Dilettante to Dynamo: A Beginning Writer's Adventures

• Submit one story or novel excerpt up to 10,000 words
• You may include a synopsis if your entry is an excerpt, but an excerpt should still work as a stand-alone piece
• Work must be original, written in English, and previously unpublished
• Your name or address should not appear anywhere on the work
• Once submitted, entries cannot be altered
• All entries will be considered for general publication as well as for the Katherine Paterson Prize
• No artwork, or translations please
• Multiple entries allowed—each entry must include a separate entry fee

You may have noticed that I've yet to post the book review I mentioned last week. That's because I've yet to actually finish the book!

Somehow life has got in the way of my goal - but that's not to say that I've been neglectful of my writing. On the contrary, I have managed to write a few blog posts, create a character sketch for my protagonist, start creating a broad plot outline for MG novel, do some research on setting and main character details, start sketching out the details for some of my secondary characters, and continue researching different aspects of craft. 

This brings me to the point of today's blog. It's human nature to focus on the things we haven't accomplished or done well, but in doing so we miss opportunities to celebrate all of the things that we have achieved. 

It's easy for writers to beat themselves up about not reaching their word count goal or writing as many chapters as they'd hoped. But writing is so much more than just putting pen to paper and churning out pages. A great story sometimes needs a bit of research, and ALWAYS  requires a lot of thinking space. 

Tip: If you're one of those people that's focused on what they haven't achieved - STOP! Try making a list of all of the things you have got done and you'll probably find that they amount to a whole lot more work than you first gave yourself credit for. ;)

As I watched an episode of Spongebob Squarepants with my daughter this morning a question began to nag away at me...

Why can TV shows get away with aggressive, somewhat frightening, behaviour in their episodes, yet picture book writers have to be super careful about how they phrase things?

An example:
As a result of having a picture book critiqued I was advised (by a very experienced author and reviewer I might add) to change "Someone painted a picture on my tunic. My mum's going to kill me!"
The reason given was that children of picture book age tend to take things too literally. Hence a mum killing a child for getting paint on their tunic would be far too scary. Drawing on my experience as a teacher I could see her point, and not wanting to frighten my readers I willingly changed it to something more appropriate.

However, this morning's episode of Spongebob had a gorilla thrashing Patrick and Sandy, who'd been put in a sack, within an inch of their lives!  As this was happening my daughter was calling out "No! Patrick are you okay?" She's 3 years old and the time slot it's on at is 7:30am so I wouldn't expect something inappropriate for toddlers to be on at that time...and I'm not generally offended by Spongebob's antics...it just raised the question...

Are there different standards for TV and books? (or is it just poor scheduling by TVNZ?)

I'd love to hear your thoughts.

P.S. My daughter doesn't appear to have been traumatised by watching this episode, but it does serve as a reminder of the importance of monitoring what children watch!

I now know what it's like to be a fly on the wall!

Yesterday I spent about an hour getting to know my main character (MC). Initially he was a bit abstract, but it didn't take long before I was transported into his world - his home, school, and local hang-out spots.

Allowing myself that time to daydream was immensely helpful. Not only did I suss out the seemingly basic aspect of physical appearance, I was able to see how his physical appearance affects both his personality/mannerisms and those of the people around him too.  Annoying habits and speech patterns abounded and my pen could hardly keep up!

Suddenly my view began to expand. He was no longer a solo character but part of a family and peer group too. In trying to figure out his place in the family my rough sketch became a vivid family portrait filled with memories. By watching him at school I got flashbacks of all his school experiences - past, present, and future.

Another unexpected benefit of being a fly on the wall has been the development of a cast of secondary characters and a potential antagonist.

I've yet to figure out the answers to the BIG 4 (see previous post) but I'm sure as the day progresses and I continue to tune in to my MC they'll become clearer. I suspect that they may remain a little elusive until I figure out what sort of crime my MC is going to have to solve...

Until next time, happy writing ;)

Yesterday I set myself the challenge of reading The Sisters Grimm and attempting a review of the book today.
Bad news...I failed!

There were many contributing factors to my inability to meet this somewhat ambitious goal - a toddler who decided that she no longer wants to go to Playcentre with Granny; an exceptionally busy supermarket; lack of a trolley suitable for a baby and toddler to name but a few.

Some - my husband for one - might say that perhaps I ought to set smaller, more realistic goals but I like to look at this as an inevitable part of being a writer.

In an ideal world I'd write a story, do a bit of editing, send it off to a big NY publisher, and receive a phone call a few months later begging me to sign a contract. Unfortunately that's about as likely as me winning the Euro millions lottery this weekend. I'm sure there are many rejection letter in store for me, just as there will be many occasions where I'll fail to achieve a personal goal. It's hardly worth beating myself up about it...especially as I've still got to take Roland for a walk. He wouldn't be impressed if he missed out on his daily constitutional!

All I can do is try again tomorrow. So that's what I'll do!
C'est la vie :)