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| by Lululemon Athletica (Flickr.com) |
A new class I'm teaching next week, "Writing for Children," focuses on thinking of writing for children (in magazines or books) as a career. In this class, we do a lot of goal setting and "dreaming"--what do you want to accomplish in six months, what do you hope to complete in one year, and what do you see your writing life like in five years. Some writers don't like to think about this--they want to be inspired by the muse and hope that the Fates will allow them to be published if it's "in the cards." But as a children's writer, I think it is extremely important to think about these short and long term goals and to consider writing as a career--even if you are also a nurse, teacher, plumber, stay-at-home mom, store owner, chef, etc.
If you don't take yourself and your career seriously, then no one else will. You will find your time to write taken up by all the other things in your life that take up your time now,
and you will not be as productive as a writer.
When you use the word "career," you automatically start to take yourself more seriously. Consider the following two conversations.
Conversation A (between WOW! online student Gertrude and her husband, Mr. Understanding):Gertrude: My new online class for WOW! starts today. It's about writing for children. You know how I've always been dabbling around in this, sweetie, wanting to write down the grandkids' stories for them.
Mr. Understanding: Yes, it's a wonderful hobby for you now that you're retired. I'll love to read your stories, and maybe you can get one or two published in that one magazine at our dentist's office.
Gertrude: Oh, wouldn't that be exciting to have someone else read what I've written. I'll make that my one-year goal--to get a story down and send it off to that magazine.
Mr. Understanding: Yes, goals are so important--my goal is to get my workshop cleaned out this summer. Do you want to help me? It doesn't take that long to write a story for kids, does it?
Conversation B (between WOW! online student Marge and her husband, Mr. Sensitive):Marge: Honey, my new online class starts tomorrow, and I can't wait to take hold of my new career--writing for children.
Mr. Sensitive: Whoa, hold on here, Marge. What do you mean new career? Since when are you a professional writer?
Marge: Since I decided to be when I signed up for this class--our instructor is going to teach us to set goals and how to plan five years down the road to have the kind of career in writing we want. Plus she's going to help us send our stories to agents and editors.
Mr. Sensitive: You mean, you're going to be a writer--like when people ask you what you do, you are going to say, "I'm a writer." When are you going to help me paint my office?
Marge: (trying not to roll her eyes) Yes, exactly. I am a writer. This is my career, and I'm going for it. You'll have to ask your brother to help you paint.
Although these conversations are a little exaggerated, you get the point. You don't really have to take a class to get this attitude, but I think we all need to think like this. If you are working on a novel or a short story or an article--that you are planning to publish or show to anyone else--then you are a professional writer, and you have a career in writing. It's no different than a career in medicine or education or business. Your career should be important to you, you should have goals and aspirations, and you should be taken seriously.
So, come on, join the movement and start calling your writing your career today!
If you are interested in Margo's Writing For Children class, it starts online on March 4 (and it is CURRENTLY ON SALE!). For more details and to sign up, go to the WOW! Classroom. (http://www.wow-womenonwriting.com/WOWclasses.html ).
You can also e-mail Margo at margo (at) wow-womenonwriting.com with any questions. Margo's first children's novel was out in October 2012, and she has two picture books under contract also.
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| by Mr. Polyomnous flickr.com |
On April Fool's Day, someone will probably play a joke on you--funny or not. It always seems as if the joke is funnier for the person planning it than for the recipient. But let's hope that if you're the "victim" of a joke today, it has nothing to do with your writing career. Simply because . . . there should be no fooling when it comes to your writing.
Do you take your career seriously? Whether you write every day to pay bills or after your day job at night or on the weekends only, you are a writer. Yes, that's right. It's not a hobby. It's a passion. Right? The words beg to be released from your soul, and that is no laughing matter.
What can you do so that you take your writing more seriously? (And in turn, so will your friends, family, and even your mother.)
Join a critique group! As soon as you write a page and realize that someone is going to read it and offer you feedback, you're going to be more serious about it. That doesn't mean that everything you write--like that poem about the jerk who stood you up last year--has to be presented to your critique group. But let's say your goal is to write one short story a month or finish your novel this year. First tell your critique group your goal (other writers are the best about bothering you to complete these goals), and then give them the opportunity to see your progress and offer constructive feedback.
Put it on your social media profile. Put "it"? What do I mean by "it"? The fact that you are a writer. Put it in your Facebook profile--"I am a writer." Send out a tweet that says, "I want to announce that I am writing a novel." On your LinkedIn profile, list one of your jobs as a writer--and if you've written and been published, put a link to that piece or ask the editor for a recommendation. You get what I mean. (Warning: once you do this, people who have NO CLUE about how difficult it is to be a writer will ask, "Are you still writing books?" Hold off on the urge to type what you really want to say, and instead simply answer, "Yes! :)" Don't forget the smiley face.)
Write. Yes, writing really is the key to stop fooling around with your career. I know many people in my monthly writing group (where we meet and have speakers, discuss writing trends, etc) that aren't actually writing. They dabble here or there, but they spend more time talking about writing and reading about writing and even blogging about writing (although I know--your blog is important and it is writing) than working on their projects. I am sure I am NOT talking about you, so no worries. But if there is the slightest chance that you are reading this and thinking:
Oh, she caught me, just close the browser window, open up Microsoft Word, and type a page of your work-in-progress.
And finally, if you want to be published, you do have to submit your work--no fooling. But we'll save that for another day.
Happy April Fool's Day! Hope you have a chance to smile, laugh, and
WRITE today.
Post by Margo L. Dill; Margo blogs about children's and YA books and how to use them at margodill.com/blog/. She also teaches online classes for the WOW! classroom. And she is working on a YA novel and an essay about giving birth at we
Hey everyone, we had a great time at our Heroes and Villains festival. I don't have time to write much, but I'll show you some pictures and Bill will say some more. As I said, it was a great time. We had Guitar Hero:
That's cyber kid 303 in the middle with the baseball cap. We also had some actual fire fighters come here and let some kids get on the fire engine:
Bill, I mean, Captain Bootstrap Bill is with them. He burns the port cities and they put out the fires. Here's the fire engine:
We also had a portable basketball goal so kids could be a Basketball Hero:
That's Bootstrap Bill again--he said he wanted to "burn one in." We tried to tell him that when you steal the ball you don't really steal the ball.
But finally the Hero Avengers of Imaginon Library (or HAIL) caught up to Bootstrap Bill and paid him back for his dastardly deeds:
As I said, we all had a lot of fun. And, guess what---
cyber kid 303 was there to get his
free Rick Riordan T-shirt:
Hey, Mr. Riordan, any chance cyber kid could be a Demigod of the Week?
Well, I'd put up more pictures, but Blogger is telling me I've used up half of the capacity already. So I'll see if Bill wants to make another post. By the way, I told you all that I'd post cyber kid's and Will's new comments, so here they are:
101 Ways to Bug Your Parents by Lee Wardlaw. Mrs. Wardlaw is another author I met at Novello (in 2006). She has a son, so she knows how to write books that are interesting to boys. This is a good book and it really does teach you 101 ways to bug your parents. I've tried a lot of them. She also wrote 101 Ways to Bug Your Teacher.
That's from cyber kid. Did you really use some of thsoe on your parents? Did they write a book called 101 Ways to Ground Your Kid?
Here's from Will:
Otis Spofford by Beverly Cleary is a good book because Otis always gets in trouble and always gets an excuse to get out of it, but he gets paid back from his prank....two girls get him back by playing a prank on him.
Very good, Will. You've really made me want to read the books you write about and that's the sign of a good book reviewer. I've got Henry Huggins by Beverly Cleary checked out and I'll let you guys know how it is.
Keep up the good work, everyone!
Carl
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I spent 22 years at a career in higher ed. I attended workshops, associated with colleagues, grew in my position, had work goals and measurable outcomes. Now I write and to me, the pursuit is similar. Except I get such greater control, satisfaction and creative outlets!
Julie:
I think you are exactly right. I do think it is similar, but for some reason, it is hard to say, "Writing is my job/career." Even yesterday, when I was on a school visit as an author, and a 5th grader asked me, "Is writing your job?" I had a hard time saying, "Yes." But I did say it! :)
Good point Margo, and exactly right. If authors don't take themselves seriously, all the doubt becomes justification for not working. Appreciate the post.
Thanks, Destiny! It's good to hear from you! Hope all is going well with your writing CAREER! :)