Informational Website

I just discovered Cheryl Klein's website. Lots of good information there on writing, plot, story, publishing and more. I was already familiar with her blog, Brooklyn Arden, so finding the her 'Talks on Writing and Publishing' was enlightening. Definitely worth checking out.

Update

22 Manuscripts in the mail to PB publishers and/or magazines. 2 form letter rejections received and 1 rejection with a human signature (an editorial assistant) yea!

Internet & Writing

You know, I just realized that when I was actively writing picture books before, over ten years ago, there wasn't even an internet. I felt totally isolated and un-informed. How much easier it is now to get feedback from other authors and find information about publishers! It makes my head spin. Where will we be in another ten years?

Also, I just started reading Writing With Pictures by Uri Shulevitz. If you're writing or illustrating picture books, this is a MUST READ. Very awesome.

Critique Groups

I can't believe I waited this long to join an online critique group. It's an awesome experience. If you write and are serious about wanting to get published. Do it now.

stream of conscious typing (SOCT)

SOCT is getting easier, and I come out to a level of awareness less. It's hard to describe how I get there, kind of like meditation, how do I explain how that state of bliss was reached??? The biggest thing I changed should have been most obvious . . . to just type and not to examine the text for ideas until after I'm done. Have to wait until I've typed steadily for several minutes before going back and searching for ideas.

Todays SOCT:
Free flowing the river and a duck is the funniest word a herd of words antelopes eloping through the mudpuddles and stars twinkling so brightly they hurt my eyes are sinister windows to the soldier at lexington shooting his mouth off at some stranger who is quirky cucumber columbus day is full of surprise parties that explode in the night thing swamp monster is so poetic justic freezing the pond over with icey flakes of frequent flyer miles to go before I sleep said the octopus to the cucumber cakes and crying over spilt milking the cow all day longer than any story I’ve ever heard of you didn’t we meet at ac moore last yearly salaries are on the rising snow blizzard funneling through the house is exploding windows and doors crashing open to the tune of ten million dollars worth of damaging winds hurricanes eat people don’t they know that two and two doesn’t always make for seasons to the year but around here it’s mostly just winter is not my favorite time to go I don’t want to know why the elephant sneezed from both ends of the lake monster that crawled forth and exploded again the hawks soared from the sky to eat the bunnies that are nibbling grass and the suicide of thousands of bakers dozens in a donut hole that ate mice nesting in the trees falling by axes and the giant paul bunyon on my big toe aches after the mouse stabbed me with a pencil he was drawing a family portrait of stars that can act reasonably wellness program that involves tai chi bless you said the little rhino after sticking his horn where it didn’t belong in the nose of a fourth grader trying to pet the pony on the merry go round that took off into the sky and spun a dizzy sequence of events that led to another sequence of events that changed the world in a one night video about rocks that grow mossy banks along the river where trees skinny dip in the middle of the night beneath stars that hoot and holler when they shoot across the sky full of crows and where is that damn scarecrow when you need him to explain the facts of life is going downhill fast like a boulder rolling through a henshouse of ducks that can’t quake like an earthquake rumbling my belly is so hungry that I could eat an ant hill of possibilities that careen this way and then that way

As I look back at the above text the first title idea I pull out 'the monster in the mudpuddle' okay, I could probably grow a story out of that. Then elephant sneezing is potentially funny and that makes me think how would I stop an elephant from sneezing, hmmm, a second idea. But it also spawns a third idea, how would I stop a hippo from hiccupping? Oh wait, I skipped over cows, parties and a pond freezing over . . . Cows on Ice skates? Cows having an ice skating party? well that gets me up to four potential ideas. what else is there? mice nesting in trees, noses, a little rhino, a merry go round, trees skinny dipping, stars that hoot and holler, a missing scarecrow, a henhouse full of ducks . . . yup enough here for my daily quota of ideas.

Which means now I can move on to the editing stage. I have six manuscripts nearing completion (which means I'll be tapping into the idea folders soon). Of the six nearly finished: The first is too short and too simple to be a PB, so unless I can flesh it out better, it'll be a magazine story. The second story I thought was also going to be too short but bit by bit has expanded enough to be a simple PB. The third and fourth stories are both wordless manuscripts, illustration only. I like them alot but I'm worried that they won't find a home. I've tried and tried to add text to them but it only makes them sound clunky. The fifth is a story I've had around for ten years, finally got an ending to it that I'm happy with (thanks to SCBWI discussion boards). The sixth is nearly a wordless PB, the only text is the dialogue, the action explains itself.

And one more little note before I close for today, I stumbled across the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level Calculator . . . cool little tool. Check it out.

Trolling for Ideas

One of the methods I use to create story ideas is stream-of-conscious-typing (SOCT). Just start typing whatever words jump into your head. I rarely create a full sentence and when I do it's because I'm conscious of what I'm doing. When it works effectively one word evokes the next word and skew off at odd angles from each other. I can usually glean several title and/or story ideas from the unusual word combinations. For example, from the following SOCT I found 18 ideas:

Holy smacks a word a dog a dog of a life a strife nonsense nose sense of smells really badly I want it to touch her there me not good bad ugly retro foolish lies silly feelings sally says the way to god is a stone ladder with daffodils that I hey I did spell it write oops oh no here we go again to the same old tune where the hell is the story ideas my head hurts I need coffee I can’t smell it but its done where the fugg fudge cake illustrate god can type 30 words a minute can you tango tong gone with the windy city and not a minute to spare the silliest story about a dog gone wile at the beach ball looking for words silly words gallery hosting a song to smell you by where will the words come from let the fingers do the typing and fabricating wholly cow holly cow bovine center porcine porcupine to the rescue of a day a night the longest night looking for words trolling for answers t rolling t rexasaurus the skull that talked too much the haunting of hill side views from the window ledge a pidgeons tail tale do re me fa so la di wi’ve bben here before the time has come to photograph the opportunity of alifetime of woes and whistles and bells and toots the trolley can’t believe what I’ve done what I did what did you do to me to the day to the holiday season and christmas here comes santa claus the almighty too rich for her own good so give me some of that propoganda don’t stop to edit just type you idiot nincompoop wiht my eyes closed she said he said the let my fingers type without interupption no backspacing no deleting no corrections where theat damn white out oops hah looking for words trolling for words come to poo poppa poppa poo? Ewwww. He smiled he sneered he gaggled he giggled he tickled her fancy funny bone castration city ouch still typing with I my eyes closed here can you see it can you taste it the taste of food the taste of good life in the city manhatten is the place to be the subway ride to hell the blues blue blog post this shit it’s in my head I can hear it looking trolling waiting wanting she wants to sneer to elope the can’t elope elaine is a pain but she’s my pain and I like it to the city to the country mouse on a subway cat the rats under the sewer is a good thing the wood chips are flying where’d that come from the ride to the holiday train expresss that’s a good movie I need to drift more where to go to my mind is a playground where ideas are a riot in the suburbs in the woods a tree a racoon and a trolley ride to the deepsest parts of the ocean is a mindset of foolishness still I haven’t found the answer but I can’t get there from here is It a liability two words plus two words isn’t a story but can it be a poem is a writers nightmare is not writing the words stop coming but can they stop they just fill up inside my head and pop goes the zit I hate it when that happens my hand fell asleep and won’t obey me bad hand it won’t let me control it and I’m a wasteland of bad ideas and good ideas and I’m still typing with my eyes closed but that damn editor keeps rearing it’s ugly head and I’m not drifting enough I’m thinking about what I’m doing and not wandering enough my mind goes off to wander in the playground of the hillside cemetery google this his fat ass is a wonderful thing to behold thepleasure of the fingers on her keyboard and I keep talking the tree angel comes to life. Let the drift of the current take me to where? The alphabet sings on a daily basis I can hear her snoring from way down here my arms ache from the work my back aches the pain I’m back on pain again her medicine my medicine the way to a snarky foil of wonderful useless information inquiries the king to the queen of bees is a buzzing happening place to wonder into the strife of the city life sidewalks can talk to me with chalk and crayon and colors are a mystery to me oh the fog and the hedgehog youtube it to the maximillian city of light of wonder of fog and mystterying on the streets and from the sewers comes the cute little bunny that mutates into a sneezy droolly old troll that eats dogburgers with mayonaise and ew that sneeze thing is really atrocious I wonder what she’ll eat next the spider the fly the goat the gruff the bridge the sound the echo of footsteps over the bridge to the ocean and up the beach sand in her panties I can’t not type that don’t stop wonder on the beach dune sand castles of surprise sunrise on the sand castle meandering wondering wanderings city fried on the egg sidewalk so hot my feet burn they itch they ache they have a mind of their own let your feet walk where ever they’ll take you to the toy store where I should buy a real toy that comes to life when you sneeze on it nonsense to the max I like max max come play max come here max my friend my enemy my lice is a liscense plate number to spell what I like to read license plates he likes to eat the plate the hamburger with more onion than ketchup ketcip catch up catchers mit koala tree the coon dog’s bay as the racoon is treed tread lightly on the octopus is squidy squishy squashy apple pie in the over smells like hamster juice of the onion makes her cry a valley of tears in a song about the mountaintop safari is really on its way down the hill to town to visit uncle ned in a furnace of wonder and surprise visits by aliens make me ugly oh is she ever ugly enough for two presidents birthdays in a row 356 presidents a holiday every day of the year is no joke she said he sniggered but she liked it that way he said she said they said they roared like a waterfall in the valley of smoke and hamsters surprise the crap out of you

Merry Christmas

Brenda and Jennifer bringing a twinkle to Santa's eyes. The Oakdale Mall Santa in Binghamton. This is our 21st consecutive year of Santa pictures, a family tradition :)