Writing for Children

Nesting usually involves the spot where you find immediate (or first) success, but there will always be walls around you if you give in to staying in your first nest. You'll grow until you fill up that specific nesting spot and no more, not unless you're willing to peek out of your particular niche and considering dashing into a spot you know nothing whatsoever about. Growth, change, learning, and challenge makes us better writers. Nesting holds us at whatever spot we've grown accustom.

Let's talk about getting out of our nests today and finding success in new writing areas.

Join the Writers' Block! Go to writingforchildren.com/writersblock

WHERE SHOULD YOU SPEND YOUR DOLLARS?

Last week we talked about classes, conferences, and critiques and self-publishing. Let’s get going with Part 2 with…agents and submission services and promotion services.

There are a lot of "services" that have grown up around writing. Some, like agents, are vital to working in specific areas of publishing. Some are simply good ways to extract the cash from your wallet. Let's look at agents.

Join the Writers' Block! Go to writingforchildren.com/writersblock

WHERE SHOULD YOUR MONEY GO?

Whenever you have a large group of people with a dream and a desperation to fulfill it, you're also going to see people quick to take advantage of that. Helpful writers (many of whom began their careers a while ago) say helpful things like, "The only place you should sign on a check is on the back" and "money flows toward the writer." And those truisms can be useful as long as you use them to make you pause and consider, rather than letting them slam the brakes on your choices. Let's consider, what kinds of things might a writer spend money on? Let's talk about it.

START WRITING YOUR BOOK. Learn how to write publishable manuscripts with your own one-on-one mentor, an experienced professional author. To see if you qualify, go to writingforchildren.com/iamready

YOUR FIRST STEP TO FANTASTIC WRITING

"Wait ... what do you mean I'm not done?!"

It's a common refrain among new writers as they realize their first draft is only the beginning. In truth, revision is the step that takes your writing from so-so to sold.

So, revision is a necessary part of the writing process, but how do you go about doing it?

Different techniques work better for different stories and different authors. With the help of IFW contributor Rita Reali, we dig into a few examples.

START WRITING YOUR BOOK. Learn how to write publishable manuscripts with your own one-on-one mentor, an experienced professional author. To see if you qualify, go to writingforchildren.com/iamready

THE KEY TO REVISION

As most writers know, it's much easier to find the flaws in someone else's work than to find the flaws in your own. Part of the reason for this is distance. When you're reading work by another author, you aren't caught up in all the personal things that went into the creation of the story. You are actually judging the story based on the merits of what you read on the page. So to be able to revise your own work successfully, you need to get the same kind of distance that you have when you're reading someone else's work. That's not always easy, but there are some tips that can help.

START WRITING YOUR BOOK. Learn how to write publishable manuscripts with your own one-on-one mentor, an experienced professional author. To see if you qualify, go to writingforchildren.com/iamready

CREATING A REVISION PLAN

Some writers love revision. In fact, for many, the rough draft is something to be rushed through to get to the real "fun," the revision. Some writers don't like the revision part at all, but they know it's necessary if their book has a chance of getting a contract. Our contributor Jan Fields is one of those writers. Jan admits revision might be something she would skimp on if she didn't enter into revision with a plan. Here's how to create your own plan.

START WRITING YOUR BOOK. Learn how to write publishable manuscripts with your own one-on-one mentor, an experienced professional author. To see if you qualify, go to writingforchildren.com/iamready

HOW GOOD IS YOUR TITLE?

Sometimes I find great fodder to share in the ICL archives. I loved this one, inspired by an article by Veda Boyd Jones. Have you ever played The Landlord’s Game? Come on. I bet you have. You know, the game that was created in the Depression? Oh, wait. That was the original title given to the game…it uses real estate as the theme. Does… Monopoly sound familiar? The Landlord’s Game was renamed Monopoly, and history was made.

Often, working titles can generally be dull and simply name the topic. Before you submit, you need to give them the zap that will make the reader pull a book off a bookstore shelf. And although editors often change the titles of an article, story, or book, as a writer you want the first reader––which could be an editor––to find your title engaging. The best way to learn how to title a piece is to study successful titles.

Join the Writers' Block! Looking for writers who "get" what you're going through? Need a little push to get yourself writing and submitting? Looking for a little feedback on your manuscript? Go to writingforchildren.com/writersblock

GUEST EXPERT DEBORAH HEILIGMAN

Deborah Heiligman is the author of 31 books for children and teens. Her most recent book is Vincent And Theo: The Van Gogh Brothers. It has received six starred reviews and has won the Boston Globe Horn Book Award for Nonfiction as well as the YALSA Excellence in Nonfiction Award and a Printz Honor Award at the 2018 ALA Youth Media Awards. Her other recent books include: The Boy Who Loved Math: The Improbable Life Of Paul Erdos and Snow Dog, Go Dog. Charles And Emma: The Darwins' Leap of Faith was a National Book Award Finalist, A Printz Honor, the YALSA Excellence in Nonfiction winner, and a finalist for the LA Times Book Prize.

We discuss:
- What to do if you receive edits from an editor/agent/critique partner you don’t agree with.
- How to eliminate dates or places or details/facts that get in the way of story if you feel like the reader should know that stuff?
- Not writing “on the nose.”
- AND MORE!

START WRITING YOUR BOOK. Learn how to write publishable manuscripts with your own one-on-one mentor, an experienced professional author. To see if you qualify, go to writingforchildren.com/iamready

HOW TO WRITE AN INTERVIEW

Last week, we talked about how to conduct an interview—what to do beforehand, how to act during the interview, and what to do afterward and how to follow-up with your subject. This week we go one step further —how to write the article.

Plus, we touch on how to pick the perfect subject for your article.

START WRITING YOUR BOOK. Learn how to write publishable manuscripts with your own one-on-one mentor, an experienced professional author. To see if you qualify, go to writingforchildren.com/iamready

HOW TO CONDUCT AN INTERVIEW

One way to break into nonfiction is with a profile piece. What better way to learn more about a subject than to interview them directly? In this episode, we cover how to conduct an interview professionally including how to prepare, what to do during the interview, and how to follow-up afterward.

START WRITING YOUR BOOK. Learn how to write publishable manuscripts with your own one-on-one mentor, an experienced professional author. To see if you qualify, go to writingforchildren.com/iamready