Writing for Childrens Picture Books Class

Last night was my Writing Class.  It was a 4 hour class, which after a 9 hour day at work is a loooooong time to be sitting scribbling notes.  But I tell you what - it went by fast.

The Teacher is Sally Heinrich who has been writing and illustrating childrens books for over 20 years.  She was lovely.  So real and so easy to talk to.  I have done many writing classes in the last few years, and I have to say, a lot of the Teachers are amazingly full of themselves.  But Sally was lovely. 

We did some exercises and she gave us great tips for getting the creative juices flowing.  Talked a lot about structure, different kinds of Childrens books and lots of other interesting things.  We had to read out some of the exercises we did, which was incredibly scary because I don't usually share my writing.  But it was also good because if I am going to be brave enough to share my writing with a Publisher I need to be brave enough to share it with others first.

One thing she said was that for the next 3 weeks while the class is running (and also continuing on after if we are interested in pursuing writing further) we need to take at least 15 minutes a day for writing.  Any type of writing.  As long as words are coming out.  My first thought was - "Crap, where am I going to find the time for that?"  Then I realise, I write most days anyway.  Here.  So I am already doing this.  What I now need to do is make time several days a week to do some focussed childrens writing.  Be it exercises, working on new stories, or polishing existing ones. 

Here is the thing.  One of my 10 for 10 goals is to send a Childrens story to a Publisher by the end of the year.  I have moved that forward to by the end of June.  By the end of June I want at least one (although maybe more) stories ready to go out into the world.  Which means by the end of the year I will start getting feedback from Publishers.

This is scary.  But that is what change is.  Scary.  And if I don't do it now, I will probably never do it.

xox

EDIT:  Forgot my Daily Goals.

1)  Take some time to write
2)  Go to the library and pay my overdue fine
3)  Drink my water
4)  Have a healthy lunch & dinner
5)  Clean the kitchen up