THE VALUE OF A CRITIQUE
Have you ever had a professional critique? Or even listened to someone else get a critique? Having your work read out loud to people who haven’t heard or read it before is a great way to get unstuck. You can go to conferences and get a critique from attending faculty, or get one within your own critique group. If I hadn’t had my work critiqued I never would have grown. Even when there are growing pains, critiques are worth it because you end up in a better place, creatively. But there are a couple of big things to keep in mind.
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AN INTERVIEW WITH ANDREA J. LONEY
Andrea J Loney received the 2014 Lee & Low New Voices Award for her picture book biography Take a Picture of Me, James Van Der Zee!, a Junior Library Guild Fall 2017 selection with a starred Publishers Weekly review and an NAACP Image Award Nomination. We talk about getting unstuck including what do you do when writer's block happens to you, strategies for when you're writing but you don't like anything that's coming out, and tips for handling rejections and what to do when you feel stuck in the submissions process?
Let a one-on-one mentor help you hone your revision skills and polish your work so it shines in your submissions to agents and publishers! Get started here!
WRITING WHO YOU KNOW
If you interview published authors across all genres, you will be hard pressed to find one who claims his or her characters sprang forth from thin air. More often than not, the fictional players that populate stage, page, cinema and television reflect aspects of the writers’ own personalities, composites of friends and relatives, or are modeled after specific actors, politicians, rock stars, or criminals.
The longstanding advice of “write what you know” translates aptly to “write who you know” and what their actions reveal about their character, strengths and flaws, and motivations. Here's how you can write "who you know" (without them knowing).
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INGREDIENTS FOR THE PERFECT CHARACTER
Character creation can be approached in many different ways, but overall, most great characters come about as a mixture. Like a particularly tasty casserole, a writer grabs a pinch of this and a dash of that during the creation process. So let's look at some of the most common ingredients in our character casserole.
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LETTER FROM EDITOR EILEEN ROBINSON
The importance of character development can not be understated. This episode recounts a letter from Move Books editor Eileen Robinson on how to improve our characters, and thereby improve our connection with our readers.
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GREAT CHARACTERS ARE ALL AROUND
One way to find great characters is to look in the world around you. This seems relatively simple but may actually be harder than it sounds.
Why?
Because the key to creating vivid characters is writing them objectively and letting the reader draw their own conclusions.
What does it mean to be objective when writing about your characters? It doesn’t mean you can’t have reactions to, or opinions about, your subject. It does mean showing the reader what you observed in terms of concrete detail, rather than telling what you thought or felt. Yes, we’re back to our good friend, the “show, don’t tell” rule.
Let's get inspired.
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INTERVIEWING THE AWARD-WINNING AUTHOR
Leslie Connor is the author of several award-winning books for children, including THE TRUTH AS TOLD BY MASON BUTTLE, the 2019 winner of the ALA Schneider Family Book Award, WAITING FOR NORMAL, also a winner of the ALA Schneider Family Book Award, CRUNCH, MISS BRIDIE CHOSE A SHOVEL, and the young adult novels DEAD ON TOWN LINE and THE THINGS YOU KISS GOODBYE. She lives with her family in Connecticut.
We talk about:
Let a one-on-one mentor help you hone your characters and polish your work so it shines in your submissions to agents and publishers! Get started here!
KEEPING IT SIMPLE
Part of building any story or magazine article is translating what you know and what you’ve researched in usable information for your characters and your readers.
In fiction, your character may long to be an astronaut, so you need to be able take that extended process and explain it to your young reader in manageable bits.
In nonfiction, it may be taking the technical jargon of how a chocolate factory works and breaking it down into words your audience understands. Inspired by an ICL market guide article written by Devyani Borade, today we are taking complex subjects and keeping them simple.
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GETTING ORGANIZED FOR THE LONG HAUL
You might think the first draft is the first step in your story's life and for some it might be. However, there are steps you can take before you put pen to paper that will help you out on the journey ahead.
Today we talk about researching (for nonfiction and fiction!), getting to know your characters through prewriting, and managing your time to get your project over the finish line.
Let a one-on-one mentor help you improve your writing skills and polish your work so it shines for publication! Get started here!
BUILDING YOUR STORY
Let’s do something a little different today. February is Build Your Story Month at ICL. So, today I’m going to walk you through one of our writing exercises in our Writing for Children and Teens course. Download the show notes here to follow along with the photos.
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INTERVIEW WITH CAROLYN CRIMI
Carolyn Crimi is the author of numerous picture books, including Boris and Bella, Where's My Mummy?, and Don't Need Friends. Carolyn Crimi received the Prairie State Award in her home state of Illinois for her body of work and her book, There Might Be Lobsters, won the Golden Kite Award in 2018. She was born and raised on Long Island, New York, and now lives in Illinois with her husband and pug.
We talk about:
Let a one-on-one mentor help you hone your revision skills and polish your work so it shines in your submissions to agents and publishers! Get started here!
PRE-WRITE YOUR SUCCESS
Planning a story or book can seem very counterintuitive to some writers who prefer a very organic process of simply sitting down and facing a blank page (or empty screen). There are very successful, professional writers who basically settle in and tell themselves the story as they write it. The story is born in the moments of writing.
You may find that works for you, but if you notice you’re consistently getting stuck while writing your story, or your manuscripts have a very uneven flow, let's consider how prewriting can help.
Let a one-on-one mentor help you develop your writing skills and polish your work for publication! Get started here!
WHAT IS TIME BLOCKING?
Knocking out two birds with one stone. Most folks think that way about multitasking. You can get more done in a day, right? A post on our IFW Writing for Adults blog by Chaunie Brusie, reminded me of an interview I heard about how it was possible to actually get more done if you worked on one thing at a time, so I wanted to share part of that post with you today. After a fair amount of research and personal experience, I believe focusing on one thing at time is more productive.
Let's talk about how time blocking can help keep you focused while getting more accomplished.
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TRACK YOUR ACCOMPLISHMENTS
It's easy to start the year positive and full optimism about your goals. It's hard to keep that momentum going as the year moves on. Today we talk about tracking your success throughout the year with actionable steps to keep you motivated all year long.
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AN INTERVIEW WITH VIVIAN KIRKFIELD
Vivian Kirkfield’s career path is paved with picture books. She shelved them at the library during her college years. She read them to her students when she taught kindergarten. And now, she writes them. She makes her picture book author debut in 2019 with three, yes, THREE, new titles including Pippa’s Passover Plate (Holiday House, February 2019), Four Otters Toboggan: An Animal Counting Book (PomegranateKids, March 2019), and Sweet Dreams, Sarah (Creston Books, May 2019). Vivian is a great example of how hard work and a willingness to learn can lead to success!
We talk about:
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IDENTIFYING WHAT'S HOLDING YOU BACK
When you look back on your year, what was the biggest obstacle to finishing your book? Most folks think it’s lack of skills.
You may be surprised that the most common obstacle that stops aspiring writers is a lack of time. Skills you can improve through courses, workshops, or a lot of practice, practice, practice. But if you have a family, a job, social obligations, if you keep putting that story or article aside, if you constantly find that you’re putting the day job, housework, yard work, volunteering, cooking, or cleaning ahead of your writing, you’re simply not going to get anywhere. You have to generate words…lots of words…in order to succeed in this business.
Let's talk about how to get ahead next year.
Let a one-on-one mentor help you get that book out of your head and onto the page. Get started here!
AN INTERVIEW WITH ANN SHEYBANI
This is Ann.
“I began my practice as a book-writing coach, not just because I like bossing people around, which I do, but also because I know all of your sorry excuses for not settling down to write your book, because I invented them. In other words, I’ve got your number, cupcake. I may look nice, but don’t let that fool you. You need to prepare yourself for an ass kicking. It’s time to blindfold your sorry excuses for not writing your book, hand them a lit cigarette, then shoot them.”
We talk about:
Let a one-on-one mentor help you get that book out of your head and onto the page. Get started here!
WRITE A GRIPPING NOVEL
You want your book to be referred to like this: “Fast-paced.” “Gripping.” “A page-turner.” “I couldn’t put it down.” Why do some books get these comments, while others are called “slow” or “flat”?
Let's get to the bottom of the pacing dilemma in today's episode.
Let a one-on-one mentor help you hone your revision skills and polish your work so it shines in your submissions to agents and publishers! Get started here!
CHARACTERS, SETTING, AND THEME, OH MY!
This week is Thanksgiving in the U.S., so we are bringing you a rebroadcast of a popular episode. Time to take it back to the basics and discuss characters, setting, and theme in children's books.
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BRINGING READERS BACK FOR MORE
I’ve been watching my nieces learning to read. They study the pictures. They beg for more, and readily cuddle up while we read together.
So how can you create great picture books with the identifying characteristics that will magnetize your readers and draw them to your work, again and again?
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LISTS YOU SHOULD KEEP
Have you ever seen one of those journals where the pages have dots instead of lines? It’s called a bullet journal. If your desk has a tendency to become a bunny nest of paper scraps with lists on them, this could be a great idea for you. All of the lists are things you want to be reminded of. Sorting through your nest of lists could be the first step in creating valuable writer lists.
Let's talk about the kinds of list that writers can use.
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AN INTERVIEW WITH HANNAH HOLT
Debut picture book author Hannah Holt shares the results of her extensive surveys of picture book authors (How much do they make? What kind of advance do they get? Do they make more with or without an agent?), advice for prepublished authors, and how she researched and brought to life the picture book based on her grandfather, THE DIAMOND AND THE BOY.
Let a one-on-one mentor help you get that book out of your head and onto the page. Get started here!
USING TENSION AND PACE
This podcast was inspired by a post from former instructor, the late Mary Rosenblum.
Let’s begin at the beginning. What exactly are tension and pace? Think of tension as a rubber band that pulls on us as we read. As the tension increases, that rubber band pulls us to the edge of our seats, riveted to the action on the page. As it relaxes, we sag back onto the sofa and enjoy the scenery in your world, really noticing those delicate drops of dew and the exquisite colors of the birds’ plumage.
Controlling tension and pace is a matter of craft.
Let a one-on-one mentor help you hone your writing skills and polish your work so it shines in your submissions to agents and publishers! Get started here!
RECONNECTING WITH A WORK IN PROGRESS
One of the problems with writing is that it's fairly difficult to complete a project in one sitting. It can sometimes be a bit easier with a picture book where the rough draft may come in a rush during one sitting and then you return again and again to revise (and sometimes to rewrite).
But for longer works, it's almost mandatory that you be able to stop, go about your non-writing life, and then return to the project. This can be difficult, especially if the break between the stop and return is lengthy. We're constantly changing as people and as writers, so returning to an older work in progress can be daunting. There are some things that can help.
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For many children's writers, the concept of attempting a novel is daunting at best and filled with questions. So for the sake of those looking toward this exciting writing option, let's answer a few unusual but frequently asked questions:
Let a one-on-one mentor and professional author help you get that book out of your head and onto the page. Get started here!