The Writing Bug...

I have a book inside of me just waiting to get out. It's been trying for about 30 years. I think that's one reason many of us do this blogging/messageboarding thing. Just a love of putting the words on "paper"-virtual or otherwise.

Many years ago I wrote a children's book called "Zinnia's Vegetable Garden". It was a tale of a nice little rabbit who lived in a cute little cottage and worked in her garden to earn her spending money. It even had a moral: Work hard and get money-don't work and get zip! (Well, it was couched in nicer language, but that was basically it.) In short, it was pretty predictable. My mom, who is a very good writer herself, volunteered to look it over and make suggestions. After that I sent it off with a nice cover letter. To make a long story short, I was looking at the rejection slip just the other day...

But I'm not givin' up! Well, I may give up on the idea of actually making money at writing, but I finally realized that it's the journey I enjoy, not necessarily the end product. So a few days ago I started a "tween" novel, aimed at the 10-12 year old set. Right now I'm just having fun making notes concerning the characters, possible plotlines, whether to write it in third person omniscient or some other "voice", and all those other fun details of sketching things out before beginning to actually write anything. And you know, if I stay at this stage for months that'll be just fine. I'm having fun and, for me, that's what it's all about.

I'm also learning by reading "Children's Writer's and Illustrator's Market" which has many really helpful and interesting articles on writing for children. Maybe someday I'll know enough to rewrite "Zinnia's" scintillating tale and send it off once more!