Mentor Monday: Writing Exercises 1 - Point of View

If you’re like me, the idea of doing a writing exercise when you have an assignment to do (or a great-American-novel begging to be written) feels like a waste of time. It also carries a whiff of the classroom, and as someone who hated writing in school, that whiff is often enough to send me off in search of a closet to clean or an errand to run.

Still, like playing the piano, writing is both a talent and a skill. As a skill, it improves with practice. We know that concert pianists still play scales and drills as well as practicing the music for their next shows – why do we think writers should only write for publication?

In addition, like finger exercises, writing exercises can also be used as warm-ups for writing the “real” work. As such they often serve as block-busters (in the sense of busting through writer’s block), getting you into the BIC* position with fingers on the keyboard without the looming threat of having to produce something. (Sometimes your exercise will even produce material you can use in your work for publication – but don’t plan on that or you change the dynamic.)

Just as with playing the piano, there are lots and lots of writing exercises, but only so many variations on a theme. Over my next few Mentor Mondays I’ll be collecting and improvising upon some oldies-but-goodies from the writing exercise bag of tricks. Each post will focus on a different purpose for the exercise.

This week’s exercise will build on the Mentor Monday series on Voice from earlier this year (see January 31, March 7 and April 11). It is intended to exercise your skill with developing and maintaining a point of view. 

“Point of view” shifting is a common problem for beginning writers, and one that can challenge even experienced writers. Based on my occasional freelance critique work, I believe this is a particularly difficult problem for people who watch a lot of movies or television drama. Those genres allow the writer to move from one character’s point of view to another without confusing the “reader” (in this case, viewer). The visual format allows for all kinds of cues: fade-outs, scene changes, even music create the transitions. It turns out this is very bad training for the mind of a would-be writer. 

Written works can employ more than one point of view, but it is much more difficult to do effectively. For younger readers multiple points of view are essentially verboten. This means that everything that happens in the story has to be observed or experienced by the protagonist, and described in a way that is natural for that character. 

Exercise: Pick a story from morning news, preferably one that involves one or more children. Write collection of narratives based on this account from the point of view of every person possibly involved. Note, this is an exercise. You are free to remain as true to the actual event as possible, or to embellish it wildly. The news story serves only to get you past the need to think up an idea. I just saw a story about a porch collapsing at a Father’s Day party, sending multiple people to hospital. I don’t know who was at the party, but for my exercise it will include at least three generations of family members so I can have distinctly different voices and points of view. In addition to the various attendees at the party, the actual news story included interviews with neighbors and the police, fire and rescue responders, giving me even more points of view to explore.

*BIC = Butt in Chair - the essential "secret" to all writing success - although with the growing popularity of treadmill and other standing desks, it may need revising. See Mary Heaton Vorce, purportedly the originator of “The art of writing is applying seat of pants to seat of chair.”

Mentor Monday: RIP Maurice Sendak - and Thank you.

I have realized to my embarrassment that I was scheduled to post yesterday.  However, having missed that deadline, I am presented with this opportunity - to mourn, with the rest of the world of Children's literature, the passing of Maurice Sendak - and to suggest, for Mentor Monday, that we all remember this piece of advice he gave: “I never spent less than two years on the text of one of my picture books, even though each of them is approximately 380 words long. Only when the text is finished do I begin the pictures.”

I commend to you Sendak's essay in William Zinsser's Worlds of Childhood: The Art and Craft of Writing for Children. Published back in 1998, it is widely available, and in addition to Sendak's essay, includes insights from Jack Prelutsky, Rosemary Wells, Jill Krementz, Jean Fritz and Katherine Paterson.

Oh, and go read Where the Wild Things Are. Out loud. With feeling.

Mentor Monday: Murder Your Darlings

I didn't have time to write you a short letter, so I wrote you a long one.

--Mark Twain

When I was first learning my craft, I wasn't fond of following assigned word counts. It was important to tell my story in my way. That included using as many words as I needed.

It wasn't long afterward that I learned that less is actually more – much more.

As Twain alluded to, it's very, very easy to write something long. To write tight you need to pare your words so each earns its place. This helps eliminate redundancy. Say it perfectly one time, you don't need to say it again.

Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch suggested you 'murder your darlings'. I don't necessarily advocate that – you might wipe out something really good. But, sometimes there are small edits you can make that distill your writing into something tight and highly readable.

This is Quiller-Couch.

Some suggest cutting your manuscript by 10%. That means if you have a thousand words, cut 100 of them. Impossible? Perhaps, but try it anyway.

This cutting is the part I especially like – at this point, I know I'm almost done. It's a challenge to see if I can do away with the words not earning their place in my prose.

Case in point: this article started out at 540 words, but with some judicious editing, I've gotten it down to 275.

I'd make it even shorter, but don't have time.

For more suggestions on writing tight and other writing tips, type in Mentor Monday in the search box at the top of this blog.

Or go here.

Mentor Monday: Knowing your rights

 This weekend one of the Sisters saw the premiere performances of the stage adaptation of her picture book. I’m hoping Diane will share her experience and some pictures soon. For Mentor Monday, however, this wonderful event raises the subject of subsidiary rights.

Huh?

“No man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money.”

I think Samuel Johnson was wrong – there are lots of good reasons for writing that have nothing to do with money, but if you’re working on developing a writing career, then publication, and getting paid for your work, are or should be a significant factor. They may influence what kinds of things you write. They should influence the forms you choose and the way you send out your work. And when, at last, your work finds its way to the person who wants to publish it – you find yourself immersed in a question of rights.

The “Rights” in question are the rights to use your work, and each possible use of your work represents a distinctive right. As the creator, you have the right to control the ways that your work is published, until and unless you choose to transfer that right to someone else.

If your work is a picture book and you’re in the US, you are most likely going to be offered a contract for “First North American book rights.” If it’s a magazine article, it will be “First North American periodical rights” – although in either case it might be “English-language rights,” in which case if your work winds up being reprinted in Australia or in the international edition of the magazine, your publisher will receive the payment. (Some publishers will split or pass along reprint rights income, but if you sell “All rights” or “reprint rights” they are not obligated to do so.)

But subsidiary rights covers uses far beyond reprints. Subsidiary rights include adaptations of your work in other forms (like the stage version of Run Turkey Run), translation rights (my “Little Jesus” and “Little Mary” books were translated and published in Poland), and, perhaps most importantly today, electronic or digital rights, from the picture-book-on-the-ipad to a video game version of your book. Some contracts contain language covering “any current or future media or format” in order to try and include technologies not-yet-imagined. (A subset of subsidiary rights fall into the category of licensing – stuffed animals, educational products, breakfast cereal advertising, etc.) For each of these uses, you, the creator, deserve to be compensated or to have the choice of whether to allow the use. So after you get over your excitement over that first contract, take the time to read the fine print. Ask your writer friends about the language. Consider having it reviewed by a lawyer who works with “intellectual property rights.” (If you belong to the Author’s Guild, they have a contract review service – lots of writers first join the Guild expressly for that benefit.) Because you never know!

Fantasy writer Mindy Klasky offers this great list of subsidiary rights on her website. 

And of  course, HaroldUnderdown’s Complete Idiot’s Guide to Publishing Children’s Books addresses the subject in much more detail.

The Write Sisters' Indirect Connection to John Greenleaf Whittier

The great Quaker abolitionist and poet, John Greenleaf Whittier, was born not too far from us in Haverhill, Massachustts.

Yesterday, three of the Write Sisters, went to the birthplace of Whittier to attend the 125th annual summer meeting of the Whittier Club. On the occasion of this meeting, Lisa Greenleaf, a descendant of Mr. Whittier, spoke about a book she is illustrating--The Barefoot Boy, based on JGW's poem of the same name. Lisa also happens to be the book designer/illustrator for Apprentice Shop Books, our publisher.

Lisa started off with a little introduction to herself, her work, and how she had been searching for years for a way to honor her famous ancestor.

Lisa reads from her first book, My Family and Bingo, written in the third grade!


Lisa is a rather animated speaker!


Here is Lisa showing the group her The Barefoot Boy dummy (the book in sketch stage).

Lisa told her audience that she'd like to finish the book by September--she neglected to say that she is delusional! It will get done and we know it will be beautiful. (The book is scheduled to be published by Apprentice Shop Books and will also include biographical information about John Greenleaf Whittier.)


Lisa's proud parents!

The Whittier homestead is a fascinating place. We learned that it is the oldest museum in the U.S. devoted to a literary person! We hope to visit it again when the weather is nicer, today it was cool and rainy, so that we can get an idea of what it was like when the original barefoot boy roamed the hills and fields around his home in Haverhill.


Here's a photo of the participants at one of the first
Whittier Club summer meetings back in the late 1800s.

Note: if you came looking for "Mentor Monday," please come again next week when "Mentor Monday" will return.

--Muriel, Diane, and Kathy

Mentor Monday: What’s Anton Chekhov Doing With That Gun?

Some months back, Barbara wrote a terrific piece about how inserting the right prop in your story can help define your character’s job, her personality, emotional state, or just keep the story moving. You can reread Barb’s entry here:

http://thewritesisters.blogspot.com/2012/04/mentor-monday-props.html

The point is, if you insert a prop in your story, it should do something, not just fill in the description of the character’s milieu. Playwright Anton Chekhov is credited with pointing out this plot device. He stated that if a gun appears in Act I of a story, it had better be fired in a later act. Embedding a prop in the story that appears to be insignificant but later leads to some kind of story resolution is related to the technique called foreshadowing. There are, however, slight differences between the two.

Chekhov’s Gun refers to an actual prop that will be used later on. Barbara’s blog entry mentioned Harry Potter’s wand. It is essential that Harry buy just the right wand. Not only will its power be important, but it will also link him to other characters in the story.

In The Hunger Games Suzanne Collins uses a bow and arrow as prop. Katniss Everdeen is shown early on hunting for food for her family. That particular bow will not be used to win the Games. Instead it foreshadows the skills Katniss might need to survive the Games. By using it Katniss demonstrates that she is brave (she is willing to hunt outside the permitted boundaries of District 12), she is clever (she not only hunts for food for her family but to trade for necessities) and she is skillful (she has developed the calm demeanor and sharp eye of the hunter).

Bravery, cleverness, and hunting skills are intangible traits but they tell us a lot about our heroine. And, they foreshadow her future success.

What if the Games did not involve life or death? What if Collins had decided to make the Games revolve around a Texas Hold ‘Em tournament? Katniss’s ability with a bow would have been superfluous: it would be a Red Herring.

Red Herrings have their place in certain types of story, most notably mysteries. Just because the weird neighbor across the street has a Civil War knife collection, it won’t necessarily follow that he’s the killer. But if the victim’s body has stab wounds, the reader will put Mr. Neighbor high on the suspect list. And that’s what the author wants the reader to do. This sort of technique adds tension to the story.

As a novelist, you sometimes have to add “Chekhov’s gun” after you’ve written the first draft of the story. Not all of us write using pre-determined outlines. Some of us are seat-of-the-pants writers who let the characters show us where they want to go. If you’re in that category, you might find, at the end of chapter 10, that your character defeats the antagonist with a well-placed karate chop. If so, you’d best go back and hang a black Gi in the closet in chapter 1.

In other words, give your protagonist something to shoot.

Mentor Monday--Writing an Essay

Before you head out to the parade, or picnic, or family gathering, remember what this day is all about. It's a celebration of our break with the British Crown and of our declaring ourselves free to make this country our own. This breach was achieved through a well-written essay, the Declaration of Independence.


We all learned the elements of essay writing back in our elementary school days. So, consider today's Mentor Monday a refresher. We'll use the Declaration of Independence as a model.

An essay should have three parts: an introduction, a body, and a conclusion. The purpose of the introduction is to get the reader's attention, to provide a bit of background, and then to state the intended goal (or thesis). How's this for an attention-getter?

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We grabbed King George by the you-know-whats and told him "We're SO over you. We'll gonna tell you why, now, so pay attention."

The body of the essay is supposed to further explain the goal/thesis. The Declaration is specific,

The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world

Eighteen "Facts" are then laid out for the King. (You can tell these are the main points because they all start with "He," as in "He did this," and "He did that." And there are several subpoints, too. The drafters of the Declaration knew how to outline! Good job, Guys!)

The conclusion of an essay should be memorable. The Declaration sort of bitch-slapped the King with:

A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Yowsa! Not only did we call him names, we also demoted him to Prince! Snap! No wonder he sent the redcoats after us!

The conclusion should also briefly restate the goal/thesis. You can't get plainer than this:

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown...

"We've gone over your head, Prince, and have called on the Big Guy and all our neighbors! So take your crown and scepter and GO HOME!"

An A+ essay if ever there was one!

Have a safe holiday.

--Diane

Mentor Monday--Happy Valentine's Day!

Today is Valentine's Day! It's one of those holidays on which Americans overindulge--with cards, flowers, jewelry, and other gifts. It comes somewhere behind Halloween and Easter in the candy department, but still, the people at New England Confectionery Company (NECCO) are happy to see it roll around each year! They make tons of candy message hearts.

So does Brach's. But this year, someone there messed up! A report on the Business Insider website tells this story, "12-Year-Old Girl Finds An Obscene Message Printed On Candy Heart."

The word was "tits." Obscene? Hardly. In poor taste, yes, but not obscene.

Sometimes when you write you can get a little carried away. The person who wrote the headline obviously got a little carried away.

Let this be your Mentor Monday lesson for today--know when hyperbole is necessary and when it is not.

A tall tale is the place for hyperbole. A nonfiction piece is not!

Now for a Valentine's treat without any calories: click here and have fun!

--Diane

Mentor Monday--Happy Labor Day!

Happy Labor Day! Especially to all the working women of the United States.

Today, in Mentor Monday's post, I'm going through a few of the steps I took to learn more about Lilly Ledbetter (for a imaginary "Women of" profile assignment).

You know never to cite Wikipedia as a source in your bibliography, right? But, Wikipedia is a place to begin for an overview of the subject. A quick read-through and I find that Lilly Ledbetter is the woman who gave her name to the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009.

Next I head straight to the bottom of the article for the "References" and "External Links" sections, which are the real starting points.

A simple Google search is all I need to find a ton of explanatory information related to the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act that was signed by President Obama on Janaury 29, 2009. [I come across a little item of note, that I squirrel away for use as a sidebar if I need it: the Lilly Ledbetter Act was the first major bill that President Obama signed after he took office.]

Generally, I then do a search on one of the book sites, Barnes & Noble, or Amazon, or sometimes I go to the New York Public Library's catalog looking for materials published on the subject. In this case I'm looking for Ledbetter and also the topics of pay discrimination or women in management. I give particular attention to books for children since I will need a "read more about" section at the end of my profile.

Much to my dismay, I find that Ledbetter has an autobiography, Grace and Grit: My Fight for Equal Pay and Fairness at Goodyear and Beyond, but it's not due out until the end of February, 2012!

A search of my public library's on-line databases comes next. Never fail to check your local library's offerings. My library has the EBSCO, Newsbank, and Biography in Context databases to explore.

Speaking of libraries, Ledbetter hails from Alabama, so the Alabama State Library and Alabama Department of Archives and History may be good places to explore virtually. I take a quick look, and find nothing! Ledbetter's not in the Alabama Women's History Hall of Fame since she is still living, nor is she in the Alabama Academy of Honor:

To bestow honor and recognition upon living Alabamians for their outstanding accomplishments and services, the Alabama Academy of Honor was created by the State Legislature on October 29, 1965. Each person elected to membership is a distinguished citizen of Alabama, chosen for accomplishment or service greatly benefitting or reflecting great credit on the State.

One thing I'd particularly like to mention is videos. Don't overlook YouTube and Internet Archive! And, remember that Google has a search category exclusively for videos. Especially for a living subject, videos are a treat. You get to hear the voice of your subject, see what she looks like, and how she carries herself. A lot can be learned!

Even if your subject is long dead, short videos may be available interpreting her work or role in history. For Lilly Ledbetter, I found a great video from Annenberg Classroom, A Call to Act: Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co. It explains the process that Ledbetter went through in her struggle with pay discrimation, and how all three branches of the U.S. government became involved.

Here's a video of Ledbetter's appearance at a Congressional hearing in 2007:



Lilly Ledbetter's a woman I'm glad to have explored a little more! If I were to write a real profile, I'd spend a lot of time watching/reading through the sources I uncovered. Then, the real work would begin--condensing all the information into 550 words that are both interesting and provide the key points in a life well-lived.

--Diane

Mentor Monday: How to Receive a Critique in a Group Setting

A while back, my Mentor Monday post offered advice on how to give a critique.  Today, I offer up suggestions on how to receive a critique.

•  Always bring a piece that has been buffed and polished to perfection -- to the best of your ability so far. If you haven't done all the work associated with this draft, we're certainly not going to put a lot of effort into it because we already know you can do better. Some may disagree with me on this, and probably there are exceptions to when this rule can be broken, but I think those times are rare. What do you think?

• If you have one (or two) things you'd like to get out of the critique, let the group know before they start reading. Do you wonder whether you've used transitions well or if the dialogue rings true? Give your readers a job to do. We love to help!. Expect that most of us will still comment on your piece as a whole or on other things we feel you need our (so totally) expert opinion on.

• DO NOT use this opening to give a lengthy explanation of or apologize for your work.  The piece must stand or fall on its own. We can 't emphasize this enough. Well, we could, but it would mean hiring Guido again-- and trust me -- you'd rather that we not.

•  Being the language-type folk we are, we'll have plenty to say. Jot notes. 

• In our collective experience, The Write Sisters find that it's always preferable to bring several copies of a manuscript for members to read.  It's just easier for most readers to absorb a piece by reading it. In some groups (ours for example), someone also reads the piece aloud.  Expect and encourage your readers to mark up their copies of your work and return them to you at the end of the session.  

• In general, make as few comments as possible during the critique of your manuscript. You'll have a chance to speak at the end.

•  As you listen, try to keep an open mind about what's being said. I think writers should own most comments for at least 24 hours. You may violently disagree with what a reader said, but by at least considering its truth you might learn something from it. If, after all that 'think' time, you still find it's a bunch of horsepucky, by all means, cast that little sucker aside.  

• Don't assume that all opinions are relevant or even good. Find voices you trust, and listen carefully.

• Understand your feelings of resistance to things your readers have said. Try something out even though it may be past your skill level or something you really believe won't work. What have you got to lose by just trying it out? Writing is fairly easy to undo. You could possibly be stretching and strengthening a writing muscle you didn't know you had.

• Don't be paralyzed by what may seem like an flood of negative criticism. There are times when the best of us feel hurt by comments. As long as they're not purposely mean, a comment is meant to help you be a better writer. If you're getting more negative responses than you can handle, ask your critiquers to tell you what they feel actually works in your piece. If your group tends to always focus on the negative, it may be time to find a new group.

• Try not to explain or defend anything you've written. Of course, there are exceptions to this as, for example, if a critiquer asks for an explanation or if you're trying to illustrate your thinking behind the way you wrote something. But be careful to recognize a fine line here. Remember, no one will accompany your submission to the editor's desk.

• Be gracious, and don't hog your meeting. It may be your group has no moderator to help bring your session to a close.  Do not let the comments go on endlessly (as they sometimes can . . .).  After a reasonable amount of time, thank everyone for their help, then promise yourself you'll use their advice to make your manuscript totally kick-ass awesome. Bring it back again when you have.

Mentor Monday : Reflections on the 25th NESCBWI conference - what does it take to be a children's book writer? Part I

I’m fresh off the annual SCBWI-New England conference, and thank you again to all the hard-working volunteers who made it happen. This year’s conference theme was Celebrating Milestones, in honor of it being the 25^th consecutive year of the conference (there was a several-year-long gap when Jane Yolen passed it off to U Mass, where it became the very-successful Perspectives on Children’s Literature Conference, necessitating the re-institution of a regional conferences for those who create that literature).

The keynotes and chattering was all about retrospect, stories of the beginnings of the SCBW (and the history of the adding of the “I”), wonderfully described by Lin Oliver, Steve Mooser, Jane Yolen and Tomie Di Paola. This, of course, got me thinking back to my first conferences (I have thus far resisted the urge to try and figure out when I first attended). It is probably also one reason I went through the weekend keenly aware of the stages of a writing career, and particularly thinking about those among the 590 participants who are just beginning theirs.

The great vision of SCBWI is to provide a structure for instructing, encouraging and mentoring those who create children’s books. It began, in fact, when Lin and Steve landed a job creating children’s books, went looking for courses or workshops to learn how, and found – nothing.

Today, of course, SCBWI is a huge, international organization, with dozens of regional chapters hosting dozens of regional conferences, workshops, retreats and critique groups. And while the New England conference has evolved to include lots and lots of workshops that are designed to be useful for established writers, the majority of those who attend these conferences are, in fact, beginners. Which is a GOOD THING. Because like every other career, writing (and illustrating) for children is a skill to be learned; and while it is not impossible to learn it entirely on your own, it is much better to learn from others who have been practicing the craft.

So in this retrospective mood (or mode), I’m going to take my next few Mentor Monday posts to consider the question: What does it take to be a children’s writer?

It has been observed that there are few other professions which people expect to begin without training and with immediate success. Writing for children is deceptively simple-looking. What could be easier than to tell a simple story using simple words in a simple way? Prospective children’s book writers are generally shocked to learn that most published writers worked for years before their first manuscript was accepted for publication. They’re also surprised to learn that even after that first sale, the publishing industry is a difficult place, and more manuscripts and ideas are rejected than published. Jane Yolen told us Friday evening that, in addition to having sold her 300-and-somethingish title last week, she also received 3 rejection letters.

I would submit that the most important thing you need to be a children’s writer is a clear understanding of that fact. Success in this career takes time, it takes effort, it takes perseverance. It is not a get-rich-quick scheme (in fact, very few children’s writers get rich). It is not something one does on an impulse, or does “someday when I get a chance,” and you’ll have to forgive us if we want to kill you when you say that to us as soon as you find out what we do. To cite Lin’s keynote address, the single most important moral or lesson we learn from successful children’s book writers is: Do the Work.

The next most important thing you need to become a children’s writer is a willingness to learn. Just because you were a child (or had a child) doesn’t qualify you to write for children any more than it qualifies you to be a teacher, a bus driver or a pediatrician. The learning necessary to becoming a children’s writer is on-going, and comes in several areas.

First, of course, it is necessary to learn to write. This means not only knowing parts of speech and punctuation, although those are helpful. It means learning to capture ideas and emotions and landscapes and voices and characters and actions and reactions and distill them into words. It means learning to choose and shape words and phrases and sentences and paragraphs to represent all those things on paper – and then learning to tear up the paper and do it again, using fewer words, or stronger ones, and different phrases and paragraphs, and repeating as necessary until it is perfect. And then letting someone else read it and listening, really listening, when they tell you it isn’t perfect, that in fact it is far from perfect, and needs to be ripped up and done again. One of the very best things about attending an SCBWI conference is meeting with and learning from other people who understand, and live, this reality.

Next time, we’ll look at a few of the different ways we learn to write.

Mentor Monday – Online Opportunities

One important part of The Write Sister’s mission statement is that we want to be mentors to others interested in writing for children. Each of us learned and gained so much from the assistance of more experienced writers, and we feel it is important to pass that along. Hence our Mentor Mondays here.  But we’re not the only ones.

If you are new to the world of writing for children, you might be surprised at how generous many of the veterans in the field have been and continue to be. Jane Yolen is the mentor supreme, from her groundbreaking work with SCBWI to her having the heart to use her own name on AOL for all these years to the advice she still gives to all of us at conferences and on her website: http://janeyolen.com/for-writers/ .

Next, if you haven’t visited Harold Underdown’s site, bookmark it now: http://www.underdown.org/ . It’s not fancy-looking, but Harold’s insights into the world of children’s book publishing and the rich compilation of information he provides is an important resource for all of us. Another venerable and super-useful site is Verla Kay’s http://www.verlakay.com/

Darcy Pattison shares amazingly useful tips for writers on her website: http://www.darcypattison.com/ .

Kate Messner thought she might get a couple of dozen teachers to sign up for her virtual summer camp; I think she has over a thousand registered now!  Even if you’re not a teacher trying to improve your writing so you can work more effectively with your students, there’s lots of good advice and positive sharing being handed around the campfire here:  http://www.katemessner.com/blog/   Jo Knowles http://jbknowles.livejournal.com/tag/monday%20morning%20warm-up and Gae Polisner  http://ghpolisner.blogspot.com/ have joined in with warm-ups and feedback sessions on their own blogs.

There are many good listservs, discussion boards and other maillists for children’s writers. A few of the best: Verla Kay’s: (registration required) http://www.verlakay.com/boards/index.php .

Yahoo Groups/Lists (all require a yahoo account and can be either read on the website or received as emails: Children’s Writers and Illustrators http://groups.yahoo.com/group/childrens-writers/   Write For Kids http://groups.yahoo.com/group/WRT4KDZ/ and Non-fiction for kids: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NFforKids/ .

There are, of course, websites that offer lessons and advice for a fee, as well. You do need to be careful, as ever on the web, it’s hard to distinguish the rip-offs from the real thing.  If you’re looking for that kind of investment in your career, I think the most reputable of these is the CBI: http://cbiclubhouse.com/ . Or, for a more personal one-on-one experience, Laura Purdie Salas and Lisa Bullard have started Mentors for Rent:  http://mentorsforrent.wordpress.com/ .

And of course, if you’re serious about being a professional, the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators is the must-join organization. Check for the regional chapter wherever you live, because the local groups and conferences are a great boost to a writer’s career. http://www.scbwi.org/

What have I missed? Share your favorite links in the combox . . .