IWSG-something's gotta go.

It's that time again: Insecure Writer's Support Group hosted by the amazing Alex J. Cavanaugh where we share our doubts and fears in this challenging and wonderful world of writing.
Where was I in June you ask? At WIFYR and visiting family of course. But don't worry, I'm sticking around for the rest of the summer and looking forward to catching up on your blogs.

 

To write we have to give something up and I haven't found a comfortable balance. I'm always worrying that I'm spreading myself too thin, giving too much to my writing, too little to my family, not sleeping enough so I'm on the verge of a cold, and possibly heading to a mental breakdown. Writing is hard. Determining to write, and make the time for it, is even harder.

At the Writers and Illustrators for Young Readers conference this past month Mette Ivie Harrison gave a talk entitled "Finding Time To Write." The entire talk reminded me of the father in Cheaper by the Dozen. Mette finds the most efficient ways to workout (down to the individual steps), quickest way to unload her dishwasher (she can do it in 30 sec), and she no longer cleans her house or does any yard work (she showed us pictures as proof). She told us this great story of a Kirby salesman coming to her house and she had him clean her bedroom carpet and realized that it hadn't been vacuumed in the 18 months they'd lived in that house. Yikes!

While I haven't gone to her extremes, here is a list of the big things I've let go for writing. In the end I hope it's worth it. 

1. Exercise time
Running in the early morning (because this is my one undivided writing time)

2. Sleep
I write best from 5 to 7 in the morning.

3. Money
Couponing. It can run your life, tracking down deals, organizing coupons, and rebates.

My savings towards my dream trip to Alaska. I spent half of it to attend WIFYR in 2011

4. Cleanliness
My house doesn't get the attention it once did.

Showering? Getting dressed? Totally optional.

A Kirby salesman actually came to my house yesterday and while in the past I'd let him come and make some portion of my house spotless, I sent him packing, plaid shirt and all. No way could I get writing done while he's here trying to sell me a ridiculously expensive vacuum.

5. Driving my kiddos to school
 Hello bus, I know you're awful and where I learned all about S-E-X and cuss words, but here are my children.

6. Time with my husband
One night a week he watches the kids so I can have 3 hrs of kid free writing time.

7. Time with other adults
Story time at the library and playgroup with my church

What have you given up? And is it worth it? Have you found a balance?

My 1st Giveaway AND WIFYR

When I began researching writer's conferences (Feb. '11) I stumbled upon Writers and Illustrators for Young Readers and was blown away by the incredible faculty and the week long small class (read 13 or less) writer workshops.  Even  though I live in S. CA it was well worth the extra travel expense to attend. (You can read about my experience last year here.)

In fact, it was so worth my while that I'm going again. This year I'm returning for the Middle Grade class with Tim Wynn-Jones. Now while I have to confess that the beard scares me (more on that on another post) I can't wait for his feedback. The MG class was the 2nd to fill up after Fantasy (with Matt Kirby). Don't worry if you haven't signed up yet, there's still some awesome classes available, but they're filling up fast, so don't twiddle those thumbs either:) Click here to register.

From the WIFYR website:

Tim Wynne-Jones has written thirty-two books including novels, picture books and three collections of short stories. (He's won a gazillion awards click here) He teaches in the MFA program at Vermont College and lives on 76 acres of land near Perth, Ontario. He has three children, all grown up now and living hither  and yon.
I'm reading his newest novel, a YA Thriller, Blink and Caution. And I'm giving away a copy to one of my followers. (Giveaway will close 5/15/2012 at midnight PST) How do you enter? So glad you asked. Required: 1. Follow my blog 2. Comment and tell me that you did (1 pt) Optional: 3. Follow me on Twitter @robinhallwrites (1 pt) 4. tweet or blog about this giveaway (1 pt for each) I'll announce the winner on Wednesday, May 16th Hope to see you at WIFYR!

A Glance Backwards

Jan 2010-I began my writing journey with best friend Kathryn Purdie.

February-December 2010- Katie and I didn't know what we were doing, so spent a lot of time writing a chapter, sending it to each other, then making HUGE rewrites. I didn't get very far in my story, The Golden Wood, a twist on Beauty and the Beast.

January of 2011 I found WIFRY online and Katie and I pulled strings to be there together.

February 2011-3 days after registering I found out I was pregnant with #4. With my morning sickness I had less than quality writing for the next 4 months

June 2012-Attended WIFYR with Kathryn. We took Louise Plummer's Class and found our awesome Crit. Group

July-Promised myself I would not go backwards-forced myself to write forward until I had my 1st complete draft of The Golden Wood .

August 25th-Finished my MS!! Did Happy Dance, Glowed for an entire week.

September and October 2011-Worked on revising MS. Got ready for baby. Slept as often as possible
              Baby boy born Oct. 27th! Healthy, Happy, and Yikes-At Home!

November 2011-did my first NaNoWriMo challenge. And I won! My MS-The Girl Who Could See

December 2011-1st revision of NaNo


Up Next: 2012 Goals

I should be sleeping . . .

But I woke up in the night at 3 am:
1. having to pee-that's what pregnancy will doing for you
2. having to eat-also what pregnancy will do to you

3. unable to stop thinking about Louise Plummer's thriller Finding Daddy that I started at 7:30 the night before.

So finally, I crawled out of bed trying not to wake my husband (success), grabbed my cell phone and Louise's book, and headed for my favorite reading chair in our living room.

I won't tell you about the book, except to say that if I'd read one more chapter last night I would have had to read it to the end before I could fall asleep. What can I say, as a totally unbiased student of Louise-she is AMAZING. It also freaked me out a little that it was written for her granddaughter that died at 4 months so I have to admit I looked up her obituary to make sure it wasn't from the causes written in the book (it's not).

Then I got online, because, well, it was 4:30 and I usually get up around 5:30 in the morning to start writing. No alarm guys, my crazy body just wakes up and I use this precious quiet time to get in my mandatory 1000 words a day. I shoot for another 1000 or so as the day progresses, but this morning time, well it's sacred. And since I was early, I had to read Taryn's Post because it's about our critique group. The best thing I took from WIFYR was an incredible critique group. There are 5 of us girls and Taryn, the most experienced, youngest one of all wrote about us on her blog last night.

Here I am with Tayrn. I shamelessly took pics on the last day with our entire class so that one day, when they're all famous I can prove that I know them- and that just maybe I helped them be a better writer:)

This is my longtime friend AND the one who got me started writing my book: Kathyrn Purdie

 Emily with Kathryn. Emily was everyone's new best friend and has an awesome reading voice to boot. She lives in sunny CA too, but in Northern CA, so she's just as far as my Utah writing friends (boo). And I had to add the link to her kindle post. I've just gotten a kindle (finally with my b-day money from Jan.) I kept dreaming about one, but then fighting them because I love holding the thick books, turning real pages, enjoying their crispness or their library use, imagining all the people who had read the copy before. And in the back of my mind always was Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451. Honestly, did this book hold back any other kindle interested people? Here's her post: Ahem. Public Apology #1.

 Ilima (with me) Isn't she gorgeous? and her book-well I just got to read the entire manuscript (on my new kindle) and I'm so excited for her. She's already working on the sequel. AND she homeschools. I am in awe, complete and utter awe.

Well, that's my group. Thank you girls for your inspiration, your knowledge, and your ability to tell me when my writing is awful and when I'm getting it right.

WIFYR 2011

I'm finally home after a month away and wanted to share some of the gems from my novel class experience.  First-to answer my previous post, some of the classmates looked just as I had imaged and some were pleasant surprises.  The biggest surprise for me was that my favorite submissions were from the teenagers in our class.  We had 3 amazing girls-one who's on her 9th book and working hard to get an agent. One just turned 16 (the minimum age for the conference). My main surprise was Louise Plummer-I didn't know what to expect, but I don't think I would have ever expected her. She is  funny and so real. We did a lot of laughing in there along with all the learning.

Main things I learned:

1. I'm not as good as I thought

2. I had some uncontroled side characters that were hi-jacking my book. I took Kathleen Duey's advise and cut them out-gave them their own folder with a promise to write their book one day, then went back into my book and changed their names
3. Don't be afraid to go to my dark side (direct quote from Louise)  Even though I'm writing YA I worried I'd be corrupting young minds with the dark parts of my story. Embrace them-use them . . .
4. If I'm struggling with a scene do what one of the amazing teens taught me-write the scene from the bad guys perspective (or anyone elses really). I was amazed what happened when I got inside my bad guy's head. What I wrote scared me, and when  I wrote the scene from my protagonist it was so much stronger and spot on. Everyone was impressed with the rewrite(thank goodness). I read it holding the paper in front of my face so nobody could see me blush.
5. I need to just get a nitty gritty complete first draft done. Then I can come back and revise. Goal-write every day. Have a completed draft before school starts as the end of August.
6. If I want to write and be published I just need to keep trying, continue to improve my craft, and eventually I will succeed.

Through Their Words

Don't judge a book by its cover, we've all heard, but what about judging an author by the words they write?
These last two weeks have been filled with the first 30 pages of my 12 classmate's manuscripts. I just realized this morning that although I haven't met any of these aspiring authors, I already have a mental picture of what they're going to look like, their intellectual level, and if I'm going to really mesh with them.

So, that brings the question-If I've spent 4 hours pouring over and critiqueing the start of someone's work am I really getting to know them or is it all in my head?
I know with reknowned author Cassandra Clare I had my image of who she would be-thinking that she would be much like her red-headed, demon destroying heroine (who just happens to have a similar name)Clary Fray. I had read three of her books-I just can't get enough of them (and have now read all that are available)-even if Stan won't stop making fun of me for reading a book with this cover.

When I watched this B&N interview and realized she had not based Clary on herself.
I laughed for a long time at my silliness in thinking she must be just like Clary.

So, back to my classmates, I keep wondering, am I doing the same thing again?
And what might they be thinking after reading my manuscript? What have they decided about me before even seeing me for the first time? It will be interesting to see how knowing each other first for our work will affect our classroom structure and the way we will interact with each other.

WIFYR-five days and counting-I'll have an answer to this question soon:)

Conference Jitters

I'm nervous about attending the WIFYR conference and showing up unprepared or dressed the wrong way. I want to put my best foot forward so to speak and to reach out of my comfort zone and meet and greet the other attendees and also the presenters, editors, and agents that will be present. So, I asked the novel class assistant if she could answer a few questions for me, which she did.  She also sent me this great link that I'd like to share with you as well. First time conference attenders need all the help we can get right?

This is the link she sent me from Mary Kole, one of the agents attending the conference http://kidlit.com/2010/12/03/conference-checklist/  After reading Mary's post I ordered business cards from http://www.vistaprint.com/
Since I'll be driving up from CA for the conference I need to come prepared with everything that I'll need and I want to get it right. So, I've been looking through my maternity, yes, maternity clothes for decent business casual. No easy task, especially when if I decide I need something more I'll have to drive over an hour to a store. I know clothing seems a bit of a silly consideration, but for someone who'll be 19 weeks at the conference I need to be comfortable enough with myself to network, network, network.
Wish me luck.

I Did It

Tonight I submitted to my WIFRY class my required first 30 pages. Even though these pages have been written and edited many times over the past year, I found myself terrified of letting them go. Until now it has only been my critiquing partner Kathryn Purdie and two sisters who have read my work. Knowing that 12 other classmates-well 11 if you consider that Kathryn will be there, complete strangers to me will be reading my work and critiquing it is really daunting. To numb myself before the process I sent just my 30 pages, into which I fit my first 3 chapters, to 3 other people. They responded favorably and without a large amount of helpful suggestions, but still, at least now a few more people have read it.

The submissions are due on Monday, the 23rd, and then we will be sent everyone else's work to critique and print out before the conference- That is three-hundred-and-sixty pages (it seemed more significant written out that way). Now the waiting. All my classmates will know my work before they know my face. I wonder how that will affect their opinions. I do hope that they are both helpful, kind, and specific in their criticisms. I hope to do the same.

My First Writing Conference

I signed up for my first ever writing conference!
The Writing and Illustrating for Young Readers (or WIFY for short) in Sandy, Utah this upcoming June. I'm excited and terrified at the same time. I will get to rub shoulders with some big names-Holly Black, Ally Condy, Carol Lynch Williams (did you read her amazing book The Chosen One?), Brandon Mull to name a few. My teacher is Louise Plummer. I hadn't heard of her before looking into the conference, but once I read up on all her amazing experience and read reviews from people who have taken her classes, I honestly can't wait. I just hope that she can tell me more than "you have beautiful hazeleyes" although I really do:) Read quote below to understand:
Louise, what can students expect to learn from your class?

"Students are expected to bring a finished or partially finished novel, of which I will read 20 pages during the week. Class members will read sections of each other's novels and critique these in class. We will also write in class, play around with verbs and adjectives, gossip about other living writers, and eat as much junk food as we can. I will either be funny, look funny, or both."

Would you describe your strengths as a teacher?

"I will grab you by the throat and say, "You can do this! You can!" Or I will say, "You need a year of apprenticeship before you send this to a publisher," or I will say, "Gosh, you have beautiful hazel eyes."

Do you think she knows I have hazel eyes? I take comfort in the fact that she answered these questions before I signed up.  Doesn't she sound like fun?

And the best part is that I'm taking this class with my very best friend, by writing buddy Kathyrn Purdie. We both write YA Character-Driven Fantasy, so we may have fit better in Holly Black's class, but it was already full.  Still, I think we're going to learn a ton in this class.

Here's to days filled with writing, and confidence in my 30 page submission required for the class. I'll keep you posted how the preparation and conference goes.