Writing my story.

     Working on writing my story for a couple of weeks has already brought a few surprises. To start off, I didn't think it would be very hard. I figured I'd type it up, revise it a few times and be ready to start on illustrating... haha not so!

     The story I'm creating is a classic children's story with a twist. I have told this story verbally countless times to siblings, kids in elementary school and also to my own children. Each time I have told it a little different. In some ways I think this has helped. I have lots of fun ideas circling in my brain. In other ways it has made it more challenging. I have too many fun ideas circling in my brain. Making decisions isn't my strong point.

     I've started several versions of the story and haven't finished any of them. I get to the point where it doesn't feel like it's going in the right direction, there is too much detail in the wrong places or I got bored with it (not a good sign). Part of it seemed to come from trying to please an audience that hasn't even read my story. I would write something and then think about what someone else might think of it. Then I would start to feel self-conscious about my idea and start over.

     I started falling into a slump, even though I had only been working at this story for a short amount of time. An article I found called 5 Ways for Writers to Blast Through Self-Doubt written by Jon Bard really helped. One main point that I got out of this article was do not write to please everyone. If you write to please the general population your not going to be unique but mediocre instead. Write what you love and it will speak to the right people.

     This made me think about painting. I've found that when I take greater risks and paint bolder I get better results. On the other hand if I am timid or worried that I might ruin it with each new brush stroke there is nothing eye catching about the picture. Better bold and maybe have to redo it than timid and make nothing special.

     I also came across  Six Steps to Make Your Children's Story Sparkle by Laura Backes. She has some really good tips for polishing up a rough draft. My favorite quote from her article is that "you can't adequately edit a story you poured your soul into without first removing some of your ego. So get a bit of distance. Put the manuscript aside for at least a week; two weeks is better. Then, as you read through the story from start to finish, pretend that someone else wrote it." This is so important! When I've been working on something really hard my mind fills in any gaps I leave and ignores mistakes. If I leave my writing, then come back to it with fresh eyes, I am more successful at finding what needs to be fixed.

     Feeling good about the progress I have made this week. This next week my goal is to learn a little more about what is "expected" for a children's book, i.e. word count, pages, formatting. I'm hoping to get a complete rough draft done. I have to keep reminding myself that it's not going to be perfect... that's why it's called a ROUGH draft. Then while I'm waiting for my ego to be removed from my story I can start some sketching :) 

Enjoy your week!