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The winner of Debbie Ohi’s cartoon caption contest is Catherine Bailey! (Hey, ’tis the season for Baileys, right?! Like George Bailey and Bailey’s Irish Cream…)
But be sure you’re not drinking Bailey’s while reading her winning entry—it’s spittake-worthy!
Catherine wins a signed copy of I’M BORED with an original doodle inside.
And the winner of the random prize—an original Debbie doodle—is Julie Rowan-Zoch! Be on the lookout for an email from Debbie.
Congratulations, ladies!
Now there’s tons more prizes to go, but I had a busy weekend. So stay tuned for more prize announcements coming tomorrow!
Earlier this week The New York Times published an article discussing how young Latino students are not seeing themselves in books frequently enough, and the obstacle many educators feel that omission puts in the path for enjoyment as well as for learning from books for these young children. The Cooperative Children’s Book Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison of Education, which compiles statistics about the race of authors and characters in children’s books published each year, notes that in 2011 only 3 percent of the 3400 books reviewed were written by or about Latinos; this proportion is unchanged over the last decade. And yet, Hispanic students are one quarter of the nation’s public school enrollment.
Several years ago Reading Is Fundamental (RIF) initiated our Multicultural Literacy Campaign, borne from our concern with the NAEP figures we were studying from years past and the distance with which African-American, HIspanic and American Indian children continued to perform behind their Asian and Caucasian peers. Our campaign is a multi-year effort designed in part to provide children the opportunity to explore and learn about their own culture and the culture of others, the “mirrors and windows with sliding glass doors” concept as articulated by Dr. Rudine Sims Bishop. One component of our effort is a yearly compilation of multicultural book sets through the generous sponsorship of Macy’s; these sets are distributed to more than 500 sites annually with the book lists and activities posted online for all to use.
RIF held the launch for the 2012 collection at the Library of Congress Young Readers’ Center with a panel made up of authors and illustrators whose books are featured in that “CELEBRATIONS” collection; the panel was chaired by Dr. Violet Harris, a literacy expert and chair of RIF’s Literature Advisory Board.
In her presentation, Dr. Harris set the context for the audience regarding the need for multicultural literature for all children, literature representing as many cultures as possible by discussing the work of Dr. Nancy Larrick, the second president (56-57) of the International Reading Association. Larrick is said to have noted the impetus for her oft-quoted study in the early 1960′s was when a five year old black girl asked her why all the children were white in the books she read. Her question came more than 20 years after Charlemae Rollins and others had begun a campaign for more positive examples of blacks and black culture in books for children. The lack of progress as well as that little girl’s sincere question compelled Dr. Larrick to investigate and produce the article “The All White World of Children’s Books” published in The Saturday Review of Books in 1965.
Rollins had published her groundbreaking We Build Together in 1948; this is a publication which “highlighted criteria for choosing books that portrayed Blacks realistically and built democratic attitudes among all people.” Rollins noted in her publication:
For many years books about Negro children followed a stereotyped pattern. The characters portrayed were the barefoot menial, or the red-lipped clown. Rarely did the Negro character in a story where there were other children ever take part in the story as equals. Illustrators, it seemed, could not resist presenting the quaint ‘pickaninny type’.
With regret we note today the change in children’s literature has not kept pace as many of us would have hoped. Similar statements can be made and are indeed written about the lack of inclusion of other cultures in children’s literature.
As Dr. Harris further noted ”…I want to emphasize…, it is a fight that goes on constantly. Each generation or even every couple of years it is two steps forward, one step back.” And further food for thought from Dr. Harris was her question to us: How can we say to the rest of the world that you need to model yourselves after us, our educational systems, our political systems, our economic systems and so forth, when we disenfranchise a significant portion of our citizenry?
You have finished a month of hard work producing ideas for picture books. As you move further into and with each idea, I challenge you to give very serious attention to the issue of children seeing themselves as well as having a window on the world. The book does not always need to be “about” diversity…perhaps it will be like HOW MANY SEEDS IN A PUMPKIN? by Margaret McNamara and illustrated by G. Brian Karas. The classroom shown through the illustrations is diverse, and I have actually heard children mention that diversity they can see in the book. The experience of seeing the diversity present in a book was new to them, but a common everyday experience in the school each attends.
We as a nation have much to do to prepare each child as fully as possible to read well. One element and one relevant to your work is to show we indeed as a nation value each child and celebrate each child; and part of that visible celebration must be that each child sees and reads about children “just like me.”
Book People Unite!
P. S. How can I post on this blog without giving a roaring round of applause to Tara for her sponsorship of PiBoIdMo as well as personally say ‘Thank You” to her and to all who have purchased from the PiBoIdMo store where the proceeds come to RIF. We are deeply appreciative!
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Carol H. Rasco is President and CEO of RIF. She joined RIF in 2001. Throughout her life, Carol has been a devoted advocate for children, youth, and families, as a professional and as a volunteer.
Prior to this position, Carol was the executive director for government relations at the College Board. From 1997 through 2000, Carol served as the senior adviser to U.S. Secretary of Education Richard W. Riley, and as director of the America Reads Challenge, a four-year national campaign to promote the importance of all children reading well and independently by the end of the 3rd grade. Previously, Carol worked for four years in the White House as domestic policy adviser to the president and directed the Domestic Policy Council.
Originally from Arkansas, Carol worked as the chief policy adviser in the Arkansas governor’s office for 10 years and also served as the liaison to the National Governors Association. Additionally, Carol has extensive experience as a volunteer for arts organizations and disability advocacy groups. Carol received her bachelor’s degree from the University of Arkansas and earned a master’s degree from the University of Central Arkansas. She has taught in the public school system and worked as a middle school counselor.
Carol serves on the Board of Trustees of Columbia College in Columbia, South Carolina. She is the mother of Hamp and Mary-Margaret, and the proud grandmother of William and Charlie Marks.
So, you’ve finished PiBoIdMo, and now you have all these great ideas. You’re on the road to publication!
Except, you still have to write the books. And that’s not an easy path.
A lot of people think that finding ideas is the hardest part of writing. It’s not. Finding ideas is very difficult, but figuring out which ideas to focus on first and which ones to let linger—that’s the killer. So that’s what I’ll try to help you with today.
Step 1: Get the easy stuff out of the way.
Some stories write themselves, or at least flow out of your mind effortlessly. Get those down on paper first—there’s no reason to not take the path of least resistance.
Step 2: Organize and analyze.
You’ve got 30 picture book ideas. Maybe more. Do you write manuscripts for them in alphabetical order? Chronologically? By order of the number of feet the main character has?
You could do any of those things, but it’s probably not the most efficient route to publication. So instead, I have a system. Here’s where I get nerdy.
You know that program called Excel that math people use but us creative types stay away from? Find it on your computer and start it up. We’re going to create a spreadsheet of ideas.
The idea here is to sort your ideas by various relevant characteristics to make sure you end up with a varied portfolio. After all, just like an illustrator has a style but needs more than paintings of bunnies to create a portfolio that will get him or her contracts, writers need to show range, too. You don’t want your own books to compete with each other —you want every book to have its own independent niche.
Column headings. The column headings will give you a way to list the relevant characteristics and sort your ideas using these.
Everyone may have different column headings, but here are some common ones that everyone should have:
- Title (Obviously)
- Character type (What kind of animal? How old of a human? Etc.)
- Theme
- Setting
- Problem type (Is it a monster? A bad teacher? A parent? A wild animal?)
- Age range (will this be a young PB or one for older kids?)
- Hook (I may actually separate this into sub-categories to make it easier to sort.)
– Institutional hook
– Holiday tie-in
– Developmental milestone
You can add any more headings that make sense to your work.
Create the spreadsheet. Now take all your PB ideas and start filling in the blanks. Now, you may not have a fully fleshed-out plan for each idea—that’s fine, just fill in as much as you can. And this is a place to do some research, too. Look at the market—are there hooks that are more popular than others?
Analyze your data. So you’ve entered your 30 ideas. Now we’re going to rank them.
You probably don’t want to write 16 books about pigs. It would be hard to get them all published before you establish a reputation. Same thing with 6 books about monsters or 3 books about pirates. So look at your spreadsheet and start seeing how you can sort the data.
If you’ve never used Excel, here is a quick tutorial: use the mouse to highlight all your data (not the column headings) and then click on Sort & Filter (in the Data tab of my version of Excel). You should then be able to sort by any of the columns. So if you sort by the column of Character Types (Column B in my spreadsheet) and sort on Values with the Order set to A to Z, all your entries will be rejiggered so you can see all your pig ideas next to each other and all your monster ideas will be next to each other.
Now look more closely at those similar ideas. Is there one that is particularly appealing? Stronger than the others? Incorporating more hooks? Move that to the top of the list. To create that varied portfolio, go through and pick only one idea from each “type” to work on first. When you notice ideas that seem too similar, delete one of them.
Step 3: Write!
I recommend getting a list of about 6 ideas to work on at a given time. Fewer than 6 and you may hit writer’s block, more than 6 and it is hard to keep everything straight. So keep looking at the ideas until you pull 6 good ones. Now you have a plan! From here, all you have to do is write a great manuscript, revise until it is perfect, market it until you find a home, wait for the illustrations, plan for the release, figure out promotions…well, that’s a post for a different day, isn’t it?
In the meantime, go figure out what to work on….
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Sudipta Bardhan-Quallen is the award-winning author of many, many books for children, including picture books, nonfiction for young readers, and a forthcoming chapter book series called THE SPECTACLES OF DESTINY (due out in 2014). Her newest release is THE WORST TWELVE DAYS OF CHRISTMAS, illustrated by Ryan Wood. In this spirited reworking of the classic song “The Twelve Days of Christmas,” Joy has to deal with her first Christmas with a new baby brother—and nothing could be worse. A sweet surprise turns the tables on Joy, who eventually appreciates what her baby brother adds to the holiday.
Sudipta speaks at conferences, educator events, and schools across the country, teaching the craft of writing to children and adults. She lives outside Philadelphia with her three children and an imaginary pony named Penny. Learn more about her and her books at www.sudipta.com. She also blogs at NerdyChicksRule.com, so go subscribe for witty bookish quotable things.
Congratulations to the 444 PiBoIdMo participants who completed the 30-ideas-in-30-days challenge! (That’s about 59.2% of you!) You’ve soldiered through a month stuffed with superstorms, turkeys and Black Friday to emerge triumphant!
So the moment has arrived—the GRAND PRIZE WINNER announcement. Four lucky winners will be paired with a kidlit agent who will review your FIVE best picture book ideas. You are encouraged to write your five best ideas up like jacket copy or a marketing pitch, a short paragraph for each story. You will have until December 10th to do so, so get right on this!
You will receive an email from me with further instructions. If you do not receive this email by midnight tonight, please contact me and I will resend.
So without further ado…
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Congratulations, CAROL BREEDLOVE!
You’ve been paired with Ammi-Joan Paquette of Erin Murphy Literary Agency.
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Hooray for LISA SCHNELL!
You’ve been paired with Teresa Kietlinski Dikun of Prospect Agency.
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Squee, SUE FRYE!
You’ve been paired with Susan Hawk of The Bent Agency.
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Confetti and donuts, KATHY CORNELL BERMAN!
You’ve been paired with Marietta B. Zacker of Nancy Gallt Literary Agency.
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If you didn’t win one of the grand prizes, don’t worry! There are more winners to be announced on December 9th and 10th, including all of the prizes announced during the daily guest posts. They include signed books, original art, and picture book critiques.
And remember, everyone’s a winner because you have at least 30 ideas—some of which will no doubt become manuscripts. Those manuscripts WILL land some of you agents and yet others publishing deals. So get ready for a fantastic year ahead! I am sure that 2013 will bring us more PiBoIdMo success stories than ever!
Once again, THANK YOU for participating. I couldn’t do this without the enthusiasm of the kidlit community. The camaraderie of this group continues on Facebook, so if you never joined our community there, do so today. We’ll continue to chat about ideas and picture book writing through to PiBoIdMo 2013!
Plus, we still have a couple more days of Post-PiBoIdMo…
Congratulations, writers!
Thirty picture book ideas is a lot.
A Costco-size lot.
Plenty to wrap up this year with satisfaction and kick off the new year with energy, inspiration and confidence.
But, why stop at plenty?
Go ahead and multiply that 30 by at least three.
I’m serious!
Because here’s a best kept secret: Ideas are expansive, not limited.
Each idea you spun over the month of November is now fodder for a story told in 1st person or a story told in 3rd, a story told in past tense or a story told in present. Each idea might play out in a story told in rhyme or a story told in prose, a fictionalized piece or one that is God’s honest truth through and through.
Our picture book ideas don’t come with a set of parameters we must follow-or-else. Instead, they come with a set of possibilities that are ours to play with. Sometimes, when a first or second or fourth draft of a manuscript kind of sucks, we make the mistake of thinking the idea sucks. And that’s that. Out it goes with the trash, never to be seen again. But really, it’s entirely possible that it just needs to be told in a different way, poured into a new shape, unwound with new language.
My messy desk where I write gadzillion versions of everything!
I’ve rescued more than a couple of apparent flops by telling the story from a different point-of-view, or pulling it out of rhyme, or changing the tense. And the beauty of picture book manuscripts? They’re short enough that you can try all of these variations of shape and style without aging yourself by years.
So carry on, you powerhouses with 90-some ideas at hand. They should keep you good and busy for awhile…
Liz Garton Scanlon is the author of the highly-acclaimed, Caldecott-honored picture book ALL THE WORLD, illustrated by Marla Frazee, as well as NOODLE & LOU, illustrated by Arthur Howard, A SOCK IS A POCKET FOR YOUR TOES, illustrated by Robin Preiss Glasser, and THINK BIG, illustrated by Vanessa Newton. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BUNNY, illustrated by Stephanie Graegin, will be released on January 15, 2013. Liz is an assistant professor of creative writing at Austin Community College and the mother of two daughters. To learn more, visit her web site at LizGartonScanlon.com.
So, my fellow PiBoIdMo participants, by now you have a list of tantalizing picture book ideas practically bursting off the page (or screen if you keep them on a computer). What to do?
Here is a novel idea. How about if you select your favorite ideas and write some picture book drafts? Get some of those ideas out of your head so they can one day be out into the world.
It seems like it would be easy to write loads of PBs now that you have that list of ideas, but it isn’t—especially if you go it alone. I know because last year at this very time, I was looking at my list of ideas from the 2010 PiBoIdMo and realized I had only written one manuscript from that list in 2011. How could that be possible?
There were two things missing for me: motivation and accountability. The community (from PiBoIdMo) was there, but I feared we’d all disperse to the four winds after November. So I got this crazy idea to challenge myself to write one picture book draft a month for each month of the year in 2012 and decided to invite people to join me. Thus 12 x 12 in 2012 was born.
I had no idea then that 400+ picture book writers would come together in this common mission, nor that we would become the tight-knit community we are today. I expected to run it casually for one year and then move on.
But I can’t end 12 x 12 after one year.
Because 12 x 12 doesn’t belong to me—it’s for everyone who loves picture books, wants to write them, and needs a cheering section for both the good times and the bad times. It’s to give writers, who have burning questions in the middle of the day and need an answer RIGHT NOW, a place to turn and to learn. It’s become more than a writing challenge. It’s a global family of writers who have the pluck to write in what could be the most challenging genre on earth.
My friend and fellow 12 x 12’er Tim McCanna recently made this phenomenal video to promote the challenge. His opening lyrics are thus:
So you wanna be a picture book writer?
Then ya gotta write picture books. (Well, duh!)
And yer gonna need a bucket load o’ bright ideas
For titles, plots and hooks.
Thanks to Tara and PiBoIdMo, you’ve got your bucket load of bright ideas. Are you ready to try to write a draft every month in 2013? Registration won’t open until next week, but you can sign up for the 12 x 12 mailing list so you’ll be ready when it does. In 2013 there will be three participation levels to choose from, including one that will enable participants with completed, polished manuscripts to submit to an agent or editor each month.
So, did I write 12 picture book drafts this year? No, I didn’t, but I did write 6 so far and there are still 3 weeks left in December! I’m not very good at math, but already that’s 5 more than I wrote last year. Plus, I completed major revisions on existing manuscripts and even got a publishing contract for one of them. So I am very pleased with my results. If you read some of the testimonials from other participants, I think you’ll see that they’re happy with their results too.
I hope to welcome many of you who completed PiBoIdMo into 12 x 12 in 2013. We are a friendly bunch, and we’re all in this together!
Thanks again to Tara for being the inspiration, not just for PiBoIdMo, but also for 12 x 12. The picture book community continues to grow and thrive as a result of her generosity and hard work.
Julie is generously giving away a FREE “Little GOLDen Book Level” membership in 12×12 for 2013, which includes, among many other features and benefits, the chance to submit to an agent or editor each month and bypass the slush pile! A winner will be selected from those who have commented on this post *and* completed the challenge. The winner will be chosen next week. Good luck!
Julie Hedlund is a Picture Book author and Freelance Writer. Her first book, A TROOP IS A GROUP OF MONKEYS, will be released as an interactive storybook app for the iPad in December 2012 by Little Bahalia Publishing. Julie is the founder and host of the 12 x 12 in 2012 picture book writing challenge, a monthly contributor on Katie Davis’ Brain Burps About Books podcast, and the creator of Julie Hedlund’s Template for Storybook App Proposals. Julie will fulfill a lifelong dream in 2013 by leading the first annual Writer’s Renaissance retreat in Florence, Italy.
When I was a child, I had a reoccurring nightmare. I was on a field trip with my third grade class in a large grassy area with a huge tree in the middle. All the kids were following the teacher across the field and under the shade of the tree. I wasn’t a very popular child, and I was in the tail end of the line.
As I passed under the shadow of the tree, I noticed a large hole in its roots. At that moment a fierce bunny sprang out of the hole and grabbed me, pulling me down into the hole with it. I tried to call out but to my dismay my voice had gone silent.
Needless to say I woke up in tears and a cold sweat.
I still have dreams where I’ve lost my voice. Words fail me.
What a terrible place for a storyteller to find herself.
I’ve never considered myself a writer or a wordsmith. I do love words though. Their history, the way they sound, how when strung together in an organized fashion they can open up the universe to those who read them. So when I approach a picture book, I see pictures first. I write down what I see. Then comes the hard part of making the words sing. Because that’s what words in a picture book need to do.
You’ve stuck it through November and have a list of 30 ideas. If you have lists like mine, most of the ideas are stinkers. I’ve been doing PiBoIdMo for more than a few years now, and I do see recurrent themes on my lists. Maybe you also have repetitive ideas on your list. No matter. We’re storytellers. Take those ideas and get visual!
As an artist, I work on picture and text together, creating a dummy. Even if you aren’t a professional illustrator, you can use the framework of the dummy to really make your story shine. And your words sing.
For several years at #kidlitart, with my co-host Bonnie Adamson, we held the Picture Book Dummy Challenge. A lot of the people participating came directly from Tara’s PiBoIdMo. (#Kidlitart chat is on hiatus until Bonnie and I have more time to devote to it again. We’re both busy making lots of dummies!)
A picture book is a partnership of words and images. As word counts drop, the illustrations have to carry more of the story, and things like page turn in the text have to be concise.
This is where a dummy becomes a most excellent tool.
A dummy will tell you if:
- Your story is strong enough to carry through a 32-page book.
Since word counts have been dropping over the last decade to close to 500 and sometimes even less, it is hard to tell if you have a book on your hands (as opposed to a magazine story.) When a manuscript is laid out in a dummy you have visual clues to show you where your story needs more action, drama or dialogue.
- There are enough action scenes for 15-20 images.
An illustrator’s job is to take your manuscript and enhance the story you have written. If you only have a few scenes, this will be downright challenging. Think about your favorite picture books. Does the character move through time and space from the beginning of the book to the end? Or does the character stay in the same place for the length of the story? When a manuscript is laid out in a dummy you have visual clues to show you scene changes. There need to be scene changes.
- The page turns (or the breaks between action) are interesting enough to keep the reader moving to the next page.
In novels there are chapters. Usually the end of the chapter is written in such a way that you want to keep reading. There could be a cliffhanger or some sense of tension in that chapter end. Whatever it is, you feel compelled to get to the next chapter and find out what happens. You care what happens. You can’t wait to find out what happens. When a manuscript is laid in a dummy you get visual clues on your “chapter endings” to show if your page turns will propel the story forward.
- There is too much visual description in your text.
Five hundred words is not a lot to tell a story with a beginning, middle and end; to include a story arc and achieve character growth. The last thing you want to do is talk about red hair and green eyes, or blue sky and orange sunlight. Leave that to the illustrator. Save your words for things that can’t be seen. When a manuscript is laid out in dummy you get visual clues on your descriptions. Are you using precious word count to describe something seen?
All my books start as tiny scribbles. Even if you’re not an artist, you can scribble your ideas down, can’t you?
Here is the thumbnail layout for one of my books, RABBIT’S SONG by S.J. Tucker.
I also refer you to Tara’s post on picture book dummies (which Tara says is the most popular page on her site, so you know it’s an important tool!).
Once you have your scribbles down, you can make a little booklet. It never ceases to amaze me what a difference having a physical dummy makes in visualizing where your manuscript needs some attention.
I’ll be giving a way a copy of my e-book “How to Make a Picture Book Dummy in 9 Easy Steps” to one lucky commenter. So let me know how you plan to take your 30 ideas and make them into amazing stories! A winner will be selected in one week. Good luck!
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A transplanted New Yorker now living in Missouri, Wendy Martin has been working as an illustrator for 25+ years. She earned a degree in Fashion Design from the Fashion Institute of Technology, then continued her art education at the School of Visual Arts with a B.F.A. in Graphic Design. After her move to Missouri in 2000, she turned her focus to her true love, children’s books. AN ORDINARY GIRL, A MAGICAL CHILD, a children’s book she both wrote and illustrated, was released in 2005. The book was picked up by a new house, edited and re-released in 2008, then went on to become a finalist in the 2009 international COVR awards. Four additional picture books and a coloring book quickly followed. Visit her on the web at WendyMartinIllustration.com.
There’s a little stinker that sneaks into my life sometimes and hangs out in the corner of my mind, stealing my creativity.
And now that PiBoIdMo has provided amazing inspiration for finding fresh ideas and coaxing them into stories, I feel him lurking there again, trying to distract me from taking the next step.
He’s a clever thief and shape-shifter, and sometimes his name even changes.
On any given day, his name could be …errands, laundry, dishes, email, internet, TV, kid-activity-shuttle, homework monitor, gift buyer, holiday decorating, volunteering, car repair, home repair, toddlers, dinner, dog walking, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest…
But the name that most people know him by is:
And if Procrastination is constantly lurking in the corners of your creative place too, I hope to help you block him out!
I think of Procrastination as my time thief. He poses as life’s daily minutia, unexpected interruptions and distractions, and the multitude of excuses that feel like they are “Must-Dos-Right-Now.” He will keep you from continuing on your story journey… if you let him.
The trick is…not to let him. But how? How do you fit consistent writing time into your daily life?
I’d like to pass along a few tips to keep your creative mojo fresh, and hopefully, Procrastination-free.
1. Attitude and Expectations
I once heard a wonderful author compare life’s interruptions to a game of “Whac-A-Mole.”
Great description! And as I thought about it, I discovered that I was waiting for a time in my life when those moles would keep to their hidey-holes, and provide me with some free time to write. But as Dr. Seuss says, The Waiting Place is “a most useless place.”
Once I tweaked my expectations and attitude about life’s craziness, I stopped making its ups and downs my excuse not to write. Decide to make time to write. You’ll be amazed at the joy it brings and how your stories start coming together in ways you never imagined.
2. Track Where Your Time Goes
This is an interesting experiment: For 2-3 days, keep a log of what you do. Jot it down every hour. Then examine where most of your time is going. Is it going towards something worthwhile? Is it something that you value or will be glad you did a year from now? Are there moments when you could let go of a little web surfing, Facebooking, volunteering, etc. to schedule some time to grow your stories?
3. Goals and Rewards
Writing a complete story can seem overwhelming, which is sure to make Procrastination come calling. Break it down by listing small goals to work towards each day.
- Today I’ll write about or draw possible characters. I’ll ask them questions.
- Tomorrow I’ll write or draw potential actions and obstacles.
- The next day I’ll play with fun word combinations, etc.
Once your daily writing goal is finished, your sense of accomplishment will be a real motivator! But you might consider a reward as well – your favorite recorded show, some Facebook time, chocolate, coffee…
I like to make a pact with myself that I cannot have my “reward” UNTIL I have finished my daily goal. For example, I am not going to eat that delicious snack-sized Snickers bar until I finish working on the next two stanzas of my rhyming picture book. I know it may sound a bit crazy or like I have “parenting issues” with myself. But it really does work for me. Try it – it might work for you too.
4. Schedule Writing Time
Take yourself seriously. You are a writer/ illustrator. Ask your family for the time and space you need to pursue your stories.
Then SCHEDULE time for your writing. Put it on the calendar and honor it like you would a doctor’s appointment. Turn off the email, internet, TV, and phone if possible.
Before my children were in school, I hired a babysitter once a week for a block of time, and went to Panera to write. It was a delicious, productive time—and my first book, THE GINGERBREAD MAN LOOSE IN THE SCHOOL, was written there. Panera holds a special place in my heart, as it was also the place where I received the email from GP Putnam’s Sons expressing interest in my story. Woo-Hoo!
But Panera also brings me to the 5th tip:
5. Go Somewhere Else to Write
If I am not making progress on my stories, it is usually a sign that I need to get away from all the little things that Procrastination tempts me to do. He rarely follows me into that corner booth of a coffee house, if all I bring with me are my ideas, a notebook, and my favorite writing pen.
I’ll leave you with a quote from From the Mixed up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg:
“Ideas drift like clouds in an undecided breeze,
taking first this direction and then that.”
Help your lovely, drifting ideas tell you which direction they’re going, by giving them the time they deserve (and not letting that sneaky thief whisk it away.
And speaking of thievery, I couldn’t help but “borrow” this cartoon from Facebook for my office cork board. It makes me laugh each time I look at it, but it’s also a good reminder.
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Laura Murray is a children’s author, former teacher, and mom of three mischief makers. Her rhyming picture book, THE GINGERBREAD MAN LOOSE IN THE SCHOOL (GP Putnam’s Sons, July 2011), received a starred ALA Booklist review, was chosen as Washington State, Florida, and Kentucky Children’s Choice Book Award Nominee, and has inspired a forthcoming sequel entitled THE GINGERBREAD MAN LOOSE ON THE FIRE TRUCK! (GP Putnam’s Sons, July 2013). She loves writing picture books with funny, mischievous characters, and middle grade adventure/mysteries. Please visit her online for printables and teacher’s guides at LauraMurrayBooks.com.
Check out the new Video Book Trailer of THE GINGERBREAD MAN LOOSE IN THE SCHOOL, made by the fabulous PiBoIdMo-er, Carter Higgins.
Laura got the opportunity to meet Mike Lowery, the book’s awesome illustrator, and have him sign a few copies of THE GINGERBREAD MAN LOOSE IN THE SCHOOL after its release. Please leave a comment to win a first edition (includes a poster) signed by both the author and the illustrator, as well as some fun Gingerbread Man SWAG! A winner will be selected in one week. Good luck!
First, I know I’m not the only one who owes the inestimable Tara Lazar and the PiBoIdMo crew a huge debt of gratitude for turning an often cold, gloomy, and hectic November into a month of opportunity. What a wonderful time to gather seeds of imagination to counterbalance the weather outside. But now it’s December, potentially colder, gloomier, and even more fraught with relatives… I mean, activities. So what does that mean? It’s the perfect time to plant those seeds.
Tend Your Garden
It tickles me to make December a time of beginnings. Wait. Wasn’t that November? No… whether you beat the PiBoIdMo challenge by a mile, or only managed to come up with one idea, that was just the prelude to the beginnings. Writers write. Ideas are prerequisites to that, but no more.
Many people dream of having written… but then, people also dream about winning the lottery. I once dreamed of growing vegetables in a community garden. None of that dreaming is going to put food on your table. It bears repeating: the only way to be a writer is to WRITE. The only way to become a better writer is to write, critique and get critiqued, and revise, ad naseum. If you don’t have the time (and who does?), make it. If you can’t find the time, that’s fine. Nobody expects you to rearrange your life so you can write. But don’t be surprised if your literary garden ends up looking like, well, dirt.
Plot it Out
When I say plot, I don’t mean your story (that will come later), but your action plan. Just like I needed to know where to put the marigolds in relation to the tomatoes and how much real estate to allocate to the spinach, you should have some idea of where you’re headed. Otherwise you may end up with the debilitating disease known as writer’s cascade (a term which I have just now coined)—the inability to write due to the torrent of ideas that are streaming your way. Prioritize—by tackling the idea you’re most excited about or that’s most fleshed out or that you already think you have a market for or, heck, by choosing randomly if that’s your style. How you choose to start doesn’t matter; only that you start, and then continue putting one foot (or one word) in front of the other.
If you succeeded in generating lots of ideas, you might want to prioritize and prune. Not every idea is going to turn into a story. That’s as it should be. Not everything we think is going to be brilliant bears fruit every time, so it is fitting that we cull. But before you do so, take the time to ponder whether that weed is really a weed.
Rethink Your Weeds
When I lived in Colorado, I trained to be a volunteer naturalist. One day, some botanists came to lecture us on controlling weeds. For them, weeds were anything not native to the area. That’s a very different definition than what a home gardener would use, or a farmer. The lesson? One person’s weed could be another’s treasure.
So, before you yank an idea out, ponder whether you just need to look at it in a different context. That story idea that’s been done a thousand times before? Challenge yourself to turn it into a new classic. The idea that you’re just not excited about? Dig deeper to find out what’s missing for you, and then fix it. The story that seems too ambitious to undertake? Start it anyway, no matter how shaky your beginnings. You can’t grow as a writer if you don’t reach. And if it takes you three years to get those 500 words right, so be it. Might as well start now.
By the same token, be wary of the seeds that seem like sure-fire prize-winners. Perhaps they are. But the more I read and write, the more I realize those stories that come to us fully formed are rarely half as good as the ones that are hard-won. There’s too much to get right in a picture book—pacing, characterization, dialog, action, the interplay between pictures and words—for it to all come together perfectly the first (or even fourth) time. Sometimes those stories that come to us fully formed are the ones in need of most help.
Nurture Your Seedlings
If you were to start a novel that lacked substance, it might take you a while, but you’d eventually probably figure out that something was missing. But picture books are so short that it’s easy to finish a manuscript that an editor would call, at best, “slight.” That means you’ve created something akin to a bamboo – all reedy and hollow in the middle. Instead, you should aim for a bonsai—tiny but intricate, fully formed and purposefully shaped. How do you do this? By asking heavy questions of your manuscript:
- Have you chosen the best character for the story? Is this the character with the most to lose or the most interesting journey?
- Have you chosen the best story for the character? If you ask my six-year-old, she will tell you the number one rule of writing is to be mean to your character. Age-appropriately mean, of course, but if there is no conflict, no struggle, then there probably isn’t a story.
- Have you started at the right place? You usually need to establish the tone, setting, main character, and at least the set up for the problem within the first few sentences.
- Does the story arc? You’d be surprised how many pb manuscripts are just slice-of-life vignettes instead of actual stories with beginnings, middles, and ends. Learn how to arc your stories—it’s one of the most fun things about being a writer. (Even nonfiction books can arc, and are usually better for it.)
- Does the ending satisfy?
- Is the writing tight? Does every word advance the plot or characterization?
Whether you like to get a first draft down first or plan out your story in advanced, at some point (and, more likely, various points) you need to make sure you are creating something with substance. Tend your garden, and watch it grow.
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Ella Kennen is a globe-hopping homeschooling mom with a profound love for plants and two brown thumbs. Her first picture ebook, THE RELUCTANT CATERPILLAR was published by Mee Genius earlier this year. Her series of five sci-fi fairy tales, AMAZING TALES, is currently being released by CBAY Books. Ella also edits fiction for grown-ups at Musa Publishing.
Wow—what an honor to be included in this group, but let’s clear the air straight out: I ain’t no author. I’d like to be…could tell you all the close calls…but all of us have war stories.
I was the kid who did horribly in school. I was always doodling in the back of the class. My parents even had me tested to see what the heck was wrong with me. So I’m probably the least likely to succeed as an author. Writing is definitely a second language—but I’m working on it.
But perhaps I can help the illustrators in the room by sharing how I approach a picture book project—and maybe give authors an idea of the considerations illustrators make on their manuscripts.
I remember watching one of my favorite flicks years ago—Glengarry Glen Ross—starring the amazing lineup: Al Pacino, Jack Lemmon, Alec Baldwin, Alan Arkin, Ed Harris, and Kevin Spacey. It mostly takes place on one set, in one room, with no special effects and I was amazed that these actors owned their parts enough to carry the story. I tried to imagine what it would be like to play the part of a fictional character. I remember listening to an interview with Morgan Freeman (one of my all-time favorites) and he talked about getting into character and preparing to become another person with motivations that were foreign to him. It stuck with me.
It was about this time that I started illustrating some of my first picture books and I realized that the characters I would be illustrating had a life before and after the few pages I was going to be illustrating. They had a story…and if I was going to be able to capture them I was going to have to figure out who they were before page 1. What were they proud of? What were they afraid of? What did they want? What did they need? …etc…
I’ve tried concepting at home in my studio but there are usually too many distractions (three boys), so when I get a new manuscript I take it to my “board room”—what I’ve named the mountains that surround me out here in Utah. I’ve been an avid hiker/ backpacker for many years and if you’re a Facebook friend, you’re probably sick of all the photos I post from my walks. But it really is the place I go to be alone with my thoughts. If you really want a good laugh, hide behind a tree as I’m passing by and you’ll sometimes here me speaking in the voice of a character I’m working on. At first I felt like a freak but now I know I am, so I just go with it. You really can accomplish a lot if you’re willing to get up out of your chair, change your environment, and act out scenes in your book. Narration is about gesture and it’s hard to get good gestures sitting at the computer.
Like the rattlesnake from SENORITA GORDITA by Helen Ketteman—he was especially fun to imagine—the trick was to make him a little scary but not too scary. My theory on kids is that they like to be scared a little—just not frightened. You see it all the time. You’re in line at the bank and a two year old is hiding behind mom’s legs peeking out at you. I always make a little face. The kid hides again—but not for long—he/she wants that little uncertainty. Capturing little scary expressions in my characters has been a goal. How much can I get away with?
The lizard in SENORITA was another really fun character to concept. I figured he had to be opportunistic and subsequently lazy, resting under his bush and not wanting to become to easily roused. He’s not the type to act to hastily but would prefer to talk his prey into coming closer and doing most of the work.
Then there’s Macky the blue bird from ARMADILLY CHILI by Helen Ketteman. I thought Macky had to be somewhat sophisticated because he wasn’t that good at flying, so I dressed him up in a vest, bolo tie, and hat.
And the big-bottomed boar from THE THREE LITTLE GATORS by Helen Ketteman was a big bully. He was really easy because I had done my time in middle school. I knew the big-bottomed boar right off and couldn’t wait to illustrate those grill stripes in his butt at the end when he sears his back side going down the chimney! I had to edit from a very long list of bully smirks provided by my public school education. Butt again (pun intended) I had to make sure he didn’t cross over in to the “horrifying” realm. I didn’t want my audience to identify with him but I also wanted to keep him on the comical hillbilly, the “I don’t know any better” side of bullies.
So there you have it—not too complicated, but I do enjoy putting a little thought behind the characters I draw and paint. And speaking of painting, I’ve been illustrating in acrylics for the first 18 years of my career but switched over to Photoshop 2 years ago. I was so excited about working digitally because of control and speed that I made a video tutorial on my process! It’s available at folioacademy.com.
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Will Terry has been illustrating for 20 years. He grew up just outside the beltway of Washington, D.C. wondering why the hell there were so many cars?! So he moved to Utah and the rocky mountains where he and his boys snowboard & hike. His work has appeared in publications such as: Time, Money, Wall Street Journal and ads for Sprint, Pizza Hut, M&M Mars, Fed Ex, and Master Card. He has illustrated over 25 children’s books for Random House, Simon Schuster, Scholastic, Dial, and Albert Whitman, plus 3 ebooks, 1 app, & co-founded a video tutorial company called folioacademy.com. He’s an avid blogger and currently teaches illustration at UVU.
Writing for Kids (While Raising Them) 