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Happy Poetry Friday!  A poem by Paul Bennett and the link to Tabatha's Poetry Friday post are below.

In TeachingAuthors' opening round for 2015, we are each asking ourselves, "What Are We 'Plotting' for 2015?"

Mary Ann started us out, sharing how she does or does not plot."Planning and plotting are not the same thing," she writes. "Plotting is knowing what happens first, then next, then next and at the end. I never know more than one of those things before I start writing.  I've stopped worrying about it."

Thank you, Mary Ann. I haven't a clue how to plot.  When I sit down to write, I'm never sure if I'm starting a poem, a song, a verse novel or a picture book.  I might be inspired by a color or a phrase from the news. Of course I knew not everyone plots their stories methodically, but it's great relief to be reminded of this!

A group photo of the TeachingAuthors. from morguefile.com

We are each snowflakes in the way we approach writing and life; and beyond this, I think that we are different from moment to moment, year to year, in crisis and celebration.

For example, until recently, I would say I'm fairly disciplined.  I've been writing a poem every day since April 1, 2010 (1,743 poems), I brawl with L.A. traffic every two weeks to meet with my marvelous critique group, I write in amiable silence with three or four other writers weekly, and I have a goal or two tucked away in my writer's smock--a couple of picture books, a novel in verse, a collection of poetry, a Pulitzer Prize.

But when my mother began to fade, particularly this last year, it was all I could do to hold onto my writer's smock.  Why? Partly because of the increased responsibility, and partly because of the foggy lethargy which set in.

Yeah...kinda like this. from morguefile.com

There is so much to do, now that Mom has died.  So, I've stopped attending my critique group, stopped writing books, stopped meeting with other authors at my friend's sunny kitchen table.

I still write a poem a day, though.

So, What am I Plotting in 2015?  Nothing.

Well, writing a poem a day.  But beyond that?  I haven't a clue.

I'm reading Loving Grief by Paul Bennett, a book in brief chapters, each of which ends in a poem, written after the death of his wife.  In the chapter, Coming to a Stop, he writes that the three times over a period of months his legs would no longer carry him forward.  He stopped. On a street, in an airport, on a hiking trail.  Later, he wrote, "those incidents of coming to a stop, those moments of stillness, struck me as early invitations from deep within myself to start new."

Here is the poem which ends that chapter:

Well. I was going to post the poem, until I read the copyright page (oops) which states that I cannot post it without permission.  So I won't.

What I will do is to post my own poem about stopping in my life.  Please note that each person experiences a death uniquely. I don't feel as if I'm in deep grief right now. Still:

STOPPING BY THE WOODS
by April Halprin Wayland

No snow.
No woods.

But I pause.
To hear the hawk.
To breathe my breath.
To hold this stone.

Alone.

poem (c) 2015 April Halprin Wayland.  All rights reserved.

I think I'm listening for the music to cue my next step.

I'll be ready.

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In a recent blog review, Plot Whisperer for Writers and Readers scored a 9 out of a possible ten.
Comments: Good blog, solid advice (even if I don't agree with it all) - a useful resource for any writer.

When I asked the reviewer what he didn't agree with, he replied: "I just tend to avoid plotting. For me, personally, it seems to take some of the life out of the story. I write rough, let the story appear, and then polish it out the way it asks."

Plotters versus pantsers ("writing by the seat of your pants").

Is plot something you do -- a verb? Or, is plot an intergral part of a story, like dialog and authentic details -- a noun?

Pantsers work the story out on the page.

Plotters outline first and then write.

Either method, it seems to me, benefits from a firm understanding of the universal story form. And, the universal story form is directly related to plot. Therefore.......

Oh, well, the battle continues. I've received comments like this since I first started teaching and writing and obsessing about plot. Neither way is right or wrong.

Whatever it takes to get writers to put words on a page. That, to me, is all that counts.

P.S. For anyone who is interested in a "pantser" turned "plotter", please read my interview with Jana McBurney-Lin, author of My Half of the Sky at http://www.blockbusterplots.com/tips.html. Enjoy....... Read the rest of this post

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Is there a coziness in the kid-lit blog world that affects reviewing? Probably.

Is there a chumminess in the kid-lit publishing world that affects reviewing? Probably.

We have blog tours, shout-outs, and round-ups. They have publisher lunches, book launches, and award ceremonies. We know some authors. They know some authors. We might get free books. They definitely get free books. We don’t get paid. They do. Other than the fact that we do this for free, what’s the difference that would make bloggers more likely to be soft on authors?

Roger suggests that here we’re all one community, and it’s tricky to knock someone you know. Well, maybe that’s true.

I’ll take that chance.

Because what is gained here outweighs the hazards of mixing authors and reviewers in one big blog party. Maybe sometimes an author gets a softer review than deserved, but I can live with that for the opportunity to have a book dialogue that involves librarians, teachers, authors, mothers, editors, poets, and book lovers. We don’t just have book reviews, we have an opening for discussion. It’s a new paradigm that even involves a type of cross-promotion and targeted marketing.

In a way, it all comes down to marketing. Publishers’ lunches, book launches, blog tours, author interviews, ads in Horn Book, ALA exhibits, book signings, book awards, etc. Down at the base, we’re all promoting what we love, whether that’s our magazine, our new book, our own blog, or even just reading in general. Maybe even just being in love with our own voice. Talk about influence. I would say that we are influenced by all of the above, including our own angle.

For more influence, look to the baggage we bring to any review. Do I like cats or dogs? Do I hate abstract imagery? Does it matter if I have a good relationship with my parents or my kids? If I love the South? Or dislike the books where the mother is dead? The influence of a free book or an interview seems silly when you look at all the ways we are influenced before we’ve even seen the book.

Here, I want to embrace the subjective review. Know me, know my kind of books. Like me, like my kind of books. My blog peeps are the closest I get to having a friend to share her favorite titles. In fact, I don’t want to do book reviewing. I want to do book sharing. I want to be able to say, “Hey this is what I thought about this book. Me, with my two school-age children and my love of summer and corn. Me, with my propensity for humor and aversion to china rabbits. Me, with my disorganized house and my reformed hippie parents. This is what I thought about this book. What about you?”

Now, how cozy is that?

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