My son’s been taking martial arts for close to 5 years, and every time he tests for the next rank (he’s up to brown now), fewer kids who began with him as white belts test alongside him. It’s not that Matt’s necessarily a better athlete than they are, but martial arts are more important to him. He likes learning the forms, and he enjoys surviving a long, physically grueling test knowing that most of his friends would have been flattened in the first 20 minutes. When aspiring writers begin identifying themselves as authors, in the same way that Matt sees himself as a martial artist, they’ve taken that first big step toward success.
But there’s a difference between wanting to see your name on a book, and wanting a career as a children’s book author. Anyone with a few dollars can publish their own story, and many books are perfectly suited to be self-published titles given to family and friends. The career mentality, however, is more complex. Check out some common characteristics below and see how you measure up: Read more
Too many posts to handle? If you missed out on a great post from last month, here’s a quick digest of the top posts that you may want to check out:
- How to Write a Picture Book That Shines
Posted on Thursday, July 9th, 2009 in videos – Comments: (1)
Writing picture book fiction is quite possibly the hardest type of writing there is, and yet editors receive more picture book manuscripts than any other genre. To make your work stand out from the crowd, you need to do more than study how to devise a winning plot and create believable, unique characters. You need to polish your prose until it sparkles.
- Jon’s Twitter Updates for 2009-07-08
Posted on Wednesday, July 8th, 2009 in Uncategorized – Comments: (0)
A Writer’s Guide to Social Networking: http://is.gd/1qaX3 Jon, http://cbiclubhouse.
- Poetry Links for Children’s Writers
Posted on Wednesday, July 22nd, 2009 in web resources – Comments: (1)
The web’s awash in poetry linksTo satisfy your rhyming museHere’s a few for poets allTo glean tips, advice & news(Sorry for the rhyming poorBut verse, for me, is very hardTho’ you’d think I’d have at least some knackBeing saddled with the last name Bard)PoemHunter.com – A database of poetry and lyrics, searchable by title, author or text.
- Research Tools You’ve (Probably) Never Heard Of
Posted on Wednesday, July 8th, 2009 in web resources – Comments: (1)
Yes, Google is great. Really, it’s revolutionized the world. But the web doesn’t end at Google’s doors. For the writer, there are some really, really terrific research tools just waiting to be discovered. So, let’s discover ‘em!Ms. Freckles – Crisply designed site that puts a boatload of info at your fingertips. It’s particularly strong for writers needing translations or definitions of non-English words.
- Writing Children’s Books: How to Think Like a Kid
Posted on Friday, July 24th, 2009 in writing tips – Comments: (1)
Here’s a a simple, great technique to understand what today’s kids and teens want to read about. A must view for anyone who desires to write children’s books.Video not working? You can also view it here: YouTube, Yahoo, MySpace, Revver, DailyMotion, Blip.tv, Veoh, Sclipo, Viddler, Howcast, 5min and GrasprInterested in learning how to write a book and send it to children’s book publishers?
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