In Which I Extol the Value of Connecting with Other Writers

 Whether writing is your full time profession, your side gig, or the hobby your pursue in your few snippets of spare time that you really wish you had more time for, it can be a very lonely pursuit. Your actual creating takes place when you're alone in your office, or on the bed or couch with your laptop, or wherever you create. A rare writer might make use of some kind of community office space, but, as a general rule, there's no office filled with people to go into when you're a writer.

That's why it's so important to connect with other writers. Where would I find these writers, you ask? Why, social media, of course. Social media can be a minefield for a writer. There's conflicting advice all over the place, there are published writers making you feel like you'll never be as good as they are, there are all kinds of shiny, fun things to distract you from actually, you know, writing. However, it can also be a gold mine for meeting other writers you connect with. In my experience, the best way to do that is participate in contests, pitch events, and other writing an pitching opportunities available.

I met my first writing friends a year ago when I signed up for a workshop with Kathy Ver Eecke from getabookdeal101.com about perfecting the perfect pitch for a twitter pitch party. I didn't even end up pitching a book that month. I decided my manuscript wasn't ready. However, what did happen was that another woman who writes book for kids asked if any other children's writers would be open to forming a critique group over Facebook. I said I was interested, and, through that group, met three other writers who have been invaluable companions along the path, serving sometimes as beta readers and sometimes as more in depth critique partners. One has since moved to writing for adults, but we still have a lot to give each other.

My second, and even more amazing, find, happened when I applied to Pitch Wars this year. Pitch Wars pairs up writers with mentors who work with them to perfect their manuscript over a few months and ends with an agent showcase. Many, many times more people apply than are accepted for memberships, but there's a lot of buzz about it on Twitter during the application process, and it's pretty easy to spot other writers who are participating in your genre. I was invited into a message group of writers who had submitted middle grade manuscripts, and it was there that I really feel I found "my people". We've since moved most of our conversations over the Slack, but it remains an amazing, diverse group of people with whom I can be totally honest about issues of writing, questions about how to fairly portray characters who are different from me, and more.

Sometimes, as an aspiring published writer, it's easy to get jealous of the social media relationships you observe between published writers. This isn't always true, but often those relationships developed when the writers were going through the query trenches together. If you look around, you too can find writers in whatever stage you're in and band together to support each other. The #mgwaves have formed a bond, so I'm sorry to say you can't jump in with us, but you can find your own group of waves to catch. They might even cheer you on when you buy an ornament to represent your latest book.

In Which I Need to Eat My Words - Which Might Come in Handy Because I Can't Seem to Make Dinner and Write a Book at the Same Time

 Remember earlier this month when  I wrote  that I had stopped setting definite goals by which I absolutely must be agented or published. I was going to take the rest of the month off to read, and I had accepted the fact that I was not going to have a manuscript ready for PitMad in December and that that was okay.

Well, that lasted less than a week. I suddenly got an inspiration for my Nutcracker inspired contemporary fantasy. I knew approximately what would happen and I knew that one of the things driving the MC's desire to succeed in his quest was his desire to prove to himself that he could thrive despite his recent diagnosis of type 1 diabetes. It seems I have a penchant for creating main characters with some type of struggle. As the mother of a type 1 diabetic I am particularly appalled both by the lack of characters in children's books with T1D and by the fact that, on the rare occasion they occur, the condition is often portrayed inaccurately.

From that point on I wrote furiously. New characters appeared that I hadn't even imagined before I started writing, let alone fleshed out (when I'm brainstorming a new book my first step is always to write a background for all of the important characters). It turned out there was another important mouse, a best friend I didn't know existed, and a set of cousins from Germany.

It all went amazingly well. The book is out to beta readers as of yesterday, and, while it's not guaranteed, it's quite possible I will have a new book ready to pitch in December after all. All that contemporary and urban fantasy I was going to read? Yeah, it's still on my to be read pile, otherwise known as the end table beside the big, comfy chair I usually write in.

I'm pretty proud of myself for getting an idea and sticking with it even though it went against my original plan. You know what I'm not proud of, though? The fact that I am apparently incapable of cooking dinner while writing a book. Actually, I need to rewrite that sentence. It is really difficult for me to simultaneously work on a book I'm excited about, supervise remote learning for three kids (only two are mine, but my 4th grader has a podmate who comes to our house), and remember to do the things I need to do to cook dinner.

Monday was the prime example. Plan A for dinner was a pot roast in the crockpot. Well, as soon as I got back from my morning walk I fired up my computer so I could get to work. Between 8:30 and noon I only actually got about an hour of work time, due to a combination of interruptions from kids and my own ridiculous compulsion to check social media instead of actually accomplishing something. When I went into the kitchen to make lunch for the kids I saw the Crockpot on the counter. That had nothing in it. 

I then initiated plan B. I would put a lasagna together after lunch and stick it in the fridge. At 4pm all I had to do was heat up the oven and stick the lasagna in and it would be ready in an hour. At 4pm I dutifully went into the kitchen and turned on the oven. A little after 5 I was helping my high schooler with an assignment and went to check on the lasagna. The oven was working away - heating absolutely nothing. The lasagna, dear readers, was still in the fridge.

There was no time to both cook it and eat it before three of us had to leave for a Cub Scout meeting at 6pm. I stuck it in the oven anyway. My teenager, who was not going to the meeting, go to eat it when it was fresh. My 9 year old, who doesn't like lasagna, ate spaghetti before we had to leave, which she was going to do anyway. My poor husband and I had to wait until after the meeting and eat warmed up lasagna. 

I've been spending some time in the evenings narrating what I wrote that day to my 9 year old. Since I was done, yesterday she asked me about my ideas for my next book. My husband commented, "I'm glad that you're writing and excited about it, but could you figure out how to also make dinner when you're excited about a book?"

I will try mightily. I promise. However, I cannot guarantee that my family will not be eating cereal for dinner at some point.