Wow, it's hard to believe but summer is halfway over! School is set to start on August 14th and then we'll be in the swing of all things school.
I had intended to be more present on this blog over the summer, but I'm taking a bit of a break, too.
Other than being chauffeur mom and driving the kidlet to swim practices--the killer one starts at 5:45 across town--I've been reading voraciously!
I just started Jim Butcher's Dresden Files book #9, White Night. I have/had most of these books in paper format, but made the mistake of lending the first five out to someone I trusted.
Yeah, I never got the books back.
So, like when I collected records, and recollecting everything when the industry went to CD's, and now recollecting again on IPod or in the cloud, I'm repurchasing the entire Dresden series on my Kindle. Luckily I happened to catch the first seven books on a $0.99 cent sale in June.
Who is Harry Dresden?
He's a wizard. Chicago's only wizard in the yellow pages. Each urban fantasy book is stand alone, since Mr. Butcher does a wonderful job of weaving in the pertinent backstory when needed, but reading them in order provides an overall arc of the characters.
Reading also has made this writer realize some of the errors of her ways.
Not in a bad way, but in a "holy cow, i'm an idiot" type of way.
In fact, one of my epiphanies happened when I was reading the comics.
What? Don't you read comic strips? You should. They are probably the shortest flash fiction you'll ever read. In their one, two, or three cels they paint a picture for the reader. These stories have a beginning, middle and end told in a very concise way.
This was when I finally realized that my picture book, GO AWAY, PIPER! is actually multiple stories in one book. Oops!
I didn't continue the theme of the original story all the way through to the end. In my typical fashion, I took a right turn about 2/3 of the way through the story.
Plus it's wordy, way, way, way too wordy.
It isn't too surprising considering I was just typing my picture books on the computer. Oh, I could visualize the pages, BUT I was writing what I saw instead of letting the images do their job.
So, I bought a small journal. I counted out my 32 picture book pages and now I will see how well my story fits in that parameter. Plus, I'm going to draw/jot notes down about each page scene.
Oh, yeah, I can't draw. So we're talking stick figures and general scribbles.
I hope you are having a wonderful summer!
Later, Peeps!
Showing posts with label picture books. Show all posts
Showing posts with label picture books. Show all posts
7/6/14
4/25/13
Middle Grade Novel vs. Picture book
As I mentioned before, I have no clue how to write a picture book. When I attended the local SCBWI conference last Saturday, I was all ears listening to an art director break down a picture book.
So I finished writing one. It's just like writing a regular book.
What it doesn't have is:
The editing is just as intense as editing a longer novel, though editing 3-4 pages is a piece of cake vs. 300 pages. You want the words to flow in a longer novel, but the words are read in your head versus out loud. When you do edit a novel, a good trick is to read it out loud so your ear can catch all the inaccuracies.
Anyhoo, I'm at the editing stage of this story . . . and managed to add a 100 words! Eeeeek!
I'm supposed to be cutting words, not adding them!
Here's the sitch: When I wrote this story titled, for lack of anything better at this point in time, "Go Away, Piper!" I added many, many descriptions as part of the process. I wanted to visualize the scene. When I cut all the descriptors, there were some serious issues with flow and cohesion--I had to add some words back to the story.
Over the next week, I'll periodically mull this story over, tweaking it as necessary and then write a query letter before I send it out.
One of the reasons I attended the SCBWI conference was to get direct contact to editors. This gives me a foot in the door.
Whether or not my story is strong enough for them to want to publish it is a whole other problem.
But that's another blog post.
Later, Peeps!
So I finished writing one. It's just like writing a regular book.
- It has a beginning, a middle and and end.
- It has action. It has adventure. And it has an 'all is lost' moment.
- It has a story arc. It has a character arc.
- It has a little twist in the end.
- It has varying sentence structure. It has a few complicated words.
- The story builds upon every scene
What it doesn't have is:
- rhyming
- a 'lesson'. Though you could read one into the story, I didn't write this story to teach or preach to a kid. (and if you know me at all--that's my one pet peeve about literature classes--can't people simply write a good story? I mean, what if there really wasn't a deep meaning to Moby Dick when it was written? Why do lit teachers see 'symbolism' in everything?) . . . sorry, rant over.
The editing is just as intense as editing a longer novel, though editing 3-4 pages is a piece of cake vs. 300 pages. You want the words to flow in a longer novel, but the words are read in your head versus out loud. When you do edit a novel, a good trick is to read it out loud so your ear can catch all the inaccuracies.
Anyhoo, I'm at the editing stage of this story . . . and managed to add a 100 words! Eeeeek!
I'm supposed to be cutting words, not adding them!
Here's the sitch: When I wrote this story titled, for lack of anything better at this point in time, "Go Away, Piper!" I added many, many descriptions as part of the process. I wanted to visualize the scene. When I cut all the descriptors, there were some serious issues with flow and cohesion--I had to add some words back to the story.
Over the next week, I'll periodically mull this story over, tweaking it as necessary and then write a query letter before I send it out.
One of the reasons I attended the SCBWI conference was to get direct contact to editors. This gives me a foot in the door.
Whether or not my story is strong enough for them to want to publish it is a whole other problem.
But that's another blog post.
Later, Peeps!
4/16/13
No Clue how to Write a Picture book
While I was walking yesterday, I started thinking--yes, I know this process usually gets me into trouble--about Piper.
Piper is a faerie who is featured on the cover of The Fast and the FAERIEous, as an older version than the one I want to write about. . . in a picture book. . . . sort of, or maybe an early reader, or a chapter book, or . . . see my problem?
Here's my sitch. Years ago I wrote quite a few stories about Peter the naughty little fly. Well, I don't have a clue how to go about writing a picture book. Oh, I know some of the basics--32 pages, the art is 50% of the story so descriptors aren't needed, less than 500 words (but can go as high as 1000), and keep the language and sentence structure are simpler.
But what makes one cute anecdotal story publishable, while another is not? That is the question.
After a quick search on the Internet, I found one author who wrote her story, but then she showed the finished published story. This gave me a back-to-back comparison as to what made one story better than the other.
Of course, at this time my daughter kicked me off the computer and I didn't bother to save the author's name, so I'll have to search the Internet again to find her webpage.
But that's okay. That's part of the editing process.
When my walk was over, I jotted a couple of pages of notes down. I have the motivation and adventure, but I don't have a good conclusion.
Right now, all I need to concentrate on is putting the story onto paper . . . er, type it in the computer. Once there, I can tweak and play with it all I want . . . saving the various versions.
That's the one nice thing about writing short stories. They are easier to handle and manipulate, BUT you have to write very, very tight, choosing the best words for the story.
That's what I need right now. More focus to my writing.
But you know what's sad?
I think this one little picture book story already has too many things going on.
*sigh*
Later, Peeps!
Piper is a faerie who is featured on the cover of The Fast and the FAERIEous, as an older version than the one I want to write about. . . in a picture book. . . . sort of, or maybe an early reader, or a chapter book, or . . . see my problem?
Here's my sitch. Years ago I wrote quite a few stories about Peter the naughty little fly. Well, I don't have a clue how to go about writing a picture book. Oh, I know some of the basics--32 pages, the art is 50% of the story so descriptors aren't needed, less than 500 words (but can go as high as 1000), and keep the language and sentence structure are simpler.
But what makes one cute anecdotal story publishable, while another is not? That is the question.
After a quick search on the Internet, I found one author who wrote her story, but then she showed the finished published story. This gave me a back-to-back comparison as to what made one story better than the other.
Of course, at this time my daughter kicked me off the computer and I didn't bother to save the author's name, so I'll have to search the Internet again to find her webpage.
But that's okay. That's part of the editing process.
When my walk was over, I jotted a couple of pages of notes down. I have the motivation and adventure, but I don't have a good conclusion.
Right now, all I need to concentrate on is putting the story onto paper . . . er, type it in the computer. Once there, I can tweak and play with it all I want . . . saving the various versions.
That's the one nice thing about writing short stories. They are easier to handle and manipulate, BUT you have to write very, very tight, choosing the best words for the story.
That's what I need right now. More focus to my writing.
But you know what's sad?
I think this one little picture book story already has too many things going on.
*sigh*
Later, Peeps!
4/24/09
Queryland. . . again
I've been angsting over my children's story, so I decided to start pimping my picture book/easy reader, Peter's Messy Room. I'd tweaked, edited, reworked it so I would have the appropriate number of pictures with pages, cut my word count, etc. It was time to let go.
Two days ago I started researching literary agents specializing in children's books. My primary site is Agent Query. And from there I investigate the agency website, decide which agent to target within the larger agencies and verify their status with Preditors and Editors. Even with all my careful preparation one of my queries was sent to an agent no longer at the agency. This agent's name is still plastered all over the agency's website. I did my research, so why can't agencies keep their website updated?
Yesterday, I submitted to 19 agencies electronically. I personalized each salutation, verified each agent, and most of them wanted to have picture book text pasted into the email. Awesome, not a problem. I had to remove two agents from the pile because they only represent middle-grade and above stories, NOT picture books. Okay, I'll save them for my Missing Gnome story. Speaking of that, I need to get my butt in gear and finish the silly thing. I'm 1/4 of the way through, so I need to keep on writing.
So far, I have had (updated) five rejections on PMR. I'd rather have quick rejections than wait for the 'no response from us means no' mindset. THAT drives me crazy! How hard is it to click reply and say "no thanks"??? But this topic is definitely a whole other blog. And many fine agents have addressed this issue on their blogs within the last month. One of the queries I sent happened to be to an agent that I sent this query to in Jan---uh, OOPS! I didn't think I sent PMR to anyone. Guess I should have checked my list a little better, huh? This was one of those agents who don't respond unless interested, which fits my point--how do I even KNOW she got the first email? :-) I think I'll chock that one up as a no request.
Today, I'll be snail mail querying. I have seven agents who still require writers to kill trees. Personalizing these letters, addressing envelopes, and making certain I have stamped SASE's takes a little more time, but I should have it finished in an hour or so. And once they are out the door, I can forget about PMR. I have a list of things I need to do: finish my @#%@#$%@# faerie story, write on my middle grade story, and fill out a character profiling chart on my urban fantasy heroine that I'd like to make into a series of seven books.
What are my odds of gaining the interest of an agent?
Slim to none. I don't have unrealistic hopes. I've been in this writing biz long enough to know the odds are not in my favor. I really, really like this story, BUT I honestly don't think it is 'different enough' for the current market. When I attended a SCBWI conference last month, Abigail Samoun of Tricycle Press had some depressing statistics. Last year Tricycle had over 7000 slush pile submissions, of that number they published 3, only 0.0004% of those submissions were published.
Yeah, those aren't very good odds. But writers do what they have to do--they write.
Write on!
Two days ago I started researching literary agents specializing in children's books. My primary site is Agent Query. And from there I investigate the agency website, decide which agent to target within the larger agencies and verify their status with Preditors and Editors. Even with all my careful preparation one of my queries was sent to an agent no longer at the agency. This agent's name is still plastered all over the agency's website. I did my research, so why can't agencies keep their website updated?
Yesterday, I submitted to 19 agencies electronically. I personalized each salutation, verified each agent, and most of them wanted to have picture book text pasted into the email. Awesome, not a problem. I had to remove two agents from the pile because they only represent middle-grade and above stories, NOT picture books. Okay, I'll save them for my Missing Gnome story. Speaking of that, I need to get my butt in gear and finish the silly thing. I'm 1/4 of the way through, so I need to keep on writing.
So far, I have had (updated) five rejections on PMR. I'd rather have quick rejections than wait for the 'no response from us means no' mindset. THAT drives me crazy! How hard is it to click reply and say "no thanks"??? But this topic is definitely a whole other blog. And many fine agents have addressed this issue on their blogs within the last month. One of the queries I sent happened to be to an agent that I sent this query to in Jan---uh, OOPS! I didn't think I sent PMR to anyone. Guess I should have checked my list a little better, huh? This was one of those agents who don't respond unless interested, which fits my point--how do I even KNOW she got the first email? :-) I think I'll chock that one up as a no request.
Today, I'll be snail mail querying. I have seven agents who still require writers to kill trees. Personalizing these letters, addressing envelopes, and making certain I have stamped SASE's takes a little more time, but I should have it finished in an hour or so. And once they are out the door, I can forget about PMR. I have a list of things I need to do: finish my @#%@#$%@# faerie story, write on my middle grade story, and fill out a character profiling chart on my urban fantasy heroine that I'd like to make into a series of seven books.
What are my odds of gaining the interest of an agent?
Slim to none. I don't have unrealistic hopes. I've been in this writing biz long enough to know the odds are not in my favor. I really, really like this story, BUT I honestly don't think it is 'different enough' for the current market. When I attended a SCBWI conference last month, Abigail Samoun of Tricycle Press had some depressing statistics. Last year Tricycle had over 7000 slush pile submissions, of that number they published 3, only 0.0004% of those submissions were published.
Yeah, those aren't very good odds. But writers do what they have to do--they write.
Write on!
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