One week until seder night! How to keep focused and full of joy

April 7, 2014beccakinla advice, Jewish, Jewish writing, Judaism, passover, pesach Tags: advice, cleaning, focus, hard, I L Peretz, inspiration, joy, music, Passover, Pesach, pleasure, reading, recommended reading, work Leave a comment

Here’s today’s teeny post:

Getting through the long, hard slog with a smile on your face.

Passover is just a week away, but if you’re cleaning your house like me, scrubbing mysterious substances off of flatware and appliances you intend to use during the holiday, it can get hard to think beyond getting the house chometz-free. To get myself in the mood, I listen to lots of fun music while I clean (Jewish, classical, and jazz) and attend classes about Passover with local rabbis and teachers. I enjoy practicing singing the seder songs with my kids during carpool, and we usually read I.L. Peretz’s “The Conjuror” at some point during the week.

Writing can be hard work like that, too. What do you do — either while Pesach cleaning or while plugging away at the keyboard — to give you inspiration and focus?

Helping out the illustrator, even when you don’t know who they are yet

May 19, 2013beccakinla advice, authors, children, children's books, illustrations, kids, poem, poetry, publishing, revision, stories, submissions, writer, writing, writing process Tags: book manuscript, change, children's books, draft, easy, editor, evocative, evocative images, eye, hard, illustrate, illustrator, image, interest, lively scenes, manuscript, my dinner with andre, picture book, picture books, prepare, publisher, rough draft, scene, sense, submit, visual interest 3 Comments

I’ve been working on a new picture book manuscript, my first one in a while. It’s a poem that came out of experiences with my kids and with others’ and the troubles they face.

I put it away for a couple days, pulling it out again this morning. Now that I’ve decided it’s a picture book, I’m revising it with an eye to the requirements of the format.

O the horror! It’s unillustrateable!

(Yes, I just made that word up.)

What do I mean? Continue reading →

I stepped up to the challenge…but did I succeed?

May 5, 2013beccakinla failure, frustration, submissions, submit, success Tags: author, challenge, difficult, failure, fear, feature ideas, hard, literature, new, not in our hands, publishing, stretching, submissions, success, trying, vent, write, writing 2 Comments

Well.

A couple months ago, I challenged writers to try something new: a new genre, new POV, new publication, anything that would help us to stretch our wings.

Since I threw down the gauntlet, I had to participate in this challenge, right? So I thought about a couple possible places to sub a feature, a genre I hadn’t published in at least two years. Then I brainstormed a few feature ideas, and I sent our queries based on them.

Guess what.

I got nada.

I know that my ultimate success isn’t in my hands, so I feel like I did my share and can take no responsibility for the rest. And I plan to try for features and other new things, too. In fact, I heard about a poetry contest that sounds so interesting, I’m thinking of attempting serious poetry for the first time in many years.

So, is this a success–because I did try something new–or is this a failure–because I didn’t get responses to my queries?

What do you think? (Please post comments below.)

Never made it off the launch pad.

When good things happen to anxious people: the beginning of a new project

December 30, 2012January 21, 2013beccakinla authors, picture books, submissions, submit, trying, writer, writing, writing process Tags: anxiety, arts, attempt, author, begin, beginning, books, challenge, children, difficult, effort, folktale, hard, hope, kids, literature, nerves, nervous, new, picture book, plan, project, research, retell, retelling, try, worry, writer, writing 3 Comments

I hope I say something original, for once.

I’m close to wrapping a piece for a magazine, and I’m waiting on the opinions of some of the beta readers of one of my WIPs, so Friday morning, I started rummaging though my old journals for some new-old project ideas. Among my scribbling, I found notes about a folktale that really appealed to me. A little research has indicated that there is only one picture book retelling of this story. Which is why, for the first time, I’m attempting a folktale retelling.

Good for me, right? It’s good to try something new, right? Continue reading →

Rebecca Klempner

Author page of Rebecca Klempner

hard

One week until seder night! How to keep focused and full of joy

Getting through the long, hard slog with a smile on your face.

Writing can be hard work like that, too. What do you do — either while Pesach cleaning or while plugging away at the keyboard — to give you inspiration and focus?

Helping out the illustrator, even when you don’t know who they are yet

I stepped up to the challenge…but did I succeed?

When good things happen to anxious people: the beginning of a new project

Getting through the long, hard slog with a smile on your face.

Writing can be hard work like that, too. What do you do — either while Pesach cleaning or while plugging away at the keyboard — to give you inspiration and focus?

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