The Writer's Nightmare - Writing for Children
There comes a time in every writer's life when the words just won't come. Children's authors are no exception. The glare of a blank page is blinding, blocking out any view of plot or inspiration. Characters that used to beg for your attention at ... [... more]
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Challenging Words in Children's Books - Writing for Children
Children love to hear and read new words. Many new children's writers shy away from words that they feel are too difficult for the age group. Take care that this approach does not make the story or non fiction book bland, or that it does not end ... [... more]
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World Building Through Metaphor - Writing for Children
When was the last time you lost yourself in a story? Do you know what Hogwarts looks like? What do you remember about Anne's P.E. Island? How about Narnia? Do you have a feel for that world? Because children want to be taken away from the ... [... more]
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Simple Business Plan for Children's Book Writers - ...
Creating a business plan for your own personal use is relatively easy. Once written, you can use it to increase your productivity, eliminate distractions, and move closer to your goal of writing for children professionally. If you are looking for ... [... more]
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Passive Voice Defined - Writing for Children
Passive voice is to be avoided in writing. Why? Because it's boring. Hmmm. So maybe I should have said, "Writers should avoid using the passive voice." Is that more interesting than the first line I went with? There are "passive voice" [... more]
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Does A Writer Need A Business Plan? - Writing for Children
As a writer, you spend most of your time using your imagination. You happily dedicate hours crafting plots, developing characters, and envisioning worlds that currently exist only at your fingertips. You write, revise, and write again. All with ... [... more]
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Tense Issues - Writing for Children
It didn't use to be much of a problem for novelists. Everyone wrote in past tense. First person past tense, or third person past tense. Yesterday I hit the ball, kicked the cat, and ate the pancakes. Yesterday Timmy hit the ball, kicked the cat, ... [... more]
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When to Use Passive Voice in Fiction - Writing for Children
Passive voice is useful and necessary when you don't know who is acting, when what was done is more important than who did it, and when you want to speed up the narrative. Who crushed the fern? The tracker doesn't know because he wasn't there ... [... more]
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Writing For Today's Tech-Savvy Readers - Writing for ...
There is no doubt that writing for today's children is challenging. A constant stream of information bombards them every day through television, cell phones, websites and iPods. There are DVD's that teach infants about music and math. It doesn't ... [... more]
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Info Dump ~ AKA Author Intrusion - Writing for Children
How do you put in necessary back-story without losing your reader who wants to move forward? Well, instead of using an info dump, I think you should use an info dribble. Just like it sounds. Little bits of info here, and little bits of info ... [... more]
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Seven Deadly Sins in Fiction Writing - Writing for Children
I just got back from a writing conference where I met with a mentoring group for the purpose of critiquing and being critiqued. We were led by Gayle Roper, who has published many books and has a great eye and ear. She caught a pile of mistakes in ... [... more]
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Teaching in Fiction - Writing for Children
We love children. That's why we want to write for them. Unfortunately, that's also part of the reason so many of us start off by cranking out preachy stories--we want to help our young readers. We want to share our wisdom with them. But if the ... [... more]
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