Goal!

Last week at my writing class I had to admit to not reaching my goal of writing 3,000 words each week for two weeks.
This was the first time in class that I had to say I didn't meet my goal. I didn't give my reasons why- crazy work schedule, fender bender, holiday.
After an adjustment at the Chiropractor on Tuesday I have been in a lot less pain plus I decided two show days or not I would finish this first draft by Christmas.
This week has not been about going and sitting at the coffee shop for hours writing. This week has been about finding time to write where ever I can find it. Between shows, for a a half hour in the morning, for an hour in the afternoon. I actually found myself not going to the coffee shop to write this week when I had a day free because going to the coffee shop would actually take time away from my writing when I had to walk there and order coffee and then walk back home so I just made my own tea and wrote at my house.
I also wrote a couple more scenes that feel more true to the novel so I no longer feel like I am writing in circles so that makes me happy. I may keep what I wrote before but I like the stuff now much better.

On Christmas Eve

Last spring I went to a SCBWI event and I won a door prize. I picked the book On Christmas Eve by Ann M. Martin.
I chose this book because I love books about Christmas and also because I have such fond memories of The Babysitters Club series.
Since it is finally the Christmas season I figured it was time to read this book.
This is a great story about the magic of Christmas.
The character, Tess is in third grade and believes that this is the year she is going to meet the real Santa Claus, not just a department store Santa. She has some important questions to ask Santa. She also believes that Santa can help her friend Sarah's dad get better.
On Christmas Eve, Tess waits up for Santa and gets to experience Christmas magic.
I thought the book was a very sweet story about the magic of Santa and Christmas.
A few weeks ago in my writing class we talked about metaphors and similes and keeping these in the world of the story. Martin does a great job of this. When she writes about walking through the snow she doesn't say "walked through the snow" she says "fluffed".
The is a sweet little book about Christmas Eve and the magic and hope it can bring.

Thanksgiving Memories

As I watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade from the comfort of my living room I am reminded of what is still to this day the most memorable Thanksgiving Day I ever had.
When I was in college and my sister and brother were in high school my mom decided that we were old enough to go to New York City for Thanksgiving. So she called her brother who has three kids around our same ages and lives in Upstate NY and we decided to have Thanksgiving in NYC.
At six in the morning on Thanksgiving morning my Mom knocked on my door.
"Carrie, we need to go get a spot to see the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade."
"Doesn't it start at 9?"
"Yeah but we have to get a spot."
So Mom and I went and secured our place on the parade route.
The it started to drizzle. Fortunately we were able to buy umbrellas right away from a person selling them on the street for $2. By the time my stepdad and sister got to the parade at 8:30 the umbrellas were $5.
Perhaps you have watched this parade on TV year after year. I bet you didn't know that the area right before the carpet where the acts perform for TV is known as the "Quiet Zone" This is where the acts stop and get into formation before they get to the carpet in front of Macy's to do their big act for national TV. If you want to see Kenny Rogers sing "The Gambler" this is not the place to do this. Nobody performs here. It is the "Quiet Zone". Acts have to be quiet here so that they don't interfere with the performance of the act in front of them. This is where we stood. By the time it was light enough out to read the "Quiet Zone" sign and realize what it meant it was too late to move and still get a good spot on the route.
I would like to say this happened before the age of cell phones. If we had cell phones we may have gotten a call from my uncle telling us to come watch the parade from his warm hotel room. As it was the only person who got that call was my brother who made the wise choice to sleep in and not get rained on for five hours.
So if there was a moral of this story sometimes it is that the early bird doesn't always get the worm. Sometimes the bird who sleeps in gets to eat continental breakfast at the Marriott.
Miraculously at the end of the parade the drizzle let up.
That day we ate Thanksgiving Dinner at Tavern on the Green which I only knew from the film Ghostbusters.
Even though we stood in the rain forever that Thanksgiving was my most memorable ever. Every year my mom calls me on Thanksgiving morning and asks me if I'm watching the parade (which still doesn't come on until 9).
So Happy Thanksgiving all

Even though I am not NaNoing I am in the middle part of my novel and I feel like I just keep writing the same thing over and over.
One of the instructors of the class I'm taking sent us Maureen Johnson's NaNo pep talk in which she compares writing a novel to visiting Australia. Right now I feel a little like I am in the Outback part of my novel. I keep writing in circles.
I abandoned all hope of getting what I was writing into the computer a couple weeks ago and have just been writing in my notebooks.
Work has been a little crazy the last week as well and then while I am in the middle of the outback of my novel I got rear ended by an Outback the other night.
My mom freaked out because I'm the closest child geographically since my sister is in Alabama and my brother is in Africa for two weeks. She wanted me to go to the emergency room and I assured her that I work with a first responder and there was no need for me to go to the emergency room. I am instead going to the chiropractor. My mom freaked out. I might as well have told her I was going to a Witch Doctor.

But in good news I submitted a story to Chicken Soup for the Triathlon's Soul which has now been combined with Chicken Soup for the Runners Soul. My story is in the final round of consideration so I am very excited. They were also looking for more stories so I may try to write a story about my running group.
I'll find out this summer if I made it and I'll get ten copies of the book.
Carrie

Pet blogging

Over the years I have entertained the idea of starting a blog for my cat.
While I read some pet blogs something always stops me from putting my pet into the blogosphere.
The main reason is I feel like it is one step closer to crazy cat lady for me. I have two cats and feel like there are certain things that would push me over that line. A third cat for example would push me over the line. Once you have three case what's one or two more right. Same thing with the cat blogging for me.
Yesterday I discovered another reason not to blog for my cat (or let my cat blog). Snoop and I were featured on the Powderhorn365 website yesterday so naturally I posted a link on my facebook page. By the end of the night Snoop had eight comments and seven "likes". By the end of the night I felt like I was just answering Snoop's fan mail. It turns out Snoop is already pretty popular. Allowing Snoop his own blog isn't something I'm prepared to handle.
But then again maybe I could use Snoop's blog to get traffic to my blog.

Don't Stop Believing

We came to the part of my writing class where we talked about plot yesterday.
I have to say that in a previous class I took plot was up there in the first two weeks but that was for picture books so really we did need to think about our plots earlier.
I'm OK with plot coming a little later in the class. It seems like we all have good characters we are writing about and I sort of believe that characters drive plot anyway. I mean different people do different things in each situation. Pippi won't do the same thing as Ramona.
So the instructors talked about different plot structures like the inverted check mark and the three act structure and the hero's journey.
Then oh speaking of journey, we got to listen to a little Journey. Why? Because plot is like a Journey song. According to the instructor's brother. It starts of with an intro and we get to know the characters (a small town girl and a city boy), there are some guitar riff and stuff happens (they take the midnight train going anywhere). Then the music builds more with additional guitar and there is more story (streetlights, it goes on and on) then we get to the climax of the song/story and there is that even more awesome guitar riff and then Don't Stop Believing (hold on to that feeling) and then happy cords at the end. \m/
Armed with the knowledge that plot is like a Journey song is pretty awesome. I woke up today and wrote nine pages. It was brilliant. I wrote some interesting stuff and complicated my character's life. I feel like I may even write again later tonight.
I've been a music junkie my whole life. When I was four my mom bought me a record player at a garage sale, not one of those cheap fisher price ones but a real one with speakers of its own. I wore that thing out until my dad bought me a cd player when they first came out. I watched MTV since I was six. I don't play music but it is nice to know that my lifelong love of music is going to pay off by helping me be a writer.

mean witch story

Since I have been trying to focus on this writing thing more I currently work one job. Previously I was working 2 jobs and had no time for writing. There was only driving, working, driving, working, sleeping. So I decided if I could put even part of my 2nd job energy into my writing I'd be doing OK. In order to make a little extra money and also to get a chance to hang out with kids I sometimes babysit. It is good.
Here is a conversation I had with one of my charges. She is 4.
Fi: What do you do?
Me: Well I work with your mom.
Fi: What else do you do?
Me: I write stories for kids.
Fi: Why do you write stories for kids?
Me: Because it's fun and I love books.
Fi: Tell me one of your stories.
Me: Ok Once there was a girl, Rita and her dog Rufus.
Fi: Is there a mean witch in this story?
Me: No. (I tell the story about Rita and Rufus which was in the Sept issue of Stories for Children Magazine)
Fi: That was good. Can you tell it again but this time with a mean witch?
So I modify Rita and Rufus to include a mean witch. It was really Hansel and Gretel with a dog instead of a Hansel but there was a mean witch. I think I told her the "mean witch" version of the story ten times.
Anyway it was kind of a fun revision exercise and it got me thinking about "mean witches" so maybe next time I sit down to write something after this whole novel thing it will have a mean witch.
*Although there is not a mean witch in my novel there is a mean middle school girl.

ancestors

Today in my cycling class we were talking about ancestors and family trees. There are some pretty cool branches on the tree but there is one who I feel a great connection with.
My great grandmother was an English teacher. She was affectionately called Stone Face Fitz by her students. She taught during the knuckle rapping days. Although she died before I was born her memory lived on in my mom and grandma.
Whenever I wrote a lazy, sloppy sentence or used poor grammar when I spoke Mom and Grandma would talk about my poor dead great grandmother (Old Stone Face) and the shame I was bringing upon her.
As a result I learned when to say ______ and I instead of me and _________. The word "gots" was eliminated from my vocabulary two days after I learned it. I said "ain't" once. The word came up again in a song in jr. high choir and I couldn't bring myself to sing it.
Despite the fact that my great grandmother was rolling over in her grave at my inability to spell and write a good sentence I still loved reading and I loved writing. My spelling was horrible. I would bring home spelling tests and mom would wonder if there was an ounce of great grandma's blood running through my veins.
Sometimes my mom would read a paper I wrote for school. As she corrected my grammar she told me I was lucky I wasn't one of Fitz's students because my knuckles would have been rapped for sure.
Currently I'm working on a first draft in a class at the Loft and I'm sure it is full of run on sentences, comma splices and dangling participles. I was given some pictures of my great grandmother recently and as I looked at her stern face with her reading spectacles on a chain tucked into her pocket I wondered if she would be horrified by the over abundance of adverbs in my first draft.
I figure it must be OK so far because Fitz's ghost has not come from beyond to rap my knuckles yet.
My grandma was a stock broker. If I ever have children I wonder if I will instill in them the importance balancing a checkbook and investing wisely. Would I ever say things like "Your great grandmother would be rolling in her grave over the state of this portfolio"

Happy NaNoWriMo

As the sun rises on another NaNoWriMo I am a little sad that I am not participating and trying to figure out if there is a way.
Here is the deal. I am working on a novel in a novel writing class the idea of which is to write a first draft in 12 weeks. So I am already 20,000 words into that novel. To take time off from my novel, which I think has legs, to churn out 50,000 words could be detrimental. I even feel like any extra time I have should be spent tightening up m current novel and writing the best novel possible.
I love NaNo and the creative challenge it is. The last two years I have won getting my 50,000 words in by November 30th.
The only problem is that I have also written these things which I feel can't be edited. I thought at one time that I could edit my first year NaNo. I could never figure out where to go because it was so daunting.
So I'm taking this class and there were no crazy rules. I came in with a couple chapters written and some ideas but once I started the class I changed some things. But there were no NaNo guilt monkeys that would haunt me for having two chapters already written. We set goals and we celebrate meeting them.
The process with this slower novel writing means that I have been able to pay better attention to chapters, plot, structure and pacing. I'm not under the gun so I can thing about different scenes and where those scenes go.
So anyway I am halfway through a novel that I love and a process that is slower. I think at the end of the class I will have something I can really work with. Something I can edit and something I can maybe hopefully sell once it is all cleaned up. I can not leave my MC waiting for a ride outside of school while I go frolic in the crazy frantic energy that is NaNo.
I will not be tempted by the haunted house thriller novel idea. I will see my main character though as she struggles to fit into her new step family and deal with sixth grade.
The thing that I do thank NaNo for is giving me the confidence to write a novel from start to finish. The things I learned on my previous NaNo journeys have really helped me through the novel I'm writing now.
So Happy NaNo and good luck to all my friends who are NaNoing

pleading puppy eyes

I've been working on a story about the service dog my mom is training. I wanted to work on a nonfiction story that I could submit to children's magazines since they say that nonfiction is a big need. So I looked around my life for something I could write about and found the service dog.
I finished the story and got approval from the marketing specialist at the organization. I also got approval for pictures since some nonfiction articles need pictures to go with them. Unfortunately my favorite picture could not be used because Jack was wearing a Gentle Leader.
As I prepared my submission to send it out I felt like I was breaking one of those "What not to do" rules in submission packages by including pictures.
I hope that the pictures of the dog don't seem like some pleading dog saying "Please buy my story."

Contributor's copies

The other day I drove to St. Paul to pick up my contributor's copies of Good News at Good Ground Press. I got to see some samples of the different publications. They have Sunday School publications for all ages of kids from pre-school to high school.
I also got my contributor's copies. After deciding that I would keep two for my own purposes I called my mom so that she could tell me who the remaining three should go to.
Me: Well I have five copies and I need to keep two for myself to prove I've been published so that leaves three.
Mom: I get one, of course and then you have to send one to Uncle Rick. Where do you want the third one to go?
Me: I'd like to send it to Sue J.
Mom: Oh well OK. What about Tina. I guess I can share my copy with Tina.
Me: Oh I guess I can send that copy to Tina.
I guess what this boils down to is that my mom is the boss of my contributor copies. I imagine that in her quest to get more copies she may start visiting all the Catholic Churches in town in hopes that some Sunday School attendee will drop their copy and she will be there to claim them.

My cat is in hiding

So I just read about this contest in the New Yorker called Critterati
Basically you dress your pet up like a character from a book.
I am currently brainstorming what to dress my giant cat up as. My cat is currently hiding under the bed trying to stay out of the way.

What's the worst thing that could happen

Today I went to my local neighborhood coffee shop to write.
Sometimes it is too quiet at my house and I need the energy of being around people to get any work done. Also I don't take my computer just my spiral bound notebook so there will be no temptation to use their fast internet to check my facebook page or whatever.
So I sit down and I am next to these really chatty people which is OK but somewhat distracting today. Maybe the people I sat next to were really chatty or maybe it was that my ear was facing the direction to pick up most of what they were saying or maybe it was that their conversation about journals and meditation was way more interesting than what was going on in the world of my novel. So after 3 tries of beginning chapters that weren't working I asked the question "What is the worst thing that could happen to my character right now?" Then my writing got interesting. 7 pages later I'm still really excited about what developed. Not that I want bad things to happen to my MC but it is still a cool development.

Sometimes I go on craigslist and I look at the writing gigs. I look to see if there are any places seeking submissions for anthologies or whatever. I always see people looking for people to write their book for them. They usually have an amazing life story or a story idea they know would make big bucks. I also see ads for people looking for illustrators for their children's books. What bothers me about these ads are the errors. People if you are going to post an ad on craigslist seeking an illustrator for your children's book or someone to write your amazing life story at least spell check

Success

This morning I woke up and went to the gym and came home and worked on my novel for two hours. It is sort of an exciting way to start the day since I have been saving my writing for later in the day. Of course now I wonder what I will do with the rest of my day but I guess that is what the dishes are for.
I have been trying to use note cards to write little things about my characters so last night before I went to bed I looked at some of my note cards to see where I was heading today with my writing. I have actually read this in different writing books, that it is a good idea to check in with things at night so the next day you know where you are headed.
So I feel like I have accomplished something today. Like I have taken a step in the right direction as far as writing goes. We'll see if I can keep it up though the week.

Should I buy this?

Every year I go out like a good aspiring children's author and buy The Children's Writer's and Illustrator's Market and every year it seems like there are fewer publishers open to submissions. It seems like there are less listings for magazines and publishers and more tips and inspiring stories.
With my SCBWI membership I feel like I get the same listings.
Then there is this magical thing known as Internet. So if I want to know the submission policy of a certain magazine I will just go to the website and find the most up to date info.
Then there is this fact. My second published story, the first one I actually got paid for, is being published by a Sunday School magazine that I did not find through either of these resources but through a recommendation from my writing group.
So here I am with a gift card to Barnes and Noble burning a hole in my pocket because I can't decide if I would rather buy this book that I feel like I "should" buy or buy a fiction book where I will read beautiful writing and learn about character and plot through reading.
There is my dilemma.

So much procrastination, so little time

This week was week two of my novel writing class. I also happen to be off work for a few weeks, thank goodness for PTOP. So with a week off work I should have done an amazing amount of novel writing for my class. I think I met my goal but I am still putting stuff I wrote in my spiral bound notebook into my MacBook.
But I notice that I do an amazing amount of procrastination. My procrastination for some reason takes the form of cleaning. So all the sudden the dishes need cleaning, the floor needs to be Swiffered, and the laundry needs to be done. I admit that laundry doing is a task that I can multi task but not so with Swiffering or dish doing.
Finally I decided that I would have better luck at the coffee shop and was very pleased with the amount that I wrote.
I work at night. I hear about the people in my class who wake up and write first thing in the morning and as much as I would love to do that I need to run or bike or work out before I start trying to form ideas on a page. Maybe my fellow writers are just naturally thin and don't have to worry about the gym but for me I know that I will write during the day, sometime. If I don't get myself to the gym first thing in the morning it isn't going to happen.
So one night I felt like a kid who had not eaten her vegetables as I sat at the table at 9 p.m. working on my novel. The next night I saved my novel writing for after the kid I was baby sitting went to bed. The next night I did a little better and was working on my novel in the late afternoon/evening and by Friday I had the good sense to move my novel writing to the coffee shop.
One thing I am trying to do is set a writing schedule I can stick to. I would never let anything come between me and my workout or me and my afternoon nap but sometimes I let things get between me and a regular writing schedule.
Then I think maybe I'm being too hard on myself. I mean I write everyday and I get it done even if I get it done waiting for my doctors appointment or my oil change or whatever.

Take a look, it's in a book..

When I tell people that I am a writer and that I want to write children's stories people will tell me about their connection to children's books.
Recently I was working on a show at work and I told the Bass player about my writing classes and he told me about his friend E.B. Lewis. It turns out that E.B. Lewis was going to use Cliff's daughter as the kid for the illustrations in Down the Road by Alice Schertle. The publisher wanted a younger kid but he still used Cliff and his wife as the parents. It was totally cool to open a picture book and see a familiar face in the pages.
All this time I had been being wardrobe girl to someone else with a connection to children's books. It turns out Tina, the woman playing Ella Fitzgerald, is the singer of the Reading Rainbow song. So at the closing night party all of us 30 year olds gathered round to hear a live and in person version of the Reading Rainbow song.

The Youngest

I took my first class at The Loft what feels like ages ago. It was really seven years ago. The class was at night. It was a YA novel writing class.
I started taking classes at the Loft again two years ago and I tend to take a lot of day classes because I work at nights and on the weekends. So mid morning or mid day classes are perfect for me.
This semester the perfect class just happened to fall on a Monday night, my night off, so I decided to go for it.
While my daytime classes seem full of moms and retirees my evening class seems to be 50 % young hipsters. I have to say that even though some of the moms in my daytime classes are right around my age I still feel like the "youngest" because I don't have kids. I am footloose and fancy free. I don't have demands on my free time when I want to write. I don't even have a "grown up" type job in an office. My procrastination is my own thing.
Looking at my evening class I don't feel like the "youngest" any more. I look at some of writers who are probably the same age I was seven years ago and I remember still feeling like the youngest in my writing classes then. I remember I wanted to write for teens or young people but I didn't know what I wanted to write.
Now I feel like I have more confidence. I have a story idea with legs. I know more about character and plot and my process as a writer. I'm really excited about this class. Even if it means I don't feel like the youngest anymore.

Rufus on the Web

Last fall I took a class at The Loft called The ABC's of Writing for Children. During the class we worked on one children's story for twelve weeks. At the end of the class we were encouraged to submit our stories and after a couple tries my story from class, Rufus on the Loose found a home at Stories for Children Magazine.
Stories for Children is an online magazine. The current month is available online and past months are available for download.
Here is a link to my story Rufus on the Loose. Enjoy.

Dream interpretation

Last night I dreamed my car got stolen. I have actually had this dream before but usually I have it when I go home to visit my Mom. How this dream usually goes is that I look out the window and see people stealing my car. I try to yell at them to stop but no words come out of my mouth so they steal my car.
Today I thought that maybe there was some deeper meaning to this dream so I Google "dreams, stolen car"
This is where I learn that stolen car dreams can mean loss of identity, loss of job or failure in relationships. This makes me think about why I would have this dream.
Earlier this summer I pulled a muscle in my shoulder during a workout. I recently started sewing part time at my old job for a few weeks but the shoulder is rebelling. This makes me feel weak and wimpy as I try to figure out how I'm going to work around it and if I'm just going to have to quit the second job.
Also I'm fairly strong and into fitness and I think I define myself by my strength. I sometimes don't think I would have the confidence to handle the rejection that comes with writing if it wasn't for running, biking, swimming and kettlebells. The good news is that I have been running more as a result of my shoulder hurting.
Maybe I am feeling a little loss of identity as I deal with my new wimpy self and my inability to sew right now. I can still do my normal job but with the economy being so slow I have been trying to find ways to make more money.
I know that if I am going to write that I can't work two jobs and that my stitching job will probably be the one that falls by the wayside. I have known that for a while and have tried to quit the stitching job for two years but I keep getting sucked back in. So even though I guess I'm having anxiety dreams about my changing identity I should just embrace it.