These are the fifteenth and sixteenth in a series on Getting Published by Patricia Wellingham-Jones.
Keys to Getting that Long Writing Project Done
Patricia Wellingham-Jones
Published in Writers’ Forum, December 2001
This question flew through the writers’ mailing list and got me thinking: How do you make yourself actually write that long project outlined and ignored in the upstairs cupboard? These are my conclusions.
DECIDE to do it. Make the commitment to yourself that it’s worth doing and that you’ll spend the time needed for the project.
Be prepared to give up most of your social life for the duration. Warn family. Warn friends. Make it stick.
Keep all the materials for the project in one place.
Keep lists, index cards, whatever system you choose for what needs to be done, what has been done, research sources, etc. Use them as you go.
Always note full reference information; saves enormous frustration later.
Sort your notes, pages, outlines, etc. into the order you think the book will take.
Start writing. Keep writing. Don’t edit yet, let the ideas flow.
Let the book take you where it will (they often have minds of their own). Allow change (that’s where the magic may creep in).
Edit. Get it critiqued. Revise. Revise. Revise. Know, at some point, it’s done—even if it doesn’t feel that way—and send it out.
Get published. Get famous. Get rich.
END
Writing for Children
Patricia Wellingham-Jones
Originally published as “Tips on Writing for Children’s Magazines”
in Writers’ Forum, September 2002*
Writing for children carries its own set of demands. If you know what kids like, and the editor wants, you have a better chance of placing your story, article or book. Editors, like the rest of us, know that television and computer sound bites provide quick bits of information; today’s readers expect the same from their magazines and books. This means you need to write active, energetic material within restricted word requirements.
Linda Boyden gives us these special tips: Know kids of today...not when you were one. Not only your grandchildren. Volunteer at a school and observe them or go to a mall and sit and listen.
About rhyming, Boyden says: Avoid rhymes. Most are overdone, trite, concocted, and make editors push the reject button, UNLESS they really flow. Kids love them, but most aspiring writers don't have the skill.
- Write tightly, stay focused on the story or nonfiction topic.
- Keep adults at bay. They must be in the background, as they are in real life, but the point of view and the action must be the child's.
- Keep your writing active with strong verbs, exciting figures of speech, emotion and dialogue.
- Important dialogue advances the plot, provides necessary information and characterizes the speaker. Omit unimportant dialogue—it takes space and is boring.
- Use humor when appropriate, but don’t force it. Know what children think is funny.
- Use short paragraphs, they make the page look fast-paced.
- Avoid long passages of description; there’s no room for them, plus, they bore the reader.
- Avoid using multiple subplots in fiction; again, there’s no room.
- Use believable characters.
- A definite problem or goal that the protagonist must solve or attain himself.
- Strong obstacles causing trouble.
- A hint at the end that he has changed or improved himself.
- For nonfiction, use a narrow focus not a general overview of a subject.
- Create punchy, intriguing leads to entice the reader to read further.
- Know the market: changes, trends, closed markets, new opportunities. Haunt bookstores and libraries. Read what's been published in the last 2 years.
- Don’t become discouraged.
- Keep learning your craft.
* With input from Beverly J. Letchworth, author of “Write for children’s magazines” in The Writer, June 2002, and Linda Boyden, author of The Blue Roses and named Writer of the Year (2004) by Wordcraft Circle of Native American Writers and Storytellers.
END
