New Year...New Hope...

The publishing business plays tricks on the mind. One minute you hear that it's okay to break the rules...the next minute another someone says to never break the rules. An author interview might show that one author's road to publication was like a blink of an eye to those of us who have sojourned on this long and winding road for years. We hear the importance of having an agent on the one hand, and on the other hand, someone else of reputable standards says that an agent is not needed.

We write. We submit. We stack rejections. We rewrite. We submit. We stack rejections. And we keep plugging away. Why? Because we're writers. It's what we do. And as long as we keep on keeping on, one day....just one day, it will happen.

So here's to 2012... another year open to possibilities and purpose. Let us renew our HOPE as we continue down this long and winding road.

Dealing with disappointment

Rejections suck.
This isn't exactly a newsflash, but it's the premise for this blog posting. If you are thinking about writing, or if you are currently writing, or if you are already shopping your manuscript, then rejection is something you'll probably have to endure.
After countless hours of drafting and revising, I am still waiting for "the moment", all the while continuing to accumulate rejections.
My stance? Two words.
Oh, well.
There comes a point when you become numb to it (and it takes awhile, let me tell ya'). But that's where I'm at. I stopped counting total rejections (including ALL projects) after sixty. And I've had a dozen or two since then. But in the big scheme of things, why get worked up about it? If we don't quit, eventually someone is going to fall in love with our work.
Here are a few things I do to keep rejection from getting me down:

• Set the work aside and MOVE ON. This is good advice if you are in the process of revising, or if you're stumped on a plot issue, or if you are mid-process of submitting. Set the work aside and move on to another draft. WHY? Because it'll get your mind off of the craziness at hand with the one manuscript, it'll keep you working creatively, and if your book sells, your agent/editor will want to see what else you've got.



• Read books/magazines/blogs on craft. I learn so much from all of you and other writers out there. You can never know too much, right?



• Remind myself of the "why". Why do I write? I write because I love creating stories, I love delving into other worlds, I love putting dialogue together onto the page and seeing what comes of it. The "why" will help you keep things in perspective. (It certainly helps me!)

I'm not saying rejection has stopped bothering me, but I've accepted it for what it is. And I refuse to stop doing what I love because of the little rotter. So...I tarry on....

And so should you!! :)

My August media break...

Oh where, oh where, has Janice been? Oh where, oh where could she be?

Not in cyberworld. At least not for the month of August. Yes, I checked out of the internet for a month. No e-mail (now THAT was hard), no facebook, no blogs, no DISTRACTIONS. See, here was my dilemma. June and July had already went by and I wasn't where I wanted to be with my new novel.

My goal: to use my summer months (I'm a teacher, so I pretty much get June, July, and August as a vacation) to write a rough draft of this interesting idea I had. I vowed to myself not to revise one word. Just write a draft. I even used Laurie Halse Anderson's advice: I gave myself permission to write horrible.

I began to notice that life's distractions were really getting in the way of any substantial progress for the draft. I was checking my e-mail every ten minutes to see if my agent wrote me. I was checking facebook. I was reading blogs like crazy (because I love all of your blogs!). None of this is bad, per se, but it is if it detracts from a very important goal.

When school begins, I know (from past experience) that I am super busy. I teach, then I try to squeeze in workouts a couple times a week, then my son has piano lessons, and now he's in football, and you get my drift. Writing takes a back seat. Since I know this, I like to use summer to be as absolutely creative as possible.

So when I realized two months of summer had passed me by, I decided to get serious. That meant saying good-bye to media. I focused entirely on writing my rough draft with every minute of spare time I could devote to it. It was my hopes to complete the entire novel by the time school resumed.

You're probably all on the edge of your seat wondering if I did it....well, I'm pleased to say that August was successful in that I have over 200 pages of the novel drafted. I am not finished, but I have the last chapters outlined. With all that being said, I'm really proud that I cut off all the distractions for the month and focused on my writing.

But I'm not going to lie. I am SOOOOOOO happy to be back on the internet!

Maybe it's time for you to cut some distractions...you don't have to be as drastic as I was. But remember we'll never get published if we don't write the book! :)

Cheers,

Janice

Book Review #1

Ready to catch up on some reading...I'll try to do book reviews on middle grade, young adult, and chapter books every so often.

The first book I am reviewing is Starcrossed, by Josephine Angelini. (3 out of 4 stars)

In Starcrossed, Helen Hamilton is the awkward protagonist, who has a hard time fitting it. Why? Well, first of all, she is breathtakingly beautiful. Secondly, she can't stand people looking at her or giving her attention (she gets cramps and doesn't feel well). Then she starts having these horrible nightmares where she's wandering the desert, and she wakes up to find her feet dirty and her throat parched. Along comes a new family on the island, and everyone is talking about them. But as soon as she lays eyes on the exquisitely handsome Lucas, she wants to kill him with this uncontrollable, unexplainable rage. Come to find out, they are both demigods, born of different houses. There's been this raging war where all the houses want to kill each other (and do). Lucas's family think they are the only house left standing. Until they discover Helen, of course. Turns out, she's a demigod...from a different house. Her mother, who abandoned her at birth, sure has some explaining to do! However, she's not around (until the end of the book). While all this is going on, Lucas and Helen hate/love/lust after each other. What to do? Lucas's family decides to protect Helen and "train" her as a demigod. All of a sudden, she has these amazing powers and abilities.

This YA book is almost Twilight incarnate. Lucas and his family even sleep outside her bedroom to "protect" her from those demigods wanting to kill her. There's this fierce attraction to someone she can't have, and Lucas's family is large and very similar to the Cullen family. HOWEVER, with that being said, I couldn't put the book down. It sucked me right in. And I even sat in the car during church because I COULDN'T PUT IT DOWN(did I say that already?)! I thoroughly enjoyed the mythology ties, and I really liked Helen as the main character. I thought the whole romance thing was a little shmultzy, but high school girls will love that part of it, I'm sure. The ending is what I had an issue with. It left off at a climactic moment in the story. Of course there's a sequel due out next May, but that's besides the point! Sigh...

It's a nice YA read that will suck you in, disappoint you a bit at the end, but will have you wanting more.

I'm sure I'll buy the sequel next year!

Cheers...

It's summertime...and the writing is easy...or is it?

I waited all school year long for the chance to have my days devoted entirely to writing. After a hard, draining day teaching to high school sophomores, the idea of writing or revising took a back seat to cooking dinner, helping my son with homework, spending time with hubby...you get the drift. However, I DID make time to write. No matter what, I found a way. But, I'm just sayin'...I longed for summer.

(Do you like the picture of my three year old enjoying summer?)

So, summer's here. I'm off work. I haven't stepped foot inside my classroom since June 7th (our last day of school), and yeah, well...

There's the boat on the lake, which is very distracting, I must say, and it calls to me and my family quite regularly. There's the day trips visiting all of Northern Michigan's wonderfulness. Then there's the swimming, and the bonfires (we actually have a bonfire pit in our backyard), and the camping, and the reading all the awesome books.

I guess, I'm just confessing that I seem to be almost as busy as the school year. But like I said in an earlier post, I have to give myself permission to write...and I have to carve out the time. It's true. I know it, you know it, right???

Here's how my writing is surviving the summer...(and you get to read this rambling, lol):

• I take my notebook with me: so helpful!!
  


• I write in the morning while I'm fresh and newly energized (thanks to sleep and coffee).



• Any rewrites my agent wants me to do, usually happen in the afternoon or evening. (I don't know why. Do I really need a reason for my madness)?



• I don't sweat the small stuff: my kids will only be this age right now. If I set down my writing for a day with them, I make up for it that night or the morning after.



• Journal! (I tell ya', I just love journaling. It's not really about my life; it's more story ideas, outlines, character descriptions, that sort of thing. But I find it really helps.)

There you have it, folks. So, go ahead, grab that corn on the cob and chat it up with family and friends. Just don't set writing on the backburner for too long. There's a world of readers waiting to hold your book in their hands (and I'm one of them)!

Cheers...

"Almost There"

These two words bring about contrasting emotions: hope and frustration.

Do you agree? If your agent writes back to you after almost a year of revisions and says something like, "I absolutely love it! Just a few more tweaks. We're almost there!" what would you be feeling?

First, I admit, comes a tad bit of frustration (at least for me). The whiny child within me wants to yell, "but I'm sooooo tired of rewriting this book! Wahhhhh...." (yeah, it's not pretty). What's also frustrating though is that I've reread and reworked the novel so much that I feel I'm going cross-eyed. I'm not catching tiny errors that I would have caught before. Or I left a sentence or two from a previous draft that doesn't make any sense because that scene has been taken out.

However, I am happy to say that I like hearing these two words. They mean that after a lot of work, it's about that time to send out to editors and see if I get any bites. It's another step closer to this dream of mine really happening. It's exciting and nerve-wracking, and well, hopeful.

Are you "almost there" with whatever you're working on? Maybe you're "almost" ready to send out queries, or you're "almost there" to the end of the story. Wherever you might be on this journey, don't discredit "almost there". Sure, it's frustrating, but focus on the hope of knowing that your goal is just around the corner!

Cheers,
Janice
P.S. I'm going to start posting interviews soon. Stay tuned!

Have you taken the time to WRITE today?

Okay, it's summer time, and the living is easy. Just today I enjoyed a sun-filled day on the boat. Plus there's grilling with family and friends. There's bonfires and the deliciousness of s'mores. There's swimming and sand-castle making.

Who has time to write??

Um, hello, YOU! That's right. You heard me (I'm writing in my "teacher voice" right now). A few of my friends have commented on how they are "too busy" to write. No, no, no...that is an incorrect answer.

A few years back Laurie Halse Anderson came to our fall Michigan conference. I remember her opening speech, and how she hammered the nail on the head about giving yourself permission to write. Things take up our time. Work, family, get-togethers. I'm not advocating throwing all that out the window. But life is too short for you (or I) to keep proscratinating. That book isn't going to get finished...or revised...or critiqued...if it sits in your head gathering dust. Another speaker at a more recent conference I attended was agent Jennie Dunham. She hosted an early-morning journal session. I was pleasantly surprised how much I enjoyed that! She didn't say it had to be specifically your creative piece, but I have been "journaling" my novels since that conference.

Whatever your excuse, throw it in the garbage. I don't want to hear it. Carve out some time. But get something on paper (or computer). I have a set of goals that I have used for the last year or two. These goals work!

Here are some goals of mine (feel free to use them, tweak them, laugh at them, or use them for dart practice) :)

• Write at least five times a week. Do not stop until three pages have been written. (and I give myself permission to write garbage.)


• Participate in a critique group once a month (via e-mail or meeting in person). This helps me check over my work, as well as letting me see others' creative processes. Plus critiquing others helps me turn a critical eye on my own work.


• Read a young adult or middle grade novel at least once every other month. During the summer, I read about two a month, but that's because I'm a teacher. Yay, teachers!


• And this summer, I have a big goal: finish the novel I'm working on!!! (I'm really good at starting cool novels, but then they sit and wait for awhile...

These goals are not set in stone, but I try to make writing a priority. Even during the school year, I try to "journal" my story ideas, or continue story ideas as much as possible. My friend told me about the book, Outliers, by Malcolm Gladwell, and one of the chapters is about people who are extremely successful follow the "10,000 hours" rule. In summation, it's where a person is dedicated enough to spend 10,000 hours learning/practicing whatever it is they are passionate about. That's when they start seeing success take place. (And I'm so sorry to the author(s) if I flubbed on that summation.) The point is that in order for us to be successful, we need to pursue writing passionately and diligently.

So what are you waiting for? Get writing!

Cheers,

Janice

P.S. Hopefully, this post inspired you. I wasn't really trying to be all "teacherish" on you!