The Nitty Gritty of Children’s Writing – Page 22

Truths, Principles, and Wisdom

Posted on November 29, 2018 by Susan Uhlig

Some favorite articles/blog posts/essays about writing I’ve read recently along with appropriate quotes for each section.
WRITING IN GENERAL
“Forget all the rules. Forget about being published. Write for yourself and celebrate writing.” – Melinda Haynes
“25 Truths About the Work of Writing” by Greer Macallister

25 Truths About the Work of Writing

“3 Principles for Finding Time to Write” by Jane Friedman

3 Principles for Finding Time to Write

SOCIAL MEDIA
“Use your social media to create long-term connections with readers and authors alike. Engage with followers in an organic way without constantly peddling your wares.” – Saritza Hernandez
“Is Tweeting a Must for Authors?” by Dear Editor aka Deborah Halverson http://deareditor.com/2018/10/re-is-tweeting-a-must-for-authors/
Children’s Book Authors Are Selling More Than Books. They’re Taking a Stand.
by Maria Russo

PICTURE BOOKS
“A picture book must have lots of potential for illustration. If nothing much changes visually in the story, then it may not be a good fit for a picture book.” – Kim Norman
Darcy Pattison and Leslie Helakoski-“How Do You Know If You’ve Written a Picture Book?”

Darcy Pattison & Leslie Helakoski: How Do You Know If You’ve Written a Picture Book?

Word Banks for Picture Books – “At a Loss for Words? Try Making a Word Bank by: Barb Rosenstock for Sherri Jones Rivers” https://groggorg.blogspot.com/2018/10/at-loss-for-words-try-making-word-bank.html
NOVELS
“Make your novel readable. Make it pleasant to read. This doesn’t mean flowery passages; it means strong, simple, natural sentences.” – Laurence D’Orsay
“The Process of Novel Writing: Transitions” by Jan Fields at the Institute for Writers – a newsletter you may want to subscribe to
https://www.instituteforwriters.com/the-process-of-novel-writing-transitions.aspx
“Use Theme to Determine Subplots, Supporting Characters, and Tension” by Becca Puglisi

Use Theme to Determine Subplots, Supporting Characters, and Tension

Do you have some favorite articles to share? Please put them in the comments.

Looking Everywhere

Posted on October 22, 2018July 1, 2022 by Susan Uhlig

I’ve done it myself and seen other writers do it too–have characters look up, down, around, at someone or something, etc. Many, many, many times. And changing the words from look to gaze, stare, watch, or what other synonym you can find, doesn’t improve the writing much. On a discussion board a writer said, “Just did a search of ‘look’ on my main story, and I’ve used it 600 times across 200 pages.” That’s three per page! Unfortunately, the writer didn’t get much helpful advice. (You can read the conversation here if you’re interested.)
Deborah Halverson of DearEditor.com taught me, “Stop looking.” Instead we can show setting, character, etc. by using other actions.
What is something your main character does habitually? Or what nervous habit does he have? A character might play with the zipper pull of his jacket (indicates something about what he is wearing, jingle her keys or coins (which gives us a nice sensory detail), or twist his long hair and tuck it up under a beany (character description plus clothing item).
What can a character do besides look at what’s around them? React in some way. She might bark a cough in the dusty air (sensory and setting detail), run his thumbnail over the rough spot on the surface of the table (sensory and setting, plus possibly revealing the character’s attention to detail), or sniff at the fragrance of cinnamon and apple from the pie cooling on the counter (sensory that might indicate hunger and makes my mouth water versus someone simply looking at a pie cooling on the counter).
Writing a novel should not include stage direction. I suspect in screenplays that minor aspects such as “looking” are left to the actor to figure out. Your readers will figure this out, too. For example: My dog just asked to go out. I looked at her. I looked at the lock on the slider door to unlock it. When I opened the door to let her out, I looked outside. When I closed the door, I looked at the lock to lock it. Argghh. It’s all true, but painful reading. Instead I might write something like this: My dog whined to go out. I unlocked the slider and opened it for her. Cold air rushed into the house from the gray fall morning. I used some sensory details, so it is more interesting. You know I looked outside because I told you what it looked like, but I didn’t use the word look. I didn’t need to.
Avoid the mundane in our writing. When a character talks to someone, unless we point out that they can’t or aren’t doing so, they are probably looking at the other person. The assumption doesn’t need to be reinforced. It’s ordinary. And even if the character isn’t, is it important enough to say so? Similarly, in my last example, a reader will assume that the dog and I walked to the door without me stating it.
Does that mean a writer should never use the word look? Of course not. But like in many areas of our writing, we don’t want to be lazy. Use it where needed. But you’ll probably find on close examination (during revisions) that the verb isn’t needed near as many times as you have used it.

Business Side of Writing, The Nitty Gritty of Children's Writing, Tools

How Excel Can Help Creatives

Posted on September 14, 2018February 28, 2021 by Susan Uhlig

I’ve talked several times about writing expenses and income, and often share my spreadsheet templates via email. (See posts here and here.) But this time I decided I should share them for free downloading.

The first is an expense template–this will work for writers or illustrators: Expense Template. Feel free to customize how it best works for you. I initially set this up based off of Schedule C, and still find it helpful when using TurboTax. It is set up to do automatic calculations for each month, and then monthly totals are transferred to the year-end sheet. It also has two extra sheets where I keep track of use of cars and equipment depreciation, and cost of goods sold.

I also have an income template: Income Template

But is that it? Is Excel only for numbers? I don’t find it so. Some of the useful spreadsheets I have are a writing day log and a critique group log. These show dates, where we met, and who I met with. These are backups for my expense sheets and make for easy comparisons versus searching all my emails for when and where we agreed to meet. Here are those templates: Critique Meeting Log Template
Writing Day Log Template

I also have two excel spreadsheets related to agents. One has agent information I’ve collected from sites and newsletters. (These are agents I think I might want to submit to.) Each agent gets their own tab (sheet) and I add more information and updates as I find it. I could use a Word Table as well for this, but entries get pretty lengthy.

The other spreadsheet is for agents who have rejected me. It includes name, agency, date, and form or personal rejection. I’m querying on a specific manuscript right now, but that could be info for another column. A Word Table would probably work as well.

Some people use spreadsheets for submission info. That could be for all submissions or for a specific manuscript.

If you don’t have Excel, consider Google Sheets–a great alternative. Though I mostly use Sheets for collating info from a Google Form I’ve created. Google Sheets are handy when you need to share a spreadsheet with someone else so you can both work on the same sheet. As soon as one makes a change, the info is updated.

The Nitty Gritty of Children's Writing, Tools

Cutting Back on the Feed

Posted on August 16, 2018 by Susan Uhlig

List serves, newsletters, blog posts, and social media can become a firehose blast of information. I love using them when I need inspiration or motivation to write. I search for info when I have questions or want more information on a topic. And I follow editors and agents to see what they are interested in and what they are talking about. But how do you know if you are involved in too much?
The answer will be different for each creative person at different times. At the beginning, we all have a lot to learn. A beginner should probably spend more time on absorbing information, learning craft, learning how the business works, and examining what is in the market now. Seasoned writers/illustrators should have a background of understanding–not that they can’t learn more–so should spend less time. However, it all depends on your purpose for subscribing, joining, participating, reading, etc.
Here are some ideas to consider:
How much time a day do you spend on the following: taking in the feed of information, the business of writing/illustrating, creating, and revising? Your answers may be different each day, so you might need to chart a week or two to see what is actually happening. Be honest with yourself.
Is your schedule regularly out of balance? Whatever that balance should be for you, of course.
Do you have certain times that are dedicated to creating and/or revising? Are you allowing other things to interfere with those times?
Do you have too much to read in your allotted time? Or are you overwhelmed by how much there is?
Is some of the information not as valuable as it once was?
Are you learning something new?
Would receiving a list serve in digest format cut down on the number of emails sent from that group?
Do you need/enjoy the socialization you’re getting or is it a drag on you mentally?
What are your current goals? You could be in a submission phase, so creating less, and that would be okay.
Are you actually creating? Are you making excuses for not creating? (ouch!) Or procrastinating? Chuck Wendig said, “Here are the two states in which you may exist: person who writes, or person who does not. If you write: you are a writer. If you do not write: you are not.”
Answering these questions for yourself can help you determine if you need to adjust the feed. As Brooke Warner says, “For those of you dealing with too much too much too much, spend some time prioritizing.” (From the post 3 Ways Writers Get Overwhelmed – and What to Do about It.)
My Coping Mechanisms:
Periodically I go through and unsubscribe from newsletters and blogs that I realize I’m not reading. Sometimes, I delete any nonpersonal posts over two months old. At times my life is too busy and I know something must go permanently, so I ruthlessly cut the “I would like to” reads and the “interesting, but not necessary” online writing groups.
In the past I’ve set myself a schedule allotting time for the tasks I want to complete. The only one that was allowed to exceed the scheduled time was creating. Some writers use a timer or install an app that nags. This can be to remind you to quit or to remind you to keep going.
Re-evaluation is necessary for me as life and creative needs change.
What are your coping mechanisms? Feel free to share in the comments.

Business Side of Writing, The Nitty Gritty of Children's Writing

More on Writing Expenses plus Income

Posted on June 10, 2018January 4, 2021 by Susan Uhlig

I decided it was time to add to what I’ve learned about keeping track of writing business expenses. You can see my initial post here.
First, I have a checking account dedicated to my writing business. This makes it easy to use my writing account debit card for business expenses. My expenses still go into a spreadsheet, but I have easy backup and confirmation with those debits on my banking statement.
Same goes for income. Writing income gets deposited into that account (or it’s related savings account). I’ve also got an income spreadsheet which shows what I earned. It includes when, where and/or what, and I have them classified by categories such as my teaching income for the Institute of Children’s Literature (ICL), book royalties or flat fees, magazine and online articles/stories, critiquing, and speaking. Having a column for an entity such as ICL makes it really easy to compare the total to my 1099 after year end.
But the last few years I started some additional spreadsheets to help me keep track of mileage expenses. One is a writing day/morning spreadsheet. It shows date, where we met, and who I met with. The second is a critique group spreadsheet. Besides the previous information, it also shows what manuscript I brought for critique, or if none, it says NA. This adds validation to my expense spreadsheet and gives me a double-check. If I start looking at either of these sheets and see blank spaces where there shouldn’t be, I check my email since most of our arrangements for these meetings are confirmed via email. And I throw those emails into a “Finances” folder. Again, backup if I ever get audited.
And speaking of mileage, each year at the beginning of the year I note the mileage on my car in a spreadsheet. For example, in 2017 the total mileage for my little car was 4704. (As a family we drive the other car most of the time.) 1274 miles were writing related! The total mileage and business-related mileage are questions the IRS wants answers to. It’s good to be prepared before you go to fill out the tax form.
Back to my debit card. Someone once asked me about the validity of using my writing account for beverages at a coffee shop when I’m having a writing day. Or a meal for another type of writing event. If I stayed home, I would not have those expenses. The IRS only allows 40% of those expenses deducted. But 40% helps. For example, in 2017 I had almost $500 in meal expenses. The majority were for out-of-town trips. 40% of $500 is $200 deducted.
Something unavailable to us in 2013 when I wrote my original post was email receipts. Many restaurants and businesses will now email you your receipt or at least offer that option. I’ve found a number of coffee shops use Square which automatically emails the receipt based on my debit card number. I just have to update the info when I get a new card.
I also have a separate PayPal account for writing related income and expenses. This is very helpful when I’m collecting from individuals for paid critiques or editing. It shows the payment from my client and the fee for receiving payment via PayPal. But then I don’t have to worry about a stranger’s check bouncing after I do the work. (Although I do collect 50% in advance when I haven’t worked with someone before.)
It’s work to keep track of all this information, but I’ve definitely found if I keep up on it, it’s not very time-consuming. And since spreadsheets can be set up to do automatic calculations, it sure makes tax time easier.
If you have any tips to share, I’d love to hear them. Just enter them in the comments.