I don’t remember how old I was when I got my first Scott O’Dell book, but I remember who I got it from - my mother. She knew I loved to read and always remembered to buy a good book for me whenever there was an occasion to do so. I’m guessing - but I may have been around eleven at the time.

She bought a hardcover version of Island of the Blue Dolphins - a book I loved so much at the time I read it more than once. I treasured that book so much that now, forty years later, I still have that copy of the book on my shelves. It is one of the few books that survived my childhood and the many, many moves I’ve made since then.

The haunting, memorable story of a woman left alone on an island for about twenty years after trying to save her younger brother stayed with me and has been lodged in my heart all my life since then. I am moved to tears, remembering how much this book meant to me. It showed me how I, as a woman, can be strong and self-sufficient, and get through anything that might come my way.

Years later while I was homeschooling my two youngest children I decided to read Newbery Medal winning novels to them. One of the first I read was the book I had on my shelf, Island of the Blue Dolphins. They loved it too.

After that I read them Sing Down the Moon, an exciting book about the relocation of the Navajo in New Mexico during 1863. I’d read it before during a children’s literature class I took in college in the seventies, right after it was published and named a Newbery Honor Book. My children liked that book so much they didn’t want me to stop reading. I remember staying up late as they listened intently, reading so many chapters at a time we finished the novel in just a few days.

After reading those two book to the kids I decided to read one on my own, and chose The Blue Pearl. It is much shorter than the other novels and set in a more contemporary time. Those are the only Scott O’Dell books I’ve read so far. I expect I’ll be reading more of them in future years.

When I decided to write tributes to some of my favorite children’s authors, Scott O’Dell was the first I thought of. He will always be first in my mind when I think of the great writers of children’s literature.

A few links:
Scott O’Dell: A comprehensive website
Scott O’Dell Award For Historical Fiction
Elizabeth Hall, the wife of Scott O’Dell

Here’s something I wrote in my writing practice notebook last year:

…

On a search for my true self and the purpose of my being here, I confess to knowing the following so far:

1. Every really bad experience prepares us to help others living through that experience at a later date.

2. Life without the ability to reach out and help others is pretty lame… leaving a self-seeker feeling unfulfilled.

3. Sometimes it takes courage to be the one to reach out.

4. Not everyone will understand your issues or agree with your perceptions.

5. If you really want to help make the world a better place you must surge forward without regard to public opinion.

6. Peace and silence are conducive to clarity of thought.

7. We are all related and contain the same quality of beautiful spiritual light, though some are more conscious of that than others.

8. Life cannot be fully lived without interactions with others.

9. Intentions and outcomes are not always the same because sometimes you get something better than expected.

10. There is beauty in every human being; it may be covered by Karmic junk, but the beauty is always there.

If you don’t have a goal you can’t reach for it. I’m sure most of you have decided to write a certain number of words daily. If not, you might want to give that a try.

Are you reaching your goals? Do you have what it takes? Sometimes other things in life interfere with a goal-maker’s resolve. If you need sleep so you can get up for work or school in the morning, then that must be your priority. So be it. We cannot let novel writing interfere with reality.

Still, we’ve got that 50,000-word goal to think about during NaNoWriMo…

Cut that into bite sized pieces and it isn’t so hard to reach. So how many days can you definitely devote to writing this month? Days with only one available hour count, though ideally three or four hours would be preferable.

If you can write on at least twenty-five days this month, you’re in luck. 50K divided by 25 equals 2000 words daily MINIMUM. Promise yourself at least that many before you hang it up for the day.

If you have only fifteen days to write this month, let’s hope you’ve got more than one hour on each of those days. 50K divided by 15 equals 3333.33 words daily. Do not settle for less, or you’re in danger (BIG danger) of falling behind.

Every year there are NaNoWriMo participants that wait until the last few days of the month, then R-U-S-H to finish. Do you want to be one of them? I certainly don’t so I pace myself with a daily goal. I like writing 2500 words daily. Sometimes it is really hard for me to reach that goal, but other days I’ll speed ahead with 5000 or more words. Still, the goal is to reach the MINIMUM for the day and under no circumstances to stop writing and fall asleep before that minimum number of words is reached.

With a goal of 2500 words daily I can finish this novel in just twenty days! (Usually it takes less.)

YOU can do that! It just takes that magical word, DETERMINATION. Hug that word. That word is your friend.

LindaJM’s NaNoWriMo Profile
NaNoWriMo Notations
Get Ready for NaNoWriMo (if you haven’t already)

So, did you think it was going to be easy? I expect by now you’ve had time to sit down at your keyboard and type out a few lines. Go-getters are already 10,000 words into this. Many others have made it to 2000 words. Others are self-flagellating and wondering why it is so hard to reach even 200 words!

Welcome to NaNoWriMo! This is a place where the veils all come off. If you thought being a writer would be easy, you may already be seeing some of the problems involved, and why that word, determination, is so important! I won’t insult ditch diggers by saying writing is hard work, but I will say it is very challenging!

If you’re already confused about where your novel is going, whether it is any good, or if you’ve got any chance at all to finish, please review yesterday’s post about things to do to prepare for NaNoWriMo and also, take a look at this: Get Ready for NaNoWriMo. You might get some cool ideas that will help you write a little bit more, with direction and enthusiasm!

When the veils of illusion are removed you can see exactly what needs to be improved regarding your approach to this writing project. Perhaps by now you realize that you need a smidgen of a plot. You could do what I did - I sat down and wrote a paragraph for each of the next ten chapters. Next I discussed this with my very imaginative significant other. He came up with some good ideas for me, and nixed some of my ideas as “too controversial.” What came out of this brainstorming session was a clear idea of where the plot is going, and how to enhance it in ways that may eventually make some movie producer sit up and take note. (Or even better, take contract in hand!)

Another thing you might be noticing is that keeping up the momentum of writing isn’t easy for all of us. Some of us write in spurts and need frequent breaks. If you find your mental energy lagging, get up, walk around, refill your coffee mug, and if possible, get some exercise.

Are you already feeling like quitting? You might get a lot of mileage from the Word Wars, Prompts, and Sprints section of the NaNoWriMo forum. Usually I leave that section of the site for later in the project, around 30,000 words, when I’m really dragging… but many of you might appreciate word wars earlier in the game. If you’re having any trouble getting started or keeping up, please try this. I really truly hate to see people quit, and this is something that really helps.

Okay, enough for today. I’m sure by tomorrow I’ll be inspired with more to write about, but for now, we’re all anxious to get back to our novels to write, write, write. Right?

LindaJM’s NaNoWriMo Profile
NaNoWriMo Notations
Get Ready for NaNoWriMo (if you haven’t already)

I’m not going to take time to write one of those ‘Night Before Christmas’ parodies — no, I’m way too busy today wondering if I’m really ready to start writing that novel tonight. Do I know my character well enough? Do I have adequate plot points to inspire me throughout the month?

The answer to both those questions, for me, is no. I could use another month to get ready — but time’s up. NaNoWriMo starts tonight at midnight and so at that point I’ll be sitting at my computer writing the first tentative words of my main character’s story. I have the rest of today to work on last-minute readiness issues. With that happy thought in mind I’ll produce a list of things to do, the day before NaNo.

1) Location. Write a description of the location(s) of the novel. My novel will take place in a forest for the most part. A visit to a botany or wildlife website could help put more words together for descriptions of things my main character may be dealing with during the course of the novel.

2) Character development. Can there ever be too much character development? What is your character’s goal in life? What things / issues / people prevent him from reaching that goal? And if your character doesn’t reach that goal, what will be the consequence? What are your character’s greatest assets and flaws? What does he dream about? What is he afraid of? Does he have a secret? What is it? Finally, make a list of ten things your character hates, and ten he loves. Have a detailed description of each character’s appearance.

3) Theme. Can you write in one sentence exactly what your novel is about?

4) Plot. Do you have any idea what will happen during the course of your novel? I’ll be honest — as of right now I know where my novel starts and where it ends, and have only a few sketchy ideas about places my main character will be during her journey through the pages of my manuscript. Today I’ll sit down and build a road map — because how can she get there if I don’t know where she’s going? I will create a series of scenes for each chapter. I acknowledge that the novel is very likely to take on a life of its own — and give it permission to do so — in fact, I hope it will, and soon! But for those nights when I need to beat out 2500-5000 words and my imagination is drained and I have no idea what to write about — well… those plot points are going to come in mighty handy!

A lot of people in the world aren’t aware of NaNoWriMo and don’t realize the significance of the last day of October. They call this day “Halloween.” I guess I’m one of the lucky ones — I live far enough from town that no kids will show up at my door. I have no need or desire to dress up, participate, or party.

The path is clear. NaNoWriMo is finally here!

LindaJM’s NaNoWriMo Profile
NaNoWriMo Notations
Get Ready for NaNoWriMo (if you haven’t already)

For those who would like to know how I made it through eight NaNoWriMos successfully, I have this bit of advice. What worked for me DETERMINATION. If you have the desire to write a novel in November, you have to be really, really sure you want it.

You will set aside enough time each day or night to write a good sized chunk of your novel. The first year I did this, I was determined to write 2500 words every evening. I knew I’d be distracted by one out-of-town trip early in the month. Also at that time I had young children still at home, and what’s more distracting than that? So I figured if I totally blew it and couldn’t get my work done some days, this would at least give me more than the daily minimum of 1667 words. As it turned out, though I did have to take one day off, I finished the novel in only seventeen days. You know how I did that? DETERMINATION.

This fierce quality, also known as WILL-POWER, is the hard outer-covering of an intense need to succeed. If you are one of those that needs to write a novel, I’m sure you won’t have any problem drumming up enough DETERMINATION to make that happen. You and many others will meet in the winner’s forum shouting out about your success and celebrating with your writerly joy.

If you are one of those who is slowing down, doubting your ability to go on, first examine your motivation. Why do you want to write a novel? How important is it to you? Whose idea was it, anyway? How much will it embarrass you to say, “I failed”? I suppose not everyone is meant to write a novel. Not everyone can do it every year. Not everyone really wants to. Either buckle down and pack on some DETERMINATION or instead, write a list of twenty things you learned by attempting NaNoWriMo this year, and post it to your blog.

Those with DETERMINATION: Buddy up to your characters, and write on!

LindaJM’s NaNoWriMo Profile
NaNoWriMo Notations
Get Ready for NaNoWriMo (if you haven’t already)

1. Do you have a sacred space in your life wherein you can relax and create undisturbed and without distractions? This space would include a physical location plus a given time that you could trust will be yours daily, to pursue your creative delights.

2. Do you feel free to express every part of yourself in your creative medium without fear, without holding back? We creatives need the freedom to be able to express ourselves fully. To hold anything back is lacking the integrity to create the entire work of art.

3. Do you feel that when you create, everything is expressed in the way it should be, or do you stress-out over ideas that you’re not creating your art good enough? Stress is a major mind-inhibiting factor and you may find that creative work that is not accepted by the artist with a leniency toward flaws may be too exacting to the point of being stilted and unnatural, by being too worked over or too perfected. Sometimes imperfection is perfection - and we humans live an imperfect existence.

4. Do you have a clear intention regarding what you’re working to create? Do you have a plan for your work of art or are you working in the dark, expecting that one feature will lead naturally to the next? Sometimes this kind of organic creative endeavor can BE the plan with which we work. But it helps to know where we’re going before we start or we may be confused about where the process is leading.

5. As you work do you pay attention to the signals your body is giving you? What emotions cross your field of endeavor? When we’re angry there’s a tightening in the chest. When afraid, our hairs literally can raise up. So what does your body tell you when you’re working on your creative art, and how are you feeling as you work? If you’re relaxed and feeling exuberantly happy and enthusiastic, that must mean things are going well with your creative pursuit. But what if your arms are tense, your neck aches, and you feel slow, lethargic, and bored? Could it mean you’re not on the right path? Should you take a short break and walk around outside, smelling the flowers and breathing fresh air? Explore your feelings and resolve them. Aim for optimum creative joy.

6. Do you love what you do? Do you love your art? Do you, really? That’s important because art created with love flows freely and with beauty. Suggestion: stop here, open your writer’s notebook, and list ten things you love about your art.

7. If you were to teach others something about your art, what would it be? Remember: you teach best what you most need to learn. This is a great topic for a page in your writer’s notebook.

8. Do you feel impatient with any aspect of your creative life? If impatience assails you, take a step back - away from your work station. Say to yourself: “My creative endeavors are coming to fruition at the appropriate speed. My joy and enthusiasm are the fuels that will drive this project to its destination.”

9. Are you nurturing your project to life with a a rain of steady love? Have you developed a harmonious rhythm of work, for example, editing one chapter daily? Do you give your project the love, time, and gratitude it needs to become a great and towering achievement you’ll be proud of? Love your project to life - a life that will blossom in ways you cannot now imagine.

10. Does your project bring you into greater harmony with Universal Consciousness? Does it connect you to the gentle underlying rhythm of the entire infinite universe? If so, you’re on the right track, and nothing anyone else says or writes should ever stop you.

Success is a seductive word. It leads you to think there’s something more that must be achieved - some unobtained happiness that waits for your arrival. You strive and look forward, then pout when things don’t progress as quickly as desired. Is writing really that hard?

Do you think success means you must get published and paid? Or is success something that happens every day just because you managed to spend fifteen minutes writing?

Perhaps success comes with the completion of a goal. If you’ve always wanted to write an e-book, you’d be thrilled at the moment your first one was completed. Successful writers know that joy comes from a job well done.

Success could be staring you in the face right now. Perhaps the self-awareness of knowing you’re a writer is the greatest success of all. To know you’re meant to write, to set words on paper, to share thoughts in writing, is a conscious understanding of your literary talent. You know that writing is for you and you’re for it.

Whatever makes you feel successful, I believe that for you today. I believe you’ll attain your goals, develop your writing skills, and find joy in the work you do. I believe, and with my believing comes absolute certainty that the path you’re taking is the right one for you.

Know joy in the way you walk, for it is your unique journey through life.

If you want to be like God, create something. Because that is what God does; He is the Creator. And we are made in His image - to be creators in our own dimension. And that is what He wants from us: to be the creative outlets of His Power (energy) on the human level.

Our job is simply to make this world as beautiful as possible through our creativity - through opening ourselves to be pure creative channels. Do this and you will be God-Like in the purest way.

Be a Pure Creative Conduit of Love

Creativity is the sacred act of giving a bit of our heart’s love to the world. To create with love brings forth beauty and is the essential crowning achievement of our being here on earth. At any time during our creative development we can achieve this beauty by being what God wants us to be: loving, humane beings.

Create with love. Bring your artistic works into being lovingly, consciously, giving the best of your self to be seen in whatever media you explore.

Kim McDougall, editor of Between the Cracks Digest, is sponsoring a flash fiction contest with a prize of fifteen dollars. Each month she’ll be posting a writing prompt. Use her prompt to write a story between 500 and 1000 words, and maybe you’ll win.

Kim is looking for stories that fall “between the cracks”. Her publication features stories that combine genres.