Lessons From a Mouse (a famous one!)

Hello hello!

As you've probably noticed...I've been away for a couple of weeks. Hubs and I were stocking up on rest and relaxation, good food, good company, and good fun in sunny California. We visited family in San Francisco, friends in Santa Barbara, drove through horrid traffic in LA, and hung out with a mouse in Anaheim! It was a fantastic trip, but I didn't leave without getting a lesson about making my dreams come true. (Good 'ol Walt pulls it off every time!)

You know it... we went to Disneyland!

We not only got to visit THE Disneyland, the place where Walt Disney actually walked and took a chance on his dreams, be we also visited the Walt Disney Family Museum in San Francisco, where we learned all about Walt's many successes, and many failures.

Failures?!? Yep. Failures. And LOTS of hard work.

You see, Walt Disney started working when he was about 7 years old (or maybe 8? I'm bad at remembering numbers...) where he trudged through the snow on his father's paper route. He sold his drawings to friends and neighbors. He worked for a cannery, boxing up jams and things. He worked on a train selling food and the news to passengers. He worked for the Red Cross, because he wasn't able to get into the military. And he worked hard enough to earn himself a scholarship at the Kansas City Art institute. This all happened before he turned twenty! (And there is plenty more I'm forgetting to tell you about!)

After graduation, Walt and his college buddy Ub Iwerks then started a small animation company (yay!) that ended up going bankrupt (boo!). So they moved to Hollywood and worked on the "Alice Comedies" instead, (yay!) which eventually died off (boo). Then he invented a character called Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, who was successful (yay!) but the rights were stolen from Walt (boo!).

And you know what he had to say about that?

Walt decided that they could KEEP Oswald...he was going to make something BETTER. He was going to show them who was boss!

And then came along Mickey Mouse! (You tell 'em, Walt!)

Fast forward to many successful years later when Walt sat down on a park bench with his children, and decided he wanted his own theme park. A CLEAN one, mind you, where people could go for some serious fun. And thus began his quest to build Disneyland.

After the completion of the park, though, Walt soon realized it wasn't enough. Maybe it had been for the guests, but not for Walt. He wanted to block out the sounds of traffic, the city skyline, and create a bigger separation from the World and Reality. He wanted a place where guests could truly get away from work and lost in another world. So he moved on, kept improving, and he started building Disney World.

Unfortunately, he didn't get to see that dream to completion. Walt passed away before Disney World opened. But he sure did change the world, didn't he? Take these quotes, for example:

There are far more up and downs in Walt's crazy, amazing life history. I'm not going to get into them all. But the biggest lesson here is to always be striving for the best, for the next big step, for moving forward and not looking back. No matter how many trips or falls we have, just dust off your pants and keep moving along.

Just like Mickey Mouse does!

I wanna be like Mickey... can't you tell?

Fear of Rejection! #writing #publishing #rejection #agents

I'm still working on my research for book tie-ins and classroom activities, so that's not today's topic. (I was hoping it would be, but research is research.) Instead, we shall talk of fear *gAsp!* and rejection. *boo! hisss!*

This week I received my second agent rejection of my career's history! (Lame number, I know. There will be more.) And I'm not crying about it. I'm okay with it, actually, and I'm just relieved to know the answer, and to move on to the next agent. So I sent out my second-ever set of postcard mailers to all the awesome publishers out there, refreshed my online portfolio and I started looking for my next target agent.

Why aren't I curled up in a ball, hiding? Some people really and truly get upset, or fear the rejection. For some odd reason, I don't. I get a little anxious and excited and downright buzzed, but I'm not sad or anything. If we aren't a match, then why force it? If it's not meant to be, there's a reason. And also, I've got this reminder on my binder-of-rejections:

NO REJECTIONS = NO ONE IS SEEING YOUR WORK!

I learned this very important lesson from my friend Marlo, teacher, book editor, author, artist, and an overall talented person. She brought in her STACKS of rejection letters and shared them with us in her class. And she told us the more we send out our work and get rejected, the better the chances will be the next time we submit. So that's why I started a binder, and I want to fill it up!

Also this week, my friend Brook posted about self sabotage and procrastination, a prevention of rejection. Except it prevents other things from happening, such as getting your work out there!

And, coincidentally, this amazing tidbit was shared on Facebook among my friends:

Ira Glass quote by Sawyer Hollenshead
Original source can be found here:  http://sawyerhollenshead.com/portfolio/ira-glass-quote/  

This image led to a conversation about art, naturally:

Friend: "Wow..this really hit home with me and my design work. It's not easy being at the beginning." 

Me:  "Yeah! But it's so true, isn't it? It really helps to be aware of why we feel this way about our work! It isn't easy at the beginning, nor in the middle...and I'm guessing when we're supposed to be a 'pro' I'm betting we'll feel the same way." 

Friend:  "Ya know why it's so hard? Because it's personal. Our passion, our creativity, our ideas, are personal to us. So when there is the fear of those things not being accepted,it is a fear of not being personally accepted. And, it can be enough to paralyze. I deal with beating down the scaredy cat beast every single day." 

Me: "That is SO true! A lot of my friends deal with that too, you know. Because of this fear, many of us procrastinate or decide housework is more important, etc. See my friend's post at: deadgideons.com. And I'm not saying that I don't also feel this way, but my you know what my BIGGER fear is? People NOT seeing my work, or not seeing me for who I am. I fear more of being forgotten or lost... And if I don't put myself out there I will never be 'immortalized' by my work. My identity is so wrapped around my art and stories that I fear losing it if it isn't shared. Because if I don't share it, I'm just a waitress at a Chinese restaurant. And that is NOT all of who I am!
     Another thing I've learned is that every single one of us creative folk are on a continuous creative JOURNEY. Art is not a destination, really. You're always learning, always improving, always creating something new. I think it's important to look at it that way. Not every piece you make is set in stone. You can go back and fix it. Or toss it and make a new one. It's like an artist's life is a forest, and every once in a while it needs a fire to renew it, and it becomes lush again.
     All successful relationships have ups and downs, but it's sticking together through them that makes them blossom!"

Anyway, I thought the discussions going around this week were very important to the Creatives of the world, and it's good to share and pass along little nuggets of understanding when we find them. So if you've ever blogged, posted, wrote or thought about this topic of fear, rejection, procrastination or self-sabotage, share it with us in the comments box!

Here are a few I found just now:
http://cindylrodriguez.com/2012/02/18/rejection/
http://www.carlplumer.com/862/writing-and-rejection
"The Fast Yes and the Slow No" 
Wordy Birdy's selection of rejection posts: http://cleverbirdy.blogspot.com/search/label/rejection%20letters
And words of wisdom from Jane Yolen: http://janeyolen.com/for-writers/

Success... Time Management... and The Balancing Act

Today I'd like to talk about Time Management Skills. This happens to be the area I am most... well, I'll just say it- struggling with at the moment. (And the result of my struggle is the "s" word we are not allowed to use in my family because it becomes our scapegoat.)

Drawing, painting, writing, reading, blogging, networking, emailing (and now Twittering), waitress-ing, wife-ing, exercising, living... how do I prioritize? When I'm on the treadmill, I think of how I should be painting instead. When I'm painting, I think of the other stuff I need to be doing. How to I fit it all into my day without biting my nails down to the bone, going prematurely white-haired, and losing myself in the process?

I guess my first step is to break it all down and find out what is really most important to me. You can skip on down to the end if you'd like, because I'm sure this little exercise will bore you to pieces, but I need to sort it all out in the open to find a solution. Once it is out there in cyberspace, I might feel more inclined to follow through with my solution because there are eyes that can see whether I fail or succeed. You are those eyes.

The Important Stuff:
1. Practice Makes Perfect: Draw, Write, and Read!
One of the recurring themes of this past weekend's NESCBWI Spring conference (#nescbwi11) was not only in almost every one's speech, but it also was the most important (and probably why it was in every one's speech. Actually, I'm sure it is why it was in every one's speech). It was said in multiple ways:

• "BIC... Butt in Chair," from Jane Yolen, Keynote Speaker
• "Follow Malcom Gladwell's 10,000-hour Rule," from "The Search for Singular Style" panel
• "Humor is not a shortcut to hard work," from Donna Gephart's "12 3/4 Ways to Tickle Young Readers' Funny Bones" workshop
• "Do the Work... Make your creative life your TOP priority," from Lin Oliver, Keynote Speaker
• "Read. Write. Read some more," from Mark Peter Hughes' imagination-sparking workshop
• "Success can take you years to achieve... but if you don't keep at it, you won't make it," from Harold Underdown's Keynote Speech

And here's another blogger's talk on the practice topic: http://ingridsnotes.wordpress.com/2011/03/21/butt-in-chair-put-in-the-hours/

2. Get Your Stuff Out There
At the conference we also talked about Social Networking, Twittering, Facebooking, and self-promoting. In particular, there was a workshop called "Improving Your Online Presence," and you can find the lecture here. And on the topic of social networking, what does a children's publisher expect from us?

3. Get Moving
And because we artists and writers are Sedentary Beings, let's not forget to get our hearts pumping and our butts moving! There is an article on Illustration Island "What I Wish I Knew When I Started," where someone says they wish they had gotten into the habit of exercising every day, because it gets harder as you get older to stay in shape. Health is very important to me- how else will I live to be a hundred and fifty so I can read to my great-great-grandchildren???

4. Spend Time With Family
With my rotten upside down schedule, it's hard to spend time with family and friends. Most people are just getting out of work when I clock-in to serve the world some delicious Chinese cuisine. I'm lucky because many of my friends and family visit me while I'm working, and sometimes we even get to have a nice conversation... but I'm still working and not totally there mentally so it isn't quality time.

5. Do Something... else
My new career is super fun! I love to draw, read and write! But sometimes it is also good to step outside of the box (or studio... or house) and just find something of another kind of fun to do. Go for a walk, watch a movie, take a drive, go on a date with Hubby. But I shouldn't chastise myself for taking a guilty pleasure when I do go out and have a bit of fun. It is Life after all, it's okay to do some living!

6. Write Lists
THIS part is by far my best quality. I am a professional list maker! I have a Short-Term Goal list, a Long-Term Goal list, a Blog Post Idea list, an Audio Books to Read list... the list goes on! The cool things about lists are that I forget less, and I even get to see my progress as I cross things off. And I can almost feel myself getting calmer as I write something new down on my Master List, because I know I won't be forgetting to do it!


7. Oh! I almost forgot... SLEEP!
Regardless of what time we get home from work (sometimes as late as 1:30 am!), I need to be sure to get eight hours of sleep. It isn't good to lose out on sleep- not for the mind or the body. So what if the public eye thinks ten o'clock is too late to get up? They should be seeing my art, not when I'm eating my breakfast. I need to let go of the guilt I put onto myself for not "sticking to the schedule." It just gives me heartburn to worry so much!

8. Savoring
There is this book, called Savor, which I've been trying to read (and have yet to finish) but at least I've got the general gist of it. The author explains and teaches us how to really live in the moment of what we are doing. Don't think about other things while you are doing something- don't even DO other things while you are doing something. If you are eating, focus on the thing you are eating. Don't watch tv and scarf it down. Really immerse yourself in that thing. So from now on, I'm going to do that. With everything that I do, I'm going to savor each moment, enjoy it for what it is, and not think about the other things I could or should be doing.

And What About that Evil, Time-Sucking Thing We Call the Internet?
Email, reading the "daily news" via Facebook or Twitter, you know... the path you end up on due to your self-promoting social networking? The one that takes five hours from your day? The one I am effectively adding to by writing this huge blog post? There is an article I found on this, so here it is: Getting Sucked Into the Internet. I think it's time I really put a stop to my tomfoolery, and to start focusing on the real work.

I'm sure there is plenty more I could add to the above list, (notice how I didn't include chores on there? I did too... I wonder if that's a bad thing?) but really, life doesn't work that way anyway. Weddings and birthdays and stuff just happens, but if I have a set of rules for myself, (really simple, easy rules), then I won't feel so much pressure when things go awry.

My New and Improved Goals:

• 30 minutes of cardio, five times per week, (or a total of 150 minutes in any combination)
• ONE finished illustration per week. Sketch all I want, but I need to follow through and paint at least one of them. Spot illustrations count. Illustration Friday helps.
• ONE blog post per week. Don't feel pressured to do more, just put the new idea on the list until after all my other stuff is done. Make Mondays my blog-posting days!
• Listening to audio books on the way to work = reading. I've got a forty-five minute commute, one way. Anything else I choose to pick up is just an added bonus! If I watch less television at night, I can whittle down my pile even faster.
• ONE writing session per week. Sit down and write. Blogging counts as writing, however I've got manuscripts to edit and stories to put down on paper. So my Special Writing Time should be committed to my stories, and nothing else. I'm working on how long that session should be...
• ONE relaxing and fun activity. What will it be? Should it be weekly? Do I have time for that? I guess I'll try it and see what happens!
• Make plans and visit with somebody, IN PERSON, not at work, TWICE a month. Only twice a month seems a bit lame, but I need to start somewhere. 
• Remember to SAVOR it all.
• As for the Time Sucker, the Internet... I will check my email briefly each morning to see if there is anything pertinent, and if there isn't, I will dutifully put away the Internet until I have accomplished some of the stuff on my list of goals. I can do all the Internet Dawdling I want on my phone when I'm on the go, and NOT while I am trying to get some work done. No Twitter or Facebook unless there is an actual message. I can post stuff for self-promotional reasons, but that will be all.
  
  AND! Drum roll, please...
• I'm taking a night off a week from work for the summer. No phone, no Internet, no tick-tock of the Mickey Mouse clock. Just me and blank paper in the studio for a few hours. I think this is going to help me quite a bit, at least for now. We'll see what happens when classes start up again in September.

Well! I think I'm feeling better already! In fact, I'm going to print my goals and stick them onto my studio door to remind me what I've promised myself. I'll keep you posted on how it's all turning out, and it would be super duper nice of you to share some of your own Time Management and Balancing tricks down below in the Comments box! 

Thanks for reading, and Happy Balancing! If things go as planned, I shall see you again next Monday! :D