Jennifer Jensen's Blog
Posted by Jennifer Jensen
If you celebrate Christmas, you know that memories of Christmas Past are as much a part of the season as the anticipation of Christmas Day. We love to tell the Christmas stories of our childhood, of college trips home, of the small and large sacrifices of early-married years, of our children’s escapades.
As writers, take a few moments this week and record the Christmas stories that only you can tell. Was there a time your family exchanged only homemade gifts? A Christmas trip with special memories?
Use your skills and make your Christmas memories well-written stories. Describe the smells, sounds, activities. Include dialogue as best you can, true to your memory but enjoyable to read, too.
Writing your Christmas stories makes it possible to hold onto them, both for you now and your children and grandchildren later. Print them and pass them around before next Christmas. Encourage other family members to do the same, whether they are writers or not.
You may enjoy buying Christmas novels by other authors (I do), but a treasury of your own stories is priceless.
Posted by Jennifer Jensen
I have a picture book challenge enticing me, centered around a steam engine in Indiana. I’m trying out different scenarios, possible plots and ways to involve a child’s imagination. But underlying it all are the rhythms and sounds of a train.
Chug-a-chug-a-chug-a-chug. Clang, clang! Whoosh!
What child can resist the joy that such words bring? Or what adult, for that matter?
Recreating a sound by spelling it out is called onomatopoeia (on-nuh-mah-tuh-pee-a). The resulting word may become part of everyday language, such as clang or swish, or may be written out as if for the first time, such as smoosh.
Children’s writers use onomatopoeia constantly. But even in adult fiction, it brings a sense of immediacy, of being there and hearing the sound yourself. Which of each pair brings a moment to life better?
- “He told her to be quiet.” or “He shushed her.”
- “He heard the machine.” or “He heard a slow whish-whirr.”
- “Her brakes needed repair.” or “Her brakes squealed.”
- “They heard the glass break.” or “A tinkle and crash came from the kitchen.”
Take some time to play with sounds and words. The exuberance will come through in your writing.
Posted by Jennifer Jensen
If your Christmas (or Hanukkah or Kwanzaa) season is anything like mine, keeping to your writing schedule is impossible. I’ve already simplified what I can, but I still have gifts to mail and cookies to bake, not to mention the fact that the tree has been up for a week and still isn’t decorated.
Write, you say? When? And with whose brain?
With my thoughts running in multiple directions at once, it seems impossible to focus on a story idea. There’s no time to let it simmer, to ponder possibilities in the shower, to explore different what-ifs.
But there is time for some freewriting. I can grab a few moments sometime during the day, curl up with a mug of cocoa and my trusty notepad, and write for my own enjoyment. I can play with new words to an old song or try to describe the sound of sleet hitting my windows. I can vent about the furnace breaking down (last Saturday) or reminisce about my teenager’s kindergarten ornaments.
Without the pressure of deadlines or goals, this writing time becomes time for me. Time to let go of my to-do list, time to relax, time to have fun with words and thoughts. I stay connected with my muse and return to real life rejuvenated. It’s worth every stolen minute.
Posted by Jennifer Jensen
A friend moved when our daughters were 11, and we gathered every summer to stay connected. When the girls grew older and the friendship waned, we kept ourselves going with annual “Moms’ Sleepovers.” But last summer passed without our schedules matching.
So Sue and I had our sleepover in November, but not just for the weekend. I arrived Thursday night and we gabbed until late. She went to work early Friday morning, and I spent the entire day writing.
I revised a short story, wrote a character sketch, brainstormed plot points for my novel, and read and took notes on research material for an article. The house was quiet, the fridge was mine, and I didn’t have to answer the phone if it rang.
When Sue arrived home, we picked up our reunion for the rest of the weekend. But I had already accomplished a week’s worth of writing, plus had time to relax with a book and no responsibilities. It worked so well that we decided to do it every 3-4 months.
If you’re having trouble finding time to write, try making your own retreat. You’ll find some get-away ideas at my Create a Writer’s Retreat article. If you don’t have the money or blocks of time for those, I’ll be posting an article soon about writer’s retreats at home.
Posted by Jennifer Jensen
I sent off my query letter, synopsis and sample chapters for my book this week. The agent’s website had detailed information about what they wanted – nothing unusual, nothing I hadn’t expected.
But when I composed the query letter, I found myself stuck. What exactly was different about it? How do I “position my project against what has been published in the same vein?”
The story is a children’s chapter book for 2nd-4th graders. The main character faces a verbal bully as well as a sudden shift to homeschooling. She is age-appropriate, there is humor, she solves her own problem. The story fits right in with other chapter books.
What could I say about how it is different? That she is a middle child, instead of youngest, oldest, or only? That her pet is a guinea pig instead of a cat or dog? That the homeschool setting is unusual? Other than homeschooling, it didn’t seem all that different. My objective was to write a book that fit in, not that was tremendously unusual.
In the end, I left the whole idea out of the query letter completely. But it’s made me wonder if it’s really a strong enough story. And when I find myself thinking about my next project, the characters and the plot, I’ll determine what will make it different before I write the whole book!
