The End and The Beginning

I have been preparing and moving toward a lot of change this past year. I began the year participating in Julie Hedlund's 12 Day of Christmas for Writers. It begins the day after Christmas and goes for . . . 12 Days. I am ending the year preparing for 2019 with the same program. (You can too, just follow the link) Last year, I decided my quote or theme for the year would be: Does it Move Your Story Forward?

This theme had a double meaning for me. In writing it meant, do the words and images move the one important thing about the story forward? In life, Am I doing the things that help me to move my life forward toward my writing and art dreams and goals?

By holding to my theme, I gave myself permission to say no or to delay doing things that didnt move my story forward.

It also made it easy for me to join and participate in new classes and activities. I joined the 12x12 Challenge. I began attending SCBWI Illustrator's Group in Illinois. I participated in Tara Lazar's Storystorm and created a long list of story ideas, and then participated in ReFoReMo which helped me get into the "reading lot of picture books" habit. These activities took a lot of time and focus. They really helped me stick to my theme for the year.

I had decided with my husband that I would retire from Library work at the end of 2018. (You can retire from the work, but you are always a librarian.) When the end of last school year was approaching, my husband said, "I reviewed the numbers and I think you should retire now." That was too fast for me. There were only a couple weeks of school left, I wasn't 100% sure I was ready and I needed more time to think about it. So I didn't retire. The school year came to an end, I was writing and beginning to make more art, I took a drawing class and a watercolor class. I was feeling the contentment and bliss of making art. I also felt the stress and pain of not being perfect at my art. But, the bliss was winning over. I was ready to move forward full-time into my new career. I decided that I would go back to work for a couple weeks in August so that I could have closure and say goodbye to all the students before entering this new phase.

It's funny, I was scared. I was afraid that no one would care that I was leaving. The people who cared the most were the students. There were some adults who lamented that I was leaving, but they don't react the same way that kids did. The last day was SOOOOOO hard. I cried over and over again. I received so many hugs, and many sweet notes. One girl brought me a small gift. The day ended, the kids went home (I did a cartwheel for the kids waiting for their rides.) And then it was over. Just like that boom, the end.

Thankfully, I had a plan to keep moving forward. I was already working on my writing, I signed up for two consecutive watercolor classes, and took a 4 week poetry writing class. And . . . I had my theme.

I had an amazing year. I wrote 13 picture book drafts. A lot of garbage that will never see light of day, but also a few that I think are gems in need of polishing. I wrote a middle grade scary story that I love and shared with a former student whose mom told me he was in love with scary stories. (A goal is to figure out where this story might go in the publishing world). I received an honorable mention for a 100 word scary story I wrote for Susanna Hill's Halloweensie writing contest. I wrote a whole bunch of poems during my poetry class and actually had 10 that were worthy of submitting for publication.

Then I joined the Storyteller Academ and took Arree Chung's Making Picture Book Stories and Dummies. I loved the class and weekly meetings and discussions. I am still working on revisions to my story for that class and am enjoying making dummies. I can't wait to get started with more classes at the end of January.

As I was writing this post, I was thinking that my theme for 2019 would be: Less is More. I'm not sure that will fit at the beginning of this year as I plan to participate in the 12x12 challenge again, I have signed up for Storystorm, and then there's Storyteller Academy. We shall see. There's a few more days in 2018 and no rule that I have to decide before 2019 begins.

How was your 2018? Can you remember the good stuff that happened? I'd love to hear about your life progress. Do you have a theme for 2019?

Please know that my year was not perfect, and there were many things that slowed down my process requiring me to change focus for a while. What I am most proud of is that I was able to re-focus and keep moving forward.

Happy End of 2018! Cheers to 2019!

New Year or a New Moment: Move Your Story Forward

I keep thinking about all the posts on Facebook and other social media sites about ending this year and starting fresh with a new one. Many say they are ready for it to end because it was a terrible year generally noting the changes in our political climate. I think it is sad that we use the outside world and the rantings of a crazy person as our barometer of a good or bad year.

It may be helpful to think more about your personal year, the things that you had control over. Maybe you spent too much time caught up in the craziness and not enough on making the world a better place by you actions. Maybe you did wonderful acts of kindness and did make the world a better place for you and a few other people. Maybe you learned so much and are taking that forward into this new year.

I wonder why we feel that an arbitrary day (January 1) is the one to mark new beginnings? We have new beginnings every minute and opportunity at any moment to change direction and do things differently. We can begin the creation of new habits and new action right now.

Of right now.

I attended a Society of Children's Book Writer's and Illustrators (SCBWI) Conference in September in Wisconsin. I heard authors, illustrators, agents and editors speak and I took loads of notes. I made new friends and learned so much. I didn't wait for today, January 1 to begin to implement what I learned.

One of the pieces of advice that was given by several speakers was to always ask if what you have written is moving your story forward. That phrase, "Does it move your story forward?" has been haunting me a lot lately. Not just as I am writing or editing a story, but because I am working on moving my personal story forward.

For me 2017 was not a bad year. I learned so much, I have moved my story forward and am very excited to continue doing so in 2018. Not just today, but every day of the year. Each action we take is is a step in a direction. Little changes. Wonderful small changes add up to big new stories.

We never really get a fresh clean start. We will always have our past. The question is, how do we take that past and use it to move our stories forward?

Do we create drama for the sake of drama, or do we create peace for the sake of peace? What do we want out of this life? What will it take to get us there? What little actions create a scene that leads to turning to a new page? Life is a choose your own adventure, what direction do you want to take? When will you take charge of the adventure?

I am taking steps forward now, and


now



and Now!