Down With The Blog

Writers should not blog! We are too easily distracted!

Yup, I’ve found another excuse for not writing. It’s the fault of “the blog”. I should be sifting novel ideas in my notebook right now but I can’t possibly do that until I’ve finished blogging. Hah!

Actually I did get some writing done over the last couple of days. I worked on a picture book idea and I would love to blog about it. Picture book ideas are always fun to talk about. They usually have a unique little twist and this one has a twist that makes me smile broadly. I want to talk about it!

But I’ve learned. Ideas need time to grow and change within my head. If I talk about a story too soon, it somehow loses energy and when that happens I lose interest. Disaster!

So I’ll keep it trapped in my fevered brain for now and let it shift and move around. With luck, more sides of the story will be revealed. Even when they are simply written, the best picture book stories still have lots of layers to them.

Right now, however, I’m finished blogging and I’m off to my notebook to work on an idea for a novel.

Don’t forget to enter the NAME MY DOG contest! Details on the blog below along with pictures. You can enter even if you KNOW the name of my dog….because I will draw from a hat if lots of correct answers come in. And beside there is also the second half of the contest GIVE MY DOG ANOTHER NAME. Guess lots. Guess often. Hint: my dog was originally named by a previous owner and was named for something about her appearance. Contest closes November 21st!

Next Blog Monday November19th

Hazel Hutchins

A Contest

I discovered something this morning. If you try to take a picture of a computer screen with a digital camera you get “flicker” effect…which is why I had to take 300 photographs in order to get one where the message actually appears on the screen.

A Contest! Yes! Actually it’s 2 contests.

1. Guess My Dog’s Name

2. Best Name for My Dog that isn’t really her name.

The prize is a TJ book. One winner per contest. If there is more than one correct answer, I’ll get my dog to help me make a random selection.

I’ve been trying to start a new novel. Not successful yet. Gaaaa. The scary part is that if I think about it consciously, I come to the conclusion that it’s impossible to write a story. How can you write the beginning when you don’t know what the middle is going to be? But how can you write the middle without knowing how it all starts? And what about characters….don’t you have to know who they are before you can make stuff happen to them? But how can you make stuff happen to them if you don’t know who they are?

I have to keep reminding myself that I CAN do it. I’ve done it many times. Stories build bit by bit, at least that’s how it goes for me. Write a bit. Plan a bit. Think a bit. And then do the same thing over and over. I CAN do it. But at this point it feels like an absurd leap of faith.

Below is a page from a notebook about half way through TJ and the Quiz Kids when some parts had fallen into place but other things made no sense at all. It’s got some very definite planning….numbered chapters and all. But along the side are notes and doodles …the thinking and writing because all the planning in the world still can’t make a story come alive, it takes the actual words to do that.

Next Blog for me is Thursday Nov. 15. Send dog names by posting messages below or e-mail hjhutch@telusplanet.net .

Thanks for checking in!

Hazel

Dog, Notebook and Doodles

Written anything good yet?

I’ve been sitting on my bed with my dog and my usual three ring notebook. A notebook? The paper kind? Yup, I know it’s old fashioned, archaic, out of touch and backward. But I always start my writing with a notebook because I haven’t figured out how to doodle on my computer yet. I need to doodle! How can I think without doodling?

Sometimes I doodle with a purpose, like when I’m trying to figure out what a three-headed monster costume should look like for a book I’m writing. Okay, this isn’t so much a doodle as an illustration…an illustration that looks like it’s been done by someone who is five years old. Now you know why my publishers have NEVER EVER EVER let me do ANY of the art. I’ve asked! I have! They say NO.

But most of the time the doodles are entirely unconscious. I’m writing, planning, drifting off in story-land and not meaning to doodle at all; suddenly I look down and find something interesting. Okay it still looks like it’s been done by a five year old but at least an INTERESTING five year old.

Doodling is a way into the creative part of my brain. I love the complex and intriguing way brains work. It’s part of what’s behind my latest book, TJ and the Quiz Kids, which arrived in my hands just a few days ago. Okay…you’re right…this is where I fit in a quick a plug for TJ and the Quiz Kids. I want people to read it! I love TJ, Seymour and the cats in all their craziness! But it’s also true that the ways different people think about things…so many thoughts in so many layers…. fascinates me.

Do you doodle? Does it help you think? Do you doodle when you do math? Or when you write? Do you doodle on purpose? Write back and let me know.

Next Blog, Monday November 12th , will have notebook samples of some of the planning, writing and doodling for TJ and the Quiz Kids. And find out what my dog thinks of my latest “story in progress.” Hope I’ve started it by then!.

THANKS FOR READING!

Hazel Hutchins

Teaching Ideas!

If you haven’t been to the Teachers’ Section yet, you might not know we have a monthly teaching contest going.

Our first winner is Russell Stokes, of MacArthur Junior High in Arkansas. He uses Battle of the Bands to start conversations with his students about their goals. He teaches them to reach for their dreams and talks about what it takes to achieve your dreams… and how to deal when they don’t work out.

If you’re a teacher who uses Orca Soundings, submit your teaching ideas for a chance to win fame, fortune, and $40 worth of Orca books.

November Begins

It’s November! More leaves on the ground, more sweaters, and more new books and book launches!

This month the Orca site features our top ten picturebooks, and the featured author is Raquel Rivera, whose new juvenile novel Orphan Ahwak has just been published. Take a look!

And don’t forget to keep watching the blog for guest entries, launch photos, and news.