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Picture Book Revision Takes 25 Years
Writing is rewriting Guest post by Anastasia Suen For years I have been saying that writing is rewriting, and now I have a book that shows it quite clearly, my new picture book, Road Work Ahead (Viking 2011). This picture book is short, like most of my books. It’s only 120 words, but those words…
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Up the Stakes
So What? That’s the question you must get past in your fiction. Why should a reader care? Keep Reader’s Interest: Make Everything Matter More The best way to make a reader care about your story, your novel is to make things matter more, put more at risk, up the stakes. Personal Stakes This can be…
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Jacobs, Harwell Speak in Arkansas
The Arkansas Society of Children’s BookWriters and Illustrators conference (see the national SCBWI site here) was this weekend in North Little Rock, AR, my home town! It was a small, cozy conference; but look out, because Arkansas writers have big dreams. Kudos to the AR-Regional Advisor, Phyllis Heman, for planning a great conference. The speakers,…
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How To Write A Picture Book: Resources
12 Updated Resources for 2011 State of the industry. First, a basic question: Are picture books dead? Not according to Karen Springen and PW. Don’t Write the Obit For Picture Books Yet, By Karen Springen, Dec 12, 2010 Writing Encouragement. Natl Pic Book Writing Week May 1-7, 2011National Picture Book Writing Week is a take…
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Old Drafts: To Look or Not to Look
Do you look at your old drafts? Save! Obsessively, I save old drafts. I number the versions of my manuscript, untill I finally decide to name it something different. I create folders for OldDrafts. But I rarely LOOK at these old drafts. Somehow, it doesn’t seem necessary. Looking Back or Finding What Worked This revision…