I wrote a child…

I wrote a children’s story this week. Yes, I did it. And it needs work. 

And I know that it’s short and not very deep or thought-provoking, but just knowing that I actually wrote something that has a full beginning and end–an actual story–is an accomplishment. Usually, my writing consists of parts fit together like a Lego house, not the car that can drive from point A to point B. So to write something that has a true beginning, middle, and end is a feat. 

No, the main character hasn’t fully solved his own problem, and yes, it can actually use with some expansion, but it is only in its first stages. I’ll see what happens on Tuesday, when we turn our final picture book dummy. 

I was looking around at different blogs to post about, including Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast and A Fuse 8 Production. The posts I read were really about illustrations. Edward Hemingway (yes, Ernest Hemingway’s grandson) wrote and illustrated Bad Apple. Hemingway used oils for his illustrations.The colors are vivid and captivating; they are perfect for the atmosphere of an orchard. Creepy Carrots! by Aaron Reynolds, reviewed by A Fuse 8 Production. The illustrator for the book, Peter Brown, used pen, paper, and a computer for to compose the illustrations. While I have been wondering how picture books are illustrated, keeping in mind my delusion that all pictures are drawn and colored on paper, I have actually discovered that some of the best picture books were not illustrated in that fashion.Acrylics and watercolors are also popular to use. Maybe I will illustrate my own picture books someday.

I think I mentioned last week that The Blue Rose Girls are posting again. The blogs I read there included life without the internet and balancing work and a family. I am a busy woman, always connected to friends, coworkers, my boss, my organizations, and (sometimes) school. But to think I thought after college my life would slow down. I guess that’s not very possible. 

~SC

 

Harder Than It Looks

Hello, beautiful world!

I have learned one very important concept during this long, largely under-slept week: fitting a story into a picture book is hard. I don’t think parents and maybe even teachers at times understand just how hard a picture book is to write. There are so many rules, and so many books that have been published have broken the rules. An author has to find appropriate page breaks and cliffhangers to keep kids wanting to turn to the next page. In groups in class yesterday, we took the text of a published book and made a dummy. The picture book dummy is thirty-two pages long, horizontal or vertical, our choice. Yet taking away three pages for the title, copyright information, and half-title or dedication drops the number down to 29. How on earth did I like picture books that much as a child?

When I was a kid, I read as many picture books as I could get my hands on. And I understood the full story, the characters’ personality, everything. I didn’t feel dumb or like I was being talked down to or that each book I read contained a moral or lesson. That was never explicitly stated. Now, I feel like I have to write, write, write, and I feel that I can be a very minimalist writer a lot of the time.

I was reading on A Fuse #8 Production two book reviews by Elizabeth Bird. The first review I read is about A Boy and a Bear in a Boat by Dave Shelton. In her review, she states, “In the end, the boy and the bear reach a kind of peace and a desire to keep going, no matter what.” This alone makes me want to read the book. Is it okay for a child’s book to not have a neat and tied-together ending? The review explains that the characters are not named, and the backstories not explained. This book is for older readers and is longer, which leads me to wonder why Shelton made those choices. Should there be backstory? I will have to track this book down and write more or less of a review myself. Look for it on an upcoming blog.

The other review I read was in response to reading Jonathan and Martha by Petr Horacek, The cover reminded me of The Very Hungry Caterpillar with it’s illustrations. Bird starts her review by asking if anyone has tried to write a picture book, and then explains just how hard it is. Before taking this class, I thought surely if you are a fiction writer then a picture book would be a piece of cake. Well, no. An author must hone their skills of simplistic writing and editing if they want to fit an entire story onto 29 pages. I have my work cut our for me.

By the way, both of these books are imported. I need to research just how many books children read that are imported from other countries. There must be something missing from American stories if the popularity of imported books are on the rise. Something to look into.

On a side note, The Blue Rose Girls are back to their blog this fall. I am glad this blog is being posted on regularly now. One got married and danced on a tennis court; another’s book is about to be launched. I can’t wait to hear more from these editors as the semester progresses.

Until,

-SC

Something New

“I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it.  ~Pablo Picasso

So, here I am. Writing a blog for the first time in my life. I am pretty late, aren’t I? And not just behind in the timing of this new venture; I’m writing for a class. That’s right: I’ve had to be pushed by the lure of a letter grade in my Forms of Writing for Children class. Hhhmm…so much for the quote I have started out with.

But the important thing is I’m doing it, right?

I am a writer. I am. I am also really trying to internalize this fact. And if I have been created to write, I have to make sure I am writing. So, for starters, I will for this class.

I had no idea what I was walking into on the first day of classes. Forms of Writing for Children isn’t necessarily a hard class, but I was mistaken to think there is nothing more to children’s books than cutesie rhyme schemes with the opening lines of a story being, “Hi! My name is Stacy!”

That is quite the contrary, I have learned. Nowadays, a writer does not start a story that way. My teacher, Stephanie Vanderslice, was adamant in its anathema. Okay, maybe she wasn’t that harsh about it, but still. And to think I was keeping that option open…

And because I am not Margaret Wise Brown, as we’ve also discussed in class, I probably should not start out trying to rhyme. “If you’re going to write a picture book in rhyme, you must make sure that every word moves your story forward,” says Ann Whitford Paul in her book, Writing Picture Books. Which means I should not be writing a picture book in rhyme. I am definitely not there yet, even though I do (contrary to popularity at the moment, I suppose) like to rhyme. But if I do get there, well, you may be buying a rhyming picture book by Sara Cervantes for all of the children in your life.

More later; I am most definitely not interested in boring you. And because of that, I will choose to leave out the part of the post  where I’m supposed to fill you in on everything that is on my to-do list until next time. For one my list is much too long to even think about right now, and second, who really likes to read those? Maybe I’ll do that if I ever become a bestselling author, but until then, I shall spare you.

Goodnight, all. 🙂

[Enter creative sign-off here…]

-SC