Advice to writers/illustrators: Take the long way. Shortcuts rarely pay off.

Comic: Valentine Rejection

Free picture book templates, how-to guides and other resources

Over the years, I've been accumulating all the "How <title> Was Created" guides for young writers and illustrators, advice from children's book creators I've interviewwed, plus a few tips for not-so-young book creators. Feel free to browse all this info as well as my free picture book thumbnail templates at my CREATING PICTURE BOOKS resource.

Common source of writer's block amongst cat owners.

Comic: The Four Stages Of Writing

Comic: Kidlit Restaurant

Comic: Starving Writer, Sort Of

Don’t wait for your Muse. Avoid precious rituals. Get into the daily habit of doing the work.

A comic for bibliophiles

Thanks to The Write Life for choosing Inkygirl for their Best Websites For Writers 2018 list!

Thanks to those of you who gave me the heads-up about my website being on this list.

And thanks to The Write Life! See their list of 100 Best Websites For Writers in 2018 for other recommendations.

Writing or illustrating a picture book? Browse my free Picture Book Creation Resource (including templates)

I've been gradually compiling my "How This Picture Book Was Created" resources, advice from the children's book writers and illustrators I've been interviewing, and the thumbnail sketch and layout templates I use for my own writing and illustrating process. Here's the link to my CREATING PICTURE BOOKS resource.

There is no charge. All I ask is that you pay it forward someday.

Where do writers get their ideas? Everywhere. But the actual magic lies in making one idea real. - Cheryl Klein, THE MAGIC WORDS

One of my goals in 2018 is to write a middle grade novel.

Click to read more ...

Things You Should Never Say To A Writer On A First Date

A Comic For Bibliophiles

For the curious, here are the results of my "do you dog-ear your book pages or not" survey on Inkygirl from a while ago.

A Cautionary Comic For Writers (plus one of my New Year's Resolutions)

Almost all of my comics are based on my own experience as a freelancer, as you might have guessed. This one is particularly relevant. One of my constant challenges is that for me, social media is more fun than work....but as a result, it can be way too easy to justify time I spend on social media as work.

This year, one of my work goals is to get my middle grade novel finished. 

While I can't control IF my novel is ever published (and I've become positive that this angst has a lot do with why I've been spending way too much time fussing about the outline and prep), I can focus on getting the book finished.

Which is why I've decided I really need to pull back a wee bit from some social media, especially Facebook. I suspect I'll be on much more than the average person, but I'm going to try being more conscious about when I use social media, and how I use it.

My favourite social media these days: Twitter and Instagram. Some people find Twitter too negative but I find that so much is about what feeds you follow, and how you interact.

Inkygirl in The Write Life's "Best Websites For Writers In 2018" list!

Thanks to The Write Life for including Inkygirl in their list of 100 Best Websites For Writers 2018!

One thing books teach us is that if your life sucks right now, you just haven't gotten to the good part. - Tim Federle

One of my favourite Tim Federle quotes:

One thing books teach us is that if your life sucks right now, you just haven't gotten to the good part.

You can get the above image as a free, print-ready poster in my Free, Print-Ready Archives.

Comic: New Year's Resolution

Give yourself permission to believe that ANYTHING is possible in 2018.

Thanks to @fabtic_ltd for inspiring this post via their Twitter comment about this image.

Reminder for writers & Illustrators: all the networking/promo in the world can’t help unless you get your book FINISHED first.