The Hook, the Hook, in a Picture Book

As writers, we all know that our stories must have a hook, something to grab our readers' attention. If we don't use a hook, they may not continue past the first chapter, page, paragraph, or even the first sentence. But a hook is more than just an attention getter. It's a page turner. Writers of chapter books and novels use end-of-chapter hooks to make the reader want to continue to the next chapter. They want to see what happens.

How can picture book authors use this hook? Easy! It's called a page turn. In its simplest form, it's really just the element of story coming into play. If you care about the character, then you will want to know what will happen next. Picture books are short. You turn the page approximately 14 times. It's like having 14 mini chapters! Granted, we don't get to choose where the page turn will occur, but it IS good practice to write your book with at least an idea of where you think the page turns will occur. To do this, you can use a storyboard.

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How to Analyze a Picture Book with a Story Board

>>> DOWNLOAD FREE TEMPLATE <<<

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Ways to create a hook, or page turn, in a picture book:

• Use plot structure to enhance curiosity about what will happen next.
• Use questions in the text.
• Create questions in the minds of your readers.
• Put MC in an uncomfortable situation.
• Have MC take action to solve a problem. (This is a surefire way to ask "What do you think will happen?")
• Introduce a new problem.
• Twist the plot some more.
• Show MC emotions. (This brings the question WHY into play. Readers will turn the page to find out.)

It's not something you HAVE to consciously be aware of at ALL TIMES, but you should keep it in the back of your mind. Write your story first, then tweak it from there. And most importantly, have FUN!

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How to Analyze a Picture Book with a Story Board

>>> DOWNLOAD FREE TEMPLATE <<<

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How to Get More Followers

With only 43 followers, I'm hardly one to give advice on the matter. But I would like to share what I've learned. I guess first and foremost, is have great content. But that's not what this is about today.

FOLLOW OTHERS. Ever since Rachael Harrie's Crusade, I've been wondering how to get more followers. I'm sure we've all heard to read other blogs and make lots of comments. It's often the old "you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours" policy, aka "paying it forward." I started my blog in February (for all intents and purposes) and have been looking for other writerly blogs to follow ever since. Two of the first blogs I followed belong to some great gals in my critique group, Julie Hedlund's Write Up My Life, and Alison Stevens' Wistful Wanderings. Every time I found a blog I liked and wanted to read more of, I saved it in a folder in my favorites, titled BLOGS. Last month, I thought, "Wow, my list is really growing." Since Rachael's Crusade, and since I started using twitter (which happened somewhat simultaneously), my following has been growing. Thanks for being my fellow leprechauns! We are searching for that pot of gold together, i.e. publication.

IT TAKES TIME. If you actually have a goal of growing your followers, (which many of us may not care, but some of us like to know we're reaching someone and actually being heard) know this: it takes time. A lot of time. It takes time for the word to spread. Eventually over time, you'll reach 100, 1000, or more followers. But it can also take a lot of time up front, especially if that's your goal. Apparently, it's mine, since I'm doing all this stuff. Anyway, plan to spend a whole day, or even a whole week, actively searching for others to follow.

SEARCH THROUGH THE LISTS. Search people's blog followings. If you like one person's blog, chances are you will like a few of the one's that they follow, too. You can click on names in others' comment sections and often find a blog that way. If you've been tagged for, or read about, an award, you can search through that list of bloggers for a few gems. If you've seen the blog hop that I joined, you can search through those as well. You can find blogs by doing Google searches on specific subject material. Again:

• blog followings
• names in comments
• blog award folks
• blog hops
• Google searches
• favorite authors
• people on twitter

Again, this IS time consuming! But it's also fun and educational.

GET ORGANIZED. After a while, I got tired of trying to remember which blogs I had visited and tired of clicking in my favorites and going down the list. I said, "I'm going to put my most favorite bloggers on my blog and just go to those few each week. My goal was to read five blogs a day and comment on three. Very doable, right? Now that I have even more blogs to read, that doesn't seem like nearly enough! How about 30 minutes, an hour? Well, in the midst of trying to organize my favorites, I keep finding lists to go through and even more blogs to follow. Last week, I discovered a blog post that I can't seem to find now. But in it, I learned (finally) what an RSS feed is. I discovered Google Reader! A reader is a place you can go to subscribe to blogs. You can read them all in one place and not have to search and click on each blog separately. The reader will even tell you when you have read each post. It suggested to not let the entries get above 200. Otherwise, it becomes overwhelming. You can also mark them all as read and start fresh if that happens. If you click on the post title, it will open the blog in a new window and you can make a comment. If you have Google Reader (AND the Google Chrome browser), and you want to follow Wordpress blogs, make sure you download the RSS extension so the feed link will work properly. Now I just need to decide which blogs truly are my favorite. There are so many to choose from.

CONSIDER FOLLOWING MORE THAN ONE "GROUP." So everyone reading this is obviously interested in writing. But what else? Cooking? Chess? Dogs? Whatever your passions are, you can sometimes find a way to make it connect to writing. If you follow a few of those passions (and bloggers of such), then maybe some of them will follow you back. For me, (I'll eventually get organized) the blogs I follow will be categorized as: writers, teachers, parents, lds, and misc.

VISIT THE LOST ART OF BLOGGING. Here are ten more ways to gain followers. This is THE BEST blog for bloggers on how to blog well, etc. It has a wealth of information! An absolute must! He (they?) suggest to also write a post on what RSS is and how to follow/subscribe to someone. That's what I needed. Lots of readers don't know about the "Readers." So guess what? That's an upcoming blog post for me...

Picture Books vs. Picture Storybooks

As I navigate through shelves of PB's and books about how to write PB's, I am slowly learning that it is easy to turn something simple into something not-so-simple. I have a few posts on PB's already. The *asterisk indicates ones that mention word count.

• How to Study, Analyze, or Dissect a Picture Book
• *Picture Book, Length, Differences and Word Count
• PB Vocabulary (actual title is Word Choice in Picture Books, part 1)
• 10 Ingredients for a Great Picture Book
• Picture Book vs. Short Story
• *Nonfiction Fun
• 6 Tips on Writing Picture Books

Wow! I didn't know I had that many. 

HOW MANY CATEGORIES ARE THERE? As I continue to read and study about types of PB's and recommended word lengths, I wonder who is right. I think there is a lot of overlapping info. Here's my latest discovery and interpretation. In the 2010 Book Market for Children's Writers, the index lists three categories: Early Picture Books, Picture Books, and Story Picture Books. I had originally thought it to be three completely separate categories, but now I'm beginning to rethink this one. Some of you may think that I'M the one making this difficult by over analyzing this, but that's okay by me. NOW, I wonder if there are just TWO main groups, Early PB's (2-5) and Story PB's (4-8). And the "regular" PB's encompass both of those categories (2-8). So my new concensus is that publishers who publish PICTURE BOOKS do BOTH kinds!

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EARLY PICTURE BOOKS. This category is often simply called a picture book, as Aaron Shepard describes in his book, The Business of Writing for Children. When publishers talk of pb's, they are probably talking about this group. Especially when the "new word count" is considered to be no more than 500. Children under two will be squirming by 500 words, if they even make it that long. But 2-5 year olds (what I had deemed as Early PB's) can sit still for longer periods of time. According to Ann Whitford Paul (among others), the average manuscript page contains about 200 words. A PB for this age child should be about 2-5 ms pages, or 400-1000 words (although she said 400-900 and looks for ways to cut when it gets to 700 words). Shepard says a typical ms page is 250 words and the number of ms pgs for this age pb is two to four, or 500-1000 words.

CHARACTERS AREN'T COMPLICATED

When you have a story to tell, there's always a problem to solve. And the character has to solve it himself. Let's say you know what the problem is, but you as a writer do not know the solution. So, turn to your character.

Think of these questions:

• How does your character react to certain situations?
• What is your character's deepest darkest secret?

Put your character in a situation that will bring out his or her biggest fear. Write about the character's reaction. This will tell you a little more about your character.

Think about how people solve problems in real life. Depending on the situation, you may do one of the following. Which would be most believable for your character?

• he will try figure out the problem all by himself
• he will go to others to ask for help
• he will hide from the problem until he is no longer able to do so
• he will fight the problem head-on, perhaps without even thinking about it

Your character will likely be drawn to behave in one way over the others. When you look at it this way, you may begin to see the solution to the problem and how it needs to be worked out. In my toothfairy book, I knew right away that she would ask others for help.

In Ann Whitford Paul's Writing Picture Books, she shares her secret formula for doing a character sketch for picture books. She says five things are necessary for us to know.

1. Your character's name. Don't be too cutesy, too alliterative (esp. w/animals), too similar, too hard to pronounce, or too confusing.
2. Time of the story (era), and age of child. Make sure words used in a story set in 1800's aren't words distinctive of today. Think about the characteristics of the age of your character. Are they developmentally accurate?
3. Appearance. Make a note to yourself about what your character looks like. It will affect how you write about her. I imagine Paprika Picante being a red-headed Hispanic with lots of freckles and wild and crazy hair. But that's totally up to the illustrator. Still, it will help the story be stronger.
4. Relationships with others. Names and qualities of family, friends, and others. What are they like? How much can you write down about each of them. The majority of this won't find it's way into the book, but it will help you to write the book.
5. Personality. Finally, the most important one. Explore your character's strengths, weaknesses, attitudes, fears, obsessions, talents, and hobbies. Think about voice, style, and idiosyncrasies.
6. Bonus 1: "What has brought the character to this point in the start of the story?" Describe what happens BEFORE the story actually begins.
7. Bonus 2: "What does the main character want?" And what must he overcome?

So there you have it, characters aren't that complicated at all, now are they? Now go create a compelling character!

A BLOG HOP

Hop around and find the best blogs for YOU! We're all writers on this path toward publication.

Book Fairs

I recently bought four new books from school book fair, you know, Scholastic. Two paperback and two hardback. I thought they might make great Christmas gifts. There were so many more books I wished I could have gotten. Money is always an issue. I can't buy the whole fair. As much as I really wanted to get about 15 books, I couldn't. Since I don't have my own classroom, I struggled with the question of getting some books for my future classroom, or getting books for my own two children. I opted for the latter. But I couldn't help but take notice of several books that would be great for the classroom, two of which I bought:

• I bought Steve Jenkins' latest, Bones, for my son. It would double nicely as a reference in a 3rd grade classroom (in NC, anyway).
• I finally got to read 14 Cows for America by Carmen Agra Deedy. It's about a true story of compassion after 9-11. Classroom teachers can teach Character Education and Social Studies in a world view.
• Shante Keys and the New Year's Peas by Gail Piernas-Davenport is about a girl that is looking for some black-eye peas, and learns of other cultures and their New Year's traditions. Also told in rhyme. Great for Social Studies and Holidays.
• I also bought Poles Apart, Life at the Ends of the Earth by Dr. Mark Norman. Did you know that polar bears and penguins will never meet each other in the wild? Do your kids know this? I am fascinated with Arctic animals and have two books in the works about such.

I also bought Leslie Helakowski's Big Chickens Fly the Coop. It is so good. Hilarious. Lots of threes. Very good word play and vivid action verbs. I remembered seeing Big Chickens at Books-A-Million about a month ago, but I didn't buy it. So a few days after the Scholastic Fair, I went to to the bookstore to find it, but it was already gone! Good grief, Charlie Brown. There are actually three in the series. Maybe I should put the other two on my Christmas Wish List. Leslie Helakowski also wrote Woolbur. So now she is on my Favorite Authors list. I also went to a used bookstore and bought two more picture books. 

Are your kids getting books for Christmas this year?

100th Blog Post!!!

It's been seven months and I finally wrote my 100th blog post!!! So how to celebrate? 100 random things about me? 100 accomplishments in my writing career? 100 picture books I've read? A mixture? Wanna take a vote? Too bad. I think I choose...a mixture! So here goes:

1. In 1999, I received my BA degree in Creative Writing.
2. I have a three-legged dog named Cocoa. She is a Treeing Walker Coonhound.
3. During college, I also took four separate writing correspondence courses.
4. Evelyn Coleman autographed a book for me.
5. In 2007, I received my K-6 teaching license.
6. I started collecting picture books during college, long before I had children.
7. In the summer of 2009, I was bitten by the writing bug again.
8. My older sister started it.
9. In Sept. '09, I had an idea explosion.
10. The longest I ever worked in one job was 6 and a half years.
11. In Sept. '09, I started a blog.
12. My other sister is an artist.
13. In Dec. '09, I joined CBI, The Children's Book Insider, i.e. The Fightin' Bookworms.
14. My third sister is getting married this Saturday.
15. In Jan. '10, I joined a critique group.
16. If I had to be locked in a room of a school for a day, I would choose the library.
17. In Feb. '10, I made a second blog post.
18. When I was a kid, my favorite colors were tan and pink.
19. In April, I did my first Author's Visit.
20. The best lightning storm I ever saw was in southern Wyoming.
21. In April, I attended a writer's conference, the Children's Writer's Bootcamp.
22. My favorite colors now are based on the object. Shoes, purses, dogs? Black or brown. Cars? Blue or silver. Flowers? Red, purple, orange. Clothes? Neutral colors, browns, greens, blues.
23. In June, I joined twitter to be a part of Picture Books Only.
24. I collect four-leaf clovers.
25. When I was in the 3rd grade, my teacher would give me a seashell every time I found a four-leaf clover for her.
26. I didn't visit the ocean until I was 16.
27. In July, I had made a total of six tweets.
28. I didn't get my driver's license until I was 18.
29. In August, I attended WriteOnCon.In August, I made four more tweets.
30. I have hazel-green eyes.
31. On Sept. 10, I mailed out my first manuscript!
32. I tried sushi for the first time about 5 years ago.
33. I LOVE barbecue eel sushi!
34. Last week, I made my 100th tweet!
35. I probably have 100 four-leaf clovers in my LUCKY box.
36. I have 30 followers on my blog.
37. I collect cool boxes and creative containers.
38. I have 60 followers on twitter.
39. I hope I publish 60 books before I die.
40. I had 10 of you participate in my book giveaway contest.
41. I'll probably have 10 more.
42. I'm signing up with The Institute of Children's Literature to take the Advanced Writing Course.
43. I am working on 7 books right now.
44. One of my books is written in rhyme. Wonderful days for when I had time.
45. Four of my books are set to songs.
46. One of the 7 books is nonfiction. (Actually a lot more, just not working on them RIGHT NOW.)
47. My husband may join the Reserves.
48. When I was 7, my sister and I got yelled at for playing frisbee inside of Roses.
49. I used to look in the floor for beads that spilled out from open packages.
50. I never snuck out of the house.
51. I've never tasted alcohol.
52. I love to dance.
53. My husband doesn't.
54. I have passwords for about 70 different websites.
55. I still want to finish my YA novel, even if it's never published.
56. I wrote the first half during college.
57. I'm a registered voter - unaffiliated. 
58. I used to read the dictionary every day. I never made it through the A's.
59. I have won at least 5 contests in my life.
60. I tend to be a procrastinator.
61. I love to run.
62. I haven't run in nearly a year.
63. I have run two full marathons (26.2 miles each). One was for the Leukemia/Lymphoma Society.
64. I ran in the Cooper River Bridge Run, a 10K (6.2 miles) in Charleston, SC.
65. I collect seashells.
66. I love living in the mountains.
67. My favorite adult author is Lori Wick.
68. I'd rather read a picture book than a chapter book, MG novel, or YA novel ANY DAY!  
69. It's not that hard to be considered as part of the top 5% of unsolicited submissions.
70. I already have activities planned for book signings and library visits for 7 of my books.
71. I want to write a chapter book or a MG novel, but the character won't share his problem with me, or let me know where he belongs.
72. My step-son, C.J., is 19 and is in the Army National Guard Reserves.
73. My parents are divorced.
74. My son, Shawn, collects insects.
75. He's also good at gymnastics.
76. My daughter loves to dance. Sometimes we all dance together.
77. I'm a bicentennial baby.
78. I don't know all of the Presidents.
79. I've been to Alaska and Hawaii, but never New York, Florida, or Louisiana.
80. I'm addicted to chapstick.
81. I spend too much money on books.
82. I'm a Latter-day Saint (i.e. "Mormon").
83. There are over 40 LDS publishers.
84. I don't wear make-up. It takes too much time.
85. I only get my hair cut twice a year. I always wear it up.
86. I know how to play Chess.
87. I have a secret recipe for blackberry cobbler. One year, I'm going to enter it into the state fair.
88. I wear sandals in the winter.
89. I have only one pair of high heels. They're silver.
90. I used to have a motorcycle. I sold it and bought a Kirby vacuum cleaner. 
91. I have a motorcycle endorsement on my license. I used to sell Kirby vacuums (for 3 months).
92. I own at least 30 books that I have never read.
93. I am setting up my first online author visit with a school in CA via Skype.
94. I RARELY watch TV.
95. I had a poem published in the local paper when I was in high school. It rhymed. It was called "Machiavellian." The paper renamed it "A Poem About Politics."
96. The first two lines are: "A poem of politics is a plate of pea soup/ Muddled and messy, all mushed into a group."
97. I've written many stories that will never be published.
98. I had to get glasses in the 8th grade.
99. I never had braces.
100. I have read over 100 picture books in the last year.

Ninety-nine Bottles of Sprite on the Wall

This title celebrates my 99th blog post. On Wednesday, I'll celebrate the 100th! All week long, I struggled with how to create a writing plan, a schedule, a routine, an action plan. I finally have a plan. And I'll try to share with you how you can map out your own.

First, how much time do you have available? Don't think daily, think WEEKLY. Since I don't work right now (hopefully I'll get a part-time job soon), I am giving myself 23 hours a week. Of course when I get a job, that will drastically decline to maybe 15 (hopefully that much).

Make a list of all the writing-related things you participate in. Your list may be completely different from mine. You may arrange it differently and include items in different categories. For me, I listed:

• writing (includes revisions, ideas, research in the midst of writing)
• blogging (includes my own blog posts, reading others' blogs, commenting on blogs, and other networking such as twitter)
• critiquing (spending time to critique others' manuscripts in my critique groups, and of course the winners of my monthly picture book writing contest)
• marketing (researching the market of publishers and editors by studying picture books, market books, websites, and catalogues; also time in libraries and bookstores count)
• studying craft (reading picture books, copying picture books, studying picture books, reading books about how to write picture books, and reading about individual writing craft such as plot, character, etc.)

For all writers, writing should be the number one item in which you consistently participate. Next would probably be craft and marketing. Decide for yourself what is most important. Technically, I started this blog a year ago, Sept. '09. But I "changed" it to February, because that's when my second blog post was! So I have about four months until my Blogiversary! Taking a five-month break after only one blog post is hardly being consistent. The key to anything is consistency. 

Look at your schedule and see how much you can fit in each day. Plan it by the week. Here's my breakdown of hours spent per week and the percentage of the 23 hours:

• writing 10 hours a week (43%) - 5 days
• blogging 6 hours a week (26%) - 5 days
• critiquing 2 hrs (9%) - 1 day (Tuesdays)
• marketing 2 hrs (9%) - 1 day (Thursdays)
• craft 2 hrs (9%) - 1 day (Wednesdays)
• ...and a planning review session 1 hour (4%) - 1 day (Sundays)

Sundays - 1 hour

Mondays - 3.5 hrs.

Tuesdays - 5 hrs.

Wednesdays - 2 hrs.

Thursdays - 5 hrs.

Fridays - 3.5 hrs.

Saturdays - 3 hrs.

Most importantly, it's up to you to find a schedule that will work for you. Maybe you don't like schedules. I have been writing A LOT over the last year, and it's taken me this long to realize that I finally need a schedule. If you do too, I hope this helped. 

If you work full time, this is still doable. Write 15 minutes a day! Make it a top priority. Don't blog. It's time consuming. But if you love it and you can squeeze it in, by all means blog away! Spend 30 minutes a week EACH on marketing, and craft. I'd say that's minimum. Hopefully, all of us can find at least 3 hours a week to spend on writing and writing-related things. Think of each 15-minute session as another mile passed to reach your writing goals. OR you could count backwards: 98 bottles of Sprite on the wall...