Batting Slump

Ever been in that twilight where your dedication to the routine of sitting down everyday to write is intact, but you feel disconnected from the material appearing on the page? It’s not quite a writer’s block where you are locked up so tight nothing flows, but your words feel more like hiccups than a good breath. I’m dubbing my slow trickle period a "Writer’s Slump," like a batting slump in baseball. We show up to the park in our uniforms, but our bats don’t connect crisply with the pitches.

Here are some of the culprits that have been known to throw me into a slump: 

• Querybummertosis (for symptoms see Tahereh Mafi's awesome post)
• Whenever I have to write report cards
• Missing the WIP I just finished and feeling unfaithful working on something new
• Not enough food in the house
• A chapter that just doesn’t work no matter how I tweak it
• Feeling fat
• Grown children who want something from me
• Taxes
• My characters aren’t whispering in my ears
• Dirty laptop screen
• I’m not waking up in the middle of the night with an “ah ha” moment
• Oprah’s last episode

What did I do to connect with the pitch and deafen the crowd with the crack of my bat? 

• Showed up every day in front of my keyboard
• Wrote snippets not connected to my current WIP
• Walked in the moonlight
• Watched a movie
• Plucked a book off my TBR pile and devoured it
• Listened to my favorite music

 What throws you into a slump and how do you pull yourself out of it?

AND NOW IT'S TAG TIME…

Thanks to the wonderful Deana Barnhart for tagging me. So here goes:

Do you think you’re hot?

I’m glistening. *dabs face with cool cloth*

Upload a picture or wallpaper that you’re using at the moment. 

 My next car

When was the last time you ate chicken meat?

I had eye-rolling, delicious hibachi chicken in a peanutty sauce at a Japanese restaurant early in the week.

The song(s) you listened to recently.

“Misery” by Maroon 5 and “Rhythm of Love” by Plain White T’s.

What were you thinking as you were doing this?

Smoothie or Ice Cream?

Tag you’re it…

 Lisa Gail Green

Julie Musil

Jessica Love

Michelle L. Brown

Join the Conversation: YA Saves

Welcome to all the new followers of Yes, This Will Be on the Test. I’m delighted you’ve joined us. It was a thrill to hit the 100 followers mark. Thank you.

And now for something completely different:

I would be remiss and irresponsible if I did not add my voice to the chorus of protest against the offensive article in the Wall Street Journal, "Darkness Too Visible", by Meghan Cox Gurdon. Her words slammed young adult literature as containing “hideously distorted portrayals of what life is.” If you haven’t read the article please use the link and become informed/outraged.
 
The piece made my blood boil and turn into a cloud of red vapor. I am prepared to write a doctoral dissertation to rip apart this gross misrepresentation of YA lit. Instead I will hit on a few of the key points that have me seeing red.
 
AUTHORS PURPOSE:
Gurdon acts as if she intends to inform and warn parents about YA lit. More accurate words describing the thrust of this article would be:
1. Sensationalism: The journalistic use of exciting or shocking stories or language at the expense of accuracy in order to provoke public interest.
2. Propaganda: Information, especially of a biased or misleading nature used to promote a particular point of view.
 
WORD CHOICE:
The use of the word pathologies to sum up crucial teen issues is as insulting as it is ignorant. How dare you shove the challenges and life altering situations that face our teens today under an unfeeling term associated with disease? Being gay is not a disease. Being abused is not a disease. Being raped is not a disease. Psychological and emotional disorders are not obliterated with a simple vaccination like the measles.
 
HEAD IN THE SAND SYNDROME:
1.Foul Language: Ever ride on a junior high bus or sit next to a group of teens at a fast food restaurant? They are well versed in the language of profanity. Curse bombs are even being dropped on a daily basis on the elementary school playground. Kids don’t learn profanity from books. They learn it from life.
2. Faulty statistics: Going to a private school with a small student population to report the percentage of students reading YA books is skewed data, with a capital S. 

WHAT LIGHTHEARTED CLASSIC LITERATURE DID WE READ BEFORE YA BECAME A CATEGORY:
1.Jane Eyre – Man nearly commits bigamy since he keeps his lunatic wife locked up secretly in the house. Lunatic wife burns house down.
2. Lord of the Flies – Anarchy. Murder.
3. Add your own favorite example here… 
 
Why oh why is the Oprah show finished? I would love to see Oprah moderate a debate where the author of this biased article has to hold her own against the dream team of Laurie Halse Anderson, Libba Bray, Suzanne Collins, Ellen Hopkins, and yes, the Judy Blume. These creative warriors would tear her to shreds.
 
Let you own voice of outrage be heard. Blog about it. Register your thoughts on Facebook. Join the conversation on Twitter by weighing in under the hashtag #yasaves. Read through the tweets on #yasaves to hear an elegant artistic uproar. They will link you to some brilliant blogging thoughts.
 
And by all means go to this eloquent link by Laurie Halse Anderson to hear the heart of the matter.

As a mother and mentor of teen readers, a teacher, and a writer of YA, I say:

LONG LIVE YA LITERATURE! 

Ode to Cynthia Lord

I admire authors who take on what many of us consider tough subjects and approach them with open hearts. One of my favorite truth tellers is Cynthia Lord.

Her insightful middle grade book, RULES, takes us inside the dynamics that occur in the relationship between twelve-year-old Catherine and her younger brother David, who is a child with autism.

At my school we joyfully mainstream children with autism into our regular education classrooms. We’ve embraced RULES as the initial read-aloud for the year across the grade level. It serves as an invaluable teaching tool for our kids to build an understanding and compassion for their peers who don’t necessarily fit the blueprint of a typical middle grade student. Our students grow along with Catherine as she navigates her own emotions and realizations. RULES teaches that children with autism and other challenges are not broken, but rather bright lights that allow us to value differences. 

“Wishes are slippery things. You have to be very specific or you can get exactly what you wished for and still end up with nothing.” – Cynthia Lord from TOUCH BLUE

This quote brought tears to my eyes and made me pour through the book, TOUCH BLUE. Again, Cynthia Lord tackles a delicate, but fascinating subject, that of a foster child coming to live with a family. We share this experience through Tess, as she reconciles her whimsical expectations with the gritty reality of integrating someone new into your household.  

Cynthia Lord pulls us into the fascinating world of Bethsaida Island off the coast of Maine where lobster fishing is a way of life. The picture she paints of this setting is every bit as magical as a fantasy story, while still giving the reader a grounded sense of home.

As a teacher, I appreciate Cynthia Lord not only for her wonderful storytelling, but also for the life lessons she beautifully illustrates for my students.

Thank you, Cynthia Lord, for sharing your heart.

Is there an author whose work tugs at your heartstrings? 

Which Author Would You Choose?

What if you could sit down with any author for a chat? Who would it be, Hemingway, Dumas, Shakespeare, Rowling, Scieszka?

I choose all of the above, but there is one person that I regret I never got to meet or take a class from, and that is Joseph Campbell. My own writing, as well as my teaching of writing, sits on his hero journey foundation.  If you aren’t familiar with Campbell’s famous story structure jump over to Lisa Gail Green’s blog for a quick and concise overview.

My regret in never interacting with Campbell was partially satiated when I discovered THE POWER OF MYTHS PROGRAMS. This is series of discussions between Bill Moyers and Joseph Campbell on a myriad of topics including the hero journey, ritual, and mythology. They discuss story origins in myths from around the world with both reverence and humor, and show us how our work directly relates to the world's great stories.

Even though I will never get to shake the warm hand and look into the wise eyes of my literary hero, I can still be a student of his precious words. 

Let me entice you with some of treasures from the interviews: 

“Mythology to him (Campbell) was the song of the universe, music so deeply embedded in our collective unconscious that we dance to it even when we can’t name the tune.” Bill Moyers

“Myths are clues to the spiritual potentialities of the human life.” Joseph Campbell

“We are seeking an experience of being alive.” Joseph Campbell


And here, my friends, is our creative call to arms:


"Artists are the myth-makers of today." Joseph Campbell

Campbell’s fascinating perspective on the world is an invaluable filter in which we can view our own writing. He will forever be my tribal elder and mentor through his works and thankfully his beautiful preserved spoken words.


Hungry for more luscious Campbell quotes...Click away.

What writer would you invite for a creative conversation?

View From the 5th Grade Trenches - May 2011 - Get a Clue, 39 to be Exact

Here in the 5^th Grade Trenches we just finished a nail biting read-aloud. You might have heard of it, THE 39 CLUES, MAZE OF BONES (Book 1) by Rick Riordan.

The kids LOVED it. Amy and Dan Cahill, the pair of protagonists, are filled with the audacity and impulsivity that a middle grader can relate to. Dan is brash, and Amy shy. Every child in my class could relate to one or the other.

The humor was spot-on for the middle-grade brain, especially Dan’s one-liners. The villains may seem over-the-top and stereotypical to an adult, but the kids ate them up with a spoon.

As a teacher I loved all the curricular tie-ins that inspire a plethora of spin-off lessons:

History – The book is a Benjamin Franklin feast

Math – The magic square, overall number sense, and problem solving
Science - Chemistry and electricity

Language Arts – Anagrams

Technology – The fantastic online tie-in to the series where you find out which branch of the Cahill Family you belong to AND you have access to extra clues.

Best of all, the kids are grabbing for the rest of the series. I bought 3 full sets for my classroom alone, and we’ve stripped the school library as well. A different author writes each of the books, so the kids will be exposed to multiple voices and styles as they read on.

And there are the two words that are music to a teacher's ear – read on. 

Scholastic now offers the set in paperback. Dive. Dive.

Writer's Sketchbook

As a designer, I kept a daily sketchbook. I’d practice perspective, detail, shading, or just draw a subject that caught my fancy. 

As a writer, I keep a situational sketchbook. I jot down dialogue, settings, characters, conflicts, and specific details that intrigue me, and may find a place in a story. I hate to lose or miss anything juicy that I experience so I pop it in my writer's sketchbook to pluck later.

I just finished a three-day stint in the hospital, so of course I sketched my experience with words. In my writer’s sketchbook, I chronicle in bullet points. Here’s a peek:

HOSPITAL DAYS

• Nurse #1 hates me. Her upper lip curls at me all snarly
• No matter how you arrange the hospital gown, you always flash your hiney
• All hospital meat is a weird version of turkey meatloaf
• Nurse #1 has one eye bigger than the other
• Hospitals are not for sleeping
• The show NURSE JACKIE is not available on the hospital TV
• Nurse #1 will abandon you on the commode for an hour – take reading material
• Graveyard shift male nurses are the most entertaining
• “I will ask your doctor. I will ask the nurse. I will make no decisions.”
• Nurse #1 works more hours than anyone else
• Flesh-eating tape is used for wound dressings
• Beware of nurses who don’t wear athletic shoes
• Nurse #1 smells like the 99 Cents store
• There is some weird covenant against daily patient teeth-brushing
• Catheter, I.V., Bedpan, oh my.
• Nurse #1 will require mental leave time if we are together one more day

What does your writer’s sketchbook look like?

Versatile Bloggers

It's fun to take a moment to just yell THANK YOU to all the fantastic writing bloggers out there who have filled me with knowledge and inspiration. You all make me think, dream, and work harder. Hooray for Ye Olde Blogosphere.


I'm yelling with gratitude and not because I'm being tortured by a physical therapist. I had hip replacement surgery on Monday, and I'm sure there has been plenty of yelling since then, but this THANK YOU is good yelling.


THANK YOU. Oops, I'm still yelling. Must be the pain meds. 


For the record I am about 20+ years younger than most people who have hip replacement surgery.  I plan on beating all the older patients in a footrace by post-surgery day three.

I'll compose myself and stop yelling now. Thank you (see how refined I can be) to Carolyn Arnold for honoring me with the Versatile Blogger award.  


I'm jazzed to pay it forward to some blogger folks I've been e-hanging out with these days:

1. Arlee Bird Check out her TOSSING IT OUT blog and scroll down to enjoy the Blogging A-Z challenge that took place in April.
2. Deana Barnhart
3. Ebony McKenna
   
4. From the Write Angle
   
5. Tina Moss
   
6. Write on Teens
   

Forgive me in advance for not responding to posts this week. I'm probably re-learing how to put my socks on with a long grabber stick. 

Character Flaws

I’m going to be awful this week. You may have to avert your eyes. I’m delving into the realm of character flaws. Those juicy blights on a character’s personality, if not soul, that may either attract (bad boy) or repel (too good to be true) us as readers.

Hmm? Where do we go to dig the treasures of character flaws? First, if we are brave, we pull them from our own shortcomings. Second, we shamelessly steal negative traits from people in our lives.

Come with me, if you dare, down a list of flaws. (If you think you see yourself in this list you are hallucinating.)

Grandiosity

Know-it-all-osity

Lack of tolerance for stupid people

Insecure to the point of annoying

Never-shut-up-ers

Interrupters

I’m so much better than you-osity (I love a good –osity)

Liars

Bullies

Never-follow-through-ers

Selfish (Not to be confused with shellfish)

I don’t listen when you speak to me-ers

My life/loves/job/problems are so much more important than yours-ers

Cheaters

Enough about me…

What characters flaws drive you loopy, but are a blast to write?

Obsession Confession - Middle Earth Alert

I admit it. I have an incurable obsession with any and all that is J.R.R. Tolkien’s THE LORD OF THE RINGS. Above all else this work inspired me to put pen to paper as a writer. It gave me permission to build fantastical worlds, set forth on adventures, and create swoonworthy heroes (Aragorn, not Frodo).

Confessions of a LORD OF THE RINGS addict:

• I immerse myself in the story every year by either reading the trilogy, listening to the audiobooks (appendices included – you haven’t lived until you’ve experienced the full story of Aragorn and Arwen), or watching the extended versions of all three films.
• I read the entire trilogy aloud to my children. (My Gimli ROCKS)
• I own a cardboard standee of Aragorn (Thank you Peter Jackson for casting Viggo Mortensen.)
• I still have nightmares about the Nazgul (Sauron I can deal with, but those nine riders FREAK ME OUT.)
• I play the LORD OF THE RINGS slot machines (I’m up to the Shards of Narsil bonus.)
• I attended Trilogy Tuesday, December 16, 2003, and watched all three movies back to back in the theatre the day RETURN OF THE KING debuted (That’s a lot of popcorn. I’m on the left in the pic.)

All kidding aside, I revere this story. It continues to set a literary bar that I will never achieve, but always strive for.

Tolkien permeates my teaching as well.

“All that is gold does not glitter, not all those who wander are lost” – is a fabulous writing prompt.

“War must be, while we defend our lives against a destroyer who would devour all; but I do not love the bright sword for its sharpness, nor the arrow for its swiftness, nor the warrior for his glory. I love only that which they defend…” – this works as a Patriot POV on the Revolutionary War.

Are you a Tolkien devotee? What piece of literature continues to glitter the gold of inspiration to your writing?

Middle Earth Fans: Check out Peter Jackson’s Video blog for THE HOBBIT

Query Weary

Are you query weary? Have you offered your bright and shiny manuscript up to what seems like a sky-high stack of agents and haven’t made a love connection yet?

You are not alone. Welcome to the business end of writing.

I went to a fabulous SCBWI query workshop last year where I heard, “If you haven’t queried 100 agents you’re not doing your job.”

Wow, 100 agents.

Recently I read on a blog that a writer’s magic query number was 187 before she clicked with her agent.

Wow, 187.

In my acting days we used to say that if you had one callback in 20 auditions you were doing well.  As a writer I equate that to receiving one request for a partial or full in 20 queries.

Is it worth it the hours of agent research and a memory book full of rejections?

You betcha! I’m a first hand witness to the magical synergy that happens when a writer finds THE agent they were meant to connect with. It’s an exciting partnership that inspires and motivates. The journey is worth the prize.

So if you are query weary, here are some hints to keep on the trail to successfully finding the agent of your dreams:

1. TARGET POTENTIAL WEAKNESS AND GIVE IT A NEW COAT OF POLISH:

Channel your Nancy Drew/Hardy Boys self and analyze your track record. Is there a pattern to your “no thank yous” from agents? Can you find a weakness to strengthen in your:

Query letter/Voice/Characters/Plot…

2. GO FISHING FOR AGENT POSSIBILITIES:

There are wonderful blogs and websites that will guide you to excellent agents.  Two of my many refueling stations are:

Casey McCormick’s Literary Rambles

Chuck Sambuchino’s Guide to Literary Agents

3. FEEL THE LOVE FROM YOUR CRITIQUE PARTNERS:

They know your work. They are fresh eyes for you. They are going through the same thing you are be it at the agent or editor query stage. In the case of my group they are now cherished lifelong friends and trusted colleagues. Lean on them.

4. KEEP THE FAITH: In the hopeful song PICK YOURSELF UP Lyrics by Dorothy Fields and Music by Jerome Kern from the film SWING TIME:

Nothing’s impossible I have found,

For when my chin is on the ground,

I pick myself up

Dust myself off,

Start all over again.