WASTE NOT

Although this post was originally an article written to encourage children's writers, there's something for everyone at the end. Stay tuned...

Lin Oliver’s keynote speech at the SCBWI Spring writing conference was filled with gems. Her writing tip from Sid Fleishmann was one of those: In writing, nothing is wasted but the paper.

It’s painful to delete words, scenes, characters, stories. How can we? They’re perfect; brilliant; loved.

So maybe they’re not perfect or brilliant. But still we love them and when we hit the delete key it feels like murder.

Every word; even every project, though, may not be the right word or project.

The wonderful thing about writing is that we have an endless supply of words and ideas. Sometimes we have to write the lack-luster words and ideas to release them from our heads. To make room for the brilliant words and ideas.

We must also acknowledge our learning curve. Sometimes the stories we write are brilliant for our skill at the time we write them. They still may be unmarketable, but they are brilliant because of what we learn by writing them. And, if we save those less-than-brilliant stories until our writing is brilliant, maybe we can polish them up until they, too, shine.

Even the stories that will never shine can be kept tucked away in a cozy computer file. We can take them out and whisper softly. "I love you because of what I learned from writing you and because you show me how much I’ve grown as a writer."

Then—when you’re giving your Newberry Award acceptance speech—you can drag those stories out as examples of the biggest mistakes you’ve made in writing.

Personally, I have plenty of examples.

Now for everyone: Isn't it true that everything we try; everything we do that doesn't turn out right; every mistake we make--has something learned that we can take away from the experience? Isn't there often a better idea; a better way? Even sometimes a lesson in forgiveness and compassion?

In writing as in life...waste not.

PRAYER: Heavenly Father, thank you for making us teachable. Please guide our lives but when we make mistakes, please provide us with a lesson learned. Please humble us to see that lesson and to learn it well. Amen.

WHAT ABOUT YOU? Any lessons (in life or writing) you'd like to share?

JOURNALING LIFE

Whenever an artist friend shares her journal with me, I am awed at the slips and slices of creativity captured inside. As a writer, I routinely force my fictional characters to keep journals so I can spy on them and share their secrets with my readers. 

But do I personally keep a bound journal?  Nope. 

Yet this was one of Lin Oliver’s pieces of advice for writers in her keynote speech at the SCBWI Spring conference this April. 

For many writers, blogging has become a way to journal our lives as creative people; to engage with the world; to enjoy the process and share that joy with others. The word blog is a shortened version of the original phrase: web log. A blog is a log—or journal—you keep on the web. And share with the world. 

In the movie Contagion, Jude Law asserts that he is a writer. Elliott Gould’s character responds, “Blogging is just graffiti with punctuation.” 

Ouch. Unfortunately it’s sometimes true. Even for moi.  

Then again, not everything you write in a bound journal will be the stuff of great literature either. It’s not meant to be. We journal partly for our own purposes of finding ourselves and partly to explore ways to share our findings with the world. 

Do you keep a journal? Do you blog? How do you journal your creative life and share your joy with others?

PRAYER: Heavenly Father, thank you for this life and for the creativity you gifted us with. Help us find ways to explore the gifts you’ve honored us with. Show us ways to share your love and glory with others today. Amen.

WHAT ABOUT YOU? Do you keep a journal?

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This article recently ran in an issue of our Northern California regional newsletter for the Society of Children's Book Writers & Illustrators (SCBWI).

CELEBRATE YOUR WEIRDNESS

The theme for the ChristianWriters.com blog chain this month is “celebrate.” Please click on the links in the right hand column to see what my friends have to say about our theme.

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Lin Oliver’s keynote speech at the Spring SCBWI conference was filled with gems. Many were things we’ve heard before. But some took me from “duh” to “aha!”

Her writing tip from Bruce Coville was one of those: Follow your weirdness.

For me, weirdness speaks to the use of humor. I never advanced past 4^th grade humor. Weird. I love most to write for middle grade readers and throw as much weird humor their way as I can.  

But weirdness is not limited to humor. An unknown world filled with dragons, house elves and pus-filled tubor plants? Weird.  

Vampires that drink animal blood instead of human blood? Weird. 

A talking donkey who can’t keep his tail pinned to his bum? Weird. 

But wonderful. And delightful to children. 

Lin’s point spoke to me about fear. We are creative. We do come up with unconventional ideas. But some of us corral our muse and tie her to the railroad tracks. As a result, instead of peanut-popping puffer fish, our stories end up with pink-eyed bunnies who only get mad enough to occasionally raise the dust when they stamp their dainty foot.  

Now if those bunnies’ eyes turned green and the dust was actually smoke because of the flames shooting out of their fluffy white tails, and spoke only in haiku, we’d have a weird, but creative and unconventional character. 

What’s the worst that could happen if you embraced your weirdness and wrote a story that was weirder than weird? You’d have a whole bunch of words you might not use.  

Or you might have a story that would delight children.

PRAYER: Heavenly Father, thank you for making us just the way we are. Thank you for the creativity you have gifted us with. Please show us ways today to celebrate and use our creativity to glorify you. Amen.

WHAT ABOUT YOU? How do you celebrate your weirdness?

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This article recently ran in the Northern California regional newsletter for the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI).

BUILDING BOOKSHELVES

I recently joined Goodreads. Creating my cyber “book shelf” on Goodreads made me think about building real bookshelves.

The first bookshelf my husband ever built was three pieces of shelving and nine cinder blocks. It was functional and portable and held our books just fine. But beautiful? Not so much. It also required no tools to build.

The second bookshelf he built from a kit. Nicer, sturdier and even looked like furniture. It required one screwdriver. Philips. And several of his manly muscles.

The third bookshelf he designed himself. He used fine wood, routed the edges, joined sections with jigs and dowels, stained and finished it all to a fine sheen. It required an electric skill saw, jig, router, dowels, wood biscuits, wood glue, orbital sander, fine sandpaper, stain, paintbrush, muslin cloth, zero aught stainless steel, and varnish. 

By then he had studied furniture building and had filled his bulging toolbox with tools he knew how to use well.

That last bookshelf stands in my office, overflowing with books. A few of those books I have written. A few are well-worn books about writing. The rest were written by authors I love. All of them have been part of my process of learning to use tools for my craft. 

At a recent children’s writing conference Lin Oliver (founder and director of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators) gave us the advice that for every book we write, we should read 500 in that genre.

Her advice reminded me of the many wise proverbs and sage pieces of advice we’ve all heard: practice makes perfect; study hard; keep trying; mastery requires 10,000 hours. The advice can be applied to everything you do. In essence: if you’re going to do something, you might as well do it well. 

Even better, do everything as for the Lord. (Colossians 3:23)

My bookshelf doesn’t contain 500 books yet. But after Lin’s advice, it wouldn’t hurt to get hubby started on another bookshelf. I know it will be gorgeous!

PRAYER: Heavenly Father, please help us do everything we do as  if we are doing it for you. Show us ways to glorify you in our obedience, our attitude, our work ethic, the process and the outcome. Amen.

WHAT ABOUT YOU? Is there one thing that stands out above everything else you do, that you seek to do for the Lord?