Mentor Monday: Inspired by Inspiration

Billy Crystal: When Jenny came out of the recovery room with Ella, it was such a privilege to be with her. An hour after I came home, I wrote I Already Know I Love You… This book was the easiest creative birth I've ever had.

I don’t believe in inspiration.

Don’t get me wrong. I think ideas can come to us. I think stories can spring from all kinds of places and experiences. I think great stories had to come from somewhere.

What I don’t believe in is the kind of inspiration that some writers claim exists. They talk about inspiration that supposedly comes from out-of-the-blue and allows the writer to put down, in one magical sitting, an entire story, poem, or screenplay.

Generally, this claim is made by the newbie. It is often followed by other claims: writing is easy; my critique group members are so picky; publishers just don’t “get” my work.

I think people who heard Billy Crystal talk about his children’s book got the wrong idea. It sounds like Billy just went home after the birth of his first grandchild and put the story down, dropped it off at his publisher’s and waited for the residual checks to come in.

Don’t forget that this book was not Crystal’s first. He is a comedian—which means he had to learn to not only write good jokes but pay attention to pacing and word play. He’d already had a success with his autobiographical 700 Sundays. He’d also had nine months to think about his grandchild’s birth and what it meant to him. He did a lot of mental pre-writing before his “magical” moment.

Good writing is hard work. It requires practice and diligence. Just about anyone can learn to put words together to form sentences. True artist-writers work and re-work these sentences.

If you doubt this concept, look around your home and notice the things others have made. I’m sitting in my office looking at a built-in shelving unit. It’s ten years old and the maple boards are as strong and straight as the day they were put in, despite the fact that they hold hundreds of books. The stain is dark and smooth. I can rub my fingers along any piece or edge and will never feel a rough spot. The carpenter who built these shelves built many more before it. He patiently measured every piece of wood and cut them carefully. He slowly sanded the boards until they felt polished. He applied the stain evenly. He hid every hole so the shelves look as if they are being held together by sorcery instead of nails and glue.

Could I build a set of shelves? Probably. Just about anybody can go to a lumber yard, buy a few boards and nails and fashion them together. What I would build might look like a shelf and might even hold books, but it would never look like the unit in my office. Before I could duplicate the unit in my office I would have to build hundreds of shelves, and learn from my mistakes, and probably get an experienced carpenter to help me become better at the craft.

Writers should do the same. Don’t think of inspiration as the cause of your story’s creation. Think of it as a just the beginning. Inspiration is not a fire. It is only the match. The fire must be built up and tended and stoked before it can provide heat. Story inspiration, too, is just the start of something bigger and better. Take your story and make sure all the story elements are strong. Smooth out the rough parts. Add a little color.

Once you’ve polished your work, it will continue to be read for years to come.

Mentor Monday: Inspire Yourself

Happy Martin Luther King, Jr. Day! To say Dr. King was an inspirational person is an understatement. He helped transform the thinking of (at least) our nation. People will be finding inspiration in his life's work for generations.

For me, inspiration is the happiest part of the writing process. It brings with it a focus so intense, there's nothing to do but write. Something so magical should not be left to chance. The permanent number two on your writing list of Things to Do should be Find Inspiration. (Number one on your list is Sit Down and Write, but you knew that.) If you wait for inspiration to strike, you could be waiting for a long time.

Attending conferences, workshops or retreats is a great way to keep the writing fires stoked. In a few weeks I'll attend my fourth Kindling Words (KW) in Vermont with Janet and Diane. It borders on crazy how psyched I am for it. 

According to the KW website, "Kindling Words is an inspiring retreat where accomplished authors, illustrators and editors meet, talk shop, participate in workshops, and inspire each other." They had good reason to use a form of the word "inspire" twice in that sentence. KW truly is inspirational. Participating in KW, however, isn't easy. You have to be published, and you have to snag your retreat spot in a lottery.

What can you do if KW is exactly what you want, but you're not published or favored by Lady Luck? Check your regional chapter of SCBWI to see if they offer any retreat opportunities. (While you're there, mark down the dates of your regional conference and then go to it!) If you can't find a retreat, or if what you find is just too expensive for your budget, create your own retreat.

Decide what you want from your retreat then make it happen. Maybe you want uninterrupted writing time. Maybe you want unstructured time for clearing your head. Maybe you need to do some research. Probably you need to do a bit of each. The point is, you need to plan things out before you take yourself on retreat. You might just plan to bring a few writer friends with you.

A few years back, Write Sister Diane Mayr organized a successful small retreat for children's writers at Poland Spring Inn in Poland, Maine. Twelve writers participated in Writers' Asylum Retreat, and it remains among the best retreats I've attended.

If a retreat is what you're after, look around. See what's out there. If there's nothing, then pull your own together. You'll be happy you did.

MENTOR MONDAY: Back to School, Back to WORK!

The summer’s winding down and families are beginning to get back into the school year routine. Even those of us who don’t have children, or no longer have children at home, can find the fall comforting in its predictability. We can say goodbye to the distractions “de l’été.” No more summer vacations, summer chores, or summer weddings taking us away from our writing time. Now, all we need is…inspiration! I have a suggestion that might help in more than one way.

Writers for children are constantly told is: read what you want to write. If you want to produce good stories for children, read good stories written for children. Look at the way the author has created characters, movement, tension, and resolution. Cut unnecessary words. Revise, revise, revise.

We all know this stuff. Still, it’s nice to have a reminder of what constitutes a good story. I’ve got a fun way to both read and study craft. Two-time Newbery Medal winner, Lois Lowry has written a series of short books staring Gooney Bird Greene. The little red-haired girl shows up at Watertower Elementary Schools in October. The second graders in Mrs. Pidgeon’s class have never met anyone quite like her.

Lowry uses Gooney Bird to illustrate the techniques of good writing. Gooney Bird Greene is a story-teller. She claims to only tell “absolutely true” stories but it’s hard to believe that she drove to Watertower from China, flew on a magic carpet, and got her huge diamond earrings from a palace.

As Gooney Bird tells the other children her stories, she explains about creating interesting characters, adding excitement to stories, when to add just enough detail, and how to use interesting vocabulary.

Gooney Bird may be the one explaining, but Lois Lowry is showing all of us the skills good writers need. So my suggestion is, if you want a great fall warm-up for getting back into your writing schedule, grab some of the Gooney Bird stories. If you really want a treat, listen to Lee Adams bring Gooney Bird and the other children to life in the recorded book version. When you’re finished, you’ll want to work on your own “absolutely true” stories.

Women of...Wednesday: Tribute to Elizabeth Yates

What inspired you to want to write for kids? For me, it was reading Amos Fortune: Free Man by Elizabeth Yates with my 4th graders. After reading the novel, I knew I wanted to be able to make historical figures come alive as Miss Yates did.

There were steps to the process. First, I had to convince myself I could be a writer. Then, I had to start writing, and keep writing--a lot. Eventually I sold my first book. That year, my middle child was a fifth grader. His teaching team arranged a field trip to Peterborough, NH. They would meet and talk with Elizabeth Yates and then hike through Shieling Forest, the woods Yates and her husband had purchased and given to the state of New Hampshire. I volunteered to chaperone. I wasn't going to miss the opportunity to meet my inspiration.

Miss Yates was wonderful with the kids. I got to thank her for writing the book that had helped me choose my next career and we posed together for a picture. She autographed my copy of Amos Fortune. I was so excited to tell her that I'd just sold my first book. When it was published, I sent her a copy and a thank you note for the kind words she shared in the inscription she'd written. She invited me to visit her.

By this time, Miss Yates had moved to a retirement community in Concord. She lived in a lovely little condo and kept tomato plants by her back door. The neighbors, she said, were wonderful and knew not to disturb her in the morning because that was her writing time. She was well into her 80s and still devoted her mornings to writing! I will never forget the visit. Some years later, when she passed away, I attended her memorial. Turns out there were many, many people like me who had been inspired by and encouraged by Elizabeth Yates. The woman who had no children of her own had nurtured hundreds.

Last year, I got to return the favor in a way. I wrote her profile for Women of Granite: 25 NH Women You Should Know so that others would remember her. It was a pleasure to do so.