Demystifying Genres
This month the Institute of Children’s Literature Writers’ Support Room features Lisha Cauthen - Wednesday critique regular, KSCBWI Scoop editor and bloggess extraordinaire. Check out Lisha in action here!
Great job, Lisha!
Gorillas and Conflict and Stinkin’ Modifiers, Oh My!
Block off March 21 on your calendar. You won’t want to miss the latest Writers at Work series
Stay in the Phone Booth with the Gorilla:
Tired of boring yourself when you write? Have you ever begun a story full of enthusiasm, only to lose interest after a few chapters…or paragraphs? Wonder what your favorite author knows about page-turning prose that you don’t?
Join Daniel Schwabauer and the Kansas Society for Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators as we pile into the phone booth with a 600 pound gorilla. Watch the fur fly during workshops designed to help you keep your readers locked in the death-grip.
Get more information or download a registration form at the Kansas SCBWI Website.
Writing Quiz
Several years ago I questioned whether I was meant to write. I was satisfied with nothing and had tried many different writing avenues without success or satisfaction, yet I still felt driven. So if I had to write, what should I focus on? What were my strengths?
I created the following quiz for my husband who had read all of my best and some of my worst material.
Writing is a lot like do-it-yourself home renovation
My husband and I decided, after noting water damage, that it was time to update the one bathroom in our late 1930s bungalow. This isn’t our first remodeling project. We’ve knocked down walls and installed sliding doors, built a deck, gutted our kitchen, refinished hardwood floors. But as I troweled globs of Thinset on my bathroom walls, slapped ceramic tiles in place over and over again and choked back the urge to strangle my husband, I thought how this particular project resembled the emotional and physical rollercoaster I endure as a writer.
Targeting Your Submissions
As writers, the most important thing we can do is read, right? But if you’re like me, you can’t remember what flavor rice cake you ate yester morn, much less the details of the 200 books you were supposed to read last year. Couple that with the oft-heard advice to “do your research†and “target your submissions,†and new writers everywhere can be heard mumbling, “What the denouement does targeting your submissions mean?â€
