Writers' Round Table: What is your most exciting moment as a writer?

Some people think being a writer sounds glamorous while others might think it dull. The truth is that writing is like any other job: it has exciting moments and mundane moments. Today we're sharing exciting moments (we'll keep the dull bits to ourselves).


Lana: About three-fourths of the way through writing my novel, I was in the middle of a key scene. Something was nagging me, tugging at my brain, like I had gotten it wrong. I went into free-write mode and one of the secondary characters surprised me with an unexpected plot twist. It was exactly what the story needed. When I went back to revise the earlier chapters to make the plot twist possible, I realized that I didn't need to revise. The plot twist was already in place in previous chapters, but I was unaware of it. Crazy!


Brian: I’ve had many exciting moments as a writer. Seeing the smiles on children’s faces every time I do a classroom reading is still way up there for me. But my most exciting moment was holding my first published book in my hand. I was no longer wishing to be a children’s writer or thinking I might be a children’s writer – I WAS a children’s writer from that point on! And that one moment is what led to all the other wonderful moments reading in front of children.


Hazel: I get most excited about writing when I get a new story idea I think will really work. Letting my imagination go to fill in the new idea is truly a “rush,” as I paint it with broad strokes and work it
just enough to confirm its viability. On a par with a new story idea is the thrill of figuring out just the right plot twist to solve a story problem or get me out of some hole I’ve written myself into. These ‘aha’ moments keep me coming back to my keyboard, luring me along when I’m most stuck and encouraging me to keep going.

Writers' Round Table: Why do you write for children?

This is a question that comes up frequently. Many people are under the impression that writing for children is a starting point and when you get good enough, you can write for adults. Today, we are dispelling that idea by discussing why we choose to write for children.

Hazel:I began to write for children when I wanted to tell a story about our family dog. I wanted to tell it in a way that our young son would enjoy. Working on this story generated more stories, and the rest, as they say, is history. But more fundamentally, I write for children because the stories that come to me whisper with the voices of children. I write what I hear.

Brian: Why write for children? Because it’s fun! I knew I wanted to be a writer since I was about six years old. I got A’s on my creative writing assignments in school. I also got lots of laughs from my classmates when I read my work out loud. I loved both of those rewards for my efforts. In college, I took “serious” writing classes that stressed conflict and despair as hallmarks of great writing. For the first time in my life, writing was no longer fun for me. After a few years, I decided to fire my professors and go back to writing what I loved – fun stories that make children smile. And performing readings for today’s schoolchildren brings back that same joy I felt when I first started writing.

Stephanie: My senior year in college, a drama professor asked me if I’d ever considered writing stories for children. Something clicked. “That’s exactly what I’m going to do,” I told him, even though the thought had never occurred to me. That split-second decision was one of the best I’ve ever made. I didn’t know what I was getting into, of course. But for me, the joy and excitement of writing far outweighs the frustrations. I love the adventure of writing for kids, and although, you wouldn’t know it to look at me, inside I’m a bit of a kid too! Personally, I write for children because I just can’t help it. I suspect many other writers feel the same way.

Lana: Once I took a fiction writing class at a university. When the professor realized I was a children's writer, he was less than thrilled. His reasoning went something like this: Good writing must have compelling conflict which requires accountability on the part of the main character and since children are not accountable for their actions, any story with a child as the main character will not have compelling conflict. I argued the opposite, that decisions young children make are very important. This formative period that we each experience fascinates me. Which parts of childhood are universal and which are unique? How do events and people and places shape us into who we are? How do we shape ourselves and our environment?  I never tire of exploring these ideas through story.

Writers' Round Table

Writing advice. It's out there. Some of it good, some of it not so good. Today we are sharing the best advice we've gotten on our writing journeys. 

Hazel:  Always throw everything you’ve got at whatever you are writing. This is not permission to use hyperbole without restraint, rather to use every applicable idea and tool in your mental work basket every time. Don’t save a great metaphor for a later time, or a dramatic plot point for another story, or a wonderful twist, surprise, or subtle but powerful reference for the “even better story” you are going to write later. Make this story, the one you are crafting now, that better, even best story. Creativity feeds on itself. You will find that you will not run out of ideas by using your best ideas. Quite the contrary, your mental work basket, where creativity begins, will grow ever larger. You will have more exciting plots, more delightful twists and turns, more interesting characters to choose from than you ever thought possible just by using it all up every time.


Lana:   The best advice given to me came from my very first boss. My first job was working in a bakery for Mr. Cross, who lived up to his name very well. He gave me a long list of chores to do whenever there was a lull in costumer traffic. I suffer from a life-long daydreaming disorder, so Mr. Cross would often snap at me. “Get back to work!”  This has been the best advice in my writing endeavors. As with any difficult task, there have been unexpected obstacles, dead ends, and frustrations. Rough critique? Get back to work. Another rejection? Get back to work. Write something that stunk to high heaven? Get back to work. It really is the best advice.


Brian:  WRITE! Not to oversimplify, but sometimes it’s easy to get caught up in attending conferences, reading “how to” articles, searching for editors and agents, working on query letters, etc. and that’s if we have time left after work and family! The bottom line is: writers write. And the best way to improve as a writer is to write more. Just like reading a book about hitting is no substitute for batting practice – reading writing tips is no substitute for writing.


What advice helped you with your writing?

Writers' Round Table

We are a group of children’s writers brought together by our passion for books. All writers have at least one thing in common: they began as readers. Today, each of us is digging down --way down--to our earliest reading memory.

Brian: The first book I remember reading is Frog and Toad are Friends. I reached a word I wasn’t familiar with and asked my mom for help. She told me to sound it out. To my amazement, I was able to sound out the word – jump! That was the moment I realized that I could read by myself and set sail on my own adventures whenever I opened the cover of a book!

Lana: The first book I remember reading all by myself was called The Mouse Book. The photographs drew me in-- a real mouse looking for a house. Like all great early readers, this book had a predictable pattern that repeated. “Is this a good house? No, it’s too cold. Is this a good house? No, it’s too hot.” I was so proud to be able to read the words without any help! Many years later, adult me was looking through a stack of books that the library was getting rid of and guess what I found! My beloved mouse book. What a treasure!

Hazel: My earliest memory about reading is more about looking than reading. This possibly hinted at my life-long interest in art and image-making. The book in question was an English language translation of Japanese folk tales, illustrated with wood-cut prints. The colors were muted by today’s standards. But the expressiveness of the lines imbued the characters with personality and the images flowed beautifully alongside the text. The understanding that illustrations could blend, enhance and expand on the stories I listened to, and then learned to read by myself, opened a doorway for me. I realized that I could “graduate” to books that were all text and still supply a rich visual adventure by using my imagination. I have loved “seeing” stories as well as reading them, ever since.

Pat: Two books fed my appetite for words during my earliest years.  One, a fat tome of fairy tales, was the first book I read, sort of.  I devoured pictures of princesses, elves, woodland creatures, and the heroes who saved them from the nasty ogres with their fat lips and snarling teeth.  As Mom read to us, the pictures and words interwoven on the same pages lured me into the possibility of reading on my own.  This need to read was further encouraged by The World Book (well, that series of books).  We three kids traced with our fingers pictures and words of animals, costumes, and other fascinating subjects.   Again, words and pictures together lured us into the world of reading. 

                                                                

Care to share? We’d love to hear about your earliest reading experience. Leave a comment and tell us about it!