Leslie Helakoski and Darcy Pattison share 9 Picture Book Topics to Avoid (or, at least be forewarned about!)

Over at the Highlights Foundation blog, SCBWI members and all-around awesome picture book folks Leslie Helakoski and Darcy Pattison share a post on 9 Picture Book Topics to Avoid.

What's so helpful is that they acknowledge the well-worn themes, but also point out that if you go there, you better be bringing something new and fresh to the category... and then they list some picture books that have done just that.

From the tooth fairy to a new baby coming into the family, the areas are familiar... but are the fresh takes on those as familiar?

They ask us to consider, for a fresh take on tooth fairy stories, The Dinosaur Tooth Fairy by Martha Brockenbrough, illustrated by Israel Sanchez

and for something new on the new baby on the way stories, You Were the First (2013) by Patricia MacLachlan, illustrated by Stephanie Graegin.

The full blog post is well-worth reading.

Consider, does your current picture book work in progress fall into any of these nine categories? And if so, do you have an approach that will help your take stand out?

Illustrate and Write On,
Lee

How Do You Know If You've Written a Picture Book?

This question comes up so often, I'm grateful to Darcy Pattison and Leslie Helakoski who, over at the Highlights Foundation blog, wrote a great piece that helps us writers figure it out, How Do You Know If You've Written a Picture Book?

They offer us nine questions off the bat, including:

Does the MC change or evolve over the course of the story? Is there tension and a narrative arc? and Does the story have a universal connection and kid-relatable problem?

And then, a breakdown of what each of the fourteen sections of a picture book must accomplish, from the foundational make the reader want to turn the page to the more meta If this section is left out does the story change or suffer?

Overall, it's well-worth reading—especially when you're trying to figure out if a new idea is a picture book, a magazine article, or something else entirely.

Illustrate and Write On, 
Lee

Science Fiction and Fantasy Worldbuilding: Timeline Adds Crucial Details – A Guest Post By Children's Book Author and Writing Teacher Darcy Pattison

One of the first tasks in revising my current WIP has been to nail down a firm time line for my story. When does all this stuff happen? I had it vaguely placed in the 21st century, but I didn’t want to nail it down specifically.

It’s the EveryMan problem. Some writers try to create an EveryMan, a character who can stand in for everyone and anyone. In doing so, though, they create a generic character who fails to engage the reader and becomes NoMan. To write something universal, you must do something that intuitively feels like a paradox: you must write one specific character. Only by doing this do you have a chance of letting the character live in the reader’s imagination in such a way that the character stands in for EveryMan (or EveryWoman).

I was making the same mistake with the timeline of my sff story. By refusing to set it in a specific time, I was going too generic.

Creating a TimeLine for Your SFF Story

However, I also see the wisdom of waiting till I finished the first draft to nail down the time line. It will mean, perhaps, that I have more revisions to do; however, I feel that it’s a strength to have this first draft done to see how the timeline extends into so many places.

How Old are Your Characters? One of the first things I’ve done is write out everyone’s birthday. The main villain was born in 1980, and his son–the minor villain–was born in 2013. That means the father was 33 years old when his son was born. It was his first child, so why so old? It make sense within this story because the father is a scientist who buries himself in his work and generally neglects his family. He didn’t marry till after he’d done a post-doc in volcanology, and after his son is born, he travels extensively for his work. This affects the father-son relationship! The timeline forced me to think about these aspects of character.

I also knew that the main character is 14. Okay. How old are his parents? A minimum of 30, but they could be as old as 50 or so. What made sense for their relationship?

World Events. Slotting characters into a personal time line also means they exist in the world at a particular time. If someone was born in 2001, for example, was it before or after the World Trade Center bombing? The world tilted on that day and it’s important to place your character in the context of world events.

But even in a wider context, I needed to place this science fiction story in the context of astronomer’s exploration of the universe. The Kepler Space Observatory was launched in 2009 to search for planets similar enough to Earth that humans could live on them. I had to consider the timeline of their findings, and make sure my characters and the plot were aligned with that.

Imagined Events. Only once these elements were in place did I try to place my imagined story elements. Science fiction is only believable when it fits into the established world. I had to make sure that the events were believable in the context of the real history of our world. That doesn’t mean that I can’t do crazy and wild things–science fiction can and does stretch the imagination. It does mean that the events need to be based on some bits of truth that will lend it credibility.

World building for fantasy or science fiction is crucial. Rules are set up that control the story world, and once set up, the story is stronger if you stick to those rules. The timeline–in this revision of the first draft–was a crucial thing for me to nail down, and it’s adding surprising depth to the story.

*  *  *

My thanks to Darcy for allowing me to reprint this blog post here.

Consider that 'the specific is universal' rule applies not just to characters and timelines, but also to other elements of our stories, like setting! 

And, could a timeline help you with whatever project you're currently working on, even if it's in another genre?

You can find out more about Darcy and her books at her website here.

4th Annual Random Acts of Publicity Event

Running September 4-7, 2012, this year's Random Acts of Publicity event is designed to take the focus off you and your books for a week and instead focus on a friend’s book or a favorite book. How can you help that book’s sales?

The brain child of Darcy Pattison, Random Acts of Publicity asks each of us to Blog, link, Like, review, or talk about a friend's book.  Or as Darcy likes to put it:  BLLuRT it Out!

This year, the event will focus on Conversations about Books. Consider...

What are the talking points of the book you want to feature?
How can you start a conversation?
Are there behind-the-scenes stories that make the book sound more interesting?
Do different audiences require different talking points and different conversations?
How do you create online conversations?

And how often do we start in-person conversations about a book? Let's TALK about Talking about Books this week.

In conjunction with the event, there's a contest where Susan Raab of Raab Associates is offering 10 free marking consults. 

The catch? You can't enter.  You can only enter a friend's name!

See the posting on the Facebook Random Acts of Publicity Event page on September 6 for full contest details--you'll have 24 hours to enter.

It's a great twist on marketing and community building in the kid lit world...

so help out a friend or another author whose book you love

feel great about it,

and see what you learn from the experience that you can apply to promoting your own work!


For more about Random Acts of Publicity, check out the FAQ at Darcy's blog and the facebook Random Acts of Publicity event page!


Illustrate and Write On,
Lee

A New Year, and a Fresh Take on First Lines

Happy 2012!

The New Year feels like a great time to share with you this great resource from Darcy Pattison, OPENING LINES: 12 Ways To Start a Novel.

Darcy has taken the ten major ways you can start your novel and illustrated them with the  “100 Best Lines from Novels,” as chosen by the editors of the American Book Review.  She's also added two additional categories of ways to start that didn't show up in the 100, but are used, often in more innovate formats and graphic novels.

The first line of "Moby Dick" by Herman Melville (the #1 Best Line in the American Book Review's 100) is an    "I AM" opening, where you're meeting a character and the first-person narrator is giving a summary or a judgment about themselves.

The 100 best lines is fascinating reading on its own, but Darcy's breaking it down into categories in this way reveals patterns that are inspirational for writers and illustrators as well.   - How are you going to start to tell the story you want to tell?  Viewpoint on Life, Mid-Action, Set Up, Let's Meet Jack or Jill, I am... (and that's only five of them!)

What I love most about Darcy's article is the challenge built into it: 

Can you take your current first line of your work in progress, and re-work it in ALL twelve of these ways?

What a powerful tool to give us 12 new first lines for our novels!

It's the beginning of a story full of possibility...  and a new year full of possibility as well!

Illustrate and Write On,
Lee


p.s.  Darcy will be on faculty at the upcoming #NY12SCBWI, and you can find out more about SCBWI's Winter Conference in New York City, January 27-29, 2012 here.

Participate in Random Acts of Publicity Week September 7-10

"In the publishing industry, it’s so easy to get into the 'Me' mentality," says author Darcy Pattison. "Read my book, read my blog, come to my book signing, etc. I found myself doing this last year and didn’t like myself."

So Darcy said took a step back to look around and consider all the fellow authors and illustrators she knew who had books that deserved great reviews. Thinking about the philosophy of Pay It Forward, she got the idea to initiate a week of Random Acts of Publicity during which she would encourage fellow book creators to help publicize one another's work. "The model is to do a kindness for others, not expecting anything in return," she says.

Read on to learn more about it RAoP which takes place September 7-10, visit Darcy's website for additional info, and click here to pledge your participation in the event via Facebook. 

It's the second year fro Random Acts of Publicity--how did it get started?

Borrowing the idea of Random Acts of Kindness, I wondered what a week of random acts of publicity would look like.

First, the timing. The Christmas season is a time when book sales soar right along with toy sales. The competition is fierce, though, so our marketing efforts need to be in stellar condition. For example, on Amazon, books tend to do better if they have more reviews. And that’s something I can help another author with. By putting the Random Acts of Publicity the week after Labor Day, we’ll have plenty of time to help others get ready for the holiday shopping season.

Second, what to do during the week? Last year, I posted suggestions, focusing each day on a different way of helping others promote their works.

How else are you spreading the word about RAoP other than via Facebook. Is Facebook the best place for info?

The Random Acts of Publicity event on Facebook is a great place for information. Click here.

The week of the event, I’ll be posting suggestions about things to do on my blog and adding links to those posts on the Facebook events page. Others are welcome to suggest ideas or talk about what they are doing, too. Last year, the schedule went like this:

• Tuesday: Word of Mouth 
• Wednesday: Reviews 
• Thursday: Links 
• Friday: Social Media 

This year, it will be similar.

What if a person wants to do something, but doesn't have a lot of spare time?

Even the smallest Random Act of Publicity is welcome! There are no small acts of kindness, no small places to do it. If your blog only has five readers, it still helps to post a review of a friend’s book. If you have time to only click Become a Fan on a friend’s Goodreads page, it’s enough. It’s a welcome kindness.