WRITING PICTURE BOOKS—SIMPLY DIFFICULT, part 5/Calls for Submissions

This is the final article of the series, WRITING PICTURE BOOKS—SIMPLY DIFFICULT.

1.                          Add humor. Kids love to giggle. Target the humor to a specific age group. The word “underwear” will make a five-year-old laugh out loud but a toddler won’t grasp the wit. The entire narrative doesn’t have to be loaded with humor. One funny line may be enough. For the best effect, place the humorous section at the end of the sentence.   

2.                          Write the unexpected. Predictability in pictures books can be a worthy format, but the story should not be predictable. Children love to chant repeated phrases, but keep the reader guessing about the plot.  

After completing the first draft, take your writing from simply difficult to simply fun. Play with the words, tweak them, and make them zing.  

Call for submissions for young writers:

Kid's Imagination Train, an ezine for ages 5-12, is now a paying market. Fiction/Poetry is $5.00 and nonfiction articles are $10.00.

Submit manuscript by email.

Details at http://www.kidsimaginationtrain.blogspot.com/

 

Call for submissions for adult writers:

Creative Nonfiction announces an anthology about all things babies, tentatively titled "Oh Baby! True Stories about Tiny Humans."

Deadline:  October 14, 2013

Details at http://www.literarymama.com/blog/archives/2013/08/calls-for-submission-round-up-august.html#sthash.KVb92X91.dpuf

 
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Writing Picture Books--Simply Difficult, part 4/Calls for Submissions

This article is the fourth in the series, WRITING PICTURE BOOKS—SIMPLY DIFFICULT. Tips for writing nonfiction picture books.

Nonfiction literary devices. Creative nonfiction is a genre that uses literary devices often used by poets and fiction writers. The information is factual with a fun and interesting presentation. Biographies are often written in a creative nonfiction style and many have longer text than the typical picture book. Most of my fiction picture books are less than 650 words but my biographies are approximately 1,100 words.

Speak to both the child and the adult. Sometimes, children want a particular book read over and over. If the character is creating chaos, aka misbehaving, develop an appropriate ending. If a lesson is learned, keep it subtle. Didactic stories that stress a message or moral don’t work in today’s market. THE MUNCHED-UP FLOWER GARDEN has a theme of “hard work pays off,” but those words are not in print, just implied.

This article will be continued in next week’s blog.

Call for submissions for young writers:

Letters About Literature Contest. Open to Children 4th-12th grade
Submission deadline for grades 9 to 12- December 10, 2013
Submission deadline for grades 4 to 8- January 10, 2014

Is there a favorite book or poem that changed your life? Why not write to that author and tell him or her just how important it was? Letters About Literature, sponsored by the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress, encourages students to write to authors.

Letters About Literature is a reading and writing contest for students in grades 4-12. Students are asked to read a book, poem or speech and write to that author (living or dead) about how the book affected them personally. Letters are judged on state and national levels. Tens of thousands of students from across the country enter Letters About Literature each year. Winners receive national recognition.

Details at: http://www.literarymama.com/blog/archives/2013/08/two-literature-contests-for-children.html#sthash.seaOeaPI.dpuf

Call for submissions for adult writers:

 Chicken Soup for the Soul is seeking submissions for a number of upcoming potential books. Topics include: Think Positive for Kids, The Dating Game, Miracles, and Multi-Tasking Moms.

Details at: http://www.literarymama.com/blog/archives/2013/08/calls-for-submission-round-up-august.html#sthash.KVb92X91.dpuf

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WRITING PICTURE BOOKS—SIMPLY DIFFICULT, part 3/Calls for Submissions

 This article is the third in the series, WRITING PICTURE BOOKS—SIMPLY DIFFICULT.

1.                      Numbered scenes. Most picture books are 32 pages, but only 28-29 pages are used for text. With double-page spreads, the story is told in 14-15 scenes. After writing your story, divide it into scenes (pieces of action). If you have fewer than 14, revise the manuscript. I number the scenes on the manuscript, but remove the numbers before submitting the story. With each page turn, make the reader wonder what will happen next.

 

2.                      Story problem. Fictional picture books come in all shapes and sizes and cover any topic relevant to a child. The character, usually a child or animal, has a problem and makes multiple attempts to solve the problem. In the end the character that is experiencing the problem needs to figure out the solution. The payoff is when the child/animal wins.

 

This article will be continued in next week’s blog.

Call for submissions for young writers:

River of Words Art and Poetry Contest. Open to children K-12th grade. US submissions deadline- December 1, 2013. International submission deadline- February 1, 2014. Nature has been the greatest source of inspiration for artists and poets since humans began drawing on the walls of caves and singing sagas. Yet despite its importance, environmental and arts education is marginalized in the United States. This sorry scenario is increasingly true in other countries as well. River of Words was founded to give new life to the teaching of art and poetry through watershed exploration. Our innovative Watershed Explorer Educator’s Guide brings together sketching and botany, nature journaling and poetry writing. Students who participate are encouraged to submit their work to our free international art and poetry contest, held annually since 1995 in conjunction with the Center of the Book in the Library of Congress.

Details at: http://www.literarymama.com/blog/archives/2013/08/two-literature-contests-for-children.html#sthash.seaOeaPI.dpuf

 

Call for submissions for adult writers:

A Fairy Tale Magazine. Each month, two works, a story or poem or some combination, will be chosen for publication. The winners will each receive a $25 gift certificate from a place like Amazon. The gift certificate will be through email only and will be in US dollars only.

Details at http://www.fairytalemagazine.com/2011/12/new-guidelines-for-ec.html

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WRITING PICTURE BOOKS—SIMPLY DIFFICULT, part II/Calls for Submissions

Beginning with this blog, I will post markets for both young writers and adult writers each week through May, 2014.

This article is the second in the series, WRITING PICTURE BOOKS—SIMPLY DIFFICULT.

1.                      Word choice. Use action verbs to energize your writing with dramatic impact: “sprint” or “mosey” reveals more than “ran” or “walk.” Read your manuscript aloud. Does the text have a rhythm? Do you hear the music of the words? Use poetic devices, such as similes and metaphors, which are pleasing to the ear. I used the same words—fizzle and sizzle—to produce both nouns and verbs for a lyrical sound in BARRELING OVER NIAGARA FALLS:  When the sizzle fizzled out of teaching music, and the fizzle sizzled out of teaching dance… 

2.                          Think visually. Writers are accustomed to creating worlds with words, but in picture books, we have to consider movement for each scene. Provide a change in the movement in each scene to allow the illustrator opportunities to carry the story beyond the text. Rely on action to tell the story. 

This article will be continued in next week’s blog. 

Call for submissions for young writers:

CREATIVE KIDS MAGAZINE is looking for the very best material by students (ages 8–16). Material may include cartoons, songs, stories between 500 and 1200 words, puzzles, photographs, artwork, games, editorials, poetry, and plays, as well as any other creative work that can fit in the pages of the magazine.

Details at http://www.ckmagazine.org/submissions/

Call for submissions for adult writers:

The Chattahoochee Review. Send via online form. Online Form. Theme: The Animal. Be sure to mention the theme in your cover letter.  

Details at http://thechattahoocheereview.gpc.edu/submissions.htm 

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Writing Picture Books--Simply Difficult, part 1/Call for Submissions

This blog is the first in a series focused on writing picture books, taken from the how-to article, WRITING PICTURE BOOKS—SIMPLY DIFFICULT, I wrote for a national newsletter.

A 400-word book has to be easy to write, right? As readers, picture books appear simple to create; as writers, we find the task simply difficult. Writing picture books takes a unique set of skills, so try these 10 key points to improve your manuscript:

1.  Short text. Picture books are based on a single idea. When I first began writing professionally twenty-four years ago, the average picture book text was 1,000-1,500 words. Not anymore. The sweet spot according to many editors is about 450 words. Deleting unnecessary words is a must in today’s market.

 2.   Audience. Most picture books are designed for young children up through age five. As adults read the words, children read the pictures. The text should be age appropriate for the audience both in language and interest. A five-year-old has a larger vocabulary and is much more likely to be interested in dinosaurs than a two-year-old. Children age six and up are typically exposed to beginning chapter books.

This article will be continued in next week’s blog.

Call for submissions for adult writers:

Suddenly Lost in Words has reopened submissions. This ezine is for readers ages 13+ and is a paying market.

Details at http://suddenlylostinwords.com/submissions

Check out more contests on my blog: http://nancykellyallen.blogspot.com/

Idea Overload, part VI/Call for Submissions

This is the last blog in this series.

If you have more story ideas than you know what to do with, try these tips: 

There is no magic fix for any story. You simply have to keep writing and revising to get the story polished. Good writing comes from rewriting. Sometimes we want to abandon a manuscript for a new idea because we don’t know what to do with the one we’re working on. This happens all the time. Focus on the characters and plot. Concentrate on one idea at a time and how that idea can move the story forward.

Don’t fall in love with your writing. All writing can be improved upon. Instead, fall in love with completing your writing. Getting sidetracked undermines your goal of getting a story completed.

When you finish the manuscript to the point that you have done as much as you can with it, ship it to potential publisher; then begin another project with a shiny, new idea.

Call for submissions for adult writers:

From October 1st, 2013 to December 31st, 2013, The Jim Henson Company and Grosset & Dunlap of the Penguin Young Readers Group will be accepting writing submissions to find the author for a new novel set in the world of Jim Henson’s The Dark Crystal. This author search is open to all professional and aspiring professional writers.

This new Dark Crystal novel will be a prequel story set at the time of the Gelfling Gathering, between the Second Great Conjunction and the creation of the Wall of Destiny. We will be placing all known lore from this era on DarkCrystal.com, the definitive home of The Dark Crystal. There you will find all the knowledge available for you to shape and build your story—and all we ask is that you share your stories with us. 

Your submission should be an original story set in the era outlined above. The final novel will be upwards of 50,000 words, but please send in 7,500-10,000 words that represent the story you would tell in a full-length Dark Crystal novel. It can either be the first chapters, final chapters, a collection of middle chapters, or a short piece that would form the inspiration for a novel-length story.

Details at http://darkcrystal.com/authorquest/

 

 

 

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Idea Overload, part VI/Call for Submissions

If you have more story ideas than you know what to do with, try these tips:

Make a “Writer’s To-Do List.” If you’re working on a manuscript, plan for the next writing session. When you finish for the day, briefly write “continue with chapter 2” or something specific to the plot, such as “loses key.” When you return for the next writing session, you’ll see the to-do note and hopefully, that will keep you focused on the continuation of chapter 2 or writing a scene about losing a key. Know what you’re going to do during the session as soon as you begin.

Work on one manuscript at a time. If you hit a roadblock, try different scenarios to keep the story flowing. The key is to stay focused. Force yourself to complete the manuscript. Four half-finished manuscripts does not equal one finished, polished story. A story cannot be polished unless it’s finished. Editors want a manuscript to be finished before a contract is offered, especially with writers who are not published.

Call for submissions for adult writers:

FrostFire Worlds is a quarterly magazine for younger readers published by Alban Lake Publishing in February, May, August, and November. The first issue was released on 1 August 2013.

Submission guidelines at http://albanlake.com/guidelines-frostfire/

 

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