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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
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URL shortcut for this challenge: http://bit.ly/dailywords
I've successfully managed 500 words a day except for one day on the weekend. I'm going to wait after I attend the SCBWI conference in NYC at the end of the month before I consider ramping up to 1000 words a day.
How are the rest of you doing with your Word Count Challenges?
Picture books writers (aspiring and experienced): Picture Book Idea Month starts today! Check out Tara Lazar's blog for more info.
Call me crazy, but I've always loved creative challenges. During the month of November, I'm going to be participating in:
NaNoWriMo: I've been doing background and outlining of my cartoon-illustrated middle grade novel, Vampire Zombie Squirrels From Outer Space, and it's finally time to start writing it. I may not reach 50,000 words, but that's okay. I figure it'll be fun to try, and if I finish the first draft before hitting 50,000 words, that's also okay. Call me a NaNoRebel, but quality is more important to me than quantity in this case.
NaNoDrawMo: Just found out about this drawing challenge from Jeff. The goal: 50 sketches/drawings in a month. I figure I need more sketching practice, so this is a good excuse.
PiBoIdMo: Picture Book Idea Month. The goal: to come up with 30 picture book ideas in 30 days. I'm counting on at least ONE of these ideas being good enough to turn into a picture book mss that I can submit to publishers, along with storyboard sketches.
November PAD: Poem-A-Day Chapbook Challenge. The goal: 30 poems in 30 days, with a daily topic prompt from Robert Lee Brewer. I'm a closet aspiring poet and have even sold a few poems in the past. The whole insta-poem aspect of PAD is creatively liberating, I find.
What about the rest of you? Anyone doing one of the challenges above?
The creation of Darcy Pattison, Random Acts Of Publicity Week is a week where everyone is encouraged to post a review of a friend's book on Amazon, Goodreads, Library Thing, or elsewhere online. WONDERFUL idea!
To those of you who aren't on Facebook, I've posted what Darcy said at the end of this post.
If you DO participate and post a review of a book somewhere during the week, feel free to use this badge of honor I created this morning specifically for the event:
I've also created a bit.ly shortcut, http://bit.ly/RAPweek, which points to Darcy's Facebook page about the event.
From Darcy Pattison:
September 7-10, 2010
2nd Annual RANDOM ACTS OF PUBLICITY WEEK
WHAT? I always promise myself that today I’ll write a review of my friends’ books and actually post them on Amazon or Library Thing or GoodReads or somewhere. But do I? No. That’s about to change! We're going to help publicize our friends' books during the Random Acts of Publicity Week.
...Why? I know how wonderful it is to see new reviews on Amazon of one of my books. I know that it’s better to give than to receive. During the Random Acts of Publicity Week, I vow to put these two things together and give friends some support for their books.
Why this week? We all know that the holiday shopping season is when people buy things, including books. Especially books! We want our Amazon pages and other publicity in place before that season starts. So, September is a great month to help others by reviewing their books and doing other Random Acts of Publicity.
How? See darcypattison.com each day of this week for tips on helping publicize your friends' books.
Who? Anyone and everyone can join in this week of paying-it-forward.
YA author Laurie Halse Anderson has a post that everyone should read. I'm serious. If you haven't already, please go read it RIGHT NOW:
Laurie Halse Anderson: Your Time Is Your Currency
I dare you to read this and NOT be super-inspired.
Author Jane Yolen posted this wonderful poem by Marge Piercy in Facebook recently, saying that people are always asking her about her compulsion to write and work ethic. I -love- this poem, and totally agree with its sentiment. Not just about work but about life in general.
Image above: my Daily Doodle (I've been posted Daily Doodles on my main DebbieOhi.com site, for those interested), inspired by the poem this morning.
Helia Phoenix has a great post about Morning Pages. In case some of you haven't heard the term before, Julia Cameron proposed the exercise in her book, The Artist's Way, where you write three pages of stream-of-consciousness every morning.
Read more about this in this Write For Your Life post.
I found out about Mary L. Tabor through a recent blog post by Jane Friedman. Mary published her first book after the age of 60, and Jane's Q&A with Mary is full of fascinating insights.
Not only did Mary's writing success come later in life, but blogged her second book on Sex After Sixty.
If you're not already following Rachelle Gardner's blog, you should go add her site to your RSS feed RIGHT NOW.
Not only is her blog a great glimpse into how a literary agent operates, but Rachelle's site is packed with fantastic advice for writers.
From Robert McCrum in Guardian.co.uk:
...The ruthless cut-off of 40 does not address the complex trajectory of creative growth: for every novelist or poet who explodes skywards with a first or second book, there are many who only achieve mastery as they reach the shady side of the slope. The onset of middle age, or the approach of oblivion, is perhaps as sharp a spur to literary effort as the intoxicating self-belief of youth.
For those who missed NaNoWriMo or did NaNo but are keen for more punishment inspiration, checkout BuNoWriMo, a challenge to write a 50,000 word novel in June.
There's also a BuNoWriMo Facebook group.
After my last get-together with my writing pal, Mahtab Narsimhan, I've adopted a new daily work schedule. I generally wake at about 6-6:30 a.m. and head down to my office to do e-mail, then surf for publishing news for my Market Watch column while also updating @inkyelbows and other feeds on Twitter.
From now on, I'm going to do some writing first thing ... BEFORE GOING ONLINE. I've been trying it for a few days now and I'm very happy with the results. By 8 a.m., I've been writing for 1.5-2 hours, and then I can start working on my publishing news column. I'll do more writing later, but it's a good way to start the day plus I'm more productive.
It'll take a little while before it becomes habit, though -- when I wake up, I am SO used to going online right away. It's how I wake up, instead of the morning cup of coffee that other people have.
What about the rest of you? What's your morning ritual?
The goal of Julie Duffy's Story A Day challenge is write a story every day in May. Before you freak out, keep in mind that the stories can be of any length. There is also leeway built-in. "You get to decide what “every day” means. If you need to take Sundays off, go for it. You make your own rules, but you are encouraged to set them up early, and stick to them!"
I'm signing up. I'm going to participate in Paula Yoo's National Picture Book Writing week, so I figure writing picture books can count for the first week, then I'll write other types of stories the rest of the month. For me, I'm mainly aiming for story ideas -- a very rough story outline (including a beginning, middle and end) every day. Some days this might only be a few sentences but if I'm feeling super-inspired, I figure I can write a more detailed story outline.
After May, I'll pick out the story ideas that appeal most to me and expand the outlines.
What about the rest of you?
If you're ready to commit, sign up here.
For more info, see http://storyaday.org/.
Only a couple of days left for you to sign up for Script Frenzy. From the site's About page:
Script Frenzy is an international writing event in which participants take on the challenge of writing 100 pages of scripted material in the month of April. As part of a donation-funded nonprofit, Script Frenzy charges no fee to participate; there are also no valuable prizes awarded or "best" scripts singled out. Every writer who completes the goal of 100 pages is victorious and awe-inspiring and will receive a handsome Script Frenzy Winner's Certificate and web icon proclaiming this fact.What I hadn't realized until recently: in addition to screenplays, stage plays, TV shows, and short films, Script Frenzy also includes graphic novels. Hm. I'm SO tempted. I've just started work on a cartoon-heavy novel for middle grade readers which is a sort of "Diary Of A Wimpy Kid meets Captain Underpants." Right now I'm focusing on the script, with very rough sketches of the graphics. Unlike NaNoWriMo, Script Frenzy doesn't include a wordcount and also doesn't require you to start from scratch. My novel isn't in comic book format all the way through, which is why I'm still calling it a novel. However, there are going to be a LOT of mini-comic strips and fun graphic elements throughout, which is why I would be relying on scriptwriting format just as much as regular manuscript format. What about the rest of you? Are you planning to do Script Frenzy?
I was recently approached by a publisher who likes my illustrations, asking if I had any stories to go with them. I've started using Zengobi's Curio to brainstorm. LOVE this program. I'm also using it to brainstorm about my other writing projects, both fiction and nonfiction, as well as my cartoons.
Curio's creator is unsure about whether to create an iPad-friendly version and is asking for feedback on the Curio forums:
I'd love to hear from some students given that we have a TON of college students using Curio. Are you going to be purchasing an iPad? To supplement your Macbook or for replacing it? Likewise, we have a ton of professional users (designers, filmmakers, and other creative types, and plus engineers, scientists, etc) using Curio. What are your thoughts on the iPad?
If you're a Curio user who love to see a version for the iPad, please do post your opinion on the Zengobi Curio forum!
Here are some useful posts about how writers use Curio:
Zengobi Curio : Project Central on my Mac
Using Curio to plan a book
Curio and Screenwriting
Writer's Gem: Curio - by Angela Booth
One of my favourite blog for children's writers is Mary Kole's Kidlit.com. Mary Kole is an associate agent at Andrea Brown Literary Agency. Quote from her post today:
It’s in your best interest to develop a thick skin, learn how to take criticism and rejection, separate yourself from what you’ve put on a page, learn everything you can about the industry, get realistic, and keep writing every day. The one-in-a-million publication stories are the ones you hear because they’re glamorous. Most people get published through the tears, snot, spilled coffee, midnight breakdowns and rare moments of joy that comprise a long time spent chasing a dream. It’s not terribly sexy, nor is it quick. But that’s how people make it and that’s the truth.I strongly recommend writers to read the entire post (not just for kids' writers!) and browse her blog for valuable writing advice. You can also follow her on Twitter at @Kid_Lit.
Don't know about the rest of you, but I have a tendency to let my e-mail pile up...or at least I did. This year, I'm determined to keep better control over my e-mail Inbox (or Inboxes, since I have more than one e-mail account).
What I'm finding: bad e-mail organization/handling results in wasted time (time that could be spent writing) and missing important messages.
Here's a list of things I did toward achieving a better e-mail system, in case any of you want to try the same:
1. Did a mass search for certain senders and subject header phrases to make it easier to list messages for mass deletion.
I've been getting notices from Twitter about new followers, for instance. I use Gmail, so I clicked on the "Show Search Options Link" to the right of the search field, specified that I only wanted to search mail in my Inbox, entered the phrase "is now following" in the search subject field, then hit SEARCH:
Once you get a list of all the messages, then click on SELECT ALL:
Click on "Select all conversations that match this search" to also select the e-mail results on other search results pages (else you have to repeat the process):
..and then DELETE:
2. Unsubscribed from as many e-mail lists as I possibly could.
I had initially subscribed to various mailing lists with grand dreams of being able to scan all of them, but I'm realizing that there is just NO WAY I can keep up. The messages inevitably start piling up, and more important e-mail messages get lost in the mix.
Instead, I read the lists on the Web whenever possible (bookmarking them in my To Read list -- browser bookmark organization is another topic I probably should cover sometime). And I'm going through each of these e-mails in my Inbox and taking the time to find the "To unsubscribe, click here" link. If there IS no link, I go to the source Web site and look for it, e-mailing the administrator if I have to:
Some companies make it a real challenge to get taken off their their e-mail lists, counting on you giving up before you manage to unsubscribe. DON'T GIVE UP. Just think of how much time and hassle you'll save in the future by making some effort now.
If there are lists whose mailings you'd really like to keep, filter them into a separate folder/mailbox. You'll have to remember to check this separate mailbox but at least it gets them out of your Inbox.
As for improving my e-mail system, I'm trying to get into the habit of NOT CHECKING E-MAIL SO MANY TIMES THROUGHOUT THE DAY. Or at least not feeling compelled to drop everything I'm doing and responding immediately. This is going to take some self-discipline, but I'm already finding that it's paying off. Part of this is also training my regular contacts to my new system as well, that I may not be able to respond to all messages right away.
What about the rest of you? What does your e-mail inbox look like right now? Any other tips or ideas to share about improving your e-mail system with the goal of getting more time to write? I may post a Part 2 for this topic, depending on responses.
Related Resources:
4 ways to take control of your e-mail Inbox
Fifteen Practical Tips for Managing Your E-mail : more for lawyers, but includes some useful tips.
7 Ways To Manage Your Email Like An Expert
Tips for Mastering E-mail Overload: also includes tips on how to send better e-mail.
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Monday, January 10, 2011 at 11:04 AM
