Monday
Nov302015
Will Write For Chocolate Updated
For more WWFC strips, visit WillWriteForChocolate.com.
And in case anyone's curious, Esme is reading Teresa Toten's SHATTERED GLASS, just like I am. Such a good book!
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
Entries from November 1, 2015 - November 30, 2015
Monday, November 30, 2015 at 8:48 AMTuesday
Nov242015
Advice for young writers, office cats and UP IN THE AIR: Three Questions With Ann Marie Meyers
Ann Marie Meyers grew up in Trinidad and Tobago in the West Indies. She has a degree in languages and translates legal and technical documents from French and Spanish into English. She lives in Toronto, Ontario, with her husband and daughter. Meyers is an active member of SCBWI and facilitates a children's writing group twice a month.
Read Ann Marie's advice for young writers, her office cats and what she's excited about now...
Tuesday
Nov242015
Monday
Nov162015
Advice For Young Writers, Emergency Chocolate and A MOOSE GOES A-MUMMERING: Three Questions with Lisa Dalrymple
Lisa Dalrymple is the author of Skink on the Brink and many other books for children. She loves to travel. In Thailand, she shared her bath towel with a gecko that thought it was his bed. Lisa now lives in Ontario with her husband and three kids–but no lizards.
Also see my interview with Lisa Dalrymple and Suzanne Del Rizzo about how they created SKINK ON THE BRINK, a wonderful plasticine art book from Fitzhenry & Whiteside.
You can find out more about Lisa and her work at LisaDalrymple.com, Facebook, Twitter.
Monday
Nov162015
Saturday
Nov142015
Friday
Nov132015
Monday
Nov092015
Advice For Young Writers, Dyslexia and Reading, Storytelling, THE JOCK AND THE FAT CHICK: Three Questions With Nicole Winters
Nicole Winters graduated from the University of Toronto with an English B.A.. She loves books, bikes, horror films and globe hopping. She’s currently at work on her third YA novel called THE CONJURER. You can find Nicole on Twitter, her blog, Facebook or NicoleWintersAuthor.com.
I met Nicole through Torkidlit and love her enthusiasm and genuine caring about young readers as well as her support of other authors in the community.
Thursday
Nov052015
Comic inspired by a tweet by Arthur Slade today
Thanks to Arthur Slade for his permission to turn his tweet into a comic. :-)
Thursday
Nov052015
Short on writing time or falling behind in NaNoWriMo? Try this more flexible challenge.
Too often, I find that writers start motivational challenges like NaNoWrimo with enthusiasm and good intentions, but give up when they start missing their daily targets for more than a few days in a row...undermining their confidence and defeating the purpose of the original challenge.
If you need a motivational writing challenge with some flexibility, try checking out my 250, 500 or 1000 words/day challenge. I'm doing NaNoWriMo right now as a way of helping kickstart my middle grade novel....but I'm already falling a wee bit behind the "1666 wds/day" goal.
If I do end up having to bail out of NaNo, I'm vowing NOT going to get discouraged but am going to keep going, but try a lower wordcount instead.
To those of you with lots of writing time and don't need these challenges: I envy you! :-) These days for me, paying work has taken priority and my non-contracted projects keep being pushed to the back burner. I find that wordcount challenges can help motivate me to get into the habit of putting in at least a little bit of time EVERY DAY on my novel-writing.
Some of you may snicker at my measley wordcount goals but for me, even 250 words a day is better than nothing at all.
Wednesday
Nov042015
Free Picture Book Thumbnail Templates for Writers and Illustrators
With some sketches for picture book NAKED! (Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers, author Michael Ian Black)
When I was asked to illustrate my first picture book (I'm Bored) and I started researching picture book formats, I was confused. I knew a standard picture book had 32 pages, for example, but I discovered that these 32 pages might also include the title page and other non-story pages. Plus some books had the story beginning on the right-hand page while others started on the left.
Monday
Nov022015
Advice For Young Writers, Traveling Office Space and BRAZEN: Christina Farley Answers Three Questions
CHRISTINA FARLEY is the author of the Gilded series, a YA contemporary fantasy series set in Korea. GILDED was nominated for Korea’s 2014 Morning Calm, Ohio’s 2015 Buckeye award, and the Tome’s It List. As a child, she loved to explore, which later inspired her to jump on a plane and travel the world. To learn more about this series, visit the Gilded Series website.
Christy is also one of my awesome writing critique partners, and I continue to be grateful for her advice, encouragement and friendship over the years.
Monday
Nov022015
Sunday
Nov012015
Sunday
Nov012015
Tip: Write first, edit LATER.
This is something I've been struggling with for years. My tendency is to try editing as I write and while this works for some writers, I know, I find that it bogs me down to a snail's pace.
What I'm trying for my new middle grade novel: to do a lot of in-depth prep and thinking about the structure ahead of time, hammer out a VERY rough first draft, and THEN revise.
