Two Upcoming Writing Events

by Sue Heavenrich

 

After you've tossed the wrappings and boxes in the bin, rolled up the ribbons, and put away the red-and-green felt stockings, treat yourself to a post-holiday gift of writing. All you need is a pencil, maybe a few markers, and some paper.

12 Days of Christmas for Writers, hosted by Julie Hedlund, begins on December 26. It’s a post-Solstice event that invites writers to welcome back the light, and bring light into the areas of our writing that are dark.

“Trust the process,” Julie says as participants explore the successes, challenges, and disappointments in their writing. Each day focuses on one thing. Pull out a fresh sheet of paper and focus on Surprises, Julie says. Another day it’s Things you’ve Learned, or Things you are Grateful for. These pages create the foundation of a blueprint for our writing. My favorite day is “create a cover for your blueprint” day. One year that became a map. Another year it resembled a field guide to gardening.

What I like about the 12 Days is that it feels like a bridge between one year and the next. And rather than make a list of writing goals for the new year – my lists are always way too long – Julie encourages us to reflect without the pressure of accomplishing specific things. 

How to Connect with 12 Days of Christmas for Writers 

keep tabs on Julie’s Facebook page 

Check Julie’s website 

She announces it on the 12 x 12 picture book challenge site

Sign-up for email

Tara Lazar hosts Storystorm, which begins January 1. This event is focused on a single goal: to generate 30 picture book ideas in a month – ideas that can, over the following months, be turned into complete manuscripts. Tara started this event years ago (2009 to be exact) as Picture Book Idea Month, or PiBoIdMo. It was an alternative to NaNoWriMo for the picture book crowd. Over the years it evolved and broadened, and now novelists, short story writers, non-fiction authors and even teachers and their students join in the challenge. Storystorm is open to any writer – or anyone – who wants to brainstorm for a month.

I have used all manner of ways to collect my brainstorms, from index cards to slips of paper collected in a cookie tin to sort-of-official "idea notebooks." At the end of the month I go through my ideas and choose the ones that spark something in me, and get to work.

How to Connect with Storystorm

At Tara Lazar's website

I know what you're thinking: these things don't happen until late this month - next year even! So why write a post about them now? Well ... some of us need advance warning so we can scribble notes on our calendars. Not to mention toss a notebook and some markers in a box and put it next to our favorite writing spot! 

Have Fun!

ANYWHERE: The Place Ideas Live — Part One by Carol Coven Grannick

As I think about the school visits I hope to do after Reeni's Turn (my MG novel in verse) arrives in the world, I anticipate a child asking a question so many writers hear: Where do you get your ideas?

As writers, we know for sure that working hard to find ideas may not the most productive way of discovering ideas.

It's a seemingly simple, but actually complex question, because it involves our brains. And we don't really mean 'ideas', which by definition are thoughts or opinions. We mean thoughts or opinions that are unique, new, or completely different. They turn us suddenly onto a new path with a delightful shock, or slowly with awe and wonder. We can feel the difference!

I found myself thinking about the where-ideas-come-from question during a recent walk in the Mary McDonald Woods at the Chicago Botanic Gardens. It's a place in which I feel my brain clear out and open up as soon as I enter.

That day, my husband and I strolled along the winding trails, quiet, taking in the soft feel of the path, the almost-bare trees, the clean smells. After awhile, I stopped to take photos here, there, up into a tree.

I'd click, then tuck my phone away and pull out a small notebook and pen and scribble in a word or phrase. It wasn't something I planned. But it was something I was prepared for.

My mind popped with ideas for poetry inspired by a leaf,

Frozen in Time

young trees growing in a group,

Family Portrait

and two trees in 'conversation'.

My Nest's Bigger Than Your Nest

I believe it happened because my brain was open to two important aspects of discovering and receiving creative ideas: 1) noticing and 2) surprise.

Who forgot to sweep the floor?

 I Promise, It's Up There!!

May I Lean On You?

The outdoors offers many opportunities to notice, and according to research, to allow our brains to "open". And I do believe that time outdoors impacts the brain. But I also believe we can experience an open brain, receptive to noticing and to surprises, anywhere.

One of my indoor places that's loaded with opportunities to notice events, comments, and interactions is my favorite early childhood center.

Words spoken by the two, three, and four year-olds light my brain up and whisper, Surprise! And suddenly there's a new idea for a poem, a short story, or a picture book.

Creative ideas can happen in relaxed moments, or in response to a sensory, internal, or external experience so compelling that it pushes the brain into a state of attention, reminding it to find delight and poetry in a thing, an event, or an interaction.

Or they may occur during the routine chores of everyday life—folding laundry, cutting up veggies, mopping the kitchen floor.  It's not hard to love these times, the small, routine activities of daily life, when they become opportunities for receiving surprising ideas that float or pop in.  

It's as if the absence of looking for creative ideas—or even needing them—allows them to arrive in our brains, as long as those brains are open to the world around us—anything, everything, and anyone in it. 

Any moment we're alive in the world and open to noticing, our brains may also open to the surprise of a creative idea. Those wonderful new ways of experiencing anything in the world happen anywhere we are.

And then all we have to do is grab the nearest piece of paper and write them down.

Which means keeping paper everywhere...and especially, Anywhere.

Where or how do you find your Anywhere?

(Part Two: coming in February)

Stalking the Wild Ideas

by Sue Heavenrich*

There’s a Storystorm going on over at Tara’s blog all month long – an opportunity to brainstorm ideas and get into the habit of jotting them down. I started off with a bang: lined up my row of shiny sharpened pencils, cracked open the spine of my spiffy new composition book, and wrote down a few ideas. But day #2 – not so good. What’s a writer to do when the ideas won’t come?

Thing is, ideas don’t just fall off trees. Sure, some might pop up like mushrooms in your lawn after a week of rain. But most ideas – well, you’ve gotta go after them. Fortunately you won’t need a reflective orange vest or camo yoga pants, but I still take along the essentials: string, pocket knife, butterfly net, thermos of hot tea, and enough chocolate to last three days in case I get caught in a blizzard (it’s winter in these parts).

 

Hunting ideas is like hunting any other wild game – you’ve got to learn everything you can about their habits, preferred food, and migration patterns. One of the best ways to locate an idea is by what it leaves behind: its tracks, scat, and other sign such as feathers, fur, scrapes and rubs. Some ideas mark their territory using scents; others build fanciful bowers decorated with candy wrappers and chipped tea cups. Ideas communicate using different calls and songs, so you’ll need to learn those, too.

If you’re going to head off on an idea safari, you should know how to read a map, so you won’t get lost. Although, as one of my friends said, holding the map upside down sometimes reveals the path.

There are many ways to capture ideas. One hunter told me that the best way is to get up before dawn while the ideas are still bedded down, and sneak up on them. Another simply stalks them. I like to swish a sweep net back and forth, but that tends to capture only the winged ideas. You may need to dig them out if they are hibernating under the snow. You can also set traps, baiting them with the sorts of things ideas like (chocolate, coffee, wine, hot dogs). Snares are best; deadfall traps tend to squash whatever they fall on.

Once you capture your idea you need a place to keep it. Most writers use some sort of journal, but you can easily tape them to index cards and toss them in a box, or press them into a scrapbook (like some people do with fairies), or even collect them in a jar. Some writers accession each idea, listing it in an index so they can find it later or filing it in an old card catalog acquired from a library that has gone digital.

 

As you prepare to head out into the wilds, here’s a quick list of places you might look for ideas:

• Newspaper and radio stories – Science Friday (NPR) is a great source of nonfiction ideas
• Magazines – next time you’re trapped in a doctor’s office or airplane, hunt for some ideas
• Websites – WiseGeek, History.com, and On This Day
• Lists – if you need ideas check out 20 Things the Dog Ate and Listverse
• Library – wander through the shelves and jot down titles. Even those you misread might jiggle loose some ideas
• Art museums and galleries – great places for field trips
• Eavesdropping on conversations – kids, adults, loggers coming in for coffee and pie
• Road signs and street names – like Blueberry Hill
• Horoscopes
• Fortune cookies – sometimes ideas are curled up inside
• Songs and poetry
• Photos
• Story cubes and magnetic poetry tiles
• “Weird but True” books
• Boxes of photos, stamps, coins or other treasures
• Places where children play
• In the backyard, or a garden, a weedy patch along the roadside
• Need more? Check out this post from a couple years ago.

 Good Hunting!
*Thank you to all the GROGGERS who shared ideas and photos! 

Is the Pen Mightier? Just Write!

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By Janie Reinart

“Fool,” said my muse to me. 

“Look in thy heart and write.” 
~Philip Sidney

How do you write? Is the pen mightier than the keyboard? When you sit down, do you peck at the keys or cradle a pen and notebook in your hands? Do you wait for your muse to show up?


"The benefits of handwriting have been documented by lots of educational psychologists, who have found that handwriting
engages parts of the brain that typing neglects." 

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How many words can you type a minute? Your fingers move quickly when you type. Writing with a pen slows you down and gives you more time.

Other research shows,"When the children composed text by hand, they not only consistently produced more words more quickly than they did on a keyboard, but expressed more ideas."

I wonder if that applies as we get older? How can we express more ideas? Keep our muse showing up? Have you ever tried writing morning pages? Julia Cameron calls this writing "cloud thoughts."

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You might be interested in A Writer's Book of Days to spur you on. "To create new or enhance existing stories, poems, or writing of any kind, all you have to do is set a date for writing practice, open your notebook, and begin writing."

Share with us. Do you write with a pen or on a keyboard or a combination.  Do you have a favorite pen or journal that you like to use? 
Do you write morning pages? Do you have a favorite book on the craft of writing? 
 

Whether you write with a pen, or type 

on a keyboard or use a combination to keep 

your muse happy, keep on writing!

Gathering Moments, Hours, Days

Gathering Moments, Hours, Days by Jan Godown Annino

I Meant To Do My Work Today

by Richard Le Gallienne

...“but a brown bird sang in the apple tree,

and a butterfly flitted across the field,

and all the leaves were calling me

and the wind went sighing over the land

and…”

-       copyright Richard Le Gallienne

Exploring and experiencing are what the talent-saturated & prolific author

Jane Yolen calls Gathering Days. In these summer days & nights,

she recently reminded social media followers to take time to fill the

wells of experience. Look for unusual plants & animals. Pay attention to

the everyday trees, flowers and creatures, too.

Listen to live music. Note odd names on streets and signs. 

Dance a folk dance.

Try a wild ride.

Or wild walk.

                                                     Acorn Street, Boston - May 2015 

                                                                Gathering Wobble!

A Gathering Day, or the Gathering Times & Gathering Moments are

                                                   Our yellow cottage front yard blossoms that 

                                                                       will = eggplants!

some of the many ways we connect with the thrum of activities that

can hold kernels of energy that lead to eyedears & stories.

 For example, how much better for me to write a garden story,

when I have wet dirt under my fingernails (my garden gloves become soaked

& mucky so I usually pull them off.) And when I attempt to grow a new plant 

to my garden patch, such as this year's eggplant & cotton.

How better it is for me to write these poems

about the seashore that I’m at work on after I’ve been engrossed in

following this olive snail’s trail, down on the Gulf of Mexico at St. George Island.

How easier it is to write about fear if I’ve climbed telephone-

pole-high in tree tops, to wobble along Myakka River State

Park’s shaky tree canopy walkway. I do NOT like heights so much.

Or, even a leetle bit.

And I did this!!

Gather Ye Gathers in Summer! 

Gathering Days ought to be sprinkled in our life all year, but for many 

with family & work rhythms tied to the school year, summer is a

fine time to gather aromas, to touch farm animals, to ride horses,

to observe sea creatures, to walk far into fields, run up hills,

even traipse into mountains.

Here are a few Gathering Day moments of mine, through the years,

woven into my stories & poems.

* Meeting a mama bear and her two cubs when they walked up -

and I walked RAN!  along a steep Mt. LeConte, TN trail.

* Meeting a Florida panther in South Florida (an actor for movies &

commercials, but nonetheless a moving, bounding panther.)

I JUMPED back!

* Riding horses on Paynes Prairie, Florida, to see bison up close. (They

were re-introduced, having once roamed there.) But the touch-and-go

moment of the ride was dealing with alligators strewn about this wet

prairie, which made the horses nervous. My husband & I are alive to 

tale the tell. Or to tell the tale. I rather like tale the tell.

(Todd... this Florida bison is for you!)

If the heat index for recent days wasn’t 103 upwards here in North Florida,

I would go out for my Daily Gathering during the day, instead of at nite.

On a regular foot journey, we small- city nayborhood dwellers can

easily walk from this little yellow cottage to a vet’s office, post office,  sub and burger chain & an independent country buffet & indy cookie/cake shop, plus a chain grocery, & bank. And yet - 

we can also climb hilly streets intensely wooded in swaths with tall growth pines, live oaks, dogwoods, cypress & other tree beauties.

The area is pocketed with an elevated road thru swamp, undeveloped grassy and woodsy gathering places where the animals in hiding (sometimes not in hiding) include fox, bunnies, coyotes, armadillos, opossums, bats & other small mammals such as the daily tree scrambles of the squirrels. Herons, Canada geese, owls and many song birds such as jays, cardinals, wrens & warblers visit. As do blackbirds, cowbirds, & treat of treats, hummingbirds. 

Surprising for a swamp, no gator spotted yet!

 Oh - quail. Can't forget the juvenile quail.

                                            (Cutie flew away last week when I went to fix a leetle 

                                                 box lined with soft stuff... Our cat is strictly inside,

                                                 we have no doggie, so why it landed on our door

                                                 mat is a mystery.)

To get back to that Gathering Wobble, our daughter works in Boston 

& the Gathering Day events she’s written to us about include bunny-watching, 

turkey watching, maple syrup making & kayak drifting on the Charles River.

Some gathering moments our family enjoyed together with her in

May in Boston were chipmunk watching, lilac sniffing, bleeding tooth-plant

finding, cobblestone walking on Acorn Street in Beacon Hill,

(avoiding falling) & robin-watching.

Where do you like to spend gathering days? 

What have you gathered in summers past? 

Is it too soon to report in on your “gathers” this season? 

I wish you many great gathering moments that will fill you with eyedears, words,

poems, pages, stories, scripts, illustrations & books.

Free Event!

If you would like to join me & several Group Bloggers in an online summer children's writing school, which is a great boost in gathering pages accomplished and in writing THE END, 

please read my essay about it & think about becoming a summer student in the comfort of your own home. It's created by two energetic SCBWI members. Last summer National Book Award-winning children's author Kathryn Erskine set the nourishing & exciting pace as the first day's faculty member.