Category Archives: Writing

Coffee talk

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I had a coffee date this week with a writer in that terrible “between” stage. She’s finished a manuscript, workshopped it, edited it, and now she’s sending it to agents and publishers. And receiving form rejection after kind rejection after helpful rejection after form rejection. When you get right down to it, the difference between a rejection letter with suggestions and a form rejection letter is like the difference between getting stabbed with a butter knife and getting stabbed with a dagger. Either way, you’re bleeding.

I had no magic advice to offer. Only the following:

  • Keep trying. All the successful authors I’ve ever met have strings of rejections behind them. Even the ones who seem like overnight successes usually aren’t, when you learn the full story.
  • Write something new. If you can’t bring yourself to start a new novel, write a poem or a picture book or a rock song. Begin a clean journal and spend an hour a day on freewrites. Eventually, you’ll find something that you can’t resist developing. You’re not giving up on your first project just because you’re exploring a new one. You’re doubling your chances. Who knows? Maybe the publisher who buys your second book will then want your first.

I wish I had more magic.

The big reveal

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In progress (thanks to Min and our friend Sean, who actually knows how to use tools):

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And, complete!

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I am SO excited to have a dedicated workspace, including actual drawers for work-related items. Meanwhile, my bedroom is looking much more like a bedroom now that it doesn’t have a giant Mac in the corner and a teetering tower of books on the bedside table.

I’ve resolved to keep this new office much neater.

Really. I’m going to. You’ll see.

Girl power

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Canadian Girls Who Rocked the World was recently featured in a list of books about real women and strong girls, on the 49th Shelf. I was all aflutter when I saw the cover.

At least once a week, though, I hear a story I wish could be retroactively included in the book. My most recent pick: “Ontario girl, 14, wins spot at international science fair for validating one of Isaac Newton’s key laws of physics.” Full story here.

You may not fully realize how amazing this is until you try, as I have, to find stories of kids who rocked the science world. People go to university, then become professors, then do years of research to figure this stuff out. And then they’re much too old to be GIRLS who rock!

So this week, Maya Burhanpurkar rocks my world.

Mailbag

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I received an e-mail last week from a student reading 50 Underwear Questions as part of a Silver Birch club in Ontario. Here’s my response:

1. Did anything inspire you to write this book?
My husband has three questions, which he calls the “Min Kyi Personality Test.” One of the questions is: “If you won a free trip around the world, but every day that you took a plane, train, or bus, you had to wear your underwear outside your pants, would you take the trip?” He says there’s no right or wrong answer to this question — it’s just a way of seeing how shy or outgoing or downright crazy a person might be. But I say, of course there’s a right answer! An around-the-world trip, for free?!? You HAVE to take it. Who wouldn’t take it? (I think this answer might put me smack-dab in the “crazy” category.)

2. Is it actually true that people used to think bathing made them sick?
True story. My six-year-old son believes the same thing.

3. Why did you decide to write about underwear?
Everyone has them. But no one ever talks about them…. What writer can resist a mystery like that?

4. Do you like being a writer?
Yes, thank goodness, because I tried being a dishwasher and it was awful. And then I tried being a journalist, but I’m kinda scared of talking on the phone, so that didn’t work out. I tried working in a government office, and I was nearly petrified with boredom. (They had to chip me out with archeological chisels.) So, overall, I’m very blessed to be a writer.

Thanks for writing with your questions!

A room of one’s own

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A landing of one’s own, that is.

For the past five years, I’ve been working from a tiny corner of my bedroom. This has some definite advantages: there’s a big window, I can spread my papers all over the bed, and if I occasionally need to scream into a pillow, there are plenty at hand.

However, there are also some problems. I have no drawers or shelves, so my research books tend to live in my dresser, on my bedside table, and in other stacks around the room. (Min doesn’t find this nearly as charming as I do.) Also, the computer is too temptingly close. It’s easy to check e-mail at 11 p.m., read a bunch of new editing notes, and spend the rest of the night fretting about how to revise.

All this MAY change.

There’s the little problem of an electrical outlet that needs to be moved. A new desk to be built. Some shelves to be hung. A lighting issue to be solved. But at the end of it all, I MIGHT have an office. Well, a stair landing. Of my very own.

It rains, it pours

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One of the best pieces of advice I received when I started freelancing was this: enjoy the downtimes. If you spend all your quiet times worrying about not having work, and all your busy times hurrying to finish your work, you’ll have no relaxing days left.

Good advice. I do my best to follow it. But then, after a few days, I start to think I may never write anything again. I may have missed my calling as a wild animal trainer. OR, I might be caught in a sudden storm and struck by lightning just before I was supposed to write the best book ever.

All useful and motivating thoughts.

Last week, I started something new.

Then Annick approved a new non-fiction proposal (yay!) and my agent e-mailed to say she’d be sending editing changes (yay!/yikes!) and… oh, my… those two weeks of spring break crept up on me. Now I have all this work and no work hours.

What was I thinking, trying to start something new? Why wasn’t I drinking coffee and having pedicures all last week?

Next time…

How to find a writer’s group: the sequel

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Today, for some light comic relief, I present the story of how I ignored most of yesterday’s advice, and nonetheless found my writing group.

I went to a writing workshop. This particular workshop was about electronic publishing and on-line presence. But here’s the thing about writing classes of any form: 99 percent of attendees are introverts, and at least half of the remaining one percent are… um, how to say this nicely… wacko. So, you turn up at this exciting class, and you find a whole room of nervous-looking people writing notes (before anyone’s said anything) and trying to look busy, because after years spent in front of their computers, they have no idea how to interact with strangers.

Being one of those people, I got out my notebook and began taking copious notes. I continued to scribble right up until the moment when we were supposed to write down our goals for the coming year. Then I wrote “FIND A WRITING GROUP” in big letters, and left my notebook conveniently open, hoping the writer sitting next to me (Rachelle Delaney, whom I sort of knew from CWILL meetings) might glance my way.

I went home and waited. And waited. And waited a bit more. And lo and behold, she called me and said she and her friend Kallie were starting a writer’s group. Did I want to join?

Well, glory hallelliuah! I did.

I never asked whether she actually saw my secret message.

How to find a writer’s group

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Last week I promised advice on finding a writer’s group. Turns out, it’s a little like dating.

1. Hang out where other writers hang out. This might be at CANSCAIP meetings, or workshops, or even conferences. In Vancouver, you could try events at the Lyceum, or Roundtable presentations. And if you don’t have time for an evening class, try an on-line one like WritersWebWorkshop.

2. Once you’re at a workshop or event, talk to people! If you find someone who seems relatively normal, ask if she’s in a writing group. Tell her you’re looking for one. Be brave!

3. Network. If you don’t want to ask people directly, say something like, “Hey, I’m looking for a writing group or a critique partner. If you hear of anyone looking, let me know.” No pressure.

Of course, this only works if (a) you’re willing to read other people’s writing and (b) you can pay for a few workshops. There are varying degrees of time-committment and expense. But, if you’re pursuing writing as a career instead of a hobby, you’re going to have to invest a certain amount of time and money. You wouldn’t try to become a lawyer or a dentist by spending all your time by yourself in front of a keyboard.

Anyone else have helpful writer-dating advice? Feel free to leave suggestions in the comments! Or tell me the story of how you met your critique partner. I’m posting my (socially inept and rather embarrassing) story tomorrow.

Q & A time: finding your illustrator

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Last question recap from Monday night’s VPL panel. This one came after the official discussion had ended:

How do I find an illustrator for my work?

Good news! You don’t have to. In fact, it’s probably best if you don’t try.

Publishers have files of samples from professional illustrators all over the world. And they have editors with particular opinions. So, if your manuscript happens to strike an editor’s fancy, and she has a vision of what it would look like when realized by a particular New York artist… then you get a call!

On the other hand, you could ask your best friend’s cousin — who happens to give amazing watercolours to her entire family every Christmas — to create samples for your book. But you risk an editor glancing at the first image, rolling her eyes at how much she detests watercolours with overtones of green, and hitting the reject button before even getting to your brilliant writing.

Plus, it’s pretty darn fun to send your writing into the world and see it brought to life by someone you’ve never met. The illustrator for the 50 Questions books lives in New Zealand. Possibly in a commune. Sometimes with a chicken on his head.