Archive for December, 2009

by: Karen Cioffi

We all know how difficult it is to break into the business of writing for children. Whether you write fiction or nonfiction, it is a tough business and can be overwhelming for those just starting out. While all writing must adhere to certain guidelines, writing for children has additional principles unique to its genre.

To start, the words used in children’s writing must be age appropriate. This may sound easy to do, but it can be a difficult task. There are also certain techniques and tricks used specifically in writing for children, such as the Core of Three, sentence structure, and the timeframe in which the story should occur when writing for young children. In addition, it’s essential to make sure your conflicts, storyline, and point of view are appropriate for the age group you’re writing for.

Along with this, there are general techniques for writing, such as adding sensory details, showing instead of telling, and creating an engaging story that hooks the reader right away, along with great dialogue and correct punctuation.

This is just the beginning though, there is also the business of editing your work, writing a winning query, and following submission guidelines; the list goes on and on.

But, don’t get discouraged, there is help. Here are three basic tools to get you started and guide you down the children’s writing path:

1. Children’s Writer’s WORD BOOK by Alijandra Mogilner is a great resource that provides word lists grouped by grades along with a thesaurus of listed words. This allows you to check a word in question to make sure it is appropriate for the age group you’re writing for. It also provides reading levels for synonyms. It’s a very useful tool and one that I use over and over.

2. Tricks of the Trade: Learn to Write for Children in Just 6 Weeks! e-course by the Children’s Writer’s Coaching Club creator and director, Suzanne Lieurance, is a gem for learning the ins and outs of writing for children. I have just about finished this course and can say with confidence that it’s worth every penny. It’s jammed packed with practical, easy to understand, and detailed information. It answers your questions and provides the necessary tools, tips and advice to guide you from the basics of writing for children (books and freelancing) to queries, submissions, networking and more.

The e-course has 6 individual lessons to get you on the road to writing for children and working toward having your work published. Each lesson has three parts with assignments and additional resources.

The Trick of the Trade e-course also includes a 2 month membership in the Children’s Writers’ Coaching Club. With this membership you have the opportunity to have your assignments professionally reviewed and critiqued by Lieurance or another published children’s author on staff at the National Writing for Children Center each week. Lieurance is also including, as a special bonus, 4 additional instructional CDs with tips for freelance writers. With these perks this e-course package is a bargain.

Suzanne Lieurance has created a purposeful ‘writing for children’ road map. This road map eliminates any guess work or doubt – it provides step-by-step guided instructions to get you where you’re heading. Tricks of the Trade: You Can Learn to Write for Children in Just 6 Weeks! is a phenomenal writing navigational tool – it offers top notch writing instruction and guidance.

Find out more about this course at: http://www.dkvwriting4u.com/learn-to-write/

3. The Frugal Editor by award winning author and editor, Carolyn Howard-Johnson, is a useful book for any writing genre, including children’s. It is great resource that guides you through basic editing, to getting the most out of your Word program’s features, to providing samples of queries. The author provides great tips and advice that will have you saying, “Ah, so that’s how it’s done.”

I’ve invested in a number of books, courses and programs in writing and marketing, and know value when I see it; these products have a great deal of value for you as a writer, and they are definitely worth the cost.

I consider these three resources essential tools in my children’s writing tool belt. But, the most important aspect of creating a writing career is to actually begin. Remember, you can’t succeed if you don’t try. It takes that first step to start your journey, and that first step seems to be a huge stumbling block for many of us. Don’t let procrastination or fear stop you from moving forward – start writing today!

About The Author
Karen Cioffi is an author and freelance writer. She is on the team of DKV Writing 4 U (writing services); the creator and manager of VBT – Writers on the Move (group of authors using cross-promotion to increase visibility); a reviewer for BookPleasures.com; and a co-moderator of a children’s writing critique group. She is a member of SCBWI, Linkedin, AWAI, JacketFlap, and a number of other groups and forums.

by: Jennifer Carsen

You’ve pulled all-nighters. You’ve burned the midnight oil. You’ve worked through the wee hours. It’s what lawyers do (as well as law students, though generally more pizza is involved).

But what I’m suggesting is a radical departure from this. I’m suggesting that you carve out time to write in the morning – when the sun is on its way up rather than down, when you’re daisy-fresh rather than dog-tired.

You may be wondering how you can do this, especially considering that you’re bleary-eyed after all those late nights. Daisy-fresh may be the furthest thing from your mind at five a.m., when the only thing you can ponder is whether or not to roll over before you hit the snooze button.

But here’s the thing: Early morning is the only time that’s truly yours. Nothing has blown up in spectacular fashion yet. Nobody’s looking for you, eager for a chat or a favor or help with a particularly loathsome task. It’s just you and your time, before the day gets away from you.

Because the day will get away from you – that much is certain. We’ve all had days that started with the best of intentions and ended in recriminations or even tears. Even good days become a kind of triage in which only the most important, urgent tasks get done. Your writing is important, but it’s not urgent because nobody but you will care if you skip it. The only way to be certain you get it done is to sneak it in early, before you quite know what’s hit you. Then the rest of the day is gravy.

Here are some tips for changing your night-owl ways:

1. Do it gradually. Every morning for one week, set your alarm clock 15 minutes earlier than you normally would. The next week, bump it up by an additional 15 minutes. That may not seem like a lot, but you’ll gain an hour over the course of a month in a way that won’t shock your system.
2. Make friends with your TiVo. Do you really need to stay up late to watch Cake Boss, or Top Gun for the zillionth time? Plan your TV watching in advance so you don’t get sucked into something vapid.
3. Don’t rile yourself up before bed. Oftentimes it’s hard to get up in the morning because it’s hard to get to sleep the night before. Avoid too much caffeine late in the day, and also too much booze. (You may think that third glass of wine is your express ticket to Slumbertown, but alcohol actually disrupts your sleep patterns in a big way–you may crash hard initially, but you won’t sleep well.) Also, if you read before bed, stick to fiction; non-fiction tends to stir up your mind rather than winding you down for the day.
4. Just do it. You will not want to get up when the alarm rings 15 minutes early. Do it anyway, without thinking too much about it. Get up. Write. Repeat. After a while, you’ll wonder how you ever got along without that extra time in the a.m.

About The Author

Jennifer Carsen, J.D., is the founder of Big Juicy Life. Her specialty is turning lawyers into writers. Go to http://www.bigjuicylifecoaching.com to download the free report, “6 Myths About Leaving the Law for Writing.”