Ta Da!

I posted this to our One Thousand Picture book group on Facebook, but it occured to me that this information might be helpful to many writers needing to find wise guides for their work.  Obviously, if you're writing longer works, the time constraints and numbers will be different, but these approaches work whether you're deciding what to read or reading through large numbers of books. 

1.  Author studies.  I found authors who were writing in areas I was interested in and ordered every single one of their books from the library.  Heck, if you do an author study of Jane Yolen, you'll be able to read about half the requirement.  This month, I've immersed myself in Jonah Winter, Dianna Hutts Aston, and Laura Purdie Salas. 

2.  New book and library display intervals.  I went to the library and pulled all the books I hadn't read off the new shelves and all the books I hadn't read that were faced out (twenty at a time) and sat down at one of the short little tables to read and add them to my Goodreads list.  I chose some to check out for further study, and then (because I love my librarians) returned the books to the proper places on the shelves. I brought my librarians cookies today to celebrate my 1,000th picture book.

3.  Bookstore power hour.  I did this twice during the past year, once in the early summer and today.  I went to Barnes and Noble and pulled books (ten at a time) from the shelves, logged on to my Goodreads with their network, and read until the hour was up.  Today, in that hour (and a half, I couldn't stop), I read thirty-two books, enough to push me over the top.  I made notes about authors I might want to do a study of and gave stars to the books I thought merited 4 or 5 stars.  This is a great thing to do because the face outs are either new books, classics, or books that are selling well.  I put the books back where I found them when I'm done. I heard one of the booksellers say they had 256 boxes to unpack and display.  I've worked in bookstores, so I know they have enough to do without replacing the books read by obsessive picture book readers.  I thanked them when I left. And they thanked me for putting the books back neatly.

(Note: This is adapted from a post I made to the One Thousand Picture Books Challenge group on Facebook.)

Checking In: Challenges Update

Here are my updated goals from My Write Club.  I'm hitting it on many 

of them, behind on some, and I've missed the deadline on some, but it's 

been a wonderful writing year so far. 

You may remember early in the year when I talked about how much I love a challenge.  Maybe you're wondering if I still do.  The answer is, yes!  Absolutely.

My husband is lucky.  He goes to his office and people tell him, more or less, what to do.  He gets to decide how to do it, and he can pull things onto his plate, but mostly, his job is defined for him by some larger power or by the contracts he earns for his company.

Me, I have to decide what to do based on what I'd like to accomplish, what I'm interested in, and what I think will sell.  It's difficult.  I've been tempted to go to work as someone who does work for hire, and I may do that in the children's non-fiction market, but for now, I'm trying to give myself over to work that I think will build the career I want.  So much of what I achieve depends on how other people--agents, publishers, readers--respond to my work.  But what I accomplish depends on me.

So, I'm doing pretty well with the challenges.  I've taken four trips to Africa and one to Asia this year for the work I get paid for.  I've overseen huge renovations on my house (and done some of them myself).  I've thrown a fun party to celebrate my son and his soon-to-be spouse's graduation, their move to Tucson, and their upcoming marriage.  I've gone on a two-week trip to Italy with my husband.  And still, I've done a lot of the writing work that no one (yet) pays me for and no one orders me to do.

I've written seven picture books and read nearly 600.  I've written over 140 poems. I've read 61 other books--some poetry, some craft, some historical fiction--all grist for the mill that is this writer's brain.  I've posted on my blog nearly every week and started some regular features here (check out Writing Prompt Wednesdays which are allowing me to use to the photographs I've taken all over the world to inspire you).  I've sent out poems to journals.  I've sent out books to agents.  I've met with writers and attended a major writing workshop. I am, as I have for the past seven-plus years, building my own career, one word at a time.

No one pats me on the back (except my close writing friends) or gives me a bonus (good thing my husband gets those), but the work is meaningful and wonderful nonetheless.

So, did I challenge myself too much? Am I spending too much time counting and touting what I've done and not enough time doing the work?  I don't think so.  I don't have a boss to tell me what to do or to pat me on the back, so I take on the role once in a while.

Hopefully, some day that will be taken care of by my agent, Publisher's Weekly, and Hornbook. Now, it's just me trying to keep myself on track. So far, so good. Except for Christine and my daily word count. I think I've worked out the issue with Christine, and since I've been focusing on poetry and picture books this year, I'm okay with a word count that's lower than my goal.

There's one goal I'm not tracking on My Write Club but that was recommended by Kim Liao over at Lit Hub.  I'm up to 54 rejections.  Maybe I can reach Liao's recommended 100 rejections this year as well.

Getting Back on Track after Failure

After a wonderful January, in February, I and many other writers on the Ten Minute Novelists and 365 K Facebook list struggled through February.  My guess is that many other people who made New Year’s Resolutions also struggled in February. 

I know I’ve mentioned it before, but I tend to be a little all or nothing in my thinking.  Either I do everything I said I would do or I think I’ve totally failed.  If you look at my earlier posts on challenges and thought I was crazy to commit myself to so much this year, then you’ll probably be shaking your head right now and thinking that that approach might mean that I’ve set myself up for failure. 

But, I’m a recovering perfectionist, so though I struggled with some goals in February, I achieved others.  I didn’t write a poem a day, but I wrote fifteen poems.  I didn’t get my 674 words a day, but I wrote over 5,000 words.  I read many picture books, and I signed up for the ReFoReMo challenge.  I wrote my second picture book draft of the year.  I posted at least weekly in this blog. 

Then March began, and I committed myself to one, just one, of my faltering goals.  In March, I told myself, I would write a poem a day.  Though sometimes I’ve had to write two poems in one day to meet that average, I’m back on track with my poetry in March.   And I’ve already written my picture book draft this month.  And I’m at a total of over 350 picture books read. 

I’d still like to get my daily word count back up, but every time I fail and pick myself back up, I’m learning what it takes for me to be successful.  And I’m retraining my brain.  I don’t have to do everything just right, I just have to keep working even when things get difficult.  As I write this I hear Ellen DeGeneres’s voice in my head, “Just keep swimming.”  And I do, I keep doing the work, I keep moving forward towards my goals. 

I still have work to do this month—I want to catch up on my poetry submissions and I have four picture books ready for queries, so I’d like to get those sent.  But, when I look at the year I’ve had so far, I realize again how responsive I am to assignments (I loved being a student) and how far I’ve come in my recovery as a perfectionist. 

So, if you had some goals that have dropped away in the weirdness of February and the busyness of the new year, don’t be afraid to dust them off and pick them back up.  There are still nine more months in 2016 and so much left to do. 

Wishing you ease, joy, and success!! Lori