Let me walk through the fields of paper touching with my wand dry stems and stunted butterflies. (Denise Levertov, A Walk Through the Notebooks)
♥ Your weekly bear hug is brought to you by Cornelius, who would not object if you’d like to send him a snickerdoodle.
((YOU))
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THE POET IS TOLD TO FILL UP MORE PAGES
by Mary Oliver
But, where are the words?
Not in my pocket.
Not in my refrigerator.
Not in my savings account.
So I sit, harassed, with my notebook.
It’s a joke, really, and not a good one.
For fun I try a few commands myself.
I say to the rain, stop raining.
I say to the sun, that isn’t anywhere nearby,
Come back, and come fast.
Nothing happens.
So this is all I can give you,
not being the maker of what I do,
but only the one that holds the pencil.
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz.
Make of it what you will.
(from SWAN: Poems and Prose Poems, Beacon Press, 2010)
Those 26 letters never cease to amaze me. Sometimes you feel you can write the whole world, other times, nothing at all. How to court the muse? Endure the agony of waiting? I remain humbled; writing is a mystery.
♥ The lovely Amy Ludwig VanDerwater at The Poem Farm is our Poetry Friday host today. Please take her some letters of love. She may just give you some Pineapple Slices!
♥ Click here for the full list of 2011 Poetry Friday posts at alphabet soup.
**Love typography by Sharon Prazner/flickr.
***”i heart you” pasta by achew *Bokehmon”/flickr.
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Copyright © 2011 Jama Rattigan of Jama’s Alphabet Soup. All rights reserved.
Will this ever be mine?
Last month I nibbled on all kinds of pie: fudge, strawberry, blueberry, honey, country, American, apple, even whoopie and moonpie.
They all went down real easy.
But one pie keeps eluding me. I’ve tried all kinds of crusts, mixed up the ingredients, started from scratch many times, put it to the taste test with some genuine-for-real pie tasters, but it still comes out half-baked.
Let’s call it the I’ve Tried My Best But I Still Can’t Sell This Manuscript Pie.
Some have liked it. Even told me how to make it taste better. But when all is said and done, I’m undone. Some things are simply out of my control. Picture books have been a hard sell for the past 10+ years. Especially quiet picture books. Harder if you don’t illustrate.
The prize I want keeps taunting me, and seems agonizingly out of reach.
Do you know the feeling?
So recently I’ve been writing easy readers and chapter books. It feels liberating and exhilirating to have more space and words to work with. I don’t have to try to define a character in a couple of words or just one sentence. For the first time, I am allowed to say what something looks like, if I want to.
I’ve had a lot of fun working on a humorous easy reader series about a duck and panda, two chefs with entirely different approaches to cooking. All my foodie blogging has been giving my characters the sustenance they need. I submitted a couple of the stories (separately) and have received some positive feedback. One editor likes the characters, but would like to see them cast in a picture book. Oh, mama. Here we go again . . .
Anyway, this month I’m doing Laurie Halse Anderson’s 15-minute-a-day writing challenge. I’ve been using this time to revise some WIP’s, but I’m also going to work on a new story for my animal chefs, featuring, you guessed it — pie! Of all the foods I’ve blogged about, pie is the most emotional.
I think my duck and panda chefs are up for the challenge, even though they know their final product may never be accepted by any of the bakeries who package it so everyone can eat it. Yes, I am finding the easy reader market is even smaller than the picture book market. *Significant hair pulling*
Writing has always been my pie in the sky. It keeps me reaching, my arms straight up, always wondering why this job chose me, why it never gets any easier; why, unlike other normal jobs people have, this one keeps shattering my self confidence, eroding my self esteem, and making me doubt every small and large idea, feeling, and fact I know that I know. Perhaps my biggest struggle is trying to accept that no matter how hard I work, the power to complete what I do lies in someone else’s hands. I’m getting real close to saying no pie for them, but if I do, I’ll be the only one who goes hungry.
Well, I need to do my 15 minutes.
Time to pick up my wooden pin and start rolling.
Best of luck with whatever you’re trying to cook up!
Last week, I blogged about Lei Day, one of the most festive, feel-good days in Hawai’i for both kids and adults.
About ten years ago, I thought a lei day picture book would be a great idea — I imagined illustrations of kids dancing the hula, making their own flower lei, the pretty costumes of the lei day princesses, all the excitement of parents, teachers, and friends gathering for the program, etc.
My initial story idea centered around a teacher asking her class to make a lei that represented their individual personalities (materials could include almost anything, not necessarily flowers). My main character, Ali, gathered different flowers from her neighbors, thus producing a friendship lei, since she valued people more than anything else.
I sent the manuscript on its way and received positive feedback:
Yes, we love the idea of a Lei Day book (great classroom application)! There’s definitely a need for more fiction set in contemporary Hawai’i! But the story isn’t strong enough.
So I revised and resubmitted. Still not strong enough. Suggestion that I convert it to easy-to-read format. Did that. Resubmitted. Sorry, too much exposition.
I thought a long time (couple of years), but still couldn’t come up with a stronger storyline. Then I received this photo of my great-niece, Melia:
Look at that face! Those sparkling eyes! And her name is Melia, which is Hawaiian for plumeria. This must be a sign! I immediately wrote an entirely different story, with Melia as my main character. After getting suggestions from my critique group, I resubmitted it.
First response: Lovely story, but hook not strong enough to compete in today’s market.
Second response: Doesn’t resonate enough as written, but will be glad to look at a revision.
So here I am, struggling to find a stronger hook, trying to create a stronger emotional arc, and basically not blow this revision request. I know there is wide interest in the cultural aspects of this book (at least 6 editors have said so). I just need to find the right story . . .
What do you do to get a fresh perspective on something that’s been in progress for a long time? How do you break out of predictable thinking patterns? How do you basically trade your tired old brain in for a new one?
And how do you know when it’s time to simply give up, and move on to something else?
Meanwhile, my nice brother, Newton, has sent me some photos taken just last week at my niece and nephew’s school Lei Day program. The theme was "Under the Sea." Enjoy, and send me some good, creative vibes, please!
Kindergarten dancing to "Octopus’ Garden" (yay Beatles!)
Second grade dancing to "Surf"
Fifth grade dancing to "Surfin’ USA"
“Even the greatest talent, lacking the craft to develop it, is no more than an itch in the mind; and the higher the potential, of course, the greater the effort needed to bring it to peak achievement.
To sustain the effort, however, means cultivating the capacity to endure loneliness — not that loneliness itself is peculiar to the creative mind. Far from that, the mere fact of being human implies an essential loneliness in each of us — microcosmic as we all are; for universe may communicate with universe, but by their very nature they cannot mingle.
To say, then, that the writer’s lot is a lonely one is not to complain of this, but simply to make the point that to be creative is to be different from those who are not; and so, to that extent also, to be cut off from those others. Yet, ironically, it is out of this even deeper loneliness that the writer hopes to be able to communicate to an extent denied the non-creative ones; and the irony is accentuated by his awareness that he will never really be able to tell how far he has succeeded in this.”
(From TALENT IS NOT ENOUGH, by Mollie Hunter)
Jama's Alphabet Soup 