Wednesday Writing Prompt:

Posted on May 16, 2012 by writenowcoach

See those spent dandelions? That’s my front yard. Every day I return home from the gym and wonder when someone will mow down those darn things. Then I remembered how my children used to delight in dandelions. At first,  they were simply a bright yellow reminder that the days were getting longer and warmer. Later, as the dandelion blooms turned to seed, we called them wishing flowers. We would look for the perfect puff and blow on it, believing that the spreading seeds carried our wish to the world.

The words and phrases we use can change how we experience life. When I see my front yard as a field of wishing flowers instead of a mess of weeds, I feel more content with my life. So today, I am going to keep track of my little judgments in my journal. Later today or early tomorrow, I will play with words and bless those judgments with positive or humorous labels. Weeds become wishing flowers. Stacked dirty dishes become the leaning tower of china.

Your turn: Make a list of four or five situations or things in your life that you are critical or judgmental about. Then rename them. Try to find a name that is positive, funny or even ironic. Sit with those names for a few days and monitor your mood: do the new terms shift your mood in any way?

And, if you’re willing, please share your old and new names here.

 

 

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Wednesday Writing Prompt: Boredom as Inspiration

Posted on May 16, 2012 by writenowcoach

Wednesday Writing Prompt: Boredom as Inspiration

by Heather E. Schwartz

I feel like I shouldn’t say this. But I’m going to anyway. I find myself really inspired by new writing ideas when I’m supposed to be paying attention to something else. This is most likely to happen during a class or at a lecture or a meeting that takes a turn for the boring or lasts a bit beyond what my attention span can endure. My mind wanders and almost automatically heads in the direction of ideas for my writing. Over the years, this has happened on such a regular basis, I’ve actually considered attending a dull-sounding meeting I don’t belong at just to spark my personal creativity.

Since we’re talking writing prompts here, that’s what I’m proposing you do!

Now, in the interest of promoting responsible and polite behavior, I do have to set a few ground rules here. Don’t try this during:

an important and required class.

a lecture you’ll be tested on or questioned about in any way.

a meeting you’re covering as a reporter for your local newspaper.

And now, the fun part…

Do find an event you can attend that doesn’t require your strict attention. Pick one with a large audience, so your daydreaming won’t be apparent (and possibly rude). Bring a notebook and pen, and blend into the crowd. At first, just listen. Then, let your mind take off on tangents. As the speaker’s voice fades into the background, jot down your ideas. Write scenes and character sketches. Plot out plots. Transcribe conversations. When you lose inspiration, listen some more. See what you come up with when you stop trying to control your mind (by forcing yourself to pay attention) and just let go.

I’d love to know where your creative thoughts take you – and where you go for this exercise!

About the author: Heather E. Schwartz is the editorial director and publisher of Write in the Middle (www.writeinthemiddle.co), a webzine for middle school students about writing and publishing. Since 1994, she has held staff positions at newspapers and national magazines, and she has written hundreds of freelance articles for children’s publications including National Geographic Kids, Discovery Girls, Teen, Guideposts for Kids, Guideposts for Teens, and Girls’ Life. She is the author of more than 25 nonfiction books for children and teens published by Capstone Press, Lucent Books, Tangerine Press (a Scholastic imprint), Lerner Publishing Group, and Teacher Created Materials. In addition, she has developed curriculum and taught workshops for the local affiliate of Girls, Inc. in her community, job coached special education students in her local community, and tutored through Literacy Volunteers.

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How to Create a Vibrant Home on the Web

Posted on May 15, 2012 by writenowcoach

Congratulations to the winners of the latest Write Now! Coach contest. The winner of the signed copy of Write-A-Thon is @greennovelist and the winner of Use Your Words by Kate Hopper is Ruth Gough Lolacano. Please send me your addresses, so I can mail your books!

Today’s article is about how to create an online home.

Happy writing, Rochelle, the Write Now! Coach

Create a Vibrant Home on the Web

by Rochelle Melander

When I speak about social media for writers, they often ask: “Do I need a website?”

My answer is often complicated: Yes and no.

Yes, you need to be online. As a writer, you will need to find some sort of an online home. Whether you want to write books, articles, or business white papers—you need to have a small piece of online real estate. Why? Because your potential clients and readers will look for you online. In today’s market, much of our networking takes place in virtual settings—on social media sites like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Pinterest. When we need help with a project, we search for that help on sites like these or through a search engine. The service providers with an online presence rise to the top.

No, you do not need a website. Your online presence can be a LinkedIn profile, a Facebook page, a Twitter profile, or a blog. Each of these online platforms can support your career and capture the attention of potential clients. But know this: your online presence needs to be more than a fancy online business card. Your online home needs to be as interactive and vibrant as you are.

The must have list. No matter what venue you choose as your online home or what color you put up as the background, consider adding these essential features:

*Good content. Your home online needs to provide regular, rotating content. Don’t just put up a pretty picture of you and your book and call it done. Plan to change some content on your homepage frequently—even if it is just a new quote or a silly riddle!

*About. Your site needs to tell visitors who you are, what you write, and what sort of work you are looking for. Tell visitors enough about you so that they know you are legitimate and respected by clients, readers, and others in your field.

*Contact information. Let visitors know how to contact you. Here’s my biggest pet peeve: so many websites, blogs, and social media profiles provide absolutely no contact information. Don’t be the writer who misses the big job because no one can find you!

*Additional resources. Whether you are the author of a book or freelance grant writer, potential readers and clients will often stay connected to you if you provide good complimentary resources. These might include a sample chapter of your book, a podcast interview with you, an audio of a class you taught, examples of articles you have written, and links to resources from others.

*Connect! In addition to providing your own contact information, a good online presence provides a method of staying connected to those who visit your page. This might be a blog people subscribe to or an ezine you send out.

Whew! That’s quite a list, and that’s just the beginning.

Your assignment: If you have an online presence, evaluate it for each of the above categories. What can you do to make it better? If you don’t have an online presence, take the list and start creating one today!

 

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Art Can be Therapeutic by Kate Hopper

Posted on May 11, 2012 by writenowcoach

Happy Friday, friends! I’ve been writing to make sense of my life for years. In the past ten years, I’ve been researching and writing about how writing can help us to heal physically and emotionally. Today, Kate Hopper writes about the therapeutic nature of writing creative nonfiction. If you’re a Milwaukee-area writer and want to learn more from Kate Hopper, she will be leading a mini workshop at Boswell Book Company on Saturday, May 12. from 1:00 – 3:00 PM. She’s also generously agreed to give away a copy of her book, Use Your Words: A Writing Guide For Mothers. Leave a comment here on the blog by Sunday, May 13, 2012 at midnight if you’d like to be entered into a drawing to win. I’ll announce the winners for this and the Write-A-Thon contest on Tuesday’s blog post!

Art Can Be Therapeutic: Writing and Motherhood

by Kate Hopper

In the prologue to her memoir-in-progress, my student Cindy Nerhbass writes how the memories of her daughter’s near death are still palpable. Her daughter, born with Down syndrome and a hole in her heart, almost died in surgery when she was six months old. Fifteen years after the fact, Nerhbass writes, “no hours of therapy, no years passing, no counting of blessings, and no strength of will” can “render [these memories] benign.” She goes on:

My most useful tools, save God’s grace, are pen and paper, the keyboard and screen. Wise teachers have guided, Write about this; write about that. And so, little by little, I must chip away at memory’s fortress with chisels of words and empty spaces. This is the only true way out for a writer, isn’t it? I will write and wait for that transformational healing to begin, for the fog to dissipate and memories to relinquish their hold. Yet, all I can really say is this: My daughter nearly died (and this is the truth), and it changed me forever. Truth again.

At readings and in interviews over the years, I’ve heard writers—specifically writers of creative nonfiction—claim that the process of writing their stories wasn’t therapeutic. I have seen them shake their heads, clearly offended at the suggestion. And I’m always curious about this; my guess is that they think if their writing is tied in any way to “therapy,” it will somehow undercut the work they’ve put into crafting it.

But I believe that you can experience a transformation—a therapeutic transformation—in the writing process and still end up with art.

In his essay “The Fact Behind the Facts,” Philip Gerard says that a memoir is “not simply a scrapbook of memories to brood over or cherish, but a reckoning. That’s the reason to write a memoir: to find out what really happened in your life; to drive toward the fact behind all the other facts, and come to some understanding, however limited, of what it means—and accept that truth.”

If you are truly doing this work of “reckoning,” of diving in and fearlessly searching for the story in the material of your life, it’s impossible for you not to make discoveries and gain perspective on the life you’ve lived. Isn’t that process, at least on some level, therapeutic? Experiencing that does not detract from what an author has carefully crafted.

In every class I’ve taught I’ve had students grappling with the hard stuff—from postpartum depression and feelings of guilt and inadequacy to coming to terms with having a child with special needs to losing a child to illness or an accident. I have witnessed the crafting of beautiful writing from these losses, and I have heard how the process of writing helped these mothers come to terms with their heartbreak.

But writing can do more than help us, as writers, process and come to terms with the hard parts of motherhood and life; it can also change other mothers’ lives. As my students mentioned in the previous chapter, when we read the struggles that other mothers have had, we know we’re not alone in our own struggles, even if our challenges and heartbreaks are different. In the introduction to her anthology Love You to Pieces: Creative Writers on Raising a Child with Special Needs, Suzanne Kamata writes:

I’m the kind of person who looks to literature to make sense of life, so when I learned that my daughter was deaf and had cerebral palsy, I sobbed for a while and then logged onto Amazon.com. I was looking for deep and sustaining stories to guide me on the long path ahead, and while I found many cheery volumes offering hope and inspiration, that wasn’t exactly what I wanted. I needed to know that others had felt the same kind of pain, fear, and anger that I was feeling, and I wanted a better idea of how my daughter’s disability would affect my marriage, my son, my work, and other aspects of our lives. The best novels, short stories, and memoirs can pull us into the lives of their characters and provide a deeper understanding of others, [and] poetry can distill and illuminate moments that longer essays gloss over.

She ends the introduction with this: “…literature eases loneliness and helps us understand and empathize with those unlike ourselves.”

Reading a wide variety of voices and experiences—those of mothers and nonmothers alike—not only makes me a better mother; it makes me a better person. When I can walk in another person’s shoes, my view of the world and its many joys and challenges expands. It makes me more compassionate and less judgmental, gives me an opportunity to connect with other people, regardless of where we came from and what we believe in. Always my hope in teaching and writing is that as mothers and people we can connect with and feel compassion for one another. I think we can, even when we don’t agree.

How has writing the “hard stuff” allowed you to move past it, accept it, or grieve it in a new way?

Kate Hopper is author of Use Your Words: A Writing Guide for Mothers. She will be leading a free mini workshop and discussion at Boswell Book Company on Saturday May 12 from 1-3 p.m. to learn more about her classes and workshops please visit www.katehopper.com.

 

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Wednesday Writing Prompt: Guardian Angels, Princesses, and Ladies

Posted on May 9, 2012 by writenowcoach

Our Lady of Sighs

Last Saturday, I was out for a walk when I saw a man struggling with an empty poop bag. Somehow, the bag had ripped, and the man was trying to figure out how to make use of it. I happened to have two poop bags in my pocket, left over from a morning walk with my dogs. I offered them to him. He looked at me in surprise and said, “Wow. Thank you. How great to meet the Guardian Angel of Poop Baggies.” I laughed, happy to have helped.

Since then I’ve wondered if giving myself a few titles might change the way I look at my life. On Sunday, I announced to my kids: “The Goddess of Laundry is ready to receive your offerings. Please deliver all dirty clothes to the basement.” They just stared at me, like I might be losing my mind. On Monday afternoon, as I struggled to create a poem to read to my daughter’s class, I put on my crown (PRO TIP: it’s good to have royal costumes around for emergencies) and called myself, The Princess of Word Play. The poem writing went much better after that. Today, I have a full day of editing ahead. I’m thinking it will go better if I can refer to myself as, The Mistress of Letters and Punctuation, as in: The Mistress of Letters and Punctuation requests that you use the serial comma.

Your turn. Create some titles to use throughout the day. Feel free to pass out titles to your spouse, partner, favorite bookseller, children, pets, friends, and barista! (You get bonus points if you use your title with a stranger!) If you are in the sharing mood, let us know what titles you created. If you need help, Wikipedia has an awesome page on titles.

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Five Ways Social Media Can Boost Your Writing Career

Posted on May 8, 2012 by writenowcoach

Today’s blog post is the first in a series of posts about Social Media for Writers. If you’d like to test the power of social media and enter to win a signed copy of Write-A-Thon, do the following things:

+follow my blog

+follow me on Twitter

+tweet this post

+link to this post on Facebook or LinkedIn

+Finally, leave a comment on the post telling me what you did.

Good luck! I hope you win!

Oh, and congratulations to the winner of the latest Write Now! Coach contest. T. Shauni Rich (@TShauniRich) won a copy of Writer For Hire by Kelly James Enger. Congrats!

But What Do I Do With Social Media? Five Ways Social Media Can Boost Your Writing Career by Rochelle Melander

This is the first in a series of articles on using social media for writers. The series will help you decide how you want to use social media, discover the best social media platforms for you, develop a social media strategy, and create a system for evaluating your social media strategy. Today’s article talks about five uses for social media platforms.

 “But what do I do once I’m there?” That’s what my clients and students say when I teach social media. Most writers know that they need to use social media to be successful. Still, they are not really sure how social media will help them write better, connect with other writers, and build connections with people who might buy their books.

Social media offers writers access to people, information, ideas, and tools that were previously unavailable to most of us. In the olden days, so to speak, writers who wanted to meet their favorite authors or interview a CEO had to chase them down at conferences or pursue them through traditional channels (e.g., an agent, administrative assistant, or publisher). Thanks to social media, we all stand together on the same platform. But before you start jumping up and down and screaming how great you are on Twitter, think about how you want to use social media. Here are some of the many ways authors and other people use social media successfully. Check the ones that apply to you.

1.         Connect. Social media provides the opportunity for you to connect with colleagues, current clients or customers, potential clients, editors, agents, experts in your field, and so forth. Think about using social media to:

 

*Connect with others around shared interests.

*Ask questions about or find insights into writing topics.

*Search for resource people for your article, book project, or organization.

*Connect with colleagues, future colleagues, customers, or employers—or the people who will connect you to them.

2.         Monitor your name and brand online. Social media allows you to listen to the conversation online about you and your brand. You get to hear what people are saying about you, your blog, your article, or your book without holding a glass up to the wall!

3.         Research. Social media provides a valuable opportunity to discover the latest information and talk to the most important experts on the topics you write about. Use social media to:

*Understand your market, clients, readers, and customers.

*Keep up with new information and developments in your field.

*Find resources, experts, and information.

*Connect with people to interview for your project.

*Connect with people in your market to do market research.

4.         Build personal loyalty. When agents and editors talk about platform, they are talking about building personal loyalty to you as an author. Social media gives you the opportunity to connect with lots of people and:

*Increase the number of people who know and trust you and will listen to what you have to say.

*Increase the number of people in your networking circle who will recommend you to potential clients or employers.

5.         Provide information, inspiration, and encouragement. The writers who see social media as simply a way to talk about themselves or their book have missed the boat. In order to succeed in the new world of social media, you need to be someone who provides information, inspiration, and encouragement to those you connect with online. Remember:

*Social media gives you the opportunity to inspire and encourage more people than you can reach through your books.

*Social media gives you the opportunity to be a resource for your colleagues, clients or customers and anyone else who is interested in you or your field.

*Helping others by providing information, inspiration and encouragement will increase your value online.

What else? What have I missed? How else do you use social media to boost your writing success? Leave your ideas in the comment section below!

WANT TO USE THIS TIP IN YOUR EZINE OR WEB SITE? You may, as long as you include this complete blurb with it: Write Now! Coach Rochelle Melander is an author, a certified professional coach, and a popular speaker. Write-A-Thon: Write Your Book in 26 Days (And Live to Tell About It) is the 10th book authored by Melander, who teaches professionals how to write fast, get published, establish credibility, and navigate the new world of social media. Get your free subscription to her Write Now! Tips Ezine at http://www.writenowcoach.com and sign up to be a member of her Write Now! Mastermind class for professionals at http://www.writenowmastermind.com

 

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Conference Spotlight: Write-to-Publish

Posted on May 7, 2012 by writenowcoach

I started out my professional life as a parish pastor, but even then I knew that my vocation was writing. While earning two masters degrees, an MDiv and a Master of Sacred Theology in New Testament and Greek, I wrote and published academic articles. In my ten years of parish ministry, I published many articles and several books for the spiritual market. During that time, I did everything I could to get an education in writing. I read more than 100 books a year, I attended author events at our local independent bookstore, and I attended writing conferences and workshops. One of my first and best conference experiences came from the Write-to-Publish conference in Wheaton. One year a brief conversation with an editor in the hallway led to the book I wrote with my husband, Timeouts With God (Concordia). After attending for several years, I was asked back as a speaker—and connected with more wonderful writers. If you’re interested in writing for the Christian market, read Tammie Edington Shaw’s article below and consider attending this fine event!

The Write-to-Publish Conference

By Tammie Edington Shaw

WTP Staff

Write-to-Publish is a Christian writer’s conference that has been training writers for almost 40 years. The 2012 conference will be Wednesday, May 30 – Saturday, June 2, at the Billy Graham Center in Wheaton, Illinois.

There are offerings to interest fiction and nonfiction writers, whether you are a beginner or seasoned in your writing journey.

FIRST-TIME ORIENTATION Write-to-Publish always welcomes unpublished writers or those attending their first conference. A first-timers orientation is held early on the first day to provide encouragement and helpful information for a good conference experience.

FACULTY There are over thirty faculty members including editors, agents and freelance writers. This is more than most Christian conferences around the country.

CONTINUING CLASSES This year there will be six continuing classes held each morning of the conference. These are How to Get Published, Foundations of Fiction through Film, Writing Nonfiction Books, Manuscript Makeovers, Using the Internet to Share Your Message, and also a Freelance Career Track for those published book authors and article writers with numerous credits.

OVER 40 WORKSHOPS There are over 40 workshops held during the four days. Some of the workshops offered include Writing Children’s Picture Books, Why Editors and Agents Quit Reading Your Book, What You Need to Know About e-Books, and Working From Home Without Going Crazy.

PANELS A unique and popular feature of the conference is the daily panel of editors who share what they are interested in publishing. These panels include Magazine Editors, Specialty Markets/Self-publishing Editors, and Book Editors and on the last day a panel of freelance writers shares their Secrets of Success. Many new markets are discovered by attendees during these panels, which are held during general sessions.

APPOINTMENTS WITH EDITORS Fifteen minute appointments with editors from book and periodical publishers and agents, within the Christian Market, are also available to all attendees.

CRITIQUE GROUPS Informal critique groups meet Wednesday through Friday after the main evening session. These are led by faculty and include subjects such as fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and daily devotionals.

New to the late evening schedule this year is a session I will be facilitating for bloggers and future bloggers. We will talk about blogging in general, helpful links and resources and a time for sharing of ideas and challenges encountered. For further information and to register go to the conference website, www.writetopublish.com

 

Tammie Edington Shaw is a writer, Christian, wife of an engineer, sister and an aunt. She has published numerous articles, daily devotionals, a short story and is the co-compiler of the book, Writing So Heaven Will Be Different (WinePress). A former newspaper editor, pubishing house production coordinator and an artists’ rep, Shaw also spends part of my day as a technical associate for a public library. She is a member of the American Christian Fiction Writers and is on the staff of the Write-to-Publish Conference. Visit her blog www.tamedingtonshaw.blogspot.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Writers @ Work: Ghostwriting for a Book Packager

Posted on May 3, 2012 by writenowcoach

Today I am delighted to welcome author and fellow ASJA member, Kelly James-Enger, as my guest blogger. Kelly is the author of several books on writing including the brand new resource on freelance success, Writer For Hire. Comment on this blog or tweet about this post (include my Twitter handle @WriteNowCoach) by Sunday at midnight for your chance to win a copy of Writer for Hire. I’ll announce the winner next Tuesday on the blog!

Kelly James-Enger joins us today to talk about her gig ghostwriting for a book packager. Enjoy! -Rochelle, the Write Now! Coach

Writers at Work Post: Ghostwriting for a Book Packager 

By Kelly James-Enger

How I Got the Gig This project came about after I heard that Jenkins Group, a book packager, was looking for a ghostwriter for a book. (A book packager works with clients—individuals, corporations, or book publishers—to produce books. The client typically pays a flat fee which covers the cost of a ghostwriter, editor, designer, production, etc. Then it’s up to the client to actually market the book.)

In this case, the client was a sales coach who had written a short manuscript designed to help sales managers motivate their salespeople. The manuscript was about 12,000 words but needed to be expanded into a book of 40,000-50,000 words. I created a letter of introduction, or LOI, aimed at the potential client, and emailed it to the packager. I’m not a business writer (I specialize in health, fitness, and nutrition), so I played up the fact that I write a lot about (and am fascinated by) psychology. And when it comes down to it, sales and motivation are all about psychology. I also gave some specific ideas about how I would expand and improve upon the book, if I were hired.

What I Got Paid The client, Bob, liked my LOI and contacted me directly. Jenkins had mentioned a writing budget of $9,000-12,000, but I said in my LOI that I couldn’t take less than $15,000 for the project. Bob liked my letter, and speaking with me, hired me on the spot, for my asking price. (This in unusual—usually the client interviews potential writers and then chooses the one he wants to work with, and then the packager contacts the writer.)

The Work Process After speaking with Bob, I contacted Jenkins and signed a formal contract with the company. The contract required me to set specific deadlines for the sections of the book, and my pay was tied those deadlines. I was also paid a small retainer upon signing the agreement itself. In the meantime, I contacted Bob to set up a time to talk about how we’d work.

Bob and I arranged to speak by phone every week or two. During those calls I’d interview him to get the information I needed to write the next chapter, and then we’d review the latest chapter I’d already drafted and sent to him for his review. The rest of the time we communicated via email. As he signed off on each chapter, I saved all of our work in one master document (the final book) and kept my contact at Jenkins informed of our progress. (Working for a packager adds an extra layer to ghosting work because while you’re working closely with your client to write his book, you also have to keep the packager in the loop and meet the deadlines you agreed to early on.)

I’m pleased to say that this was a storybook collaboration. My client was responsive, smart, and easy to work with, and we brought the book in less than three months. He was very happy with the finished manuscript, and I collected my last check after he signed off on the final chapter. A few months later, he sent me several copies of his hard-cover book.

A Few Take-away Points. If you’re planning to ghostwrite (regardless of whether you work with a packager), I suggest you keep these tips in mind:

Check for rapport. The first time we spoke on the phone, I thought, “I like this guy. I could definitely work with him.” Bob felt the same way, which is why he hired me. Ghostwriting a book requires that you collaborate over a period of months, so a feeling of connection is important.

Stay on schedule. I had agreed with Jenkins that I would meet certain deadlines. Using those, I created a specific work schedule for when the draft of each chapter would be completed, how long Bob would have to review it, and when I’d have the final draft of that chapter back to him. With this schedule, Bob knew what to expect and when to set aside time from his own career to review and comment on my work. This helped us meet an aggressive schedule.

Think big. People sometimes think that a ghostwriter relies only on his or her client for material for the book. I suggest you go beyond that. For example, Bob talked about the importance of being a good listener, but he didn’t explain how to do that. So I wrote a section about active listening, how to do it, and gave examples so readers would be able to implement his suggestion.

Capture voice. When I spoke with Bob, I took notes about certain phrases and words he used to make the book sound like him. I asked him for specific examples and anecdotes and worked those into the manuscript as well. The bottom line is that as a ghostwriter, you’re expected to write in your client’s voice. The ability to do that will help you produce a book that will make your client, and your book packager, happy.

 

About the Author: Kelly James-Enger has been a fulltime freelancer, ghostwriter, and author for 15+ years. Her books include the just-released Writer for Hire: 101 Secrets to Freelance Success (Writer’s Digest, 2012) and Goodbye Byline, Hello Big Bucks: The Writer’s Guide to Making Money Ghostwriting and Coauthoring Books (CreateSpace, 2010). She blogs about making more money in less time as a freelancer at http://dollarsanddeadlines.blogspot.com, and lives outside Chicago with her husband, son, daughter, and golden retriever. Visit http://www.becomebodywise.com for more information about her.

 

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Wednesday Writing Prompt: Practicing Point of View and Voice

Posted on May 2, 2012 by writenowcoach

In honor of National Picture Book Writing Week, today’s prompt uses a favorite picture book of mine: Voices in the Park by Anthony Browne. Several years ago, I attended the summer writing institute, sponsored by the Milwaukee Writing Project. Our teachers used this book to teach us about the use of voice and point of view in our writing.

In Voices in the Park, the author presents the same story four times—about what happened when two families met on a trip to the park. Each telling is narrated in the first person by a different character and reveals his or her unique view of the events. The narratives range from 78 to 166 words. Despite the short length of the stories, the author is able to convey four distinct voices.

Your turn. Take a short scene from your work in progress and write it from four different points of view. Consider:

*What does each character want?

*How does each character convey this want?

*How does the character’s unique desires and point of view affect the story?

*How will you convey the distinct voice of each character?

If you are not a fiction writer, you can do the same thing with a story from your life. Take an ordinary event from your day—such as taking the dog for a walk or eating dinner with your family. Write about the event from each family member’s point of view (including the dog). Use the questions above to help you with your writing.

What do you think? When you are done with the exercise, add a comment about what you learned. Did writing the story from another character’s point of view teach you something? How did you convey voice for each character?

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Dig into Picture Book Writing

Posted on May 1, 2012 by writenowcoach

Happy May Day! And congratulations to the winners of the latest Write Now! Coach contest. Valorie Grace Hallinan won a signed copy of Wild by Cheryl Strayed and Todd from Hell’s Kitchen won Fearless Confessions by Sue William Silverman. Congrats!

Today begins the week-long celebration of National Picture Book Writing Week, when participants write 7 picture books in seven days. Author and musician Paula Yoo launched Picture Book Writing Week four years ago. Visit her site tips and tools: NaPiBoWriWee 2012: Rules & Info for May 1-7, 2012 Event!

If you’re an aspiring picture book author, today’s amazing tip by guest writer Sandy Brehl will introduce you to the wonderful world of writing for children. Enjoy!

Dig into Picture Book Writing by Sandy Brehl

The landscape of publishing in general and picture book publishing in particular is changing rapidly. If you’re only interested in creating and illustrating simple books to share with family, this won’t matter to you. But if you are intent on publication for a wider audience, you need to take a professional approach to learning about this evolving market.

If I had a 25-word limit for this post, I would have simply said:

Join the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, SCBWI, NOW! Explore their site, join your regional group, attend conferences, and find a critique group. (25 words!)

Here’s why: I’ve been writing for decades, studying, taking classes, even conversing with successful writers and illustrators. I’ve also been sharing picture books with kids of all ages. I joined SCBWI three years ago. In these three years I learned exponentially more than in all the years before. Until three years ago I didn’t know you could join SCBWI, participate, and learn without having a book published- yet. You can. Do it, please.

If my limit allowed another 25 words they would be:

Read, read, and reread as many picture books as you can. Especially recent releases.

Write, revise, seek critiques, revise again.

Follow respected and professional blogs. (25 words!)

Here’s why:

READ: Picture books are changing drastically, especially in word length. The standard a few years ago was 1200-1500 words. Now guides say 600 words or less. Topics, trends, and targets are changing. You need to be aware of the current  market.

WRITE: Picture book writing is truly unique. Compare your writing to similar books on the market. Apply universal principles of writing, but notice and learn about picture book principles, too.

READ BLOGS: Several useful professional blogs are listed in the resources below. Find a few that offer consistent, current resources and stay informed. Follow guidelines for cover letters, submissions, and manuscript formats, First impressions count.

Here are some bits and pieces I’ll offer from my personal journey toward improvement:

Know what makes a picture book a picture book. The ALA’s official definition is lengthy, but the short version goes like this: A picture book is aimed at children, including teens, and has a collective unity of story-line, theme, or concept, developed through the series of pictures of which the book is comprised.

In a post relating to the ALA awards earlier this year I wrote: “Picture books have magnetism: complex visual media, powerful language, accessible and informative text. Quality picture books offer readers a rich terrain and an irresistible hook to read deeply, to reread, to connect, and to appreciate. Picture books foster intense, satisfying engagement with books—the original hand-held app.”

Picture books are a dynamic and changing format. Picture books include board books, wordless books, interactive books, fiction, non-fiction, ebooks, and every genre. They can be 8 pages and range up to 96 pages and beyond (Patricia Polacco’s January’s Sparrow. Philomel, 2009; Kadir Nelson’s Heart and Soul: The Story of America and African Americans. Balzer + Bray, 2011). In 2007 Brian Selznick’s The Invention of Hugo Cabret  (now the movie HUGO) won the Caldecott Award for best picture book of the year with 533 pages.

Typical picture books are 32 pages, a very limited space in which to create brilliance. Check Tara Lazar’s excellent description and tips, including a layout for storyboarding a 32 page PB. Subscribe to her blog—a treasury of good advice.

You don’t need to be an artist, know one, or hire one to illustrate your submission. In fact, to do so will likely diminish your chances of being accepted, or even taken seriously. If you are a writer, write. Limit your notes about the illustrations to a minimum, and then only in the cover letter, not on the submission text. Trust the editor to select the best illustrator and guarantee that the final result will be greater than the sum of the parts.

I’ve used my theoretical fifty words, and many hundreds more. I’ve tried to offer examples of some of the best advice and resources available. Here’s hoping potential picture book writers find something helpful in all these words. Learning, stretching, exploring—it’s what picture books are all about. And picture book writers, too.

 

Additional Resources:

One author who took a long steady path to PB success is Verla Kay. Her website and live chat discussions are a great place to start.

Harold Underdown, highly respected editor in children’s publishing, manages the website The Purple Crayon. Here he provides reliable guides, directions, samples, and advice for PB writers at all stages, novice to professional.

A helpful summary is presented here: “What Publishers Want In A Children’s Book” April 13, 2012 post at Tina Nichols Coury’s Blog: Tales from the Rushmore Code.

About the author: Sandy Brehl is a teacher, a reader, a writer, an art lover, and a fair-weather gardener. In her words:

People ask,  “What do you teach?” For forty years I’d answer the question truthfully: “I teach kids.” Not curriculum, not a grade level, not subject matter. Kids. Those kids ranged from tots to teens, gifted to challenged, and every kid in between.

In the last few years I answer – “I teach teachers.” And librarians, childcare workers, and parents. I conduct outreach workshops on using picture books to improve learning, with several topics and themes, including using picture books in content area and with established (older) readers.

I write, for kids and for adults, fiction and noin-fiction, you name it, I write it. I read- also adult and children’s, fiction and non-fiction, you name it, I read it.

In January of this year I launched my blog, Unpacking the Power of Picture Books http://UnpackingPictureBookPower.blogspot.com

 

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