How Do Writers Spend Their Time? -- By Christy Mihaly (and Cheddar)

Join this Writer’s Organization! Try that Challenge! Take another Course! EEK! Writer friends urge me to participate in this course, that workshop, these Facebook groups, those writing challenges. What am I missing? How can I ever find the time? 

Photo by GROGGER Suzy Leopold

Time for a reality check: I turned to my GROG colleagues --  serious writers all, ranging across continents, occupations, levels of experience, and numbers of publications. I asked them: "How do you spend your writing time?" I asked them to estimate how many hours they spent drafting, revising, reading, doing research, conferences, courses, social media, marketing, etc.  

And now, I'm happy to share these thoughts and recommendations, from my informal GROG survey.  

Bottom line: None of us has time to do it all.  We have day jobs, spouses and loved ones, social obligations, volunteer work, children, grandchildren, friends in need. We want to "give back" to the writing world. What’s a writer to do?  

We know the answer: WRITE. The GROGGER responses reminded me that when it comes to all those “writing-related” activities, we have to stick to the ones that are helpful enough to warrant taking time away from actual writing. 

I boiled my colleagues' responses down to these three points: 

1.  Write!  Carve out “writing time” every day.  Make writing your top priority during that designated time. Maybe it’s a half-hour before the rest of the household awakes. Maybe it’s an hour after everyone else is asleep. Whenever it is, make it sacrosanct.  No internet surfing.  No opening mail. “Writing” means drafting and revising. If inspiration isn’t coming, try writing a poem! A journal entry, a cover letter . . . just write! GROGGERs' writing times vary considerably, depending on where they are on a particular project (or other aspects of their busy lives) but range from about an hour a day to 30 hours or more per week.  (And we all spend more time revising than drafting!) 

GRAB THAT PENCIL, CHEDDAR!

2.  Everything else is extra. Select only those “extras” that really help your writing. Want to refine your craft?  Maybe a course or studying a book on craft is your best bet. Are you feeling isolated?  Then join a community, whether it’s an in-person critique group or an online writing group, or volunteer to work with kids. Has your inspiration dried up? Maybe you need to hang out with the grandchildren, or maybe just going for a walk is what you need! You’ll never be able to do it all . . . so choose what inspires you, and nourishes your writing.

Sniffing out new inspiration . . . 

Here's some collective GROGGER wisdom about setting priorities,  from among all those “other” activities:

Research: If you write nonfiction, this is a major element of your process . . . though fiction writers need research too. For our nonfiction GROGGERs, research can take MORE time than writing.  When we're in that "research groove," that's all we want to do. The consensus: Go for it!

                        

Challenges: GROGGERs have tried various online challenges, and concluded it's best to choose one, or at most two, per year. Favorites among GROGGERs are 12x12, WOW, and PiBoIdMo.

Reading: Do it! Study mentor texts, read books on writing craft and the business of writing, adult fiction and nonfiction for pleasure, YA for the heck of it, poetry, The New Yorker – read it all. GROGGER Pam Vaughan suggests that, if you’re stuck in the car a lot (chauffeuring kids, anyone?) try books-on-tape! GROG members agree, reading is a high priority. Most of us try to get some reading done every day.

 Hey, I get great ideas in my dreams!

Conferences/workshops: We can’t afford to attend all the conferences we’d like, but agree that two or three a year is good. SCBWI is the standard. A pointer: Figure out which format – National? Regional? Small? – works best for you, then focus on that type of gathering. For more GROG thoughts on conferences, check out these posts: 21st Century NF; SCBWI LA; SCBWI New England; write conference for you.

Critique groups: Serious writers must share drafts and revisions with trusted writing buddies. Online groups work well for many. Some are lucky enough to find supportive face-to-face groups. Crit groups are well worth the time -- though most GROG members find that one, or two, of these is the most we can responsibly handle.

Algonquin Round Table members 

Art Samuels, Charlie MacArthur, Harpo Marx, Dorothy Parker, Alexander Woollcott 

circa 1919, from Wikimedia commons, photographer unknown.

Warning!  Warning!  LIMIT social media!  

Sure, there are some wonderful Facebook groups, and FB can be a great place to share information and support other writers. Twitter provides valuable connections and information too . . . but GROGGERs find social media can consume too much precious writing time. All GROGGERs participate in social media, and we agree a little can be good (a half-hour to an hour a day?).  (See these prior posts:  Facebook groups; more Facebook groups; Twitter tips; more Twitter tips.)  But it's also true that too much is . . . too much.

Try setting a timer!

By Hustvedt (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) or GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)], via Wikimedia Commons

3. Keep track of how you spend your time 

(see above). 

Some of my GROG friends could tell me exactly how much time they spent regularly on various activities . . . others, not so much. Try this for a week or a month: record your hours. If you feel you're not getting enough writing done, you’ll see exactly what’s taking up too much time. You'll get a more realistic sense of how long different tasks take. And when you meet a writing target or a goal – celebrate!

Bottom line:  Remember Jane Yolen's essential rule:  "Butt in chair!" And write on. 

That's BUTT in chair, Cheddar!!

Special thanks to Marcie Atkins, Todd Burleson, Tina Cho, Suzy Leopold, Pat Miller, Janie Reinart, Patty Toht, and Pam Vaughan.

Fee vs. Free Author/Illustrator Visits: What's the Difference and Why It Matters by Todd Burleson

Meeting an author or illustrator can be magical for both kids and adults.  The Society of Authors recently released their intensive survey of the impact of author visits.  As a Library Media Specialist for the past five years, I've had the good fortune of welcoming some of the best into our school.  This post is meant to encourage teachers/librarians/parents to explore the multitude of opportunities to connect with authors and illustrators.  We'll look at the difference between a "Free" vs. a "Fee" visit and the benefits/challenges to each.

 

Caldecott winning author/illustrator Jon Klassen visited my school in 2013; the year he won for I Want My Hat Back.

First of all, in my opinion, there is no better way to encourage children to read than to meet an author.  Books still evoke a sense of magic in children.  Meeting the person behind the pictures and/or words is like seeing the magician doing his tricks in slow motion.  It encourages and challenges students to strive to create their own stories/images.  

 Marc Brown: author/illustrator of the Arthur Series.

Whenever an author/illustrator is scheduled to come to our school, it provides a chance to meaningfully explore their work.  We read everything the author/illustrator has done and develop questions we hope to be able to ask at the visit.  

 

David Shannon, author/illustrator of the David books.

The very best way to get 'connected' and find out about author/illustrator visits is to form a positive relationship with your local independent book store.  In Winnetka, we have a phenomenal book store named:  The Book Stall. 

 

Jon Muth, author/illustrator of Zen Shorts and many more titles has visited Winnetka several times over the past three years.

I interviewed Robert McDonald, the Children's Specialist at the store, to get some insight into arranging and facilitating author visits.  All of the author/illustrator visits we have had through The Book Stall have been free.  I wanted some insight on how these are arranged and funded.

Jon Muth and I last year when he visited to promote his newest book, Hi, Koo!

1.  What is the process you and The Book Stall go through to connect with authors and find out that they are coming to your area?

Publishers send us a "grid" or list of what authors they are sending out on book tour. We place our requests based on who is coming and if we feel that we have several good area options for schools to place those authors.  We don't always get every author we request, so we don't know for sure which authors we will be able to work with in a given season until 1-3 months before the event. Generally we get no say in what day or date we have an author. This varies a bit from the usual way a paid school visit  would work, where the school and the author would reach an agreements about timing. Of course the advantage for the school in working with a bookstore is access to nationally recognized authors and illustrators with no honorarium involved.

We do also foster relationships with local authors, and at their request will place them for free into schools when they have new books coming out. 

 

Wendy McClure visited last year to promote her new book, Wanderville.

2.  What two or three points would you say make for a successful author/illustrator visit to a school?

I've been to hundreds of school visits now, and here's what I think really helps make a visit work well:

A. The kids and teachers have been aware of the event well in advance, and are all familiar in some ways with the visiting author's work.  This may include reading the first few chapters of a book aloud, reading several of the picture books to younger grades, and/or showing the book trailer to the classes.  Any way that the staff can figure out ways to work the author's art and writing into curriculum, and emphasize to the students that this visit is a lucky event helps pave the way for the author to have that much more of an impact.  When an author arrives to see welcome signs made by kids, and maybe have artwork based on their book, it's going to make for a happier, more engaged author.

 Author/illustrator Steve Barnes visited our school in 2013

Be aware that these free author visits are free because the publisher wants to get more buzz and attention for an author's work. They also want to sell copies. The bookstore will want the school to promote book sales prior to the visit, so that the author has a good stack of books to sign for kids the day of the event. In general, there's no set number of books that MUST be sold, but in the long-term a bookstore won't be eager to work with you if author visits do not generate any sales. 

B. Kids model what they see, so if I ruled the world I'd insist that staff attending an author presentation be fully engaged, and NOT using the time to grade papers or catch up on email.  If the educator is paying attention, she has that much more insight and material she can use to reinforce and expand on lessons learned.  And the kids will take the visit more seriously.

C. There is almost always a Q and A section of an author visit.  Prep the kids beforehand, and discuss as a class what good questions could be, or even have a class contest to get your question "chosen" to ask the author in front of the large group. The better the questions, the better the visit will be.

Dan Gutman, award winning author, has a page on his site to help prepare for a successful author visit.

 

Arun Gandhi, the grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, visited last spring to promote his book called, Grandfather Gandhi.

3.  What advice would you give a teacher/librarian who would like to begin working with an independent book store to arrange author visits?

Look and see what authors are visiting a local bookstore.  If a store in your area is having in-store children's author events, they are almost certainly placing authors in schools for free. Call and ask to speak with the children's specialist.  Be willing to be flexible--an author out on book tour might not be able to stay at your school all day and see every student in the school, but if you are willing to work with independent bookstores  (or Barnes and Noble for that matter--many of them do arrange free author visits in schools) you may be able to host multiple authors in a school year, a picture book author for K-1 one time, something for the 4th-5th grades another.  I have a lot of schools now that are able to host 2-3 authors a year.

If your local bookstore does not yet arrange free author visits, reach out to them and suggest they start!

Invite a bookstore to help you with a visit you are already arranging and paying for--if you sell books through a bookstore, you'll make your visiting author happy  (They love to see book sales at the schools they visit) and you'll be establishing a relationship with a store--they will think of you the next time they have a big-name author in town.

Not all of our author/illustrator visits are free.  Usually, about once a year we reach out to an author/illustrator to arrange a Fee based visit.  We do this usually because we are hoping to expand on the traditional author/illustrator visit.  Last year we arranged an author visit with Steve Cotler, the author of the Cheesie Mac series.

Because this was a sponsored visit, we were able to arrange several more presentations with him as well as some specific work with our older students on developing 'writer's voice' and writing dialogue.

 This year, our school is sponsoring an author visit from Kristy Dempsey.  She is the author of several children's picture books, an educator and a Library Media Specialist who currently lives and works in Brazil.  I was curious as to her take on the difference between a Free vs. Fee author/illustrator visit.  Coming from the dual perspective of both author and librarian, I knew that her insight would prove very valuable.

 

Kristy Dempsey (photo courtesy of the author's website)

How do you feel about free vs. fee author/illustrator visits?

When free visits are possible, I absolutely believe in them. I think there are a couple of kinds.  There are visits that the author is willing to do completely for free. I have done some of these visits at Title 1 schools that have no PTA and few resources. ( I have also done paid visits at Title 1 schools that have received grants for visits.) I know other authors who sometimes donate their time like this and when it's possible, I think it's great. Because of travel and schedules and such, it's often not possible, or perhaps it's cost-prohibitive for the author. Mid-list authors don't make a ton of money from royalties, so they would be paying out of their own pockets for this. Or often, the school (or in conjunction with a bookstore) will use the profit from doing book sales to pay for an author visit, which seems to me a way to do a "free" visit that still supports the author. 

I do have concerns, as well, about free visits. I don't view author visits as just entertainment or even simply cheerleading about reading and writing. And my fear is that unestablished authors (self-published or otherwise) that do free visits, without truly understanding how to make the visit valuable for teachers (connecting to standards, etc) as well as inspiring students, are misleading schools about how valuable a school author visit can be. (Whew. Be careful if you quote me on that. I don't want to bash anyone. In fact, some self-published and unestablished authors are VERY good at this.)

So ultimately I believe that the difference is that a paid visit (especially with established authors and illustrators) is held to a higher quality control. Authors and illustrators who are making part of their living off of school visits are literally in the same business as teachers. They are designing their instruction to benefit student learning. And if they're not, they won't be invited back (or "keep" their jobs!) 

There are many other ways to bring authors/illustrators to schools as well.  With technology, many author/illustrators are willing to do Skype visits, or Google Hangouts.

There are thousands of resources online to help connect author/illustrators with schools/libraries.  One of my favorite is the listing on the Scholastic web page for children and young adults. 

I hope that this post has been helpful in helping you think about the power of author/illustrator visits.  You never know the impact of one of these visits on the young minds of writers.  Someday they may be in the position to be a visiting author/illustrator themselves!

Grandparents Day ~By Suzy Leopold

How many of you celebrated Grandparents' Day? Do you know when the designated day to celebrated grandparents is?  Yesterday, Sunday, September 7th was the day to honor, recognize and remember our grandparents. National Grandparents' Day was signed into law by President Jimmy Carter in 1978.

I have sweet memories of spending time with my Seibold Grandparents, on their farm in North Dakota. My Grandma, Mathilda, was born in 1900 and passed away in 2001. Yes, you did the Math correctly! She lived to be 101 years old! 

Grandma taught me how to do many things. She shared the love of reading with me and taught me how to sew. Because of her, I now have beautiful flower beds and a large organic vegetable garden. My Mom said the *farmer gene* skipped her generation and I am happy to say that I inherited the love of the land, just like my Grandparents who farmed on the plains of North Dakota. 

What fun we had baking together.  The kitchen was the place where everyone gathered. Together Grandma and I baked sticky  caramel rolls, fresh bread, homemade lefse [Norwegian flatbread], German kuchen, chocolate chip cookies and much more.  A favorite dessert that she made from scratch was an Angel Food cake that was baked with 13 egg whites and topped with fresh whipped cream and sweet strawberries from the garden. Am I making you hungry yet?

Grandpa & Grandma Seibold, 1950

I recall Grandpa Ed visiting our family in Minneapolis. Unfortunately, I did not know my Grandma Erickson, as she passed away on Christmas Eve before I was born. I remember Grandpa taking me to a candy store in our neighborhood. Together we walked hand in hand to the little corner store. The large glass and wood barrels of candy seemed taller than me. We would head home with a small bag of sweet treats munching and sharing along the way.

Grandpa and Grandma Erickson, 1950

My husband and I are grandparents.  Pa Perry and Oma Sue are blessed with seven, sweet, unique grands.  All of them enjoy reading and enjoy being read to. Each one of them is special to us.

Pa Perry & Oma Sue

Our seven sweet, unique grands.

As a writer, you may want to consider writing a story about your Grandparents.  You may want to write your own story for your granchildren. I am compiling my thoughts in a journal that tells about my story.  Our grandchildren gave me a special journal to write my story in. 

I am working on answering 

questions about 

Family History, 

Growing Up, 

Memories of My Family, 

Celebrations, Family 

Traditions and much more.

There are many excellent picture books, both fiction and nonfiction stories, about Grandparents. Four books that I recommend are: 

Supergrandpa 
By David M. Schwartz, Illustrated by Bert Dodson
Genre: Nonfiction
At the age of sixty-six years, Gustaf Håkansson accomplished a feat, that many half his age would not even consider. In 1951, Gustaf rode in the Tour of Sweden. The Swedish bicycle race, called the Sverige-Loppet, is the longest ride, held over many days, and is 1,761 kilometers or 1,094 miles long. Gustaf’s family laughed at him and told him that he was too old. “Struntprat,” Gustaf replied. “Silly talk!” 

Cycling night and day, Gustaf not only finished the ride, he won the race!  Children gave him the nickname Stålfarfar or “Supergrandpa.” Gustaf Håkansson believed in his dream and showed that through hard work and motivation, anyone can do it. He continued to ride his bike and participated in bicycle races at 85 years of age. Gustaf lived to be 102 and always encouraged Swedish children to exercise, live healthy and try hard.  “Va’ som Stålfarfar - “Be like Supergrandpa.”

Supergrandpa

Grandad Bill's Song 
By Jane Yolen, Illustrated by Melissa Bay Mathis
Genre: Fiction
Distinquished author of more than 130 books for children and adults, Jane Yolen, writes a sweet story that offers comfort to children when losing a loved one.  The story is a lyrical poem about of a child's struggle to express his feelings aout the death of his grandfather. 

"What did you do on the day Grandad died?" the little boy asks of several family members. He is surprised by the answers as everyone has a special memory that is different and no two are alike.

Grandad Bill's Song

Nana's Birthday Party 
By Amy Hest, Illustrated by Amy Schwartz
Genre: Fiction
Every year, Nana invites her relatives from all over the city to celebrate her birthday. She has rules for her special day that are posted on the door: 1.No jeans 2. No gum and 3. No presents, except the kind you make yourself.  Maggie and Brette, two cousins, are determined to make something special for Nana. Maggie is great at writing stories and Brette is a talented painter. Together the girls combine their talents to make the grandest gift ever for Nana.

Nana's Birthday Party

Ganzy Remembers 
By Mary Grace Ketner, Illustrated by Barbara Sparks
Genre: Fiction
Daphne is very old. Her great-granddaughter, who calls her Ganzy, enjoys visiting her at the nursing home. Daphne’s family likes listening to many colorful stories of when she was younger. Ganzy remembers when she was young Daphine and when she went to school. Many years ago, Daphne road her horse, Prince, to a one-room schoolhouse in the Texas Hill Country. 

To her great-grandaughter, Ganzy’s stories are a great gift of love. Some of the stories are are true and clear memories.  Some of the stories have been become tales, enhanced over the years. 

After one of many visits, Daphne’s great-grandaughter and her daughter walk quietly down the hall hand in hand.  The story ends with this conversation, “Ganzy remembers lots of interesting things, doesn’t she, Grandmother?” her great-granddaughter says. “Yes, and some of them really happened.”

Ganzy Remembers

Grandpa Seibold & Suzy Q, 1959

If you missed celebrating Grandparents' Day, yesterday, it is not too late.  Find some time to let your Grandparents know that you love them. Take the time to call and let your Grandparent know that you are thinking of him. Spend some time visiting with a Grandparent. Listen to what she has to say.  Everyone has a story to tell. Write a note or letter to your Grandparents. Tell them why they are special to you. Share your fondest memories with them. Most importantly, tell your Grandparents that you love them.

And if you are a Grandparent, share a gift with the grandchildren. Share your story.

A New Season of Writing ~By Kathy Halsey, Janie Reinart and Suzy Leopold

Don the new lenses over those peepers, GROG readers. Time to go back to school, back to cool. Sunglasses as our logo...gone. Not setting alarm...gone. But cool new "nerdy" glasses, yup that's us. Ready for a close up of collective curiosity? That's us, your GROGers. 

What IS here is sharpened pencils echoing sharper minds...with a definite point. As writers, we need to know our direction, our theme, our new school year resolutions. Yup, it's time to sharpen up our writing, time to delve into craft, maybe even delve into a new genre. 

School may be near or far, depending on your perspective.

From the Desk of Kathy

  Actually, I cleaned up my desk for this shoot. (If this is clean, you shoulda seen it before!)  A new school year means pushing aside clutter and old things and finding something new. We have new foci and news galore for you this  new season. Several of us now have agents. Several of us have nuggets to share about great summer retreats and conferences we attended. We hope you will share your summer news, too, in your comments.

So Happy New School Year! With the new you in a new do or view, I challenge you to do a few risky things, Hey, I am doing them, too. Try a new genre - what can you lose? I am attempting a middle grade and a board book which was inspired by the birth of my granddaughter Rosie. Read a new craft book. I confess I have not read Bird by Bird by Ann Lamont, but we are taking it up on FB in the Word by Word Book Club group, Join us. Finally, make new writer friends this new year. Find out their fav books, their preferred genres, and if they'd swap an ms with you. Bound to energize you. So let's move on to another GROGer and friend, 

 who energizes me... Janie Reinart.

From the desk of Janie

Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious (WRITING) life? ~with thanks to Mary Oliver

 

Make everyday a writing day, with Judy Reeve's A Writer's Book of Days. Named one of the five hottest writing books by Writer's Digest, get going with prompts, inspiration, tips, and techniques. New seasons equals new goals. Even if you set your timer for ten minutes a day. Sit down and write! Post your goals in the comment section. 
 

 Creativity is a type of learning process where the teacher and the pupil are located in the same individual.~ Arthur Koestler

Get inspired with Patti Digh's book Creative is a Verb. "This book is for everyone who courageously creates their life as a work of art, sometimes beautiful, sometimes messy, sometimes painful, sometimes mundane, and always an expression of their unique vision." As life long learners, we grow everyday. We learn from each other. Share with us your favorite books on writing. 

From the desk of Suzy

Suzy Scribes

The calendar page for the month of September is now on display as the new month is well under way. 

September 2014

The Season of Autumn

The last hurrah of summer was celebrated during the Labor Day weekend.  School bells began ringing in August for many students. This week, additional eager, excited learners are seated in classrooms throughout the nation. 

Time for a new season with Back to School.  Time for the first day of Autumn on September 21st. With a new season, comes a new look and focus for our GROG Blog. 

Ride, Suzy, Ride.

Time for a New Season of Writing as we post about the following topics on Monday, Wednesday and Friday:

• Interviews with the GROGgers 
• Guest Posts
• Reading, Writing Teaching and Learning
• Book Reviews and Recommendations
• Travel Tales
• Writing Conferences & Workshops
• Top Ten Lists
• How To for the Craft of Writing
• Prizes and Contests

Read, write and create every day.

And so much more! We are great folks who care about readers and writers. Join us for this new season.

Interview of Nancy I. Sanders on the new release of her Get to Know biographies for kids by Tina Cho

I'm excited to welcome my mentor over the years, Nancy I. Sanders, back to the blog. Nancy's "Get to Know" series of first biographies for kids was published by Zonderkidz in July 2014.

My kids and I were blessed to receive all four biographies to review. I'm using them in our homeschool. As I read them, I thought of questions to ask Nancy because I'm always learning from her writing strategies. You might pick up a few tricks as well.

T: Did you land the contract to write these books BEFORE you wrote them?

N: Yes, I landed the contracts to write these four books before I wrote them. I was contacted by this publisher out of the blue because of two factors: 1)The publisher had seen my nonfiction book, Frederick Douglass for Kids, and liked it so thought I might be a potential author to write these books. 2)The senior editor also recommended my name for the project because I used to work with her as my editor when she was at a smaller publisher.

T: Were these biographies your idea or an in-house idea?

N: These were the idea of the publisher, but they gave me freedom to develop the concept based on the design they wanted to produce. It was very exciting!

T: What kinds of research did you have to do?

N: First, I conducted research to develop/flesh out the concept of the book. I walked through the children's nonfiction section in my local library and grabbed several tote bags full of nonfiction children's books. Then I came home and spread all these books out on my dining room table. I scanned through all of them over the next couple of days and picked out features in each one that I liked the best such as a word bank with definitions at the bottom of most pages, icons for young readers to identify key components in the book, and an illustrated timeline.

Next, I researched what type of research books I needed to use to complete this project. I went on Amazon and also the publisher's website and made a wish-list of reference books I'd need such as encyclopedias of Bible history and biographies of Bible characters both for adult references and children's books. From this I made a list of must-haves and a list of wanna-haves. I talked with my publisher and they were able to provide me with a number of these titles free of charge. (I always ask my publishers for their own titles when I start on a new project and many have been very helpful to send me references to help me on my journey.) Then I decided on a budget that I wanted to invest and bought quite a number of research books (mostly used books on Amazon) as well.

Finally, I developed a rhythm of research, write, edit, research, write, edit that I worked on as I actually wrote the books.

T: Did you have to choose all the photographs, maps, and paintings? If so, how did that work?

N: No, I didn't have to choose all the photographs, maps, and paintings. However, I did recommend potential ones throughout the manuscript, but then the publisher had a team who actually looked for and acquired these. Basically, if I found an image I recommended, I gave the credit line as well as a thumbnail of the image so the publisher could find something similar to what I recommended.

T: How long did it take to write one of these books? How long did you have to write the series?

N: The publisher was on a tight deadline so I had just one month to write each book with a total of four months for all four. This was quite a challenge, and I had to work late into the night and on weekends as well, but all-in-all, it was such an exciting adventure!

T: Will there be more books in this series?

Not sure yet, but I hope so! I'm eager to write more.

Thanks so much, Nancy, for being our guest! Just from the interview, I've picked up great advice, and I hope you have too! 

Nancy & I --4 yrs ago before I moved to Korea

Nancy I. Sanders

Author of nearly 100 books including the ground-breaking how-to book for children's writers: 

Yes! You Can Learn How to Write Children's Books, Get Them Published, and Build a Successful Writing Career

http://yesyoucanlearn.wordpress.com

Author of Jesus, Mary, Apostle Paul, King David, four books in the Get to Know Series of first biographies for kids

Book's site: http://gettoknowbiographies.wordpress.com/
Website: www.nancyisanders.com
Blog: www.nancyisanders.wordpress.com

The Shortcut that Changed My Writing Process: AKA Duh! by Pat Miller

As a novice writer, I thought if I had one or two pieces of the story puzzle, I could write my way into the rest. And I did--over months and months of fruitless writing. It was a long, daunting process. Here’s my former process, and the shortcut that changed everything.

1. First strategy: Start with the ending. When I asked my kindergarteners what animal popped out of its hole on February 2, they were stumped until one blurted, “It’s the armadillo!”

His answer inspired my first book. But all I had was an unexpected character. WHY was an armadillo the forecaster? I thought of numerous scenarios. They were rejected 32 times. Each time the ms. returned, I revised. Once I finally got the beginning locked in, the middle perked up, and manuscript #33, Substitute Groundhog, was accepted by Albert Whitman.

2. Second strategy: Start with the characters. Albert Whitman was looking for holiday books. I flailed around, brainstorming a number of ideas, none of which had any substance. When I thought of the characters from my first book, I knew what they would say and how they would interact. But I still spent months coming up with a variety of unsatisfactory holiday stories in which they starred. Eventually, I got it right, and Squirrel’s New Year’s Resolution was purchased by Albert Whitman.

3. Third strategy: Piggyback on a traditional tale. This one worked because the original tale provided the beginning, middle, and end. Early in the semester, I shared We’re Going on a Bear Hunt with my students, and it donged (as my husband says) on me that this was the perfect pattern for my book on library orientation. It was just a matter of altering the traditional tale to fit the library content. It sold within a week to Upstart Press. I was getting closer to the shortcut.

4. The shortcut! Get all the pieces in place first. I was doing 

some things right, but not consistently or efficiently. I studied my first three books to determine how I could shortcut this ineffectual process. Call me a slow learner, but I made a list of the key story elements. Then I filled them in with my ideas. This time, I wanted to write a fun story about book care. Here’s my plan:

• Characters: Five mischievous monkeys à la Curious George
• Problem: Big sis discovers that her sibs have damaged their books
• Beginning: The five little monkeys are in bed reading together
• Middle: One by one, big sister discovers that her sibs have damaged their books (I listed four common problems)
• Solution/Resolution: Don’t worry, you can…. (book care solutions with Ms. Booker)
• Ending: All is well, with books repaired, lessons learned, until they discover that Big Sis has an overdue book!

After brainstorming all these sections, I was able to use the bouncy rhythm of "Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed" to frame the story. Upstart bought the ms. and published it as story cards.

Knowing ALL the key elements first made the difference. My writing was more targeted. I knew where I was going, who was coming along, and what problems and solutions we would encounter. The actual trip was much easier than my previous strategy of setting out with hope but no map and only a sketchy plan. 

Examine some of your favorite children’s picture books, using this outline. Do you see how everything else falls into place? Sure, this is Writing 101.  But if you didn’t take that class, you may be floundering around like I did. Focus, plan, then write once you have all the elements worked out. Bon voyage!