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I’ve been trying to get back into the edits on my middle grade book, The Happiness Project, but it’s hard to let something sit for a while and then pick it up cold. Whenever I open the manuscript, I stare at the screen, unable to make changes…fearful any word I write will ruin it forever. So I’ve been doing a lot of staring lately.

I had this problem once before when I was trying to make edits on my first middle grade book, Dude, Where’s My Locker? The manuscript had been in the hands of an editor for a while, and when I tried to make the changes she had suggested, I totally froze. I couldn’t write a word! For some reason, I wasn’t able to get into the character’s voice, couldn’t figure out what he’d do next, couldn’t put him in dangerous situations because I didn’t know how he’d react.

So to break myself out of my writer’s block, I started writing a fake sequel to the book. I knew it wasn’t really going to get published, so I felt free to explore situations and play around with the character’s voice. Usually I wrote short stories, kind of like blog posts, and I was finally able to “hear” my character’s voice again. The title of my fake sequel? Dude, What’s That Smell? I wrote a lot of scenes about the lunchroom. Of course it will never get published…and that’s what made all the difference. It allowed me to warm-up until I was ready to get back to the real deal.

So I may need to take this approach again with The Happiness Project. Which means I need a fake title to my fake sequel. How about…

The Somewhat-Depressed-Sure-Could-Use-A-Reese’s Project

or

The Frustrated-By-People-Who-Don’t-Use-Blinkers Project

or

The I-Have-To-Admit-I-Have-A-Crush-On-Anderson-Cooper Project

Any other suggestions?

- Robin

Something really amazing happened to me this week. While I was revising my middle grade manuscript, I realized…my book has a theme! And the strange thing? The theme wasn’t what I thought it was going to be.

About half-way through writing the first draft of The Happiness Project, I decided the theme of the story would be about the importance of having opinions, and how having different opinions can be a good thing (in relationships and especially in society).

So, okay. Fine. That’s a fine theme.

But then this week, when I was working on approximately draft #347 of the book, I came across a sentence that jumped out at me. It was one line my main character said to her mom while they were talking about the family dog. And I realized: that one line is my theme!

It was one of those moments where fireworks went off and angels sang and chocolate was eaten quickly! I had heard of this happening to writers before—they write a story and many, many drafts later the theme presents itself to the author. Like magic! Then these lucky authors write another draft where they strengthen the theme and make one of those...you know…awesome books. I just never thought I’d be one of those authors.

Just like I never thought I’d consider myself a runner. I usually describe myself as someone who “moves her feet rapidly 3-4 times per week.” Not a runner. But I guess technically I can now call myself a runner because I've experienced that one thing that all real runners have experienced: Runner’s High. Know what I’m talking about? That moment where you’re running and you realize that your brain is not attached to your body and your lungs are on auto-pilot and you feel so good you think you could run forever…or at least all the way from Sarah Palin’s house to Russia and back!?

Well, it happened to me! (Once.) I was running on the beach in Morro Bay, CA and I literally ran so far I ran all the way to the next town. I ran so far the dog leash law changed!

So, I guess I can kind of call myself a real runner. And now I feel like a real writer. I wrote a story and the theme presented itself to me like magic!

Now that’s Writer’s High!

- Robin

I’m back from my vacation in Georgia where I had my fill of Waffle House and Chick-Fil-A. (But I don’t think I can ever truly get my fill of the vanilla dream ice cream cones at Chick-Fil-A. I miss 'em already!)

I also managed to accomplish the three things I needed to do in order to complete the research for my middle grade novel set in Atlanta.

First, I checked out some architecture…


Note: The house I grew up in looked exactly like this one, except that my house was small and wasn’t white and didn’t have columns and didn’t look like this house at all.

Then, I rode the MARTA subway train downtown. Here’s a picture of me and my brother standing in front of the High Museum of Art...


Note: My brother is the one standing with his arm around me, not the guy in the Skipper hat…in case you were wondering. (You probably weren’t wondering.)

And finally…I took a tour of the Centers for Disease Control!!!


My mother and I were escorted through the visitor center with our own personal tour guide. It was fascinating and I came away with a few great nuggets of detail that will fit perfectly into my story.

The CDC is very secure and we had to go through a couple of security checkpoints. Our car even had to go through security, with two armed guards thoroughly searching every part. Even the engine! They only allow you to take pictures inside the visitor center. You are not allowed to take pictures outside. (But I did anyway. Don’t they understand I have a blog!?)


Note: That’s me in the CDC parking lot. I swear!

When we landed back in Los Angeles, we did what all sane people do at the end of a long, exhausting trip. We went to see Donna Summer at the Hollywood Bowl! She brought down the house with “Last Dance.” The queen rocked it!

So now I’m energized to finish these last rounds of revisions and get this book into the hands of my agent. Hopefully she won’t mind the pages that come with smudges of vanilla dream ice cream. Mmmm…Chick-Fil-A. I think I’m ready for another trip back to Atlanta…

- Robin

No doubt, we had fun at the national SCBWI conference. But the highlight for me was Sunday at the Golden Kite Luncheon when Lin Oliver gave a moving tribute to Sue Alexander.

Lin told the story of how SCBWI came to be. She and Stephen Mooser were friends who had just graduated from college in the early 70’s and they had been asked to do some work for an educational publisher. Neither one of them knew much about writing for children, so they tried to find an organization to answer their questions. But there were none. So…they decided to start their own. They ran an ad asking for writers to join their new organization called the Society of Children’s Book Writers. And the first person to answer that ad? Sue Alexander.

Over 35 years later, looking around that glamorous ballroom full of nearly a thousand people, it made me want to cry. I am so proud to be part of an organization so thriving and full of amazing supportive people. Sniff!

The conference inspired me and motivated me (as it does every year) to get back in the saddle and push harder and harder to write the best story possible. Which, for me, meant getting back to revising my middle grade novel, The Happiness Project.

You may remember that I spent quite a while revising that puppy with my new, lovely, Elite Uni-Ball red pen...


And I assumed I had gotten the manuscript into really good shape. But my critiques from Jay have been rolling in (apparently he’s partial to fine-tipped black pens)…


Umm...yeah. I have a lot of work to do.

So thanks to the folks at SCBWI for putting on a fabulous conference. Nothing but love. And I also want to say thanks to my critique partners, but really…that’s more of a love/hate thing.

Nah, let’s face it…it’s mostly love.

- Robin

This past week was a vacation at our house, only we didn’t take a family trip…at least not together. The plan was for my husband and kid to take a father/son camping trip so that I could have the whole house to myself while I worked on revising my middle grade manuscript.

I know…great plan!

Except that the camping trip suddenly got cancelled when we found out the cement mixing truck was scheduled to come earlier than expected. (We’re doing a landscaping project in our front yard, which is another post in itself, and it will include pictures, I promise!) Anyway, that meant my two-day, interruption-free revision retreat was now cancelled, too.

I know…total bummer.

My hubby saw the disappointment on my face and told me to go to a hotel…that cement mixing is bonding for a father and son. (Who knew!?) So off I went to spend two days at The Embassy Suites.

Yes, I said suites! That means two…whole…rooms! I set up the bedroom with my computer and iPod and speakers and stocked it with Coke Zeros and peanutbutter crackers. I used the “living room” to read the drafts and take notes. It was an awesome set-up. No, it was a suite set-up!!!

The hotel also had a large pool and a 24-hour gym. I brought my bathing suit and my gym clothes, thinking I’d have plenty of time for extra-curricular activities. But, no. I worked from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. and only took a lunch break, coffee break, dinner break, and then a late night run to the grocery store to get Little Debbie Nutty Bars. (Love those!)

At first I thought the revisions would go quickly. I pulled out my handy-dandy red pen and cut some lines. Like, for example, page 8. A couple of sentences deleted. No biggie.


By the time I got to page 22, it was a different story. My handy-dandy red pen was starting to see a lot of action.


And page 35? Good grief. I gave up and just turned to a blank page.


So the process is coming along slowly, but at least my husband and son have now bonded in the name of cement. What more could I ask for!?

-Robin

This past weekend, I wrote it: The End. Writing those two words makes me do back-handsprings and air-splits and handstands underwater. Well, it makes me want to do those things. (I have coordination issues.)

So instead, I settled for a frosty beverage and some Cheez-Its. Then I looked over my manuscript and realized two things:

1. It needs major revisions.
2. It kind of sucks.

Usually, a revelation like that would cause me to dig deeper into a box of Cheez-Its and pour another frosty beverage, but I finally figured out how to handle the revision part of this book. This is a totally new idea for me, so we’ll see if it works.

But first, let me share a wee bit of backstory (it’s very wee, I promise!). I came across a summary of the SCBWI Washington conference on someone’s blog and saw that an editor there had spoken on the topics of Plot, Theme, Character and Voice. Which, to me, sounded like a speech about Everything. But then I realized that those topics, in that order, are the layers of revisions I need to do!

First, I’ll go through and revise only for plot. I’ll make sure the main character gets from A to Z, and that the manner in which she gets from A to Z makes perfect sense. I’ll also make sure that the car which was lime green in chapter 1 is still lime green in chapter 24.

Second, I’ll go through and look just at theme. Now that I have a newly buffed and shiny plot, did my idea of ‘xyz’ (whatever that ends up being) come across as I wanted it to? Is it too subtle or way too heavy handed?

Third, I’ll go through and revise for character. I’m not sure what the editor was referring to in his speech, but for me, revising for character means I’ll look at all the other people in my main character’s life. I’ll try to make them well-rounded and avoid stereotypes. I might look at subplots and see if I can strengthen their stories. I want the people in her world to be as interesting as possible (but not annoyingly quirky) and deliver only some of the best punch lines.

And finally, I’ll go through and revise for voice. Now that my main character is propelling her way through a decent-ish plot, she has an interesting theme to wade through, and the characters around her are freakishly real (hopefully)…what the heck would she say and how would she say it!?!?

I’m not going to kid myself…all of this revision is going to take a long time.

So! My plan—for now—is that once I get to the voice-round of revision, I’m going to check myself into a lovely bed and breakfast and just focus on my main character and her words. I’ll only think about how she would react to each moment and just become her. I think I can do that if I’m away from my own world and don’t have to get up from my computer every five minutes to help my son clean up the Life cereal he dumped on himself (which is what I’ve been doing while writing this post).

This is a new way of approaching a novel for me, so let’s hope it works. And if it doesn’t? I’m moving on to the hard stuff…a good bottle of Pinot Noir and Rainbow Goldfish.

- Robin

I’m about halfway through writing my fourth novel, and I’ve noticed that the way I’m writing this one is much different than how I wrote my previous novels. Whether I mean to or not, I’ve been treating my manuscripts differently! (Bad Mommy!)

It’s similar to how my parents raised me and my brother differently. What worked for him, didn’t really work for me. And not just because of the he’s-a-boy-and-I’m-a-girl reasons. My brother was the type of guy who missed, like, one question on the SAT. I, on the other hand, couldn’t even find the building to take my SAT because the directions were so confusing and I was super late since my friends and I had to stop at McDonald’s for our hangover-relieving breakfast. Mmmm…combo #1.

(Sorry, Mom and Dad. But I still turned out okay…right!?)

Anyway, for novel No.4, I’ve been writing my first draft much more loosely. I’m moving along quickly without spending much time on description or searching for the perfect word. In fact, I often find myself writing things like (Insert: write about her feelings here) or (Insert: describe house) or, my favorite, (Insert: make this part not so stupid). As silly as it seems, this new technique is really working for me. It allows me to stop dwelling so much (which is not an attractive look for me) and just move along with the story at the pace my brain wants to move. And with this book, my brain feels like it’s in a drag race. Woo-hoo! Step on it, baby!

I was explaining this new technique to Eve the other day and she joked that, at some point, I’ll probably write (Insert: Next chapter here). Well, she was right! Yesterday, I got myself all psyched up to write a particular chapter, only to realize that another chapter needed to be written first. But I didn’t want to write that chapter so I actually typed the words (Insert: Next chapter here). So thanks, Eve. Your ridicule is now my reality!

So I decided to Google the phrase “how I write” to see how other writers handle the process of book-writing. Apparently Garrison Keillor gets up at 5 a.m., sits in an armchair, and types a chapter into his laptop. Then he prints it out, makes lots of changes in pencil, and types the final revised version straight into his computer…all before lunchtime! That made me feel ridiculous for not having wonderfully polished chapters completed before lunch, but then I came across this quote from Judy Blume: “The first draft is a skeleton…just bare bones.”

Aaaahhh. No wonder Judy Blume is still my hero.

(Insert: adorably witty ending to this post.)

- Robin

I have decided not to complain about laundry on the blog anymore. That’s my new rule.

But I couldn’t figure out what to blog about since I couldn’t talk about laundry, so I figured I’d complain about how hard I’ve been working lately and how tired I am and how I haven’t had a spare moment to even call my dear, sweet mother and also how much laundry I have to do. Oops. Sorry. Curse you laundry!!!

Anyway, now that spring break is over, I’ve gotten back into the swing of things and I’ve been a writing fool! First, I revised my chapter book, The Nitwits, based on suggestions made by an editor. I loved her suggestions and now I think the manuscript is in way better shape...like it just got a much-needed haircut. My agent also loved the changes, and now the story is back out in the world trying to be adopted by a loving, nurturing publishing house. I feel like a momma sending her son out to the big, bad world and yelling after him, “Write if you get work!”

Meanwhile, I’m still at home with my baby…my new middle grade novel that is starting to take shape. And honestly, I think it’s about to become my new favorite manuscript. (But don’t tell my chapter book. His feelings would be sooo hurt!)

Seriously, I just love writing goofy, fun books. I got hooked on the power of silly stories back in my very first year of teaching. It was fifth grade and I had the kids all day…every moment. And the moments after lunch were the worst. They were wiggly, unruly little monsters. I asked one of the other veteran teachers what to do with them after lunch and she handed me a book. “Just read this out loud,” she said. “They’ll love it. You won’t have any more problems.” It was a copy of Sideways Stories from Wayside School by Louis Sachar. That book is the quintessential funny middle grade book, in my humble opinion. And that teacher was right. The kids were riveted. They begged me to keep reading. Then some of them would come up to me later and beg to read the chapters I had just read to them. Now if that doesn’t tell you how powerful silly stories can be, then I don’t know what does.

But for some reason, I used to almost apologize for writing silly books. I felt maybe I should be writing something with more depth and a message since I was writing for children. However, in January of this year, Jon Scieszka was named National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, and now I’m very proud of my obsession with writing silly books. Mr. Scieszka is the author of The Stinky Cheese Man and The Time Warp Trio (among others), and when he was interviewed about being named ambassador, he talked about the need for making books entertaining. His goal is to reach those kids who don’t like to read. “It’s time for reading to be fun again,” he said. I love that guy!

Now when I tell people that I write goofy stories, I can say that I’m just following orders from the ambassador. That’s serious stuff, man!!! Now, if I can just get the National Ambassador for Laundry to make my load of whites disappear…

- Robin

This past weekend I attended a plotting workshop put on by Robin LaFevers, author of Theodosia and the Serpents of Chaos (recently nominated for an Agatha award!). Her presentation was fabulous. We learned about plot layers, inciting incidents, rising action, world building, turning points, acts, pacing, finish work and the pelvic woo! (No, we didn’t really learn about the pelvic woo. It just happens to be my favorite phrase and I like to use it whenever I get a chance. If you have a child addicted to SpongeBob, you’ll know what I’m talking about.)

I had many “uh-huh” moments at her workshop. (I’m hoping with the popularity of Oprah’s “a-ha” moment that the “uh-huh” moment will soon be sweeping the nation.) The first “uh-huh” moment came from the discussion of when to start the story. (Hint: right away...or at least, kinda soon!) My current WIP was getting pretty blah, blah, blah-ish at the beginning and I realized that I probably wrote it more for myself than the reader.

Later, I looked up more information on beginnings in a screenwriting book. Richard Walters writes that the beginning “is that part before which there is nothing.” For example, he says that the movie Kramer vs. Kramer is a film that starts at the proper beginning. Meryl Streep is standing in the doorway with her bags packed, ready to leave the family. It would have been tempting to start with the couple’s escalating fights and then get to her departure, but that’s not really what the story’s about. It’s about the father reconciling with his child. So get to the story!

The other “uh-huh” moment I had at Robin’s workshop was when she talked about writing in acts. She suggested writing just to the next act, like a mini-goal. It makes the idea of writing a whole novel seem less daunting. Surely I can write one act! Right!?

So all that plotting and structure talk caused me to do what I always do when I’m trying to plan a novel…pull out the butcher paper. For me, the scenes have to be drawn on a long paper that I can put up on the wall as a daily reminder of what the heck I’m doing. Even though “what the heck I’m doing” seems to change daily. But there’s always more butcher paper!

How do you writers out there prepare to write a novel? Outline? Note cards? Close your eyes and throw a dart?

- Robin


Oh, wait! Uh-huh Moment #3: Always find a babysitter who can stay the whole day while you attend fabulous workshops so you don’t have to speed home on the lunch break and pick up the second babysitter, then scarf down a PB&J sandwich in the car instead of eating a lovely lunch with your peers. Or maybe that’s just me…

If you've never seen it, go gaze at this gorgeous painting by Lucian Freud.

Or look at this mottled face. How beautiful to see skin as it really is, and not a sanitized CoverGirl tone. Why do we insist upon improving upon nature’s work? Why do we deem the non-uniform ugly? What’s wrong with a face that is green and blue and black? Red, orange, yellow? What’s wrong with veins and bumps and wrinkles, when they are drawn so exquisitely?

When I first saw these paintings in the pages of a heavy, unadorned art book, it was as if Lucian Freud had spoken a pressing truth, one that I'd never dared tell, and when he did, the relief was so intense, I wanted to cry.

I especially liked the portraits he did of models’ faces on a simple pillow or bed. There is a sense of fascination, as if you were looking at a newborn child or a lover asleep. Only he looks at everyone that way. Many of his full-size paintings, which I can't link to here, are so brutally observant that they are painful.

I wonder how he treats his models, the people in his life that he paints. Is he kind to them, or as bruisingly loving as his portrayals? Does he have to shield himself from their beauty in real life so he isn’t overwhelmed? How does he maintain his true sight? How can one live, seeing this intensely?

Tomorrow, I'll post a poem I wrote in response to Lucian Freud's paintings. Until then, look at them, read this, and tell me if he is blessed or cursed.