Still learning to write...

Over the last year I’ve been “working on my craft.” I joined a writers’ society, a critique group, attend monthly Schmooze groups and the odd writers’ conference. I had to after I received multiple rejections for my manuscripts: clearly I needed help.

What an understatement! I started writing children’s books as a blindfolded mountaineer might approach an unknown peak – clueless and unprepared. Not to say I couldn’t do it, only that I didn’t have the necessary tools or information to face the challenge.

This became obvious at the first Schmooze group. The presenter talked about pit falls and bonuses in publishing contracts. I’m pretty sure she spoke English because I understood the occasional “the” or “and.” Other than that, it could have been Peace Corps language training all over again. “Lord God, what was I thinking? Why did you let me do this?” crossed my mind several times.

I’ve talked to writers, listened to more presentation, read hundreds of children’s books, and researched the publishing world a little more since then. And I still feel faintly sick, if better prepared after each writers gathering. Sometimes I wonder if climbing the mountain blind might be less overwhelming.

I brought a chapter of one of my stories to the last meeting. I knew it had problems but couldn’t define them myself. After reading it, my fellows writers said, “You have style, but you don’t know your characters. You don’t have a central problem. Without that, you have no theme, no plot, no change in the main character. It’s not a real story, just an episode and a bit boring at that. But – love the title!”

They said it pleasantly. They gave me suggestions. We discussed possible themes and plot developments. But wow! When you boil it down, after a year, I still can’t manage even the basics of writing a children’s story. I think walking blindly off a cliff is more attractive than dealing with this.

And yet I cannot quit. That critique group removed the blindfold, or at least uncovered one eye and pointed me in the general direction I need to climb. I know my problem; now I have to solve it. But man is that mountain steep! Whose idea was it to climb this anyway?