Writer's Emergency Kit

Writing is hard. Here are some things to remember to make it easier:

1. Writing takes practice. Try to do it every day.
Writing everyday will not guarantee that everything you write will be wonderful ( see CRAP below) but it will make it easier to keep going. I'm still working on this.

2. Don't Do it Alone.
Some writers make cherish the solitary life but not me. One of the hardest things about being the writer is toiling for hours on end without anyone ever seeing the product. What I enjoy the most about being a writer is reading my work out loud and making my wife giggle, or making a friend smile. Every writer needs an audience. For children this is easily accomplished, you're part of a classroom, a school, you have parents. For adults, I recommend taking a class or joining a writer's group. Joining a local organization like the Loft or the Society of Children's Books Writers and Illustrators can help with this.

3. Seek Inspiration.
Every creative enterprise requires fuel. It's one of the reasons why the adage "Don't quit your day job" rings true. As a writer, don't quit your day job because a) writing doesn't pay well, even when you do publish but also because b) your day job and your day-to-day life informs your writing. If you never DO anything, if you don't LIVE then you won't have much to write about.

To use another analogy, have you ever tried to start a "cold" lawn mower? How about a car when it's sixty below? A cold engine does not start as well as a warm one. Prime your writing "engine" with whatever stokes your fire. I prefer to re-read my favorite books on writing and/or listen to them on audio. Some of my favorites include Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg ( I have the complete book on my itunes) and Page after Page by Heather Sellers.

Also, re-reading any really good book in any genre helps stoke the fire.

4. Write a lot of CRAP.

In order to get to the good stuff you have to be willing to write a lot of crap. It's just The Way Things Are. Also, by giving yourself permission to write crap most of the time, it takes the Pressure off. To paraphrase Natalie Goldberg and many others: "if every time you sat down to write, you tried to write the Great American Novel, you'd never write a damn thing."

It is for this reason that I shy away from expensive pens or notebooks. There's nothing like a 99 cent Hello Kitty or Superfriends notebook to remind you to not take yourself too seriously. Also, for me, as a children's author, it reminds me who I'm writing for.

5. Revising is part of writing.

Ask me more about this later. It's not really one of my strong suits write now. At the moment, I'm not sure I really trust myself to know the good stuff from the bad without other people. But, if i've heard any recurring themes from published authors it's this: be prepared to revise. The stuff that gets published takes at least 7 to 700 rewrites to get there. And that's the good stuff.

6. So is research.

I'm still learning about how much research it takes to make a good story. How much is enough and how much is just procrastinating? We'll see.

7. Above all, keep going.

Determination. Persistence. Perspiration.

These things seem to matter most.