NaNoWriMo Lessons

NaNoWriMo and the Evolution of a Writer
Guest post by Beth Cato.
Follow her NaNoWriMo progress at her blog, Catch a Star if It Falls.
For years I dreamed of being a published writer, but I didn’t actually write anything. I had plenty of excuses – college, a full-time job, marriage – but I couldn’t stop that [...]

Try Ideas

You Must Try it On
I’m watching “What Not to Wear,” TLC’s fashion advice show. The hosts, Stacy and Clinton preach one thing that struck me today: you must try clothes on to see if they fit and look the way you want. You can’t tell anything by just looking at something on a hanger. You [...]

format

Does Format change a story?
Format. Yes, it makes a difference. How you present information or how you present a story make a difference to the text. For example, I’ve been wanting to write

Multiple pov

3 Tips for Using Mulitple Point of View Characters

Limit the number of POV characters. A general caution is to limit the number of POV characters so the reader can be emotionally invested in those few. Zuckerman, in How to Write the Blockbuster Novel, recommends no more than five main characters. Usually, one of the characters [...]

Picture Book 4

7 Children’s Picture Book Manuscripts in 7 Days

I’m taking the 7 in 7 picture book challenge.

Report on 7 in 7 for the first week of May, 2009

May 7
May 6. Historical Fiction. OK, here comes the rationalization for why I don’t have a good draft done. A couple years ago, a friend told me [...]

Picture Book 3

7 Children’s Picture Book Manuscripts in 7 Days

I’m taking the 7 in 7 picture book challenge.

Report on 7 in 7 for the first week of May, 2009

May 7
May 6
Note: This is a note of general frustration with writing 7 picture books in 7 days. I want to dig in and revise, which I [...]

Picture book 1

7 Children’s Picture Book Manuscripts in 7 Days
I’m taking the 7 in 7 picture book challenge.

Report on 7 in 7 for the first week of May, 2009

May 1: Violet Ivy’s Button Eyes. 1128 words.

May 2: ABC book. OK, so it’s one I had half-way started before and abandoned because I had blanks for [...]

Audience

Do you pay attention to your audience when you write, or do you write for yourself, an audience of one?
PW’s Shelf Talker Josie Leavitt has an interesting posting on when toddlers pick out their own books. Even as toddlers, boys and girls choose books differently. Both are passionate about the books they love and both [...]

Cheryl Renee Herbsman: 2k9

This entry is part 5 of 10 in the series 2k9Introduced first in 2007, authors debuting children’s books have formed a cooperative effort to market their novels. Last year, I featured many of the stories of how the 2k8 Novels Were Revised. This is part of the ongoing stories from the Class of 2k9 authors [...]

Character Bait

Letting Characters Emerge
Hurrah! My potential character took the bait! He is revealing himself slowly.
As I was thinking of ideas for picture books, an idea came up: what if the family was structured in a distinctive way?
At 2 a.m. this morning, the character woke me up and started dictating a scene about dealing with her [...]