What are kids–your audience–reading today? “The Accelerated Reader Real Time database includes book-reading records for more than 8.6 million students from 27,240 schools nationwide who read more than 283 million books during the 2011-2012 school year.” Renaissance Learning, the folks who do the Accelerated Reader program and testing, has just issued the 2013 report, “What [...]
Continue reading... April 24, 2013
Explore Your Characters: Be Surprised
You know you should try writing your story in first v. third point of view, but for some reason, you put it off. Why? Because you’ve gotten a first draft of a scene or chapter and you just want to keep going. It’s exactly the feeling that elementary school children have: “Why do I have [...]
Continue reading... April 22, 2013
42: Harrison Ford’s Example of Preparing for an Audition
I am interested in writing a nonficiton book and talked to an editor about the idea this week. She is interested. Hurrah! But she needs a full proposal that includes a table of contents and a sample chapter. In other words, I have to do some–no, a lot–of work, on spec, before I get a [...]
Continue reading... April 16, 2013
6 Reasons to Attend a National Conference
This past weekend, I attended the National Science Teachers Association conference and it was a great way to meet my audience. Here are some specific things that I thought were a benefit of attending. Know Your Audience. This is a photo of the convention floor, the display booths. It’s interesting to wander the aisles and [...]
Continue reading... April 8, 2013
7 Reasons Your Manuscript Might be Rejected
And What You Can Do to Prevent Rejection It’s first and foremost about a well-written story. But after that, there are many reasons for a novel, picture book or early reader series to be rejected. These are real excerpts from real rejections I have received over the last eighteen months. Right editor, right manuscript; wrong [...]
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