Blog June7, 2011

Before that, the question for me was to do or not to do. To make things clear, there’s really no question of me not doing. The only way I could fail as a writer is to quit. I’m never done writing even when I just finished editing the last chapter of my book. So I must do—but not in the manner of much ado about nothing.

I have committed substantial effort to my book. This last revision was inspired by a class of 7th graders I worked with once a week this year. Now I need a few adults to volunteer as reviewers. These reviewers must not quit, at least not before the 4th chapter. More important, there’s a one week deadline to review three chapters.

I don’t expect a full line edit like a professional editor might provide, but I do need to know if the story is easy to read, whether it flows and makes sense to an adult—you know, those “old” people who buy the books for their young teenagers.

The 7th graders gave me suggestions and inspiration that generated a ton of changes. Think I’m kidding? Try lifting the stack of review papers I went through first as a group and then individually to make sure I addressed every question and concern.

The most important lessons I learned from them are less talk and more action. The average twelve-year-old these days doesn’t understand puns without explanation. Same with words like entity and rift. There’s a huge mental leap that happens somewhere around age 13. I hope that’s my lucky number, even if I don’t believe in luck except as a reward for hard work.

Now I have until the 24th of June to have adults read my book, or at least the first three chapters, and offer up opinions, good or bad. That date is when I’ll attend the SCBWI (Society of Children’s Bookwriters and Illustrators) midyear workshop in Orlando to try and sell it. I could use a few more volunteer reviewers, but only if you’re a fast reader and only if you’re not afraid to tell me the worst. I wouldn’t ask for criticism if I couldn’t take it.

I have one volunteer who left on vacation and might not be able to finish the first three chapters in time. Make no mistake, timing is critical because I need a week to make any changes necessitated by the reviews. For locals, I can print and deliver the manuscript if you prefer. For everyone else, the reviews must be online because there’s not enough time for snail mail.

I will return the favor of course. If you’re not a writer, I can help hone presentations or lessons for work, school, or church. So now the question is to review or not to review. I leave it up to you.

Emerald Coast Writers put on their 2011 conference last weekend, a chance for writers to clean up our acts—and facts. Writing is all about cleaning. We clean up our mistakes, grammar and punctuation. We clean up our style to make it interesting and easy to understand. We clean up our schedules to make time to write. We clean up our facts so we won’t get sued. Vincent O’Neal even taught us to clean up our acting—using acting techniques to make our writing on the page reach out and grab the reader like actors do. There’s almost no end of cleaning before we can sell and publish our work. And then, of course, we hope to really clean up by publishing a best seller.

I loved conference, even if a few things didn’t go as planned—minor glitches due to unforeseen circumstances. For example, only one of the 7th graders I’m working with at a local middle school turned in an entry for the student writing contest. The students didn't have time to write in class because of FCAT studies. But no problem at conference got so messy as to make me regret paying to attend. Quite the opposite. The organizers responded with nimble reflexes and quick thinking to straighten things out. Lee Thomas and Joyce Holland put their hearts and souls into conference, along with many other volunteers. Kudos! As a result of their hard work, I am so excited I can hardly contain myself—even though I made a mess of my own plans.

I clean forgot to ask Betsy Mitchell, Editor-in-Chief of Del Rey, to read a page or two of my work to give her more incentive to refer me to the middle-grade editor in another department within Random House, a huge publishing house. I did remember to ask Michelle Richter of St. Martin’s Press, and she said, “This looks pretty good.” She asked me to email her, which I will in a few days. I want to give her time to breathe after she gets back to New York. I had given Dianne Hamilton of OnStage Publishing my first chapter before my appointment. But I was so engrossed in suggestions she made, I forgot to ask if she would be interested in seeing more. There’s another mess I have to clean up later.

The chance to have other writers—great writers—critique my work was the best thing about conference. I had just written a new opening for my book, one meant to hook reluctant readers better than the original, because one seventh grader, a female, mentioned my book’s opening didn’t hook her in as well as it could have. She suggested a back-flash. I didn’t do that before because of word count limitations, but after dividing my book last summer, I had room. So I wrote the new opening scene and brought it to conference for expert critiques. Am I glad I did? YES! Oops, we’re not supposed to yell.

Kathy Carmichael helped me get into a closer point of view and wanted the emotional hook right at the beginning. I knew from previous tries that most men prefer action over emotion, so I asked Vincent O’Neal and Victor DiGenti their opinions too. I got Vinnie’s that afternoon, went home Friday evening and rewrote my first section, marrying the male and female suggestions. A good marriage is all about compromise. The result was much more compelling than either male or female version alone.

Saturday morning, I got Victor’s, Dianne Hamilton’s, and Benjamin LeRoy’s critiques and blended those in. Benjamin seem surprised I actually liked getting criticism. But how else am I going to perfect my work?Dianne is such a great editor; she set my brain on fire. She caught inconsistencies with teenage behavior I had passed right over. I’ve only been working with seventh graders since January, not long enough to catch every nuance. I memorized a few of her suggestions so fast I included them in an afternoon reading of my first page in Joyce Holland’s workshop. The workshop attendees really liked that opening and Joyce said my writing has improved a lot in the three years since she last read it. Then I really messed up by failing to mention that although a seventh grader inspired me to write that new opening, it was Kathy, Dianne, Benjamin, Vincent and Victor who helped me clean it up. So I am now giving credit where credit is overdue.

Please forgive me for being so excited about the seventh grader who inspired that section that I forgot to mention the adults who did the final polishing. I hope I can return the favor someday. But if not, I will continue helping the students get story ideas, develop them, write them, and then clean up their own work. Emerald Coast Writers agreed to sponsor a student writing contest for these seventh grade students. Although it is delayed because of FCAT preparation, the wonderful reading teacher said she’ll give the students time to write during class afterward. I would mention her name if not for privacy concerns. Without written consent, the students have to remain anonymous, but the winning entries will be announced before school ends. I hope they clean up!

This entry disappeared off my website. I’m not sure how, but it did. And since I didn’t pre-write it elsewhere, I’m glad I can redo my blogging easier than some other areas of life.

I’ve been digging for gold this year. Not on the beach or in the water, but in a class of young teenagers, ages twelve through fourteen. I’ve met with them on an almost weekly basis since January as they reviewed my book, helping me eliminate any confusion, punch up the action, etc. I aim to tune to their middle-grade frequencies like my husband’s metal detector tunes in to the gold left on our beaches by vacationers. But I’m finding more gold.

I don’t have to dig as much as I have to aim for the sky and shoot the best words I can. If I hit the right target, the interest zone of these students’ hearts and minds, they smile big enough for me to see their gold fillings—and braces. Okay, so I don’t check my adorable (don’t tell the boys I said that) gift horses’ mouths for gold. Their opinions are the gold I seek.  

It wouldn’t be fair if I didn’t give something in return. I know life isn’t supposed to be fair, but I try to live by the golden rule. I didn’t walk into the class before Christmas vacation for the first time without an idea of giving them at least as much, preferably more than they gave me.

I wanted to instill in them the same love of reading I found at age nine when I discovered the Lord of the Rings. When the ring wraiths rode by, I hid under my bed while the hobbits hid under a ditch bank. Then at school I discovered I Robot. Tolkien and Asimov started me on a journey I’ve never regretted, except when I didn’t have time to read.

About five years ago, I made another golden discovery—I can read and walk at the same time! Better than walking and chewing gum any day. About the same time, I realized I wanted to write for young teenagers. Since then, I’ve read more middle-grade fiction than anything else.

For my golden boys and girls, I want to do more than help them love reading. I want them to learn to love writing. So we’ve discussed how to get and develop story ideas. I put in a request to Emerald Coast Writers for a student writing contest, and they agreed. Now I hope to turn this coast from emerald to gold. If a love of reading isn’t enough to enrich these young teenagers’ lives, there’s no limit to the treasure they can add with a love of writing.

“I don’t want to write.”  That’s what I told my teacher in high school when she invited me to take a journalism class all those years ago. At 16, I didn’t think I would ever like to write. How wrong I was. So Bieber has a brain, somewhere under that mop of hair.  Go figure.

I gave a presentation today at Bruner Middle School’s career day. I sort of horned in on another local author’s obligation, but since she just had surgery on her foot and is supposed to be in bed, I offered to take over. Problem was, when I got there at the end of her 2nd presentation, she didn’t want to leave. So she’s young and tough as nails, but who wouldn’t want to stay with a room full of teenagers eager to learn? Before high school, they don’t think they know it all.
 
There we were, two writers and an accountant sharing one class period. The odd trio. Even us writers made an odd couple, on the opposite end of the spectrum, since my young friend Lydia Golden started as a teen and has written 15 years to my 5 and has books already published. And though the time was split equally between professions, the pay isn’t. The accountant said he makes six figures, more money than both us writers combined. We didn’t let that disparity spoil our fun. After all, he volunteered the information that accountants do a lot of writing too. I added that most jobs require writing, so students should acquire the skill even if they don’t write as a career. I wish we’d had more time, but I can’t complain since none of that time was really mine.

While my young friend was able to speak of getting published after suffering through piles of rejections and the rewards receiving fan mail and finding out other people enjoyed her creations, I was a little more pragmatic at first. I told the students not to eliminate any career at this stage of their lives, like I did. Going gung-ho for something without field testing doesn’t work either. After 13 years of college, I cried when I had to draw blood from a baby in the emergency room. I hope I convinced a few teens to try things before they reject them, and to test them in real life situations before they waste years and money training for a job they won’t like.

Then I moved on to the fun stuff. I explained how to get ideas for short stories and how short stories build a writer’s platform and earn publishing credits and cash along the way to bigger things. The students were impressed when I told them about the $1000 scholarship prizes for current online writing contests. That’s good pay for answering one question: If you could have one superpower for a day, what would it be and how would you use it? That’s just one of several scholarship questions. And there are plenty of writing contests for teens with no entry fees and smaller cash prizes. I left a list with the teacher after the bell rang.

I forgot to say “never say never”. Wait. Isn’t that a double negative? Whatever it is, it isn’t positive.  Not saying something can’t happen is far from saying it will happen. So let’s try this: I will do better next time. I will keep writing and I will get published.

However much the internet is used for evil purposes, it's also the source of a lot of good information, all free - if you don’t count the cost of the internet service itself.  So does reading someone else’s ideas cost more than a penny per thought after all? Hmm. How many extra pennies, if any? That’s almost a tongue twister.

Anyway, I've found plenty of writing and publishing advice, and groups I could join for free. But others cost a pretty penny. Recently, I found the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators, or SCBWI, a national group with regional chapters. The fees are hefty, over 3 times the yearly dues of Emerald Coast Writers. Ouch. I decided to investigate their benefits before plunking down my money, around 8500 pennies the first year.

I checked the Florida chapter's website, featuring a conference in Miami - in January. Alone, I wouldn't be caught dead in that city. Or should I say if I went alone, I would be caught dead, and nobody would catch the murderer? I've been there, in a car with my family as my husband drove us to the docks for a cruise. That was scary enough. But in January? Who has extra money to spend in January?

So I searched closer to home. The Florida panhandle is almost southern Alabama anyway. The Southern Breeze Chapter, including Alabama and Georgia, plus others, had an October conference in Birmingham. That's much closer to home. But I wasn't happy when I saw they wouldn't allow contest entries from members of other chapters, even if the entrant lives closer to the Southern Breeze conference city than their own chapter's city. Is local talent so lacking that these protective measures are necessary to give their own members a chance? I can't say, but it seemed unfair.

Searching for a local SCBWI critique group yielded no results either. It felt like another dead end. But our church scheduled a trip to Birmingham for the same weekend as the writers' conference and I had time to attend a Friday evening dessert social. I asked permission from one of the organizers to attend and talk to people, and she not only said yes, she was very kind and helpful. She pointed out the critique group coordinator. It turned out she's updating her list soon and SCBWI membership isn't required to join one of the online groups.

I also spoke to other Florida writers from the Cuppa Critique group in Tallahassee. The chairman told me about converting her middle-grade novel to a young adult book. From the description she gave, I'm pretty sure mine is middle-grade. No sex, no drugs, unless you count I-scream or blue-bury pie. As a middle-grade book, mine is too long unless I divide it again. Though digesting that information gave me heartburn, it helped when I got to talk to an agent and an editor. The agent told me who to ask at her agency for advice.  

I have Mr. Logan, whose first name I forgot, to thank for the pictures of the agent and editor featured in the conference packet. He's a seminary graduate (not LDS) and ex-Navy Chaplain who had an interesting book idea that sounded familiar enough for me to advise him to read another author's book to make sure he covers the territory in a different way. Who knows, maybe I'll see him at another conference when he's far enough along to swap critiques. Yes, I think I'll try to attend a whole conference next time.

I found out conference fees are reduced for volunteers, plus there's a discount for SCBWI members. And the text of national conferences is available on the SCBWI website for members too. So I guess I'll start saving my pennies to join SCBWI, and to attend the Atlanta conference next spring. Maybe I should save quarters too. These days, pennies aren't good for anything more than thoughts. I hope this batch made a quarter's worth to someone.

I recently came across Siv Maria's one year blog anniversary, which asked other bloggers to link to their first post through her Trollfest. I added myself to the linky list because my first post got zero traffic or comments. I think only my husband commented on my posts until I switched to Blogger.

The post below isn't my first, but it's as close as I can get since my earliest posts seem to have disappeared. I think I started in in 2009. But this is a good post to tell you why I didn't blog that often. I was in critique heaven, editing my book as fast as my readers turned in their review forms.  Here you go: From March of 2010.

Has it been that long since I blogged? I haven't been lazy-- I've been busy reading and writing. In fact, I've been reading to 7th graders almost every week. There's nothing better than working with this age group, as far as I'm concerned. They are my pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, so I don't really have to dig for gold. All I have to do is aim for the sky and shoot my best words. And if I hit my target age group right in their interest zone, they'll smile so big all I will see is braces and gold fillings. Okay, so I don't have a clue if their fillings are gold. It doesn't matter because their opinions are gold. I expect great things from these students in the future, because they're becoming skillful reviewers. Critical thinking ought to improve their writing even if I never give them another thing in return.

However, anyone who knows me should know I will try to give better than I received. It wouldn't be fair if I took the students' valuable opinions without giving something in return. Yeah, I know life isn't supposed to be fair. But I try to follow the golden rule. I've been teaching the students how to get ideas and develop them to write their own stories. Good writing skills will make their resumes and scholarship applications more valuable than others. Earlier this year, I asked Emerald Coast Writers about having a writing contest and they agreed. The contest will be run in conjunction with our ECW conference April 8th-9th at the Ramada Plaza Beach Resort on Okaloosa Island.

Maybe I tricked my husband into thinking this blog would be about his treasure hunting. He's now on his second metal detector and so far, hasn't paid for the first. But he has found more than chump change. Gold or not, he's found enough traceable items to make the people who lost them very happy.

For me, the gold in writing--my happiness--has always been making young teenagers love to read as much as I loved reading Asimov and Tolkien at their age. There was real gold in their writing. How could I not share?

That's all of my almost first post. Now be sure to follow Siv Maria's Blog and help her reach 500 followers! I have a certain fondness for trolls. I played with them instead of barbies! And then please follow my current blog on blogger: Sher A. Hart: My Best Part. Thanks!