Diary of a Children's Book Writer: December 2010

Happy Holidays everyone! I hope you are all getting a ton of writing done!!!

A Writer's Must Haves...

To get started, here are a few tools of the trade you MUST have.

1.) An excellent thesaurus.

2.) This year's Writer’s Market. I specifically buy the one for children’s literature… namely the Children’s Writer’s & Illustrator’s Market.

3.) Read examples of good literature in your desired genre. If you plan on writing middle grade, like me, I suggest you read, Pearl S. Buck’s The Big Wave, Sharon Creech’s Walk Two Moons, Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse, and any, or all, of JK Rowling’s Harry Potter books.

4.) Support. Join a writer's group. A good group will consist of positive, knowledgeable members who will help guide and challenge you, so you can put forth the strongest representation of your work possible.

5.) Stamina and strength. This is not an easy field. You will face a lot of rejection. But if you have the strength to believe in yourself, and the stamina to continue no matter what, eventually you will break in!

6.) Knowledge about proper formatting. Learn proper standard submission guidelines. You will be hard pressed to find an editor who will be willing to read your manuscript, no matter how brilliant, if you haven’t at least taken the time to learn the basics of formatting.

Diary of a Children's Book Writer

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