Somehow being reminded of how “tricky” they are, both to write and to sell makes me glad I’m a picture book writer.

Stearns writes, “A really great picture book is a difficult art to pull off… It is about grace and the right words in the right place—much more akin to poetry than mere storytelling.”

Reminds me of the quote by Samuel Taylor Coleridge: “…poetry: the best words in the best order.”

Yes. Poetry and picture books. I love them both.

Our instructor’s partial response was that becoming serious about writing often means throwing out the tv, getting rid of journal writing and/or morning pages, and accepting the fact that we’re just going to have to sleep less than we’d like.

But, I said to myself, I don’t watch t.v. I don’t keep a journal. I don’t do morning pages.  And as happened this particular day – not all that atypical of every other day for the past, say, 10 years -  I had awoken at 3:30 am, arrived at work by 7am,  returned home over 12 hours later at 7:30 that evening, was back out again at 9:30 pm and home for the night at 10:45 pm.

By the time I had collected my thoughts, settled into bed, read a few pages of the latest book on my nightstand, and finally drifted off for the night, it was close to midnight.

Let’s just say that less sleep is not a realistic option.

What to do?  I resolved to dig deeper.  Think more seriously. Where was the breakdown?

And so, I went back to my instructor’s comments.  Or more accurately, the one comment that applied to ME.  The part I didn’t really want to admit to myself.  And though his suggestion was more of a catchall “quit doing research instead of writing,”  I realized that there was a piece of truth in those words that I best pay attention to: quit “playing at writing” and REALLY WRITE.

Even as I type this, I realize that I actually accomplish a lot of REAL WRITING during a typical week.  So in some respects, I have to give myself a break.  But, truth be told, I waste a lot of time, too.  Sure, I’m sitting at my desk.  And while many of the things on my “to do” list ARE getting done, I really could be more strategic. Set incremental deadlines for the writing goals that are of my own making.  Those goals I really *do* want to hit, but that often get pushed aside because they’re ones no one pushes me to reach.

As often serendipitously happens with such things, a writing friend mentioned this week that she was at a critical juncture in her writing career and she was jealously guarding her time. Bravo! I thought.  That’s exactly what I need to do. Another good friend, Stephanie P.,  has apparently had some of the same thoughts.  Her post today about the no’s and yeses of writing, gets to the issue of taking ourselves and our writing seriously.

So I’m back to the strategy I used while completing my MFA at Vermont College.  I’ve printed out a calendar, set realistic writing goals for the next week, and penciled them in.  Another small step forward.

The things I can not change.  The choices I’ve made.  The goals I aspire to.  So much to think about!

Woven among those thoughts is the idea of dealing with the life I’ve been given.  Maybe these are two sides of the same coin.  Being proactive about the choices I make that affect my days.  And yet learning to deal with all the things that life hits me with.  Things I wouldn’t have chosen, had anyone asked me.

I came across the following commentary by Leroy Sievers, a journalist who chronicled about his life after receiving a cancer diagnosis.  Sievers passed away on Friday, August 15, 2008, and though I admit to not having known his name or read his “My Cancer” blog until today, his words spoke something powerfully to me.

(These excerpts are from a commentary, “Funny the Things You Think About,” by Leroy Sievers that aired on NPR’s Morning Edition, February 16, 2006)

“I don’t have any great insight into death, but maybe I’ve learned something about life.  It takes courage to get through life.  The courage of doctors and nurses who can work magic with their hands.  The courage of those keeping a lonely vigil at the beside of a loved one.  The courage of the ill fighting with everything they have, not just to cheat death, but to live.

I’m not spending my time thinking why me, though. I don’t have the time. I think about the old saying, “We aren’t given the burdens we deserve, we’re given the burdens we can bear.”

http://www.npr.org/blogs/mycancer/2006/02/commentary_funny_the_things_you_think_about.html

So what does all this have to do with writing?  Writing takes courage.  It’s about living in the moment.  It’s about “doing the next thing.”

Much like the E.L. Doctorow quote about writing a book being “like driving a car at night…,” so is living the life of a writer.  I don’t ever really know if what I write will end up between the covers of a book, but I keep writing, keep dreaming, keep moving…