Author: beccakinla

How to get back into the swing of things after taking a vacation from writing

beccakinla editors, how to write, rejection letters, vacations, writing groups, writing process Leave a comment

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I took some time off from posting to concentrate on Passover preparations…and then another couple weeks off recovering. My brain was so focused on errands and checklists, and my body was so exhausted from scrubbing, that I pretty much couldn’t write at the end of the day, not anything coherent anyway. I had several manuscripts under review by editors, so I thought it would be best just to step back a bit from cranking out stories and submitting them.

It was strangely relaxing to stop writing. While I love to write, things were getting jumbled in my head, ideas tangled up, and I was losing focus. I’ve always been a person whose problem is too many ideas, not too few. But it was getting to the point that sitting down to write was like opening up the doors to one of those closets where people just keep shoving things in wherever they fit, and you’re left fumbling for your navy pumps in a mess of fluffy pink sweaters, old luggage, and forgotten handbags that really ought to be sent to Goodwill. Where to start?

Plus, my writing was feeling less joyful. When writing becomes your job, and you expect yourself to produce something (hopefully brilliant) every day, it can become a chore instead of a pleasure. When most of your writing is done at the end of a long day of homemaking, it just turns into one more thing to check off your to-do list. A succession of rejection letters hadn’t helped the situation.

During Passover, I found extra time to lavish on my husband and children, without worrying that I was being a slacker or would miss a deadline (even a self-imposed one). Since most of the publishers I deal with are Jewish ones, I figured they’d all be out of the office, too.

However, my vacation had to come to an end some time. I belong to a critique group, and with a meeting coming up, I had to get back to writing. I forced myself to sit at the computer. My first couple attempts didn’t go anywhere, and I felt a bit demoralized. Thankfully, some wonderful helpers were sent to me from Shamayim (Heaven). Totally unsolicited, two friends told me that they like my writing. One particularly focused on my quirky way of looking at things in a way that’s humorous but true. This made me reconsider what I had been attempting to write.

I think that one of the problems with my recent attempts of writing was that I was trying to write what other people have successfully sold, as opposed to staying true to my own voice. Half-submerged anxiety about pieces that hadn’t sold because they didn’t “fit in” with publisher’s expectations must have led me down the wrong path, and a little reflection set me straight. I ditched the stuff that wasn’t really “me,” and returned to my uniquely wacky and off-beat voice. The ideas are beginning to flow and I’m feeling more optimistic.

The Providential arrival of a complimentary email from an editor contributed to the general upswing, too. If this particular editor loved my piece, I must be good!

Pasedena AJL Conference Info Up on the Web!

beccakinla AJL, association of jewish libraries, authors, books, conferences, Jewish, june 2012, librarians, library, pasadena, teachers Leave a comment

Schedules and registration forms for the upcoming Association of Jewish Libraries Conference in Pasedena June 17-20, 2012 is now up on the AJL website. This is a great opportunity for Jewish book lovers to share their knowledge and experience.

http://www.jewishlibraries.org/main/Events.aspx

Great post on read alouds

beccakinla beautiful books, bedtime, bedtime stories, picture books, recommended reading Leave a comment

I subscribe to get regular updates from the website “Beautiful Books.” Today’s guest post, by a speech-language pathologist, describes how to maximize the efficacy and enjoyment of read-alouds. Read her excellent advice here.

How to Increase Literacy Through Changing the Genre of Classroom Materials

beccakinla books, literacy, literature, recommended reading, reluctant readers Leave a comment

When I said, “change genre” in the title of this post, I meant it literally. Many advocates of reluctant readers have in the past mentioned that U.S. school rely too heavily on fiction–especially certain kinds of fiction–to teach students. Studies of boys’ reading preferences have pointed out that boys frequently prefer non-fiction selections, but that their schools often rely on fiction. Students sometimes complain about the value of reading short stories and novels in the long term. Are they really going to need to know the major characters and plot points of Lord of the Flies, Catcher in the Rye, or Moby Dick as adults?

Now a study in New York City schools described in today’s New York Times online adds evidence that increasing the use of non-fiction in classrooms has concrete benefits. Students using an experimental–mostly non-fiction–curriculum scored better on reading comprehension assessments. They also internalized the content of those pieces sufficiently to increase their scores on tests of social studies and science knowledge. The NY Times article mentions that this is particularly useful, as classrooms have generally reduced the amount of time they spend on those subjects in an attempt to improve students’ scores on standardized test that focus on reading and math skills. Interestingly, the students that participated in the study were largely from lower socio-economic backgrounds.

The study has its opponents, and I would never say fiction should be tossed out of schools (I love novels! I love short stories!), but I hope that this study will prompt school districts to reconsider their current balance of classroom materials.

The Romance of Writing a Novel

beccakinla finish that novel, khaled hosseini, outline, snowflake method, writer, writing, writing groups Leave a comment

I subscribe to the daily emails from Garrison Keillor’s Writer’s Almanac (which I highly recommend) and today’s email included a lovely quote from the award-winning author, Khaled Hosseini (here I have to admit that I couldn’t finish The Kite Runner–there’s this violent street-fight scene I just couldn’t deal with–but I love this quote just the same).

Apparently, he once said, “There is a romantic notion to writing a novel, especially when you are starting it. You are embarking on this incredibly exciting journey, and you’re going to write your first novel, you’re going to write a book. Until you’re about 50 pages into it, and that romance wears off, and then you’re left with a very stark reality of having to write the rest of this thing. […] A lot of 50-page unfinished novels are sitting in a lot of drawers across this country. Well, what it takes at that point is discipline … You have to be more stubborn than the manuscript, and you have to punch in and punch out every day, regardless of whether it’s going well, regardless of whether it’s going badly. […] It’s largely an act of perseverance […] The story really wants to defeat you, and you just have to be more mulish than the story.”

Having just submitted my own first novel (please keep praying a publisher buys it!), and having discussed writing novels with a lot of people, I have to agree with the first half of Dr. Hosseini’s statement here. A lot of people dream of writing a novel. Many people actually start writing novels, but most of those peter out right around the point Dr. Hosseini describes.

But here’s where Dr. Hosseini and I are going to disagree: while I think that discipline and perseverance are the keys to finishing a novel, I think that many people who begin to write books just don’t know how to! While there are people who like to “write by the seat of their pants” or “wing it,” completing a novel in a timely fashion without outlining or diagramming or writing notes or some sort of prewriting exercise, and without studying how to write a novel in advance (even just reading a single how-to book from the library can help) is a much more daunting exercise than doing it without putting in those steps up front. Many of these abandoned books could be finished if their authors took these steps. For more on this subject, check out this recent post by Susanne Larkin here.

Whoa

beccakinla finish that novel, how to write, i'm done, letting go, novel, writing, writing process 3 Comments

I’ve just submitted my novel. Whoa. I’m a little freaked out. 

Fear competes with excitement. I’m not sure which is winning, but I have a suspicion that I should really be feeling relaxed. After all, my manuscript’s acceptance is now entirely in G-d’s hands. I did my part: I finally finished the sucker, got it edited by multiple people, revised it, got it proofread, and researched the most suitable publisher to start with (I hope they agree). There’s not much left for me to do, other than pray. And wait.

One of my sources of excitement is that now my writing schedule is wide open for other projects. I have lots of ideas, thank G-d. I kept getting sidetracked by competing writing projects in the last couple months. That is part of what took me so long to finally wrap up this book–that and the multiple viruses that have been afflicting various members of the Klempner household.