What happened in July

Something happened in July that made me revisit nearly all my writing goals.  In order to understand it better, I decided to write about it.  This post is more for myself than for my numerous fans (!) but feel free to leave me a comment if you feel like it.

Feeling Appreciated
In July, I went through a phase when I didn't feel appreciated.  I'm usually cheerful and smiling, but in July I was depressed and gloomy, following a major argument I had with my husband.  To cope with the situation, I threw myself into writing and reviewing on my favorite website, writing.com.

What happened next is still a msytery to me.  I listed seven coincidences I came across within a period of one month.  At first, I didn't notice the connection, as it seemed to be a series of disconnected events.  The only thing related was that everything happened on writing.com.  I was a featured author on two different reviewing forums and on a reviewing contest.  All together, I received 43 reviews, many of them detailed and encouraging, and countless thank you e-mails from people I reviewed.  One of my stories was displayed in the drama newsletter. I was hand-picked to be a moderator on the ACE group. I received two merit badges from individuals I was reviewing. 

It wasn't until I received my second merit badge and read the message that came with it that everything came together and nearly blew my mind.  The message said: "For always being there with an encouraging word, a cheerful comment, and a welcoming smile. You are appreciated."

You are appreciated! 

How in the world did all these people decide to show me appreciation exactly at the time I needed it most?

I had discovered a way to feel appreciated through writing and reviewing.  A review doesn't cost anything and can make someone's day.  The appreciation I receive in return is priceless.  Receiving a review for one of my stories also makes me feel appreciated.  Someone took the time to read and comment on my story.

Writing Novels
I started reading and reviewing a sci-fi novel I had come across in July.  I usually don't read sci-fi, but this novel was part of the seven coincidences, and I found another six coincidences while reading it.  One character had my first name, another had my middle name.  The character with my first name was reading a book I had started reading the week before.  Two dates were mentioned in the first chapter, and both dates were significant to me.  The novel starts with the exact same sentence as my YA novel. Weird!

Reading this novel rekindled my interest in writing novels. I decided to post the first chapter of four of my novels-in-progress.  The reviews I received were encouraging, but also made me realize my middle grade novel I had been submitting was not quite ready for publication.

Gaining Confidence in Reviewing
I knew I would benefit greatly from joining a review forum, but something was holding me back.  I had no confidence in my reviewing skills.  I desperately needed detailed reviews to continue developing my writing skills and improve my existing stories, but I wasn't ready to commit myself to also review other people's work.   

I took part of a fun, three-part contest in July.  One of the challenges was called the Dunk Tank.  Participants had to review five items from a featured author based on clues in order to dunk a staff member.  This fun-filled challenge forced me to read and review some items I would have otherwise backed out of without leaving a comment, such as poems and dark stories.  I found out that regardless of the quality of writing, I can always find something to say to help the writer improve.  The contest moderator would then allocate gift points based on the quality of my reviews.  The thank you e-mails I received from people I reviewed had a snowball effect and inspired me to review more items, even after the contest was over.  All this combined helped me gain confidence in my reviewing skills.

Joining a Review Forum
In July, I was invited to join the ACE group and become a moderator.  I became very involved in this group and met many new writers.  One of them, Emerin, talked me into joining the "Let's Publish!" forum she was running.  I joined her forum and posted some of my short stories.  My interest had started to shift towards novel writing, so I also posted one of my chapters and received several detailed, useful reviews.  Seeing my chapter, Emerin suggested I join the YA Novel forum she was also part of. 

I hesitated.  What if I don't like any of the novels I need to review?  What if they all know so much more about writing that I feel like a total newbie?  What if my reviews are not detailed enough?  I finally gave in.  Worse comes to worse, I could always back out of it.  As it turned out, joining this forum became a turning point in my writing endeavors, which I will write about in another post.

My Writing Goals 2009

Setting goals has been part of my traditions for as long as I can remember. I do it diligently every year, and I generally stay on track. This year was no exception. I had ten writing goals and I kept up with them until July. Then everything started to change dramatically and my goals took an unexpected turn.

Below is an overview of what my goals were and what I've accomplished so far. I described each goal in details for the Dear Me contest on writing.com, where participants had to write themselves a letter about their goals for the year.

My Three Major Goals
1) Submit my MG novel (Meredith Mountain Miracle) until it gets published.
So far, I submitted it to three publishers: Farrar, Strauss & Giroux (Oct 08), Front Street (Feb 09) and Henry Holt (May 09). I also spent a lot of time researching potential publishers, using a Writer's Digest book called Children's Writer's & Illustrator's Market 2008, edited by Alice Pope.

2) Submit one short story per month to a magazine for children.
I submitted six short stories to Spider magazine, and I posted several of my flash fiction stories (300 words max.) on Squidoo: Flash Fiction for Everyone.

3) Write one new story per month through book-in-a-week.com.
So far, I wrote 40 stories ranging from 100 to 23,000 words. I participated in the book-in-a-week challenge every month, starting in December 2008 with a goal of ten pages and increasing my goal by two pages each month. I wrote 28 pages in September, and would have written 30 in October if I didn't decide to back out. I had a good reason to do so, which I will explain in a later post.

My Seven Minor Goals
4) Read my pocket dictionary to boost my vocabulary.
I separated a cheap pocket dictionary into small sections and carried them around, reading a few pages each day whenever I had a chance. I know it's not the best way to boost my vocabulary power, but that's the simplest way I could think of at the time. I read every single page up to the end of the letter R, checking off each word I already knew and paying more attention to the words I wasn't familiar with. I was planning to read the "S" section in October but I stopped.  Some other goals became more pressing than reading pages of a dictionary.

5) Write in my blog once a week.
From the time I started my writing.com blog in December 2008 until now, I made 65 entries, which is more than one entry per week.  I also started this blog in September, which is a step in the right direction, to my opinion.

6) Write a non-fiction item once a month.
Non-fiction isn't my strong point, but I managed to keep up with my goal. I wrote a movie review of "It's a Wonderful Life", two articles on setting goals (adult version and teen version), an article about O. Henry and another about his short stories. I started to learn HTML and typed my notes on a practice website. I also gave 217 reviews on writing.com from November 2008 until today, some very basic and some very detailed.

7) Take a class or a seminar, keep learning.
Being a member of writing.com, I utilized some of its many resources to learn about writing. From January to June, I took classes with the The Writer's Academy. In July, I practiced reviewing through a contest organized by The Talent Pond. In August, I learned how to give detailed reviews through a two-week class offered by the The Novel Workshop. In September, I studied HTML using Microsoft Step By Step book, by Faithe Wempen.

8) "Be out there, in the mix." (Network)
At the beginning of the year, my network consisted of my immediate family, a few friends and co-workers, two writers and a librarian. They were the only people I could ask to read my stories and give me feedback. My network has expanded dramatically since then.

On writing.com, I got involved in many groups: Talent Pond, Rising Stars, ACE group, Daily Flash Fiction contest, other seasonal contests, Let's Publish! forum, YA Novel forum, and other forums which I'm no longer part of.

I also joined several websites: Absolute Write (Feb), Facebook (Feb), Squidoo (Feb), Triond (March), MySpace (Apr), Twitter (Apr), LinkedIn (Apr), SCBWI (July), Blogger (Sep).

I now have 26 favorite authors on writing.com, 64 Facebook friends, 164 Twitter followers, 26 Squidoo fans, and 8 Blogger followers. I know at least 20 people who can give me an honest, detailed review if I asked them. My mom is still my biggest fan, though, and I can always count on her to give me encouragements when needed.

9) Keep reading.
I read a few more classics, but I spent more time reading not-yet-published stories on writing.com and MG novels from potential publishers.

10) Get organized.
I bought a laptop! Major accomplishment. Now I don't have to share computer time with a husband and three kids. LOL! I printed a few business cards, in case I meet a publisher or an agent. Hey, you never know! I wrote a short bio and chose a profile picture. I organized my stories and writing notes into binders.

Whew, what a productive year! What happened in July to make me reconsider my goals? I'm planning to talk about it on the next post.

Writing Goals 2008 in a Nutshell

As I mentioned in a previous post, I had no money for a writing class, so I designed my own personal workshop. I broke down the year 2008 into six periods of eight weeks, with a few extra weeks in between to catch up. Each week, I would focus on one of my goals, which I also broke down into sections to make sure I stayed on track.

My list of goals for the year included:

• Read six classic novels


• Read The American Short Story (edited by Thomas K. Parkes), an anthology of about 60 stories written by American authors from Washington Irving to Joyce Carol Oates


• Finish writing my YA novel (Generation Peace)


• Expand one of my short stories into a chapter book and submit it for publication


• Study my two books about creative writing and do three exercises per chapter

By the end of 2008, I had accomplished most of my goals:

• I read 20 classic novels


• I read my book of short stories, discovering O. Henry in the process (more on that later)


• I finished writing Part I of my YA novel (it ended up being longer than I had planned)


• I expanded my short story into a chapter book, submitted it once, and received a rejection letter (which I expected, but I was happy to have gone through the whole cycle at least once)


• I studied my two books and did writing exercises. Five of these exercises became short stories

I read a lot more than I wrote, which wasn't part of my plan, but reading classics and short stories exposed me to many writing styles, which is always good.

As a bonus, in November, I discover two great websites which helped me tremendously in my writing endeavors for the following year:

www.writing.com
www.book-in-a-week.com

I also found out about NaNoWriMo, but it was too late to start and I was absolutely not prepared to write 50,000 words in a month. I'm still not ready. Maybe next year.

There's a monster under my bed!

Moooooommy! There's a monster under my bed. I think it's one of these Dark Wolves from the Truth Teller series I've been reading. These beasts are extremely dangerous. Only Dagan can defeat them.

Heeeeelp! It's going to get me!!

... Uh, never mind, it's only Shadow. I wasn't really scared, really, I wasn't. Can you leave the night light on, just for tonight, though?

(What? I can't always have serious posts, or I'll lose all my followers. All eight of them. LOL!)

In case you're wondering, that cute beast on the pictures is our family dog, Shadow. He's a schipperke (pronounced: skip-per-key), which is a belgium barge dog, a breed used by sailors long ago as companion and ratter.

Shadow loves going on the boat, and he looks just adorable with his little life vest:


Oh, and... he has no tail.

Rekindled Dream

(Continuity of "The day I started writing")

It wasn't until 2006 that my interest in writing resurfaced, as three different people talked to me about creative writing in the same week.

While attending a workshop my church offered, I gave a little start when the moderator shared her dream to some day write a book. She reminded me about my own dream, which I had forgotten about.

"Don't wait for ideal circumstances to start working on your dreams," she said to the group. "Why not start right now?"

That same week, someone else I knew announced he was starting a writer's group. A writer's group! Interesting.

A few days later, I had to call several people with a phone tree message. One of them was a writer by profession. We had such a great conversation about writing, I almost forgot to give her the phone tree message.

My fingers were now itching to get started again. I dusted off my first book and read it again. Hmmm... Maybe I could revise it and bring it to publishing standards.

When I talked to my husband about joining the writer's group, his response was spontaneous. "Writer's group? You're not a writer! Have you ever taken a class about writing? Do you feel like writing all the time? I know writers. I had friends in college who were writers. You're not a writer."

He was right about one thing; I didn't know anything about writing. It didn't mean I couldn't learn, though. And it certainly didn't mean I couldn't become a writer if I set my mind to it. I never mentioned writing again in his presence. I went about my business learning all I could and practicing my newly acquired skills. I couldn't afford a class or a workshop, so I had to find ways to learn on my own.

I took out three library books about creative writing, read each chapter, and did some of the exercises. I discovered the concepts of plot, characters, dialogue, POV, and other things a fiction writer should know.

I showed my chapter book to my writer friend. To my dismay, she gave it back to me without reading it. Too complicated! I had to agree with her. These interactive stories are a real headache to revise. It certainly wasn't the best format for beginners like me.

I decided to start all over with a YA novel. Generation Peace was born, a story of a teenage girl who wakes up from a coma after a hundred years.

After writing several chapters, I realized I didn't have a plot and my characters were kind of flat, which triggered me to buy two new books:

• Fiction Writer's Workshop (Josip Novakovich)
• Plot and Structure (James Scott Bell)

I read each chapter and did some of the suggested exercises. I applied the things I learned by writing new chapters of my novel.

There was only one problem. These two books constantly referred to classic novels I had never read. I had no clue who Scarlett O'Hara was and what happened to Huckleberry Finn. Frustrating! Learning from the experts by reading novels that have endured the test of time seemed like an excellent idea.

By the end of 2007, I had read four classics:

• Gone With The Wind (Margaret Mitchell)
• The Sun Also Rises (Ernest Hemingway)
• Animal Farm (George Orwell)
• The Call of the Wild (Jack London)

(To be continued...)

The day I started writing

Some day, I want to write a book.

The thought germinated in my mind about six years ago. Some day meant once all the kids are in college, or when I retire and have nothing else to do. As a stay-at-home mom with three kids under five years old, I had very little time for hobbies.

The library became a usual hangout where I would return an armload of picture books and take out an equally voluminous amount of new books every other week. Reading to my children every night exposed me to the world of children's literature and its vast array of styles, voices, plots, and characters.

I started musing about what kind of book I would write. Would it be a picture book? a chapter book? a novel? What theme would I explore? An idea for a fantastic book came into my mind so strongly I couldn't ignore it. I started writing that same day.

Emily and the Magic Book was born, an interactive story where the reader helps Emily reach three goals.

I wrote whenever and wherever I could: during the baby's nap, at the laundromat, in a parking lot, at the playground, in a waiting room. Ideas came tumbling down on the pages, even though I didn't have a clear plot in mind from the beginning. I enjoyed every minute of the writing process, sometimes surprising myself with the twists my story would take.

My first draft was barely finished when I started working full time again. I printed a copy in a book format for my daughter and bound it by lacing a string in the middle.

I put aside the idea of writing, now juggling with a job, three kids, and the purchase of our first home.

(to be continued...)

Elissa's Swimming Event

Today, Elissa had a swim meet and she finished first place in 50 breast. Woo hoo! Her time: 36.75 seconds.

I kind of lost track of her while filming when she did her turn. She's the one with the black cap in lane 4. I would advise turning the volume down to avoid being startled by the loud whistle, buzz, and cheering.



I was a timer for the first part of the meet, getting splashed every time a swimmer dove. Refreshing! It was so hot and humid in the pool area.

These kids are great. I get tired after one lap when I swim, but they go on and on without stopping. Elissa did 71 laps in 30 minutes during her T-30 test last month. She could have done more; she had a stomachache that day.