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Ask A Marble October 15, 2007-Carol, Chrissie, PJ, and Kim jumped in to answer some questions
1. Patti asked: How do I join up?
Carol: Glad you're enjoying the site! We want this to be a place folks go again and again for help, encouragement and just fun! As for joining up...well, we hope you have already signed up for the mailing list. It may morph and grow as we go along, but the more the merrier along the way.
If some of you are wondering, "how do I join a writing group," then we encourage you to start your own group with its very own unique focus and personality. If you haven't a clue how to go about that, I suggest you contact SCBWI (Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators). If you're not a member of SCBWI, then what are you waiting for? They are a wealth of information and support, providing listservs, publications, and local and national workshops and conferences galore. They also have guidelines about getting into or setting up your own critique group. The support and help you'll find in a group will overwhelm you (in a good way). Go to the SCBWI website: www.scbwi.org.
Chrissie: I recommend that you contact your local SCBWI rep to see if there are any local groups seeking members or post online at the SCBWI board or other boards such as the blue boards or the yellow boards. Good luck with finding your own perfect match and please check back with our site soon, so that you can keep up to date with The Write Marbles.
Good luck!
2. Amy: What would you say to someone like me who is just starting out? Do you have a "Top Five Things to Remember" sort of list for aspiring picture book writers?
Carol: Congratulations, Amy! We're looking forward to reading your manuscript!
Here are my 5 things to remember:
1. Put your bottom in the chair and write even when you don't feel like it.
2. Revise and keep revising. Then let the story sit before revising again.
3. Always keep the illustrations in mind. Focus on the story you want to tell but also focus on what story the illustrations might tell on their own. Remember that half the story in picture books is told by the illustrator.
4. Research publishing houses and keep submitting - have a plan for where your manuscript will go next if it's rejected. Keep working on new stories to build up a body of work so that your entire emotional life (as a writer) isn't tied to one story's acceptance or rejection. PJ adds: even though you've submitted something, keep writing. Don't wait until you hear back to write something else.
Rejections are easier to take if you have more than one story in the hopper.
5. GET INTO A CRITIQUE GROUP - contact the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators (www.scbwi.org) for help on that.
Good luck!
Kim: A Big Welcome and a Big Congratulations to you, Amy. Here are my top five:
1. You are already doing #1. Read. Read. Read. Read. There is so much about the craft of writing that you will pick up by reading. You are going to develop a natural ear for story rhythm, arc, pacing, etc.
2. Join the SCBWI if you haven't already.
3. Write and Revise. It is not enough to have the great idea. You have to get the great idea down on paper.
4. Find a good critique group. Sometimes you can find a group locally through SCBWI. This is how I found my in-person crit group, the SCRIBES. If there isn't an open group in your area, you can always post a note on your state's email list stating that you are looking to start a new group and see if there is any interest. If you are comfortable emailing critiques, you can always look for openings in cyber crit groups posted on the Blueboards, or again, you can post that you are interested in starting a new group. I found my Marbley friends through the Blueboards .
5. There are some wonderful books out there that can give you an overview of publishing and wonderful pointers on craft. My top three picks for getting started would be THE IDIOT'S GUIDE TO PUBLISHING CHILDREN'S BOOKS by Harold Underdown, PICTURE WRITING by Anastasia Suen and TAKE JOY by Jane Yolen.
Thanks for writing to us and best of luck in your writing journey!
Chrissie:
My top five things to remember:
1. You will never write a beautiful book for children if you don't get your butt into your chair and, well, write! Write when you want to and write when you don't, just make sure that you do it. Also make sure that you don't spend all your time preparing to write but never actually doing it. It is very easy to find all sorts of interesting things to read and research ;)
2. Join SCBWI immediately if you haven't already. It is a fabulous resource. Sign up for your local scbwi listserve - you will learn so much.
3. Attend local or national conferences if you can. I too have children under five so national conferences are out at the moment but our annual local conference has been an amazing opportunity to meet editors, agents and other writers. Many editors and agents who speak at conferences allow attendees to submit when often they are closed to general submissions. This is a great opportunity.
4. Join a critique group that are kind but honest. It is not enough that our kids, family and friends like our stories and they are usually not able to articulate where you have problems or what you could do to make a story stronger. You will also learn a lot from the critique of others work and it is always important to keep reading other pb's for enjoyment and with a critical eye. What works, what doesn't, what makes you turn the page, have endearing characters etc
5. You must eventually tackle submitting your work. Make sure you have the best manuscript that you can possibly produce, layout perfect with no spelling or grammatical errors and then begin the research process about where to send it. I would start making notes about the pb's that you are reading to your children, note who is publishing what you like and most represents what you are writing. Check their submission guidelines online. Many publishers require exclusive submissions. If so, put in one simple sentence stating something like "I am delighted to submit this manuscript, 'xyz', for your exclusive consideration until (date, three months from when you are sending it.) This gives you the opportunity to submit to other publishers when that date is reached without further explanation. It is very hard to wait months to hear anything, so it is imperative that you immediately begin working on another project and that you know where you will send that first manuscript if you get a rejection letter. Remember that even J.K. Rowling has a drawer of them! This way, you are able to send it right back out, assuming that you don't discover a valid comment that you need to fix or revise. My goal is always to have my work that is ready for submission out circulating, this way, you don't end up too discouraged as you are always waiting hopefully. Set up a spread sheet in excel or some other program with columns that identify, manuscript, where and when you sent it and when you heard back from them so that you have a good record of your submissions, it is easy to lose track because the waiting can be so long. Good luck;)
3. Mona asked: Is there a special place/clue in a rhyming PB manuscript where the author should change the pattern so it doesn't become tiresome to listener?
Carol: Congratulations Mona on winning our contest! Can't wait to see your story.
You've asked a great question. I don't think there's any official "rule" other than what you develop yourself. Here are some thoughts on changing the pattern.
1. If you have the right pattern, you may NEVER need to change it since it'll never become tiresome to the listener.
2. You might alternate the pattern throughout. For example, you could have 2-3 stanzas with one pattern, followed by a refrain with a different
pattern.
3. If you'd like to accentuate the pattern with a single change, the most typical place to do that is at the point of climax in the story; the point where something comes to a head; where there's the most conflict. At that point, you might even have a couple of stanzas with the new pattern and then revert to the original pattern for the ending.
4. Or, I've seen writers simply alter the final stanza. No specific book is coming to mind as an example, but the feel of doing that is that the new pattern reflects the change or growth made by the character.
5. The other thing you might keep in mind is that you don't have to write the entire story in rhyme. Our Marble Kim is a marvelous mistress at using internal rhyme and fabulous rhythm throughout a story without ever having a "tiresome pattern." Or a book like, "Dancing Prancing Lilly" inserts snippets of rhyme within a basically prose story that emphasizes the side story nicely through the poetic format.
In short I'm saying, don't worry about a rule too much. Read your poetry aloud -- even use a tape recorder if you can -- and listen to how it sounds. And have someone else read it aloud and listen to them. Trust your ear.
PJ: if you look at a lot of classic poetry, you'll notice that the rhythm often varies either at the beginning or the end of a line. This is a device they used to keep the poems from sounding too sing-songy.
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