Eeek! My editor just told me that the publisher has canceled the book about MySpace that I've been working frantically to finish writing by the end of the month. The Powers That Be reconsidered the topic in light of the fact that online communities can be risky for children in the age group at which the book would be aimed. They fear that publishing a book about MySpace could encourage children who are not of an appropriate age to join the community and be exposed to pedophiles, or something.

I am getting a kill fee for the book, at least.

On one hand, I'm upset that I've wasted a lot of time over the last few months on something that's just not going to happen. On the other hand, I am breathing easier about my schedule for the next week. Trying to stay positive....

My book about Dragons has won an award. I recently attended the spring conference and awards luncheon of Virginia Press Women and received the First Place award for Children's Nonfiction books. The first-place statewide winner in each category is automatically entered in the national communications contest of the National Federation of Press Women. NFPW will announce national contest winners at its conference in September in Idaho.

 

I haven't heard anything from my editor about the book chapter and outline I sent last weekend. I'm feeling impatient but I know I have no right to be, as late as I was in getting it to her in the first place. I'm afraid the outline is too full, that there is no way I can get so much information into a thin little book. I always do better if I start out this way and then pare it down, but I'll have to wait to see what the editor suggests.

Wow. I can't believe how long it's been since I've posted. The string of illnesses did not end! At the moment, my son and I both have bad colds, but that's all. Annoying, but not serious. But I had fallen so far behind that I was determined not to write again until I had sent the MySpace book outline and first chapter to the editor. They've been sent, so I'm back!

I can't believe I haven't written since before Christmas. I just haven't found the time, with my son home from school for winter break, not to mention all the usual holiday stuff. But I did want to let everyone know that I'm working on another book, my first one in months. My editor has asked me to write a book about MySpace for a series of kids' nonfiction books about "Great Ideas" and how entrepreneurs turn them into reality. I don't have a contract in hand yet but I should in a couple weeks. For now, I'm researching MySpace and the two guys who made it happen.

 


I've been stuck a lot lately while trying to write, so for this week's Thursday Thirteen, I'm reviewing various cures for writer's block. To be honest, the most effective writer's block cure for me is a book contract, complete with an advance check and a deadline! Nothing motivates me more than a commitment made to someone who will send me more money once I meet it. But I don't currently have a book contract, so I'm finding it a struggle to complete a book or story right now. Maybe one of these will help.


Thirteen Cures For Writer's Block

1. Start by editing what you wrote the day before. If you didn't write anything the day before, just edit the last few pages you did write of whatever project you're working on. When you get to the end of what you've already written, just keep going by writing more. Now that your mind is in the middle of it, you'll probably find that you can.

2. Change your tools. If you're sitting at your desktop computer, pull out your laptop or grab a notebook and a ballpoint pen. If you're using your journal, switch to a computer. Or whatever. This doesn't have to be a permanent change. A few hours or even 30 minutes of writing in a different way can jog you out of your rut.

I'm trying to finish a short story I started a couple years ago but haven't looked at since. I'm fond of it so far, but I'm stuck. My problem is that I am totally clueless when it comes to writing short stories. When you write a novel, you pull together many interrelated strands of plot and character and theme, find the connections that tie them together, and create a world. That I'm comfortable with. For a short story, you have to isolate one narrow, shining thread of plot and character and theme, and leave out everything else. If you do it well, you end up with this perfect literary jewel, but it's incredibly difficult to do it well -- closer to poetry than to novel-writing, I think. I've just never gotten the hang of it; I always want to tie in other events and people and motivations and background. So short stories have always intimidated me. I know writers who can churn out several a week. I've written more whole books in the last few years than I've written stories in my entire life, school included.

I'm trying to get back to writing more regularly now that my little boy is in kindergarten. As a first step, I hope to finish this story and have it polished enough to submit to a contest  with a deadline at the end of the month. I guess I need to put more thought into where it's going and how to get it there, without turning it into a novel.

My story is about a geologist who leaves her science-grant-administrator job in Atlanta to search for meteor fragments embedded in a glacier in Alaska. I'm too unsettled about the rest to go into more detail than that. Actually, this story is one that began ages ago with a writing assignment my friend Lawrence and I gave ourselves. We chose five random words and decided we would each write a story incorporating those words. Lawrence, of course, prolific story-writer that he is, finished one promptly. He even got it published eventually. I, on the other hand, started this story but then got freaked out by the whole process, gave up, and went back to writing books. This time, I want to finish it.