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
Ok, so that may not have been the most coherent blog post title I've ever written but I CAN'T HELP IT! Because I just found out that I'm going to be working with LAURENT LINN at Simon & Schuster as I illustrate Michael Ian Black's new picture book, I'M BORED.
Soooooooooo excited about meeting Laurent in a couple of weeks.
I love Squarespace, but their spam-handling tools are abysmal. Supposedly this will be addressed in an upcoming release but so far there's no word on when that release will be.
As a result, anyway, I have to put ALL comments through a moderation stage where each comment needs individual approval (ugh). Time-consuming and a hassle, but it's either that or let all the spam comments through...and there have been a LOT of spam comments which I've had to block.
I've been a bit behind in comment moderation but have caught up now. Apologies for anyone who has been wondering why their comment hasn't been posted!
One of the Daily Doodles I've been posted on my DebbieOhi.com blog, to illustrate a post in iPadGirl. As you might guess, it's how Jeff and I do much of our reading. :-)
Debbie Ridpath Ohi tagged ipad 
Debbie Ridpath Ohi tagged promotion, secondlife  |
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URL shortcut for this challenge: http://bit.ly/dailywords
So how did you all do?
Post your update here or on the Facebook page.
(Update: Also see the related Facebook page)
Instead of their traditional interview with the winners of the Newbery and Caldecott Medals in Children's Literature, The Today Show decided to interview Snooki instead. Here's what Lin Oliver of the SCBWI (Society For Children's Book Writers & Performers) said in her letter to The Today Show in response. An excerpt:
"In choosing not to run the interviews with Clare Vanderpool and Erin Stead, television has once again underestimated the intelligence of its audience. Parents are dying to get their hands on good books for their kids. Booksellers are eager to sell and promote good books for kids. It’s good business, good broadcasting and good ethics to honor the best books for children."
If you're as disappointed by The Today Show's choice as I am, I encourage you to post a comment saying so at:
http://today.newsvine.com/_news/2010/03/02/3970646-today-viewer-resources#entercomment
Today's incredibly prestigious Golden Marmot award goes to middle grade writer Mike Jung for his entertaining Facebook post above.
Mike recently announced that his book GEEKS, GIRLS & SECRET IDENTITIES, is under contract with Arthur A. Levine Books (yay, Mike!).
A publisher has offered its readers a lifetime subscription to its titles if they get a tattoo inspired by one of their books. Wow, now THAT's loyalty.
Reading about this inspired me to draw the cartoon above today. :-)
If you find yourself vowing to do some writing but then reach the end of the day not really sure where the time went, I strongly advise keeping a time diary for a few days. Make sure you pick days which are fairly typical in terms of your planned schedule.
Write down EVERYTHING you do during the day, along with a time stamp. Yes, everything. Don't be embarrassed -- you're going to throw this out when you're finished, so no one else will see it.
I tried this and was horrified at how much time I was wasting or frittering away on non-work activities. The exercise really makes you more conscious of how you're spending your time.
These days I still try to keep a work diary, but not nearly so detailed...just enough to help keep me on track.
Has anyone else tried this exercise?
From time to time, I promote writing contests that have no entry fee. This one targets literary fiction writers.
Deadline: Jan. 23, 2011
Prize (3 winners): critique of first 10 pages of your work by agent, 1-year subscription to Writersmarket.com
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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?
If you haven't already heard, a new version of Huckleberry Finn is being released that replaces the word "nigger" with "slave" instead.
Bookshelves Of Doom recently posted a good Cagle comic on the controversy.
Are you an author thinking of writing or writing and illustrating a picture book? If so, check out the Kidlitart Picture Book Dummy Challenge, 25-week online group challenge to create a submit a picture book dummy. It starts today and ends on June 30th.
Excerpt from the description of who can join:
Though geared primarily toward author/illustrators, writers who are not artists can benefit from portions of the dummy exercise, and illustrators without an original manuscript can use the process to create a dummy portfolio piece.
Find out more at: http://kidlitart.blogspot.com/2011/01/its-here.html
Here's the blog post schedule:
Jan. 6-Jan. 13 (1 week): Pick your project
Jan. 13-Feb. 10 (4 weeks): Draft the story
Feb. 10-Feb. 24 (2 weeks): Develop the characters
Feb. 24-Mar. 10 (2 weeks): Storyboard text and art
Mar. 10-May 5 (8 weeks): Produce tight, full-size sketches
May 5-Jun. 2 (4 weeks): Produce final art of two spreads
Jun. 2-Jun. 16 (2 weeks): Comp the cover and assemble the dummy
Jun. 16-Jun. 23 (1 week): Research submissions; prepare dummy package
Jun. 23-Jun. 30 (1 week): Submit
Jun. 30: Wrap party!
So far, I've managed to easily meet my goal of 500 words a day. I'm even thinking of upgrading to 1000 words a day, but am going to wait a couple of weeks to make sure I'm not just experience a burst of "beginning of the year resolution" enthusiasm.
How are the rest of you doing?
One thing I'm doing to help minimize wasted time: UNSUBSCRIBING TO UNNECESSARY MAILING LISTS. I've mentioned this a while back, but since then I've let a number of services put me on their mailing lists without doing anything about it. Instead, I just delete the messages as they come in, without reading them.
NO LONGER.
From now on, if I find myself about to delete a mailing list message, I'll think very hard about whether I should be on the mailing list at all. And instead of being lazy and just hitting the delete key, I'm going to take the time to scroll to the bottom of the message and figure out how to unsubscribe myself.
A related tip: never EVER put people on your promotional mailing list without asking their permission first. It drives me crazy when I start getting promo e-mails from an author with an accompanying message like, "Hey, I thought you'd be interested in my work. If you want to be taken off the list, just let me know." It immediately makes me want to NOT buy the author's book. Ok, rant over.
I'm tickled by the enthusiastic response to my 250, 500 and 1000 Words/Day Challenge for Writers! I've been getting a ton of "I'm in!" messages on Twitter, Facebook and here on Inkygirl. For those on Facebook, I've created a page specifically about the challenge:
I've posted a new comic over on Writer Unboxed. Title: "New Year's Resolutions."
One of my New Year's Resolutions: To post in Inkygirl more often.
Another: to write a minimum of 500 words a day. As I mentioned before, I know that 500 words isn't a lot, but I've been doing a LOT more drawing lately and have been neglecting my own writing.
I'm secretly hoping that I'll find that once I get into the groove of regular writing again, I'll be able to aim for a higher wordcount goal.
What about the rest of you? Anyone else willing to join me in aiming for 250, 500 or 1000 words a day?
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