Most people have a story somewhere deep inside. Some of those people believe that they would be good at telling that story. A tiny portion of those actually get their story written down.
Think you’ll get to it “later”? It’s all too tempting to put off writing until some undefined time when you will feel more inspired, but if this is your dream then stop waiting and start writing. Here are ten tips that will help you get that story and those characters out of your head and down on paper.
When I decided to take an online children’s picture book writing course, I had no idea where to start (I’ll tell you where I ended up later on, and offer a few more good suggestions as well.).
Googling “children’s picture-book writing course” turns up a dizzying range of courses, from universities (expensive!) to individual authors’ homemade courses (sketchy?). Some claim to have been around for 30-some-odd years, while many others have popped up overnight.
All these courses claim to be the BEST. How can you tell them apart?
The good news is that you can find decent courses at a few different price levels. As for which ones will actually help you get ahead… I’m convinced that has more to do with your attitude than with the teacher (as long as he/she is reasonably competent).
I’ve taken a bunch of creative writing classes, both online and in person. Some were good, a couple were great… one (in-person at a major university) was pretty bad: we spent much of the time looking at the professor’s own (mediocre) writing.
Here are three questions to help you narrow down what you’re looking for:
1. What is my goal for the course?
Do you want to get your story down on paper? Are you struggling with stilted language? Or are you at the stage of figuring out how to get it in front of as many publishers as possible?
Guest post by an anonymous mom who just happens to be a neuroscientist.
Kids have a short attention span, and when it comes to factual stuff like science, it can sometimes be a challenge to truly engage their busy brains without inducing boredom. In order to keep a child’s attention, authors of children’s books must incorporate interesting and colorful content, and it always helps if humor is involved. Presenting the facts does not limit a writer’s creativity, nor should it ever prevent them from being silly – oftentimes a key characteristic for attracting and fascinating children.
Here’s How #1: Color
Applying color does not necessarily need to be interpreted literally,
But the question has been raking up headlines all week anyway, thanks to a University of Toronto (my alma mater ! so proud !) study proving that they do.
Or at least, kind of proving they do.
As it turns out, what they’ve done says very little about children’s books – in particular, not much we have to pay attention to as writers or as parents.
But along the way we can have a bit of a laugh looking at the samples of the stories they used, and looking at examples of talking animals who help our kids learn… so keep right on reading!
The Claim: Talking Animals Hinder Learning
These results indicate that anthropomorphized animals in books may not only lead to less learning but also influence children’s conceptual knowledge of animals. (read the full study here)
This kind of sensationalistic stuff adapts really well to headlines!
Publish your own children's books with this free DIY cover template.
