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Blog: Caroline by line (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Valerie Geary, writer, links, the writing life, picture books, Publisher's Weekly, social media, the process, Rachelle Gardner, Add a tag
By: Caroline Starr Rose,
on 3/27/2013
Blog: Caroline by line (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: creativity, the writing life, writing, comparison, life choices, class of 2k12, Valerie Geary, navigating a debut year, Add a tag
By: Caroline Starr Rose,
on 11/7/2012
Here are some ways I'm trying to protect my creative side:
Blog: Caroline by line (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
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By: Caroline Starr Rose,
on 8/3/2012
Blog: Caroline by line (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: the writing life, research, goals, first drafts, reading and writing, historical verse novel, Valerie Geary, Add a tag
By: Caroline Starr Rose,
on 3/19/2012
day 1: 4 poems
day 2: 4 poems
day 3: 4 poems
day 4: 2.5 poems
day 5: 2 poems
day 6: 4 poems
day 7: 3.5 poems
day 8: read through and notes
day 9: research
day 10: research
day 11: research
total: 48 poems overall
My day 8 read through showed me I couldn't move forward until I did some more research. So I've set writing aside in order to better ground myself in some historical specifics. I'll be honest: this has really frustrated me. I've felt like I'm shirking a goal. But as the all-wise Valerie Geary has reminded me, any work toward the draft is moving forward, even if there's nothing immediately added to the manuscript.
Here's to reading, thinking, and transforming facts into story.
Have your writing goals ever changed in order to benefit your story?
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Blog: Caroline by line (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Valerie Geary, writer, links, the writing life, picture books, Publisher's Weekly, social media, the process, Rachelle Gardner, Add a tag
Why Older Readers Should Read Picture Books :: Literacy, Families and Learning
8 Ways to Be a Happy Author :: Rachelle Gardner
Back in the Day: Industry Veterans Remember the Early Years :: Publisher’s Weekly
Writing is Messy: Roll Up Your Sleeves and Dive In :: Valerie Geary
0 Comments on Writing Links as of 3/27/2013 8:59:00 AM
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Blog: Caroline by line (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: creativity, the writing life, writing, comparison, life choices, class of 2k12, Valerie Geary, navigating a debut year, Add a tag
Here are some ways I'm trying to protect my creative side:
- I am in constant contact with both my critique partners and my debut group, The Class of 2k12. Both encourage me when I flounder and bolster me when I need support. Some of them have calmly told me again and again that they believe in what I write. When we can't muster the strength to see our own talent, it is so good to have people whose belief in us we can borrow.
- For the sake of my creative health, I've decided that reading the School Library Journal blog, Heavy Medal, is something that doesn't nourish me right now. As I watch people who love children's literature analyze books I admire (in a professional, respectful, invigorating way), I'm finding I doubt my abilities more and more. No book is perfect. I know this to be true. But seeing the "faults" of books well-executed while I'm drafting my own new, unformed work is enough to make me think I'll never produce anything of substance, depth, or worth.
- I need to extend to my writing the room to grow in a safe environment. For me, I'm learning it's a place free of chatter and analysis and comparison. It's a place my friend Val says needs to be quiet enough "to hear that small voice inside trying to remind you that you are doing something important, something special, something worthwhile. And that small voice is the voice you need to hear loudest right now, the one you need to be listening to. During the creation process, kick everyone else out of the room. Tell the critics, your editor or agent, the readers, the doubters to leave, kick them all out of the room and be alone with your story. You and the story. That's all there is right now. That's all that matters."
10 Comments on Navigating a Debut Year: Steps to Protect the Creative Heart, last added: 11/12/2012
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Blog: Caroline by line (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Valerie Geary, poetry, quotes, Add a tag
"So when people say that poetry is a luxury, or an option, or for the educated middle classes, or that it shouldn't be read at school because it is irrelevant, or any of the strange and stupid things that are said about poetry and its place in our lives, I suspect that the people doing the saying have had things pretty easy. A tough life needs tough language--and that is what poetry is. That is what literature offers--a language powerful enough to say how it is.
It isn't a hiding place. It is a finding place."
-- Jeanette Winterson, WHY BE HAPPY WHEN YOU CAN BE NORMAL? (with gratitude for Valerie Geary for sharing this quote with me)
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Blog: Caroline by line (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: the writing life, research, goals, first drafts, reading and writing, historical verse novel, Valerie Geary, Add a tag
You might remember earlier in the month I posted about my March goals: four poems a day five days a week on my new historical verse novel. Here are my stats so far:
day 1: 4 poems
day 2: 4 poems
day 3: 4 poems
day 4: 2.5 poems
day 5: 2 poems
day 6: 4 poems
day 7: 3.5 poems
day 8: read through and notes
day 9: research
day 10: research
day 11: research
total: 48 poems overall
My day 8 read through showed me I couldn't move forward until I did some more research. So I've set writing aside in order to better ground myself in some historical specifics. I'll be honest: this has really frustrated me. I've felt like I'm shirking a goal. But as the all-wise Valerie Geary has reminded me, any work toward the draft is moving forward, even if there's nothing immediately added to the manuscript.
Here's to reading, thinking, and transforming facts into story.
Have your writing goals ever changed in order to benefit your story?
10 Comments on The Problem With Drafting Historicals, last added: 3/22/2012
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These are wonderful suggestions - ones I'm going to have to keep in mind. Writing is such a mental game, isn't it? Which is why I'm so thankful for my writing friends, who help keep me grounded. They are amazing. And, yes, reading reviews kind of freaks me out sometimes. It can make feel like it's impossible to please people. Good luck with your writing environment!
P.S. Beautiful flowers. We have those where I live, too. Love them! They're so cheerful, and they grow everywhere.
It is a mental game. That's a perfect description. I'm heading to the Jemez Mountains on Thursday for an SCBWI writing retreat. No Internet. No phone. It will be wonderful.
Are you in the southwest, Caryn? The flowers are chamisa. I've only seen them out my way. But if you're not out here and have them, tell me more!
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Sorry for earlier double comment (which I deleted). But I did want to thank you for an excellent post that really resonated with me. Especially the words about listening to the small voice inside us that we need to listen to the most as we create. I'm trying to listen which is probably why I'm not 'talking' so much on social media right now. Have a fabulous time at your retreat!
Nelsa, I'm glad you tried again. Blogger has been duplicating comments, and when someone goes to cancel the "second" one, both disappear.
So glad this spoke to you (as your post did to me). Though I love the contacts I now have in the writing world and am grateful for the connections I've made through the web, I sometimes long for those early days. I don't miss the loneliness and general stumbling around I did for years, but I do miss the solitude. Nowadays, I have to make sure to create my own quiet space.
All the best on your new project.
P.S. Have fun at your retreat! It sounds amazing. I've always wanted to go on a writer retreat. Someday!
We might be close to each other. I'm in the Four Corners area, right on the border of Colorado and Utah.
!! I'm in ABQ!!
We have an author from CO coming down for our retreat. You should seriously consider coming sometime!
That would be so much fun! I'm about six hours away from you, due to the windy roads. (You know how those can be, especially with all the mountains and canyons in the area.) But then, everything is far so I'm used to driving.
Love, love, love!!!