Being an Author: 7 Things to Do Every Day

May 2, 2016 by Sally

I’m busy. Super busy at the moment: working on my PhD, running a busy household, writing and, of course, trying to run my career as an author. Some days it feels like that last one is the bit that gets pushed to the side. I have to give priorities to my family, I have to work on my studies (submission date is creeping ever closer) and I’m a writer, so I have to write. But my career? When do I get time to work on that: to boost my skills, boost my brand, promote my books (and myself)?

The simple answer is, I need to be doing things every day. And, if you want to make a living as a creator, so do you. So, here the things I try to do every day, most of which take very little time, to ensure my career keeps moving.

Read. Okay, so this one can take as much or as little time as you like, but if you want to be a writer, you need to keep reading, no matter how busy you are. For me, it’s a combination of reading children’s books to stay abreast of what’s out there, and to grow my own skills through exposure to good writing, as well as reading more broadly for lots of reasons. I read news articles and commentary to keep abreast of what’s happening in the world, I read blogs from other writers and industry people, I read in genres other than my own to again grow my skills. Don’t have time to read? Then you don’t have time to be a writer. Or, you make/snatch the time. I carry a book wherever I go. I multi task – I read good stuff in waiting rooms, rather than old magazines. I read my blog feeds while eating lunch, I listen to audiobooks when I’m driving. Whatever it takes.
You can see I never run out of reading materials. My house is full of books.
Write. I’ve already labelled this as one of the things I put before developing my career – but it is, in essence, at the very centre of my career. I wish I could say I write for hours every day, but at the moment my studies preclude hours and hours, and when I’m juggling those other things on my list, sometimes there isn’t even an hour left in my day. But again, I make it a priority to write something new at least five days a week – even if that something new is just a short poem. It’s not always good writing, but getting it down is what matters. You want to be a writer, you gotta write, and that means making the time, not waiting for the time to magically appear.
Tell people you are a writer. If you want to be a professional, you gotta act the part. In the past, I kept a bit quiet about my writing, because I felt like I was showing off, or thought people might not be interested. I would say ‘I work from home’ or simply “I write”. Now, when people ask me what I do, I always say ‘I’m a children’s book author’. Then, if they ask for more detail I tell them, and I always have a business card in my wallet which I present when they ask where they can find out more. This isn’t pushy: it’s professional.
Tell yourself you are a writer. If it helps, dress for the part. Sometimes when I am not feeling very authorish, I’ll put on my favourite big earrings or colourful clothes that I wear for school appearances: even though I’m not going anywhere.
Do at least one thing every day to promote yourself and/or your books. For me, that means using social media: as well as this blog and website, I have a twitter account, Facebook author page, Instagram and Pinterest accounts. I don’t do every one every day, but I make sure I do at least one. It takes 30 seconds to compose a tweet or Facebook status. Not every post has to be saying ‘buy my book’ – in fact, though it’s the subject for a post of its own, very very few posts should do that, if any at all. Promotion might be letting people know where you are appearing, where your books have been spotted in bookstores, book news and so on, or it might be simply engaging with readers and potential readers by sharing interesting links, or photos or world views. I combine my social media with my reading, by tweeting and facebooking articles I find about matters relating to reading, literature and poetry.
Be organised. It is a career and it must be treated as such. For me, this means that when I sit at my desk in the morning, I make a list of anything that MUST be done that day and I cross it off as I go. I also have a longer running list of objectives, which I revise weekly. On my daily list I include emptying my inbox, and promotion tasks, as well as the writing and study things I need to complete. If I’m honest with you, I don’t always get everything on my list done, but when I sit down the next day I see the uncrossed things and put them at the top of that list.
Lastly, but most importantly, enjoy the ride. Some days – most days, being an author is hard slog. But every day I try to remember to smile, if not about something that’s happened that day, then at least by looking back. From my desk I can see copies of my published books, the wards I’ve won and other reminders that I AM an author. So, while some days the smile comes from the joy of creation, or an acceptance, or lovely feedback, or just finally finding the perfect word, other days I look up from my desk and see those reminders. If you can’t find anything to enjoy about being a writer, it’s just hard work. When there’s a smile on your face the work is easier – and better, too.

That’s my seven. What about you? Is there something YOU do every day that you’d suggest other writers do?

Poetry Friday: Singapore, Salad, and Sally’s Stance on Poetry

June 12, 2015 by Sally

It’s Poetry Friday and I’m glad to be back. Last week I missed posting on Friday – but I had a really good excuse. I was in Singapore, attending the Asian Festival of Children’s Content (AFCC), as well as checking out this amazing city, which I had not visited before.

At the AFCC I participated in two panel sessions, ran an eight hour masterclass (on the subject of book reviewing) and also presented a one hour session on the value of poetry and verse novels. So, because it’s Poetry Friday, I thought I would share a poem which I shared in that session, and talk a little bit about why I shared it.

This is my first published poem for children which appeared in the School Magazine in 2002:

Summer Salad

Cool

Crisp

Crunchy

Carrot

Luscious

Leafy

Lacy

Lettuce

Delicious

Delectable

Delightful

Dressing

Summer Salad

(Copyright Sally Murphy)

I shared this poem in my session for two reasons: firstly, because it is special to me as my first published children’s poem, and secondly, because I was talking about why we share poems with children.

My feeling is that, even in the educational setting, poetry should be fun. Summer Salad could be used for lessons on healthy eating, or alliteration, or even to begin a writing exercise (crafting a list poem).

But, when children read it, what I hope is that first and foremost they will enjoy the way it plays with words, using vocabulary which is interesting and, perhaps, unfamiliar. Words like ‘luscious’, and ‘delectable’ might be new to child readers, and so the poem invites them to find out what they are, to enjoy playing with these words.

If all we want to do is use poetry to teach stuff, then I may as well have written:

Eating healthy salad

Is very good for you

You should go and find

A lettuce leaf to chew!

(copyright Sally Murphy)

Bleh. Writing poetry (and sharing it with children in or out of the classroom) should not be a cynical exercise in force feeding them poetry OR salad.

If we write poetry that invites readers to connect with the topic, with the language, with the emotions expressed, educational benefits are likely to follow. But the pleasure should be foremost!

Have a great Friday. You can see more poetry posts at the roundup, which this week is hosted at Jama’s Alphabet Soup.

Poetry Friday: Poems about Poetry

May 29, 2015 by Sally

It’s Poetry Friday and I am thinking about metapoetry. Did you know that metapoetry is a fancy name for poems about poetry or about trying to write poetry?

Anyway, the reason I am thinking about metapoetry is because my fabulous poet friend Rebecca wrote a fabulous metapoem. At our shared blog, Poetrytag, I gave Rebecca two words and challenged her to put them into a poem (that is how Poetrytag works).

The words I gave her, were: birth and together. Her response blew me away. You can read it here.

The image of a an idea being cocooned and cosseted like a baby is just so fabulous..

Of course, this got me thinking about other metapoems. Another favourite of mine is this Billy Collins poem, which expresses a quiet dismay over the way poems are over-analysed:

Lastly, I remembered a poem about poetry as an opening blossom, and found it after a bit of searching. It is Naoshi Koriyama’s Unfolding Bud which I think echoes what Collins’ is saying – that a poem is something to be treasured, held up to the light, watch unfold, rather than something to be nailed down. You can read “Unfolding Bud” by Naoshi Koriyama on Genius.

Why do poets write about poetry? Because we love poetry – and writing about something you love is pleasurable, enriching.

In the light of the genius above, I almost didn’t share any of my own poetry here, but then I remembered that my character Pearl is also a metapoet. She loves poetry, but isn’t enjoying the poetry unit they are doing at school, because her teacher wants all their poetry to rhyme, so Pearl writes this limerick:

There was a young lady called Pearl
Who was not a rhyming type girl Pearl Verses the World
She said “I’ve no time
For poems that rhyme”
Which made her poor teacher go hurl.

Do you have a favourite poem about poetry?

The Poetry Friday roundup this week will be over at Refections on the Teche. Enjoy!

Poetry Friday: Repetition

May 8, 2015 by Sally

It’s Poetry Friday and I have been thinking about repetition.

It’s Poetry Friday and I have been thinking about repetition. (Sorry, I couldn’t resist!).

I’m working on a new verse novel, which I’m not ready to share with the world, but yesterday, I realised that I had used the same two words a dozen times in one poem. Was it a mistake? No. It was very deliberate. See my character has just had some bad news, but instead of thinking about it, she is getting lost in distractions. So instead of focussing on what’s really upsetting, she is focussed on finding her water bottle, which she needs for a game of hockey. Thus the repeated words – ‘water bottle’.

So, in this instance, the repetition is an attempt to capture my character’s agitation (and no, I’m not telling what she’s agitated about. You’ll have to wait for the book).

This started me thinking of why other poets might use repetition. It didn’t take me long to find a couple of favourite poems. First, there’s Walter de la Mare’s gorgeous poem about the moon:

Silver

Slowly, silently, now the moon
Walks the night in her silver shoon;
This way, and that, she peers, and sees
Silver fruit upon silver trees;
One by one the casements catch
Her beams beneath the silvery thatch;
Couched in his kennel, like a log,
With paws of silver sleeps the dog;
From their shadowy cote the white breasts peep
Of doves in silver-feathered sleep
A harvest mouse goes scampering by,
With silver claws, and silver eye;
And moveless fish in the water gleam,
By silver reeds in a silver stream

(Walter de la Mare)

The repetition of the word ‘silver’ here is just one of the things I love about this poem. The repetition though really highlights that silvery luminescent magic of a moonlit night, and the way the moon lends that special magic. The use of personification here is also special and I love that the moon seems unaware that it is she that is creating the silvery magic.

Then there’s Walter R. Brooks’ joyful poem:

Ode to Spring

O spring, O spring,
You wondering thing!
O spring, O spring, O spring!
O spring, O spring,
When the birdies sing
I feel like a king,
O spring!

(Walter R. Brooks)

This one is silly, but it makes me smile, and while it may seem really simple to repeat the phrase ‘o spring’ so many times, it gives the feel of a happy song. As someone currently shivering through a cold wet Autumn, I would love to be singing in spring. This poem was also ostensibly written by a talking pig named Freddy, so the simplicity seems to work. (By the by, in checking my information about Brooks. I realised that his work was the inspiration of the Mr Ed television series.)

These examples have used only a word or two, but sometimes repetition can be in the form of a line or phrase, as in Merrill Glass’s But You Didn’t, which you can read in full here. Here, the repeated ‘but you didn’t’ draw us in to what seems a simple love poem – until the final ‘but you didn’t’ leaves us gasping with realisation about what this poem is really about. What a clever poem – though very sad, as well.

Repetition is a deceptively simple poetic technique, but when used well, it can really pack a poetic punch.

Have a wonderful Friday. The Poetry Friday roundup can be found at Michelle Barnes’ blog, Today’s Little Ditty.

PS
After I’d written this post, I was working on a new poem for my Poetry Tag blog (which I share with my friend Rebecca), and managed to work a repeated word in there. You can see my poem Really Estate here.

The Green Page

January 6, 2015 by Sally

If you’ve ever heard me talk about Pearl Verses the World, my first verse novel, you may have also heard me talk about the piece of green paper on which the first poem of the book was written.

You see, one night when I was getting into bed, a few lines of poetry came into my head, and I had to get up, find a piece of paper, and write them down. Each time I tried to turn the light off and get some rest, a few more lines came to me, and I had to jump out of bed and write them down. Finally, my beloved started to get restless with all the late-night poetry making, and I had to give it a rest.

That poem, though, didn’t let me rest, and over the coming days I drafted more poems – until I realised that there was a story being told and that the voice, who was Pearl, was not going to leave me be until I wrote her tale. I’ll be forever grateful to Pearl for choosing me and being my muse that night.

So, I’ve talked about this piece of green paper many times, but I’ve never before produced the piece of paper. Today I was looking for something else and I found my Pearl Verses the World file. Lo and behold, in that file was the piece of paper I’d talked about so often.

If you’re interested, here it is: pearl opening

What surprises me still, as it has done before, is how little that first draft changed from that late night session until publication. I added the missing ‘s’ to sometimes on the first line and later, after the story was accepted, the line ‘at least I have shade’ was removed.

Everything else I’ve ever written has needed writing and rewriting and editing and agonising and – well, you get the picture. Whatever struck me that night and in the weeks that followed as I wrote Pearl’s story was special. Sometimes I think it would be lovely it writing was always so easy but then I think that maybe that once in a lifetime bit of magic was just that – a one-off. It gave me faith in my writing abilities at a time when my self-belief was low. And it gave me this beautiful book:

Sharing Pearl’s world changed my own world, so this little piece of green paper is something I’ll forever treasure.

Poems can come from anywhere

October 20, 2014 by Sally

I’m sitting in my chair, with a heat pack on my shoulder, ruing the fact that something as simple as send my back into a spasm. But all is not lost! See, not only did I already have a physio appointment for today, meaning the shoulder will get worked on nice and quickly, but the yawn injury also, magically, gave me an idea for a poem.

Ever since I read an interview with J. Patrick Lewis on a blog called Today’s Little Ditty, I’ve been wanting to try my hand at writing a Zeno, a deceptively simple poetic from, the rules of which are also explained in that post.

So, while my heat pack warmed, I picked up my notebook, and when I sat down with the pack on my back, waiting for it to work, I decided it was time to draft that poem. What came out what this:

Ouch

I put my back out when I yawned

Now I’m feeling

Really

Sore.

I wish I knew

Some way

For

Never yawning

Any

More.

Okay, it’s not the world’s best poem (or, more specifically, Zeno), but it’s a start. And my back is feeling better already. And I suspect that now that I’ve written one. I’ll be writing more.

Have a great day.

sallymurphy.com.au

Sally Murphy, Australian author