Background: May of 2019 is when I decided to embark on a quest to become a children’s book author. I don’t know exactly what day, though I know I had already written several “good as I know how now” drafts by May 21. I was prolific–which is one of my descriptions of myself as an…
Lauren Kerstein suggested brainstorming using your childhood memories. Like she did in her post for StoryStorm, I am just going to list some of my childhood memories. Finding brand new shoes in the trash can My dad bringing home a puppy abandoned at a gas station falling off a rocking horse and hitting my head handing…
I joined StoryStorm to get more good ideas. The month is almost over and I’ve done well with StoryStorm. Brainstorming: But if you didn’t join, that doesn’t mean you can’t do your own Story Storming. For instance, I came up with the word Flower. I wanted to make that relevant to something. So I thought…
The Blog: I have not kept up with the blog, even though I know good and well there is awesome stuff in there. My Ideas: I have, however, kept up with my new story ideas. My list runs everywhere from a word (Resistor) to 130 words of an idea, with details–including the fact that I…
My son, who studied actuarial science and graduated with a degree in mathematics, is a full-time online author. In the last two years he has written over 3 million words. I asked him what he does when he gets stuck. He had some good suggestions. Take a walk. Get out of your writing for 10-15…
I am halfway through my year of writing children’s books. That’s what I got in May of 2019, one year. And I had some incredible goals. One was to write 10 publishable children’s books by May 2020. I think I am well on the way to doing that. I have seven I wouldn’t be embarrassed…
Writing a hook: Has to be short (max of 50 words). Should be one sentence. Introduce the main character. State theme and core plot conflict. Add context. So how do you do this? Here’s me working through a new idea for a picture book. This story is supposed to be fun and make you like…
The Guardian in the UK has a post, “10 Rules for Writing Fiction.” In it they asked authors for their 10 rules, so the compilation is over 1o0. I limited myself to only quoting 10 here. Elmore Leonard: “if it sounds like writing, I rewrite it.” Diana Athill: “Read it aloud to yourself because that’s the…
Rigidly enforce your boundaries. If you don’t maintain your schedule and environment, it will not be maintained. If you need to write, make sure you write. For my daughter, I have marbles on my desk. I move a marble every 100 words. She knows when all the marbles have been moved I will be available.…
