June #writemotivation Week 2

It’s been a busy week here at the Lawson hacienda. I had the opportunity to see a Shakespeare play at the Philbrook Museum thanks to a generous gesture on the part of fellow blogger Paula at stuffitellmysister. She gave me the tickets when she couldn’t use them. So thoughtful!

It was also Autism Awareness Night at the Tulsa Drillers baseball game. Much to my parents’ dismay, the Drillers beat their fave home team, The Springfield Cardinals. There was such a good turn out for the game – so many autism families participated!

Our family had a great time.

Trevor too involved in watching the game to pose for a picture.

Me and the daughter.

View of downtown Tulsa from stadium.

Husband photo bombs pic with me and Trevor.

Almost good! Foul ball.

Trevor loves baseball and can actually sit through a couple of hours of watching the game before he gets restless and is ready to go home. We all enjoyed getting out as a family in a fun, accepting environment. The kids got to go down on the field before the game and the announcer talked about signs and symptoms of autism throughout the evening. The more education out there the better. That’s why the Autism Center of Tulsa is such a great organization and why our family supports them every year during their autism walk fundraiser. Movie Night at Circle Cinema is coming later this month and in July there is the fabulous family fun night swim party. For any other families with autism in the area looking for opportunities to socialize, make sure to sign up!

Believe it or not, there was actual goal progress made on top of everything else. Hell , yeah! Overall a pretty great week.

Here are my #writemotivation goals for June:

1. Submit Museum Crashers (MG mystery) to editor who requested the full. Getting closer to the end – trying not to rush it. I’m really excited about submitting this one!

2. Submit Institutionalized (YA contemporary) to five more literary agents. I’ve submitted to three agents and received an immediate rejection from one. I’m researching specifics on three more to submit to this month.

3. Work on first draft of Pretty Vacant (YA contemporary). No progress on this one.

4. Read at least five books – review one on the blog. I’ve just finished my second book, Hereafter by Tara Hudson. It’s the first in her Hereafter trilogy. Fantastic book. She recently spoke at our June SCBWI schmooze and I really enjoyed meeting her. There may be more news to post about this meeting, soon. Stay tuned!

5. Work on outlining new blog project idea. I made some headway with this by starting my new series of posts, “Inspiring Stories”. More still to do, though.

6. Exercise 3 times each week. Still making good progress on this and still feeling crippled with pain every day from overworked, whiny muscles. (Tell me this gets easier!)

7. Finish critique of friend’s manuscript. No progress on this one, either. Will do better this week!

Nothing overwhelming me so far. It feels good to be back out there submitting to agents – even with the rejections. How are all of you doing with your goals?

Quote of the day:

“In waiting for the glorious moment of that first book contract, writers must have giant reservoirs of patience. Yet they must persevere because they don’t know the destiny that is being worked out for them. They creep humbly along the ground, without the spacious aerial vision of their lives that would show them the destiny in store for them.”

- Ron Chernow

Here’s to creeping humbly and having massive reservoirs of patience! Have a great week, and keep writing!

June #writemotivation Week 1

A new month with new #writemotivation goals. Woohoo! Let’s get this party started! If you missed the signup this month, we’re now doing this every month, so you can sign up for July near the end of June. You can also follow the chat on Twitter at the hashtag, #writemotivation. Feel free to join in the conversations as well. All who need motivation are welcome.

Here are my goals for June:

1. Submit Museum Crashers (MG mystery) to editor. Almost done with this; a few more chapters to go and it will be ready.
2. Submit Institutionalized (YA contemporary) to five more literary agents. I’ve already submitted to three agents this week, so I don’t think this goal will be too hard to achieve – it’s the waiting afterwards that will probably kill me. Funny that I’m not so worried about getting rejected anymore, I just hate all the waiting. Maybe I need a goal for working on patience.
3. Work on first draft of Pretty Vacant (YA contemporary). Haven’t started this goal, yet, but the week is early.
4. Read at least five books – review one on the blog. Racing through book 1 – Asunder by Jodi Meadows. I have two other books that I’m halfway through, but those are taking me longer to read.
5. Work on outlining new blog project idea. Still percolating in the old noggin. Need to put some time in on this one.
6. Exercise 3 times each week. I’m so sore after my first day of swimming, I can barely move without wincing. I can’t even tell why some areas are hurting; I didn’t think I used every muscle for this activity. I’m actually okay with the rain, today. My body needs a rest.

And I’m going to add a seventh goal:

7. Finish critique of friend’s manuscript. It’s so overdue it’s embarrassing. Good thing my friend it so patient with me! I promise I WILL finish it this month.

A good healthy list for this month, don’t you think? That should keep me busy and motivated. Speaking of motivation, here’s a quote I found inspiring:

“Failure: is it a limitation? It’s a lot of things. It’s something you can’t be afraid of, because you’ll stop growing. The next step beyond failure could be your biggest success in life.”

- Debbie Allen

Let’s all pledge to keep growing. Here’s to another great month of #writemotivation!

Final Week of May #writemotivation

I had a slow week last week, but here in the home stretch I’m making up for it. I had to prepare a submission for the SCBWI LA conference at the last minute since their deadline moved up this year to the end of May and I just paid for the conference about a week ago. Nothing like an impending deadline to get all fired up and work like mad. My submission made it just in time. Woohoo!

The recovery effort in Oklahoma is still ongoing. For those of you who are interested, you can still participate in Kate Messner’s  KidLitCares for Oklahoma giveaway. It’s open until June 7th. Great cause, great giveaway, so check it out. There’s also a way you can help replenish the classroom libraries of the two schools that were destroyed in the tornado by visiting the Moore Books for Moore Kids Facebook page and making a donation.

On to my goal progress:

1. Complete latest draft of Museum Crashers (MG mystery) and prepare for submission. More progress made, but still short of the finish. I’ll have to really push hard to reach the end soon. I’m still happy with the progress I’ve made. I will definitely be sending this out next month.
2. Research more literary agents for submission of Institutionalized (YA contemporary) and send out to five of them. I have the short list. I will work on the personalized queries over the next few days and start sending them out.
3. Make some progress on first draft of Pretty Vacant (YA contemporary). Develop main character fully and decide which way story arc will go. More research and more reading done. I really have a good feel for the main character now. I’m excited about starting this project.
4. Exercise 3 times each week. Exercise has been going well. Still on the lighter side. My daughter and I are going to ramp it up next month by joining a gym and being each others work out buddies.

I hope you’re all doing well with your goals. Let’s meet up again in June for the next #writemotivation month! Sign up now!

Motivational quote for the day:

“A hunch is creativity trying to tell you something.”

- Frank Capra

Week 2 May #writemotivation

Just a quick post to update my #writemotivation goals and to lend encouragement to all who are struggling – I hear you! How are we supposed to stay glued to our chairs and write when the weather is so nice? Argh!

We must be committed to our craft or something. (My family is definitely leaning towards the “or something”.)

Goals for this month:

1. Complete latest draft of Museum Crashers (MG mystery) and prepare for submission. Made progress here. Almost halfway through! This story is really shaping up well.
2. Research more literary agents for submission of Institutionalized (YA contemporary) and send out to five of them. Started the research process over. Now compiling the new short list.
3. Make some progress on first draft of Pretty Vacant (YA contemporary). Develop main character fully and decide which way story arc will go. Doing some research reading this week and getting some excellent ideas. Really excited about this project.
4. Exercise 3 times each week. Ummm…two times. Blame it on the rain? (How dare I quote Milli Vanilli!) Next week’s progress on this goal looks better.

I’ll leave you with an inspirational quote to keep your motivation up:

“Writing is harder than anything else; at least starting to write is. It’s much easier to wash dishes. When I’m writing I set myself a daily quota of pages, but nine times out of ten I’m doing those pages at four o’clock in the afternoon because I’ve done everything else first…But once I get flowing with it, I wonder what took me so long.”

Kristin Hunter

excerpt from Walking with Alligators: A Book of Meditations for Writers by Susan Shaghnessy

Who hasn’t done that? Let’s all vow to let the dishes and laundry wait tomorrow and start our writing first!

May #writemotivation begins! Let’s get some motivation up in here!

One of three tables filled with tempting treats. All sold out by the end of the day.

April was incredibly busy for me. What with the massive amount of work I put into the pre-conference days – Pitch Clinic, Twitter activity on the conference hashtag, escorting speakers with plane delays to the hotel (helping Jerry find his speaker that he lost), competing with Jerry for best nerd shirt (I won, of course) -  juggling a fund-raising event for our autism team at the same time was pushing it. Why stop there? Let’s throw a fund-raiser for our fund-raiser! Bake sale time. Nothing like wading through frosting-covered counters and rows of chocolate delights you aren’t allowed to eat. TORTURE! What I do for you people! (I may have done some taste-testing on a rather wonky-looking chocolate/raspberry filled cupcake. It passed inspection.) I still found time for writing, critiquing, and revising, but I almost didn’t survive the month.

Okay, SLIGHT exaggeration.

I had an amazing time at the conference, met some new writers, and received an excellent critique on a new project I can’t wait to get into. We also raised more money than ever for our autism team AND had more out-of-towners walk with us than any other year – score! So all the craziness was worth it.

My body did rebel against the unusually high level of activity and stress, coupled with the constant weather shift provided by Mother Nature’s crap shoot where we vacillated between bright sunny skies and brooding thunderstorms, mixed with hail and maybe some ice and snow just to freak people out a bit. Well played, Mother Nature, well played. My sinuses experienced some sort of implosion/invasion/infection. Not pretty. I was down for about a week, making very ugly bodily noises and whiny demands of my family, who somehow still took care of me and still loved me. If the roles had been reversed, I may have been tempted to apply the pillow over the face therapy. Hold firmly until breathing and complaining cease.

But I digress…

Apparently April was a very busy month for many others in our #writemotivation gang, several of whom participated in either Camp Nano or the A to Z challenge or both! (Those crazy kids.) It was a good thing I was mistaken in thinking that April would be another #writemotivation month. No one had the time! Our fearless leader and brand new mommy of the cutest, cheekiest baby, KT Hanna, used April as a test month for getting back on her writing schedule and juggling the youngling’s needs. (Oh, those cheeks! So schmooshy!)

Although she’s back in the writing saddle, it looks like we’re still going to do #writemotivation every other month for awhile. If you didn’t make the deadline for May, you can still set goals for yourself and join us on Twitter at the hashtag #writemotivation anytime to ask questions, ( about good names for characters, history of dinosaurs, etc.) or if you need help with motivation, ( maybe you want someone to join you in a writing challenge for the evening to keep you on track for your own personal writing goal or maybe you just need to know that someone else out there is banging their head against their keyboard in frustration, too), or for whatever you need, we’ll be there to help push you through. That’s what #writemotivation is all about. Try it out and then you can sign up in July and join us for the complete #writemotivation experience.

(Just FYI, Camp Nano will also be up and running again in July if you missed it or were too busy for the first camping experience.)

My goals for May? Why, so kind of you to ask. Here they are:

1. Complete latest draft of Museum Crashers (MG mystery) and prepare for submission.
2. Research more literary agents for submission of Institutionalized (YA contemporary) and send out to five of them.
3. Make some progress on first draft of Pretty Vacant (YA contemporary). Develop main character fully and decide which way story arc will go.
4. Exercise 3 times each week.

Tada!

Let’s hear from you. Got any goals?

March #writemotivation check in

The back and forth weather this time of year leaves me feeling a bit discombobulated. One day I’m busting out the shorts and blinding people with the neon glow of my wintered legs, and the next I’m back in many-layered winter gear, building a fire to take off the chill. It’s like spring needs to throw us a few misfires, teasers of the warmer days ahead, before she can come on full-strength. I feel my writing progress this week had behaved in a similar manner. I’ve had bursts of manic activity followed by sludgy moments where I’ve had to wade through mental muck to get anything accomplished. My brain needs a thorough spring cleaning – or a nice vacation. That would do in a pinch. I know warmer days are ahead, even if I have to survive a few more frosty ones to reach them. Some days, that’s the only thing that gets me out of my PJs.

This week’s #writemotivation goal progress:

1. Complete revision of Middle Grade manuscript (Museum Crashers) and prepare for final critiques. I revised three more chapters, so I’m almost halfway done. I may need more days with bursts of creative energy to get me through the month and reach this goal. (I want those #writemotivation cookies!)

2. Continue making progress on first draft of new Young Adult manuscript (Pretty Vacant). Not much progress made on this one. I had my critique group meeting this week, so any time not spent on my first goal was spent on critiquing. Never wasted time.

3. Follow up on submissions outstanding for Young Adult manuscript (Institutionalized) and pursue any additional avenues that arise. I did start working on my new short list of potential submission candidates. Yay! Progress made.
4. Exercise at least three times a week. Only exercised two times. Not terrible, but not stupendous either.

Don’t forget to check out KT Hanna’s #writemotivation page to sign up for April. It should be available soon. That way you can join us next month and share your goals. The more, the merrier!

Using Writing Prompts and a #writemotivation Update

I’ve had a pretty productive week on the writing front and not all of that frenetic activity was related to my goals. I worked on a submission for a scholarship entry that was based on a writing prompt. I used to hate writing from prompts, maybe because I’m not great at taking direction. Or maybe because I don’t like limits and restrictions on what I can write. Most of my writing ideas have come to me out of the blue and I have to write them down before they evaporate into the creative ether from whence they came. But then this past summer I heard Kate Messner talk at the SCBWI LA Conference about how she gets her ideas for picture books. She said that sure, some of her ideas come to her out of the blue, but why wait for those rare moments? Why not work at generating them? She gave everyone present her secret matrix for brainstorming ideas and then made us try it out. Within five minutes, I actually had some possible picture book ideas – not that I’m ready to write picture books just yet, but that is a goal I have in the future.

Kate said: “Many picture book authors write lots of crappy picture book manuscripts because it stirs the pot of creativity!” Sometimes while you’re working like this, it can facilitate an actual “fall from the sky idea”. Either way, it’s a great thing to do while you’re waiting for inspiration to strike. Kate does this about twice a week to stir up new ideas.

Ever since that talk, I’ve looked at writing prompts in a different light. Speaking of prompts generating ideas, the one I used for the scholarship entry definitely sparked an idea for a new novel. I got so excited about it that I may sketch it out a little more before pursuing my other first draft novel I’ve already started. Which idea will win out? We shall see.

I know I can’t share Kate’s matrix, but I won’t leave you empty-handed. Here are two sites to get you started if you want to give writing prompts a try.

• The first is from the Poet’s & Writer’s website. They post a prompt each week, one for poetry and one for fiction.
• The second is from a teacher’s tumblr page simply called Writing Prompts, where he posts his daily writing prompts that he uses in class. He describes his teaching style as “Nerdfighteria takes over The Colbert Report with Ira Glass as a guest.” Wicked awesome. You can even donate books to his classroom library to help support his cause. I’d say it’s a right worthy one.

So what about you? Do you use writing prompts to kick-start ideas? Do you despise them? Share your thoughts.

On to this week’s goal progress:

1. Complete revision of Middle Grade manuscript (Museum Crashers) and prepare for final critiques. I revised four chapters out of eighteen which is right on track with my goal to finish a complete revision by the end of the month.
2. Continue making progress on first draft of new Young Adult manuscript (Pretty Vacant). I didn’t work on this at all last week. Okay, I did make some mental progress, which does count in my book, but next week I want some physical progress down on paper.
3. Follow up on submissions outstanding for Young Adult manuscript (Institutionalized) and pursue any additional avenues that arise. The time limit for an exclusive submission hadn’t quite run out, so I did nothing but wait this past week. Waiting is the worst, isn’t it? Next week is a different story. Action will be required.
4. Exercise at least three times a week. Woohoo! I did make this goal. That explains why I’m so sore. Everywhere.

Hope you’re all making headway on your goals as well. Looks like spring’s making an appearance this week. As the kids have some time off from school, I’m sure I’ll be making at least one trip out to our local zoo in between making time for the writing. Have a great week!

March Madness Begins with the Return of #writemotivation!

Sorry if you were looking for something sports related, but this is my kind of March madness – authors going crazy with writing goals. Woohoo! Besides, I’ve always enjoyed being a participator more than a spectator when it comes to sports. I did manage to pay attention to my kids’ games much easier than any football/basketball game I was forced er…encouraged to watch – this IS Oklahoma, after all. Football is the American pastime here. (I would say it approaches the reverence of a religious fervor if it wouldn’t cause a holy ruckus. Halleluiah, Amen!) And now that we have a fantastic national basketball team, we’ve embraced that sport with the same frenzy. But I digress…

K.T. Hanna started this wonderful writer’s support group called #writemotivation which is all about sharing your writing goals and cheering on your fellow writers as they pursue their goals. You can learn more about it here. This year, she’s expanding #writemotivation to every month instead of every other month because she knows we falter when she’s not around – as the first few months of this year can testify. (She’s been busy with the task of tending to her very first youngling. What a lucky little girl! And such cute chubby cheeks! You just want to pinch them or gobble her right up.) Ugh! I digress, yet again…

I know I speak for many in the group when I say I am grateful for K.T. and her #writemotivation cookies for helping me stay accountable and keeping my butt in the chair to do what I should be doing…WRITING! Feel free to join in for April – heck, if you’re on Twitter and you need a little encouragement to get through your writing day, pop on over to our hashtag, #writemotivation, and say hi. We’re a friendly group that rarely bites.

On to my goals!

(See? No more digression. It’s working already)

1. Complete revision of Middle Grade manuscript (Museum Crashers) and prepare for final critiques.
2. Continue making progress on first draft of new Young Adult manuscript (Pretty Vacant).
3. Follow up on submissions outstanding for Young Adult manuscript (Institutionalized) and pursue any additional avenues that arise.
4. Exercise at least three times a week.

Okay, who snuck that last one on there? Blech! The rest my goals aren’t that mad and should be attainable as long as I keep my butt in the chair and get the work done. See you at the hashtag for motivational tweets, my fellow writers!

Stay tuned next week for an update on how well I’m keeping up with these goals. And let me know what your goals are this month. Or tell me why I should care more about sports. It will have to be a good argument, but let it rip…

Grief, the End of November, NaNoWriMo and #writemotivation

Grief can hit you at the strangest times. You think you’ve got a handle on it; you’ve been through the worst parts. You survived the funeral, the graveside service, the well-wishers’ comments – all with minimal tissue involvement. After all, this loss was not totally unexpected. On some level, you’re relieved she’s no longer suffering – no longer lost. You’re not a callous person; you do feel sad, empty inside even, but you’re able to function without falling apart.

Then a few weeks pass and you’re making dinner using a recipe given to you by the person you lost or, like my husband, you’re at work passing out medication for an Alzheimer’s patient when you realize it’s the same drug your mother was taking – Bam! You’re weeping uncontrollably in a heap on the floor.

It’s always the little things that get you in the end.

Those small moments we share – making dinner together, taking care of each other when we’re sick, the silly moments every family has – they mean so much. I don’t think I’ve ever appreciated a Thanksgiving more than I have this year, when it felt like there was something off kilter; wrong. It took my slow grieving brain all week to figure out that it was because there was someone important missing.

So for those of you who’ve endured more hugs from me than normal or weepy phone calls or even silence because I couldn’t find the right words…thank you and I love you.

And I’m sure I’ll be more myself eventually. To help me with this, I’ve turned to things like poetry. Here’s a great one.

“Heavy,” by Mary Oliver

That time
I thought I could not
go any closer to grief
without dying

I went closer,
and I did not die.
Surely God
had his hand in this,

as well as friends.
Still, I was bent,
and my laughter,
as the poet said,

was nowhere to be found.
Then said my friend Daniel,
(brave even among lions),
“It’s not the weight you carry

but how you carry it -
books, bricks, grief -
it’s all in the way
you embrace it, balance it, carry it

when you cannot, and would not,
put it down.”
So I went practicing.
Have you noticed?

Have you heard
the laughter
that comes, now and again,
out of my startled mouth?

How I linger
to admire, admire, admire
the things of this world
that are kind, and maybe

also troubled -
roses in the wind,
the sea geese on the steep waves,
a love
to which there is no reply?

Somehow I did actually find time for writing amidst the emotional upheaval this week. So let’s just look over those writing goals, shall we?

let’s make it a half nano

Here are my #writemotivation goals:

1. Write at least 12,000 words on nanowrimo project each week. It looks like I may actually make it to a half NaNo – 25,000 words – by the end of November. That’s not bad, considering. Almost good, even.
2. Write blog post at least once a week. Yay! One goal met.
3. Read and comment on other blogs. I did better, but still room for improvement.
4. Exercise four times a week. Muscles are aching so we’re back in the game – well, more like we’ve had a great couple of practices and if some of the key players are injured, THEN we’ll be back in the game. (Too much of a stretch?)

On a final note, the long awaited Jerry Bennett interview will post this week! Stay tuned!

The briefest of updates for nanowrimo and #writemotivation

Life has been fairly disruptive and sad around our house over the past few weeks. Mourning will do that. Still, I’ve found a renewed sense of dedication to my work returning. Maybe that brush with mortality is now pushing me forward; I don’t know. Understandably, I am really far behind on my writing goals for the month. I’m going to be okay with that and just embrace this new, energetic writing phase I’m entering now. We’ll see how far I get in the next nine days.

Here my #writemotivation goals that need updating:

1. Write at least 12,000 words on nanowrimo project each week. Ouch! Well, I have written over 14,000 words, but not much more than that. I have to write over 3600 words a day going forward to reach the ultimate 50,000 word goal. It could happen. If not, I won’t cry about it. I will give it my best effort. I do have to say, that before all the sad stuff happened, I attended my first local NaNoWriMo Write-In and it was really fun. I loved finally meeting folks I’ve just known online. I WILL make some more Write-Ins before the month is over. You guys are great.
2. Write blog post at least once a week. This is the only goal I have accomplished completely so far. Good thing I kept it simple.
3. Read and comment on other blogs. I did well the first week…I will do better this week.
4. Exercise four times a week. NO COMMENT.

Coming soon – as promised – I will have an interview with The Jerry Bennett, illustrator and overall talent extraordinaire. For a preview of his work, you can check out his website here and his Facebook page here.

During this season of being thankful, I want to make sure to say that I am beyond thankful for all of my writing friends and my readers, like you.

Happy Thanksgiving.