Getting Started

My mom is a children’s writer. She wrote a book called Keep Your Ear on the Ball (Tilbury, 2007) and some magazine stories called: The Perfect Friend, Blueberry Farm, and Vincent’s Doghouse. She wrote a story about me called Cupcake Learns, but so far, it’s not published. When it is, I’ll finally be allowed to go with her when she does school visits and author talks. Yay. No more looking out the window for me.

She wants me to share some of her favorite tips about being a writer. I will post one tip today, one tomorrow, and one the next day. By then you will totally be a pro and I will totally take a few days off to play and sleep and play and sleep and play and play and sleep. 

Tip #1- READ

I don’t know how to read (or fetch or roll over), but I do enjoy licking library books, tasting the Kindle, and sleeping on the iPad. If you’re human and you want to write picture books, you need to read picture books – lots and lots of them. Not only can you discover the topics that are popular (and the ones that are done-to-death), but you can also feel the rhythm and see the styles that work (and sell). Use the library and the bookstore to read the newest books you can find. See what works, what fails, what makes you say, “Wow,” and what makes you say, *yawn* “Aargh.” and “Whatever.”