Poll - Manuscript submission

Authors (and writers), when waiting for a response to a manuscript submission, do you feel that no news good news? For example, if response time is 8-12 weeks*, do you get more excited if you haven't heard anything by week 12? (assume they respond, even for rejections) *arbitrary duration

— Madeline Barr (@MadelineBarr) July 9, 2019

Hosting a writing group

This blog post is a general post about my writing group at work. The writing group we've formed at work is going well.

In our first meeting, we wrote short paragraphs based on photo prompts. It was very interesting to see the creativity of the group and how the photographs prompted each writer in their own unique way. I don't think my paragraph will develop into a full-fledged story but I will keep it in my files. You never know when you are going to need it in another story.

At the next meeting, a co-worker and I tagged teamed hosting the meeting. In honour of poetry month, he taught the group on how to write a Haiku, and I follow-up by expanding the lesson to how to write a Tanka. The lesson was well received by the group.

I am very excited that I have been asked to host the May 28th meeting with a topic of my choice. The topic I chose is

Generating Story Ideas

Once I complete my session I will post about the topic and how the meeting went.


While you wait, feel free to share with me some the ways you come up with story ideas or what you do to help get the creative juices flowing by entering it in the comments below.

I'm also interested in any other topics I could share with my writing group or you would like me to post about.

What now? I've been busy

What am I up to now? Here are just a few things:

• Editing - I am helping out a fellow Atlassian Author with something he's working on.
• Benny and I made a student/department visitation - he loved it.
• I scored 2, yes TWO, goals in hockey in the same shift. First time I've done that!
• I joined a writing group at work.
• I'm doing the Robert Brewer's April Poem A Day (PAD) Challenge.
• Signed up for Exploring Haiku as Gratefulness Practice - sign up before April 10th.
• Went to my son's music performance where he had an alto saxophone solo - so proud.
• Used my artsy talent to create and cut window decals on my Cricut.
• Successfully completed an accelerated "The Basics of Fluid Development" and "Advanced Fluid Development" course for Oracle PeopleSoft development.

Now, I'm looking to either resurrect a manuscript and make it pretty or write something new like an article. Not sure yet.

(I also need to figure out a new exercise routine now the hockey season is finished but I don't want to write that down in case I don't do it --- oops, looks like I wrote it)

A Love of All Shapes and Sizes

I'm pleased to be a member of the Atlassian Authors group! Yay!

With Valentine's Day in mind, the prompt this month was about the app/add-on/plug-in we love.
Read my article A Love of All Shapes and Sizes - draw.io Diagrams for Confluence .

Let me know what you think.

Picture Book Templates

Some of my best picture book ideas bounce around in my head for days, even weeks. They haunt and taunt me, and do not want to come out. I think they may be stuck in my head because they're incomplete. They are bounceing around so much, there is no space to complete them. It's a real brain battle, or at least that's how it feels.

I need to stop using incomplete ideas as an excuse for not writing my stories and get my thoughts organized. So, today, I am on the hunt for picture book templates so I can put these partial ideas in a place and focus my energy on filling in the blanks.

Here are some of the places I have found picture book dummies and templates.

• Picture Book Dummy, Picture Book Construction: Know Your Layout by author Tara Lazar http://taralazar.com/tag/picture-book-template/
• Inkygirl.com Debbie Ridpath Ohi's 32-page picture book: Rough Thumbnails PDF
  http://inkygirl.com/storage/pdfs/picturebooks/ThumbnailsForSS-v9flat.pdf
  I also recommend you read her related post http://inkygirl.com/inkygirl-main/2012/5/15/writing-illustrating-a-picture-book-for-simon-schuster-books.html

Where have you been?

I wasn't far. I've been learning (and still creating but no time to blog).

For the last year, I have been taking courses, again. This time I have successfully completed the Creative, Critical & Design Thinking certificate program through the McMaster University Continuing Education program.

Now that I have completed it, I want to get back into writing and other arts.

For example, I have a children's book manuscript I am going to revisit, and possibly submit to an agent. Also, here is a watercolour painting I recently finished:

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Madeline Barr (@madelinetbarr) on Jan 2, 2019 at 2:28pm PST

I will also be spending more time blogging. I'm very excited and look forward to getting back into the groove.

i.e. vs e.g. - An easy (and fun) way to remember how to use the abbreviations properly.

To help me remember the difference between these abbreviations I started saying, “i” vs “eggs” instead of i.e. vs  e.g. But, before I explain what I  mean, let’s learn the meaning of the real abbreviations.

Abbreviation meanings

Both abbreviations are Latin expressions. The table below displays the abbreviation, the Latin expression, the English translation and how each abbreviation is used.

Abbreviation	Latin expression	English translation	Usage
i.e.	id est	that is	Used to clarify.
e.g.	exempli gratia	for example	Used to list some examples.

Understanding the meaning of the abbreviations does help. Some people suggest substituting English for the abbreviation to check, but I sometimes still find that confusing.

Here is a little, fun trick I use to remember which Latin abbreviation to use, and why I like to say “i” vs “eggs”.

They all have “i” in common.

Use i.e. when you want to say “that is” or “as in” – they all have an “i” in them.

Sample sentence:
He will be here shortly.

How long is shortly? An hour? Two days? Shortly is a relative term.  In this sentence, I want to clarify what I mean by shortly. I don’t want to give examples; I want to specify what I mean.

Here’s how i.e. is used:
He will be here shortly (i.e., two hours).

Give me an egg-sample.

I love eggs, but what I really want to do with the sentence below is to give an example; not really an egg-sample or e.g.-sample. (Did you see what I did there?)

Sample sentence:
He likes field sports.

When I’m giving examples, I use the e.g. abbreviation. The list isn’t the only sports he likes, but some of the sports.

Here’s how e.g. is used:
He likes field sports (e.g., football, soccer and baseball).

So, next time you are trying to figure out which abbreviation to use just remember the “i” or “eggs”  trick and hopefully it will help. Then go eat some eggs.

A Goal Reorganization - a 10k update and more.

Well, after talking to my brother, it looks like we might not be running the 30k relay in March. (10k each)

I'm disappointed and relieved at the same time. Disappointed because I want to do it, but relieved because I didn't think I would be ready by March.

So, to fix that, here's what I did.

I've set some new goals and taken action!

Jogging 

• I finally bought new running shoes that I love, love love! (I'll post about those later.)
• I've started to go jogging again.
• I plan to jog at least three days a week. Either outside or on the treadmill.
• I'm going to time myself at the 5k Run for a Cure next month. Donations to support my run and help fight against breast cancer can be made at www.runforthecure.com/goto/madeline
• I'll sign up for a timed 5k race somewhere.
• I'm going to look for another 10k race to do in the future. Maybe early Spring.

Learning a New Sport

• Remember that new sport I was talking about? It's hockey! Yes, I have signed up for women's hockey! Yup. I'm pretty sure I am a little crazy.
• I'm going to blog about hockey here and add the label "hockey @ 40". Note: I am not 40, yet, but I'm sneaking up on it.

Writing

• I've started my final course for my Technical Writing certificate. Technical Editing. Should be done by the end of October. I'm very excited!
• I'm blogging more.

And today, I am going to try to set some realistic writing goals, other than bloggin and my course. I need to pick one thing, focus on it, and follow it through to the end. 

So, there you have it. Watch for posts labeled "hockey @ 40", I'm sure they are going to be entertaining.

How one word helped my writing.

I'm still working on the Start the Year Off Write challenge, however I'm skipped a few days and now I am going back and doing them out of order.

Today, I did David Harrison Boils It All Down to One Word prompt. To be honest, I didn't expect to get much out of it. (sorry David) I'm happy to say, I was wrong. (I'm not sure I should be happy that I was wrong but I am happy with the result. I'm sure David will also be happy that I was wrong.) I followed his prompt by thinking about the word he provided. The word turned into a sentence. Then another and another! Before I knew it I had a piece of writing that I think I can use in MG story I'm writing. If you want to know the word used, read David's post on Shannon Abercromie's blog at http://www.shannonabercrombie.com/david-harrison-boils-it-all-down-to-one-word/

Thanks David!

Clarity In Writing

In day two of the Start The Year Off Write challenge, Thanhha Lai has us writing clearly and succinctly. This is something I learned in my technical writing courses as well, so I was eager to attack and complete this challenge. To see Thanhha's challenge using the cut-cut-cut method visit http://www.shannonabercrombie.com/thanhha-lais-cut-cut-cut-method/.

Another tool I find helpful for measuring the clarity of writing is the Gunning Fog Index. I learned about the Fog Index last year during a business writing workshop. It measures the readability of English writing. To learn more about the Fog Index read my post Measuring the Readability of Your Writing.

Four Tactics to Reach Your Goals

It's almost the end of day one of the Start the Year Off Write challenge and I haven't started. Well, that's not entirely true. It more accurate to say I haven't finished. I have a thought and a title....and then I got side tracked. BUT I was side tracked by this video on How Successful People Reach Their Goals.

Fitting, no?

Watch it with me...


Now, let's take Heidi Grant Halvorson's tactics and apply them to today's writing prompt.

I'm going to:

• Write a paragraph outlining the beginning, middle and end of my story.
• Finish my paragraph in the next half hour.
• Not let the story gaps stop me from finishing. I can improve on the story at a later date.
• I will not think about white bears.

I better get to work so I can successfully reach my goal. How about you?

UPDATE Jan. 6th: I was successful in writing the paragraph and completing the writing challenge for day 1.

New Writing Challenge! - Start the Year off Write 2014

Happy New Year!

I wasn't going to do any writing challenges this January but then I found this!

Start the Year off Write 2014

hosted by Shannon Abercrombie. With a participant badge this cute how could I not participate? (badge by Maple Lam)

I'm already pretty busy this month but who isn't? I'm going to give it try! Hope to see you there, too.

Rate Your Story - A Free Critique

No matter how good you are at writing, it is important to have your work reviewed by someone else. Your mom tells you your story is perfect, your kids ask, "Where's the pictures?" and your best friend will giggle at the story with you over a bottle of wine. That's fine, but do you wonder what a published writer thinks of your story?

I've recently discovered Rate Your Story! http://rateyourstory.blogspot.ca/

For the first week of each month, Rate Your Story will accept completed manuscripts that meet the criteria outlined in the submissions guidelines. The manuscripts are then critiqued by volunteer, published authors for FREE and returned in about 14 days. The story is rated on a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being the highest rating.

Along with the rating service, Rate Your Story also has a very informative blog.

As an added bonus, if the story scores a 1 or 2, Hummingbird Literary will accept submission of the manuscript on specific days. See submission guidelines for full details http://hummingbirdliterary.com/submissions/

I submitted my rhyming, picture book manuscript to Rate Your Story at the beginning of August. I'm excited, yet nervous, about getting my story rated. It was recently tweeted by @RateYourStory that almost all the manuscripts from August are returned and to check our inbox. I've checked....and checked and nothing yet, but I'm sure it will be done soon.

Thank you to all the Rate Your Story, volunteers judges for taking the time to help writers like myself.

• Miranda Paul
• Lori Degman
• Melissa Gorzelanczyk
• Mira Reisberg (Former judge)
• Katie Clark (New judge next month)

Measuring the Readability of Your Writing

In a Business Writing workshop I learned about Gunning Fog Index.
Fog Index measures the readability of English writing.
Which made me wonder if this can help me with other writing projects.

What is the ideal Fog Index? 

That would depend on how well your audience can read.
An index of 12 or more is for people with a reading ability at the University level. This would be ideal for an academic paper.

If you're looking to reach a wider audience, a lower index number would be more appropriate. For the general population an index of 8-10 is ideal.

Different publications have a different fog index:

• Reader's Digest 8-9
• Time and Wall Street Journal 11
• The Bible and Mark Twain 6

Calculating the Fog Index

1. Select a section of writing about 100 words in length. End with a complete sentence.
2. Count the number of sentences in that section
3. Count the complex words in that section. Complex words have three syllables or more. Do not include proper names or compound words. Do not include suffixes as a syllable (e.g. ing, ed and es)
4. Divide 100 by the number of sentences. Add the number of complex words.
5. Multiply this number by 0.4 for the Fog Index number.

And, for those of you who like equations:  0.4(100/b +c) = Fog Index

Online Fog Index Calculators

If you are having difficulty with the calculation, you can always use an online calculator. I've noticed they give different results plus they can't take out proper names and so on, but they will giver you a general idea. 

• http://gunning-fog-index.com/
• http://www.online-utility.org/english/readability_test_and_improve.jsp
• http://www.panix.com/~dhf/fog.html

Personally, I like to do the calculation myself.

If you're curious, this post's Fog Index is between 8 and 9.

How foggy is your writing? 

---

Other Resources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gunning_fog_index

http://www.writing-information-and-tips.com/fog-index.html

http://www.knitnut.net/2009/02/are-you-happy-with-your-fog-index/

On My Way To A Technical Writer Certificate!

I am starting my journey towards getting my Technical Writer Certificate!  My first course starts on September 12^th and I’m very excited.  In my full time job I work in the technical field where I already write up a lot of documentation. The department has been going through big changes and some of my new responsibilities will be:

Create test documents

Document system functionality, particularly related to new enhancements

Document analysis and defects

Prepare and review recommendations and other project initiation documents

Prepare and review end user and operations documentation, training materials, and timelines

Not only did I request to take this program to become more efficient in my job, creating clear and informative documents but it has been a personal interest for some time.

I can’t wait to start.

I'm In The Author Spotlight!

I was interviewed by the Ink Babes on the Bleeding Ink blog for my poem YOU ARE NOT MY CHILD in the Bleeding Ink Anthology. (That's a lot of bleeding and a lot of ink)

Check out the interview at bleedinginkanthology.wordpress.com
/2012/08/21/bleeding-ink-author-spotlight-madeline-barr/

Thank you Ink Babes!

You can purchase a copy of the Bleeding Ink Anthology at https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/178855

WriteOnCon - Online Children’s Writers Conference

Guess what I am attending over the next 2 days? WriteOnCon!

I found it last year just as is ended and I was very disappointed. Well, this year I've made sure I'm there and I'm very excited.

WriteOnCon has all the events of a writer's conference done online and free! All the events are scheduled around working hours.

Hopefully a "ninja agent" finds the picture book manuscripts I posted and provides some helpful feedback. Maybe I will randomly be selected to receive feed back from Corey Rosen Schwartz and Tiffany Strelitz Haber on the stanza I submitted from my rhyming PB manuscript. Or perhaps I will submit a query for review. The events are not just for picture books but all kidlit including MG and YA.

To find out more information about WriteOnCon visit http://writeoncon.com/about/what-is-writeoncon/

Are you attending WriteOnCon and want to critique my work? Two of my picture book stories can be found are....

• ANNALEE FRILL - Quirky Annalee lives an upside-down in a right-side-up world
• ELEPHANT IN THE CUPBOARD - Save the peanut butter!

Can't wait to see you there!

Editing a NaPiBoWriWee Picture Book Draft about...

I'm currently working on editing a picture book draft I wrote during NaPiBoWriWee. I'm not going to tell you too much about the story (yet) but it's about my two little critters, Amigo and Beanie.

What? You've never met the real Amigo and Beanie?

Well, here they are!

The original Amigo,

and the one and only Beanie.
I'll have to post an updated picture of Beanie because she's much bigger than this now.

UPDATE: Recent picture of Beanie

Author Tara Lazar first vlog - Taking a Break (But Not Really)

Author Tara Lazar

A couple of days ago I visited the EMU's Debuts Blog where Tara Lazar posted her first "Vloooogg!" - Taking a Break (But Not Really)

Not only is her vlog post entertaining, she also provides some very useful information for writers. She talks about how taking a break helped her land her second book contract.

I highly recommend you visit EMU's Debuts Blog and check out Tara Lazar in her comical vlog performance, Taking a Break (But Not Really)

Also be sure to visit Tara's Blog at http://taralazar.wordpress.com/

NaPiBoWriWee: Day 3,4,5,6 & 7

Here we are at the end of NaPiBoWriWee! Congratulations, you made it! How did you do? Did you pound out 7 picture book manuscripts? Did you get one manuscript done? Maybe you just got some ideas and jotted them down in point form.

Here's an important question: Did you win a prize from Paula Yoo?

I did ok this year. Not as well as I was hoping but under the circumstances, I think I did good. Just attempting the NaPiBoWriWee knowing there potential challenges that week had in store for me makes me successful in this event. I managed to write 2 completed picture book manuscripts drafts, point form for another 3 and titles for the last 2.

I did not win anything from Paula Yoo so I guess I'll just have to try again next year.

Thank you Paula for hosting this event once again.