Step One

"Writing is the first step of the journey. Rewriting completes it."
—Mike Rich*

Bike and biplane bookplate by Kamil Lhoták

*Via Scholastic, The Writing Process
 

The Lilt of Your Voice

"Voice is like an accent. You never hear your own. But that doesn't mean you don't have one." 
—S.P. Bowers

Color landscape bookplate by Peter Dietzsch
Courtesy Frederikshavn Museum

A New Tactic

"Procrastination does not mean you're broken. It means you're trying to force something through willpower alone that takes a plan and structure to achieve."
—Jessica Abel*

Kangaroo bookplate by Geoffrey Ricardo
Courtesy Museums Victoria

*Via Growing Gills

Managing Your Next Project

"The secret of getting started is breaking your complex, overwhelming tasks into small, manageable tasks, and then starting on that first one."
—Probably not Mark Twain*

Village bookplate by Hubert Wilm
Via Europeana Collections

*Via Brainy Quotes. See The Quote Investigator

Give Yourself A Break

"For me, writing always begins with self-forgiveness."
—Daniel José Older*

Tree of Knowledge bookplate
Via Pinterest

*Via Seven Scribes

Your Voice Is Unique

"But the larger discussion of “voice” isn’t about differentiating characters from one another. It’s about differentiating you–the writer–from the pack of writers already out there."
—Kim Griswell*

Portrait bookplate via Bookplate Junkie

*Via Highlights Foundation

Regarding Your First Draft

"...if I don’t actually WRITE it… it is MUCH less likely to get written."
—Erika Wassall*

From Dean's Gold Star Book of Fairy Tales,
by Janet Grahame Johnstone and Anne Grahame Johnstone
Via inimini on Flickr

 *Via Kathy Temean's Writing and Illustrating

Take the Time

"Fleshing out a novel, completing every last task and polishing every page requires time. Plenty of writers can dash off a plot, a few engaging scenes, some hot dialogue. But not all writers can finish a novel the way it deserves to be finished. Some don’t finish it at all."
—Beth Hill*

Engraved bookplate of Alice Blaine Robinson
attributed to Louis Rhead?

*Via The Editor's Blog

The First Key to Writing

"You write your first draft with your heart and you rewrite with your head. The first key to writing is to write, not to think."
—Mike Rich*



Crow and quill bookplate by Julius Diez

 *from the film Finding Forrester

Writing Villains

"Some of the scariest antagonists are ones who think they are actually doing good in some way.”
—Jan Blazanin*

Bookplate by Antonio Vasconcelos via Pinterest

*Via Iowa SCBWI conference, 2012

Write in Your Own Voice

"Write with a pen or pencil on actual paper...writing by hand will access more of the memories you need to access if you want to write with a unique voice...do it often enough to get in plenty of 'voice finding' time."
—Kim Griswell*

German bookplate, manufacturing and engineering

*Via Highlights Foundation

Week of WOW Non-Fiction

If you are interested in writing non-fiction picture books, I can't think of many better resources than Kristen Fulton's Non-Fiction Archaeology. To get a taste of her teaching style and to find out if NFA classes are for you (HINT: they are!) maybe you'll join me and other picture book writers next week for Week-of-Writing NonFicPic.

You can find the details on Kristen's website. WOW NonFicPic is a week's worth of webinars and assignments to guide you to the heart of your non-fiction stories.

There's still time to register

I've done WOW before, but with several ideas languishing in my file, I thought this was the perfect opportunity to build them into the stories I envision. And if you are still at the idea stage? No problem. By week's end Kristen's techniques will have your idea file bursting at the seams.

If you're participating, I'd love to hear from you. I'll see you in class!

A Pile of Words

". . . you may believe that words committed to paper are sacred, fixed, immutable. But you’re not dealing with a finished, printed, copyrighted book, only with an idea, a pile of words that will change many times before they take shape as a book."
—Dorothy Bryant*

Etching, bookplate, Dresser-Reynier
Courtesy Pratt Institute Libraries

*From The Writer’s Digest’s Handbook of Novel Writing via Beth Hill on The Editor's Blog

Still Waiting

"...writing picture books seems to be about waiting. A bit of planting and watering, but mostly waiting."
— Penny Morrison*

KidsStamps Frog and Toad bookplate y Arnold Lobel
Courtesy Tera Peak

*Via Tara Lazar's Writing For Kids While Raising Them

Crafting Your Draft

"But that’s where the power of writing comes in—not in accidentally hitting on a perfect sentence while writing a first draft, but in deliberately crafting sentence after sentence in the rewrite stage."
— Beth Hill*




Bookplate of E. Petrolini courtesy Penn Libraries Collection

*Via  on The Editor's Blog

Biased Point Of View

"Description must work for its place. It can’t be simply ornamental. . . If description is coloured by the viewpoint of the character who is doing the noticing, it becomes, in effect, part of character definition and part of the action."
 –Hilary Mantel*

Bookplate from Pratt Institute Libraries, by J.W.

*Via Damyanti on Daily (W)Rite

On Rejection

There may be a gift accompanying the rejection at best, insight into how to improve your manuscript or query, and maximize your chances of nailing the next submission; and at least, the opportunity to strengthen your commitment and resolve. (An old acting teacher of mine used to say, “Never mind the talent, do you have the tenacity?” This is just as relevant for writers.)

—Emma Walton Hamilton*

Dog  with boats bookplate by David H. Souter

*Via Writing For Kids (While Raising Them)

Bravery

You don't collapse into tears.
You don't give up.
You go home and you look at those notes and you remember that you want to write, and you want to be published and no one, not even a snotty New York agent dressed in black is going to stand in your way.
You start in again.


You are one of the bravest people I've ever seen. Even if no one else ever knows it, you do. And don't forget for even one minute that I know it too.

Now get back to work.

—Janet Reid*



Man reading bookplate,
Courtesy Bibliotheca Scarensis

*Via Janet Reid

The Idea Puzzle

"But just like in your manuscript drafts, your first idea isn’t necessarily your best idea, and it definitely doesn’t need to be your last idea. If you allow yourself the freedom to separate your idea into its entities, you might end up with something better. . . Allowing these partial ideas to have value takes a lot of pressure off you as a writer and creator. It is very hard to have a good idea every day! But just because something isn’t the perfect idea doesn’t mean you can’t make it work for you."
-Sudipta Bardhan-Quallen*

Sea plane bookplate by Frank Martin
Courtesy Confessions of a Bookplate Junkie

 *Via Writing For Kids (While Raising Them)

Topic, Theme, Hook

"Every picture book typically has a topic and a theme. A topic is what your book is about on its surface--a ballerina, a dump truck, an alien, a duck, an airplane. The theme is the underlying emotional truth, like friendship, fitting in, the importance of family, being true to oneself, etc. The hook is those two things together."
— Tara Lazar*

Saint George and the Dragon bookplate
from the collection of Gustaf Sandstrom



*Via Picture Book Writing With Tara Lazar