In addition to the honor of contributing to an organization and a cause I care about deeply, I learned a great deal about my writing habits (or lack thereof).  In two short weeks, I learned more about what I need to do to advance my writing career than I probably would have in six months if left to my own devices.  Here are the top five nuggets of wisdom I gained from the write-a-thon:

1. Liar, Liar Pants on Fire.  You know the saying about liars – they tell the same lie so often they start to believe it’s true?  Well, that’s how I was about writing.  I think about writing all the time.  I mull over ideas, write verses in my head, debate which publishers/agents I might approach, rehearse my appearance on Oprah (damn her for ending her show right before I hit the big time!).  The only thing missing in all of this was — well, the actual writing.  Now that I know what it feels like to spend multiple hours working on a single manuscript over a period of several days, I realize I was kidding myself about how much actual writing was happening.  I was undermining the #1 rule of writing: Butt in Chair = Writing Done.  The only way to keep myself honest about how much writing I get done in a day/week/month is to keep a log.
2. Keep Your Oil Can Nearby and Use it Regularly.  Remember the scene in The Wizard of Oz where Dorothy and the Scarecrow first come across the Tin Woodman?  He’s so stiff he can barely speak and certainly can’t move.  He finally manages to communicate that he needs them to oil his joints, which have rusted and rendered him unable to move. After he’s lubed up, he can dance and sing to his empty chest’s content about getting a heart.  One day, I spent six hours working on three verses of a thirteen-verse story, and at the end of that time, I still didn’t think those verses were up to snuff.  Every form of self-doubt plagued me: ‘You don’t have what it takes. You’re wasting your time.  Great – you’ve quit your job only to discover you have no talent.‘ And so on.  Under pre-write-a-thon circumstances, I would have put that manuscript aside for at least two weeks, maybe a month.  Instead, I picked it up again the next day because I had to, per the write-a-thon and its looming deadline.  Then something miraculous happened.  The pieces started to connect.  I saw what the story needed and found the words.  By the time I finished for the day, I was satisfied with seven of the thirteen verses.  The previous day’s sweat had served to lubricate my rusted brain so the story could break itself loose and dance.  Lesson learned: If you’re stuck, keep writing.  Otherwise those brain cells will rust and grow stiff again.  Writing is your oil can.
3. If You’re Sick of Running, Go Biking.  Exercising any muscle, including the writing one, requires cross training.  Otherwise you become fatigued and risk injury or burnout or both.  So, before you stab yourself in the eye with your pencil or run your work-in-progress through the shredder, work on something else.  I did exactly that on my last day of the write-a-thon.  I was working on a first draft of a story I’ve told aloud to the kids many times, but it was only going onto the page kicking and screaming.  With three hours left to go before I would reach my goal, I put the petulant manuscript aside and wrote a brand new story.  It’s a sweet poem combining love and nature, and it might be the best piece I’ve written since I started this whole children’s book writing venture.  Switching gears not only kept me productive, it enabled me to end the write-a-thon on a high note.
4. Jane Yolen Sits on My Shoulder. Not literally, of course (Although wouldn’t that be great?  I can just imagine her smacking me six ways to Sunday whenever I felt the inclination to complain).  I do, however, find myself reflecting often on the 20 Rules of Writing she shared with us at the winter SCBWI conference, and every time I do, I find the motivation to keep going.  That list is Jane’s doppelgänger perched over me ready to pounce if I start feeling sorry for myself.  I hear her at the podium saying, “Butt in Chair=writing done”, “write every day – no excuses,” “writer’s block is all in your mind,” and “have fun writing.”  It’s hard to ignore.  There’s nothing like learning from a master, which leads me to the last lesson:
5. Misery Loves Company.  Community is important.  Writing is mostly a solitary expedition, so it is important to reach out – to experts in the field, to other writers both in and outside your genre, and most importantly, to friends and family.  For me, the blog is a way to connect, and the write-a-thon solidified that for me.  I got support from the full spectrum -  writers I’d never met, friends old and new, and family (hi, Mom!).  I was also buoyed in this endeavor by all that I learned at the SCBWI conference. I am not a new writer, but I am new to the field of children’s literature.  Spending a whole weekend soaking up hard-earned wisdom from the literati elite was potent medicine for a writer seeking knowledge, inspiration and fellowship.  Now I’m looking for critique groups.  The only way to gain perspective and stay sane is to share our stories – in writing and in life.


http://www.flickr.com/photos/jleveque/ / CC BY-NC 2.0

One change I will implement beginning next week is to keep a tally of the hours I write each week.  I’ll put the ticker on the sidebar of the blog for anyone who cares to track my progress.  My initial goal is to complete 10 hours of writing every week.  Same rules as the write-a-thon.  The only writing that counts is that which is directly related to my works-in-progress.

If you are a writer, what kind of goals do you set for yourself and how do you enforce them?

I went to the library one morning this week and stopped at the little coffee shop to get a tea to fortify me in my work.  Standing at the register, I noticed a little jar with a sign that read, “Food for Thought.  Take a thought.  If it speaks to you, put it in your pocket.  If it doesn’t, put it back in the jar.”  Inside the jar were little scrolls of white paper tied with black curling ribbon.  ‘Why not?’ I thought.  I put my hand in the jar and pulled out a scroll.  Here is what it said:

“Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life.  It turns what we have into enough, and more.  It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity.  It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend.  Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.” — Melody Beattie

Amazing how just putting more focus on something makes it land right in your lap.  Here are a few more quotes for the week, followed by ‘The List.’

Quotes on Gratitude:

“I see skies of blue / clouds of white / bright blessed days / dark sacred nights / and I think to myself / what a wonderful world” — Louis Armstrong (singer), Bob Thiele and George David Weiss (Music & Lyrics)

“Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all the others.” — Cicero

“Wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for another day of loving.” — Khalil Gibran

Gratitude List for the week ending February 28th

1. Completing my Write-a-thon and meeting my 30-hour writing goal!!!
2. The generous donations for the American Heart Association received from friends and family in sponsorship of the write-a-thon.
3. My sainted mother taking the kids for the night on Friday so I could finish my writing.
4. A Dr. Seuss marathon with the kids in honor of his birthday on March 2nd, kicked off by Em reading Green Eggs and Ham to Jay and me.
5. Having FIVE manuscripts in varying stages of completion (started the week with three)
6. Sunny, 50 degree weather all week.  Spring is nigh!
7. Going for a run outside with Rocky.
8. Coffee (tea for me) date with a new friend.
9. A PTO that has the cash flow to stem some of the impending budget cuts at Em’s school next year
10. Greeting Olympic athletes coming home from Vancouver at Chicago O’Hare airport.

What are you grateful for this week?

Plus, the non-writing rewards are also great.  Thanks to your generous donations, we have raised $187 for the American Heart Association so far.  Remember that I am matching donations dollar for dollar, so that means we’re already up to almost $400 total.  I am so thankful to you all and so gratified to “use” my writing for good.

If you have not already donated and would like to, click on the firstgiving link here or on the sidebar.  You can also watch my progress on the ticker today, as I’ll be updating it as I go along.  Thanks so much for taking this journey with me!  Next week I will blog about my lessons learned from this experience.

Then, while waiting for my connecting flight at Chicago O’Hare airport, United announcers came on to say that a group of athletes from the U.S. Olympic team were coming home from Vancouver.  They passed out “Welcome Home” signs for us to hold at the gate and cheer them on.  So I got to greet some of our country’s champions, including the poor goalie from our hockey team.  What a thrill!  I mean, when was the last time you remember anything fun happening at O’Hare?  Yeah, that’s what I thought.

P.S. I’ll never be able to think of the seats at O’Hare as anything but “O’Chairs” thanks to the book Dear American Airlines.

P.P.S. There is still time if you’d like to make a pledge to the write-a-thon.  Any amount is appreciated.  You can click on the firstgiving button below or on the sidebar.  As always, thanks for your support!

Instead of pulling my hair out chunk by chunk, I’m going to meet my stepmother for dinner and drink some wine.  I am now beginning to understand how many authors produced their best work “under the influence.”  God, but it’s painful!

Also, a quick update on my write-a-thon:  I’ve raised $125 so far for the American Heart Association from your generous pledges. Many, many thanks to those of you who have already donated.  I’ve got my work cut out for me in terms of hours left to write, but I’m going away for the weekend sans husband and children, so I plan to rock the writing then.  Please consider a small pledge of support.  No donation amount is too small!  Remember – I’m matching the donations dollar for dollar at the end of the write-a-thon (March 5th).  If you’d like to pledge, just click on the firstgiving button below or on the sidebar and you will be directed to my fundraising page at firstgiving.  Thanks!

It seems that Simon & Schuster’s Aladdin imprint announced last week that they will publish a book “written” by Tori Spelling.  ‘Aladdin said “Presenting … Tallulah,” illustrated by Vanessa Brantley Newton, tells the story of a young girl who just wants to be herself.’  Huh.  Too bad the author doesn’t feel the same way.  With at least two plastic surgeries under her belt, perhaps Spelling should practice what she preaches.

Let’s start with a little background, shall we?  Spelling is the “poor little rich” daughter of media mogul/billionaire Aaron Spelling, but is perhaps best known as the virginal (at least for seven seasons) Donna Martin of Beverly Hills 90210, produced by Daddy Spelling. She later starred in a sitcom based on her own life called So NoTORIous.  Despite her first wedding costing upwards of $1 million, that marriage went up in smoke a year later when Tori went public with her affair with Dean McDermott.  She met McDermott on the set of the illustrious made-for-TV movie, Mind Over Murder.  Within a month they called each other “soul mates,” and plotted out of their respective marriages.   McDermott had been married to Mary Jo Eustace for twelve years and produced two? children (McDermott and his wife were in the process of adopting a newborn daughter when he met Tori.  An upstanding gent, he opted not to go forward with the adoption, leaving that to his ex, and took joint custody only of his son.  What a Mensch.).  Tori and Dean now have two children of their own, who they famously parade in front of the cameras on their reality TV-show, Tori & Dean: Home Sweet Hollywood.  Oh, and she and mother Candy Spelling have been carrying out a years-long feud in the tabloids.

I ask you: what in this resume qualifies Tori Spelling to write a children’s picture book?  (Having children doesn’t count, by the way.)  Well… she is a celebrity, and certainly not the first one that has entered the children’s book market.

Both aspiring and established authors regularly lament the rise of the celebrity author – drawn now to the children’s market as it has grown large and lucrative.  There are two primary reasons why “real” authors cringe over celebrity books.  First, each publisher only has room for so many titles on its list each season.  Each slot that goes to a celebrity author is one fewer for other writers.  Second, celebrity authors command huge advances – far more than even the most renowned children’s book authors receive.  In order to earn back the advance, the publishing house must then use a disproportionate amount of its (also limited) marketing and PR resources to promote that book at the expense of others on their lists.  Even Jane Yolen has a hard time.  She said, “I have over 250 books out, have won a great number of awards within the field, have been given four honorary doctorates for my body of work, but have never been on ‘Oprah’ or spoken to Katie Couric or gotten a $100,000 advance for my work.  I am not complaining. I do very well by the ordinary parameters of the field. But I have been thinking about getting out my pointy bra and brushing up on my singing and dancing… because — you know — if it’s celebrity they want …”

Then there’s another celebrity author nuisance.  Most of them, with a few exceptions, can’t write their way out of a paper bag.  In this article, Trev Jones, a book review editor for the School Library Journal says, “most of these books are pretty bad, although it’s hard to pan them all. Some of these people can write, but many can’t. And there is seemingly no connection between whether they can write and whether they will get published.”

Can Tori Spelling write?  Since she has written a couple of “books” (Hollywood tell-all memoirs), I decided to be fair and evaluate the writing first-hand.  I skulked in a corner of Barnes and Noble surreptitiously reading passages from her first book, sTORI Telling, hoping nobody would see me.  In it, I found these examples of scintillating prose.

“I decided to mend bridges with my mother. I hugged her and told her I loved her. She said she loved me too, and we both cried. These moments happen in our relationship.” Wow!  So profound.

Regarding her affair: “Dean and I hid our relationship from the cast and crew. In the beginning of the filming I called Charlie (her ex) every night, but now I called him less and less. I’d email him from Dean’s room to say it was late and I was going to bed.” Nice.  “Charlie wanted to come pick me up at the airport, but I wanted to be able to say good-bye to Dean. So I lied to Charlie and told him I was coming home a day later.” Being honest about lying – terrific.

This one really takes the cake, though.  Here she is talking about how her husband wanted to have sex with her upon her return from filming.  A reasonable request from a husband of his wife.  But Tori sticks to her moral guns. “The fact of my affair was bad enough, but to physically go back and forth between two men seemed like it would compound the offense.” Umm… ya think?!?

This segues nicely into my next question.  If you are thinking of either publishing or purchasing a children’s book, should you take into consideration whether the author is an appropriate role model for children?  Up to now, you could have read this post thinking it’s all sour grapes from an unpublished, aspiring children’s book writer.  That’s partially true, I admit.  But as a parent, I find it both infuriating and disheartening that publishers are so focused on what will sell that they no longer care about an author’s level of talent or his or her reputation.  I get that publishing is a business.  Publishers need to make money to keep publishing books at all.  The argument goes that the profit from celebrity best-sellers enables them to publish more work from lesser-known authors.  I’m not going to debate that contention here, but I do find it frustrating that “playing it safe” in publishing means putting out books of dubious quality by authors of even more dubious credentials.

BUT – it’s not the publishers’ fault that this stuff sells.  That, my friends, falls on our shoulders – the consumers.  If there were no demand for a Tori Spelling book, there would be no Tori Spelling book.  We teach corporations what to sell to us.  Why should they be the gatekeepers of quality when we fail to do the job ourselves?  So consider the following in your analysis of Spelling’s “qualifications” to write for children:

• She has had at least two plastic surgeries, including a noTORIous breast enhancement surgery.
• Shooting back at the ever-reputable Star Magazine, which claimed she was “too thin” at 95 pounds, Spelling quickly tweeted to her fans that she was weighing in at a healthy 107 lbs – on 5’6″ frame.  Am I the only one that questions whether that is a healthy weight?  Especially since probably 10 of those pounds are attributable to the ridiculously large breasts resulting from the aforementioned boob job.
• In sTORI Telling, she recounts a scene with her mother where she breaks down in tears because her mother wouldn’t pay for her $10,000 wedding suite.  To be fair, Tori apparently didn’t know her parents were having “money problems.” (Might that be because of the blow-out wedding???)
• Although I did not peruse her second book, Mommywood, I read in the reviews that during the 3-D ultrasound of her first child, she worried (aloud) that his nose looked too big.  Seems like a natural reaction to the first glimpse of your first baby.

Her book will hit bookstores in the fall.  If it makes the bestseller list, I have some suggested titles for a follow-up:

Mom, Can I get a Nose Job?: A Surgery sTORI
Don’t Know Much About hisTORI: Learn Along with Tori Spelling
My House is Ten sTORIes Tall: A Counting Book
My Brain is a mysTORI: Tori Spelling Science Series
Remember to use the LavaTORI: Potty Training for Dummies

Oh, and Tori?  Demi Moore called, and she wants her daughter’s name back.

OKAY – time to retract the claws and wait quietly for Paris Hilton to write a children’s book.

I will give you all the details on how my write-a-thon will work (and since it’s mine, I get to make up all the rules!).  But first, let me reveal the beneficiary – The American Heart Association (AHA).  February, as you may know, is American Heart Month, which includes the Go Red for Women campaign also sponsored by AHA.  More recently, AHA launched the Be the Beat initiative aimed toward teaching heart health, CPR and AED skills to teens.  AHA’s mission is “to build healthier lives, free of cardiovascular diseases and stroke.”  They are a leading source of funding for research and public education campaigns to promote heart health in the U.S.

I chose the AHA because members of my immediate family have suffered from many types of heart problems.

• I never met my paternal grandmother, who died of complications from heart disease in her forties.
• My maternal grandfather suffered from diabetes throughout his life.
• One of my dear uncles passed away after suffering a heart attack at age 51.
• My father passed away suddenly, at age 64, from a ruptured aortic aneurysm (we did not know it was there).
• My stepmother, who has already survived a heart attack and has enjoyed a mostly clean bill of health since then, spent the night in the hospital a couple of weeks ago after experiencing severe chest pain.  She is now receiving a full work-up to determine the cause.
• My mother takes medication for chronic high blood pressure and high cholesterol.

Given this genetic stew, the chances that I and/or my children will suffer from heart disease is greater than the average person.  We are doing all we can to prevent that outcome by exercising, eating healthfully and getting regular check-ups, but the fact is that genes play a big role in heart conditions.  That is why I am so grateful for the AHA’s work.

HOW THE WRITE-A-THON WORKS

It’s very simple.  The write-a-thon starts today and ends at midnight on March 5th.  I pledge to write for 30 hours in that 15 day period, averaging 2 hours per day (although there’s nothing that says I can’t front-load on a given day and write for more than 2 hours).  Before you decide that 30 hours is not very much writing in two weeks, please take a look at the exclusions below.  Believe me when I tell you 30 hours is a huge challenge for me, since I’m not writing anywhere near that much per day right now.  That’s the beauty of this experiment.  In benefiting AHA, I will also benefit myself by exercising the habit of writing every day.  Such is often the case that in giving to others you give also to yourself.

If you want to support me in this effort, you can donate any amount to the AHA using the link to firstgiving.org (in this post and on the sidebar) where I’ve set up a personal fundraising page.  I do not touch any of the funds.  They go straight from firstgiving to AHA.  ANY donation amount is welcome.  This effort is not about who can or will make the biggest donation.  In fact, I’ve suppressed the donation amount on the fundraiser page.  You’ll be able to see who has donated and the total amount of the donations, but not how much each person donated individually.  A $1 donation is equally as welcome as $100.  I’m just looking to make a small difference in my own little way – not to turn myself or this blog into a fundraising behemoth.  This is the first time I’ve ever tried anything like this, so that is part of the fun.  At the end of the two-week donation period, I will make a donation to match, dollar for dollar, your collective donations.  I will make my final donation (and the amount) visible on the fundraising page for all to see.

NUTS & BOLTS

Writing that qualifies for the write-a-thon:

• Work on any writing that I actually intend to sell someday (existing manuscripts, new manuscripts, articles, etc.)
• Query letters related to the above

Writing that does NOT qualify for the write-a-thon:

• Writing for this or any other blog
• Participation in critique group sessions
• Emails or any other type of correspondence
• Personal journal writing

As you can see, the write-a-thon is centered on my “professional” writing.  I’ve added an “hours written” ticker to the blog sidebar so you can track my progress.

DO I GET MY MONEY BACK IF YOU DON’T REACH YOUR WRITING GOAL?

The short answer is no because the funds go directly to AHA after you donate.  The longer answer is there is no way I would let that happen.  If I’m running behind and I have to stay up for 30 hours straight to reach the goal, I will.

DOES YOUR WRITE-A-THON HAVE A CATCHY NAME?

It’s a bit of a mouthful, but I’ve decided to call it Write from the Heart for the Heart.

If you have any other questions, concerns or comments, please let me know.  Like I said, this is the first time I’ve ever attempted personal fundraising, so I’m sure there are things I’m forgetting.  Thanks for coming with me on this journey!