Community (from thewildwriters.com)

My friend and critique partner, Laura, wrote about community and how it helps as we wrestle with questions like Am I a real writer? Don’t “real” writers earn money? How can I justify spending the money to take another class/attend another conference/fill-in-the-blank when I haven’t actually published anything yet? I hope you find her answer as inspiring as I do:

Community

The long haul

For many writers, especially those who started seriously pursuing publication decades ago, the Holy Grail, the mark of being a “real” writer, is having a book published by one of the big New York publishing houses. Being a writer who’s been seriously pursuing this marker of success for twelve years, with a first attempt at it some twenty-five years ago, there have been many times along the way when I’ve felt like a failure. For the last four years people have been telling me I’m “so close.”

I doubt I would have stuck with it this long, no matter how strong the calling, if I hadn’t had critique groups along the way. I co-founded a group twenty years ago that offered primarily support and encouragement, as we were all beginning to learn our craft. Several years later, after finding the Rocky Mountain Chapter of SCBWI, I helped to start another group focused on children’s writing, which led me to the Wild Writers.

To read the rest of this post, please visit my critique group’s cooperative blog at www.thewildwriters.com.

Living Life

I’m just coming off a summer of feeling stuck as a writer. Seriously, I was the Virginia Woolf rocks-in-my-pockets kind of down over my persistent lack of flow, especially because writing—and writing prolifically—is an integral part of how I define myself.

For the longest time, I took my standard beating-my-head-against-the-wall approach. I forced myself to sit at my desk. I scrawled words on pages, even though I felt like they sucked. (And, by the way, they did). I read a ton of books for inspiration; I quit reading for a while in order to better hear my own voice. Nothing helped.

Read more >>

Hope and Inspiration on the Writing Road

My friend Laura just showed me the new-new-new-new-new beginning for her YA novel Bone Temple. It’s the result of much soul-searching (and head-banging?) after reviewers at the Pikes Peak Writers Conference pronounced the old opening unsatisfactory. (I disagreed :).)

The new opening—the one I didn’t think she needed to write—is magical. It’s engaging, curiosity-inspiring, and absolutely perfect.

Laura is one of my favorite YA fantasy writers, which is unfortunate for most of the world because she hasn’t yet “broken into” the YA publishing scene. Luckily for me (and my kids, who occasionally kidnap her manuscripts when I bring them home for critique), I’m in her critique group and get to enjoy her stories. I’ve gotten to watch over the years as her writing—always very good—deepened and became more magical.

In case you haven’t guessed it yet, I’m an avid Laura fan. If her books were in print, I’d own every single one…and this latest surpasses them all, with words, character, setting, and story twining together like strands in a cord. It’s the kind of book that makes your heart ache with both sympathy and joy, the kind of book that takes you for a gripping ride and ultimately satisfies.

Laura exemplifies the many reasons that my writing friends are so dear to me. It’s not just that we get each other (which we do) or that we’re crazy in many of the same ways (which we are); it’s also that, as I watch Laura’s writing journey, her ups and downs along the way and her amazing growth as a writer—it gives me hope as I travel my own writing path.

:) Cheryl

Rich Writers: Cicily Janus

Rich Writers is a series of interviews with writers at various stages of their careers, sharing their thoughts on how to balance writing with the rest of life and how to thrive on the writers’ road.

Cheryl: Where are you on your writing road?

Cicily Janus reports: I’m in a very good place right now, because I have ideas that are working for me, and not ideas that I’m not sure will work. Instead, I’m in that sweet spot where my pitch has worked. I have an agent who believes in me, despite some extensive hand-holding.

I only got here by walking through some very “salty spots”, though, the coarse kind that hurts!
Now, I have validation for what I’m trying to do. 

Cheryl: What’s been the most helpful tool or resource along the way?

Cicily: Reading the right kinds of books. If you’re writing nonfiction, read nonfiction, etc.
I get tired of people saying, “I don’t have time to read.” Artists look at art, musicians listen to music—why should writers be any different?

Another thing that’s been really helpful to me as a writer? Actually WRITING and not wasting my time doing a lot of other things. There’s nothing like getting the words down, rather than just sitting around thinking about it!

It’s also been helpful for me to listen to music lyrics. People don’t realize the power of telling a story in two or three minutes. That’s the ultimate flash fiction. Listen to music, especially country or the blues, how they put a whole story in a few lines. People don’t listen to music enough in terms of listening to what the power of words can do.

Cheryl: How do you balance writing with the rest of your life?

Cicily: My family really influences me as a writer—they make me take pause and realize that what I’m doing is only a part of who I am.

Sometimes I get stuck when I’m writing. I tend to forget that I’m a writer with children and a husband, and they’re very much a part of me and not just something there.

I also take advantage of the captive audience I have at home!

I think a lot of women miss out on this because they say, “Go away, I’m busy” when they could be calling their kids over and asking questions, like: What if you took God and put him in Manhattan? What would be the coolest thing about that? You’d be surprised what they’ll say.
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Random House author Cicily Janus has lived in too many states to count on one hand. Now, she's thought to be living in Colorado with an assortment of friends, animals, family members and more. The voices have taken over and resulted in a pretty sweet deal from Random House. Her non-fiction book, The New Face of Jazz is due out on shelves in the Summer of 2010. Other projects in the wings include a children's book, a biography of Diane Schuur, a novel about a sleep-deprived pilot and more. She also writes for Downbeat Magazine, Westword/Village Voice and offers private writing and editing sessions.

For kicks she nourishes the souls of other creatives at her semi-annual writing retreat in Breckenridge, CO: Writing Away Retreats. If you want to know more about Cicily in general, you can check out her website at or email her at creativelivesworkshop@hotmail.com. But, if you are a friendly publishing guru and would like to speak legalese with a contract in mind, please contact her super-duper agent, Gary Heidt of Signature Lit. He rocks.