Showing posts with label Picture Books. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Picture Books. Show all posts

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

It Wasn't Obvious To Me



Funny how something so obvious managed to slip past me without even a blip on my radar screen. Thanks to an email from a writing friend, I've had a revelation of sorts in my writing world. She was saying how she seemed to be spending gobs of time developing the characters in her first book - a YA novel. She interviews them, writes about them from their POV, and gets to know who they are and how they'll fit in her story. Not only does she guide her created characters into existence, she lets them guide her. Pretty cool, actually.

I've written some non-fiction pieces for magazines and have understood the importance of knowing my characters - but in non-fiction our characters are REAL; we don't have to create them, but we do have to understand and relate to them. I get that part. Here's where the obvious slipped past me -- I think I figured that writing picture book stories didn't require that same 'get to know your character' thing. I know who my characters are and how I want to portray them, but do I really KNOW them? What's their favorite color, ice cream, or game? Do they have siblings or live with Grandma or have a best friend? True that most of these details won't fit into a PB story, but sometimes not only will they fit, they are the difference between mediocrity and excellency in story telling. Yes? I think I will incorporate some of my friends techniques and get inside my MC's head.

I know I'm new to this, and once again I've probably revealed something that every other writer on the planet already figured out, but just in case I'm not alone I thought I'd fill you in ...

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

A Writing Tip From A Newbie?

As a relative newbie to the world of writers I have a very limited number of tips to offer. And quite frankly, the tips I do have have no doubt already been offered by someone else. But, I'll give it a go anyway. You see yesterday I sat at my  desk determined to be productive. After a couple of hours of writing, deleting, writing, and deleting I looked very much like the poor fellow in the picture here. Frustrated does not adequately describe how I felt. It's one thing to sit in front of the computer intending to work, only to be distracted by e-mail, and Facebook, and Twitter. On those occasions I have no one but myself to blame for my lack of productivity. But, to sit down with what I thought was a great story idea, and NOT BE ABLE TO WRITE IT, well, that just STINKS! The words just weren't there. Every which way I tried to get it out of my head just wouldn't work.
So, what did I do? Here's where the tip comes in. I switched gears. I put some music on - LOUD music. Then I made a list of the writing related goals I have for this week. After a little while on that I printed out the critiques of my most recent submission to my wonderful crit group so I could prepare to revise that story. And as a non-published picture book writer I need to spend time on submitting my work - it really is the only way to get published from what I hear. So more researching agents for a couple of stories I have ready, and writing cover letters is on the agenda as well. Switching gears allows me to stay in the creative zone and avoid being overwhelmed by frustration.

Keeping my mind busy with writing related stuff is a good way to get those creative juices flowing. Maybe I'll need to avoid the story that's stuck in my head for a couple of days. I'll let it roll around in there, but I won't consciously try to force it out. When the time is right to tackle writing it again, I'll be ready...

Thursday, February 2, 2012

A Little More Inspiration


This is Allison. My baby.  Everything needs to be experienced fully for her. As a toddler she'd ride in a shopping cart or stroller with her arms extended out hoping to grab hold of whatever her pudgy arms could reach. We inadvertently shoplifted more stuff than I care to admit thanks to my little monkey. She also had a chap stick fetish. She'd smooth it over her lips again and again until her lips were caked with waxy build up. Sometimes she ate it - but it grosses me out to even think about that so we'll move on. Now that she's in school this need to experience things to their fullest is in overdrive. We can't just read about the solar system, we have to get telescope, go to a planetarium, book some sort of space trip with NASA! I'm kidding of course, but I think you get the point.

My baby also has the most amazing way of describing and explaining things. She uses simile and metaphor like a pro! I learn much from her. The other night I was explaining my latest writing project to her. It'll be a Picture Book for the 4 - 7 set and I was stuck on a particular scene. With not a moment of hesitation she spouted off the perfect scene. And detailed! More details than I knew what to do with. If she becomes a writer of Picture Books herself one day I fear she may have trouble keeping her word count under control with the amount of detail she imagines!

It is this imagination of hers that inspires me. As I write my stories I think about what it's like to experience it as a reader? Does my imagination take me to the place I'm describing? Is it real to me - can I feel it, smell it, taste it? Will my readers get into it this way? Will Allison? She's a great sounding board, and a pretty good representative of what most children are like. Hopefully this translates into a published book -or two or twenty!