Writerly thoughts!
Here's where you'll find links to places where I have been interviewed or been a guest blogger about writing in general.
Also, you can find me interviewing up-and-coming children's authors and blogging about writing every month over at the Just Write For Kids Website here.
Find out Five Fantastic Facts about me at Young Author's Academy - November 2017
Read and author Interview with me on Kellie Byrnes Blog - December 2017
Melissa Writes: Friday Five Blog - 5 ways that writing is like playing with LEGO. Read it on Melissa's blog here
or read on for an 'appropriated' version:
5 ways that writing is like playing with LEGO
(or everything I know about writing I learned from LEGO)
I like to think of writing as play – playing with words and ideas to create something that excites readers to think differently. As writers, we often have the idea that writing is work, and we feel angst when it isn’t going how we would like. If we think of writing as play it removes it from the realm of chore into pleasure. It’s an analogy I use when talking with kids in schools – and in these days of writing on computers, it’s an easy concept for kids to visualise words, sentences and paragraphs as blocks to delete, cut and paste etc, – just like re-arranging LEGO bricks. Both forms of play are imaginative, whether you build buildings or stories – you have an idea in your head that you want to represent in a concrete form, and you manipulate elements (bricks or words) to do it. It’s fun – bringing form to the formless – in one case from a puddle of blocks on the floor, and in the other from fragments of ideas floating around inside your head.
So what are 5 ways writing is like playing with LEGO?
Writing Process Blog Tour
This was posted on my Blog on the 13th April 2014 and I thought it would be good to have it recorded here - it was part of a blog tour about how my writing process works:
What am I working on?
This blog post – it’s the most creative I’ve been since my first picture book, When I See Grandma was recently released - I’m in overdrive promoting it and trying to work out the vagaries of social media and how to harness it for good (my book’s good, that is), and trying not to pull my hair out in the process.
Having said that, there are always formless ideas whizzing around my head and jotted on scraps of paper – some of them make it to the safety of my writing box, and some even manage to be written neatly into my notebook, if they are really, really lucky. One idea has taken the form of a dragon named Lucinda-Daisy with unusual traits. What she does with these traits is yet to be discovered!
How does my work differ from others of its genre?
It doesn't, it’s just as gorgeous as all the other picture books! But it’s not weird, way out, wacky and laugh -out -loud funny though (yet!). My current picture book reflects a stage of life that is rarely covered in picture books – when someone you love is unresponsive due to illness - and it speaks to both children and adults on different levels. My other writing projects are just as heartfelt (I think it’s the Social Worker in me) but lighter in subject matter.
Why do I write what I do?
I write because a snippet of something touches me on an emotional and/or imaginative level in some way and I want to explore it, stretch it, and see where it goes.
I write because I love the feeling of bringing form from the formless fragments in my head - it is a hard slog sometimes, but it is the next best thing to giving birth!
I write picture books because I simply love picture books – they are visually, linguistically and narratively appealing, and as I learned in Psych 1 – “The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.”(I don’t think my psychology lecturer came up with this idea himself!). As a mother I've seen the power these beautiful books have to speak into children’s lives, grab them emotionally and offer a shared framework for families to view and discus their world. Plus ...they are delivered with a cosy snuggle in bed and kiss goodnight – and what could be better than that??
How does my writing process work?
It starts with being ‘grabbed’ by an idea to be tossed around in my head. It's usually something I've seen or a turn of phrase that inspires me. The idea for When I See Grandma came from taking my daughters to visit my mother as she was declining with dementia.The current idea for Lucinda-Daisy came when I was playing with lego, and the name came from a friend's daughter - (not that I'm saying my friend's daughter is a dragon!!). When I know I’ll have a good slab of time to be uninterrupted, I sit down on a comfy lounge with paper and pencil, scribbling and sketching ideas. Sitting up straight and typing on a computer comes later – that’s the hard work (as is resisting procrastination), it's slow and laborious, looking for just the right word or combination of words – I can get lost for hours pursuing a word trail on Thesaurus.com, or drive my family crazy when I’m on a word hunt!
I get my best breakthroughs driving in the car. It’s just as well my car is a mess of scrap papers, torn open envelopes and the like, in fact, my car could double for rubbish truck.
Once I’m happy-ish with the first draft, I go in search of honest feedback – the family is no good for this, I have to look further afield to a writing buddy and/or submit to a competition that gives feedback. Then, when I find out that the end of my story is really the beginning - it’s back to rewriting! When I feel like I'm close to getting it, I send the next draft for more feedback - perhaps a manuscript assessment agency as I did for When I See Grandma.Then its back to rewriting until it's ready to be sent off to the publisher..
Also, you can find me interviewing up-and-coming children's authors and blogging about writing every month over at the Just Write For Kids Website here.
Find out Five Fantastic Facts about me at Young Author's Academy - November 2017
Read and author Interview with me on Kellie Byrnes Blog - December 2017
Melissa Writes: Friday Five Blog - 5 ways that writing is like playing with LEGO. Read it on Melissa's blog here
or read on for an 'appropriated' version:
5 ways that writing is like playing with LEGO
(or everything I know about writing I learned from LEGO)
I like to think of writing as play – playing with words and ideas to create something that excites readers to think differently. As writers, we often have the idea that writing is work, and we feel angst when it isn’t going how we would like. If we think of writing as play it removes it from the realm of chore into pleasure. It’s an analogy I use when talking with kids in schools – and in these days of writing on computers, it’s an easy concept for kids to visualise words, sentences and paragraphs as blocks to delete, cut and paste etc, – just like re-arranging LEGO bricks. Both forms of play are imaginative, whether you build buildings or stories – you have an idea in your head that you want to represent in a concrete form, and you manipulate elements (bricks or words) to do it. It’s fun – bringing form to the formless – in one case from a puddle of blocks on the floor, and in the other from fragments of ideas floating around inside your head.
So what are 5 ways writing is like playing with LEGO?
- LEGO builders are inspired by others, they investigate how buildings are put together to help build their own – they take them apart and put them back together, or use a manual to see how it’s done. Good writers are inspired by others too – that’s why is vital to read, read, read… and think about how great stories are put together. Using writing guides and resources are also helpful.
- Master builders are not made overnight. It takes lots of play to understand how things fit and work together to be able to eventually produce something fabulous. It takes a lot of playing around time to become good at the craft of writing too –so write, write, write…
- A LEGO masterpiece is rarely built perfect the first time – it takes a lot of placing blocks, removing blocks, rearranging blocks, changing blocks to get it right – just like writing: Draft, redraft, rearrange, add, redraft, edit, redraft….
- Playing together often builds better structures – feedback provides insight and inspiration and a better product for both building with bricks and words – a writing community is invaluable.
- The bigger the range of blocks you have, the more interesting your creation can be. To write, words and how they are structured are the building blocks for stories – build up a good word bank and knowledge of language and literary devices.
Writing Process Blog Tour
This was posted on my Blog on the 13th April 2014 and I thought it would be good to have it recorded here - it was part of a blog tour about how my writing process works:
What am I working on?
This blog post – it’s the most creative I’ve been since my first picture book, When I See Grandma was recently released - I’m in overdrive promoting it and trying to work out the vagaries of social media and how to harness it for good (my book’s good, that is), and trying not to pull my hair out in the process.
Having said that, there are always formless ideas whizzing around my head and jotted on scraps of paper – some of them make it to the safety of my writing box, and some even manage to be written neatly into my notebook, if they are really, really lucky. One idea has taken the form of a dragon named Lucinda-Daisy with unusual traits. What she does with these traits is yet to be discovered!
How does my work differ from others of its genre?
It doesn't, it’s just as gorgeous as all the other picture books! But it’s not weird, way out, wacky and laugh -out -loud funny though (yet!). My current picture book reflects a stage of life that is rarely covered in picture books – when someone you love is unresponsive due to illness - and it speaks to both children and adults on different levels. My other writing projects are just as heartfelt (I think it’s the Social Worker in me) but lighter in subject matter.
Why do I write what I do?
I write because a snippet of something touches me on an emotional and/or imaginative level in some way and I want to explore it, stretch it, and see where it goes.
I write because I love the feeling of bringing form from the formless fragments in my head - it is a hard slog sometimes, but it is the next best thing to giving birth!
I write picture books because I simply love picture books – they are visually, linguistically and narratively appealing, and as I learned in Psych 1 – “The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.”(I don’t think my psychology lecturer came up with this idea himself!). As a mother I've seen the power these beautiful books have to speak into children’s lives, grab them emotionally and offer a shared framework for families to view and discus their world. Plus ...they are delivered with a cosy snuggle in bed and kiss goodnight – and what could be better than that??
How does my writing process work?
It starts with being ‘grabbed’ by an idea to be tossed around in my head. It's usually something I've seen or a turn of phrase that inspires me. The idea for When I See Grandma came from taking my daughters to visit my mother as she was declining with dementia.The current idea for Lucinda-Daisy came when I was playing with lego, and the name came from a friend's daughter - (not that I'm saying my friend's daughter is a dragon!!). When I know I’ll have a good slab of time to be uninterrupted, I sit down on a comfy lounge with paper and pencil, scribbling and sketching ideas. Sitting up straight and typing on a computer comes later – that’s the hard work (as is resisting procrastination), it's slow and laborious, looking for just the right word or combination of words – I can get lost for hours pursuing a word trail on Thesaurus.com, or drive my family crazy when I’m on a word hunt!
I get my best breakthroughs driving in the car. It’s just as well my car is a mess of scrap papers, torn open envelopes and the like, in fact, my car could double for rubbish truck.
Once I’m happy-ish with the first draft, I go in search of honest feedback – the family is no good for this, I have to look further afield to a writing buddy and/or submit to a competition that gives feedback. Then, when I find out that the end of my story is really the beginning - it’s back to rewriting! When I feel like I'm close to getting it, I send the next draft for more feedback - perhaps a manuscript assessment agency as I did for When I See Grandma.Then its back to rewriting until it's ready to be sent off to the publisher..