Strollerderby : writing

Writing is Working - I Promise

JeanneSager — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 20:32:00 GMT

At a time when newspapers across the country are going out of business or laying off writers, I took a long hard look at Mama Bee's rant against the writing moms who dare consider themselves experts on working motherhood . . . and screamed.

At its heart, I think I understand what she was trying to say - that there is no cookie cutter solution for the trials and travails of the working parent. If you think a "10 Easy Tips to Wrangle Your Kids" list is going to solve your struggles, more power to you.

But in accusing mothers who write for a living of being "profoundly disconnected from its real trials and tribulations," she betrays her own lack of understanding of the life of a journalist.

We work, generally far above the forty-hour work week - and not all of us from home. In fact, a fair number of journalists work out of an office, rather than as freelancers. I consider myself lucky that I spend a few days working from home, but it's somewhat of a misnomer - working from home often means packing my daughter in her carseat and heading off with her to do an interview in the middle of a barn with a farmer concerned about milk prices, keeping one eye fixed on her at all times to make sure she doesn't end up UNDER a cow. It means leaving my daughter with my husband at 6 p.m. to head to a five-hour-long town board meeting where I'll listen to politicians sniping at each other about a whole lot of nothing instead of enjoying books before bedtime.

I know what it's like to juggle the sitter's schedule with my own, to go rushing around to find someone to watch my daughter on a random Monday when my daycare provider has a doctor's appointment. I know what it's like to call my boss and say, I'm sorry, I can't go report on that fire right now because I don't have daycare, and to hear him sigh and know that I just lost favor that the non-parent reporters automatically curry.

I also know what it's like to try to work from home, to sit at a computer and try to write a story about parenting while my daughter screams from the bathroom or shoves a cup of juice in my face and asks for more. I know what it's like to be thisclose to missing a deadline and have to go clean up a water spill across the kitchen floor. I chose this, I know, but that doesn't make it any easier. And for those who would say, well, hire a sitter on those days, I counter - where will I get the money?

Because as a writer mom, I also know what it's like to struggle to make ends meet. Newspapers are closing. The paper where I work has cut staff, and that's meant more pressure on the rest of us to produce, produce, produce. But where do I find the time? Where do I find the supplemental income when one of the magazines I write for shuts down, when the new editor decides she doesn't like my style as much as the old editor?

No, I don't know what it's like to be a factory laborer, Mama Bee. I don't know what it's like to have regular hours, when I can punch in, punch out. News doesn't happen nine to five - and daycares don't take kindly to you showing up at 7 because a late breaking story kept you in the newsroom. I don't know what it's like to be a corporate drone either, Mama Bee, to know exactly how much my paycheck will be week in and week out, to know I can make the mortgage and the phone bill.

But I do know how to write their stories. And that's how they end up in the newspaper, on the Web, in magazines. Because the lady working at H&R Block might be a whizz-bang at my taxes (while I can't make heads or tails of a W-2), but she can't write a news story.

So I write, Mama Bee, because that's my job. Which makes me a working mother.

Image: Medway

Tina Fey’s 3-Year Old Writes for 30 Rock – My 3-Year Old Blogs

SunnyChanel — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 02:33:00 GMT

Alice, the three and ½ year old daughter of Tina Fey ain’t getting a free ride. Her mom already has her working. In an interview on Jimmy Fallon’s Late Show, Fey confessed that her daughter is “kind of an uncredited writer for 30 Rock,” saying that “she’ll say crazy stuff and we’ll put it in the show.” She cited the example of when her daughter saw a Disney World website on the computer and said “I want to go to there”, which became a catch phrase for Fey’s Liz Lemon.

Other lines courtesy of Alice are just begging to be used like when it was close to bed time and she had a lollipop and Fey asked “Are you done with that for tonight,” her reply, “no mommy, I wanna have a lot of sucks tonight.” Fey commented “That’s a good line for Tracy Morgan or something.”

And on being a mom Fey said “You start to look like a mom, like you don’t clean yourself right,” she continued talking about being momish “Like when your kid hands you their boogers and you take them, yeah, I’m a mom,” oh and also the goodtime that is “…putting underpants on someone who is dancing.”

So since Tina Fey is getting her three year old to work, I thought I’d get my three year old daughter Annabella to work too, as a Babble guest blogger. We sat and watched Tina Fey’s appearance on the Late Show and here were her reactions:

Tina Fey on her 3 ½ daughter Alice:
Annabella: I’m three! Hey mom I’m three! I’m Three!

Tina Fey mentioning Disney World:
Annabella whispers: There’s another Disney?!?!?!

Tina Fey mentioning lollipops:
Annabella: Remember I just got a lollipop?
Me: No, when?
Annabella: I don’t know...

Tina Fey says, “I’m a mom”:
Annabella: You’re a mom! (while poking me in the forehead)

Tina Fey on the job being a grind:
Annabella: Remember when I grind a salt?

Tina Fey on SNL:
Annabella: Hey, Your name starts with a S!
Annabella: I want fizzy water. Mommy, I want fizzy water!

Tina Fey on working 361 days a year:
Annabella: Hey, I’m three!

Tina Fey on putting underpants on someone who is dancing:
Annabella: Hey you have underpants!

On second thought, maybe my daughter should just stick with her day job, being three.

Cursive Writing Extinct, Thanks to Today's Kids

Jen Chaney — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 15:02:00 GMT

Oh, these dang whipper snapper kids today. First they won't read newspapers. Then they insist on text messaging or IMing instead of talking to each other. Now they've really done it: They refuse to write in cursive.

As Jezebel reports -- citing a story that originally appeared in UPI and the Sacramento Bee -- many students are shunning loopy, lovely penmanship because, in a world where they type on keyboards or text message on mobile devices, they have no need for that nutty longhand writing stuff. Schools are still going through the motions of teaching cursive, but, as one teacher says, the kids won't use it. When they do have to write something down, they opt to print instead.

Of course, this is hardly surprising news. But it makes me wonder whether in twenty years, younger generations will even know how to craft one of those pesky cursive "z"s. Hell, I actually wrote a lot of schoolwork by hand and even I sometimes stumble over that one.

Think for a minute: When was the last time you had to write something in cursive? I bet I know the answer: When you had to sign a credit card receipt or a check. And that's one reason why the kids do need to know rudimentary calligraphy. If they ever want to buy anything or sign a legal document, they will need to scrawl their names the old-fashioned way. That is, until we start legally IDing ourselves via the chips embedded in our brains.

So the moral of the story is: Learn how to write at least the letters in your name in cursive so you can eventually sign the Mastercard receipts you'll rack up in college. For everything else: there's txt msgng.

Image: mediabistro.com

Schoolyard Angst Makes It to Book Form

Mike Adamick (Cry It Out!) — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 14:08:00 GMT

While I fully admit I'm biased in writing of this -- one of my stories is published in this anthology -- it still doesn't take away how much I love to hear these cringe-worthy stories of schoolyard social angst.

Can I Sit With YOu? is a treasure trove of web essays detailing "the stormy social seas of the schoolyard" and it's all for a good cause, raising money for a citywide special needs program in Northern California. This has got to be one of the funniest, richest fund-raising ideas I have ever come across.

Check out the new book -- volume two -- and I promise you won't be disappointed.

Here's a sneak.

[Cover art: Diva Lea]

Of Childhood Trainwrecks and Literary Inclinations

Mike Adamick (Cry It Out!) — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 12:31:00 GMT

From time to time I'll look back on childhood and cringe -- either because of the way I behaved in a particular situation or the way I was tormented in others. Most of childhood was just grand, don't get me wrong. But every now and then a memory will spring forth out of nowhere, and I'll think: "Who was that kid?"

Which is why I'm having so much fun reading Can I Sit With You? -- a web collaboration of some really fantastic writers recalling some really unnerving events. Or funny events. Or downright catastrophes. It's like getting the chance to rubber neck someone else's childhood angst and neuroses, and I just can't avert my gaze.

The most recent essay, by Lisa Lucke, offers the perfect blend of humor and humility, and it's all capped off at the end with a jaw-dropping, cringe-inducing revelation -- a must-read for anyone who remembers practicing so hard as a child only to be told, well, go read it. I don't want to spoil it. Then there's Dori Ben-David's yarn about her late afternoon encounter with someone she and her friends used to torment. And these are just a few of my favorites.

The site raises money for special education in a Bay Area school district, and the essays are also published in a book. I just wanted to share for a good cause, but mostly, for a good read. If you had an odd childhood, this is the perfect site for you. And really, who didn't?

Rich or Rehab: Whatever Happened to Gordie From 'Stand By Me'?

Jen Chaney — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 15:02:00 GMT

In "Stand By Me," he was River Phoenix's best friend. He got a leech stuck on a particularly unsavory part of his body. And he told a hell of a story about Lard Ass. His name is Wil Wheaton, and you can see a snippet of his fine work here:

Wheaton became instantly famous at age 14 after playing Gordie Lachance in the aforementioned modern classic. That led to another high-profile part for him on "Star Trek: Generations," where he starred as Wesley Crusher for several seasons. A string of roles in minor movies and occasional guest-starring gigs on TV shows -- as well as a brief stint as a computer programmer in Topeka, Kan. -- followed, but many "Stand By Me" fans may have found themselves asking: What the heck happened to Gordie?

If you keep close tabs on the blogosphere, you probably already know that Wheaton is a longtime blogger who posts at Wil Wheaton Dot Net, a site he created back in 2001 and continues to maintain all by himself. (A fellow blogger? I like him already.) He has written three books, including the recent "The Happiest Days of Our Lives." And he also does occasional acting -- he appeared last year in an episode of "Numb3rs" -- as well as some voice work, including vocals for (!!) "Grand Theft Auto IV."

On top of all that, he is married and has two stepchildren. But my favorite part of this story? The fact that the kid who played Gordie, a boy who wanted to be a writer when he grew up, grew up to become a writer himself.

The Internet is Not the Devil

Kelly Mills — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 22:31:00 GMT

It seems that every generation views bashing the up-and-coming one as a kind of sport, and this one is no exception. Where older folks once lamented rock music and long hair as markers of the end of civilization, now we have teenagers who are ignorant and narcissistic and spend so much time online that they can no longer interact with real people in the real world. Well, Emily Goldwasser at Salon isn't buying it, and she says the internet is not a danger and a disaster for our kids. She's responding in part to a phone survey of teens that showed a "stunning ignorance" of history and literature.

Boy, does she make some good points in this excellent article: She highlights that with blogs and social networking sites, we now have a generation of kids who are (gasp) voluntarily writing. The internet has "created a generation, perhaps the first, of writers, activists, storytellers" and all our screaming isn't going to stop that juggernaut. In addition, the kids today also know how to find information online, and therefore google has freed up their brains to dig deeper into topics. The real problem, it seems, is that this makes us very nervous. "We're afraid. Our kids know things we don't. They drove the presidential debates onto YouTube and very well may determine the outcome of this election. They're texting at the dinner table and responsible for pretty much every enduring consumer cultural phenomenon: iPod, iTunes, iPhone; Harry Potter, 'High School Musical'; large hot drinks with gingerbread flavoring." You know, I do believe she's right. I just hope when my kid is a teen, she'll have my back.

The Harrrd, Harrd Life of a Kids-Show Writer

Karen Murphy — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 21:27:00 GMT

When I moved back to Pennsylvania a year and a half ago from warmer/drier/higher climes, there was an online acquaintance in the area who expressed an interest in meeting me face-to-face sometime. Great! It was nice feeling a bit welcomed here. But a year and a half later we've still yet to meet. I will blame it on the fact that he's the writer for the Pokemon TV show (and does some of the voices), and that, combined with being a single full-time dad of two, means He Has No Personal Life.

Which is completely consistent with last week's American Public Media Marketplace report on the hard hard life of children's TV writers. Seriously! And this is why it's hard (one, two, three: awww!):

1. Writers must avoid writing conflict. Uh, any writer knows that it's pretty much conflict (or, if you blog for Strollerderby, it's witticisms and snark, hopefully combined) that drives good writing. But kid's shows can't have conflict! Or, the idea of "conflict" is something like "Clifford's dog-friend was shy about being seen in an unflattering pose/making a mistake/having white-lied about something," but it's all handily resolved within the 8-minute time window for each low-attention-span-friendly story.

2. Deadlines. Ugh, the pressure! My Pokemon-friend said he wrote an entire movie over 6 days on the Christmas break (how does he do it with the kids???), and that sounds "normal."

3. Kid's Shows are Serious Busines. Really! Writer Doug Cordell talks about puppeteers who stayed in character during lunch (they're PUPPETS, not method actors!!) and disputes over thngs like the improbabilities of a rabbit puppet wearing running shoes (though he habitually wore a vest).

All of which makes blogging sooo much more appealing, doesn't it?

Image: www.sfondideldesktop.com

Whatever Happened to Pen Pals?

Karen Murphy — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 15:32:00 GMT

In 7th grade English my class was given the opportunity of signing up for pen pals. A pen pal! We'd probably become fast frineds, my pen pal and me, and maybe I'd even visit her (I asked for a girl so there'd be no weirdness or anything about it being a boy, since I had no idea what even to say to a boy) in whatever exotic location she lived in, and we'd be Best Friends Forever. Or something like that.

The realities, of course, weren't nearly so rosy: I could never remember what state she lived in though I knew Fayetteville was somewhere in the South, sort of a foreign country to my northern California brand of chauvinism. We exchanged letters every few weeks for about six months and at some point it seemed okay to not write back. Or maybe she was the one who didn't write back. We never bonded or found any common interests whatsoever, but I still look back on the exerience as a positive thing.

But had I allowed it to, the pen pal experience, while maybe not providing me wth an instant BFF, could have helped me expand my world somewhat and gain understanding about someone who lived differently from the way I lived. Certainly corresponding with someone from across the world would have brought that point home more flamboyantly, but again, had I allowed it to, my experience could have taught me a lot about acceptance and seeing things from a point of view that differed from mine.

I thought about my pen pal some years later when I visited the South for the first time, riding in a bus. Was the landscape I saw out my window anything like what she saw every day? And these voices I heard around me, did they sound like hers?

So maybe I learned more from my brief exchange of stilted letters than I had thought.

Running across this article brought it all back and made me wonder if kids still even have pen pals, the old-fashioned kind. There's something about getting a letter in the mail that's still special, but I'm frankly way more disposed to write an email than I would be to dig out writing materials and pen a actual letter (even a brief note of thanks as evidenced here). My kids would likely love corresponding with another kid.

I did a little searching though and started to feel a bit freaky and protective, which I didn't expect at all. Kids are so open, and I know nothing about these sites where kids can register and be assigned a pen pal (my preference, even though in some cases there was a cost associated with it) or submit their own ad or profile and hope some other kid responds, which felt a little like online dating. Not that I would know.

Anybody here have experience with pen pals for their kids? I was really hoping to be able to share some useful sites with you. I did find this lovely one for kids with diabetes. A good many sites made me feel kind of icky, but here's a listing of several that I saw recommended in more than one place. I think I'll check them out more thoroughly, though, and maybe get my kids to sign up.

NaNoWriMo for Young Writers: Your Kid Can Write a Novel This Month!

Karen Murphy — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 22:53:00 GMT

Last year I joined the madness that is NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month. Don't let the title fool you: NaNoWriMo is a global event these days, with about 100,000 writers of all ages joining the insanity across the globe this month. The idea? Write a 50,000 word novel. In 30 days. Now. And even better, your kid can join in too, in NaNo's Young Writers program. Here's how it works (and it's totally not too late to start):

Kids sign up and choose a do-able but challenging word count goal (we adults are stuck with 50,000 words but anyone claiming to be 12 or under can lower the bar considerably), then write the hell out of the month of November. The idea is to expand the creative process by just pumping out words by the truckload. I wrote a crappy-but-cathartic novel myself last year, and it was wonderful.

It was so wonderful that I'm doing it again this year, and I talked my son Nathaniel, 11, into joining me. We chose a much-lower word count goal for him, 15,000 (which is still 500 words a day, mind you, and a fair bit for him, though I regularly pump out 500 words of tripe and you people read it!), and he's crafting some secret project that Im not allowed to read. I love it.

It's not too late. Go ahead, you know you want to.

Boys Lag Behind Girls (in Education)

Rachael Brownell (Redsy) — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 17:08:00 GMT

Despite the conventional wisdom to the contrary, a growing number of worried parents and educators are expressing concern about boys' lower achievement in reading and writing and higher likelihood to get into trouble than girls.

"The public schools teach to girls. You have to be able to follow the rules and color in the lines," claims one parent who moved her son to private school in order to insure he had sufficient learning opportunities. One teacher found an excellent method for calming antsy boys: Koosh balls.

After years of girls playing dumb in school and failing to achieve at academic levels equivalent to boys, this reversal is hopefully just a rebalancing as the pendulum swings back toward the middle. Meanwhile, teachers have my undying awe and gratitude. How they are supposed to balance these competing needs is totally beyond me.