Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Writing Wednesday


I'm "plumb tuckered out", as my grandma used to say, so I am doing a re-post today.
I posted this last year after attending our West Virginia Writer's Conference in Cedar Lakes.
I hope you enjoy it and comment, it has some very good advice on writing.

More Writing Workshop Info

I attended a picture book workshop conducted by children's author, Cheryl Ware. But if you are not a picture book writer, please read on, I think the information will help you with any genre of writing you choose to write.

Here is a group picture of the attendees of her workshop. Cheryl is the tall lady in the middle, I am in the pink shirt beside of her.



I thoroughly enjoyed this workshop. She came with a pile of picture books to share with us. She read a few of her favorites.

She told us something that I think is very hard to do. She said to find the holes in the market - find what hasn't been written. I think this applies to all genres of writing, don't you?

She showed us some books that she stated when she first saw them, she didn't think they were the greatest. But when she read them to small children, they loved them!

They shouted out answers when she read the text to them!
They became involved in the reading!
They wanted it read over and over again!

I think that is what we want to accomplish with any of our books. We want our reader to become involved with the story and for them to want to read it over and over again.

One of her favorite books : THE DOT
If you write picture books, but haven't read this one, go to the library and check it out.
It is so simple, yet so good!

Some very good advice from her:

Start your story on a day that something is different in their life.
Ending should be expected, but a surprise.

As you can see, I think you can take this information and apply it to whatever type of writing you do, whether it be for adults or children.

Some of Cheryl's published books are:

Flea Circus Summer,
Catty-Cornered,
Venola in Love, and
Venola the Vegetarian

Her stories introduce you to Venola May Cutright, a spunky 11 year old girl.

I hope you read something from this post that will help you with your writing.

Happy Writing! And, I hope to see some of you at the Writing Conference on June 4 at Cedar  Lakes.

8 comments:

  1. Great ideas here, I especially like the advice to start a story on a day when something different is happening in a character's life. That little twist is just what hooks the reader!

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  2. Thank you for the ideas. Would these apply to a book on memoirs as well? Having a goal, with twists and turns getting there, was a little difficult for me. My story was written in simple dialogue for my grandchildren, but it seems more old people have related to it.

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  3. Good tips, Janet. Thanks for sharing. Rest up :)

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  4. It does have some great ideas-and tips-I'm glad you re posted it!

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  5. Hi Janet, Thanks for re-posting this since it has some great advice in it! I missed it the first time you posted it.

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  6. I've never tried to write a children's book. I have a feeling that people underestimate them. They are not nearly as simple as they seem!

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  7. Great writing tips are always timely, Janet, time and time again! And GOOD memories, too! Have a great writing day!

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  8. Great advice and ideas Janet! You are so right. When I look at the books I love, the adult ones included the endings are always an "expected" surprise. I really like that quote. I hope you get rested up this week. Have a great day! Delisa :)

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