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Cathy C. Hallhttps://cathychall.wordpress.com/I write, write, write. Then I rewrite, rewrite, rewrite. THEN I submit all those polished-up words out into the world and sell 'em. It's a plan that's worked pretty well.

Writer Training: Write, Edit, Submit

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3children_at_TybeeTomorrow is my mom’s birthday so I’m zipping through business and packing up cupcakes and clothes and cold cream (That’s what Mom asked for–I didn’t know you could still buy cold cream) for a little visit. But I don’t think I’m going to get my submission for Not Your Mother’s Book on Being a Mom finished before I go.

You remember the Not Your Mother’s Book series, right? There are so many of these titles–on moms, cats, golf, RV’s–well, it’s just a smorgasbord of subjects is what it is. If you can’t find a subject to write about then you’re not looking.

And if you’re not writing to submit, then you’re not going anywhere. So how about you pick a title and write a story? Whip out a first draft while you’re sitting in the van, waiting for baseball practice to end. Pen a story instead of watching TV. Make an outline in your head while you’re washing your hair.

Then edit and polish and submit. Make the time to work on it, little by little, till you have a story that’s good to go. It’s important that you write to submit because you’ll write better, knowing that someone else will be reading your work. Not the someone elses in your critique group (though a critique group can be tougher than an editor!). Not your loving mate. Not your friends. Not even your mother.

Send out your story to an editor. Because it’s the little steps along the way that train you up as a writer. Sort of like a mom training up a kid in the way she hopes that kid will go.

My mom did a pretty good job, training me up. Maybe I’ll finish that story before I go, after all.

Tuesday Tips on Writing and Publishing a Book

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ImageIt’s finally here: Children’s Book Week! 

I don’t have a horse in this race, as the expression goes, but I’m still excited to hear about the Children’s Choice Book Awards, 2013. Any minute today, they’ll post those titles, and I’ll take a few minutes to dream about my books and the what ifs that might follow…

Of course, first I have to deal with a little sticky wicket I call “publishing.” So, Tip One:

Book Publishers Accepting Submissions by Location

I can’t say for sure if a regional publisher is an easier sell. But I can say that this list of publishers are accepting submissions (unlike bigger publishers who only accept agented submissions). A local publisher may be a perfect fit for your proposal or manuscript, particularly if your book has a regional bent.

And Tip Two comes from one of my very favorite authors, Margaret Atwood. She shared her Ten Rules of Writing Fiction. Because before I can get my book published, I have to write the best book my brain can bust out. So I particularly liked Rule Ten:

10. Prayer might work. Or reading ­something else. Or a constant visual­isation of the holy grail that is the finished, published version of your resplendent book.

So, yeah. We’re back to publishing. And if I’m going to write and pray and visualize, I might as well dream big.

Like the Children’s Choice Book Awards. (You get a trophy, right?)