Copy
In which I overcome writer's block (and this e-mail is very long as a result) ~ My first picture book "WINGS" into the world ~ Upcoming webinars & conferences ~ Delightful new books ~ Questions & answers on building a writing career and what editors really want  ~ Five good links ~ And a handsome cat.

View this email in your browser

Breaking the Block

 

You may have noticed – or you may not have – that it has been a long time since my last newsletter:  December 2017, to be exact. I’ve been silent in part because of many other things that were going on, like speaking at some conferences, and assistant-organizing another one, and editing books, and living my life. But the number-one thing holding me back was the fact that I expect myself to write an essay, this essay, to open the newsletter every time, and I could not think of anything to say. Or I could think of things to say, but nothing interesting, that I wanted to say, that compelled me enough to write it, that I felt it would be worth the time you are now spending running your eyes over it. I had, have, ideas; some of them were even good, and may show up in this space later. But the not-writing became a habit. My own silence intimidated me. My expectations of myself paralyzed me. 

In short: I’ve had writer’s block.

It’s a funny phrase, “writer’s block” – first used in 1949, per Merriam-Webster, though the dictionary does not say by whom. It’s a possessive phrase, like a writer has been gifted or cursed with a giant orthogonal mass that weighs her down or looms squarely in her way when she tries to move past it . . . which feels both exactly right as a metaphor, and exactly wrong in terms of who possesses whom. Writers cannot move these blocks, nor sell them, nor leave them behind if we want or have to keep working on the project they’re blocking. We can only climb up and over them, or tunnel through them or under them, or jackhammer them until they crack apart. Only then, with the block conquered or destroyed, are we free of the burden of ownership.

“Writer’s block” is also a supremely linguistically satisfying phrase, with that single heavy syllable that ends in a stop ensouling the weight we give it psychologically. If it had a different name, one that sounded lighter, it might feel lighter—something we could shove aside and keep moving. In service of this, and for the sake of accuracy, I propose the following varieties of writer’s block (with thanks to Thesaurus.com for the synonyms):

  • writer's lump: when you sit in front of the blank page and your brain feels like an inert misshapen brick unable to produce either ideas or sentences
  • writer's cube:  when you are capable of writing, but everything you put down feels squared-off, flat, boring; nothing you’re producing has any texture or is of any interest
  • writer's clog:  when you have too many things to say, do not know where to begin with any of them, and/or cannot figure out how to make them all flow together in one piece
  • writer's snag:  when you do have one specific thing you want to say, but you cannot say it to your own satisfaction, and hence, what is the point 
  • writer's neighborhood:  when other people are in your brain -- as competitors, censors, or critics – and their chatter keeps you from getting work done
  • writer’s hindrance:  when other people or demands present in your life keep you from building up any significant work, momentum, or depth on a project
  • writer’s stoppage: when you have just stopped writing for some reason, and do not see any way or feel any inclination to start again

The inventor Charles Kettering said once, “A problem well stated is a problem half solved” (#editormottoes), and if you too have writer’s ________ at some point, you could maybe spend some time trying to choose the specific word that best describes your situation, to help you along the way to solving it. The other trick I found useful in getting me out of my funk here was a technique that always helps me: organizing my information, especially in outlines or lists. Once I made a list of synonyms for “block,” well, I just had to add an introduction and this conclusion, and there was my essay. If you’re in the middle of a novel and stuck, make a list of the events in every chapter you have so far, or all the things you like about it, or your twenty favorite moments. If you’re torn among projects, make a status spreadsheet for all of them and see how you feel when you look at it. And if all else fails, try writing an essay or short story narrating your situation; it’s meta, but it gets the words flowing, and at least in my case here, it got the job done.

With best wishes for happy writing,  

Cheryl

My picture book Wings will be flying into the world in March 2019, lifted aloft by the gorgeous illustrations of Tomie dePaola. (Yes, the Strega Nona Tomie dePaola! I’m amazed too.) My friend Betsy Bird recently hosted the cover reveal, a sneak peek of the interiors, and brief interviews with me and Tomie. On my side, I talk about the inspiration and writing process for the book, which basically consisted of playing with rhymes for the word “wings” and finding a narrative to string them together. Tomie seems to have gone through a similarly reduced process for the illustrations, creating Matisse-like collages of pure line and color with a sweetness and simplicity to match the text. The result is really beautiful and unique, I think, and I’m excited for it to be in the world next March. You can preorder it at all the usual suspects, including the river-named one here
FREE WEBINAR!
Do you seek diverse books for your library? Want to see all the cool things we're doing at Lee & Low Books, and hear about our awesome writing contests? Join me and my colleague Stacy Whitman next Thursday at 3 p.m. for a free online webinar showcasing our Fall 2018 titles, from beautiful picture books to great YA novels. Register here.
Books I Acquired and/or Edited
and/or Oversaw, Out Now!

(And with nine starred reviews among them,
I believe! Congrats to all the excellent creators.)
COME SEE ME CHATTER!
If you like how I prattle on here or in The Magic Words, please join me at an upcoming writers' conference! I'll be at the SCBWI Midsouth Fall Conference in Nashville from September 14-16, 2018, talking about voice in a pre-conference intensive and purpose and revision in two breakouts. Many other fine people are also on the faculty, and registration is now open at that first link.  

Q & A's of the Month

First, a PSA:  Last November, I offered a 90-minute webinar on how to understand and navigate the acquisitions process, with all proceeds benefiting my beloved church, Park Slope United Methodist. I also gave attendees the chance to send me questions, which I then answered. Here were two of my favorite Q&As from that event. I recorded the webinar in full, and if you’d be interested in viewing it, for yourself as an individual or for a small writers’ group, please contact me at asterisk.bks@gmail.com. I charge $100 for the link and a unique password, and all the proceeds still go to PSUMC. Thanks!

Q:  When you talked about publishing houses wanting to see “career potential” in writers, I wondered whether this includes being young(ish). This has been on my mind lately, as it seems like a lot of big YA debut authors are younger, or at least younger than I am. I got serious about writing fiction fairly late, and now that I am finally beginning to feel I might be almost ready to query agents, I worry that I’ve missed my “shot.” I would so appreciate your perspective on this.

A: This is a fair question. When I talk about “career potential,” I mean someone’s ability to write multiple books and build a platform to sell them, which lead to a long-term career in the industry. Age can affect both of these things, certainly. But if you’re concerned about it, there is no law that you have to indicate your age in your “relevant biography” (by saying you’re retired, for instance), and agents and editors don’t know how old you are when they read your query letter, or, more importantly, your manuscript. And depending on the manuscript, your age can also help, if you’re writing about a historical event you experienced, say, or there’s a notable older character in the text, or if you have a lot of professional connections from your years of life experience and you could market the book to them. . . . Those would all be assets to a marketing team, or to your marketing story, rather than handicaps.

As a general note, I would theorize that publishing decisions for most debut authors are based something like 70% on the quality of the manuscript, and 30% on the the marketability of the manuscript & author, with a 10-20% swing in either direction possible depending on the individual agent/editor/house and project. We know most new authors don’t have much of a platform; we know lots of writers are introverts; we know authors and books need help to get seen, or an education in HOW to get seen, and we can provide that. But if our hearts and minds are inspired and filled by your book, who YOU are matters less, because we will have more faith that other readers will love the project just for itself, as we do. YOU and your platform matter more when we’re more on the fence about the decision to sign up the book. So, concentrate on getting us OFF the fence by making your manuscript as irresistible as possible.

It makes sense to me that a writer would approach an agent and, later, an editor who has a similar tastes and sensibilities to her own, as you point out. I’ve heard similar advice elsewhere, and I’ve wondered whether that can that be a double-edged sword too. Is it harder to stand out from the pack if an editor already has a lot of books in their list similar to your manuscript? (That might sound like I’m disagreeing with you, but that is in no way the case; I’ve been genuinely curious about how to navigate this.)

Another good question! I actually wrote a blog post about this back in 2009. After I wrote that, I definitely felt more self-conscious about signing up books in the categories I named there, especially “Uptight Young Woman Who Needs to Learn to Relax” books . . . .

And then proceeded to sign up books in those categories anyway, often, because I loved the individual books so much. (Looking at that link now, I see there is literally a fairy tale retelling and a religious book pinned in the sidebar to the right, both published in 2015.) If an agent or editor reads your manuscript and decides to pass on it, “This is similar to a lot of things already on my list” is a convenient and true thing to say in a reject. But the agent/editor is also, still, more likely to love it if it *feels* like things they already love. So it’s worth the gamble.

I would also note my emphasis on it *feeling* like things the agent/editor loves . . . From a plot description, EIGHTH-GRADE SUPERZERO by Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich was nothing like MILLICENT MIN, GIRL GENIUS. But as I note in that link, Gbemi picked up on the “painful funniness” of MILLICENT, that doubleness of what Millicent says and what’s actually going on for her emotionally, and thought I might be right for SUPERZERO because it took that same care with its language. Try to find THAT kind of insight into the literary quality and *feeling* of writing that an editor is looking for, as much or more than the subjects/topics of the books she’s looking for. A subject can feel overdone; a level of quality never does.

New Books to Watch For!
These two wonderful middle-grade debuts will making their way into the world this fall -- The Wind Called My Name in September, Ana María Reyes in October. Please watch for them, preorder them, request them at your local library, and support new diverse books and authors!

Five Good Links


I try to read everything Atul Gawande writes, because it is all thoughtful, thought-provoking, elegant and deep. (His Being Mortal is one of the few books where I would say unreservedly, "Every single adult should read this," because we're all going to die, and we should all think about what that looks like.) This commencement address given at UCLA med school demonstrates his characteristic humanity and compassion, never more needed than now: “Curiosity and What Equality Really Means.” 
 
I just finished, and loved, Alexander Chee's essay collection How to Write an Autobiographical Novel. The final essay, “On Becoming an American Writer,” will make you have faith in writing again in the age of Trump, and it is excerpted here
 
On a practical note, Debbie Ridpath Ohi’s lists of kids'/YA editors on Twitter and agents on Twitter will be very useful to writers researching the personalities of people to whom they're sending submissions. (Most of us mention animals, baked goods, chocolate, or caffeine in our profiles. We're all sleep-deprived dog-petting hedonists, apparently.)

A friend recently gave me Jacqueline Woodson's essay "Who Can Tell My Story," and it is maybe the best answer I have ever read to the question, "Should white people write about people of color?" It is depressing to realize that the novel she speaks of -- If You Come Softly -- will celebrate its twentieth anniversary this year, and yet the penultimate paragraph of the essay is still so relevant. (For some reasons why it remains relevant, listen to this outstanding episode of On the Media: "The Worst Thing We've Ever Done.")

Finally:  “Who Will Buy Your Book?” is maybe the most honest thing I have ever read about being a published writer, yet still somehow hopeful and heartening. That is an accomplishment. 
Curiosity never looked so elegant.
(Photo of Marley by James Monohan.) 
Copyright © 2018 CherylKlein.com, All rights reserved.


Want to change how you receive these emails?
You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.

Email Marketing Powered by Mailchimp