Introduction 1
1 In the Beginning 7
1. Why Write? 7
2. A Writer’s Attitude 9
3. A Writer’s Beliefs 10
3.1 Believing in your characters 11
3.2 Believing in your readers 12
3.3 Letting your audience believe in you 13
4. A Writer’s Responsibilities 14
5. Moral Tales 15
6. Appropriation of Voice 16
7. The Many Paths from Which to Choose 18
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Contents
2 The Basic Ingredients of a Story 21
1. Character 22
1.1 The roster 22
1.2 Appearance 23
1.3 Depth 25
1.4 Contrast 26
1.5 Credibility 26
1.6 Habits 27
1.7 Intelligence 28
1.8 Diction 29
1.9 Names 32
2. Setting 33
2.1 Place 34
2.2. Time 35
2.3 Research 36
2.4 Fantasy 37
2.5 The educational aspect of settings 38
2.6 Mood 39
2.7 How does your character relate to place? 40
3. Plot 40
3.1 Motivation 41
3.2 Action 42
3.3 Development 42
3.4 Conflict 43
3.5 Who solves the problem? 45
3.6 Logic 45
3.7 Subplots 46
3.8 Beats 46
vi Writing for children and young adults
3.9 Turning points 47
3.10 Endings 47
3.11Experiment 48
3 Getting Started 51
1. A Room of One’s Own 52
2. Your Summary Statement 52
3. Creating characters 53
4. Planning an Outline 54
5. Organize Your Writing Time 57
6. First Lines 58
7. The First Chapter 59
8. Reviewing the Outline 61
9. Financial Considerations 61
10.Sanity 62
4 The Craft of Writing 67
1. Narrator 67
1.1 Viewpoint 68
1.2 The character’s point of view 70
1.3 First person or third person? 71
2. Dialogue 72
3. Mixing Dialogue and Narrative 73
3.1 Let the characters speak 73
3.2 Accents 74
3.3 Slang and swear words 76
4. Transitions 77
5. Creating Tension, Establishing Pace 78
6. Emotions and Intimacy: Connecting with the Reader 79
Contents vii
7. Style 80
7.1 Imagery 81
7.2 Language 84
7.3 The perfect word 85
7.4 Defining your style 87
8. Grammar and Composition 88
8.1 Is it important? 88
8.2 Usage: The right word 91
9. Writer’s Block 92
10. Rewriting 94
10.1 The first rewrite 95
10.2 The second rewrite 97
11. Criticism 97
11.1 Inviting criticism 97
11.2 Striving for balance 99
11.3 Dealing with criticism 100
12. Defining Yourself as a Writer 101
5 Writing for Different Groups
of Readers 103
1. Genres 104
2. Who Is Your Reader? 104
3. Picture books 107
3.1 Formats 109
3.2 Content 113
3.3 Language 115
3.4 Illustrators 115
4. Ages Six to Eight 115
4.1 Formats 116
viii Writing for children and young adults
4.2 Content 116
4.3 Language 118
5. Juveniles 118
5.1 Formats 119
5.2 Content 119
5.3 Language 120
6. Young Adults 121
6.1 Format 121
6.2 Content 121
6.3 Language 123
7. Age-Appropriate Critics 124
6 Writing Nonfiction 127
1. Purpose 128
2. Format 130
3. Curriculum 130
4. Accurate Research 131
5. Begin with an Idea 133
6. Develop an Outline 133
7. Review 135
8. Specialization 136
9. The Second Book 136
7 Marketing Your Story to Publishers 139
1. The Publishing Process 140
2. Self-Publishing 141
3. Market Research 142
3.1 Educational publishers 142
3.2 Submission guidelines 143
3.3 Publishing categories 144
Contents ix
3.4 What publishers buy 144
3.5 Rejection 146
4. How to Approach the Market 147
4.1 The query letter 147
4.2 The synopsis 148
4.3 Multiple submissions 151
4.4 Appearance of manuscript 151
4.5 Planning ahead 152
4.6 Agents 154
5. Copyright 157
6. Contracts 158
6.1 Delivery date 158
6.2 Definition of rights 158
6.3 Publisher’s obligation to publish 159
6.4 Copyright 159
6.5 Royalties 159
6.6 Licenses 162
6.7 Warranties and indemnities 162
6.8 Moral rights 163
6.9 Author’s copies 163
6.10 Right of first refusal 163
6.11 Reversion of rights 163
7. Being Your Own Contractor 164
8 Using the Internet 165
1. Promoting Your Work on the Internet 166
1.1 Blogs 167
1.2 Email 168
1.3 Sites that assist in promotion 169
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2. Giving Away Your Work on the Web 171
3. Selling Your Already Published Work on the Internet 172
4. Publishing and Selling on the Web 173
5. Server Sites 174
6. Promotion 174
7. E-Books 175
7.1 Format 176
7.2 Registering your e-book 177
7.3 Selling the e-book online 177
9 Book Promotion 179
1. Promoting 180
2. Interviews 184
3. The Enjoyment Factor 185
4. Your Backlist 185
5. Reviews 186
Conclusion: Is it Worth Doing? 189
Samples
1 The basic ingredients 50
2 Character descriptions 55
3 Plot outline 57
4 Outline for nonfiction book 135
5 Cover letter for fiction book proposal 149
6 Cover letter for nonfiction book proposal 150
Contents xi