Who Made/Wrote This?

While the holidays mean reading lots of books and writing and relaxing, I also try to fit in some movie viewing. Unfortunately, these holidays the cinemas are crowded with not-so-good children's movies (sorry, I have no desire to see Horton Hears a Who although I might give the Spiderwyck Chronicles a go) so I need to look further afield for entertainment. I watched Margot at the Wedding. I give myself four stars for lasting the distance. The movie gets zero. this was one of those movies where you keep watching because you just can't believe - a) it's as bad as you suspect it is, b) you keep hoping it will improve, c) you keep looking for something good in it, and then have to give up.

Who paid all that money to make this movie? I'm a fan of the dysfunctional family story - I loved Little Miss Sunshine. That movie had a great cast of characters and a story with a goal and destination. Margot has two characters - sisters - who spend the whole movie trying to be nice to each other and failing to even be successfully crazy or bitchy or vindictive, or in fact any emotion that might transmit itself to the audience. Nobody in this story (sorry, scratch the word story because there isn't one) has a relationship with anyone else that comes close to interesting. It's a sad day when I realise the only character I kind of liked was the one played by Jack Black (who I don't like).

I checked out some reviews on Rotten Tomatoes to see if it was just me - they were mixed, but most people agreed that there was little plot, a lot of depressing misery and none of the characters sparked enough to carry the movie to any kind of decent ending. I think what I hate are movies where all of the characters are just plain stupid, act in stupid ways, fail to make any kind of decisions that create a possible storyline, and aren't funny even when they are supposed to be.

How hard is it to write a story with tension, action, consequences and empathetic characters? Was Margot nuts? Was she having a breakdown? Who knows? Who cares? And the who cares question is the killer. If we don't care about any of the characters in a story, we aren't going to watch it or read it. This is something we teach our students from Day One. If you are going to create a character who is unlikeable, there had better be other great things going on in the story to hook the reader in. Is it unfair to compare Margot at the Wedding to Little Miss Sunshine? I don't think so. That's what we do as readers and viewers - we pay our money and we get to judge whether it was worth it or not!

Review Round-up

Over the past couple of weeks, I've read six or seven books, probably more, mainly due to the dire offerings on TV. I've been known to take myself to bed by 8.30pm with a pile of books, diving into whichever one holds my interest most. Some haven't. After being intrigued with Denise Mina's Sanctum (a clever play on diaries and case notes that leaves you wondering afterward how much was fiction - well, all of it, probably, but she does well to keep you thinking), I tried another one and gave up after twenty pages. The Field of Blood had two things against it for me as a reader - the main character seemed to be too ineffectual and passive to hold any hope of future engagement, and the first pages were so overloaded with a huge cast of characters that I was having trouble following any of it. Yes, harsh and fast judgement, but there were other more enticing books waiting.

I read Boy Toy by Barry Lyga first out of my pile, and am still considering what I think of it, and why it made me uncomfortable. I have decided it was intended to do so. If you haven't heard of this book yet, here's a short summary. Josh is seventeen and about to graduate from high school, but he's not coping. He can't relate to girls his own age, he feels the whole world stares at him and knows who he is, and he doesn't know what to do about baseball and college. The reason? Josh had an affair with his teacher when he was twelve and she went to jail for it. The story moves back and forth in time, so that we alternate between Josh now, struggling to keep his head above water despite help from a therapist and his friend Zik, and Josh at twelve, being seduced by his teacher.

I'm not going to spoil the book for you by telling you what the dark, emotional twist is in the last section, but it does explain why Lyga goes into such excruciating detail about the affair. This book is all about Josh, about how and why he is struggling still at seventeen. Cases like this in real life always make headlines (they certainly have here) and I wonder if one of Lyga's intentions was to show young males exactly what damage this kind of relationship can do to you (rather than assume it would be an exciting and "maturing" experience, which I can imagine a lot of young males doing). This was not Josh's experience at all, and I think perhaps the discomfort I felt in reading this came from the way in which it made me aware that perhaps I had made my own assumptions too. Another reminder of how the media can distort the truth or fail to show more than one side of a story. I highly recommend this book, but be aware of its content.

I like to save up some good crime fiction for holiday weekends, but Killing Fear by Allison Brennan wasn't really it. The sticker said Love this or your money back. Well, I didn't love it. I kind of thought it was passable. Does that qualify me for a refund? Maybe it's because the serial killer genre is getting tired, and I've read too many really good ones to tolerate one that doesn't do anything much fresh and new. Mind you, that might be asking too much. Fresh and new serial murders. Hmmm. I think my biggest gripe with this book is that it was a bit shallow. I never really felt a sense of place, and third person omniscient POV felt too distancing. This might have worked better (for me, anyway) with a closer POV, but as one major character was the villain, I'm not so sure.

Anyway, I went from that to Travel Team by Mike Lupica, and did that book grab me and keep me reading all day! It's middle grade fiction, about a basketball team, and a really short kid who is a terrific player but doesn't get picked for the travel team (the team that travels around to play in the league). The kid, Danny, has a father who was a star basketball player until he crashed his car, and now he's a bit of a no-hoper who decides to start his own team so his son can play. While the story might sound familiar, Lupica's characters bring the book alive with action, humour and hope. Right from the start, Danny is the skeptical one who thinks it's all a waste of time but goes along with it, which adds unexpected conflict from all angles. He's a multi-faceted character who carries the story with depth and emotion, and is honest and direct in a way that continually refreshes the novel.

It's books like Travel Team that help me as a writer. I can re-read it for dialogue, characterisation and the whole show-don't-tell thing, and learn as I go. Books like that go on my closest shelves, so I can use them for class or for my own benefit whenever I need a good example to follow. Have you got any books like that on your shelf? (I mean novels, not how-tos.)

I'm Alert!

The other day I signed up for Google Alerts on two topics, one of which was my book Sixth Grade Style Queen (Not!). I'd heard other people talking about how handy the alerts were, so I thought I'd give them a try.
Imagine my surprise when I started getting alerts almost immediately, and it was an even bigger surprise when one of them led me to the Australian Publishers' Association site. The big news is that my book has been shortlisted for the Book Design Awards - twice! Once for the cover and once for the whole book.

Now I can't claim any credit for the design of the book, apart from my first suggestion that perhaps the inside could have kind of doodle-like drawings in it, as if my main character had drawn them herself. From this, the amazing designer, Elissa Christian, went ahead and created a pretty stunning and unusual book. For a start, everything inside is green, including the text, and the cover you can see above is like a colourful doodle too.
Go, Elissa! Hope you win.

With Easter coming up, that means lots of writing time for me. We don't have family obligations (as in visits to in-laws and out-laws) so it's pretty much a time to relax, and for me to write. I'm in revision mode on a novel, and am writing lots of poems, and plotting out a new novel. I'm sticking to quite a few of my 2008 resolutions, amazing for me, which means walking every day, sleeping more, eating well, doing the stretches and exercises for my neck/shoulder problem, and working steadily on two-monthly goals. Thinking about that is a great encouragement in itself. I might have to splurge on some chocolate! Just a little bit.

Dumb Questions

I used to think there was no such thing as a dumb question. When I first took over the "boss" job at work, there was no handover from the previous person and I was pretty much floundering. After my tenth stupid (to me) question of the admin staff, I apologised for asking so many dumb questions. The other person said, "I'd much rather you asked a million dumb questions and then did it right, than guess and have to ask for help to clean up the mess." What a pleasure she was to work with!

Since then, I've worked on that principle a lot of the time, in class as well as out. New writers can't be expected to know everything when they first start (that's why they're in a class - they want to find out) and that's how I learned too. I will never forget the wonderful help Michael Dugan (famous Australian children's writer and poet) gave me when I first started writing and publishing children's books. It made a huge difference to me, and I like to try and pay that forward whenever I can.

Mind you, I do still hear an occasional question that really does indicate the asker needs to rethink their words. Like the person in a seminar last year who said "I have an idea for a story and I want to know how to get it published". The audible intake of breath from everyone said it all. If you haven't even written anything before you start asking about publication, then you're probably better off trying something else.

These days, I am no longer the "boss", thank goodness (they let me escape back to being a teacher), but I still have to deal with a lot of admin as part of my job, and my new pet hate is the burial expert. As in "I didn't know what to do with this so I pretended it didn't exist and buried it on my desk under all the other things I am supposed to be doing". Coming a close second is the duck-shover - "I didn't know what to do with this so I shoved it into someone else's In Tray". When I'm feeling negative about these two, I can't help but think of all the extra hours of work they create for other people, and then I think that in my case, those hours are writing time! Shame on them!

Friday Thoughts

My first thought is where the heck did the week go? My second thought is that I have managed to write three days in a row on two different projects. That's got to be a good week!
My friend Tracey recently posted on writing in the zone, how it feels when the words zing along and everything seems so easy. And how rare that can be. A writer writes no matter what, and waiting for the zone is guaranteed to end up in no writing at all.

I've been reading a new acquisition this week - Creativity for Life by Eric Maisel. I had enjoyed his A Writer's Paris so much that I wanted to read another by him. This one is a lot more complex and deep. So much so that I can only read a few pages at a time, then I have to go away and think about it. But today I was reading about the artist's personality, and the factors which go into it. Under Discipline, he talks about leading all-day workshops for writers who are blocked, and how these people can come and write for a whole day with him when previously they haven't been able to write a word.

What causes the block to disappear? Is it the man up the front giving them permission to write? Or ordering them to write? Maisel asks the question - if the gap between being blocked and writing is so small that it goes in a few moments, why does it seem so insurmountable at other times? I think it often comes back to the title of that section - Discipline. If you discipline yourself to write, you will write. You won't write until you can convince yourself that sitting and doing is all that is necessary. Just sit and write. Anything. And when you are writing and thinking every word is awful, keep writing. It's amazing how persisting for ten more minutes will move you into that writing space that may not be the zone, but will be writing that satisfies you (maybe even because you did not give up).

In the Weekend Australian magazine there were two interesting articles. The first was on Joan Didion, the writer, who said some wonderful things including this: No one ever reads as passionately as a 12-year-old. Critic John Leonard said about her writing: She seems almost Japanese in what she can leave out and still have us know it's there. It's almost poetic. That made me want to read her books.

The second article was on comedians, and whether the best ones are those who have terrible childhoods, are depressive or have personality disorders. The writer, Oliver James, quotes a number of famous comedians with these pathologies to back up his claim. He says the urge to create humour stems from using it as a defence in childhood, and later on, against criticism, abuse and low self-esteem. I've read similar claims about children's writers - that they are somehow caught between being grown-up and being back in a certain period of childhood that was either traumatic or holds great memories. The key can often be to imagine yourself back then, at ten or twelve or fifteen, and be able to recreate it on the page. Food for thought.

What Inspires You?

As writers, we all know how a great book, poem or movie can be inspiring - how something that touches us or stirs us in some way can spark off new inspiration, or just firm up our desire to write and accomplish our dreams.
But there are other things that inspire us that are very personal and unique. Here are some of mine:

* building frames for houses - there is something about seeing a new house, seeing its bones and imagining what it will become, that inspires me

* a great singer (two of my favourites are Tina Arena and George Michael) - the sound of an amazing voice reaching perfect notes is astounding to me, and energises me

* crickets and cicadas - on a hot summer day, cicadas in chorus are ear-splittingly wonderful, and when I go for a walk at dusk and hear crickets in the grass singing at similar ear-splitting levels, and then think about how small they are, that amazes me

* people who simply inspire because they care and want to share their thoughts, and hope that you will gain something good from reading them - Julius Lester and Craig Harper are examples that spring to mind right now

* a terrific football (rugby union) player, Chris Jack, who is fascinating to watch in action because you can literally see him thinking, analysing, acting, moving - he is able to be in the play all the time, and be extremely effective, because of this ability - it's uncanny to watch

* people who don't give up, and who really do understand it's up to them and nobody else - seeing them achieve great things in any walk of life is wonderful (even better when you know them personally)

Those are some of mine, weird though they may seem! What about yours?

Are you a Socio-Economic Writer?

Sounds like a silly or weird question. Let me explain. In the past two days, there's been this synergy thing (I'm using the current buzz word) where several things I've been reading and thinking about have all come together. I have to warn you that I am about to leap up on my soapbox:

1. I've just finished a crime novel called Sanctum by Denise Mina. Mina was recommended by my friend G, and when I went to the bookshop, this was the title I selected. One of the elements of this story (which uses a really interesting diary/truth/lies quandary as its plot) is the point about who receives the most media attention. Is it the most attractive, middle-class victim? Because the lower-class, poor, drug-addicted or prostitute victim often gets short shrift from the media, thus leading to less public interest in their case and less assistance to the police.

2. Today's Melbourne Age newspaper has a large article about exactly this thing - Maddy McCann (the little girl who went missing in Portugal last year) has received a massive amount of media attention, and this has been fed by donations to the search mission by people like Richard Branson and J.K. Rowling. Whereas Shannon Matthews, who went missing (presumed abducted) on 19 February, has had little media attention because she is one of seven kids by five fathers in a very poor family.

3. Apparently critics are currently having another go at Jacqueline Wilson, asking why she has to continually write these depressing stories about kids in single parent, poor families who go through horrible experiences.

4. And me, small voice in a far-flung land (so to speak) is wondering how my editor is going to feel about another story featuring a child from a family that is basically broke and struggling, and who can't afford to give the kids what they want or need.

They are all good questions. I don't know enough about JW to say why she writes about the characters she does, but my guess is that, even if she doesn't come from a background quite so dire herself, she's met a ton of kids who do, who write to her, and who tell her their stories. She's giving them a voice, telling their stories, showing the world what it is really like as a kid to live in that part of the world where lack of money rules your life, where you can't be guaranteed a roof over your head, where you also can't be guaranteed a parent who can care for you.

While I feel deeply for children in the Sudan and Palestine and any other country where kids are suffering because of adults who are more concerned about killing each other than about making sure their kids actually grow up, there are huge numbers of kids in our so-called affluent Western world who are living miserable lives and who deserve to have their stories told too. No, we don't want a bookshelf full of misery stories, but there are kids out there who need to read stories that reflect the realities of their own lives and that give them hope.

Which brings me to the other whinge that critics often regurgitate every so often - that these dreary, doom-filled stories just make the kids' lives more miserable. I have yet to read any children's or YA book (apart from Dear Miffy, which has its own message) that ends so badly that the child or teen reader might come away feeling totally depressed. There is a huge difference between a realistic ending that offers some hope (and kids can tell the difference - they know when you are fudging it or making it happy-happy just for the sake of it) and one which sends you into the depths of despair. I don't know any children's writer who says they deliberately create horrible endings. JW always says her books are full of hope and strength and happy endings (just not endings where you win Lotto).

So I guess I need to go on writing stories that reflect what I know - that despite the media reports, not every child has a computer and Playstation and mobile phone of their own, simply because they can't afford it (there are some sane parents still out there too!!). Not every family can afford meat on the table every night. Not every family has working parents. There are many families where unemployment is the norm, where eating bad food is the norm (because it's cheaper), where single parents are the norm, where parents who can't speak English properly have to use their kids as interpreters (how likely are these parents to indulge in reading books to their kids every night?).

If you want to think further on the realities of life for kids in families below the poverty line, try reading What Came Before He Shot Her by Elizabeth George (article contains spoilers). Then read some Jacqueline Wilson books. Yes, kids love fairy books, and no, they shouldn't be unnecessarily exposed to stories about awful life situations. But pretending to your kids that the world is full of goodness and light is not helping them to understand what it is to live in our world today, and deal with the crap that will inevitably come their way. It is absolutely astounding what kids are capable of when they understand how other kids in the world are suffering. Your kids, too, can learn compassion, understanding and how to help others, simply by reading books about kids less well off.

So if you want to write books like that, books with meaning, books that will help kids cope and help them to become compassionate, caring people, go for it.
And as for you, Mr Rudd, cutting carers' benefits and old age payments - may you grow old and disabled before your time. You'll be getting a letter from me.

The Realities about What it Takes

Don't read on if you're feeling a bit vulnerable or depressed!

1. It takes time. Lots of time. It can take ten years to get to the point where you are writing publishable work, or it can take ten years to come up with an idea that's new and different. The ten years won't have gone to waste, because during that time you'll have written many words, and the way you write will have been improving and growing and deepening. You'll have come to understand what it truly takes, plot- and character-wise, to write a novel with impact, that resonates with lots of readers. You'll have written all of the dull, dead, done-before ideas out of your system and be discovering that, behind the daily clutter in your life lie many new ideas and voices that you are only just learning to explore. Why ten years? I'm not sure, but I know many writers who say their "overnight success" took ten years. Me, too.

2. It takes time. That's time in every day. A regular writing habit of an hour a day will get you a lot further than one day every two weeks. That's because writing becomes the focus of every day, you start to feel like a writer with a strong commitment, your project is constantly in your thoughts and you are constantly coming up with new ideas for it, to make it better. You don't need to spend a couple of hours working your way back in the voice and the story. It's right there, all the time.
Sandy Fussell has three books coming out this year (her first three, one of which is Samurai Kids). I have just read an interview with her where she says she writes from 10pm-1am every night, because that's the only time in her busy day where she can fit it in. For many people, that would be too hard. For many people, any kind of regular writing commitment is too hard. Not for Sandy. So she has three books coming out.

3. You need to read. Reading feeds your writing like nothing else. Poetry feeds the language in my novels. Crime fiction helps me with plotting. Reading great YA fiction teaches me about voice. A writer is always learning, always working on their craft, and reading as a writer takes you a lot further along this path than anything else. You need a reading commitment, just like your writing commitment. You need to see what else is being published, what publishers consider is the best, what is selling well and think about why. Those writers are giving readers what they want. You have to know what that is, and how to create it yourself.

Gee, all of this is taking up lots of your time, isn't it? You might have to give up some TV, or socialising, or even a bit of sleep.

4. You need to understand the publishing industry. It's a business. It's not there to make you feel better about your writing (although occasionally there are rejection letters that could be a tiny bit more encouraging, perhaps ... nah, we just need a thicker skin). Your submission is not the only one that publisher received this week. It was one of maybe a hundred, or several hundred. With so many to choose from, no wonder publishers are hanging out for the one that sings to them, not just one more competent story among many.

What are you doing to make your novel stand out? How many times have you rewritten it? Do you need a few grammar and punctuation lessons? You're supposed to be professional, so you need to understand that you are competing with thousands of new writers. You're also competing with lots of published writers.

Do you spend $2000 on a new bed because it looks nice and the person who owns the bed company needs a better car? No, you'd buy a bed that gave you a great night's sleep and was good for your back as well. So no one is going to spend $20 or $30 on your book in the shop unless you are going to give them a great story.

Editors and publishers love books. Otherwise they'd be doing something else that paid more money. Yes, they have to fight the bean-counters in the company, and convince marketing to come on board with books that are a bit risky, but they wouldn't do it if they didn't love the books. Make yours one that an editor falls in love with!

5. Whingeing doesn't help. Yes, this is a tough thing to do. Crazy even. Pour your heart and soul into a book and then not be able to get it published. But complaining and blaming other people only makes you feel better for about five minutes, then you feel worse again. Put that energy into writing and reading, into finding out about the industry, into finding other writers for a critique group (if that's what'll help you, and it probably will).
And think about this - any published writer will happily tell you that getting published does not solve all of your problems - they just become different problems!

6. Love the writing. Love the feeling of having written. Love having completed that tricky Chapter 11, even though you were scared you'd stuff it up. Love rewriting and making your words better. Love talking to other writers and encouraging each other. Love reading and discovering new writers. Love creating new voices. Love the writing, and the rest will follow.

What Does It Take? the Myths

It's a good question. What does it take to become a published author? Or if you want more than that, what does it take to become a published, famous, well-paid (dare I say rich?) author? Let's look at the myths first.

1. It takes amazing talent. Hmmm, yes. If I had a dollar for every talented writer I've seen who gave up after a few months or a year, I could retire. It does take some talent, true. People who can't write anything that engages even the most sympathetic reader are plentiful, but sometimes that's not a matter of talent, that's just a matter of learning how to make the words work better for you (and that is possible). But the hard truth is - some people, no matter how badly they want to tell a story, can't write. I can't play the violin (I've tried), I can't play golf (I've tried), I could never be a fireworks expert (I'm scared of big noises) - so I have given up these things, even though I would kind of enjoy being the new Tiger Woods. Some people need to give up the idea of publishing their writing. Sorry, but it's true. Or they should at least give up submitting to publishers until they have worked really hard and reached a better standard of writing. (OK, you can throw things at me now. I'll duck - my talent there comes from ducking errant golf balls I, myself, hit.)

But if you have a bit of talent (we usually spot it in your voice, believe it or not), but not much technique - you can learn technique and you can improve - in leaps and bounds!

2. You need to know someone important in publishing. How do you know them? Are you memorable because you stalked that publisher into the ladies' room and harrassed her as she washed her hands? Or because you got drunk and confronted him about your latest rejection? If you Google the many blogs and websites maintained by editors and agents, you will see one thing that absolutely shines above anything else in terms of getting published - it's the writing that counts. Think about it.
Yes, some people get lucky and meet the right editor at the right time at a conference, but if the writing didn't sing, they would be one more writer in the queue.

3. You need lots of inspiration. How many writers sit down at the computer or blank page every day and feel inspired? Very, very few. When you've been writing for a while, you start to realise that inspiration is sporadic. Lack of faith in yourself as a writer is more prevalent. The only thing that will get you through, keep you going, keep you writing to the end of your project (no matter what it is) is showing up at your desk and writing no matter what.
This seems so obvious that I wonder why I'm saying it!! But the truth is that there are many writers who believe that the only time they can write anything "good" is when they are inspired. Rubbish!!! You have to write no matter what. That's what a writer does. And you would be amazed at the number of writers who say they can't tell the difference, later, between what they wrote when they "felt like it" and what they wrote when they struggled and persisted, despite the doubts.

Some realities coming soon.

SCBWI Conference photos

Bruce Whately (illustrator), Lisa Berryman (HarperCollins) and Jackie French - the Diary of a Wombat "team".
Ellen Hopkins, guest writer from the U.S. - her verse novels for YA make the NY Times best-seller lists.
Meredith Costain, speaking at the launch of her lovely Nibble, Rosie and the Bunyip.

SCBWI Conference in Sydney (2)

Here are some session summaries and high points:
Julie Romeis (Chronicle) - Trends in the US Market
While Gossip Girls and books like the Lightning Thief are hugely popular right now, in two years time it will be different. Write what you want to write and be a trend-setter, not a trend-follower. There are more novels being published now but there will inevitably be a move back to picture books. The huge funding cuts for schools and libraries have meant that publishers have had to pull back from publishing aimed at those markets, and look more at books that will sell in stores and places like WalMart (big retail).
There are more licenced characters and more "books with bling" (sparkles and glow stuff) - these are the covers that make kids take them off the shelves, and there are more fun books being produced rather than educational. There is also a big shift to graphic novels for as young as 5-6 year olds (Baby Mouse early readers). US publishers are interested in international authors but they still need to be writing something unique or different.

There was a session on picture books that I wrote the SCBWI report for - it will be up on the Australian SCBWI site next week, I believe, along with my report on educational publishing.

What are they publishing?
Linsey Knight (Random House) - everything from picture books to YA, and they are also doing a lot of series and mass market stuff. They buy in from overseas as well as local authors.
They are always looking for people who can tell great stories, are interested in chicklit for YA but it needs to be a fresh voice.
Anna McFarlane (Pan Macmillan) - are doing 41 books this year, of which 8 are new writers. She talked about the first-time authors and how their manuscripts were accepted - 4 from the slush pile, 4 from agents.
Leonie Tyle (Random House) - Leonie has recently joined RH and has her own imprint. She is looking for literary, high quality books, and plans to publish 12 books per year. She said the 9-13 age group are very savvy readers and consumers, and publishers are actively targeting them right now. She will be more interested in novels than picture books, but is putting illustrations in novels (this was an obvious trend - it came up several times).

New Voices
Sarah Foster from Walker Books talked about new voices in their program this year, including The Stone Crown by Malcolm Walker - this book needed a lot of work but the author's voice was strong and he had great characters, plus he was willing to do a lot of rewriting and work hard with the editor. Walker are also publishing a new series called Lightning Strikes, 10,000 words, aimed at upper primary (10-12) - pacey, funny stories.

Julie Romeis (Chronicle) talked about a book she had published while at Bloomsbury - Ophelia. She was attracted to the book idea first, but always she knows if she's going to love a book by the first page. The writing and voice leaps out at you.

Lisa Berryman (HarperCollins) sees that it's her job to recognise potential - voice is everything in a book to her, and it determines your response to it. She talked about Alexandra Adornetto and that her submission was perfect, as well as the book and writing were great. (If you haven't heard of AA, she wrote her first book at 13, and her second is about to be published.)

Steve Mooser (president of SCBWI International) was at the conference and did a useful presentation on writing funny books. I might post about that at another time.

Overall, the sessions provided a wealth of information for those who want to pursue publication. The main points that I came away with (and they were mentioned many times) are:
* That you need a great voice working in your story, and you need a story that has a different or unique perspective. Publishers look at thousands of manuscripts every year, and that first page has to be working in terms of voice and action to capture their interest.
* Publishers are constantly looking at marketing and how a book is placed out there - what will make someone buy it. Covers are important, but so are efforts by authors - websites and school visits in particular. Word of mouth will still sell more books than advertising.
* Series are popular but there are drawbacks - booksellers don't always like the idea of having to fill shelves with them. But kids like them, and they become collectables.

Thanks to all the publishers who attended the conference and were so approachable and patient.

SCBWI conference, Sydney (1)

Have just returned from Sydney and our bi-annual conference. Straight into teaching on Monday morning, but luckily I resisted the late-night gabfests (tempting though they were) and got some sleep while I was there. The Hughenden Hotel, where the conference took place, was also where many of us stayed. It's very old and historical, with a dungeon and lots of little rooms and things like ceiling roses and embossed tiles. Sydney was hot and muggy to us Melbournites, but probably just nice for the northern writers!

Guest US editor was Julie Romeis from Chronicle Books, with publishers from HarperCollins, Walker Books, Penguin, Random House, plus Leonie Tyle who is establishing a new imprint of her own at RH. Rick Raftos was the guest agent. They were all very generous with their information and advice, and I saw quite a few writers who were glowing after their manuscript assessments. We all ate far more delicious food than was good for us!! I went for a walk around the circuit in Centennial Park on Sunday morning, which helped me feel better about all those cakes.

I'll post more about individual sessions shortly, but I wanted to mention the pitch session on Sunday afternoon. This was interesting as, instead of participants having to write a pitch (like the paragraph in your query letter) and have it critiqued, they had to actually stand up and do a two minute presentation. Quite normal in the screenwriting world, but pretty scary for children's writers who've never done it before.

The publishers' panel was fairly brutal and honest, but they needed to be. I guess they were showing us (verbalising) what goes through their brains when they read someone's query letter and/or submission. It was a bit like Miss Snark in action. It soon became apparent who had a grip on what their story was about, and who was still talking in abstracts. Some people chose to read a bit of their story, which didn't always work. Others presented story outlines that really captured the audience's imagination.

One of the highlights for me was Ellen Hopkins, whose verse novels I greatly admire, not only for their stark subject matter but also for her poetry and the way she uses words on the page. Her session was moving and educational, and I also got to talk to her about verse novels the next day. And she showed us all that Nevada is not just Las Vegas, and there are some beautiful mountains and scenery up north.

Confidence Tricks

I have to admit that I have got sucked in to the current series of The Biggest Loser. I'm not sure why, but I think it's the people! While I enjoy transformation stories (can't stand novels or films where the main character never learns anything and stays the same), this has become more than just the potential of each person to achieve weight loss. Every time one of them opens their mouth, I'm watching their face and listening to the tone of their voice to work out what they are really saying. There's a fair bit of fibbing going on, I think! When the young guy came out and said a few snarky things last night and then laughed, I laughed too, just because he was being genuine.

Also, in last night's episode, the Blue team was given a really hard time by the Commando, leading to one person suddenly losing all their confidence and growing self-respect. Yet, another in the team came out of the really tough session overjoyed that she had won through and survived. Two completely different reactions to the same thing! I keep making mental notes about how I can use all of this in my fiction writing, because of course no two characters will, or should, react in the same way to the same thing.

How much self-confidence a character has says a lot about how they view themselves, how they see the world, how they will react to events and disasters, how they will tackle problems. In today's society, weight has become a huge issue - it's as if it overshadows everything about who a person really is. Even being too slim is liable to get you criticised. Your body weight starts to define you - if you let it. But it's so hard not to. You're battling the whole world, it feels like.

One of my favourite things about The Big Loser is that when someone is voted out, the producers follow up a couple of months later to see how they're going. The two so far have both come out vowing to keep up what they've gained - not so much the weight loss but the feeling of a healthy body and the knowledge that they can exercise and they can achieve what they want. On their own.

Is your character that tough? Probably not at the beginning of the story. In class yesterday, we talked a little bit about the middle of a story. After you've got off to a roaring start, and you know more or less what your ending might be, you are facing the middle - the place where your story might sag. Yet if what is happening in the middle is that your character is gaining what they need to win through, that's fertile ground to cover. What doesn't kill me will only make me stronger. It's a familiar saying, but in your story, that's what your character is doing. Gaining confidence, growing, learning new skills, gaining strength (inner and outer), overcoming many obstacles. You just have to make sure you're really testing them, really making them grow, rather than letting them off too easy!

Books and More Books

The last week has been total, full-on, brain-burning teaching stuff. Of all sorts. I'm teaching two online classes this semester, and although I've done it before, the five wonderful students who climbed on board with me for Poetry 2 a couple of years ago knew they were guinea pigs and we worked through a lot of material. This time, the students are expecting a top-notch learning experience, and I've been working hard to get everything ready. Of course, as with any institution, the problems that arise tend to be bureaucratic, and it can be stressful to work your way through each length of red tape without losing your temper. I hope our students beginning their classes tomorrow, via the internet, will view me as a calm, serene duck, and not see the madly paddling feet underneath!

On-campus classes also start tomorrow, and I have mostly dispelled my panic through careful planning and thinking through everything that needs to be ready, and using lots of lists. Once classes begin, everything gradually moves into a routine and settles down. It's the "beforehand" stuff that drives us to the brink. However, I'm looking forward to all of my classes, which is a good sign.

Since the brain has been sending out smoke signals (saying, "Give me a break, will ya?"), I've done little writing this week. There are some times when enough is too much, and although I wanted to write, I needed to sleep more. That hasn't stopped me thinking about the novel I'm working on. And deciding that the slippery feeling I'd been getting while rewriting the last 4000 words or so was a sign that I need to print out everything so far and have a critical read-through. When you're writing a scene and you can't work out what's supposed to happen next or why (and the original version is right next to you and it doesn't make sense anymore), that's the time to spend more brain power on that scene, and what comes before it, and less finger power on the keyboard. For me, anyway.

In a quick reading roundup, it has occurred to me that I've been reading quite a few middle grade and YA novels recently with a lot of violence in them. I had to read Tunnels by Roderick Gordon and Brian Williams, if only to make sure my novel wasn't in any way similar. It wasn't (a relief, especially after an agent expressed concern about this despite not having read Tunnels). There was a huge amount of action and violence in the second half of this book, much of which kept up the tension and excitement level quite well. But there were also huge amounts of description, too much, so that I had trouble visualising what was going on, and where. I do think some of this could've been trimmed for a better story.

I also read The Road of the Dead by Kevin Brooks. Brooks never holds back in his novels (I still remember one that starts with the father dead in the lounge room) but this one is very scary. He does a great job of description, and the setting is the dark and lonely moors in England. Tiny village with horrible characters, and two brothers who want to find out who murdered their sister. Then, for a complete change of pace, I read The Arizona Kid by Ron Koertge. I loved this, not just because it's set in Tucson (and I love Tucson) but because of the voice and the characters. Each character has their own story, each character evolves and changes, not just the main character. The dialogue is snappy and moves the story along, with added touches of humour. Two very different books, but I recommend both.

The Big 10

Earlier this week, StatCounter told me my blog had reached the milestone of 10,000 reader visits. Sounds like a lot, but that's over a couple of years! Still, it made me happy to know that a fair few people had dropped in to read stuff, and some of them have even left comments. I actually started this blog in 2004, firstly to record short reviews or comments on books I had read. It was like a personal reminder of what I liked and what I didn't (us writers are always on the look out for recommendations of good books to read). Then I went to New York and the Chatauqua Writers' Workshop, and wanted to keep some kind of diary that friends and family could read if they wanted. Four years later, I'm still here, and still enjoying it. It's a different kind of writing, and it's fun.

The photo above is from the "something old, something new" line of thinking. This is my old something. Apologies for the not-so-good photo but it's very hard to get away from reflections! Anyway, this is (obviously) a cup and saucer. It's from a very old porcelain tea set that we think belonged to our great-grandmother. It has been handed down and now what is left of it belongs to my sister and me. For my birthday, she had one of the last remaining cup-and-saucer sets mounted in a box frame for me. I never understand people who throw stuff out when someone dies - once it's gone, it's gone forever. (And I freely admit I am a hoarder.)

The "something new" is not out yet. It's not even on the UQP website, but I have seen the final cover for my new book Tracey Binns Is Trouble. It's out in May. I'll post a cover when I have permission.
Something borrowed? I promise to return the Estleman book on popular fiction to you really soon, T! And if you want to see blue things, you can look at the bluebells and pincushions on my Bush Notes blog.

Same Old, Same Old

Once again, the Weekend Australian Review has trotted out an article on creative writing courses. It seems as if I've read this kind of thing several times in the past couple of years. It starts as a whine about how creative writing degree courses are taking over from traditional literature courses, and continues in that vein. Tony Birch from Melbourne Uni complains that new students come to the course "naive" about how difficult it is to get published. Er, they're just out of high school, mate. How much do you expect them to know? Isn't that what you're there for, amongst other things?

Another point is made about universities sucking up massive fees from students wanting to do creative writing, but not giving the "product" the respect it deserves. Ultimately, isn't it up to the publishing world to publish a book? Since when does a High Distinction guarantee that a student novel will be published and sell lots of copies? Um, never. Everyone pays HECS fees at our universities now, no matter what they want to study. I quote from the article: "There are numerous mature-age students willing to pay universities $100-plus an hour to sit in a postgraduate writing class."

I have a solution for them! Come and study creative writing at TAFE with us! There, it will cost you $1.37 an hour and you'll learn just as much. In fact, you'll probably learn more, especially if you're looking for hands-on writing, workshopping and industry knowledge. OK, OK, promotional spruiking is over. Seriously, what really annoyed me about this article (apart from the fact that TAFE courses were not mentioned at all) was that nobody bothered to ask the students about why they were choosing to study creative writing and not literature or history or engineering.

There were various academics who talked about and around the subject; some even acknowledged that a uni teaching gig was good to have, and helped to pay the bills. They talked about how important reading is for a writer, and how students have to be made to read more. I hate to tell them this, but most people who want to be writers have to be encouraged to read more. It's one of those weird anomalies. But the article writer, Rosemary Neill, never once asked any students - why are you doing it? Why are you studying writing, and not just sitting at home (for free) and doing it?

Maybe that's a whole other article, one that would be five times as long. Because we do ask that question of our students, and we get a dozen different answers. Everything from career change or following their passion to job skills (we are a professional writing and editing course) and wanting to learn something specific like researching and interviewing. Believe it or not, we actually ask this question in the selection interview, before they even get into the course! It's an important question. You might be surprised how many people don't give "getting published" as their first answer. It's usually in there somewhere, but most people are aware that their skills need improvement, and they want to learn the craft. It's a great start.

It's All Useful

Years ago, I attended a screenwriting course. It was over three or four Saturdays (can't remember exactly now) and although we did watch a movie or two, mostly the lecturer talked and gave us handouts and homework. At the time, I thought I might try my hand at writing screenplays. I'd written a play (a teen rock musical with a composer), a bad movie script, and dabbled a bit, but I knew I needed to know a lot more before I could have a serious try at it. So I went along to this course.

I couldn't tell you now (without going back to my folder of notes, because I never throw anything out) what I learned about screenwriting in terms of formatting and opportunities and stuff like that, but I have never forgotten the work we did in that class on character psychology. It was the first time I'd ever worked hard on character motivations in terms of who they were inside their head and why. Abandonment, fear of intimacy, abusive parents, alcoholic parents, power plays, control freaks - I think I learned more in that class than I've learned anywhere since.

Have I written a screenplay since? No. But every piece of fiction I've written has included, in some shape or form, psychological backstory and motivation. I now research my characters in terms of psychology and what makes them tick. I know that I need to make sure that how they are behaving right now is consistent with past events and the effects of those events. Today I was researching the effects on a male character of consistent physical beatings as a child and teenager. Something in my story wasn't adding up when I wrote about this character, and I realised it was because I didn't really understand where he'd come from, and what the long-term effects of that abuse might be.

I say might because if you read any psychology articles or texts, the first thing they'll say is that no one can predict the outcome of a particular experience. There are a number of factors that influence what might happen later. But it's very easy as a writer to say, "Oh yes, this happened and so later on he does this, and is like that" without actually verifying that a drug addiction (for example) is a possible/probable outcome later on. The character could have become a hitman! Or committed suicide. Or suffered anxiety attacks and withdrawn from the world. But you need to know what the range of possibilities are.

So this screenwriting course introduced me to how to create psychological depth in characters. Great stuff! Writing short stories for adults over the years has taught me how to write tightly plotted, pacy chapter books for kids. Writing poetry has taught me heaps about imagery and metaphor, and using the best words in the best way. Writing radio plays taught me lots about strong dialogue. Studying a unit at university years ago on performance, that was mostly about how actors fill up the space on the stage, taught me a huge amount about action, dialogue and pacing.

I think if you want to write novels, don't limit yourself to just learning about how to write novels. Learning how to structure a screenplay will teach you lots about plot and cause/effect. Not to mention dialogue. Watching movies will teach you about showing and telling. How is that actor showing distress? Puzzlement? Embarrassment? Go and write some poems. Write lots of poems. Read lots of poems. Discover what language is capable of, if you use it effectively. And yeah, don't forget the grammar and punctuation stuff. That'll teach you how to write a sentence that says what you want it to, create the effect you want for the reader, without being obscure, overblown or confusing.

Where Did the Time Go?

I guess you have about the same number of hours in the day as I do - 24. Doesn't seem enough, most days, does it? I often wish for 28 or 30. But it's not going to happen anytime soon, and while I have had short periods of time over the past 6-7 weeks where I have been able to stay home and write (as opposed to going to work to earn money and NOT write), I've been thinking a lot about what happens to me when I do go to work. And do my 7 hours or so.

With all good intentions to come home and have a cup of tea and then buckle down to writing, what has happened is I come home and collapse into a comfy chair and my brain shuts down. I think the 6-7 weeks of some weeks at work and some weeks off (making up for the fact that I had to start back on 1 January while others were still cavorting, or camping, or chilling out) has given me a really good picture of my writing life. Or non-writing life.

I'm as clever as the next writer in coming up with excuses why I'm not writing. I was digging a ditch. I haven't been sleeping well. I had to clean the fridge. But all excuses aside, what I have seen in the past weeks is that when I have spent 7 hours at work, I don't write when I come home. Partly this is because I do spend 7 hours working. I have a part-time job, with a lot of things that have to get done, so we don't have lunch hours, for example. We have lunchtime meetings while we eat. Bad work practice, I know, but we are all part-timers and our department gets more done than most others with full-time staff. It helps that we love what we do, and we want to do it really well.

But it does mean that when I get home after a full day, I am stuffed. Maybe I'm getting old. Whatever. That's the reality. My brain says NO.
But right now, I am working on a revision of a novel that is important to me. It's working, it's developing, it's deepening. I can't afford to let the ball drop right now. I don't want to lose the momentum and the sense of being right inside this story and the characters. But I head back to work tomorrow, with no more time off in sight.

So, after some thought, I have decided that on the days I work (three of them each week, on average) I will have to get up very early and spend at least an hour on my revision before I go to work. I don't function exceptionally well before 7am, but it will be a lot better than being brain-dead at 5pm. It helps that my husband has just had his work hours changed and he'll be up at the same time (we'll fight for the shower first - something has to wake me up!). I may not last. I'm not a good morning person. But this is what has to happen for me to keep this revision humming along. Stay posted. I may, as my mother used to say, end up running off screaming into the bush.

Mailbox Problem

It doesn't really matter what's coming in today's mail - acceptances or rejection letters - when this is in there waiting. I did try to coax him out, but to no avail. He's obviously waiting for some important letter. I could spray him with insect killer but somehow I don't have the heart. So my husband can get him out for me. (You thought I was going to put my hand anywhere near that?)

Writers' Conferences

One of the best experiences for a writer is a writers' conference. It doesn't matter if you're new or more advanced, published or not, being among other writers who share your passion is inspiring. No more strange looks (you're writing about what?), no more sneers (so where did you say I can buy your books? nowhere yet?), no more guilt trips (what do you mean - you can't come to the beach/mall/playground with us, you're writing?), no more questions from family like "When are you going to get a real job?"

At a good writers' conference you'll get the following things:
1. You'll meet lots of other writers who feel just like you. You'll share experiences, the lows and highs, pass on good advice, re-inspire each other and make life-long friends. I know because that's happened to me!

2. You'll listen to other well-published writers speak and realise their paths to publication were long and tough, and what got them there was perseverance and hard work, not some magical, mystical talent. You'll realise that a little bit of talent goes a long way if you're prepared to listen, learn and practise, practise, practise. They'll inspire you too. I still remember Linda Sue Park and her two pages a day, no matter what. They'll also remind you that part of being a writer is to read, read, read.

3. You'll hear editors and publishers talking about what they might be looking for, what makes a manuscript stand out, what fads and trends are passing or passed, what their house publishes. They'll add to your market research (that you're already doing - right?) and put a human face on the rejection letters. They'll remind you that competent and pretty good doesn't cut it in the world today, and that you need to work hard to find your own story and tell it as only you can. They'll also remind you that they love books as much as you do, and they really are looking for new voices.

4. You'll also hear agents, hopefully two or three, talking about their business, how they work, what they're looking for. It'll sound a lot like editors, only more so.

5. You'll find new ideas springing into your mind, from things people say, things you see, things that pop into your dreams each night as you sleep after a long day of talking about writing and books. You'll take lots of notes, write down every idea that occurs to you, buy books that appeal to you, make a list of others to borrow from your library.

6. At a lot of conferences, you'll have a manuscript consultation option. If you've been working on a project and it's not ready, you may pass on the consult. But if you decide to take it up, you'll prepare the best submission you can, and think about what you want from the consult. No editor or agent will give you a contract on the spot, based on ten pages! But they might ask you to send the whole novel. They might ask you to talk about it more. They might ask you questions, about the novel and about you. Be ready. Make the most of it.

It's a good idea to "take stock" before a conference. What do you want from it? What can it give you? Why are you paying this money? Where do you sit in the row of writers that spans "complete newbie" to "well published". What advantages does that seat give you? What is going to be most useful to you in terms of sessions and talks? If you are published, is there a professional stream for you? (otherwise you are going to be bored by sessions that tell you what you already know). Are there agents and editors there you are interested in?

It's also a good idea to make a list of the things you are NOT going to do. 1. Drink too much and make a fool of yourself. You can almost guarantee that when you do, an important editor or agent will be in the audience. 2. Pitch yourself to agents and editors in their down-time when all they want is a drink and some peace and quiet. 3. Whine. It doesn't help, and it makes you look like a total amateur. 4. Show off, even when you have something to show. Say no more.

We have our second international SCBWI conference coming up in February in Sydney, and the program looks terrific. I love conferences, I love getting together with other writers, and I love coming home inspired all over again.

The Healthy Writer

We sit at our desks for long periods of time. We drink lots of coffee, maybe smoke, when we take a break (or even as we write). We eat chocolate or chips, or get fast food for dinner because we've got no time to shop and cook. We stay up late, night after night, or drag ourselves out of bed at dawn to write, because that's the only time we have in a busy family/work life.

The result of all of this is obvious. We are overweight, unfit and tired. Just like most of the population. We make resolutions to go to the gym, walk regularly, eat more fruit and veges, but it doesn't happen. Oh well, we sigh, just like everyone else.

Except we aren't like everyone else. When everyone else collapses on the weekend, or after dinner, and watches TV or naps, or goes out and parties, the serious writer is writing. Other people's R&R time is usually our writing time, especially if we have to work in a regular job to pay the bills. A writer who wants to write, and complete projects like novels and short story collections and film scripts, is writing when everyone else is chilling out.

The problem that arises from this is simply a physical and mental tiredness that stops you from writing at your best, and may often stop you from writing at all. I've blogged here before about how that tiredness influences everything about our writing, not just getting the words down on the page but also how you feel about them. If you are feeling bright and healthy and energetic, revision is a pleasure, not a pain. Rejections sting for a few minutes then you can shrug them off and move on. Words zing onto the page because you feel zingy!

What is the solution? Unfortunately, there is no magic wand for this stuff, but here are my thoughts on what makes me write better:

1. Sleep. I am an 8-9 hour a night person, and if I don't get good sleep, I fall in a heap very quickly. So I watch very little TV and go to bed early. Boring, huh? It works for me. I know there are people who insist they can survive well on 5 hours a night, but all the sleep studies now (and there are lots of them because scientists have realised what lack of sleep can do to us) show that it affects alertness, ability to process thoughts, ability to respond, moodiness, irritation, concentration, etc etc. It's actually quite scary what the effects are. Maybe they could add writer's block to the list.

2. Walking, or some form of exercise. It gets me off the chair, it lets my brain think more freely as I walk, it wakes me up, it gets me out in the world. I actually like walking in the rain (with an umbrella) better than anything. But I do have to force myself to do it some days, even though I know it will make me feel good.

3. Less coffee and alcohol. I limit coffee to one a day now, but it has to be a decent one. Not instant. And if I have it in a cafe while I'm writing or thinking about writing, even better. Alcohol - I'm always trying to do better there!

4. Where I write - making sure my computer use is not going to make my neck and shoulder condition worse, which was caused by that in the first place. So the chair and the desk and the keyboard and the monitor all need to be working for me, not against me.

5. Eating better. Skipping breakfast is silly. I've come to believe that breakfast sets you up for the whole morning. I hate lunch - it's the most boring meal of the day to me, but I try to have something with protein in it because of my iron and energy levels. Dinner is up to you! I hate sitting around after dinner feeling like a lump of lead is lying in my stomach, so if we've eaten something heavy, I'll go for a walk afterwards. That helps me sleep.

If I feel good physically, I feel great mentally. I want to write, my brain is full of ideas and words, I can tackle anything with energy and concentration. My biggest struggle is work - it exhausts me mentally and physically - but I can cope if I stay healthy. It's one of my big goals for this year, and I hope it feeds into my writing every day.

The Art of Revision

I've been doing more reading on revision this week, not just for myself but also for use in class. In trying to distill what you need to revise successfully, I came up with some pointers:

1. You have to read critically - that means read other published work. Books and stories in your genre or form, books outside your genre, any book that might give you a great or bad example of writing. Any book that does a good job of something you struggle with (at the moment, I'm working on deepening character - how to do this with a character who has a very hard outer shell). Read to see how accomplished writers work with words, with character, with plot, with theme. Stop reading just to put yourself to sleep at night and start reading as a writer. Learn from it. If you can't see what makes a great novel great, you'd better study it some more.

2. Find out how you can put distance between you and your writing. That might mean putting your story or novel away for a week, a month, a year, until you can look at it with a critical eye, and not fall in love with your own words again. It might mean reading it out loud to yourself, or onto a tape. It might mean psyching yourself into another mental realm and pretending that the novel wasn't written by you. Whatever works for you, whatever leads to you being able to cut ruthlessly or see where there are gaps and shallowness.

3. Learn to separate the stages of revision. Understand that there is structural revision (the big picture stuff) and revision on a paragraph by paragraph basis. And then there is line editing, on a word by word basis. That's where most people trim and tighten. Understand the difference between re-visioning and revision. Re-visioning means re-imagining your novel, seeing it in a new light, seeing other possibilities for it. That's where distance helps. It's also where mental space helps - it's almost a re-dreaming of your story, and that's not going to happen in half an hour, crammed into the end of the day.

4. Acknowledge to yourself, no matter how hard it might be, that fiddling around the edges and changing a few things here and there is not rewriting. True rewriting is retyping the whole thing from scratch, writing it as a new piece of work. You may refer to the original - some people don't even do that.

5. Only give it to a trusted reader or critique partner/group when you are sure you have done everything you possibly can, or are capable of at this point, to make it the best you can. Don't ask people to critique something that you know you can still work on, or something that is OK for plot but you haven't done the line editing. Why should they spend their time on your punctuation and grammar? Think about what you want or need from the critique. If you want to know if the voice works, say so. Ditto for plot, character, pacing. Make the best use of your critique person's time and energy.

6. Take your critiques seriously. Don't say, "Oh, they weren't good readers, they just didn't get what I was trying to do." If that's the case, that's your fault, not theirs. Take heed of all comments, consider them seriously. Some may be of no use to you. Most should at least raise the question of "Did I do that well enough? Why has that comment been made?" Don't take any critique personally. It's not about you, it's about the story.

7. If you have revised and revised and revised, learn to see when enough is enough. Do you want to revise again because you're too scared to send it out? Or do you really think another revision will help? If you are up to Draft 15, ask yourself what you are doing. Have you really done 15 drafts, or 15 "picking at the edges"? If the story isn't working after 15 drafts, you need to work out why not. You may have to abandon the story. It has still taught you an immense amount along the way. If you have to, let it go. Don't hang everything on one manuscript. Write more. That's what writers do.

8. If you revised a bit, sent it out and have 20 rejections, you have to make a decision. It's probably not publishable in its present state, but maybe only 100 rejections will convince you - how honest are you being about it? Is it fabulous? Is it a manuscript that sings? Or is it competent? Does it need another big revision? Suck it up. Do it. Or start something new.

Note: If it's a story that just won't leave you alone, you should keep working on it until it's fabulous. Otherwise it'll give you nightmares, interrupt your daydreams and intrude on your other writing.

The Wednesday Wars

I'm impatient. I hear about a great book and I can't wait weeks and weeks (months and months) for my local Borders to decide whether they're going to get it in from the US or not. So I order it on Amazon and then try to forget about it until the doorbell rings. I had heard a lot about The Wednesday Wars by Gary Schmidt on the CCBC discussion list, and stopped reading the posts in the end when people started picking it to bits and giving away the story (I hate that - I always stop when they give spoiler warnings).

Last week, the Newbery Medal was given to a poetry book (yaaayyy!), Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! that hardly anyone had heard of. That's the nature of awards. The Wednesday Wars was an Honour Book. I started reading it and finished it in two days. I would've finished it in one day but I wanted to think about it and savour what was happening in the story. And now that I've finished, I'm still thinking about it. This morning, I was explaining to my friend G what it was about, what happens, what the characters' journeys are, and I realised that by doing this, I was seeing even more things in the book than I had on my own (I guess this is why some people join book groups, not just for the wine and socialising!).

To sum it up, I loved this book. Its most successful element, I think, is the narrator's perspective - how the writer has created a character who really does see the world as a seventh grade boy would. He believes the teacher hates him, he doesn't see that his father is a selfish, bigoted man, he doesn't understand his own abilities and capacity for learning about life, he can't see the point of reading Shakespeare. Yet, on his journey through the story, he gradually comes to understand all of these things, and more. He comes to see the possibilities of his place in the world, that he doesn't have to be what others want to force him to be.

That is a pretty amazing accomplishment in any novel. To slowly but surely unravel a character and depict him learning how to sort out what and who he is ... I'm not going to say that this is amazing for a middle grade novel, because I have read lots of middle grade and YA novels that accomplish this in such depth and subtlety that they leave many adult novels for dead. It is simply a wonderful novel. For a reader of any age.

I have also realised that what I don't like in children's fiction is a writer who feels they need to spell everything out. Kids are not dumb. There have been posts from teachers and librarians who have kids who love The Wednesday Wars. The same way they love The Dark is Rising, Northern Lights, Bridge to Terabithia, in fact any novel that invites them into the story by giving them room to imagine, speculate, wonder and work stuff out for themselves. That's why those novels last and the mass market series that are churned out, two or four a month, don't. There are some series that will endure (look at Little House on the Prairie) because the writers were passionate about the stories they were telling, and the themes continue to resonate. But I doubt any series that is written to a set formula will last beyond five or ten years. I guess that's the nature of the marketplace at any time, isn't it?

The Achievement Index

Yesterday, I finished the first draft of a novel for upper primary readers (or middle grade) - it came in at around 44,000 words, more than I expected, and has a couple of subplots that may need to be pruned, not to mention a character that started as one kind of person and morphed into another. Sometimes characters do that. This is the novel I started for NaNo, and had to abandon due to a very busy time working in Hong Kong, followed by an even busier time catching up when I got back (gee, thanks for making me submit the same student results three times - don't you just love antiquated data systems?).

But over the Christmas/NY break, the period when we all set goals and have high hopes for the new year, I simply committed to writing more. Writing regularly. And have recently found a website and blog of a guy who both makes me laugh and gives me some good ideas. Now Craig Harper is a motivational speaker but is also a personal trainer (and got his start in business as such) - he's also a funny writer who gets his message across, with warnings about irreverence and rudeness. He's not actually that rude - he just tells it as he sees it. Anyway, something I got from Craig's posts was the idea of an achievement diary.

We tend to whip ourselves over what we don't achieve. I set myself 2000 words today and I didn't achieve it. Whack! That's a recipe for depression. So I went up to my local KMart and found a simple diary for simply noting where I was and what I'd managed to get through each day. And also my energy level (because I have major iron problems and have to keep track). In my new diary, I record what I wrote, what I worked on (plotting, planning, thinking, dreaming, notes, ideas - they all count in a writer's life) and whether I have done the two other things that help me as a writer - meditation and walking.

Why meditation? Because I'm a perfectionist and AR and get really tense over minor issues. After years of meditation in a very On-Off way, I'm giving it a real go this year to help my stress levels. Why walking? Because I hate jogging, and I don't have time for the gym right now. So those two things help my writing.

But today, I didn't write at all. I dug a trench. Hmmm, yes, a real one. But because I've been writing regularly and reading writing books and thinking about writing a lot, I couldn't help but view my trench digging like a writer. Set the scene: local council requires entrance to property to have a culvert (in simple terms, the ditch/drain needs a pipe in it for water flow). Gateway looks fine, ditch currently shallow, two people with shovel, spade and mattock should manage.

We talk a lot in fiction about raising the stakes. First stake: excavation must be finished today so when large pipes are delivered next week, they can go straight into the hole. First complication: shallow ditch conceals ROCK. A variable kind of rock. At one end, we have compacted clay, but for more than half the ditch, we have the original road bed made up of compacted quarry rock and gravel set like concrete. We attack it. We chip, hack, dig, shovel - we are not getting very far. Second complication (raising the stakes): it rains. Initially, it drizzles, then it decides to pour for a a while. Dirt turns to mud. Rock stays pretty much as rock.

Further complications include: neighbour (whose driveway we are entering from) coming down to inspect our progress (but without offers of assistance, despite his ownership of tractor and blade); more rain; bigger rocks; our physical capacities deteriorating by the minute. I wish I could say a lightning bolt hit the ditch and blasted it out for us. I wish I could say the earth grew softer and easier to remove. This is not fiction. None of this happened.

But I did feel quite proud of our efforts. We excavated, by hand, a four metre trench, in the rain, and managed to crack quite a few jokes along the way. Why not lighten the load with some fun? I remarked on trying to imagine what it was like being on a chain gang (maybe I can use that one day), but mostly I thought about how different this was from sitting at a computer, making up a story. Instead of spending my hours inside my head, trying to be anyone except myself, I spent several hours totally inside my aching, tiring body, feeling every ache and pain, splattered with mud, soaked to the skin. I may never recover, but now it's over, it was great!

Money from Blogging?

Having downloaded the short course I mentioned previously (from Simple.ology) I worked my way through it and came out the other end, loaded with information and things to think about. The course told me lots of things I already knew, but also explained some terms and aspects of blogging that I didn't. So it was fairly useful. Am I going to act on what I read? Probably not. For the reasons I gave in my last post - I'm not comfortable having ads on my blog that I don't have any control over (see Kristi's comment under that post as a good example of what can happen).

I did consider becoming an Amazon affiliate, but again, they supply the ads and the format, and what I saw looked like it just wouldn't suit how I want my blog to appear. What was more interesting was the link to copyblogger, and the articles I read there. Everyone has a different perspective on this stuff - some people vow they are making lots of money, others say the ad game is too controlled by Google and the other big companies and very few bloggers are wealthy from it.

The question is - what am I supposed to be selling? My answer? I guess I'm hoping if you like my blog, you'll buy my books. But seeing as how most of them are kid's books, you'd need to either have kids or be one! Kind of reduces my customer base a little. And besides, my website does a better job of that than my blog does. As I said before, I just like the idea of writing something that other people enjoy reading, and maybe get something out of it (if they're writers and readers). It seems like I'm not destined to be the next Donald Trump. Just as well. I don't have hair that's booffy enough.

At the moment, I'm working hard on finishing off an online course on how to write picture books. It's due to start on 18 February, and it's for the TAFE where I work (Professional Writing & Editing course). I've been working on this for two years now, and some funding last year enabled me to write most of the content. Some of the material has been adapted from course materials I use in Hong Kong, but as I go along, I keep adding more and more. For instance, last week I interviewed Diana Lawrenson about her nonfiction picture books. That interview will be added as a link in the unit, and I have lots of other great links to articles as well.

The great advantage of doing it all online is the wealth of material that is now available on the net. Students can have access to information at the click of a mouse. Still, there's nothing like going to the library or bookshop and looking at all of the wonderful picture books that are around. So students need to do that as well. More and more people are choosing to study online these days - even some of our students prefer to study at home at times that suit them rather than come to the campus. I studied most of my arts degree by distance learning (before the internet so it was study guides and late night reading and thinking). At the time, it was a fantastic option, and I was motivated to keep going because I really wanted to learn, mostly about writing and literature. I'm still learning, and I still love it.

Thoughts on Blogging

I originally started this blog way back in January 2004 (can't believe it's been 3 years!), and have found it really useful to post photos and "what am I doing" stuff while I am away at writers' conferences and workshops. Taking good notes in sessions so I can blog about the topic has been a great way of helping me to focus and get more out of what I hear. It also saves me a million emails while I'm away. I haven't been using StatCounter for that whole time, but currently it says I'm coming up for Visitor Number 10,000. It's fascinating to use it to see where my readers are - especially on a day when there are eight people in Norway visiting. It makes me wonder how and why.

My focus here has always been books and writing. I also like to keep track of what I've read and post brief comments, not lengthy reviews, and often my comments will be from the writer's point of view - what did I learn from reading this book? Nowadays, there is a lot of talk about platform - how we should be using our blogs as a way to build our platform - but for me, it's about knowing that people are reading what I write and getting something out of it. Even if it's only a bit of a laugh!

However, since many of the newsletters I receive talk about what else your blog is supposed to be doing, I decided to follow up on a little course.

I'm evaluating a multi-media course on blogging from the folks at Simpleology. For a while, they're letting you snag it for free if you post about it on your blog.

It covers:

• The best blogging techniques.
• How to get traffic to your blog.
• How to turn your blog into money.

I'll let you know what I think once I've had a chance to check it out. Meanwhile, go grab yours while it's still free.

I'm not keen on having ads on my blog - especially when you have no control over them. As a writing teacher, I think it's part of my job to educate writing students about agent and publisher scams, and we are in this situation right now. A keen student is very excited about getting an agent. A bit of Googling on my part revealed it's a scam agency. We're going to have to break the bad news to him (I hate that kind of thing - people who suck up other people's dreams to make money). So if I ended up with one of their ads on my blog, I'd feel obliged to shut up shop and go home.

What I would love is more comments. Some of my favourite blogs, like Paperback Writer, Editorial Anonymous and A Newbie's Guide to Publishing, get lots of comments, but then these people are providing a great service with the information they give out. Why should I duplicate someone else's efforts? I agree that blogs can be a great way of connecting with other writers and readers, and this usually happens via the Comments section. So if you've got something to say, go for it!

Watch Your Language

Oh dear. Someone in the marketing department of the Victorian government has been using their thesaurus instead of their dictionary. Over the past few years, there have been a few TV ads encouraging people to move to country Victoria, particularly if they own a small business. The idea is to rejuvenate country areas by getting people to move there and start up businesses, buy property, send their kids to the local schools, etc. Great to see, and a good idea.

However, the latest ads (I saw one on TV tonight) have moved to trying to encourage people to move to Provincial Victoria. Firstly, Victoria is a state, so we don't have provinces. We have local government - councils and shires. And secondly, provincial is a strange word to use instead of rural or country. Who thought that one up? Because if you look in the dictionary, provincial as an adjective is defined as "an unsophisticated or uncultured person". (Australian Modern Oxford) Hmmm, not really the look they were going for? And look - there's website where we can all look at how to be "provincial" together. What was wrong with country and rural? Are they no longer trendy?

Setting the Burke Way

I've almost finished reading James Lee Burke's latest book, The Tin Roof Blowdown, and yet again, am marvelling at his descriptions, the way he evokes Louisiana over and over again with such beautiful language. Yet this is a crime novel. Mind you, crime writers often focus on a sense of place in order to help create the world of their novel in more vivid detail. Stuart MacBride's Aberdeen and Peter Robinson's Yorkshire are two fine examples. MacBride's descriptions of granite and rain are memorable, and add such atmosphere to what's going on in the story.

Some examples from Burke: "The wind had died, and the islands of willows and cypress trees had taken on a gold cast against the sunset. Clouds of insects gathered in the lee of the islands, and you could see bream popping the surface and occasionally the slick, black-green roll of a bass's dorsal fin on the edge of lily pads."
"Tolliver tried to keep his face blank, but when he swallowed he looked like he had a walnut in his throat."
"His elongated, polished head and the vacuous smile painted on his face seem to float like a glistening white balloon above the people around him."

And an example of description moving the reader from one physical head to another's mind. "The cream he used in his hair had started to run and she could smell it on his skin. It smelled like aloe and body grease and candle wax. In her mind, she saw a bullet punch through a black man's throat and, behind him, the skullcap of a teenage boy explode in a bloody spray." When a writer is using detail like this, it adds such extra depth to the story and its characters.

The novel is set during and after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, and I got an extremely vivid picture of the devastation, much more so than all the newspaper reports and TV footage. The way that Burke uses the five senses brings the wreck of New Orleans and surrounding areas to life in a way that flat images on a TV screen cannot. "The rice and sugarcane fields were encrusted with saline, the farm machinery buried in mud, the settlements down by the Gulf reduced to twisted pieces of plumbing sticking out of grit that looked like emery paper... Drowned sheep were stacked inside the floodgate of an irrigation lock, like zoo animals crowding against the bars of their cage."

It's probably inevitable that the novel itself is fairly depressing, perhaps a reflection of Burke's deep dismay at the aftermath of Katrina, what people did to survive, how they died, and the depths to which people sank in order to make big money out of the repairs. Dave Robicheaux, the main character, seems destined to always make the wrong decisions, to back the wrong people, refusing to listen to anyone but his own flawed inner voice. Burke's insights into the brutal Clete Purcell failed this time to make me feel any empathy for the character. I was beginning to wish they'd both retire to the Bahamas and become retired fishermen or something.

After so many books about one character, where does a writer take it next? Redemption? Disaster? It seems that Dave R. has had so many disasters and deaths in his life that there is nothing left that could change him in any significant way. He seems locked into a downward slide to destruction - the only question left being, Who will he take with him? Still, if you love Burke's writing, this novel is worth the effort, if only for an inside look at Katrina and what happened to the people who lived there. As a sidebar, in the novel Robicheaux's daughter, Alafair, is writing a crime novel. Burke's daughter, Alafair Burke, recently published her first crime novel. Having found it in the library, it's next on my reading list.

What Planet is That?

Two items in the newspapers recently caught my attention and imagination. One was about a man who was moving a house. He'd separated it into three sections, and wanted to move it to some land near town but to do this, the sections had to be taken across the town bridge. When they were halfway across with the first part of the house, a man coming the other way on the bridge stopped his car and refused to move. The house section was too big to pass, and too big to reverse. The man in his car would not reverse, no matter what. In the end, they had to jack the house section up, on the bridge, so the man could drive underneath it.

The second item was about a man in England who has celebrated Christmas every day since 1993. He has a turkey dinner with mince pies and watches a video of the Queen's Christmas message, and opens presents he's given to himself. Now, another newspaper has declared that this is a hoax, and the guy is only saying he's done it to promote a single he's just released. But imagine if this was true?

We've probably all heard of or met people like this, and you wonder, "What planet are they living on? How could you behave like that?" As writers, we also think - that is too weird to write a story about. No one would believe it. How could I make that character credible? Sometimes it's enough to use them as a minor character in some way, like comic relief. Or as a villain. I knew someone a few years ago who I eventually realised had psychological problems and couldn't see the damage she inflicted on others. Could I use some of that in a character?

It's easy to create characters like us. We take a little of ourselves, little bits of several other people we know, add some oddities and complexities, and we have someone we can write a story or a novel about. But what this can lead to is continually writing about the same kind of character, someone you're familiar with, someone who doesn't light any fires under your story or your imagination, but someone who doesn't make life difficult for you as the creator.

It's a useful character exercise to take someone weird (or who seems weird to you - we all have different ideas of what is "not normal") and write about them. Write a story that shows who they are, why they behave the way they do, and what happens next. Does the man on the bridge hate the man with the house? Does he have a fear of reversing off the bridge because long ago he did it and ended up in the river and nearly drowning? Maybe the Christmas man lost his family on Christmas Day and he's trying to pretend they're still with him. Or his father has disowned him and he's extracting some kind of revenge.

Strong stories come from great characters who have good and bad sides, light and shadow, deep motivations, backstories that have affected who they are. Characters don't just have likes and dislikes - in fiction, they have obsessions and dreams, hates and loves, and deep, sometimes irrational, fears. In Aspects of the Novel, E.M. Forster says that one of the reasons we read fiction is to fully understand characters completely in a way we can never do with the people in our lives, even our nearest and dearest. To allow your reader to experience that in your novel, you first have to do it as the writer.

Last Word on Goals

It's now the 5th January so the goals thing is done. You've either worked yours out, or you're not going to bother. Kristi reminded me that setting too many goals is often our downfall. They seem so unattainable and the list so huge that we give up in despair. So my strategy this year is to have two writing goals - two general ones - and then set two-monthly deadlines. What is often left out of all the goal-setting and small steps advice is that most writers need deadlines.

Been meaning to write that short story all year? Nothing like a big competition closing date to get it done. Been thinking about rewriting that novel but never seem to find the time? A conference with a manuscript consultation appointment will move you every time! So I figure if I set small goals every two months - not too many - I will move forward. Small goals are things like rewriting something and submitting it by XX date. A magazine submission. A certain number of chapters revised. An article written and put on my website.

What are my two general goals? One is to develop a new method for myself of revision. I feel as if my revising of stories and novels in the past has been haphazard. Often I'll sit down and start a novel all over again because I can't figure out what needs fixing or how to fix it. Some people would say that's the only way to revise, but I'm not so sure. The revisions I've done of two novels for publication (with the help of editors) in 2007 showed me that, with editorial guidance, I can rewrite to a much higher level, but sometimes I'm not able to do it sufficiently well on my own, i.e. before the manuscript goes to an editor.

A couple of years ago, I felt the same about my plotting - it was a weak area and I made it my goal that year to read and work on that aspect. It paid off. Now I think I can do it with revision. The weird thing is, I can show any student or fellow writer how to rewrite and make their work stronger (comes from ten years of teaching) but it's still hard to do for myself. I've started reading Revision by Kit Reed, and have another book lined up after that.

My other general goal is to write more regularly. My strategy for this is to have several things on the go at once - several different things: a novel, poems, a picture book, an article. If I don't have time to work on the novel, I will be aiming to spend at least 15 minutes or more on a poem or something shorter. Linda Sue Park's two pages every day, no matter what, is the kind of routine that makes writing a habit that's impossible to break, rather than something extra crammed into your life. So my novel projects will continue to move slowly forward, but so will other things.