By Kelly Carey

Last week Annie invited you to give your writing the gift of compassion. This week, let’s continue the gift giving.  

Give your writing self the gift of encouragement.

This summer, I took a class taught by Charlesbridge editor Karen Boss. At the end of class, Karen asked us to write ourselves  letters.  The letters were an opportunity to chat about our writing hopes, dreams, and goals. Karen collected the letters and tucked them away. Five months later my letter appeared in my mailbox and it was the most wonderful gift.

I had totally forgotten about the letter and what little nuggets were scribbled on the page. What I found was a pep talk from the person who knows and understands my writing journey the most. In the letter, I reminded myself to believe in my writing skills, gave myself advice on how to set goals and keep at them, and included encouraging words along my road to publication.

I have read the letter half a dozen times and each time my writing spirit feels invigorated and motivated.  My very own words have given me a wonderful new soundtrack to play in my head whenever I need to banish self-doubt or that nasty negative voice that likes to make noise and derail my creative energy. My letter has become a powerful tool on my road to writing success.

I am going to encourage you to send your writing self a letter. Be positive and encouraging in your letter. Seal it up and tuck it away, or give it to a writing friend or a critique partner and ask them to mail it in five months (maybe just in time for your six month June Year’s Eve goal assessment).  Five months from now you will be grateful for the words you put on the paper.

~by Amanda Smith

I have always had a gut feeling that writing poetry is a precursor to writing well.  Only recently, while preparing a poetry workshop for middle school students, did I realize how strongly I believe in the poetry connection.

During my kids’ baby and toddler years, I didn’t have the strength, time, or mental capacity (Mommy brain, anyone?) to write long pieces. I pushed writing to the very outer circle of my priorities, but somewhere in my youngest’s second year the need to write wiggled its way right into the center of my being. I jotted down ideas, struggles, joys, and observations in free verse. As I played with words, clapped rhythms, and rearranged sentences, within me, something awoke again. And it grew. It grew into picture books, and early readers, and novels.

Even all these years and manuscripts later, the poetry that called me from my writer’s slumber is still relevant. Because what we learn in writing and studying poetry, translates to every kind of writing.

What do we gain when we write poetry?

• Self-discovery
  •  The style and length parameters of poetry compel us to promptly find the heart of who we are in the moment, and what we want to express. The ability to dig for heart is essential in plotting and character development.

• Economic language use
  • Writing within the limits of poetry, we learn that every word counts, so we’d better pick the right ones. Writing poetry hones our ability to recognize the right word.

• Self-expression
  • Writing poetry is an excuse to feel all the feels. Remember those angsty teenage poems in the back of your high school notebooks? (I refuse to believe I was the only one.) Pouring emotions onto a page in poetic form, allows writers to play with expression. What is too melodramatic? How and when do I turn the volume down? What happens to the impact of a piece when I turn the emotional volume down? Different characters express emotions on different levels. Have you written poetry from your characters’ point of view? It might help you narrow down their voice, or  you might discover something about their emotional state.
• Unlocking imagination
  • Even though poetry is constraining in form, thematically, anything goes. Writing down silliness or sometimes lyrical nonsense accesses a playfulness in the brain – that part that asks “What if?”

• Sensory awareness
  • Because poetry leans heavily on sensory perception, when we write poetry we pay more attention with all our senses. We learn to think beyond sight and hearing. We learn to link emotion and atmosphere to senses.
  • And since there is also no room to tell, we learn to show.

• Lyrical language
  • Poetic devices translate to lyrical writing in prose.

I spent a big part of Monday writing limericks. I can’t remember when last I had so much fun. The silliness of it all, within the seriousness of the form. The absolute thrill of finding just the right rhyming words to deliver that guffaw in the last line. Playfulness unlocking imagination and humor. Play, play, play.

South African poet Carina Stander challenged herself in high school to write a new poem every second Sunday.  She still does that. Ame Dyckman regularly tweets haiku-like observations. Kate DiCamillo often posts lyrical reflections on social media. Jane Yolen starts every work day by writing a poem. Considering their careers, I have to believe they're onto something. We need to shake this pressure that everything we write has to be for the book, or go in the book.

Will you explore the poetry connection with me? I’m challenging myself to produce a poem a week. Come join me. Our play has purpose.
 

By Francine Puckly

Like many of you, I take my continuing education and improvement of my craft seriously. I attend numerous workshops and writing conferences each year, and I collect handouts and scribble down pages of helpful notes as presenters take me through plotting and character development exercises, marketing tips and Scrivener tutorials. It’s a wealth of information. But what happens once I’m home? The notes are stacked on a desk or worse…tucked away in haphazard fashion, never to be seen nor heard from again.

By Kelly J. Carey

Thank you to all those who joined our 2nd Annual 24 Carrot Writing Trick or Treat Party.

We shared some writing tricks like opening a Goodreads account (I’m a big fan of this tip!), to committing to 10 minutes of writing every day (Francine’s an advocate of a timed daily writing goal!). Amanda suggested flipping your protagonist and antagonist as a writing exercise, and we were encouraged to read in our genre so we would have the wisdom of mentor texts in our brain.  

Treats were shared like the YA novels Calvin by Martine Leavitt and The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman, the MG novel Beyond the Bright Sea by Lauren Wolk, and PBs Applesauce Day by Lisa Amstutz and Grandmother Thorn by Katey Howes.

I love that our 24 Carrot Writing community shared Tricks that included both craft and writing goals, and that our book Treats featured PB, MG and YA!

Our 24 Carrot Trick or Treat Party Winners of signed books are:
Kristi Liberty Mahoney – the A.C. Gaughen YA novel Scarlet
Meg Lysaght Thacher – the Molly B. Burnham MG novel Teddy Mars Almost an Outlaw
Brenda Maier – the Sue Lowell Gallion PB Pug & Pig Trick or Treat

If you are a party winner – please PM us with your address.

Thanks for joining the 24 Carrot Writing Trick or Treat Party!