Time to Write

Watch this amazing artist (and listen to her amazing journey)

Beatrice Coron is a paper cutter. she makes the most amazing silhouette images, some of who you will see in this video of her TED talk. It starts with the paper cape she wears as she walks onto the stage. I think you'll find her description of her creative process interesting--including the fact that she didn't start working as an artist until she was 40. If you're not astounded by her work, I'll eat my hat. …No, I won't. I'll eat a bagel with cream cheese, which admittedly won't be much of a sacrifice…Oh just watch the video.

 

(Need some help and support expressing your creativity? My online group coaching program starts in mid-January--and you don't have to be a writer, anybody with a creative goal will benefit. Get more information at http://www.WritingBreakthroughStrategy.com )

Write it Right Round-up (mistakes different from the ones I make)

This post is a little round-up of things I've spotted on the web during the past few weeks that are good candidates for the friendly urging, Write it right!

Headline for an email from an online retailer:

"Have you seen our new innovations?"

I couldn't help myself. I emailed them to point out that innovations are new by definition. They replied that this is true and what they meant was that these innovations appear in their catalogue for the first time. OK, that made me feel a little pedantic. 

Next was an email from a personal development speaker, about excellence. The headline was:

"Your either remarkable or invisible."

Hmm, not a lot of excellence in spelling there. Here's the next one:

"...my report "How to Ethically Tap into the Mind of Your Prospects and Customers Where Real Decisions are Made, and Fortunes are Won or Lost"

The problem is the word ethically. It would be more correct to write "how to tap ethically into the mind..." (and it should be minds, because your prospects and customers don't have a collective mind). Probably that comma between "Made" and "and" isn't necessary, either, but I strew commas around with such wild abandon that I'm reluctant to criticize anybody else on that subject. 

Getting back to thetapping ethically, the rule is to put the adverb after the verb. I see this rule broken so often that I wonder whether it's a lost cause. I've caught myself doing it, too, and I'm sure there are examples all over this blog of times I didn't catch myself.

Then there was this rather alarming headline:

Ron Paul Killed in Last Night's Presidential Debate

You would have thought that would be big news, but this was the first I'd heard of it. It turns out the headline writer was of the opinion that Mr Paul did outstandingly well in the debate. He was using the vernacular of stand-up comedians who sometimes say, "I killed them last night," if they got a lot of laughs. They also say "I slayed them." I get the impression comedians have a lot of unresolved hostility. 

Whenever I write about grammar or punctuation, at least one error finds its way into the post but eludes my proofreading. Let me know if you find it.

Two things writers shouldn't do (Robert Ringer's top advice: part 1)

Should you wait for inspiration before you start to write? What if you sit down and look at the blank page and nothing occurs to you?

Robert Ringer, best known for a best-selling book called Winning Through Intimidation (which was actually a lot more constructive than the title suggests), recently shared some of rules for being a productive writer.

Here are the two parts of his first rule of writing, along with my comments:

1a: Force yourself to write; once you get going, don’t stop to congratulate yourself.

The idea behind the first part of this is that if you take writing seriously you can’t wait for inspiration to come to you. You have to go to it (even if it’s hiding and won't come out at first).

In one of my writing workshops a participant said he tried to do this, but some days he would feel blocked in working on his novel. I asked him what he did on those days. “Uh…just look around the internet,” he said.

I suggested that instead he start writing about one of his characters—anything, not necessarily material that would be in the book. For instance, if it was eight in the morning when he sat down to work on his novel, write about what his protagonist would be doing at eight in the morning.

He looked sceptical but told me he’d try it and report back to me.

A couple of weeks later I heard from him. He said not only did it work in terms of getting his writing juices flowing, it also promoted some new ideas for the plot.

1b: Once you get going, don’t stop to congratulate yourself.

The second admonition is one you don’t hear as often, but it rings true. When I was starting out it seemed such a wonder that I could actually complete a few pages of writing that I’d stop and re-read them, which led to reworking them and then re-reading some more. That makes it hard to get a flow going.

Ringer says he used to do the same thing, but for him it was another form of procrastination.

Everyone has to find his or her own way, but these days I find it more useful to plow ahead and go back later.

In the next post: Ringer’s second rule of writing

One of my rules of writing is, if you need support and guidance, get it! One way to do that is to join my online Writing Breakthrough Strategy program. You can find out more and sign up at http://www.WritingBreakthroughStrategy.com. 

 

Am I the enemy?

This post doesn’t have much to do with writing, other than that I  paid for a first-class ticket on a recent train journey because I wanted to be sure to get a table seat where I’d be able to write. The amount extra it cost to go first class was £10 (that covered both ways).

Over the course of the journey, at different times two young men who turned out to be on the train only for a couple of short segments and who I’m pretty sure didn’t have first class tickets came and sat down across the aisle from me. About 80% of the rest of the carriage was empty as well but they chose the little first class section.

So far, no big deal. It’s up to the train company to enforce their seating policy, and in this case they obviously didn’t care because no conductor ever came around to check. Also, the presence of these two guys didn’t affect me one way or the other—well, that’s not quite true: the second one had on a pair of headphones that was leaking very loud hip hop music and that was annoying.

What surprised me, though, was that both of them made a big show of sitting there, arms crossed, staring belligerently as though saying, “What are you going to do about it?” The look and the body language were very clear: “You are the enemy and f***k you.”

I felt like saying, “First, I don’t care where you sit, and, second, yes, I’m so rich I could afford to pay an extra five pounds each way—by the way, how much did your designer trainers and that iPod cost?”

Probably wisely, I didn’t. But it did leave me a bit sad that when times get harder, we seem to sink a little lower in our assumptions, our suspicions, and how we treat each other.  

 

My seven simple steps to conquering overwhelm one day at a time

Are you overwhelmed?

Having a lot to do in a limited amount of time can cause feelings of panic, and even lead to giving up because there's no way you're going to get it done, so why even try?

Since I wrote a book called "Focus: use the power of targeted thinking to get more done," it's a litle embarrassing to confess that overwhelm (yes, I think it has officially become a noun) sometimes still catches me, too.Then again, the reason I'm interested in productivity and time management is that they don't come naturally to me.

So let me share my prescription--I've written about it before, I think, but perhaps not as succinctly. I've boiled it down into seven simple--if not always easy--steps.

Then I'll tell you why most people fail when they try it (which will also be your guide to NOT failing). 

THE SEVEN STEPS

1. Decide the hours you’ll work

2. Decide which are your highest priority tasks

3. Assign them to 45 min. blocks of your working time, highest priority first when possible

4. Build in one unassigned 45 min. block for whatever comes up that needs to be handled & one block for something that’s important but not urgent.

In times of extreme deadline crisis, this latter block may have to be sacrificed, but don't let that happen for very long.

5. For each block, first do a quick alter ego exercise, set a timer to 45 minsutes, and work only on the assigned task.

If you're not familiar with the alter ego strategy that I describe in detail in the book, here's how it works: you decide what type of person would best handle the task at hand. For instance, would it be somebody creative, or somebody ruthless? If your goal is clear your email backlog, go for ruthless. Then take minute to imagine yourself as that type of person, noticing how it feels, and stay in that state until the task is done.

For this step you also need to train the people who are used to interrupting you. Tell them at what time you have scheduled your 45 minute unassigned block and that you'll get back to them then. They will resist at first but stick to your guns.

This includes not answering the phone whenever it rings (unless that's your job, of course). On your voicemail tell callers when you'll return their call. You can use an automatic message to say the same thing in response to emails.

6. Take 15 minutes breaks between working periods.

Get up from the desk, have some water or a healthy snack. Don’t forget to use the timer for breaks, too. Skipping breaks is a false economy. They will give you the mental and physical energy to work well for the entire day.

 7. Repeat daily until caught up.

When the crisis is over you can adopt elements of the plan for your normal routine. You'll want to give more blocks of time to the "important but not urgent" things on your list, and you may want to build in one 45 minute block for learning something new or brainstorming or just doing a task that's low on the list but enjoyable. 

WHY MOST PEOPLE FAIL AT THIS

There's really only one reason: they don't follow the steps. For example:

They think they don't need to use the timer because they're sure they'll remember when 45 minutes are up. Pretty soon they're back to working at lots of different things at the same time and feeling overwhelmed again. Or they don't use the timer for their breaks and find that instead of 15 minutes they've spent 45 chatting with somebody at the water cooler.

They skip breaks, thinking the longer they work without interruption, the more they'll get done. By mid-afternoon they're exhausted and start making mistakes that create even more work.

They skip the alter ego exercise, thinking it's too strange. So they go into a task that requires an Atilla the Hun mentality with the mindset of a Curious Child. A quarter of an hour in, they're surfing the net, sending emails and checking their Facebook page.

They don't train the people around them to respect their new way of working. Instead, they continue to let others dictate the schedule for them. 

Sometimes they think that they can adapt the system to make it better. By all means, give that a try but if it doesn't work, go back to the seven steps.

A BRIEF DIGRESSION ABOUT GAMBLING 

This last point reminds me of a successful professional gambler I met in Las Vegas. He had a system that was based on slightly improving the odds in your favor--things like knowing that the slot machines on the ends of aisles are set to pay off more than the others because that way people walking along will see more winners.

He also played poker but waited until after the shows let out and his opponents were more likely to be inebriated and therefore less on top of their game. To make them bolder in their bets, he pretended he'd had a lot to drink, too.

Using these and other strategies, he made about $100,000 a year (actually, quite a bit of that came from gift certificates and other perks the casinos gave him because he played a lot. He sold these on eBay.)

See, you've learned things worth more than the price you're paying to subscribe to this blog...

Anyway, he told me that he taught his methods to his brother-in-law and also a friend of his.

They both were successful for about six months. Then gradually they stopped making a profit. They told him his system wasn't working anymore.

He went along with both of them to see what was going wrong.

They were no longer following his system. They'd independently decided that they'd add a few ideas of their own. These "improvements" undermined what he'd taught them.

SPIN THE WHEEL

So: give the seven steps a try.

Let me know how you do with it ([email protected])--of course, wait until you're past the worst of the overwhelm.

(There are lots of powerful strategies in my book, "Focus: use the power of targeted thinking to get more done," published by Pearson. I know that's true because I have to re-read it occasionally to remind myself to keep using my methods! You can get it from Amazon or your other favorite book seller.)

 

 

Writing prompt 3 : ideas for flash fiction to keep your brain stimulated

Do you want to keep your writing brain active, even if you’re not working on a project at the moment? Once a week I’ll give you writing prompts in three different forms: a person, object or place; a starting point, and an image.

I suggest you use one, two, or all three of these together as prompts for a micro-story (250 words or fewer). On the go? Write it on your smartphone or in a little notebook.

If you are working on a longer project, notice whether any of these gives you a new idea about some aspect of that. 

Don’t worry about making it perfect or whether it’ll get published-–although if you like it, why not publish it on your blog or send it to a friend?

The person, object or place: A cheap cafe.

The starting point: Your protagonist has a flashback to his or her childhood.

The image: 

 

 

 

 

 

(Do you want to make next year the year you finally write that novel or screenplay or other project? The best way to be sure you'll know how to make time, know how to get started and keep going, and get support all along the way is to join my Writing Breakthrough Program. The best time to sign up is now--there are great bonuses for anybody who joins before the end of the year, ready to go into action in mid-January. Find out more at http://www.WritingBreakthroughStrategy.com)

 

 

John Steinbeck's advice on writing (via Elmore Leonard) - less hooptedoodle

In Elmore Leonard's guidelines for writers, he quotes a character in John Steinbeck's "Sweet Thursday." If you've read much Steinbeck (that's him on the left) you'll agree this character probably reflects the author's view:

He says: ''I like a lot of talk in a book and I don't like to have nobody tell me what the guy that's talking looks like. I want to figure out what he looks like from the way he talks. . . . figure out what the guy's thinking from what he says. I like some description but not too much of that. . . . Sometimes I want a book to break loose with a bunch of hooptedoodle. . . . Spin up some pretty words maybe or sing a little song with language. That's nice. But I wish it was set aside so I don't have to read it. I don't want hooptedoodle to get mixed up with the story.''

Great advice. I've seen a lot of writing that is mainly hooptedoodle.

Usually it comes from newer writers who forget that their main mission is to tell a story.

They think they have to impress the reader with the quality of their writing. Often they equate high quality with obscure words, flowery descriptions, or bizarre turns of phrase.

It's something to keep in mind when you get to the point of starting your second draft. Maybe you could put a little sticky note on your computer: "Cut the hooptedoodle."

(We have almost no hooptedoodle in the online Writing Breakthrough Strategy program. What we do have is friendly guidance from me and the other participants, bi-weekly group calls, lots of resources. It starts again in mid-January but sign up now for the early bird bonuses. More info at: http://www.WritingBreakthroughStrategy.com.)

 

 

Never start your book with... (Elmore Leonard's writing tips)

I've written before about Elmore Leonard's writing rules, but recently I came across a slightly extended version, and I think they're worth a (re) visit.

His first one is:

1. Never open a book with weather.

If it's only to create atmosphere, and not a character's reaction to the weather, you don't want to go on too long. The reader is apt to leaf ahead looking for people. There are exceptions. If you happen to be Barry Lopez, who has more ways to describe ice and snow than an Eskimo, you can do all the weather reporting you want.

I'd add a few more things not to open with, just based on what I've read (and these apply just as much to screenplays, by the way):

YOUR PRORTAGONIST WAKING UP, LOOKING AT THE ALARM CLOCK AND KNOCKING IT OFF THE TABLE. This usually is followed by him getting up and shaving, bleary-eyed, going to his fridge and finding all it contains is a jar of mustard and a can of beer. 

YOUR PROTAGONIST DRIVING TO WORK. This is especially tempting for films becausae it's an easy thing to stick under the titles, but we've seen it too often.

A DREAM. The problem is that often the dream is much more interesting than what happens when your character is awake. 

One of the big problems with all three of these is that they happen before anything interesting happens. I'm not saying you have to start with an explosion or a murder or something, but if you're going to show me the details of your character's everyday life, figure out how to make it interesting.

For instance, what small quirks make this person different? Don't go too far in the direction of zaniness, look for authentic characteristics. A good starting point might be the things your significant other or best friend do that really annoy you. Of course if this person is self-aware you might pay the price when they read what you've written, but I'm sure you expect to suffer for your art.

A MAD SEARCH FOR THE RINGING MOBILE PHONE. OK, I admit it, I lose mine in the sofa, too, or bury it under a pile of papers. But this scene been seen too often to be funny.

A FUNERAL. Especially a funeral on a rainy day. You might as well write "insert cliche here."

I'm sure there are more--feel free to add your own unfavorite openings in the comments.

(Want to get help in making sure your writing is fresh? Sign up for my online Writing Breakthrough Stratetgy program. There's a group version and a one-to-one version in which I read and give you feedback on your material. You can get the details at www.WritingBreakthroughStrategy.com )

 

 

What can this project tell us about ebooks, original web content, and interactivity?

If you are interested in ebooks, video on the web,and the question of how to (or not to) make things interactive, I think you'll find some useful content in this case study. And if you are writing as a profit making venture, you should be interested in these topics or risk being passed by.

DISNEY'S FIRST EBOOK ORIGINAL NOVEL

Disney is publishing its first ebook original novel, "Confessions of a High School Vampire: Birth." (Maybe just in time--can the vampire thing last more than another 15 minutes?) 

It's based on a web series at Disney's Take180 web site, which launched in March, 2009. I'd never seen it, probably because I'm not in the target demographic. The subheading is "Awesome shows made with you. All 180 seconds or less." That reflects where a lot of things are going:

* short

* interactive

* geared to a young audience - in this case, judging by the generous amount of pink on the home page, mainly girls

The web show the ebook is based on is "I <3 Vampires" (I Heart/Love Vampires), apparently the most popular of their offerings. Other shows there include "ElectricSpoofaloo" (current episode: "LisaNova's Horny Handout"--relax, it's about rhinos) and "What Guys are Talking About."

HOW MANY EYEBALLS?

There have been 46 episodes of the vampire series so far and 13,769 people have registered at the site as fans. The number of views for the first episode is listed as 20,683, but only around 6,000 for many of the subsequent episodes.

For a Disney sponsored site, those numbers are not that impressive.

INTERACTIVE…OR NOT SO MUCH

You can join and put up a profile, take part in the forums, and leave comments on individual episodes. But how are the shows "Made with you"?

Most of the shows have challenges, asking you to answer a question. 

For Big Screen Spoofaloo you can tell them what movie you'd like them to parody. When I looked, there were 75 submissions.

For the show with my favourite title, "Hollywood is Like High School With Money," you're invited to tell them about a rival you had at school. (83 submissions). I can't see how that's going to influence anything. Which is why there may be:

TROUBLE IN INTERACTIVE LAND

I snooped around on the forums, and one post, made in July of this year, suggests that the site found it too much effort to be truly interactive. The post says the person writing it no longer finds the site worth her time: 

"What really ticked me off was the elimination of audience participation in favor of canned shows. The episodes became pre-recorded, and challenges weren't designed to influence the audience to submit ideas for the show, but rather to encourage editorial submissions surrounding a theme related to the show. The duration of these pre-produced episodes almost always breached 3 minutes (or 180 seconds), waving off the mission statement of Take180. T180 Studio's mission to produce shows with audience participation in episodes of 180 seconds or less was either forgotten or ignored.

"First Day" was the first series to do this, and its challenge asked viewers to share their terrible first-day-of-school experiences. Episodes were released every couple of days because there was no need to produce new episodes based off user input. The audience participation that once made Take180 so inviting made officially took leave."

There was no response to this post from the producers. Don't they bother to read the forums, or did they think the best way to deal with this objection was to ignore it? Neither option shows much commitment to interactivity. 

The most active forum is called The Countdown Game, and the object is to start a post with the number 10,000 and then each new post contains the next number down. Usually that's all it contains, a number. As of this writing, they're down to 7721. Yes, they posted 2,279 times...it's goal-oriented behaviour but--never mind, they're teen-agers.

WHAT CAN WE LEARN FROM THIS PROJECT?

Without information that Disney isn't likely to release, like how much it costs to make these shows, how much revenue they bring in from ads and sales of DVDs, and how switching to a much less interactive mode affected the number of participants, it's hard to draw any firm conclusions. I won't let that stop me. My semi-educated guesses are:

* It's harder than it looks to make a show truly interactive--certainly more expensive. If you have to wait for reactions and ideas from the audience, you can't shoot a big batch of shows at the same time. I'm guessing that may have been the main reason they switched. It's also difficult to know how to use input anyway. For instance, I've always felt that letting people vote on the direction of a plot isn't very satisfying since probably about half the voters feel left out because their choice didn't win. Hey, it's just like elections…

* It's a challenge to get massive number of viewers to sites that don't have a broadcast component (especially if they aren't actually interactive)

* It may still be worth the effort of creating such a site because you may be able to recoup your investment with spin-off products--but of course this is easier if you are an entity like Disney, with deep pockets and a ready-made distribution system.

I'll continue to keep my eyes open for projects in this new media space--if you find any worth a look, let me know via [email protected].

(Whether you're writing for new media or old, you can benefit from friendly guidance and support. One way to get it is to enrol in my online Writing Breakthrough Strategy program. It starts again in mid-January and you can find out all about it at http://www.writingbreakthroughstrategy.com)

 

What's the relationship between time (deadlines) and creativity?

Sometimes a strict deadline or other constraints can be good for writing and other creative acts. However, when the time is TOO tight you're unlikely to get the best results, as this charming short (two minute) video from Hungary's Kreativ Magazin demonstrates:

 

Are you worried that your writing doesn't have enough to say?

I had an email recently from someone who worries that her writing isn’t meaningful. She wrote, “There are plenty of stories I want to tell, but I’m not sure that I really have anything to say. I know writing shouldn’t be preachy but shouldn’t it have some deeper meaning? Without that, isn’t it just a way of killing time?”

The best response I could come up with was what Hemingway wrote in 1952 in a letter to his friend, Bernard Berenson about “The Old Man and the Sea”:

“There isn't any symbolism. The sea is the sea. The old man is an old man. The boy is a boy and the fish is a fish. The shark are all sharks, no better and no worse. All the symbolism that people say is shit.”

A man about to give up on his beloved but failing new business venture may read “The Old Man and the Sea,” and think, “By God, I’m not going to give up! I’m going to hang in there like that old man.  Live or die, I’m going to make this business work.” For him, the old man represents man's ability to persist beyond his apparent limits. 

Is he wrong?

I’d say no, because it’s the reader that finds his or her meaning. The author may have had a totally different meaning—or no meaning at all—in mind.

One reader finds the old man inspirational; another thinks the story illustrates the folly of questing beyond your abilities.

That’s why reading is interactive even when it doesn’t involve a computer or an iPad or smartphone.

I suggested to my correspondent that she write as honestly as possible. Then leave finding its meaning to her partner, the reader.

 (For guidance in writing what only you can write, consider joining my Writing Breakthrough Strategy progam. You can find out more at http://www.WritingBreakthroughStrategy.com )

 

 

My quick "ambush" brainstorming method

I'm starting to work on a transmedia project for next year. That's a fancy way of saying parts of it will be delivered via different media, such as websites, videos, live events, etc.I have started recruiting a few people to help create it and I've noticed something interesting.

When I get emails from them asking about some aspects of the project that I haven't really thought through yet, quite often ideas pop into my mind instantly--more than when I sit down for a long brainstorming session. 

If you'd like to find out whether this method works for you, here's what I suggest:

1) Decide on a project or issue for which you'd like more ideas 

2) Make a list of questions about it that you'd like to be able to answer. This is in place of having other people ask you questons. The list should be out of sight but easy to access when the time comes.

3) Set a timer for a random number of minutes or hours ahead 

4) Get on with whatever you need to do

5) When the timer sounds, grab the list and choose one question at random

6) In a new document (paper or on your computer) quickly write down whatever ideas come up. Do this for no more than about five minutes.

Of course this will interrrupt the task you're on, so it's best to do this when you're handling things like filing or other admin work that won't suffer from being interrupted--in fact, it gives you something to look forward to.

Repeat a couple of times a day. Compare the results you get with the kinds of answers that come up during longer thinking sessions. This could also be helpful for writer's block.

Let me know your results here as a comment or via [email protected]. Good luck!

(You'll get loads of additional innovative methods of thinking, writing, and marketing tips in the Writing Breakthrough Strategy program. It starts again in January but now is the best time to sign up so you'll get the Early Bird bonuses. Get more information at http://www.WritingBreakthroughStrategy.com . If you have questions, email me at [email protected])

Writing prompt 2: flash fiction ideas to keep your brain active!

Want to keep your writing brain active, even if you’re not working on a project at the moment? Once a week I’ll give you writing prompts in three different forms: a person, object or place; a starting point, and a picture or photo.

I suggest you use one, two, or all three of these together as prompts for a micro-story (250 words or fewer). On the go? Write it on your smartphone or in a little notebook.

If you are working on a longer project, notice whether any of these gives you a new idea about some aspect of that. Don’t worry about making it perfect or whether it’ll get published-–although if you like it, why not publish it on your blog or send it to a friend?

The person, object or place: A mousetrap.

The starting point: Your protagonist loses his or her phone.

The image:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(Do you want to make next year the year you finally write that novel or screenplay or other project? The best way to be sure you'll know how to make time, know how to get started and keep going, and get support all along the way is to join my Writing Breakthrough Program. The best time to sign up is now--there are great bonuses for anybody who joins before the end of the year, ready to go into action in mid-January. Find out more at http://www.WritingBreakthroughStrategy.com)

A 15-minute prescription for writers who lack confidence

We writers have a lot to be insecure about: possible rejection by agents and publishers, harsh reviews, unpredictable income… It’s no wonder that when we have a chance to meet with people who might have a strong influence on our writing future we may be nervous. That behaviour can work against us.

A study reported in “Psychological Science” says that a simple procedure can help boost confidence almost instantly.

Here’s part of the Abstract of the study: 

“Chronically insecure individuals often behave in ways that result in the very social rejection that they most fear. We predicted that this typical self-fulfilling prophecy is not immutable...

In a longitudinal experiment, a 15-min self-affirmation improved both the relational security and experimenter-rated social behavior of insecure participants up to 4 weeks after the initial intervention.

Psyblog described the experiment in more down to earth language: the participants were measured for social confidence. Then half of them were given a list of 11 values like creativity, personal attractiveness, spontaneity, friends and family, etc. They ranked them in order of importance and wrote a short description of why the one they ranked as highest is so important.

This fifteen minute exercise boosted their self-confidence with results lasting for weeks afterward.

My guess is that we rank the highest the quality that we believe we have the most of and reminding ourselves that we exemplify it gives us great confidence.

If you’re nervous about a meeting, or even about sitting down to write something new, do try this at home. Make a list of the qualities you value, rank them, and write a couple of paragraphs about why your number one is important. 

(One way to gain confidence is to get the support of an expert and your peers. That's exactly what you get in my Writing Breakthrough Strategy program. The next session starts in mid-January, but the best time to sign up is now, because there are great bonuses for early birds. It will also help you to plan ahead and create the conditions under which you'll achievey your writing goal. For more information, go to www.WritingBreakthroughStrategy.com. If you have quesitons, email me at [email protected].)

 

Writing for children: tips from the pros

Recently I attended an event on how to get your children's or young adult's books published. There were some points upon which all the speakers agreed:

* If you're writing a picture book, don't commission illustrations for it yourself and don't worry about suggesting who should illustrate it. Even more importantly, don't accompany it with drawings by your nephew, who is quite good at drawing for someone who is only twelve. The publishers will match your work with the artist they think is the best choice to illustrate it.

* Again for picture books, leave something for the illustrator to do. You can describe what the illustration should show when that's not obvious from the wording. For instance, your text might say, "The frog grew and grew." Your note in parenthesis might specify, The frog grows to the size of the house. That lets the picture tell part of the story--rather than writing "The frog grew and grew until he was the size of the house." Let both text and picture tell the story.

* Don't use current slang. It goes out of fashion quickly and by the time your book comes out that phrase every child is using today may be long gone.

* Don't write down to children. They can detect a patronising tone and they hate it.

* Don't be afraid to include a few words that may not yet be in their vocabulary. However, make sure it's easy to figure out the word's meaning from the context or the illustration.

* As with other kinds of writing, read extensively in the genre. This is not so you can try to fit in with a trend, but to get a general idea of what kids are reading, the vocabulary being used for your target age group, and so on. Also talk to kids about what they like to read. 

Not adhering to these guidelines dooms a good fifty percent of submissions so if you do follow them you'll be ahead of the competition.

(Why not make writing a children's book your goal for the first half of next year? You can do it with guidance from my online Writing Breakthrough Strategy Program. To find out more, see http://WritingBreakthroughStrategy.com - if you have any problems with signing up there please email me at [email protected]).