Inspiration or Hard Work? And Conferences!

Writers often hear that hard work is more important than inspiration. However, when I feel uninspired, no matter how hard I work, my writing is uninspired.

But this last month, I’ve been keeping my butt in the chair, writing ideas for possible stories, reading, doing random writing, reading some more and feeling at loose ends because none of my ideas really clicked.

I tried telling myself to trust the process, half heartedly assuring myself that my unconscious was working on something. I’d been in this in place before, with lots of things just finished and no clear idea of what I wanted to start on next. Trust the process, I’d say. Oh, so hard to do! No matter how many times I uttered my mantra, my mind kept telling me that I’d never have an idea worth writing about again.

A week ago I had time to kill. I was going to Varsha Bajaj’s house for a preconference party for Houston’s SCBWI’s annual conference. (Fabulous, by the way!) Traffic was exceptionally light, so I stopped at a Starbuck’s so I wouldn’t arrive too early. I sat with a soy green tea latte and pulled out my writing journal. I had no idea what I’d write about. In fifteen minutes I had a premise and a character that excited me. The muse had paid me an unexpected visit! Later I realized the seed for my idea had been planted a week before by an article in the Sunday New York Times Magazine.

On Saturday, I attended the conference where I was inspired by our wonderful guest speakers,author Cynthia Leitich Smith; Ruta Rimas, Assistant Editor at Harper Collins; Lisa Ann Sandell, author and Editor at Scholastic Press; Agent Sara Crowe; Patrick Collins, Creative Editor, Henry Holt; Nancy Feresten, Editor-in-Chief, National Geographic; and Alexandra Cooper, Editor, Simon and Schuster. Also inspiring were the many new and old writers friends I talked with that day.

I took a lot of pictures, most of which didn't turn out since I was using my cell phone camera for the first time. Here are the ones I got.


Ruta Rimas, Assistant Editor, Harper Collins

Lisa Ann Sandell, Author and Editor, Scholastic Press

Authors Joy Preble and Janet Fox

Former Houston RA Charles Trevino and Author Sally Lee

Authors Doris Fisher and Mary Wade, founding member of Houston SCBWI

One of my truly inspiring critique partners, Vonna Carter

Author Varsha Bajaj, holding her Mary Wade Award for her service to Houston SCBWI

Author Dotti Enderle

Agent Sara Crowe and author Varian Johnson

Illustator Layne Johnson and Sondra Johnson

Austin SCBWI RA Tim Crow

After my visit from the muse and this terrific conference, all week I’ve felt inspired! I’ve written pages and pages of notes that just might turn into a good story.

So what do you think? Was all that butt-in-chair thing necessary for inspiration to finally appear?

My guess is that my muse really doesn’t need me. She is perfectly happy dreaming away in my unconscious. Perhaps she only pays attention to me if I make a real effort to show her that I’m worth her trouble. If she sees I’m willing to work hard, then she will give me a story worth writing.

And she also loves a great conference!

You always pass failure on the way to success. Mickey Rooney

New baby

Oh, I’m missing my last WIP! There’s nothing I’d like better than a ninth or tenth draft that I could look through for passive verbs or overused words with my trusty search and find. How happy I’d be sharpening my prose with punchier verbs while drinking a grande chai latte at the bookstore. Having a book that’s almost ready to go out into the world is very satisfying.

What I have instead is my yellow tablet full of barely readable notes for my infant WIP --scrawled bits and pieces of scenes, characters trying to come to life, things that make think, "What in the heck was I thinking here?"

Some writers prefer writing a first draft more than revising. Actually, I like the fun of all the what if’s and ah ha’s, too, just like I love holding a cuddly new baby. I think what’s getting to me is remembering the birthing and rearing of the last one. It’s a bit like what I felt when I realized having a child meant at least 18 years of really hard work. (Actually it’s much longer than that, but that’s another topic.) Now that my two children are adults, I'd find it incredibly daunting to start all over raising another child.

So here I am, starting over with a new WIP still in diapers. Hopefully this one will have a better start because I've learned some things. Maybe this time I'll learn a thing or two more.

Tomorrow I’ll get out that tablet and keep on working, trying to savor every stage of this new story's growth. After all, they do grow up so fast!

A Strategy for Starting

Lately, I’ve been reading books and blogs that focus on structuring your novel. Today I enjoyed Vonna Carter’s blog and her links dealing with structure. Her comment that Charlotte Rains Dixon believes in writing many “discovery” drafts before considering structure resonated with me.

Last year was all about revising, but now I’m beginning. The tack I’m taking with my new WIP is free writing about my story idea everyday on a thick yellow tablet. I’m one of those writers who finds writing by hand helpful when generating ideas. If I fill the tablet up, I’ll have plenty of ideas when I begin to write a first draft. This is similar to Robert Olen Butler’s suggestion in From Where You Dream to spend several months daydreaming about your story and writing four to five word scene descriptions on index cards. Only after you have several hundred cards, do you organize the scenes and begin to write. Right now, I’m getting to know my character, other people in her life, and what she wants. I’m discovering what she’ll do to get there.

I hope this method will minimize the times I have to rethink my whole plot. And maybe I can know before I actually start if I’m working with an idea that I can love for a year or more.

I’m curious about how other writers begin a new novel.

For the future, I’m collecting ideas on structure to read when I’m ready to start Chapter One. I’ve also got Story by Robert McKee waiting to be read. But for now, I’m simply filling my yellow tablet.

Miracle List

I’m finally back to work after a wonderful holiday visiting my daughter and son-in-law with his mother, my husband and my mother in Santa Fe.

We stayed in a great place just outside of Santa Fe called Suitable Digs. At night you can hear the coyotes howl, yet it’s just three miles from the Plaza. We saw some amazing houses called Earthships north of Taos that are completely off the grid. Built partially in the ground with windows only on one side, they generate all their power, have indoor vegetable gardens year round, and use rain, snow, and wells to provide water. It was really, really COLD, so as much as I hated leaving, I looked forward to returning to warmer Texas weather. However, it’s been colder than normal since I got back and a record breaking Arctic front is in the process of blasting into Houston.

Sitting at my computer, I remember the resolutions I revealed when my family took turns sharing in a lovely Japanese restaurant on New Year’s eve. A few sips of saki, and I was confident they could be accomplished easily. They seem a bit more daunting now, and I realize hard work is ahead.

Actually, I’ve got two lists. My Resolution List includes things under my control such as writing a new novel, doing yoga everyday, blogging more often. The other is a Miracle List of wishes not completely under my control, including, “The perfect editor loves my new novel." I enjoy thinking about how many of my last year's miracles came true!

I spent last year revising – first a middle grade time travel novel, then a YA fantasy. I managed to revise two picture books and write the first draft of a new picture book, as well. Now I’m preparing to begin a new WIP. This week I’m sifting through my idea file and fishing for new ideas, while looking for the story that needs to be written now. It seems fitting to be at this stage of the process at the beginning of a new decade.

To help the process, I’m beginning my days with free writing, when dreams are still floating in my head. I might find an unusual word and write something with that word in it. Sometimes I find a picture in my art post card collection and write a story for it. I write my dream from the night before as a story, embellishing or changing it as I want.

It’s a miracle how ideas that show up this way.

Agent Appreciation Day

Last week I found out about Agent Appreciation Day the day after it happened. Then I got a nasty bug which I’m still nursing rather than passing on to the children in the library in Anhuac, Texas, where I thought I’d be reading The Three Bears' Christmas today. So sorry to be missing their Christmas party!

I’m several days late, but I don’t want to let this chance pass to tell why, in the world of agents, my agent Erin Murphy shines. I don’t know whether to begin with what makes her a saavy agent or an all around great person. I’m so fortunate to have an agent who is both. I’ll begin with some of Erin's agent talents.

I trust and respect her ability to know how to improve a manuscript. She also knows the right editors for particular projects. She answers my emails promptly. She keeps me informed about feedback from editors. She guides me to work toward my strengths and is honest about what I need to work on to improve my craft, as well as guiding my writing career in the best direction.

All that, and she’s also a really lovely person. She establishes a personal connection with her clients, and helps them connect to each other. We have a Yahoo group and a retreat once a year. Last summer in Portland, we each read from our WIP and I was humbled to be in the company of such talented writers (who are also nice people!) I love the friends I have made at the retreats!

Here’s the agency’s new website, where you can see the works of Erin’s clients and connect to their websites and blogs.

Thank you Erin for being the perfect agent for me!

Adam McCauley

Today I’ve been catching up on reading blogs. When I checked my Google reader, there were over a hundred unread blogs waiting for me. Luckily I’m always attracted to the illustrator interviews on Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast and carefully looked over all the ones I’d missed before marking them as read. Happily, I found a great interview with Adam McCauley whose newest picture book is Vivian Walsh’s June and August. One of his next projects is my book, I Think I See A UFO and he gives it a mention in his interview. Adam’s work is amazing, and I can’t wait wait to see what our little green men will look like.

Vote!

Maybe you’ve seen Liz Scanlon’s beautiful new picture book ALL THE WORLD, illustrated by the amazing Marla Frazee.

Now you can vote for it (or one of the other entries) to be in Cheerio’s boxes at http://bit.ly/zbmOQ.

Here’s how Liz describes her book at her website.

Following a circle of family and friends through the course of a day from morning till night, this book affirms the importance of all things great and small in our world, from the tiniest shell on the beach, to warm family connections, to the widest sunset sky.

What better message can a child get in a box of cereal? Go Liz!

Also, congratulations to the National Book Award finalists in Young People’s Literature:

David Small, Stitches, (Norton,2009)
Deborah Heiligman, Charles and Emma: The Darwins’ Leap of Faith (Holt, 2008)
Phillip Hoose, Claudette and Colvin: Twice Toward Justice (Farrar, Straus, 2009)
Laini Taylor, Lips Touch: Three Times (Arthur A. Levine Books/Scholastic, 2009)
Rita Williams-Garcia, Jumped (HarperTeen, 2009)

Celebrate all the good reading ahead!

And vote!