THIS SITE HAS MOVED. Inkygirl posts are now part of DebbieOhi.com.
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Debbie Ridpath Ohi reads, writes and illustrates for young people. Every once in a while she shares new art, writing and reading resources; subscribe below. Browse the archives here.
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*NEW!* Also see my Broken Crayon resource
Writer comics by Debbie Ridpath Ohi are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
More details: Comic Use Policy
Welcome to Inkygirl: Reading, Writing and Illustrating Children's Books (archive list here) which includes my Creating Picture Books series, Advice For Young Writers and Illustrators, Writer's and Illustrator's Guide To Twitter, Interviews With Authors And Illustrators, #BookADay archives, writing/publishing industry surveys, and 250, 500, 1000 Words/Day Writing Challenge. Also see my Inkygirl archives, and comics for writers. Also check out my Print-Ready Archives for Teachers, Librarians, Booksellers and Young Readers.
I tweet about the craft and business of writing and illustrating at @inkyelbows. If you're interested in my art or other projects, please do visit DebbieOhi.com. Thanks for visiting! -- Debbie Ridpath Ohi
Just write. Many writers hope elves will come in the night and finish your work for you. They won’t.
- Neil Gaiman (@NeilHimself on Twitter)
I've started working on a new picture book idea (YAY!). After I pick an idea I'm excited about, I start writing the text. Because I tend to think visually when writing, I also usually start paging out the manuscript and scribbling stick figure thumbnail sketches to help me figure out pacing.
You can read more about my process as well as download some free picture book thumbnail templates.
It's been four years since my first children's book came out. One thing I've learned since then: to pay more attention to the people and things around me.
EVERYTHING AND EVERYONE can be a source of wonder and inspiration: a snippet of conversation, a secret smile, even someone's shoes. Ask yourself questions about the people and things you see around you, invent reasons why people look or act the way they do, what happened to them, why they chose to wear that particular piece of clothing today.
(Quote above & others available as free, print-ready posters for classrooms, libraries, bookstores and elsewhere: DebbieOhi.com/read)
"Write, write, write... The world is full of people with good ideas. The published authors are the ones who sat down and got them written." - Jennifer Fallon
Reminder: For those of you who are writing and/or illustrating children's picture books: Feel free to download and use my picture book thumbnail templates during your early brainstorming.
William Steig didn't start writing kids' books 'til age 61, went on to write 30+. More proof that it’s never too late to start.
Sources:
William Steig biography, via Norman Rockwell Museum Illustration History
William Steig biography, via Macmillan website
Tip for writers and illustrators: Every so often, take the time to look at things around you differently than you normally would. Doing so can help you solve creative problems in your work. Here's why and how...
Be aware when research & prep becomes a crutch. At some point, you need to jump in & WRITE.
I love creating found object doodles and post them on Instagram, "Found Object Art" gallery on Flickr, Pinterest, Tumblr and in my Found Object Art portfolio.
I love this quote by Robert Cormier so much that I've made it available as a free, print-ready poster.
Download the poster here. (after opening the image, right-click for PC, ctrl-click and hold for Mac)
Also see my free, print-ready Archives.
Wednesday, September 23, 2015 at 11:32 AM | Post a Comment | Email Article | Share Article | Permalink 
One of my favourite Neil Gaiman quotes: "Just write. Many writers have a vague hope that elves will come in the night and finish any stories for you for you. They won’t." You can see the original video in which he offers advice for young writers:
Every journey to publication is different. Don't compare yourself to others. Find your OWN path, at your own pace.
I love what Stephen King said about not waiting for one's Muse to show up.
“Don't wait for the muse. As I've said, he's a hardheaded guy who's not susceptible to a lot of creative fluttering. This isn't the Ouija board or the spirit-world we're talking about here, but just another job like laying pipe or driving long-haul trucks. Your job is to make sure the muse knows where you're going to be every day from nine 'til noon. or seven 'til three. If he does know, I assure you that sooner or later he'll start showing up.”
- Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft
The comic above is also available as an Unhappy Muse greeting card in my online card shop.
Wednesday, September 2, 2015 at 9:05 AM | Post a Comment | Email Article | Share Article | Permalink 
Many thanks to my friend David Diaz for his friendship and mentorship. I got to know David through the SCBWI, when I was chosen for the SCBWI-LA Illustration Mentorship program in 2010. David has been recently touching base with many of the Mentees, past and present, to find out how they're doing...he is doing this on his own time and volition, not because it's an official part of the program. He and I chatted yesterday, and I had the chance to thank him again for his early advice. I also told him how my venture into found object doodles started because of HIM, at one of his Lost Weekends.
You can find out more about David on Wikipedia, Facebook and an Illustrator Spotlight via Kidlit411.
Pat Zietlow Miller wrote SOPHIE’S SQUASH, which won the Golden Kite Award, an Ezra Jack Keats New Writer Honor and a Charlotte Zolotow Honor. She has two books coming out this year: WHEREVER YOU GO (Little, Brown, April) and SHARING THE BREAD (Schwartz & Wade, August.) Pat also has six other books under contract.
For a synopsis of WHEREVER YOU GO plus more about the illustrator, Eliza Wheeler, see yesterday's Three Questions With Eliza Wheeler. Wherever You Go is a new picture book written by Pat, illustrated by Eliza, coming out from Little, Brown Books For Young Readers on April 21, 2015. As I mentioned in earlier posts, I absolutely ADORE this book and strongly recommend it.
Where you can find more info about Pat and her work: her website, PictureBookBuilders.com (where she is a regular contributor), @PatZMiller on Twitter.
Q. Could you please take a photo of something in your office and tell me the story behind it?
This is a dictionary and a bookmark I received when I was a senior in high school from my English teacher Gladys Veidemanis. The class voted on several awards, and I won “most likely to be published.” It took about 25 years after high school, but it did happen!
Q. What advice do you have for young writers?
Read anything you can. Write anything you can.
When I was young I read anything and everything. Books. Newspapers, Magazines. Cereal boxes. The backs of shampoo bottles. I remember being very indignant once as a teen when the copy on the back of a soap container was missing a hyphen. “How could someone not have noticed that?” I asked my mom. She didn’t have a good answer.
I also tried to write like my favorite writers. I was a huge Erma Bombeck fan, and a huge Rick Reilly fan and I tried to write essays that sounded like them. It might seem counterintuitive, but recognizing other people’s writing styles and trying to replicate them ends up helping you figure out your own best writing voice.
But even if you read and write anything you can, you still may have a hard time getting your book published. I got 126 rejections before I sold my first book. This video tells how I persevered. (And now, I’ve sold nine books, so it was definitely worth the wait.)
Q. What are you excited about right now?
What a great question! Let me make you a list:
• Dark chocolate peanut butter cups from Trader Joe’s.
• Finding out which colleges my daughter gets accepted into and helping her decide where she’ll go.
• An oh-my-goodness-you-must-read-this middle grade book by Kate Messner called ALL THE ANSWERS.
• The fact that illustrator extraordinaire Eliza Wheeler is coming to Wisconsin from California to launch our picture book WHEREVER YOU GO.
• These shoes, which I cannot, unfortunately, afford.
I could keep going. There are lots of things to be excited about.
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Also see Eliza Wheeler's Three Questions interview, posted yesterday!
For more interviews, see my Inkygirl Interview Archive.
Those of you who have no trouble saying no can just skip the rest of this post.
Some of you, however, may be like me. I like making people happy and don't like disappointing them. I also dislike conflict. I like helping people. So when people ask me for things, I used to usually say yes....even when I knew I'd probably regret it later.
I'm gradually learning how to say no.
While it's true that saying yes to one "just have a quick favor to ask, would appreciate just a few minutes of your time" is no problem, saying yes to a LOT of these favors accumulates. And in my experience, "just a few minutes" inevitably turns into hours or sometimes days.
What's hardest: saying no to projects that DO sound like a lot of fun and/or worthy and that I really, really want to do. There are many of these. One of my challenges (and I suspect some of you feel similarly): I want to do EVERYTHING. There are so many good causes, so many people I want to help, so many projects I'd love to be a part of.
By saying no more often, however, I'm able to focus and enjoy the projects I say "yes" to more fully AND have more flexibility about when I do take on a new project.
Good luck!
Whether I'm working on my own writing (including the 250, 500 and 1000 Words/Day Challenge) or an illustration project, I find I'm able to better focus and be more productive if I can create a mental space in which I feel safe enough to do my best work.
Perhaps safe isn't the right word. I like Shaun Tan's "bubble of delusion" idea, which I first heard in his talk at an SCBWI Winter Conference a couple of years ago.
Sean's advice: Set up a safe space in which you feel positive about yourself and your work, and in which you know that you WILL do great work. Surround yourself with positive, encouraging people. Try to avoid negativity as much as possible. Sean says he steers clear of reading reviews of his work, for example.
Part of the way I do this is trying very hard to STAY OFFLINE when I'm doing creative work. Even dropping in on Twitter or FB for a few minutes can end up being an energy-sucking black hole, often making me question whether I'm doing enough (especially in terms of promotion, networking, working on my craft, etc.) or doing it -whatever "it" is- the Right Way.
What do YOU do to create your own Bubble Of Happy Delusion?
November is Picture Book Month! Each day, you can find an inspirational essay by a children's book writer or illustrator about the importance of picture books. ALSO, teachers and librarians can find curriculum connections compiled by educational consultant and children's book author, Marcie Colleen (Marcie did the Teacher's Guides for I'M BORED and NAKED!).
Anyway, the first essay is by Aaron Becker, and you can read it here.
If you're a picture book writer, I also advise you to check out Tara Lazar's Picture Book Idea Month (PiBoIdmo), in which participants are challenged to come up with 30 picture book ideas in a month.
And of course, November is also National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), where the challenge is to write 50,000 words of a novel in 30 days.
