sallymurphy.com.au

Sally Murphy, Australian author

Wiritng Prompt: Fifteen Word Poems

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Looking for a little inspiration? Every Thursday, Laura Purdie Salas runs a writing prompt called Fifteen Words or Less Poems. The idea is you view the photo of the week,t hen write your response in a poem of fifteen words or less. It’s hard – but it’s also a great exercise of one’s poetic skills.
Here’s my poem for this week:

Would you prefer
everlasting
flowers made of metal,
or real blooms
lasting just one day?

You can see the photo that inspired this poem, and have a go for yourself here.

Just Write

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I like to boast that I never have writer’s block – and it’s true, to a point. I never run out of things to write about and always have a project or ten clamouring for my attention. So, no, I’m never stuck for things to write about. But, following on from yesterday’s post about self doubt, I’ve been thinking about the days where I sit at my desk during my work time without getting anything done.

Some days I can sit at my desk from 10 till 3 (my designated writing time) and produce three thousand words. Other days I can sit at the same desk, with the same project on the go and get to three o’clock with absolutely zip to show for my efforts. Well, zip unless you count the three games of Scrabble I’ve been playing on Facebook, or the pieces of paper I’ve moved from pile A to pile B on my desk, or the research I’ve done on Google for the other project I’m thinking about starting on. But as for my work in process (wip) – nothing.

Why do I allow myself to become unproductive? One reason is the self doubt (again, see yesterday’s post). When I stop and think about the wip and second guess whether it’s any good, then I start looking for other things to work on. There must be something better I can write, I can tell myself. Or, perhaps I should be doing some market research, see if there’s even a publisher for what it is I’m writing. I’ll Google ‘publisher’ and see if there’s anything I missed.

Another reason is sometimes having so many things on the go. As well as my wip, I generally have a pile of books waiting to be reviewed, blog posts to write, promotional opportunities to follow up, emails to reply to, submissions to send out and so on. When I sit at my desk to write, these other tasks are there staring me in the face and clamouring for my attention.

And perhaps a third reason is lack of motivation (although this is often a result of good old self-doubt – again, see below). When I’m working on an unsolicited manuscript there is no deadline, no eager editor sitting at her desk waiting to read my masterpiece. Give me a deadline, or a willing editor and you’ll probably find me beavering away at the task.

So, what do I do to try to keep myself moving forward on my wip? Firstly, I try to give it a specific time allocation each day. I’ve already said that my writing time is 10 till 3 (on schooldays). I find I can’t write for five hours straight, so in reality, I am unlikely to use all that time for my wip. Instead, I aim for an hour of uninterrupted writing, (yes, just one of the five), with the rest of the time being used for rereading, editing, and addressing some of those other tasks like research and submissions.

Secondly, I count words. Actually, I don’t – I just use the word count function, which the latest version of Word so nicely displays in the left hand bottom corner. The number of words I aim for depends on the wip – at present I’m looking for about 1000 words a day. So, I watch that little counter and make sure I’m heading in the right direction. I compare with how many I’ve got yesterday, and know whether or not I’m doing well.

Thirdly, I give attention to those other things on my list, by making time for them. Emails prove a big distraction for me, so I make time for reading and responding – before I start writing for the day. If I don’t, I find I flit between my wip and my mail and neither gets done well. Reviewing I try to leave until evenings, because it’s something I can do when the family is around. Promotion, again evenings and weekends are the best times for me because if I’m interrupted I can generally come back to it. Scrabble? Well, I use that as a bribe to myself. Write those thousand words, you can check your game and see if it’s your turn. Write that review, you can check it again. Finish your wip? You can start five new games. I confess, my Scrabble fetish is something I’m still working on, though.

Lastly, I find that setting deadlines for myself does work. First draft of wip needs to be finished by 1st of Octember, so I can start on the brilliant nf I’m planning. I give myself both a target date and a reason. I also make lists of what I want to achieve this week and this month and cross them off as I’ve done them, so I can see that I’m on task (or not).

Above all, I constantly remind myself that I am a writer – and writers, by definition, write. All the reading, all the promotion, all the submitting, they’re important (the Scrabble, I’m not so sure) – but above all, if I want to be a writer I need to write. If I can remember that, then I can get the wip written.

If you are a writer, and you’ve read this far, that’s great – now go write something.

Self Doubt

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I have twenty seven books in print – and more in production – I run a popular book review site and some blogs , I have run writing workshops, and spoken at festivals and numerous school visits. And yet I still wonder if I’m a ‘real writer’. When people ask me what I do, I don’t always tell them I’m an author. More often I tell them I’m a mum (which is still my most important and difficult job) or a teacher. At festivals and conferences I’m sometimes tongue tied or just plain blithering when I talk to other published authors. And I still hesitate to submit manuscripts to publishers, worrying that they’ll think I’m an idiot for sending them such rubbish and being surprised when I get an acceptance.

I confess this self doubt is sometimes a problem. I know it makes me appear aloof at times, because if I’m feeling unconfident then I’ll sometimes simply stay out of things rather than participating. At other times I am too loud, overcompensating for my fears – I definitely don’t appear to be a shy person. When I had a long period between acceptances, my self doubt became almost crippling, and I seriously considered giving up writing

I’ve always worried about this lack of self-belief. If I express it out loud, it makes me sound a bit self-deprecating, or even as if I’m fishing for compliments – waiting for someone to tell me how wonderful I am – or, at least, my writing is. But, after another spell of this self doubt, I’ve come to realise that it’s not such a bad thing.

Because I have self doubt, I do hesitate before hitting send on that submission. And that hesitation makes me reread and see what is missing.

Because I have self doubt, I don’t tend to take rejections personally – meaning that instead of wallowing in a sea of ‘they don’t know what they’re talking abouts’ I instead try to consider how that manuscript can be improved before sending it back out.

Because I have self doubt, I know I need to keep studying my craft – through attending workshops, reading articles, blogs, how-to books , studying ‘good’ books to see what works, listening to the wisdom of ‘real’ authors at conferences and so on.

And mostly, because I have self doubt, I am absolutely thrilled when someone likes one of my books – and especially when that someone is a publisher who wants to publish one of my manuscripts.

Why am I telling you all this? Because the more I talk to, and listen, to other authors, the more I realise that there are many, many published authors who have similar self doubts. And I’m wondering if self doubt is not the problem I’ve always thought it to be – perhaps it is this very doubt which makes us able to sharpen our craft, celebrate the writing life and to strive to be better writers. Perhaps if I stop feeling doubt then my hunger to improve will diminish.

I would love to hear what other writers think about this. If you experience self doubt, do you think it helps you as a writer? And, how do you overcome that doubt so that you can keep writing and submitting? Leave me a comment.

Hot Link: Wonderful Blog Post About Rejection

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Katherine Battersby, at the Well Read Rabbit blog (isn’t that a wonderful name for a blog, btw) has a wonderful post about rejection, which you’ll find here. Rejection is one of the hardest parts of being a professional writer. Katheirne’s article provides a wonderful take on the process of responding to a rejection. Enjoy!

Big Question 4: Favourite Dr Seuss Tale

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He’s having a birthday, he’s having it now
So step up, Dr Seuss and take a big bow.

Okay, so my rhyme is NOT as Seussical as can be, but you get the drift – today, March 2, is Dr Seuss’s birthday. If he was alive today, Dr Seuss, or Theodor Suess Geisel would be 105. If you want to learn more about him, you can click here to visit the Seussville website.

To celebrate the day, I am asking another of my big questions. Today’s question is: What was/is your favourite Dr Seuss book, and why? Post your answer below in the comment section.

My own favourite as a child and still, is Horton Hatches an Egg, I think mainly for the sheer absurdity of the idea, but also for the wonderfully wrought rhyme and rhythm, and of course, the message of being true to your promises – and being justly rewarded!

What about you? What is YOUR favourite Dr Seuss book?

Visiting Author: Suzanne Lieurance

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Today, I am delighted to welcome Suzanne Lieurance to the blog.
Suzanne a fulltime children’s author, freelance writer, and The Working Writer’s Coach. She teaches children’s writing for the Institute of Children’s Literature based in West Redding, Connecticut, and is the founder and director of the National Writing for Children Center.
Suzanne is the author of 20 published books and has written articles for a variety of magazines, newsletters, and ezines lincluding Family-Fun, Kansas City Weddings, Instructor Magazine, New Moon for Girls, Children’s Writer, and many others. She hosts a talk show about children’s books, called Book Bites for Kids, every weekday afternoon on blogtalkradio.com.
As if that isn’t enough, Suzanne offers a variety of coaching programs via private phone calls, teleclasses, listserv, and private email for writers who want to turn their love of writing (for children and/or adults) into a part-time or full-time career.
Welcome Suzanne.

1. Suzanne, you’re both a writer and a writing coach. You created something called The Morning Nudge. Can you tell us about The Morning Nudge?

As a writing coach, I like to encourage my clients to get a little writing done every single day. When I first started coaching, I was sending out a weekly newsletter, but I suddenly thought how much more helpful it would be to my clients and other writers by sending them something every week day. That’s how the Morning Nudge came about.

I have a friend who calls it “The Morning Shove” because some days I just want writers to stop making excuses for not creating the writing life of their dreams. The only way to become a writer is to write! And the purpose of The Morning Nudge is to remind readers of that every day.

2. What are your writing habits? Do you work on an outline before starting the actual story?

I write something every single day. When I’m working on a book length manuscript I work from an outline whether the book is nonfiction or fiction. However, even with an outline I find that many surprises pop up as I’m writing. And that’s part of what makes the writing process so much fun.

3. Is one genre easier to write than another? Why or why not?

For me, fiction is more difficult to write than nonfiction because I have to really, really focus on the world I’m creating when I’m writing fiction. I have to sort of enter this world, and it takes me a while at the keyboard before I’m able to do that fully. But once I’m there in my fictional world, I don’t want to come back to the real world, so I try to write for hours at a time.

When I’m working on nonfiction, I’m able to do that in short bits of time here and there. So it’s easier for me to get a lot of nonfiction writing done in a short amount of time.

4. You always have a project or two in the works. The Locket just came out so tell us a bit about your other soon to be published stories. What was your inspiration for these stories?

I just finished another historical novel for Enslow. Right now I’m reworking several picture book manuscripts. I’m also working with clients to help them create 6 new information products within the next 6 months, and I’ll be creating 6 of my own products right along with my clients.
What inspires me the most – for anything I write – is people who do incredible things. I want to write things that show everyone how we can ALL do incredible things if we follow our passions and believe in ourselves.

5. What advice would you give to aspiring children’s writers who are trying to break into the field?

First, take a course or workshop to learn the basics about writing for children. Next, join or start a critique group for children’s writers and be sure there are at least a few published children’s authors in the group. Third, read, read, read all the children’s books you can. Finally, write, write, write!

6: How do you set about promoting your books? What type of book promotion seems to work the best for you?
I promote my books in a variety of ways. Mostly through school visits and speaking at writers’ conferences and other events, plus through my websites and blogs. However, I probably spend more time every week promoting my coaching than I do promoting my books. Nowadays, I seem to be a coach who also writes, even though I started out as a writer who also coaches. Still I love to make school visits. And I love to talk to other writers about my books and their books.

Speaking at conferences and making author visits to schools seems to work best for me as a means to promote my books. But I also like networking with other children’s authors, illustrators, and editors to help get the word out about all sorts of books for children, not just mine.

Thanks so much for dropping by, Suzanne. If you would like to learn more about Suzanne Lieurance you can visit her at the following sites:
http://www.suzannelieurance.com
http://www.writingforchildrencenter.com
http://www.workingwriterscoach.com

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