January 22, 2015
"The Write Words to Read"
The Institute of Children's Literature
http://www.
1-800-243-9645
Editor: Jan Fields -- author@janfields.com
------------------------------
UPCOMING THIS WEEK: Check out Barb Kramer's guest visit to the Writer's Retreat
Where she will talk about RESEARCH
January 27-28th
http://www.
------------------------------
CONTENTS OF THIS ISSUE
1. News
2. Online in Rx
3. At the Writer's Retreat
4. What's New at Kristi's?
5. Market
6. Cool Site
7. "What Changed" by Lupe Ruiz-Flores
8. Good News
------------------------------
1. For an archive of past eNews issues, check out
http://institutechildrenslit.
------------------------------
2. In the Rx
Dialogue that Makes a Difference
http://www.
Check out this past chat with Sandy Asher to learn how to make your dialogue more effective.
-----
2A. Poetry Writing Contest
https://www.writersbookstore.
Poem or verse story up to 150 words. Deadline: February 14, 2015
-------------------------
3. Are You On The Writer's Retreat?
http://www.
Today we begin our discussion on "Making Time in a Busy Schedule." We'll be sharing ways we get our writing done in the busy-ness of life.
Also in January: Check out the Guest Speaker discussion on Research with Barbara Kramer on January 27-28, 2015
At any time during this two day discussion, just sign on the discussion board and post your questions.
Barbara Kramer has written biographies for both children and young adults.
Her subjects range from historical figures such as Thomas Edison and George Washington Carver to people in the news including Nelson Mandela, Oprah Winfrey, and Beyoncé. Her most recent book, "Alexander Graham Bell," will be released by National Geographic on January 6, 2015.
------------------------
4. What's New at Kristi's?
http://kristiholl.net/writers-
Friday, Jan. 16: "My Writing Life in Pictures"
A picture's worth a thousand words, they say. Here's my writing life lately in pictures.
Tuesday, Jan. 20: "Surrendering to the Call"
Do you have a call to write? Do you think so, or even just hope so? If you do, the cost of putting off the commitment may get too high. See if these questions apply to you.
------------------------
5. 2015 Highlights Fiction Contest
https://www.highlights.com/
Category: Mystery story/750 words or less
Top prizes: $1000
Deadline: January 31 <-- deadline is fast approaching!
---------------------------
6. Getting the Gigs
http://www.
What can you do to make sure the book you’ve invested time, energy, and emotion in captures the spotlight? Highlights invites you to join author Larry Dane Brimner, the author of more than 150 books for children, as he shows you what to do next. It may seem daunting at first, but there are things authors and illustrators can do to get their books into libraries and, more importantly, the hands of young readers.
Larry is leading a three-day workshop at the Highlights Foundation April 26-29, in northeastern PA. The tuition includes lodging, meals, snacks, snacks, Wifi, and even shuttle service from nearby airports.
---------------------------
7. FOR THE LOVE OF DOG
(Lessons from the Contest Entry Read-athon)
As I read the contest entries, one thing struck me over and over and over and over and a couple more times and a few past that…well, you get the idea. I suspect the creation process between some of the entries went like this:
1. I love my dog (or cat, but surprisingly enough – mostly dog)
2. Kids love dogs (and cats).
3. My dog (and/or cat) does this cute (and/or touching) thing that I love to tell people about.
4. I can definitely tell about that thing in 150 words or less.
5. Write what you know – right?
6. Voila – contest entry!
I’m assuming this because I got well over a dozen entries that were nearly identical except for slightly different breeds and cute things. Now, if I get over a dozen, then editors at magazines and picture book publishers get hundreds. Literary and without hyperbole – hundreds. In fact, I have seen editors whimper and say, “Please, no more dog stories.” (Or cat stories…actually there was a huge wave of cat stories some years back, and I mostly heard cat whimpers, but I think the dogs are gaining on them. In fact, I recently had an editor fall in gushy love with a dog story I wrote, but she said she simply couldn't buy any more dog stories.)
Now, this isn’t to say you absolutely cannot sell a story with a dog or cat in it. BUT – it’s going to run into an tsunami of “my dog/cat is so cute and I love it” stories. So you have to do something different. Something that’s nearly never seen in dog/cat stories.
What?
You have to tell a story. It cannot just be a cute incident. It has to have conflict (though mild, probably, since most animal stories are for fairly young children). The pet really should survive (the number of pet death stories in slush piles is probably equal to the number of “I love my pet” pieces. You only THINK they’re rare because you don’t see a bunch in print. And you don’t see a bunch in print because the tiny number that actually ARE in print are filling the whole need for pet death stories for small children.) And the story needs to feel complete and satisfying – not just like a cute incident that you’ve told a bunch of times to family and friends. And if the story reflects character growth and change, you get a special bonus because that’s really rare and quite desirable.
So this is not a story:
My dog Mouse was convinced that anything I might eat was yummier than anything she was being offered. So one day, she saw me eating a banana. She pressed against my leg and looked wistfully up at me. “You wouldn’t like this,” I said. Her large brown eyes suggested otherwise. “You won’t eat it,” I said. She begged to disagree. I gave her a tiny piece as I wasn't at all sure that bananas were even good for dogs. For an instant, she was delighted…then she tasted it. And she sat there, stricken with horror at the vile thing in her mouth. She puffed her lips out slightly, making the small piece of banana seem much larger. And she held it in her mouth, very still so it wouldn't contact with more taste buds than necessary, until she thought I wasn’t looking. Then she very discreetly lowered her head and spat the banana onto the carpet. I looked down at the piece of banana. “Is that yours?” I asked, pointing at the slimy morsel. She looked at it, horrified. She bent slowly, as if su!
ddenly stricken by some painful arthritic condition at barely five months old. And she picked the piece of banana up in her mouth. Twice more, she waited until I wasn’t looking and spat it on the floor. Twice more, I asked her – in a totally conversational tone- if the increasingly vile bit of banana was hers. Twice more she picked it back up. Finally she swallowed it. After that, the very sight of a banana made her shudder.
That, my friends, is an incident. It’s one I’ve shared many times as it tickled me intensely when it happened. It’s not a story. I couldn’t sell it as a picture book or magazine story, even though it’s absolutely adorable. It’s not a story. It’s just something that happened.
A story would be from Mouse’s viewpoint as she connived to get some of the amazing snack her human was eating. The story would show her using all her puppy wiles, and finally succeeding – only to discover the most horrific possible thing in her mouth. And then the story would show how she desperately tried to get rid of it (and I’d make her do more than just spit it in the exact same spot each time.) In the end, Mouse would “win” because she’s the main character of the story. She’d find a way to avoid eating the banana of horror, and she’d probably take her revenge on all bananas in some way at the end.
That would make it a story. If you use something from real life, it MUST be transformed into a story if you want to hope for publication. No matter how much your family, neighbors, students at school, facebook friends enjoyed hearing the incident – you will have to change it into a story before looking for someone to pay you money for publication. That’s just how it works.
Children's Writers eNews
January 22, 2015
"The Write Words to Read"
The Institute of Children's Literature
http://www.
1-800-243-9645
Editor: Jan Fields -- author@janfields.com
------------------------------
UPCOMING THIS WEEK: Check out Barb Kramer's guest visit to the Writer's Retreat
Where she will talk about RESEARCH
January 27-28th
http://www.
------------------------------
CONTENTS OF THIS ISSUE
1. News
2. Online in Rx
3. At the Writer's Retreat
4. What's New at Kristi's?
5. Market
6. Cool Site
7. "What Changed" by Lupe Ruiz-Flores
8. Good News
------------------------------
1. For an archive of past eNews issues, check out
http://institutechildrenslit.
------------------------------
2. In the Rx
Dialogue that Makes a Difference
http://www.
Check out this past chat with Sandy Asher to learn how to make your dialogue more effective.
-----
2A. Poetry Writing Contest
https://www.writersbookstore.
Poem or verse story up to 150 words. Deadline: February 14, 2015
-------------------------
3. Are You On The Writer's Retreat?
http://www.
Today we begin our discussion on "Making Time in a Busy Schedule." We'll be sharing ways we get our writing done in the busy-ness of life.
Also in January: Check out the Guest Speaker discussion on Research with Barbara Kramer on January 27-28, 2015
At any time during this two day discussion, just sign on the discussion board and post your questions.
Barbara Kramer has written biographies for both children and young adults.
Her subjects range from historical figures such as Thomas Edison and George Washington Carver to people in the news including Nelson Mandela, Oprah Winfrey, and Beyoncé. Her most recent book, "Alexander Graham Bell," will be released by National Geographic on January 6, 2015.
------------------------
4. What's New at Kristi's?
http://kristiholl.net/writers-
Friday, Jan. 16: "My Writing Life in Pictures"
A picture's worth a thousand words, they say. Here's my writing life lately in pictures.
Tuesday, Jan. 20: "Surrendering to the Call"
Do you have a call to write? Do you think so, or even just hope so? If you do, the cost of putting off the commitment may get too high. See if these questions apply to you.
------------------------
5. 2015 Highlights Fiction Contest
https://www.highlights.com/
Category: Mystery story/750 words or less
Top prizes: $1000
Deadline: January 31 <-- deadline is fast approaching!
---------------------------
6. Getting the Gigs
http://www.
What can you do to make sure the book you’ve invested time, energy, and emotion in captures the spotlight? Highlights invites you to join author Larry Dane Brimner, the author of more than 150 books for children, as he shows you what to do next. It may seem daunting at first, but there are things authors and illustrators can do to get their books into libraries and, more importantly, the hands of young readers.
Larry is leading a three-day workshop at the Highlights Foundation April 26-29, in northeastern PA. The tuition includes lodging, meals, snacks, snacks, Wifi, and even shuttle service from nearby airports.
---------------------------
7. FOR THE LOVE OF DOG
(Lessons from the Contest Entry Read-athon)
As I read the contest entries, one thing struck me over and over and over and over and a couple more times and a few past that…well, you get the idea. I suspect the creation process between some of the entries went like this:
1. I love my dog (or cat, but surprisingly enough – mostly dog)
2. Kids love dogs (and cats).
3. My dog (and/or cat) does this cute (and/or touching) thing that I love to tell people about.
4. I can definitely tell about that thing in 150 words or less.
5. Write what you know – right?
6. Voila – contest entry!
I’m assuming this because I got well over a dozen entries that were nearly identical except for slightly different breeds and cute things. Now, if I get over a dozen, then editors at magazines and picture book publishers get hundreds. Literary and without hyperbole – hundreds. In fact, I have seen editors whimper and say, “Please, no more dog stories.” (Or cat stories…actually there was a huge wave of cat stories some years back, and I mostly heard cat whimpers, but I think the dogs are gaining on them. In fact, I recently had an editor fall in gushy love with a dog story I wrote, but she said she simply couldn't buy any more dog stories.)
Now, this isn’t to say you absolutely cannot sell a story with a dog or cat in it. BUT – it’s going to run into an tsunami of “my dog/cat is so cute and I love it” stories. So you have to do something different. Something that’s nearly never seen in dog/cat stories.
What?
You have to tell a story. It cannot just be a cute incident. It has to have conflict (though mild, probably, since most animal stories are for fairly young children). The pet really should survive (the number of pet death stories in slush piles is probably equal to the number of “I love my pet” pieces. You only THINK they’re rare because you don’t see a bunch in print. And you don’t see a bunch in print because the tiny number that actually ARE in print are filling the whole need for pet death stories for small children.) And the story needs to feel complete and satisfying – not just like a cute incident that you’ve told a bunch of times to family and friends. And if the story reflects character growth and change, you get a special bonus because that’s really rare and quite desirable.
So this is not a story:
My dog Mouse was convinced that anything I might eat was yummier than anything she was being offered. So one day, she saw me eating a banana. She pressed against my leg and looked wistfully up at me. “You wouldn’t like this,” I said. Her large brown eyes suggested otherwise. “You won’t eat it,” I said. She begged to disagree. I gave her a tiny piece as I wasn't at all sure that bananas were even good for dogs. For an instant, she was delighted…then she tasted it. And she sat there, stricken with horror at the vile thing in her mouth. She puffed her lips out slightly, making the small piece of banana seem much larger. And she held it in her mouth, very still so it wouldn't contact with more taste buds than necessary, until she thought I wasn’t looking. Then she very discreetly lowered her head and spat the banana onto the carpet. I looked down at the piece of banana. “Is that yours?” I asked, pointing at the slimy morsel. She looked at it, horrified. She bent slowly, as if su!
ddenly stricken by some painful arthritic condition at barely five months old. And she picked the piece of banana up in her mouth. Twice more, she waited until I wasn’t looking and spat it on the floor. Twice more, I asked her – in a totally conversational tone- if the increasingly vile bit of banana was hers. Twice more she picked it back up. Finally she swallowed it. After that, the very sight of a banana made her shudder.
That, my friends, is an incident. It’s one I’ve shared many times as it tickled me intensely when it happened. It’s not a story. I couldn’t sell it as a picture book or magazine story, even though it’s absolutely adorable. It’s not a story. It’s just something that happened.
A story would be from Mouse’s viewpoint as she connived to get some of the amazing snack her human was eating. The story would show her using all her puppy wiles, and finally succeeding – only to discover the most horrific possible thing in her mouth. And then the story would show how she desperately tried to get rid of it (and I’d make her do more than just spit it in the exact same spot each time.) In the end, Mouse would “win” because she’s the main character of the story. She’d find a way to avoid eating the banana of horror, and she’d probably take her revenge on all bananas in some way at the end.
That would make it a story. If you use something from real life, it MUST be transformed into a story if you want to hope for publication. No matter how much your family, neighbors, students at school, facebook friends enjoyed hearing the incident – you will have to change it into a story before looking for someone to pay you money for publication. That’s just how it works.
-----------------------
8. Good News
Donna Marie West: 2015 is starting out well, writing-wise. I have a short story entitled, "Rachel and the Light" in the January issue of OUR LITTLE FRIEND. I also have a story called "Owls" in an anthology called THE GRAYS. And finally, a NF piece entitled, "The Creation of the Golem" on the HALLOWEENFOREVERMORE.COM website.
Pamela Haskin: Excited to share that my new book, Max, the Boy Raindrop, the story of a raindrop afraid to rain, is out and available in print and e-book wherever you normally buy books. I did my own illustrations too! Instead of using paints or pencils, I used paper. I cut, tore, punched, crinkled and crimped papers to help tell Max’s story of finding courage.
Rachelle Burk: Eight years after it was purchased by Highlights Magazine, my fiction story "The Holiday House" is in the February issue.
What's Your Good News? Send to author@janfields.com -- be sure to put "good news" in the subject line since I get a lot of book announcements due to the review work I do. So I don't want your good news to slip through the cracks.
------------
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