Get kids talking - it's a good thing!

Earlier this week I read a great article written by 7th grade teacher Luke Reynolds  discussing how to not dumb-down your children's book.

This is often really tough for adults because, well, we’re not kids. It’s impossible to remember what we did and did not understand 20, 30, 40 (or more) years ago. 

I get it, I'm right there with you. What we need to remember is that reading teaches kids. An author’s main objective may not always to teach, but it’s one of those crazy side effects that we’re stuck with. Teaching is always happening. With every book, no matter the genre, our minds absorb language, sentence structure, new ideas, new theories, different worlds, bizarre characters, foreign human interactions… (both foreign interactions, and foreign humans depending on the book) 

...the list goes on and on.

So why do so many authors insist on dumbing down children's books? Instead, the goal should be to build up a new world with new ideas while keeping the context of a world kids recognize.  It's okay to use a few big words that they may not immediately understand. It's great to have your characters do something unexpected. 

That's how you get readers asking questions!

Kid questions are the best - they are thoughtful and genuine. 

If your story gets a dialogue started with a kid, then you my friend have done more than so many authors are able to do.

Read the article here. 

...unless you're donating blood.

While looking for an agent or publisher, the most repetitive thing I read is to “…only submit to people who are looking for your type of work.” Only submit your story to people who will care about the story you are telling. Which logically begs the question...

why should anyone care about your story?

Hopefully all authors think they have something to say. Unfortunately many of them just like hearing themselves talk (write) and don’t have much to say at all. It’s easy to tell who these authors are because when (and if) you finish one of their books, you are disappointed. You feel cheated out of your valuable time. 

For me it’s even worse because no matter how bad the book, or how bad the movie, I feel the need to finish it. I hear my mother saying, "Finish what you've started!" That's usually great advice. Thanks, Mom.  

I can count on one hand the number of movies and books that I've started, but never finished. It's much more likely that I will force myself to sit and waste countless precious hours just to see if it gets better, or if the ending will be worth my time.  It rarely is.

I like to give the author the benefit of the doubt and assume that it's not them, it's me. That this particular author does actually have something great to say, but I was not the target audience. There are likely hundreds, nay, thousands of people who, unlike me, loved the book.

Or, perhaps I was not in the right place in my life to enjoy such a book – in which case I'll try again 5 years ago.  I bet the five-year-ago me would have loved some of these books.

As an author, how do you make sure that your story is getting into the hands of the right people?

• You get the best agent and/or publisher you can for your book.  (see how we've come full circle?) 

In order for you to know who the right agent/publisher is, you first need to understand why your story matters.  You can't sell your story if you don't know why it's amazing.  And if YOU don't know why it's amazing, then how will anyone else? 

Who is going to care about your story? 

Don’t waste your time on everyone else. (There are a lot of everyone-elses out there)

Think of it like picking a new friend – you need to have things in common.  You need to enjoy each other’s company and have things to talk about and experiences to share. These agents are real people trying to make a living, just like you.  (or so I keep telling myself)  If your agent/publisher doesn't believe in you, you’ll have a much rougher go of the whole experience, why would you willingly put yourself through that?

Step 1. Decide why your story is an important one and write that reason down. 

Step 2. Tell everyone you know about the very important message behind your story. Why is your story is going to change the world? How many lives are you going to impact? What makes your message unique?

Step 3. Assess the reactions to your message. If your friends and family agree that this is an important and missing piece of the literary industry, then woo hoo! Start counting the millions that are coming your way (soon, I promise).

Understandably this is tough – what message does the newest vampire/zombie/pre-teen thriller have that is so important to the world?  That is a fair question.  All I can say is hopefully the vampire/zombie/pre-teens are evolving characters and through their trials and tribulations they teach other pre-teens life lessons about personality and personal character and gumption and young love… or something.

Step 4. Don't pick an agent who doesn't understand you!  easier said than done, I know. Once an agent wants to sign on the dotted line, how could you possibly ever dream of telling them no...?!    

I'll leave that moral dilemma up to you.

The other important piece to this puzzle is the following:

Only send out work that you are proud of. 

Even the revisions that you are sending out for critique, should be the best rough drafts that you can put together. If you only send out revisions that you are proud of: 

• You will get better feedback, 
• you will be able to take those critiques more seriously, and 
• you will be more well respected. 

Ultimately, you will have a better platform on which you base your skill as a writer. 

If you only send out your best, then people can only judge you on your best. 

This is true of anything in life.  If you think you are a great chef, but you only ever cook Kraft Macaroni and Cheese, how will anyone else ever be able to say, "hey, I know this great chef..."

If you think you are an amazing photographer, but you only ever use a disposable camera, how is anyone ever going to be able to say, "hey, I know this amazing photographer."

Do your best, be proud of the work you do, and the world will reward you. 

Good luck.

Conflicting Conflictions

• Insanely long book finished (check!)

• Veggies growing in my garden (check!)

• Camping trip a success (check!)

• Various other fun summer activities (check!)

It is absolutely time to get back to this blog. 

CONFLICT and CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT

• When a tornado rips through the town mere miles from your house in the middle of the night, memories are created that last for years.

• When your friends go on vacation without you, then you later find out they took two other couples in your place, you feel hurt or maybe a little jealous.

• When your four year old comes home crying because she wants a swimming suit just like LuLu’s even though there are already three perfectly good swimming suits in her drawer…  well, you roll your eyes for a moment and remember when you were a child and only had one swimming suit that was getting too small because you had already worn it for three summers.   

But that is not the point.  She’s sad, drama has entered her life and she will need to decide how to deal with these uncontrollable feelings.  Just like you with the tornado, and you with your former friends – conflict happens. Conflict keeps our lives interesting. 

We would have far fewer conversations if there were no conflict in our lives. Our lunch time stories would be boring and our friends would get bored with us.  (and us with them)

For better or worse, conflict (and conflict resolution) keeps our lives interesting. 

Perhaps this is why so many American’s love reality TV.

The best novels, like our lives, are filled with conflict.  What the characters do with their conflicting situations is what makes them relatable. We want the characters in our books to grow and change and evolve by the time the book is done.

There are two kinds of conflict: Emotional and Physical.

Physical conflict is created by the uncontrollable, or unknown world. A tornado, a forest fire, a car that has run out of gas, a relative that is late to dinner.  

Emotional conflict is created by the character’s emotions and how they relate, respond, and react in a given situation?  Who is oblivious? Who is deceitful? Who is overly dramatic? Who gets angry and reactive?

Relationships are misunderstood, situations become overly dramatic, feelings are hurt. 

This is the best kind of conflict to present to your characters. 

Emotional conflict opens up a world of possibilities for the growth of your characters.  Will they learn and grow from their situations? Will they retreat and hide?  Will they refuse to take responsibility for their reactions? Will they swear off coconut and volleyballs forever just to be stranded on an island for 15 years?

It’s not who your characters are at the beginning of a story that makes them interesting, it’s who they are at the end.

And although this individual journey is easier (not easy, but easier) to convey over 300 pages, it can also be done over 30.

As a children’s book author you have to keep in mind that the drama in our kids world is much smaller and simpler than it is in our adult world.  The drama that might take 6 months to unfold and resolve itself my world might only take 6 hours in my daughter’s. 

Use that perspective when helping your characters grow and change. 

Instead of an Ebola outbreak in the US keeping our kids up at night, it’s a lost shoe or the fact that; “mom made mushrooms again with dinner even though she knows I hate mushrooms!”

Check out this link to get a better idea of the kinds of things that create conflict for our kids… and for a good laugh.

http://themetapicture.com/why-my-kid-is-crying/

and although there are a few overlapping photos... 

http://www.studentbeans.com/mag/en/news/23-best-pics-from-reasons-my-kid-is-crying

Use these dramatic, mundane events as inspiration and remember:

• Kids are scared by things that may seem funny or unimportant to adults
• Kids worry about things that may seem trivial
• Kids are just starting to learn about human interaction and relationships.

Your children’s story conflicts do not need to be deep or involved, but they do need to exist to make your story memorable.

Go forth and make your stories memorable!

What are You Trying to Tell Me?

You write and write and write...

You end up with 3000 words when in reality you need to have 500 or less. Clearly you are in need of a MAJOR edit. 

Major Edit

There are two possibilities:

• You have far too much information (too much junk) in your story and need to do some real soul searching to decide what can be cut.
  

• Your target market has changed and you should consider writing for an audience that will accept a higher word count.

Let’s first explore the “junk option”.

Let me start by saying editing from 3000 words to 500 words is going to be painful. 

There is no getting around it. The more junk you have, the more junk you have to get rid of. Also the more junk you have, the more likely it is that your objectives are getting lost.

i.e.This is a very necessary step.

People can only retain so much information, keep track of so many characters, relate to so many relationships… your goal is to make the stuff in your book all important stuff.

When I got stuck in the editing process, the most helpful exercise for me was to write my query letter.  I talked a bit about query letters last time, but they are a necessary evil if you are going to get an agent; so let me expand on it a bit.

The first paragraph of a query letter: write a description of your entire book using no more than a sentence (maybe two, if you must). 

This is a great way to pair-down what is really important.  It is very likely that you won’t be able to include all of your characters, all of your plot twists and all of the wonderful, magical, details and nuances that you spent so much time perfecting… that’s the point. If nothing else, that sentence will help you decide what the essence of your story is and what to absolutely, without a doubt, unarguably you need to keep. Think of what you read on a book jacket cover. 

Here are a couple of examples:

When Robert Kincaid drives through the heat and dust of an Iowa summer and turns into Francesca Johnson's farm lane looking for directions, the world-class photographer and the Iowa farm wife are joined in an experience that will haunt them forever. 

A murder in the silent after-hour halls of the Louvre museum reveals a sinister plot to uncover a secret that has been protected by a clandestine society since the days of Christ.

As you can see, not all characters and plot lines are included, however, the main objective is made clear. If these sentence don’t interest you, then you will most likely not be interested in the rest.

Next you get to turn that magical sentence into an entire paragraph.  Wow! An entire paragraph!  Three to five sentences! Oh, the luxury.

Finally, a bit about you. What makes you qualified to write this story. Have you won any awards? Have you been published anywhere ever before?

Once you have that query letter finished, you should have a better grasp on what is most important and what information you need to support that "most important". You are able to better edit your manuscript. 

Still struggling?  

• Try this – First, go through and get rid of everything that you know can go.  Individual words, entire sentences, whole paragraphs.  
• Second, highlight anything that you might be able to get rid of if someone made you; if someone came and said – get rid of this stuff or I will steal your dog, dye all of your shoes hot pink and put a sign in your yard that says “I love Scott Walker!”
• Third – get rid of that stuff.  You’re at 2000 words. Nice work!

You are now in a good place to move on to: 

• Step four. Put the manuscript down for a few days.  Not hours, DAYS. 
  

There’s no need to rush this. There is a very (very, very, very) good chance that once you have been separated from your story for a bit, you will see it with fresh eyes and it can only get better.

• Step five: Whittle away word by word until you are at 1500 words. 
• Step six: Repeat step four.
• Step seven: Repeat step five. (you’re at 1237 words)
• Step eight: Repeat step four.
• Step nine: Repeat step five. (you’re at 989 words)
• Step ten: Repeat step four.

You see where I’m going with this.

You will eventually get to a place where you absolutely cannot get rid of anything else.

Your story is only wearing underwear at this point. Getting rid of any more will make your story cold and hard to look at and fairly awkward. 

That means you are done! Yea!  Even if you didn’t make it all the way down to 500 words, you have made it through the hardest part.

Now, let’s consider option #2. 

A true story: After getting my story to a place I was fairly happy with, I was close to 4000 words. I was shooting for a max of 2000 words. Well darn-it all… After going through the previously mentioned (painful) process, I settled at 2300 words. I was running out of time before this self-inflicted date of “local writers conference weekend”. I hesitantly took it to pitch to a couple of agents. After convincing them this was the greatest book ever, we talked a bit about some of the challenges I was having with word count. They both (as if it were the obvious solution) told me that instead of a children’s picture book (a very long winded and possibly unsellable picture book)  I should ADD words and turn it into an early reader’s chapter book.

So, that is exactly what I am doing.  I do not at all regret the deep edit that I did however – my story is much more readable. My characters are much more believable. I was forced to take a good look at the story's main objective and realy dig deep and decided what it was really about.

So, without stalling for another paragraph, here’s an example of the query letter that I wrote for my upcoming children’s book:  

The Beautiful Weeds

A Harvest Hollow Tale

As told by me, Pumpkin Lou 

(a small sprightly fellow)

(Addressed to specific agent)

Getting lost in the forbidden fields was admittedly not a well thought out plan. But in a twist of fate, Pumpkin Lou’s adventure yields an unexpected encounter with a smelly ally and an intriguing new world among The Beautiful Weeds.

Harvest Hollow is an idyllic place for a young garden sprite like Pumpkin Lou to grow up, but being volunteered for some unwanted responsibility is the corn kernel that pushes him over the edge. In a snap-pea decision, he decides to run away but soon finds himself lost in a world that has only been seen in his nightmares. While trying to get his bearings in this strange place, he meets The Beast. Although a smelly, unsightly lady at first glance, she teaches him that things are not always as they first appear. Lou learns new details of his homeland and his family’s past. He realizes that what is considered beautiful and useful in life will change depending whom you ask. And he learns that a new view on the world is sometimes exactly what you need when you are feeling stuck.

This easy reader, picture book is 2300 words for children ages 6-10. An engaging story with thoughtful characters and a roller coaster of emotions, The Beautiful Weeds is the perfect book to introduce children to the magical world of a garden. It creates intrigue for the possibility that other tiny worlds live and thrive among us.

I am a technical writer by day and a creative writer by night. I have been drawn to the small, hidden details in nature my entire life and am no stranger to gardening. I strive to write stories that challenge the imagination while teaching something new. A full copy of my manuscript is included. I appreciate your time and consideration.

(closing and signature)

Thanks for reading and happy Easter!

It's All About Presentation

This                         or                            this? 

I know I wouldn't want to eat #1 if #2 was an option. 

This                        or                       this? 

I don't care if #2 is a single cookie, I'd pick that over #1 any day.

This                            or                               this? 

     

 I suppose this one depends on if you are at a job interview to be a lawyer or... a peacock?

It's all about presentation.

My four year old said (read: yelled) to me this morning, "Mom! you forgot my backpack. And my water bottle!" I calmly informed her that we had not discussed bringing her backpack today (because she had nothing to carry) and why in heaven's name would I assume she needed her water bottle?
To which she responded, "Because you're my maaaa-ahm" dripping with as much attitude and consternation as a four-year-old can possibly muster.

This lead to a discussion that I like to call:

It's all about presentation.

If she would have said "Mom, my backpack is at home and I really wanted it today." I may have responded with something like, "oh sweetie, that is too bad. We'll remember to bring it tomorrow." In short, it would have gone way better and not invoked mild forms of irrational rage where all I wanted to do was yell " NUH UH, YOU FORGOT YOUR STUPID, UGLY BACKPACK!!!" which clearly, would have gotten me nowhere.

(This is not the actual ugly backpack.)

skill #437: 

As a conversator, (the party of the first part) never start by blaming 

the conversatee (the party of the second part) for something they had no 

way of knowing they did wrong.

You've all been here - maybe not with four-year-olds who are learning basic communication skills, but it happens all the time.  Your boss, holding a custard filled doughnut, comes over to your desk in the morning and says, 
        "Hey what you said in the meeting yesterday about (insert seemingly brilliant idea here), yeah, that's never going to work and you shouldn't spend any more time on it. You should really run these things by me before embarrassing yourself like that."
And then takes a bite of the doughnut.

But if he would have brought two doughnuts and said,
        "You clearly put a lot of time into that (seemingly brilliant idea) however I'm not sure this is the best time to implement it.  Let's put it on the back burner for now and meet later this afternoon to discuss any other ideas you may have.  Here have a doughnut." He then hands you the doughnut and together you each take a bite of your yummy, yummy breakfast.

See? Even if you know he's lying through his teeth and he hates your stupid backpack, I mean idea, and is just trying to smooth things over so you don't quit. It's still much better because: 

It's all about presentation.

In life and in books.

Creating a consistent message across your book pages goes a long way when adults are deciding which kid books to pick up for the first second, and third time. 

Let me say that again: Adults decide which kid books to read. It sucks, I know. When it comes to first impressions, adults are now and always will be, your main audience.

If there are too many or too few words on a page, or worse - the words are hard to see in a dimly lit room at bedtime, (I'm talking to you Margaret Wise Brown) you are inadvertently creating a negative reading experience. If you pictures don't enhance your story or after six (out of seven) pages the princes is still trying to decide which dress to wear, you are creating a negative reading experience. Although it should go without saying, that is the last thing you want when creating the book. 
If your book is creating a negative experience, your book is not ready to be published.   Please take the extra time and make it better.  

Some things that matter:

• An interesting, relevant title
• Cover layout
• Page layout (busyness of illustrations vs text)
• Text color and size
• Illustration content should enhance text

Unfortunately there is not one right way to do any of the things on this list, but there are many, many wrong ways. 

To all you parents searching for good books, and all you writers hoping to make their search a little easier, I wish you luck. 

Also, 
May you only get and give pretty presents from here on out. 
And when you make spaghetti, a little green garnish and some French bread goes a long way. 


Thanks for reading

These Are a Few of My Favorite "Important" Things.

As I begin to write again after a couple of years away playing mommy, I am making a list of important things to keep in mind.  The more I analyze my writing against my life’s inspirations, I am discovering that many of these important things pertain not only to writing, but also to life. So I call this,

These are a few of my favorite “important” things.   

As you’ll notice. “important" is in quotes because I’m not sure how relevant they are in the grand scheme of the writing world. See, what you may or may not know about me is I have no formal training.  

none.  zip.  zero.  nada. 

I didn’t even take a literature classes in college. I tested out of English at an early age and never looked back.  In retrospect, this may not have been the best choice, but then again, if you don't think your hobby will ever be more than a hobby, why seek out the structured instructors who need only to follow a lesson plan and make sure their students pass, leaving little room for creativity and rule deviation. The faults of our educational system however are not for this blog, and I'm becoming a bit dramatic, so I digress. That being said, Here is my official disclaimer:

             Take what you read here with a grain of salt.  If you think it sounds good, and makes sense, 

             that makes me happy.  If you think it sounds like crap and the ramblings of a mad women, 

             then please put it out of your mind – perhaps next week will be better (but I’m not making any     

             promises).

Here, in no particular order (but in case you are counting, there are five) is the long awaited list!

• Know your audience
• It’s all about presentation
• Balance
• GOAL(s)!
• Presenting the best version of yourself

And because I clearly have a lot to say, we’ll do this across five separate articles. 

# the first:   Know Your Audience

This is a good life lesson, not just an authoring lesson. Even if you are a loud mouth, tattoo covered*, somebitch who swears like a sailor, (which is just fine if that makes you happy) you should probably tone down the profanity and insulting nature when you are at dinner with your mother, your childhood priest, and your four year old niece.  

You should say things like: 
              “Please pass the carrots Father." 
                                 "Yes, I do think that white color brings out your eyes." 
                                                  "Oh thank you for noticing, this tattoo is modeled after a Renoir I saw while visiting the Louvre during my junior year abroad. 

The same concept goes for children’s stories: 

you need to know who you are talking to.

  

The nice thing is that as an author, you can decide who you want to talk to, then market and sell your stuff to them.  
Let’s enter stereotype-land for a moment, shall we? If I don’t want 50 year old biker dudes reading my books, then I might write about starting kindergarten, getting a new baby sister, and the emotional conflict that exists between fluffy white bunnies and their very dear friends, the silvery pond guppies.  (for geographical reasons, of course)

 

But, when you are in desperate need of a birthday gift for your four year old niece, she will tell you about this great book that she saw at the library called:

Starting Kindergarten so I can get away from my baby sister. 

An emotional tale about bunnies and guppies.

There are a handful of things to consider when picking your audience; let’s stick with small children’s literature for now.                

                Reading or listening? – if your audience is made up of children who cannot yet read, they will be listening to the stories. (If they can’t read, they won’t be reading, deep stuff, I know). This is both a blessing and a curse.  A blessing because you don’t have to write in simple, easily understood words that early readers seem to appreciate.  A curse because you now need to make the book interesting to the parents as well as the kids. They are two slightly different audiences.

               

Story complexity – Will the plot hold the attention of your little non-reader? A story with the following plot line is probably not going to make it, no matter what age your audience is. 

The cat found a mouse and became it’s friend. The mouse introduce the cat to his family and everyone was happy.  The end. 

  

There’s no conflict, there’s no suspense, there’s simply no reason to read it again. Zero emotion was evoked between the front and back cover of the book. Maybe a kid will want to read it again if the cat looks supper cuddly-wuddly and the mouse is wearing a funny hat. But I'd call it two or three times tops.  And I promise you, Mom is not going to recommend that one to anyone at playgroup.    

               

Character development – will your characters grow and change in a way that not only keeps the attention of mom or dad (the story reader) but also a way that your little listener can relate to? Do they get into a little bit of trouble, or discover something about themselves that kids can relate to: A new talent, a new skill, a new emotion, a new body part?

               

The Cover – Kids are most often exposed to new books at the library or at school.  If the cover doesn’t look interesting, they are not going to even want to pull it off the shelf. Also, older kids are going to select completely different books than younger kids.

               

Relevant pictures – anyone who has read a story to a curious 2, 3, 4, 5… year old knows that if the kid can’t understand the pictures that are supposed to enhance the story, you’ll spend more time answering questions like, “who’s that? “what are they wearing?” “why is she over there?” “what happened to this guy?” “why does that bunny look sad?” and on and on and on and on... 

In the grand scheme of things, these questions are arguably fine if by the end they promote a better understanding of the world around them. (Impressionable Intrigue, remember?) But they are not okay if they turn a 10 minute book into a 60 minute book. That now lost hour is usually right before bed. In my house, books that take an hour to get through, do not get read again.   

We’ve donated several books to “friends” of ours because they take too long to get through. A terrible gift, I am aware. 

In fact, we’ve donated several books that don’t meet one or more of these criteria. ...Unfortunately, we’ve donated a lot of books.  

To recap:

Pick your target market and define it well. 

Stick to your definitions or you will be stuck with a less than desirable book that won’t sell.  A book that people would really love if only… if only it were better.

Next time we’ll dig into “Presentation”.  Thanks for reading!

*I have no ill feelings against people with tattoos, I have one myself that I’m quite fond of.