One piece of advice you hear frequently as a children’s book writer is to avoid writing books with a heavy moral or message. Editors do not want “preachy” books. If your story does have a message, it should be in service to the story instead of the other way around. They should be written in [...]
Archive for the ‘Children’s Books’ Category
The Moral of the Story
Posted in Children's Books, Publishing, Works in Progress, Writing, tagged Writing, Children's Books, Publishing, Works in Progress on July 28, 2010 | 4 Comments »
My Manuscript’s Verse is Nothing Like the Bard’s
Posted in Children's Books, Poetry, Publishing, Rhyming, SCBWI, Works in Progress, Writing, tagged Big Sur in the Rockies, Editing, NaPiBoWriWee, Publishing, Revising, SCBWI, Shakespeare, Sonnet 130, Works in Progress, Writing on May 12, 2010 | 3 Comments »
If last week’s theme was NaPiBoWriWee, and the week before that was Unclutter Your Life in One Week, then this week is preparation for the Big Sur in the Rockies conference this weekend. I couldn’t resist attending because it takes place here in Boulder, and it will give me the chance to workshop two manuscripts [...]
When Life Throws You Hard-Boiled Eyeballs…
Posted in Children's Books, NaPiBoWriWee, Parenting, Works in Progress, Writing, tagged Children's Books, First Drafts, NaPiBoWriWee, Parenting, Rocky, Works in Progress, Writing on May 10, 2010 | 16 Comments »
In my experience, the minute you put a stake in the ground and say to the universe, “THIS is what I’m going to do,” the universe replies, “Oh yeah? Well let’s just see about that…” Last week was NaPiBoWriWee, or for the uninitiated, National Picture Book Writing Week, started by the fabulous Paula Yoo. where [...]
Picture Book Dummies
Posted in Children's Books, SCBWI, Works in Progress, Writing, tagged Writing, Children's Books, SCBWI, Writing Tips, Picture Books, Picture Book Dummies, Allyn Johnston, Beach Lane Books, Simon & Schuster on April 1, 2010 | 1 Comment »
No, I’m not referring to dummies who read picture books. I’m talking about making a mock-up of what your picture book might look like on actual pages. While it always made sense to me that authors who are also illustrators would create dummies, I only recently came around to the idea that it’s a great [...]
Poetry and the Professor
Posted in Children's Books, Poetry, Rhyming, Writing, tagged Bad Professors, Haiku, Picture Books, Poetry, Writing on March 19, 2010 | 7 Comments »
Iambic pentameter anyone? How about a (bad) haiku? Before I met you, Poetry was my respite. Professor Killjoy From a very young age, I both read and wrote poetry. Poems spontaneously erupted in my head, and I wrote them down ferociously before the spark fizzled. Poetry was my creative juice. I wrote them only from [...]
My Head Hurts
Posted in Children's Books, I Need Wine Pronto!, Rhyming, Works in Progress, Write-a-thon, Writing, tagged Children's Books, Rhyming, Wine, Writing on February 26, 2010 | 3 Comments »
I wrote for six hours today, so I am now officially one-third finished line with my write-a-thon goal. Too bad I should be at the halfway point by now. I’ll have to buckle down again for the next couple of days to get caught up and hopefully even ahead of the game. I’m a bit [...]
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