The Nitty Gritty of Children’s Writing – Page 32

Retreat!

Posted on April 9, 2015 by Susan Uhlig

Recently, I visited Kansas and Missouri friends for a writing retreat where we each worked on our own projects. Four of us were writing and one illustrating. Because this group used to write together once or twice a week, it was easy to fall into a comfortable rhythm. During meal times and evenings we chatted, played games, and chatted some more. Of course, we took breaks for bird watching, stretching our legs, seeing the fish in the pond get fed, etc.
One of the advantages of a retreat like this is limited cell service and limited household chores (only cooking and cleaning up after meals). That meant dedicated time to focus on work. I caught up on a bunch of rewrites I wanted/needed to do and moved forward in my WIP. I saw others doing research, writing, planning a future book, editing, drawing and painting. Work!
Another advantage of a retreat is the shared information. One gal is working on a low residency MFA in children’s writing through Vermont College of Fine Arts. She shared tidbits from lectures. We urged her to get her submission in for an award. We all encouraged another gal not to give up writing. And, of course, we exchanged information about good books–now my “to be read” list is even longer. ☺
A task I was doing was comp titles for a picture book I’d written. One friend asked me how I found them. “I just used Amazon,” I said. I showed her there was a lot of nonfiction on my topic, but only one fiction picture book and it was from the 1980s.
The same gal asked a question about her new Mac (she’s switched from PC) and the result was I and another made changes to our word doc default, too.
So, work, exchanging information, good friends, fun, food, all equaled a great time! The others enjoyed it too and we unanimously decided to repeat the retreat. THANK YOU, Heather Trent Beers, Kate Barsotti, Jenn Bailey and Lisha Cauthen. It was so much fun being with you all.
Recommendations for planning and enjoying YOUR personal creative retreat:

1. Choose people you trust and respect. Everyone at our retreat paid her agreed upon share. I love that my friends were considerate and said to the two of us with knee problems, “take the downstairs bedrooms.”
2. Don’t invite people who do drama. No one fussed about where she sat, slept, what she ate, sharing bathrooms, etc. People drank, or didn’t drink, alcohol as desired, but no one got drunk. A peaceful atmosphere goes a long way to make a productive retreat.
3. Plan at least two full days for work not counting arrival time and departure time. We arrived on a Friday afternoon and settled in and didn’t worry about serious work that day, although we talked about writing and the publishing business. (Of course!) This let everyone unwind. We left Monday morning at check out time–again since we were packing up, no creative work was done. Loved having two solid days of accomplishments.
4. If you’re not used to working with these people, agree on an informal schedule.
5. Bring some fun games or relaxing activities. But if someone wants to continue working when everyone else is recreating, no nagging.
6. Keep your group small enough that you can share a bed and breakfast or retreat cabin/vacation house and be the only guests.
7. Someone needs to be the point person to find and book a venue. We started planning two plus months in advance.
8. Decide whether wi-fi at your location is important to the group or not. We wanted it.
9. Share the food expense, meal planning, preparation and cleanup. The only problem we had was too much food. For example, ladies kept adding items to bring that weren’t on the agreed list, so we had duplicate snack foods, which returned home. (Or choose a venue that provides food, although you’ll still probably want snacks.)
10. Arrange carpooling because it’s a lot of fun to talk while driving, too.

My local writing group and I have been talking about a retreat. I think we need to quit talking and plan!

It's Not Just Books, The Nitty Gritty of Children's Writing

Selling Photos to Magazines

Posted on March 10, 2015January 4, 2025 by Susan Uhlig

photo courtesy of morguefile.com
Do you have your own images that would make a great addition to your article?
Do you know if the magazine you’re submitting to accepts photos?

Since images are often purchased separately, offering photos can increase your rate of pay. However, just as there are rules and guidelines for writing, you’ll find the same for photo submissions.

First, consider:

Do these photos add value to the article or short story? Do they help illustrate or demonstrate the content?
Do you own these photos? You either took the pictures with permission in a private location or they were taken in a public place.
Or, do you have permission of the photo owner to use these images? If so, note photos courtesy of “first name last name.” Your editor may want contact info to verify this permission.
Are they quality photos? Do they have good composition, originality, good color and lighting? Are the images in focus or deliberately out of focus for effect? Are they cropped and/or modified well? Compare your images with pictures in the magazine you’re targeting. Be honest with yourself. Can you see your photo in this magazine?
Do you have a photographer’s release? If the picture shows a recognizable person, the editor may need a copy of this form. Here’s a good site with information on release forms: http://www.free-legal-document.com/sample-model-release.html. You may also search online for model release or photo release to see similar forms.
Does the photo format fit the magazine’s photo guidelines? You’ll find some information in market books, but check the magazine’s own submission guidelines, which are often available online.
What rights you are selling.

How to sell your photos:

1. Find out what format the magazine wants. Yes, it’s so important, I’m repeating it. Formats usually are:
  a. Digital, including number of pixels
  b. Color slides or transparencies
  c. Black and white photos, a size is often specified
2. When submitting a query letter for an article:
  a. Send a sample of the best photo. This can pique an editor’s interest.
  b. Similar to a bibliography, list the photos available with a brief description of each.
  c. Communicate the format of your picture(s) to the editor in a way which shows you know what format the magazine expects.
3. When sending the full article either on spec or by request:
  a. Send a list of the enclosed or attached photos. Include a label for each photo, a brief description, and if the magazine puts captions on photos, possible captions.
  b. When sending by snail mail, put photos in protective sheets, and protect them with cardboard. Don’t send your only copy.
  c. Send a photographer’s release, if the magazine indicates they want one. At least mention you have it available.
  d. Depending on the type of article, you may need to indicate where each photo goes in the article. This can be done simply by putting “(photo #)” in the text and including numbers on your list of photos.
4. Some magazines may be interested in photos of children involved in activities or in photos of animals and plants. They would probably not purchase them outright, but have them on hand to use when needed, or contact you when looking for a specific type of photo.
  a. Send photocopies, tear sheets or other nonreturnable samples.
  b. Include previous photo publishing credits (where your photos have been published before, if any).
5. Never send your only copy of a photo. Photos are usually returned but can get lost or damaged.
6. Label any physical copies with your name and photo identification (name or number).

Sample photo guidelines–note how much they vary and remember they can change at any time:

• U.S. Kids magazines: “We do not purchase single photos. We do purchase short photo features (up to 8 or 10 images) or high-quality photos that accompany articles and illustrate editorial material. Digital format is best with high resolution (300 dpi in an image size of at least 4×6 inches). We purchase one-time rights to photos but reserve the right to use the images on our websites. Please include captions and signed model releases.”
• Nature Friend: “Photographs are selected, month-by-month, based on articles selected that need illustrations, along with a front and back cover photo. What this means to a photographer is that photographs are secondary to writings and cannot be anticipated and selected in advance. Photographic submissions that require us to return material in a specified number of weeks will likely not be useful to us. Photographs that are in our files the day we are making selections will stand the greatest chance of being selected for use.”
• Forest for the Trees: “Cover art submissions should be high-quality professional photographs or scans. Low-quality images will not be considered.”

Just as it is work to sell an article or short story, selling photos takes effort. However, following the guidelines may give you the reward of seeing your own pictures in print.

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

Poor Man’s Copyright, a Myth

Posted on February 9, 2015 by Susan Uhlig

image courtesy of jdurham on morguefile.com

A number of years ago at a writer’s meeting the issue of “poor man’s copyright” was raised as a means to protect your works. Basically the idea is to put your work in an envelope, seal it, mail it and the postmark will “prove” when you wrote it protecting your copyright.
Recently, I heard chatter about this on a listserve, so I updated my research on this topic and am sharing it here.
One of the biggest flaws of this idea is that the postmark and seal prove something.

What is to prevent someone from mailing an UNsealed envelope to themselves? It has a postmark. But since it is unsealed, material can be placed in it at any time–2 months later, 2 years later, 10 years later, then sealed.
Sealed envelopes can be steamed open (and probably opened by many other methods that I don’t know), the material replaced with something else, then resealed.

Read what the copyright office itself has to say:

“When is my work protected?
“Your work is under copyright protection the moment it is created and fixed in a tangible form that it is perceptible either directly or with the aid of a machine or device.”

The Frequently Asked Questions page is very helpful resource. This page has “Copyright Registration of Books, Manuscripts, and Speeches.”
A book recommended by the Author’s Guild is The Writer’s Legal Guide by Tad Crawford & Kay Murray. It is in its fourth printing.
Here are some articles on this topic:
“Poor Man’s Copyright” by Peter Clarke
“Poor Man’s Copyright” by ©opyright Authority.com
“How To Copyright a Book” at Go-Publish-Yourself.com begins with this sentence: “Before learning how to copyright a book, you need to learn how not to copyright book.”
Want to know more?
Some authors may want to consider an intellectual property rights lawyer. I found some information on copyrights here at intellectual-property.lawyers.com. Here’s an interesting post with a Literary Agent Attorney FAQ from Literary-Agents.com.
And here’s a column on copyright written by Linda Kattwinkel, who is an intellectual property rights lawyer.
So now you know–poor man’s copyright, only a myth.

Craft, The Nitty Gritty of Children's Writing

The Right Number of Characters

Posted on December 19, 2014 by Susan Uhlig

picture courtesy of Taylor Schlades on morguefile.com
There’s no magic answer to how many characters you should have in your story, especially if you are writing a novel. But overwhelming readers with the number of characters in a story is not good.
Sometimes the author shares a list of who is in the room–almost like calling roll in a classroom. Does a kid in a classroom care equally about everyone in the room? No. Neither does a reader.
Older students who have different classmates in every class may not even know all their names. They may think of someone as the tall girl or the annoying guy. It’s okay to have nameless walk-on characters in a novel, too.
Sometimes when reading, I can’t keep straight who is who in the cast of characters, which means there are not enough identifying characteristics of these people for me to keep them straight in my head. Or sometimes, it’s too long between when they were last mentioned and I’ve forgotten who they are.
So what’s a writer to do?
First, know every character in your story. If you don’t know anything about someone besides his/her name and possibly gender, how can the reader? What does your main character, usually your viewpoint character, think of this person? Is he a help or hindrance to the main character? Is she a friend or acquaintance or chance met person? Is he important to the plot? How does she change or influence the main character?
Second, learn about the purposes of characters in novels. If two characters serve the same purpose, are both needed? Perhaps not. But how do we determine that?
I realized I was doing this more by “feel,” than by logic or analysis. Therefore, I had to do research. Look at the great collection of articles I found!
Does Your Novel Have Too Many Characters? by Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy
Do too many characters spoil the story?
This article is clear about the types of characters in a novel:
How Many Characters Should You Include in Your Story? by K.M. Weiland @kmweiland
I love the chart example with the characters in this article and plan to try it myself.
How many characters should a novel have? by Robert Wood
Similarly, this piece has some great questions to ask about each character.
Should You Cut That Character? by Margo Kelly, @MargoWKelly
Like many things it’s often hard to see in your own writing if you have too many characters. This is where your critique group or beta readers come in–they can point out where they are confused, or ask what happened to character D who disappeared from a scene, or even suggest how two characters are serving the same purpose.

Craft, Inspiration, The Nitty Gritty of Children's Writing, Tools

What Do You Do When You’re Stuck?

Posted on December 3, 2014 by Susan Uhlig

image courtesy of veggiegretz on morguefile.com

Stuck on your current WIP? Here are some things I do, plus exercises I’ve learned from other people.
If I’m not feeling my character for the current scene, I go back some pages and reread what I’ve already written to get the feel of his or her life.
I’m not an outliner, but I know my main character’s problem well and have an idea of how the problem might be solved. The stories don’t always end how I think they will–I believe that is true for outliners, too. In one work in progress…the kid thinks he is responsible for his mother’s death. At the end, he will realize he was not in control of whether she lived or died. He also will resolve (in his heart) the issue of having disappointed her the day she died. I don’t know exactly how it is all going to happen, but I keep putting him in situations where he has to face what he’s done, face his grief, his regrets.
Talk to your character. In a workshop at Oregon’s SCBWI conference in 2013, Agent Trish Lawrence (EMLA) shared about “nailing your teen in the corner” and finding out what’s going on under the surface. Ask questions on paper and record her answers. Ask “why” questions. Go to the dark places. Try to discover core truths and inner values.
Do research about your setting or your character’s hobby or interests, or problem. In a talk at the 2014 New York SCBWI Conference, author Elizabeth Wein said that uncovering details often provides inspiration. Read her guest post on Authority and Authenticity. Author/illustrator Judy Schachner shared something similar at the 2014 LA conference when she showed us how she uses a journal/scrapbook to paste in pictures and quotes and ideas for her picture book character. As an illustrator as well as a writer, she also draws sketches of her character and tries things out with him.
Go some place different (anywhere, e.g. a doctor’s office, a park, a store, a restaurant) and soak in the environs, then put your main character there and just start writing about him or her being there. Ask yourself, “What would he be thinking?” etc. Don’t worry about your plot, etc. Just see what comes out. Several of us got things that may go into WIPs out of this exercise from a talk by author Elizabeth C. Bunce at a Kansas SCBWI workshop.
Work on another project and let this one simmer until it is bubbling to come out of you… Since I usually have a number of projects I want to work on, this works well for me.
Keep showing up to write. “Good ideas come when we show up,” author Kate Messner said.* Kate has more writing tips on her blog.
Check for action in your story, especially if a middle grade novel. Editor Nancy Siscoe (Knopf) said, “Action is always better than inaction.”* She added that nothing is worse than characters who never do anything.
Be courageous. Keep trying new things. While speaking on courage to write great picture books, Editor Jeannette Larson* reminded us to “do things that might scare you” and to be flexible.
At the fall 2013 SCBWI Oregon retreat, Deb Lund challenged us to “Mine Your Memories“–especially those yucky ones! What hurt you? What scared you? What secrets did you have?
Sometimes writing the next scene just doesn’t seem possible. Write a later scene in the story and worry about how to connect them later.
Maybe you’re worried too much about length. Don’t worry about how long or short it is; just work on what happens next.
Ask yourself questions about your main character’s problem. What’s stopping him from reaching his goal? Or arriving at a solution? How can you make it worse before it gets better? How can you raise the stakes? Will she get what she wants? Once at a writer’s event, I heard someone say “push the main character off the cliff and see what she does.” 😉
What do YOU do when you are stuck?
*at the 2014 New York SCBWI Conference