had an issue with something that happened before the book started and was mentioned on the first page...but it really needed to be shown in scene.  So I moved it back to about the end of the first quarter, and it really popped.  I couldn't believe I ever had it in another spot.  Problem solved...right?  Um, no.  When my awesome mentor, Joyce Sweeney, read the full, she helped me see that the effects of the new scene didn't ripple through the rest of the manuscript enough...and it's because it was still i

Add a Comment

When I attended my first SCBWI conference in 2005, I instantly became a conference addict.  It's amazing to spend time with others who love children's books as much as I do!  I always leave with so much information and inspiration--and I have to say that everyone is always so friendly and supportive.  I love being part of such a wonderful community!

We have an amazing SCBWI FL Mid-Year Workshop in Orlando on June 25th, with incredible intensives on June 24th.  The hotel is on Disney property, so it's the perfect excuse for a vacation!  Here's a link to more info about our Orlando Workshop at the Coronado Springs hotel, and you can also read the faculty bios. 

 

Intensives--Friday, June 24^th 

Picture Book Intensive

Alexandra Penfold: editor at Paula Wiseman, an imprint of Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers

Lisa Wheeler: author with over thirty titles on library shelves including picture books in prose and rhyme, an easy reader series, three books of poems, and creative nonfiction for the very young

Novel Intensive

Michelle Burke: editor at Knopf Books for Young Readers 

Kathleen Duey: award winning author who has published over 70 books for readers K-YA

Marjetta Geerling: author of FANCY WHITE TRASH and another novel scheduled for release in 2012

Illustrators’ Intensive

Lucy Cummins: associate art director with Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers

Priscilla Garcia Burris: author and illustrator, SCBWI National Illustrator Coordinator & Advisor

Linda Shute: illustrator or author/illustrator of 13 picture books and our FL SCBWI Illustrators’ Coordinator
  

Add a Comment

The Novel Intensive

 Erin Murphy, Krista Marino, and Joyce Sweeney

 FL SCBWI Regional Conference 2011 in Miami 

This was an absolutely amazing intensive.  The three instructors worked so well together, it felt like they’ve been putting this intensive on for years.  I’ll share some of the highlights with you and wish I could blog about it in more detail…but I can’t give away everything.  If you ever have a chance to take a workshop or intensive with any of them in the future, sign up ASAP!

 

Overcoming Obstacles

Led by agent Erin Murphy

Erin asked what our fantasy writing life would be like, and said that obstacles are usually assumptions and not reality.

What strengths/talents and weaknesses do you have?  Write them down…because we’re often too busy putting obstacles in our way to notice the good things.

Some people are over-disciplined (they might outline or have to write at the same time each day, and others are under-disciplined.

It’s great to have a support community.  She mentioned Verla Kay’s Blueboards as a wonderful one (I agree 100%--I’ve learned so much, made tons of writing friends, and even found my online critique groups through the Blueboards).

Erin mentioned a method called the Pomodoro Technique, which helps her stay on task.  You write down your goals the night before, then set a timer for twenty-five minutes and don’t let anything distract you from your goal.  If you need to look something up or come up with a brilliant idea for a different project, quickly jot down the info so you can work on it at another time. 

Joyce talked about the importance of a great critique group. She says to try to have at least one person who is better than you.&n

Add a Comment

I feel lucky to live in an area where there are so many supportive writers!  I took yet another amazing workshop with Joyce Sweeney, and I’ve already been able to strengthen my middle-grade novel, Mom Wars, thanks to the new insight I’ve gained from these exercises.

Thanks Joyce, for letting me share this incredibly helpful info with my online friends!    

Readers really don’t get to know a character from a physical description—it’s always shown through dialogue.

 

·       The main character is basically the most like you—should have your heart and soul.  He or she is a disguised part of you.

 

·       The conflict the main character has should be something you have gone through and understand...or hope to understand. 

 

·       The better you know yourself, the better you’ll be able to make your character.  Make sure he or she has flaws—you can’t just paint the character in a good light.

 

Exercise 1: In about 75 words, describe your main character in a way that lets us see his or her built in flaw.

 

The plot can have four big turns, where the reader sees something change the character or make the character understand better. 

Plot turn 1: The first quarter point where readers get sucked into the story.

Plot turn 2: Midpoint.

Plot turn 3: Climax (can be close to the end).

Plot turn 4: Resolution.

 

Exercise 2: Write out the four plot points for your character—list the emotion next to each point.

Add a Comment

I'm sorry that it took me so long to type up more of my notes from Joyce Sweeney's fabulous Revision Workshop. I've been in the middle of an intense revision myself, and love having new insight to help me dig deeper than ever into a manuscript. I am extremely lucky to be surrounded by Joyce and other fabulous people who constantly push me to dig deeper and discover more about my characters and story than I ever imagined possible. I hope these notes help you as much as they've helped me!

I only had time to add the next three numbers on the revision checklist, but they're chock full of helpful advice. I'll try to finish up the list (or at least add a few more gems) next week. I'm up to my eyeballs in my revision (and loving every minute of the process). I haven't even had time to prepare for NaPiBoWriWee (National Picture Book Writing Week) led by the amazing Paula Yoo. It's a challenge that starts on May 1st, where you have to write the first draft of seven picture books in seven days. I did it last year, and it was an amazing experience! I'm still revising some of them, and I'm absolutely in love with two of those manuscripts and can't wait to start submitting them soon). If you write picture books, take the NaPiBoWriWee challenge with me! Here's a link: http://paulayoo.com/blog

I posted some revision gems and numbers one through five of the revision checklist from Joyce Sweeney's workshop here: http://mindyalyse.livejournal.com/57556.html

6. Plot—this is the number one problem for most writers.
• Look at your external and internal arc by making a chapter by chapter outline of the action and emotion. It should happen in an escalating manner. Make sure you're motivating the changes in a character, and remember that not making a choice can actually count as a choice.
• These events should help change your character enough that he or she isn't the same person by the end of the novel. (Last summer, I learned a great exercise to test this in a revision intensive led by Julie Strauss-Gabel. First, write a journal entry in your character's voice, focusing on how he or she would've responded to a miserable day at the beginning of your novel. Then write a journal entry your character might write if he or she had the same miserable day at the end of your novel.)
• Watch TV shows or movies and write down how many minutes into it you see plot points occur. Then you can study the structure. This also works great while reading books—especially ones full of action and adventure.
7. Texture—subtext and description add layers to a manuscript. These specific details, such as setting, weather, sense of place, and sensory input help liven up a manuscript. If you mention food, what kind is it? Make up a song title instead of just saying music. Don't just say something smells wonderful, let us experience it by saying something specific, like jasmine. Don't keep it generic. Look at colors and symbols (a ticking clock signaling that time is running out, a bell can mean 'watch out', and standing in the middle of a bridge can show that a character needs to decide which way to go...forward or backward). If there's a death, you can use symbols to foreshadow it (check out the Dream Dictionary for some ideas).
8. Subplots and minor characters—they need to have their own arc. You can check this by creating a file of scenes for each major character (I search for the person's name, then copy and paste any scene they are in or are talked about into the new file). Look at one character story at a time, and make sure there are no loose threads. If there's a subplot about something a character collects, you can check that arc, too.

Add a Comment

Here's part one of my notes from Joyce Sweeney's revision workshop. Besides the gems in the beginning, she gave us a checklist of sixteen areas to explore during revisions. The first five are listed below, and I'll blog about the rest of her tips later this week.

There are two kinds of revision. The first type of revision we tackle is for ourselves. Once we've revised many, many times for ourselves (and critique groups), writers can find themselves revising for an agent or editor. Some revision notes are straightforward, while others feel more like a secret language. I feel so lucky that Joyce has helped me analyze revision requests and conference critiques. For this workshop, she's focusing on revising for ourselves.
Here are some incredibly helpful tips:
• Just because a manuscript is good and you're dying to send it out, doesn't mean it's ready. There's often so much more you can and should do...especially in such a competitive market.
• Before submitting, make sure it's the manuscript of your dreams...and then do at least one more round of revision to make sure. Don't send to an editor or agent, then contact them asking to send a better version.
• You can get dependent on groups and critique buddies. Make sure you learn from the comments so you won't keep making the same mistakes in future manuscripts. Don't expect them to fix the same mistakes over and over.
• Know your usual issues, such as having too many characters, weak plotting, etc. and watch out for it as you revise. See if you can find a critique buddy who is strong in those areas.
• You'll never get to the point where you don't need feedback. Even published authors need it. Do your best to find a great match (I've been extremely lucky with my groups and critique buddies...but it doesn't happen overnight—it can take a while to find the right people).
Here is a checklist of five areas to revise (and I'll blog about the rest soon).
1. Make sure you have a clean manuscript. Check for spelling issues, tense or point of view switches, and keep an eye out for some of the most common mistakes people make. (I highlighted some of them here: http://mindyalyse.livejournal.com/37710.html#cutid1).
2. Balance of elements—make sure there's a balance of narration, action, and description.
• Some of us overwrite (that's me in early drafts). Overwriters usually have beautiful language. They get seduced by the words and keep writing and writing. Make sure your words count. You can eliminate words like: that, then, while, just--instead of saying 'and then', stick with 'and'. (Years ago, Kathleen Duey pointed out that I had a habit of telling, then showing what I told. This is one way I streamline now. I also find it helpful to pretend I'm entering a contest with a word count and need to eliminate five hundred or so words—once they're gone, I've rarely put them back in).
• Others tend to underwrite—more like it's written for TV or a movie. Vary sentences to draw more attention from the reader. Use more description, and bring in different senses (more about this later).
3. Language—often the words that first pop onto the page aren't the best ones. Keep searching for the strongest possible language. You can see a word cloud on http://www.wordle.net. The larger the word appears, the more you've used it. This can be a great device, like a soundtrack that sets the mood with a word like 'danger', but make sure you don't have an echo of common words.
4. Striking images/art direction—watch where you stage important scenes like the climax. Make sure you find an interesting setting that readers can easily visualize.
5. Scene—every scene should have an arc, where there's a clear beginning, middle, and end. Make sure every scene matters. (Here's a link to an amazing scene building workshop Joyce recently led:

Add a Comment

I feel lucky to live in an area with so many helpful writers, and especially my fabulous mentor, Joyce Sweeney. In addition to leading a weekly critique group that I participate in, she also holds workshops. In February, she led a fantastic workshop on scene building. By the end of the two hours, I knew exactly how to attack a new scene I needed to work into my novel! I asked how much I could blog about it, and Joyce said that I could share the details, because she always adds new material to her workshops.

Here it is! I hope it helps you as much as it helped me!

JOYCE SWEENEY'S WORKSHOP—BUILDING SCENES

Each scene needs four things:
1. Idea
2. Plot
3. Voice
4. Structure (which includes emotion and character)

Everyone is good at one of these—it's like nature gives us one for free. We're often okay at two others as well. But there's usually one out of the four that we suck at, and need to work hard to achieve.

A well built scene is like a well-plotted novel. It has an arc.

If you feel like something is missing from a scene in your manuscript, see if you can add any of these to help round out your scene arc.

Parts of a scene:
1. Orientation—the reader is now in your world and needs to know who is in the scene, what is going on, and why, when, and where it is happening.
Exercise: Pick a chapter to work on throughout this exercise and write the first paragraph.
2. Promise—This is the foreshadow. What the reader should worry about. You can find a key word to use. In Headlock, Joyce used the word wash out as her key word.
Exercise: Write the second paragraph using a key word.
3. Inciting event—This is where the scene really begins. Often, a character will enter a scene at this point.
Exercise: Write your inciting incident.
4. Plot point 1: This happens when your main character becomes committed to a course of action.
5. Plot point 2: This is the low point in the scene. There is often a second low point...after that occurs, things usually start to look better.
6. Raise the stakes for your main character. This can occur at the same time as the climax (the most important thing and the real reason for writing the scene).
7. Resolution or promise (it depends on where you are in the book).

If it's the last chapter:
How different is the character now?
End the character arc of the entire book.
Hint of what was, and a little promise of what life might be like now.

If it's the first chapter or any other than the last:
Promise of upcoming event in the next chapter

Notes:

• If a scene continues for several chapters without any time lapsing in between, then you can keep one scene arc for those chapters.
• Don't have two people talk, and then have someone speak up halfway through the scene that the reader didn't know was there the entire time.
• Scenes often have narration in the beginning and at the end, with lots of action and dialogue in between.

Add a Comment

“I'm in Washington Square Park wishing I could write a poem, the poem that would help. Poetry doesn't help, money helps. I know I don't believe that. What to do. Observe, observe, observe. It is my new mission to lay back and observe. Put less of myself out there and listen more.”

That's memoirist Janice Erlbaum writing a blog entry in 2005, reflecting on life changes that would ultimately bring her in contact with a teenaged runaway named Sam. (She had just finished her first book, Girlbomb.

Erlbaum would keep writing as she came closer and closer to this troubled girl, and that journey is recorded in her new memoir, Have You Found Her.

Today, Erlbaum explains how she ended up becoming a writer and how she supported herself over the course of her career--all the nitty-gritty detail that can help a fledgling writers think about their own lives.

Welcome to my deceptively simple feature, Five Easy Questions. In the spirit of Jack Nicholson’s mad piano player, I run a weekly set of quality conversations with writing pioneers—delivering some practical, unexpected advice about web writing.

Jason Boog:
While writing and living this book, you also maintained a freelance career. This can be a very difficult lifestyle for a writer. How did you hold your life together, both financially and emotionally, during those early years before your first book was published?

Janice Erlbaum:
Most of my freelancing involved my books, and my steady gig as a columnist for BUST magazine, and thank god for that – I’m terrible at pitching articles and drumming up piecework. Continue reading...

 

Add a Comment

Today's worthy of a double post because... I just got my March copy of The Writer and it has my Breakthrough column on page fourteen!!! Yay!! :) I've been trying to break into The Writer for five years and I'm beyond thrilled to see an article of mine in that mag.

I hope you guys check it out. :)

Display Comments Add a Comment

I ask myself that question every day when I post, wondering if I should chop my extra paragraph about some sort-of-related-but-not-really point about writing or if I should keep my post short and simple for your overtaxed web reading list.

Today journalist Mark Oppenheimer wrote a piece for the Huffington Post meditating about the best length for a web-based pieces, giving good advice for writers looking to pitch stories online: "Slate pieces circle around 1,000 words, sometimes more, sometimes fewer. Salon will go more screens, and so longer... Interestingly, bloggers tend to go longer than more traditional journalists on the web, and the lengths are more palatable in the single-screen typepad of Blogspot format." 

Interesting enough. But then, over at The New York Times, I found this REALLY, REALLY long essay by documentary film genius, Errol Morris. While I loved his obsessive look at war photographs, I was sure that nobody else would ever read something that long. At the bottom, he had over one hundred comments.

The lesson is simple. Stop worrying about length! Write good content, and let your readers sort out the rest...

 

Add a Comment

Besides playing in the rock band, Richmond Fontaine, our special guest this week has worked as a warehouse worker, house painter, and writer. 

Today, Willy Vlautin explains how he survived the lean years to write his first novel, The Motel Life--a story that can teach us a lot about endurance and balance as a fledgling writer.

Welcome to my deceptively simple feature, Five Easy Questions. In the spirit of Jack Nicholson's mad piano player, I run a weekly set of quality interviews with writing pioneers—delivering some practical, unexpected advice about web writing.

Jason Boog:
You've had countless jobs to support yourself over the years, but your band and your writing have been your focus. How did you survive the early lean years when nobody believed in you and you were working too many jobs? Any advice for young artists looking to balance their work with a pile of other commitments?

Willy Vlautin:

I hadn't had much success with music or writing for years and years. Maybe 20 years. Continue reading...

Add a Comment

Where in the world is your book? A string of geographical posts about fictional settings surfaced in my reader today. (Thanks, SF Signal!)

To start things off, Google blogged about how they are slowly "geomapping the world's literary information," and creating a Google map of famous settings from literature.

Then Elegant Variation blogs about the joys of "reading books in the cities where they are set." I did this in New York and Guatemala, and this literary tourism always inspired me. If I had more money, I would spend my life visiting these literary locations.

Dig it:  "I've only done it twice. The second book-and-city combination was Joanna Scott's Arrogance in Vienna. The first was George Eliot's Middlemarch in Rome."

Speaking of money, over at Morning News, Courtney Lichterman has a heartbreaking tale of freelance dental woes. As both a struggling writer and root canal patient, I was riveted by this familiar problem:

"My departure from my last job was a mental health emergency. The job was supposed to be a temporary thing; it had nothing to do with who I was, but it paid the bills until I could find something else ... [soon] the thrill of being “not there” eclipsed the stress of finding temporary work. And then a sequence of little ailments appeared: a recurring headache became a series of debilitating migraines, a bad back from years of slumping in front of a computer; a slight pain in an upper tooth."

Publishing Spotted collects the best of what's around on writing blogs on any given day. Feel free to send tips and suggestions to your fearless editor: jason [at] thepublishingspot.com.

 

Add a Comment

There's no handbook in the world that can prepare you psychologically for the absurd pace of freelance writing. 

A few months ago, I was struggling to balance my day-job and my freelance work, and I stumbled upon Susan Johnston's practical interview with first-time novelist, Min Jin Lee.

Listening to Lee explain how she converted her legal experience day-job into a novel, I realized I needed to check her out.

I finished reading her first book, Free Food for Millionaires last week, and I'm pleased to announce that Min Jin Lee will be our special guest next week, answering questions about outlining novels, writing transitions in your work, and how to stay sane as a writer and mother.

If you can't wait, check out her inspiring Urban Muse interview:

"Rejections hurt. I don’t know how to make them not hurt. But this is what I will say about those of us who still feel the sting of naysayers—vulnerability is a kind of strength for writers."

 

Add a Comment

I stumbled apon this great rates calculator for freelancers (link above). As it turns out I am charging almost exactly what I should be to live on. The only thing that really got me was the question "what is your billable hours percentage". I figure I'm only at 50% right now which means I'm still spending more time than I'd like to be marketing and looking for clients. Of course, this will all come in time and honestly the entire adventure of it all is very rewarding and fun! Meeting new people, discovering the world of fine art (which as it turns out is indeed different than illustration afterall) and signing contracts for new jobs...

The last couple days I've been setting up my studio outside on my deck. Painting under my new umbrella (bought for the Artwalk this July) with the birds at my bird feeder and the sun pouring around me... I swear this is my dream job in every aspect.

Display Comments Add a Comment

There are one hundred million websites (including this one) that will tell you how to escape the day-to-day grind of freelancing and move into a book writing career.

Today, I read an article that revealed the only fool-proof method to break out as a writer. The Big Top Secret Method for Becoming a Successful Freelance Writer is...WORK! 

This little gem of wisdom came from rock & roll journalist Matt Diehl, as revealed on the writing blog, SlushPile.net:

"The lifelong punk rocker, art history major, and respected music critic says you shouldn’t hesitate to review 'someone on American Idol,' he says. 'It may be against your value system on some levels. But you actually might learn something. That is being a professional writer. Take writing assignments that you would normally turn down for whatever reason and see what you do with them.'"

Work. That's the secret. Work whenever you can. You build clips and build relationships with editors. That's the only way it happens, that's the only way people learn to trust you as a writer.

Check out the rest of that invaluable essay for more tips about managing your day-job and freelance work, research, and insider music journalism gossip.

 

Add a Comment

Feel like you aren't getting anywhere with your writing career? Feel like you spend too much time at the day job?

Over at the The Urban Muse, Susan Johnston is exploring how Min Jin Lee converted her legal experience into a novel. It's an inspiring, practical interview: "I had intended to write a short story, but my best friend Dionne Bennett, a professor at Loyola, said it would make a great novel because I am familiar with this world of Wall Street and New York’s complicated class structure." 

The Inkthinker blog just published an article about how to leave better comments on your favorite blogs. In this new media universe, comments can build your community and lead to new relationships. These are invaluable skills. 

Find out what Stephen Dixon learned over the course of a thirty-year writing career that produced 15 books and 500 short stories. This John Hopkins Magazine profile digs deep into the economics and practical work habits of a professional writer.

Check it out: "He tries for one finished page per day. That may not sound like much, but he'll rewrite a page 30 or 40 times until it feels right. He says he is satisfied if he produces 200 finished pages a year." (Thanks, Poetry Hut!)

 

Add a Comment

"So what really "killed" New Journalism? I would say it was the twin evils of all magazine journalism: service and sensationalism. As Weingarten notes, by the early 1970s, magazines like New York were beginning the long slide down toward "Top 10" service features and puffy lifestyle stories. ... The journalistic form with which writers like Wolfe chronicled postwar consumerism eventually succumbed to it."

That's Robert Boynton describing the earthshaking content shift that rocked the New Journalists. Boynton survived that identity crisis --he's written for everybody from The New Yorker to Rolling Stone.

Recently, Boynton published book called The New New Journalism, asking award-winning journalists for professional advice about working as a journalist in during this new media identity crisis for journalists.

This week, he's our guest in my deceptively simple feature, Five Easy Questions. In the spirit of Jack Nicholson’s mad piano player, I run a weekly set of quality interviews with writing pioneers—delivering some practical, unexpected advice about web publishing. 

Jason Boog:
You worked for many years as a freelance journalist. How did you survive the lean, uncertain early years of your career? Any advice for fledgling journalists looking to strike out on their own? Anything that you would do differently? Continue reading...

 

Add a Comment

Few writers have worn as many hats as Mur Lafferty. Besides writing the book on podcasting, she's published short stories, written stories for 15 role-playing games, one textbook, and scores of podcasting scripts.

If you want to hear her work, check out Geek Fu Action Grip and  I Should Be Writing, inspirational material for fledgling writers and struggling nerds.

This week, she's sharing some of her wisdom in my deceptively simple feature, Five Easy Questions. In the spirit of Jack Nicholson’s mad piano player, I run a weekly set of quality interviews with writing pioneers—delivering some practical, unexpected advice about web publishing. 

Jason Boog:
You've been a freelance writer for about seven years. How did you survive those tough, lean early years? How did you find the editors and websites who helped you along the way? Now you have a very full plate of projects--how did you balance your work life and your writing life? Continue reading...

 

Add a Comment