Please welcome author, blogger, speaker, and teacher Donna Cooner for today's WOW Wednesday inspiration. Donna is currently living in Fort Collins, Colorado. Her debut novel, SKINNY (Scholastic/EgmontUK), will be released in October, 2012. Find her online at www.donnacooner.com, on Facebook, and on Twitter.The Terrible Truth
by Donna Cooner
In my former life as a kindergarten teacher, I loved picture books with repetitive refrains. One of my all-time favorites was ALEXANDER AND THE TERRIBLE, HORRIBLE, NO GOOD, VERY BAD DAY (by Judith Viorst). My students and I loved the repetition of the text and could recite it from memory (I probably still can). Most of all I loved the message. It spoke to kids and adults alike, and it was wonderful to realize others understood how it felt when everything just seemed to go wrong.
So in the spirit of ALEXANDER, I wanted to share my personal publication story.
After years of authoring scholarly articles for tenure at a research institution, I decided to return to writing children's books. I quickly discovered, however, the content wasn't going to be picture book material. My mother had just been diagnosed with stage four cancer (there was no stage five). Writing about the experience was one of the few things that made any sense, so I wrote my first young adult novel. It was about cancer and a mother who was dying. It was so close to my heart, so painful, I often found myself crying over the words while writing in my local coffee shop. Amazed I actually finished the manuscript, I was even more amazed when it attracted the attention of an agent. She sent it out on submission and I was on my way to becoming a young adult author! Voila.
And then I waited
and waited
and waited.
It was a black hole. It didn’t sell. How could everyone reject a story so close to my heart? I was crushed. I decided to quit. I gave up. It was too hard.
It was a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad, day.
But then…eventually…I took what I learned from writing the first book and started writing something new. It wasn’t as raw emotionally, but it had heart and a plot (an important thing). And I finished it! My second young adult novel! This was it. My agent sent it out on submission.
And I waited
and waited
and waited.
Another black hole. It didn’t sell.
It was a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad, day.
And then my agent and I parted ways.
It was another terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. Now, after all this hard work, I was back to square one. No book deal, no agent, and no fresh ideas for a new manuscript.
I was evidently a no good, very bad writer. I should quit. Give up. Stop trying.
But I didn't.
I didn't know it at the time, but if I had stopped there I would have missed something really amazing. And that's the thing with terrible, horrible, no good, very bad days in writing and in life.
You have to acknowledge them.
You have to feel them.
Then you have to use them to lead you to something wonderful waiting on a new day.
And some of my days after terrible, horrible, no good and very bad have been incredible. Days that make all the bad times and rejections completely worth it. Like when I finished my third novel. It was called SKINNY and it attracted the passionate support of top literary agent, Sarah Davies at Greenhouse Literary. Or days like when SKINNY sold to Scholastic (my dream publisher) in a hotly contested auction. Or even days like when my fantastic editor, Aimee Friedman, told a standing room only crowd about SKINNY as part of the YA Editor Buzz Panel at BEA (You can see the YA Editor Buzz Panel here).
Best of all there are days when I write something unexpected and am flooded with creativity endorphins because, after all, that's where it all begins and ends--the writing. And those days are very good day indeed.
I'm not unrealistic. I know there will be still be bad days. This dream doesn't come easy, and that's what makes the good days even sweeter.
But in the classic words of ALEXANDER,
"Some days are like that. Even in Australia."
So in the spirit of ALEXANDER, I wanted to share my personal publication story.
After years of authoring scholarly articles for tenure at a research institution, I decided to return to writing children's books. I quickly discovered, however, the content wasn't going to be picture book material. My mother had just been diagnosed with stage four cancer (there was no stage five). Writing about the experience was one of the few things that made any sense, so I wrote my first young adult novel. It was about cancer and a mother who was dying. It was so close to my heart, so painful, I often found myself crying over the words while writing in my local coffee shop. Amazed I actually finished the manuscript, I was even more amazed when it attracted the attention of an agent. She sent it out on submission and I was on my way to becoming a young adult author! Voila.
And then I waited
and waited
and waited.
It was a black hole. It didn’t sell. How could everyone reject a story so close to my heart? I was crushed. I decided to quit. I gave up. It was too hard.
It was a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad, day.
But then…eventually…I took what I learned from writing the first book and started writing something new. It wasn’t as raw emotionally, but it had heart and a plot (an important thing). And I finished it! My second young adult novel! This was it. My agent sent it out on submission.
And I waited
and waited
and waited.
Another black hole. It didn’t sell.
It was a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad, day.
And then my agent and I parted ways.
It was another terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. Now, after all this hard work, I was back to square one. No book deal, no agent, and no fresh ideas for a new manuscript.
I was evidently a no good, very bad writer. I should quit. Give up. Stop trying.
But I didn't.
I didn't know it at the time, but if I had stopped there I would have missed something really amazing. And that's the thing with terrible, horrible, no good, very bad days in writing and in life.
You have to acknowledge them.
You have to feel them.
Then you have to use them to lead you to something wonderful waiting on a new day.
And some of my days after terrible, horrible, no good and very bad have been incredible. Days that make all the bad times and rejections completely worth it. Like when I finished my third novel. It was called SKINNY and it attracted the passionate support of top literary agent, Sarah Davies at Greenhouse Literary. Or days like when SKINNY sold to Scholastic (my dream publisher) in a hotly contested auction. Or even days like when my fantastic editor, Aimee Friedman, told a standing room only crowd about SKINNY as part of the YA Editor Buzz Panel at BEA (You can see the YA Editor Buzz Panel here). Best of all there are days when I write something unexpected and am flooded with creativity endorphins because, after all, that's where it all begins and ends--the writing. And those days are very good day indeed.
I'm not unrealistic. I know there will be still be bad days. This dream doesn't come easy, and that's what makes the good days even sweeter.
But in the classic words of ALEXANDER,
"Some days are like that. Even in Australia."
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