Your journal assignment for today is to describe the terrain or the countryside of the area around your childhood home. When I say describe, I mean just that. Provide sentences that capture how the countryside looked. Don’t just say: “I grew up 40 miles south of Fort Smith, Arkansas. Fort Smith has a population of…
Category: Uncategorized
Start a Daily Journaling Habit – Keep Up with Your Ideas and Random Thoughts – Get Ready for Memoir Mondays!
Most adults know this, and most college kids do, too: Organizing and Keeping-Up-With is the secret of success in most worlds. It is especially important for writers. Writers must not only keep up with appointments, but they must also keep up with ideas, too. And after we’ve finished writing a piece, we need to keep…
The Writing Life by Annie Dillard – Tips from a Pro
“WHEN YOU WRITE, you lay out a line of words. The line of words is a miner’s pick, a woodcarver’s gouge, a surgeon’s probe. You wield it, and it digs a path you follow. Soon you find yourself deep in new territory. Is it a dead end, or have you located the real subject? You…
The Little Red Hen – A Picture Book Classic from1918
Character Study Show Don’t Tell The Little Red Hen Retold and Illustrated by FLORENCE WHITE WILLIAMS The Saalfield Publishing Company Chicago – Akron, Ohio – New York PRINTED IN U. S. A. COPYRIGHT, 1918 BY THE SAALFIELD PUBLISHING COMPANY Little Red Hen lived in a barnyard. She spent almost all of her time walking…
Wolves in the Wall – A Picture Book by Neil Gaiman – Illustrated by Dave McKean
“Lucy walked around the house.” “Inside the house everything was quiet. Her mother was putting homemade jam into jars.” “Lucy heard noises. The noises were coming from inside the walls. They were hustling noises and bustling noises. They were crinkling noises and crackling noises. They were sneaking, creeping, crumpling noises.” “Lucy knew what kinds of…
Jacki Kellum # PBChallenge – 28 Days of Free Tips for Creating A Picture Book
Day 1 September 16 Day 2- September 17 Day 3- September 18 Day 4- September 19 Day 5- September 20 = Day 6- September 21 Day 7- September 22 Day 8- September 23 Day 9- September 24 Day 10- September 25 Day 11- September 26 Day 12- September 27 Day 13- September 28 Day…
Dark versus Light – Night versus Day – Themes in Literature
“It was the possibility of darkness that made the day seem so bright.” ― Stephen King, Wolves of the Calla Night as a symbol is a huge driving force in literature, music, philosophy, and art: “Nighttime sharpens, heightens each sensation Darkness stirs and wakes imagination Silently the senses abandon the defenses Slowly, gently, night unfurls…
#13DayPBChallenge Day 13 – How to Format A Picture Book Manuscript
The following is what SCBWI says about formatting a manuscript so that it is ready to submit: How to Format Your Manuscript “All manuscripts must be typed on 8½ ” x 11” white paper in black ink. » Use 12-point Arial or Times New Roman. » Double-space all manuscripts. » Pages should be numbered consecutively….
#14DayPBChallenge Day 12 – How to Write a Query Letter
I’ll be very honest in saying that because my debut picture book manuscript was picked up in a Twitter Pitch Event, I have not had much experience with writing query letters, but that is about to change. I scoured the internet looking for tips for writing query letters, and my primary take-away from that research…
#14DayPBChallenge Day 9 – How to Write a Picture Book Pitch
Your Assignment for Day 9 of the #14DayPBChallenge is to Write Sample Pitches for Your Picture Book. What Is A Picture Book Pitch? Writer’s Digest Distinguishes Between A Synopsis, A Pitch, and a Query. Here: What Is A Pitch? “…an explanation of your story in 3-8 sentences. It’s like the text you see on the back…