Chris Eboch on Write a Book to Save the World – or At Least Yourself #amwriting

In the last year (and a few months), many writers have posted blogs or articles about how they are feeling discouraged, sometimes too discouraged to write. It can be hard to see the value in writing fiction when the world is burning. Other writers face crises in their personal lives, or struggle with depression. Sometimes it's easy to find reasons not to write, and hard to find reasons why you should.

At our January SCBWI Shop Talk meeting in New Mexico, we discussed this issue. How can you feel motivated to write when times are tough? How can you dedicate time to writing when there are so many other important things to do? How can you keep believing that your writing has value, when you're not getting published?

In the Writer Unboxed post Write a Book, Save the World, Bryn Greenwood quotes people describing the book that saved them. For one it was a book that showed someone surviving the Holocaust, letting the reader know she too might survive her dismal life. Another mentioned the first time he read a book where being sensitive was shown as a good thing. For others it was the first time they saw a representation of someone like themselves

When writing for young readers, you never know what effect your book might have. It may be the novel that helps a child fall in love with reading. It could be the book that inspires them to be better, stronger, kinder. My favorite fan letter came from a young reader who said of The Well of Sacrifice, "It inspired me to never give up, just like Eveningstar."

Our books can show kindness and courage. They can help young readers explore different ways of living. They can act as mirrors and windows.

And they can offer escape. Never underestimate the value of escape. Many readers have gotten through terrible times, such as medical treatments or the loss of a family member, by escaping into books.

Saving Yourself

What about unpublished books? If you've never sold a manuscript and are losing hope that you might, you might find it that much harder to keep writing. But the books you write can still benefit you. “If you only have to save one person to save humanity, then saving yourself counts,” Bryn says.

Anne Lamott notes that publication won't heal you – “But writing can.”

I am a full-time writer who needs to make an income, and I have deadlines, which means I have to sit down and write even when I don't feel like it. But most of that work is nonfiction educational publishing. I could give up on writing my own novels. Yet I know I feel better when I'm working on a personal project. It feeds my spirit in a way nothing else can.

If you can't write anything else, keep a journal. Not only will it give you a way to share your thoughts, but it will keep you in the habit of writing. When things improve, or when you're feeling stronger, that will make it easier to get back into writing stories.

So please, keep writing. For the world, for yourself. If you need more advice on how to survive the hard times, check out this article on “How to Stay Sane if Trump is Driving You Insane.”

Anne Lamott adds one more tip: “Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes, including you.” It's okay to take a break once in a while.

For more thoughts on how to combine your writing and social justice, see my August post on Art and Activism.

Chris Eboch is the author of over 50 books for children, including nonfiction and fiction, early reader through teen. Her novels for ages nine and up include The Eyes of Pharaoh, a mystery in ancient Egypt; The Well of Sacrifice, a Mayan adventure; The Genie’s Gift, a middle eastern fantasy; and the Haunted series, about kids who travel with a ghost hunter TV show, which starts with The Ghost on the Stairs.

Chris’s writing craft books include Advanced Plotting and You Can Write for Children: How to Write Great Stories, Articles, and Books for Kids and Teenagers.

Learn more at https://chriseboch.com/ or her Amazon page, or check out her writing tips at her Write Like a Pro! blog.

Chris also writes for adults under the name Kris Bock. Kris Bock writes action-packed romantic suspense involving outdoor adventures amidst Southwestern landscapes. Read excerpts at www.krisbock.com or visit her Amazon page.

Sprints and Marathons by Kell Andrews

To have a sustained writing career, you need to run both short and long distances. 

 

 

I'm thrilled to finally announce here that my next picture book, The Book Dragon, illustrated by Éva Chatelain, will be published in fall 2018 by Sterling Children's Books. I got the contract offer January 5. 

Are you thinking that this is moving awfully fast from contract offer to publication? Not really, since the contract offer was more than a year ago, January 5, 2017, and I wrote the story in the long-ago optimistic days of 2016. 

That's a long haul for a short book. 

Then again, publishing is always a long haul.

"It's a marathon, not a sprint." Or is it?

To the contrary, writing a picture book is a sprint. It takes a lot longer to write each word in a 500 page book, but it does not (with rare exceptions) take as long as a 50,000 one. Rewriting is another sprint, maybe the next heat, while writing the next story is another race entirely.

To have a career in picture books, you need to string those sprints together until they approach something like a marathon. Last year I drafted and polished six manuscripts, and I'm not even prolific. So far I'm sprinting again and again, with the results being an every-other-year publishing schedule. That's a lot of writing for each published manuscript.

Novels are marathons. Or are they?

Novels are marathon you can turn into sprints. Writing a novel is a daunting process. It takes months or even years. Staring down an empty page, putting your butt in that chair day after day -- it's intimidating.

It's a marathon that I personally need to break into sprints to make it manageable. Half-hour writing sprints, writing by act, even middle-distance events like NaNo can put manageable interim goals into place so you don't have to stare down that long, long distance from the blank page to "the end."

And when you're lucky enough to get a contract, you inevitably have a few more sprints ahead -- revisions often land back in the writer's inbox at the worst times, and with not enough time attached. 

It's always a long haul.

Yes, even for picture books, maybe even especially, since illustrated books tend to take longer from contract to publication. There's an excellent chance my Fall 2018 date will change into a Spring 2019 one.

That's OK. It gives me plenty of time fit in a half-dozen sprints, or even a full marathon.

Everyday Heroes

Yep, that pretty much sums up a cold snap.

A couple weeks ago the temperature dipped to 40 below. Yeah, our first cold snap of the season came early and broke a bunch of low temperature records.

I love exercising outside. I’ve been running and biking at forty below and colder, but sometimes it’s hard to get motivated to get out the door when it is that cold. I had to do something, so I decided to go for a short walk.

I’d been walking for about ten minutes when I heard footsteps behind me. It was my neighbor. My eighty-two year-old neighbor. Running.

He doesn’t run fast, and he’s always a little hunched over, but he runs every day. It doesn’t matter how hot or cold or snowy or rainy it is—he runs.

We’ve exchanged a few words over the eleven years I’ve lived in the neighborhood, but mostly we just wave at each other. I know he started running relatively late in life, after being very ill.

A day rarely passes when I don’t think about him. He’s an everyday hero who inspires me to keep pushing myself in all areas of my life. I’ve told all my friends and family, near and far, about him.

Even though I barely know him, I am thankful that he's in my life. 

Do you have any everyday heroes in your life who rock your world?

Happy Thanksgiving!!