Children’s Writing Web Journal

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Let’s continue our series which will take us, step-by-step, from absolute beginner to published author. The topic of the previous issue: What Should You Write About? If you missed it, you can read it here.

If you’ve been with us since the start of this series you’re (hopefully) well motivated, you know who your audience is and what you’re going to write about. Now it’s time to learn the rules of the game. Because kids grow and change so quickly, children’s book genres are far more structured and tiered than adult genres. What a 2nd grader and 6th grader read are worlds apart, and the “rules of the game” reflect that.

These rules, which cover page length, word count, subject matter and other elements of a book, aren’t really official. There’s no rule book, and no one standard to adhere to. They’re pretty much an unwritten set of expectations that editors have when they’re looking at a particular type of manuscript.

So, let’s fix that — by writing some of them down. For whatever age group you’re targeting, find the rules and follow them closely when drafting your first manuscript. (A note: As with all “unwritten rules”, these aren’t written in stone and can be a bit flexible from publisher to publisher. But our interpretation of the rules should work for most cases. Also, experienced, successful writers can and do sometimes get away with breaking these rules — but newer writers should stick closely to them.) (more…)

Our brand new podcast magically boils down the mysterious process of writing a picture book into about four and a half minutes.

Yes, we really are that good.

Download or listen online….and then start writing!

Download the podcast by right-clicking this link and selecting “Save as”

Dear Laura

Could you address point of view and the picture book? I’m working on a 1200 word picture book story, with several characters and lots of action, for ages 5 - 9. It seems more economical word-wise to write it from the omniscient view point, although that is often cautioned against. But in the picture book, there is scarcely enough time to introduce one character well before the end of the story would be near, and the other characters wouldn’t get as fleshed out as they could be.

The omniscient viewpoint can work in a picture book, and it’s used there more often than in longer books. If you have several characters who are crucial to the story, it’s probably the best way to go. Also, since picture books deal with action and dialogue, rather than the internal thoughts of the characters, using the omniscient viewpoint won’t be as confusing in this format as in novels where the reader can see inside a character’s head. But still make sure one character takes center stage as your main character. Your readers have to have one character with which to identify, one character to sympathize with, and one character who has a clearly defined problem that he/she solves during the course of the story.

Laura Backes, Publisher

Children’s Book Insider, the Newsletter for Children’s Writers

As I read this story in today’s paper, my first though was “what a wonderful children’s book this would make”.  Turns out, someone beat me to it.

Angel Girl by Laurie Friedman, illustrated by Ofra Amit (Carolrhoda Books) recounts the story of Herman Rosenblat, a teenager held at a death camp in Schlieben, Germany, and Roma Radziki, a girl living free in the village while her family posed as Christians.  Each day, Roma tossed Herman an apple over the barbed wire.  They never spoke, they never knew the other’s name.  They simply shared a daily act of humanity and kindness in the midst of insanity.

More than a decade later, the two were reunited by pure chance on a blind date.  They married and this year celebrate their 50th anniversary.

This is a story almost perfectly suited for a picture book, where it can be relayed simply and without adornment.  No need to pad the story to 300 pages or come up with enough “backstory” to reach a 90 minute running time.  Just keep it simple and let the events speak for themselves.

Here’s a preview:

Nominations for the third annual Children’s and Young Adult Bloggers’ Literary Awards (the Cybils) will be open Wednesday, October 1st through Wednesday, October 15th. The goal of the Cybils team (some 100 bloggers) is to highlight books that are high in both literary quality and kid appeal.

This year, awards will be given in nine categories (Easy Readers, Fantasy & Science Fiction, Fiction Picture Books, Graphic Novels, Middle Grade Novels, Non-Fiction Middle Grade/Young Adult Books, Non-Fiction Picture Books, Poetry, Young Adult Novels). Anyone can nominate books in these categories (one nomination per person per category). Nominated titles must be published between January 1st and October 15th of this year, and the books must be in English (or bilingual, where one of the languages is English). To nominate titles, visit the Cybils blog (http://www.cybils.com/) between October 1st and 15th.

Between October 16th and January 1st, Cybils panelists (children’s and young adult bloggers) will winnow the nominations down to a 5-7 book short list for each category. A second set of panelists will then select the winning titles for the different categories. The winners will be announced on February 14th, 2009.

Picture books aren’t read, they’re performed. The very act of reading a story out loud to a child forces the reader to add inflection, dramatic pauses, and even ad-lib some commentary. Where the pages are turned can add (or detract) as much from the experience as the quality of the story itself.

Picture books are almost always 32 pages long. There is no mysterious artistic reason for this; it’s simply how the printing presses work. If the book is longer, it will go up in 8-page increments, but most publishers don’t care to spend this added cost on new authors. The 32 pages includes the endpages (the white or decorated pages at the beginning and end of the book), the title page, and the copyright/dedication page. So the author has an average of 26 pages to tell the story. In general, the first page of text is a righthand page, and the last page of text is on the left. Once you’ve written your story, it’s useful to break the text into 26 sections, type each section on a separate piece of paper, and staple those pages together like a book. Now read your story as you turn the pages. Does each spread (two facing pages) encompass a different scene from those before and after? Are your characters doing something the illustrator can draw? Finally, is there a reason your r! eaders will want to turn the page to see what comes next?

Talented picture book writers consider pacing when they’re revising their texts. Here are four page-turning methods that work: (more…)

I often talk about the “rules” of writing for kids, citing proper page lengths and story types for different age groups. A better term would probably be “guidelines”; these rules exist only to tell you what, in general, editors like to see in the manuscripts sent to them. And, of course, for every rule there are numerous exceptions. But while we’d all like to think our book is strong enough to override the guidelines, this is usually not the case. Here are some rules that shouldn’t be broken until you really know what you’re doing:

Don’t Write Picture Books in Rhyme

Yes, you’ve seen them in the stores and kids like them. But children also like picture books that aren’t written in rhyme. It takes a great deal of skill and hard work to craft an original story, complete with unique characters, in about 1000 words. It takes another skill entirely to tell that story in rhyme. If you’ve got it, great. But don’t assume that because your story is aimed at young children it has to rhyme. Always try to write it in prose first. Once you’ve got the story on paper, decide if the rhyming format will add to the text. If the answer is yes, make sure it’s strong rhyme: it has a consistent meter, uses no clichés or extra words, and has a rhythm that is easy to read aloud. (more…)

Some cool links…..

Big Universe - Online children’s bookshop where you can read and purchase electronic picture books, or create your own for online publication.  Their URL is http://www.biguniverse.com   Here’s a recent piece from Publisher’s Weekly about the site. 

JacketFlap - Terrific social networking site for children’s book writers, illustrators, librarians and publishing professionals.  Free and very easy to use.  Highly recommended.  http://jacketflap.com   (And, after you sign up,  visit our JacketFlap page to become added as one of our friends.)

drop.io - Awesome free tool that allows you fax any document from your computer - without fax software.  Lots of other neat ways to share files, too.  http://drop.io/

Authonomy - A new site, now in beta testing, from HarperCollins that has industry folks buzzing.  It will be a social network site that will allow writers to upload manuscripts, which will be read and judged by other members of the network.  The site will use “the public’s recommendations to search out the cream of the crop – and showcase those titles to the book world at large”.   The actual site will be at http://www.authonomy.com/   There’s a company blog up now which addresses common questions.  Here’s some of what the rest of the blogosphere is saying.

Snopes - Every day I get a forwarded message from some well-meaning person.  Bill Gates is giving money away…Barack Obama is this….John McCain is that….a new computer virus will suck your soul out of your body.  It usually takes me all of 3 seconds to determine that it’s a hoax, thanks to the venerable Snopes.com database of urban myths.  If you get a forwarded message, before you drop your entire address book’s contents into the CC: section and hit send, please, please, please check it out on Snopes first.  (Also, for writers, the site is a hoot — filled with all kinds of wildly imaginative stuff that you can you use to spark your own ideas.  Just be sure to put them in your next book rather than your next mass e-mail!)  http://www.snopes.com