Writing for Children

BECOME YOUR OWN EDITOR

Today's episode is an excerpt from our Writing for Children and Teens course at the Institute of Children's Literature. The course consists of 10 assignments designed to help you develop submission-ready work by the time you complete your course. You get the benefit of one-on-one instruction and critiques throughout the process. It's a course like no other. Learn more at https://www.instituteforwriters.com/course-catalog/

It may be that you're a whiz who's able to produce error-free prose without even thinking about it. But if you're like most people—including many professional writers—you have at least a few failings when it comes to punctuation, grammar, usage, and spelling. Today, we thought it might be helpful to include a list here of the most common errors made by new writers —and how to fix them. We've mentioned some of these on the podcast before, but these errors are so common, that a little reminder is good for everyone.

COMMA LONG WITH ME

I admit I love punctuation. I love all the little rules surrounding periods, commas, and quotation marks. Maybe it's because my mom was a professional editor, maybe it's the added structure punctuation gives to a piece. A lot of times it's because it makes communication more clear––we've all heard the following sentence with and without a comma in the right spot: "Let's eat, Grandpa!" and "Let's eat Grandpa!" Whatever it is, punctuation makes me happy. Let's dig into this punctuation primer.

Special thanks to Rita Reali for contributing to this episode.

INTERVIEW WITH EDITOR PAULA MORROW

Although Paula Morrow has written more than 70 books and hundreds of magazine pieces (fiction, nonfiction, and poetry), she considers her main talent to be editing. Paula honed her skill editing for fifteen years with Cricket Magazine Group and Cricket Books, then with several book, magazine, and educational publishers. Most recently she edited at Highlights. Paula is the judge for the ICL Nonfiction STEAM Article contest.

We talk about:

• What STEAM is, why it's important, and how it differs from other nonfiction writing.
• What she will be looking for in ICL STEAM contest entries
• What is structure
• How structure differs between genres, between books and magazine stories, and between age levels
• Why a writer should never use more than one exclamation mark at a time
• An editor's pet peeves
• Good examples and/or good sources
• And lots more!

BASIC STORY ELEMENTS

Today, we're discussing three basic story elements: characters, setting, and theme. Learn how they all work together to help you tell a complete story in this rebroadcast of a popular episode.

INTERJECTING HUMOR INTO YOUR WORK

We constantly hear that agents and editors are looking for humor. If they don't say "humor" outright, we hear it in words like "quirky" and "whimsical." So how do you bring humor to your own work? Let's look at a few different ways and thanks to Andrea Collier for contributing to this episode.

HOW TO WRITE FUNNY

Is laughter really the best medicine?

I don't know, but I do suspect that laughter is a great way to get published. If you spend much time listening to acquiring editors or librarians or agents, you'll soon discover that humor is very much something they desire. Kids love books that make them laugh. Humans, in general, appreciate humor, even in the darkest times.

Unrelenting horror or pain is hard to survive, so being able to step outside it, even a little, to laugh can be life-saving. And readers will appreciate a story that allows them to do that. But for an author to find the way to do that takes a little understanding of how humor works. In this episode, let's talk about how to write funny.

PLAYING FAIR WITH PLOT

Good stories have lots of moving parts. Inspired by an article from our own Jan Fields, this episode challenges us to get all the parts to come together in a way that works.

Many writers understand that a good plot requires giving your main character something to want or need, and that the character then needs to do stuff. A story without action of any kind isn't much of a story and most writers get that pretty early in the process of learning to write fiction.

We also realize early on that a good story eventually fulfills the want or need for the main character. But there's a bit more to it than that, and one additional element is that you must play fair with the reader. Let's look at what that means.

Get a one-on-one mentor to help you write publishable work that agents and publishers are looking for! Get started here!

INTERVIEW WITH NANCY COFFELT

Author/illustrator Nancy Coffelt began her career as a fine artist, but when she found that the titles of her whimsical works were getting longer and longer AND longer, she dove into picture books.

Her first book, Goodnight Sigmund was published by Harcourt in 1992. Since then Nancy has produced a steady stream of published works including the picture books Dogs in Space, Big, Bigger, Biggest, Fred Stays with Me!, Catch That Baby! and Aunt Ant Leaves through the Leaves. In addition to working with educational, small houses and foreign publishers, Nancy has worked with several big houses including Houghton Mifflin, Scholastic, Chronicle, Little Brown, Holiday House, Henry Holt, Simon & Schuster, and Highlights.

Nancy Coffelt has taught writing to fellow word nerds ages 6 to adult since 1992. Her teaching style has been described as "thoughtful," "motivating," and "inspiring."

In our conversation about humor, we talk about:

• If different genres are easier to write funny
• How to create surprise for humor
• Monty Python
• How to bring heart into humor
• If you can you write funny when you're not funny?
• The unexpected in humor

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PACING 101

You hear the word all the time from teachers, critiquers, and editors. "Nice brisk pace." "Kind of slow, pick up the pace". "I like it, but the pace is a bit slow in the middle." So what the heck is pace and how do we make that slow middle faster or create that brisk pace in the first place? Today, I share a fantastic article on pacing from my old friend Mary Rosenblum.

Let a one-on-one mentor help you get that book out of your head and onto the page. Get started here!

VOICE

You may feel like you are struggling to find it. The first step in succeeding is realizing that it isn't as far away as you might think. "Relax. Know that you already have a distinctive voice," says author Kristi Holl. "Your voice is the product of your personality and your life experiences, both good and not so good." The trick is to set this voice free in your writing and consistently sound like yourself—not your favorite author, critique buddy, or high school English teacher. Let's dig in on voice in today's episode based on an article from Sue Bradford Edwards.

Join the Institute of Children's Literature Community! Get our weekly newsletter with articles on the craft of writing, hot markets looking for your work, and cool resources for your writer toolbox: www.instituteforwriters.com/icl-news