John Micklos Jr. Writer

I’m sitting here working on my monthly writing plan for October. I enjoy this part of the process, where I look ahead at all the projects I want to get done in the month ahead. The time is full of promise as I think of the possibilities. (Sometimes my end-of-the-month review is less exciting, especially if I didn’t get everything on my list done.)

For October, I’m finishing up an educational white paper, articles for National Geographic Kids and Teaching Tolerance, three profiles for the Association of Educational Publishers, a brochure for the Highlights Foundation, and a publicity project for theOneSchool, One Book project.

In the cracks between these projects, I’ll be sending out queries for school visits and magazine articles. I’ll also be speaking at the Diamond State Reading Association and the New York State Reading Association conferences (and submitting proposals for some spring conferences).

Best of all, it looks like there will be time for me to work on some books at various stages that have been waiting patiently in line for several months behind other more pressing projects. One is a poetry book about the beach that I’m trying to finalize, another is a poetry book I’m just beginning about things to be thankful for, one is a biography about Revolutionary War figure John Greenwood, and one is about the ongoing work of The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery to solve the mystery of Amelia Earhart’s disappearance in 1937. With a variety of topics like that, I’m certain to remain mentally stimulated throughout the month.

Another aspect of these monthly planning schedules is that they are often subject to change. If new projects emerge that have tight deadlines, everything else shifts around to accommodate them. Of course, unanticipated projects are good—especially ones that generate income.

As I wrap up September and look back at my list for this month, I see that I accomplished most but not all of my priority items. All in all, it’s been a pretty successful month. It will be interesting to see what I think this time next month when I look back on October. Maybe having shared publicly what I plan to accomplish will make me even more efficient about getting it all done! We’ll know in a month.

Random Thought of the Week: I’ve often heard it said that when budgeting time for household projects, you should estimate the amount of time you think it should take and then double that estimate to get a reasonable projection of the time it actually will take. I don’t quite do that with my writing, but I do assume that most projects will take longer than I initially expect.

Sometimes deadlines seem like a bad thing. They can cause pressure and anxiety. Sometimes they deprive you of sleep or the ability to relax and watch baseball on TV.

Sometimes deadlines are a good thing, though. When you’re a freelancer like I am, you need to constantly have projects going so you can continue to pay your bills. Lately I’ve been working on several different projects with overlapping due dates. Although that has on occasion proved stressful, it’s far better than not having enough work (or enough money coming in).

Deadlines are also good because they help me focus. The more projects I’m juggling, the better organized I am about getting them all done. I’m far more productive when I’m really busy than when I’m not. Freelancers typically use the slack time in between projects to write query letters and conduct other marketing activities. I do, too, but I’m not nearly as productive as when I’m really busy. For instance, I’m drafting this blog entry at the Newark Public Library as I wait for John to return to Newark after an away soccer game. I will knock out the rough draft in the 20 minutes I have available; if I had an entire afternoon free, I would no doubt spend it drafting the same piece in roughly the same words. The old adage really is true–work expands to fill the time allotted to it.

As a writer, I find that the more I have to do, the more I get done. I’m not only more efficient about getting the deadline assignments done, but I’m also more effective at working ahead on other projects. When things are slack, I find it all too easy to be both physically and mentally lazy. I try to work ahead on large long-term projects such as book manuscripts, but without a specific deadline to push me, I too often let things slide. I do work on them, but I’m not nearly as focused as if there’s a deadline pending.

Sometimes I try to trick myself by creating an artificial deadline. Those aren’t nearly as motivating as a hard, firm due date, however. For more than 25 years I edited a publication, and my work life revolved around meeting the deadlines for that publication. That’s how I operate best. In short, like many writers, I need the pressure created by a deadline to spur me on to peak efficiency. I am not, by the way, advocating putting things off until the last minute to create deadline pressure. Rather, I’m suggesting that people should maintain a full life with lots of worthwhile projects and activities. That way we will find ourselves working to be more efficient in order to meet all of our obligations.

Random Thought of the Week: We spent a thoroughly enjoyable day last Saturday celebrating our daughter’s birthday and watching her play field hockey for her college. Her first semester also illustrates the principle discussed above. Just a week before classes started, she was invited to try out for the field hockey team. I worried about whether she would be able to manage the almost daily practices while also adjusting to college life and meeting the demands of a rigorous class schedule. After the first few weeks, she reported that she felt tired but that she was managing her time more efficiently because she had so much to do. She says all is going well; we’ll know for sure when her mid-term grades come out!

When I talk with young writers in schools, I often advise them to take time between revising drafts of a piece of writing–a day, a week, or even longer if time permits. I call the process “letting things simmer.” I try to practice that principle in my own writing. I find that when I spend some time away from a piece, I can view it with a fresh perspective and see problems I might not have caught if I hadn’t been looking at with “new eyes.”

I’ve taken that principle to new extremes with my latest project, a book of children’s poems about the beach. I first started that project while I was working on my Daddy Poems and Mommy Poems books a decade ago, but my publisher declined the initial manuscript and I concluded I wasn’t ready to complete a book comprised of just my own poems. (My other books were collections that included a few of my poems mixed in with poems from other, more established poets.)

So I let the project sit…and sit…and sit. It sat through two more poetry books. It sat through a dozen nonfiction books and many other projects. It gathered dust in a folder deep in one of my writing boxes. This summer, as I prepared to launch my new freelance career, I pulled out the poems for the first time in years. When I saw the 2001 copyright date I’d placed on them, I realized the project had languished for a full decade.

As I looked over the poems again, I realized that I still really liked them, but they needed a lot of work. So I overhauled the collection, tweaking lines for some poems and completely rewriting (or even discarding) others. I was amazed at how, in many cases, I almost immediately saw ways to improve poems that I had considered finished 10 years ago.

I also decided to take a fresh approach to how I wanted to present the poems. I took an online course in self-publishing over the summer, and I decided to take a crack at going that route with this book. I plan to use CreateSpace, a self-publishing service offered by Amazon.com. The advantage there, of course, is that the book will then get exposure through Amazon.

Most of my poetry books are illustrated with artwork, and I’ve loved the illustrations in each of them. For this book, however, I always envisioned photography, and several years ago at a writer’s group meeting I saw some lovely beach photos by Lisa Goodman (www.lisagoodmanphoto.com). I asked if she would like to collaborate on this project, and we are working together to create what I believe will be a wonderful package. We hope to have the book ready by next spring.

The lesson here is yet another reminder that, like a stew, sometimes a writing project benefits from simmering over time so that the flavors can fully blend and mature. I’ll keep you posted on the project as it moves forward.

Random Thought of the Week: It came home to me recently how parents really do live vicariously through our children. I was never a good athlete growing up. The other week, I got to watch my daughter, Amy, play a collegiate field hockey game for Marywood University. On Tuesday, I watched my son, John, play goalie as Newark High School opened its soccer season with a shutout win over Christiana. What fun!

Some of my best assignments seem to come when I least expect them. Early this summer, I queried National Geographic Kids with an article idea. Last week I received an e-mail response saying that they had no need for the article I had proposed, but they really liked my writing samples and wondered if I would be willing to take on an assignment preparing three brief pieces for their Amazing Animals section. Obviously, I jumped at the chance.

Yesterday I had a lovely telephone interview with a zoo manager in Wales about an orphaned ostrich who was given a stuffed ostrich to prevent him from being lonely and has formed a remarkable bond with the toy. I’ve also conducted an e-mail interview about a wildlife preserve in Kenya that protects orphaned baby elephants from the elements with their own little (well, not that little) raincoats. Soon I expect to be talking with a shop owner in California about how his brave little Chihuahua chased two armed robbers out of the store. What fun!

I’m also amazed at the level of care that goes into the material appearing in National Geographic Kids. Not only was there a six-page contract, but there were detailed guidelines and suggestions for each brief article that were nearly as long as the final articles themselves are supposed to be. When I asked if I could send drafts of my articles to the interview subjects to ensure accuracy, the editor informed me that they would take care of that—but only after their own fact checker had carefully gone through the pieces.

Want to know more about the amazing animals described above? Check out the April 2012 issue of National Geographic Kids. I hope the articles will be…amazing!

This week I am meeting with the photographer who is collaborating with me on my children’s book of beach poems. I am excited to see that project move forward. While I really enjoy writing a variety of articles, I keep reminding myself that one of the main reasons I moved to freelancing was so that I could have more time to pursue preparation of children’s books.

Random Thought of the Week: As I rush from one assignment to another this week and juggle other commitments relating to family, church, and business, I sometimes wonder if it wouldn’t be nice for life to slow down a little. But after taking a deep breath and reflecting for a moment, I decide that things are great just the way they are!

One of the things I enjoy most about writing is the chance to do research and learn about interesting people, events, and facts. For instance, I just turned in an article on student activism for Teaching Tolerance magazine. Along the way, I had the opportunity to learn the stories of three remarkable young people: Rachel Beckwith, Alex Loorz, and Sarah Cronk.

Instead of asking for presents for her 9^th birthday, Rachel asked family and friends to donate to charity: water, a nonprofit organization that provides clean water to people in developing countries. Rachel initially fell short of her $300 goal, but then on July 23 she died following a tragic auto accident. Word about Rachel’s death and her campaign spread and, as of August 29, people from all over the world had donated more than $1.2 million to charity: water through her webpage (http://mycharitywater.org/p/campaign?campaign_id=16396. I’ve got to admit that when I first tried to read a news story about this to my wife and daughter, I couldn’t get through it without choking up. To learn more about this remarkable story, see this CBS news clip: http://www.cbs.com/daytime/the_early_show/video/?pid=sFNkIjOIraIrLRsbC9Uknp6HXrpnUt8P&play=true&vs=Default.

After seeing An Inconvenient Truth, 12-year-old Alec Loorz formed a nonprofit organization called Kids vs. Global Warming (www.kids-vs-global-warming.com). This past year, the now 16-year-old activist has worked to get teens to sign on to a series of lawsuits seeking to force the federal government and states to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to protect the atmosphere as a “public trust” for future generations.

After watching her older brother struggle to fit in at high school because of his disabilities until being invited to join the swim team, Sarah Cronk formed an inclusive cheerleading squad at her school. Soon after, she helped form a nonprofit organization called The Sparkle Effect to spread the concept, and now there are more than two dozen Sparkle Effect cheerleading squads across the United States and in South Africa. Sarah recently received the $100,000 grand prize in the 2011 Do Something awards. To learn more, watch this clip from the awards show, which aired on VH1: http://www.vh1.com/video/misc/683135/lauren-potter-kristen-bell-introduce-sarah-cronk.jhtml.

What a joy to learn about the work of these young activists! It renews my faith in the next generation and the ways they might make our world better. And I never would have known about any of them if I hadn’t been doing research for my article. Whether creating backstory for a novel or doing research for a nonfiction article or book, curiosity is a hallmark of any successful writer. We love to uncover interesting facts and learn new things.

Random Thought of the Week: It’s a real feeling of helplessness as you watch a hurricane approach your region and realize that, beyond taking some basic precautions, there’s nothing you can do about what’s coming. We feel very fortunate; we only had a few branches down, no water in the basement, and no power outages. Our thoughts go out to those who weren’t so lucky and suffered significant damage.

For the first three months of my freelance career, projects came in at a slower rate than I had hoped. I spent much of my time developing marketing materials for my new business, taking an online course to learn about self-publishing, working on several children’s book manuscripts, and brainstorming ideas for several more. 

This week, however, I’m frantically trying to get two projects completed, with another due soon. I’m bouncing back and forth between them, focusing first on one, then the other. All are fun projects—an article on student activism for Teaching Tolerance magazine, a news release promoting the One School, One Book program, and a brochure for the Highlights Foundation.

On the one hand, it can be a bit disconcerting to keep shifting my focus back and forth. On the other, it helps keep my perspective fresh. By working on one project for a while and then setting it aside for a bit to work on another, I never get into a mental rut.

Whenever I work with young writers in schools, I always stress the value of setting aside a draft for a while—a few hours or a few days—before editing it. That allows them to view the piece with fresh eyes and [hopefully] catch problems or errors they might not have seen otherwise. Weeks like this one help ensure that I practice that principle with my own writing.

With that in mind, I welcome the opportunity to juggle projects. Not only does it mean that the work is coming in at a good pace, but it also allows me to maintain a fresher perspective than if I were totally immersed in a single project.

Random Thought of the Week: I’m getting together with a college friend later this week, which started me thinking about my hopes and dreams for my writing back in the late 1970s, when I bounced back and forth between thinking I would someday be a bestselling author and simply hoping I’d SOMEDAY get SOMETHING published SOMEWHERE. At the time, if I’d known that at this point in my life I’d have 16 published books to my credit (all of which put together don’t equal one bestseller), I guess I would have thought that was pretty good.

For many years, I have been a fan of Teaching Tolerance, a magazine published by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) in Alabama to raise awareness about issues pertaining to tolerance, peace, racism, gender equity, and related topics. This spring I served on an awards judging panel for the Association of Educational Publishers with Maureen Costello, director of SPLC’s Teaching Tolerance program. I mentioned to her that I would love to write for Teaching Tolerance magazine sometime, and she put me in touch with Sean Price, one of the magazine’s editors. Sean and I traded e-mails for a few months, and I have just been assigned to write an article on encouraging student activism for an upcoming issue.

I’m sitting here this morning feeling really fortunate that I can earn money exploring a fascinating subject like this and bringing information about it to a wide range of teachers throughout the world. The background research I’ve been doing for the article has been often inspiring and sometimes heart-rending. When the article is finished, I’ll let everyone know how to access it.

I’m moving forward on some book projects as well. We were enjoying the cool August evenings in Maine last week, and I spent some time editing my still untitled book of beach poems for children. This is a project I started about a dozen years ago, but I wasn’t able to find a home for it with a commercial publishing house. I’ve totally rewritten most of the poems, and I’m now looking at producing it as a self-published project.

My poems will be paired with wonderful photographs taken by my friend Lisa Goodman, an accomplished professional photographer. I was in a writer’s group with Lisa about five years ago, and when I saw some of her beach photographs I knew they would make the perfect accompaniment to my poems. This summer we’ve finally had time to pursue that idea, and it’s been really gratifying to see the project begin to come together. I’ll keep you posted on our progress.

Random Thought of the Week: I went back and forth last week in Maine between feeling guilty that I spent a chunk of my vacation working and feeling guilty that I wasn’t getting more work done. After all, as a self-employed writer/editor, if I don’t work I don’t eat. In the end, I decided that I had struck a good balance between work and fun. Besides, when working involves spending a few hours in the Bangor Public Library, one of my favorite places on Earth, it’s not really working anyway!

When I visit schools, students often ask where I get my ideas. Generally, I offer a nebulous response such as “Anywhere…Everywhere.” I’m not simply being flippant. Ideas comes from the strangest places, and they often come when I’m least expecting them. Sometimes I can see almost immediately how an idea might bloom into an article or book. Other times the process is somewhat akin to giving birth to an elephant. Almost always, it takes a good deal of work and research to turn an idea into a usable piece of writing.

The other week my wife, Debbie, and I went to the University of Delaware library to see a special Revolutionary War exhibit. This field guide to the 13 colonies gave generals an overview of all the strategic places where battles might take place. It was a fascinating exhibit, but try as I might I could not think of a way to translate any of the information into usable form for a children’s book or article.

While we were in the library, however, we wandered through other parts of the building and found a brand-new exhibit of books about the Civil War. Most pertained to Abraham Lincoln, but it was another book that caught my eye–the autobiography of Sarah Emma Edmonds, who impersonated a man and served two years in the Union army. Not only that, but she also served as a spy, assuming the guise of a slave and an Irish peddler. She also worked as a nurse.

What a fascinating person, I thought! My mind immediately began turning over ways that I might turn this story into a picture book for youngsters at the older end of the picture book spectrum (ages 8 to 10). I did some preliminary research and found only a single middle school/young adult biography of Edmonds that was written several years ago. I saw my book as occupying a different niche and got excited about the prospects.

Alas, a second round of searching on Amazon.com revealed not one, but two, picture books about Edmonds that came out just this spring. I intend to find copies of them, but I doubt that I can find an angle that is sufficiently fresh to justify another book on the same topic. And that’s the other thing about ideas–you have to go through a lot of them before you find ones that are unique, marketable, and appropriate for your interests and talents.

Random Thought of the Week–My computer shared my disappointment in finding out about the other books on Sarah Emma Edmonds. As I completed my search, it gave me an error message and promptly shut down. The problem turned out to be a crashed hard drive, and even the best efforts of a computer whiz friend were unsuccessful in bringing it back to life (even freezing it overnight, which I learned sometimes revives it long enough to get the data off of it). So my sage advice to others this week is to be more diligent than I was in backing up files. I’m still trying to figure out exactly what I backed up and when, what I have available in other places such as e-mail attachments, and what is simply lost. Live and learn!

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