Children's Writer's & Artist's Online Toolkit

Let's get this thread moving again for our beloved newbies! Come on, show us what you've got hidden in those bookmarks!

Okay, I really should have been paying attention to this thread.

I cannot believe we don't have the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators linked here! It is THE professional organization for kids' lit, both learners and published professionals. They offer regional and national conferences, workshops, annual and quarterly publications, grants, awards, plus all the information you could ever hope for about both the craft of writing and the editorial/publishing aspects.

Here's the link:
http://www.scbwi.org/

To further the SCBWI link:

http://scbwi.org/regions_events2.htm

It's an online listing of various events hosted by the the Society for Children's Book Writers and Illustrators from around the world. Many (if not most/all) of these events are open to non-members for slightly more expensive prices (like $50 instead of $40, or $5 instead of free).

I would also like to post some of the books that I highly recommend, and I would encourage others to do the same. (Yep, I've read them all.)

IMMEDIATE FICTION by Jerry Cleaver--not specific to kids, but great for the basics of how to write an exciting story. Inspiring.

THE WRITER'S GUIDE TO CRAFTING STORIES FOR CHILDREN by Nancy Lamb--a little too much information, to be honest, it takes a lot to process. Good for coming back to in small doses.

TAKE JOY by Jane Yolen--more inspirational than informational, but a great read. She also has at least one other book on writing for kids that is more practical, but I can't quite remember the title....

SCENE AND STRUCTURE by Jack Bickham--ookay, some people would argue against taking advice from a someone who is sort of a hack. But I disagree. Yes, his advice is very formulaic. But if you understand the formula, then you're likely to be more successful straying from it. If you're struggling with the basics, this is a very useful book.

CHILDREN'S WRITERS AND ILLUSTRATORS MARKET--updated annually

WRITING MAGIC by Gail Carson Levine--meant for her tweenage fans, but hey, I loved it. All the basics are covered, done with encouragement and excitement. Lots of fun!

THE ANATOMY OF STORY by John Truby--aimed at screenwriters, but story is story and plot is plot. The advice works for kids' lit just as well. One of my big ah-ha moments from this book: The opponent in the story doesn't have to be the character who tries to stop your hero from reaching his goal. It can be (should be) the character who is competing with your hero to reach the same goal. That has totally changed how I'm thinking about my current WIP...

Andrea Brown Lit Agency and the Henry Miller Library sponsor two writing workshops every year. The Nov/Dec one focuses on children's lit; the March one if for upper MG through adult (used to be YA and up; they added MG this year.)

I've been twice and highly recommend it. This year's Sue Alexander award winner for best manuscript submitted for critique at the SCBWI national conference--Doug Marshall, FLUNG--was in my first critique group back in 2006.

Here's the link:
http://www.andreabrownlit.com/writing.php

I personally don't write rhyming picture books, but lots of what is submitted in Share Your Work is in rhyme, so I'd like to suggest a few authors for beginners to study.

Jack Prelutsky, national Children's Poet Laureate. He is amazing! He has a book for kids on how to write poetry, called PIZZA, PIGS AND POETRY: HOW TO WRITE A POEM.

Lee Bennett Hopkins. Gives lots of poetry workshops at SCBWI events, but as far as I know has never written a How-to book. It'd be a good idea, though....

THE COMPLETE IDIOT'S GUIDE TO WRITING POETRY by Nikki Moustaki. This is a pretty good series, so I assume the poetry volume would be just as helpful as the others.

Thanks to brittanimae for finding this resource and website. Writer Holly Lisle has some great articles about the craft of writing. This one is about revising; once you're at the website, check out some of her others. I got a kick out of "how to steal other people's ideas and get away with it."

Holly Lisle Workshops

Poetry Books

This list comes from published poet Laura Evans, from an article in the JanFeb 2009 SCBWI Bulletin:

HOW TO WRITE POETRY by Paul Janeczko
THE POET'S HANDBOOK by Judson Jerome
KNOCK AT A STAR by X. J. Kennedy and Dorothy M. Kennedy
POETRY MATTERS: WRITING A POEM FROM THE INSIDE OUT by Ralph Fletcher
CREATING POETRY by John Drury
THE HAIKU HANDBOOK: HOW TO WRITE, SHARE AND TEACH HAIKU by William J. Higginson

some of these books are written for children or teachers, some are for adults.

cool website

here's another good website for all kinds of information:

http://www.writersconferenceguidelines.com/

This is a great thread! It is quite informative.

Another GREAT writing book: Writing and Selling the YA Novel by K. L. Going

This one's a winner. I've read quite a few, and this author of Fat Kid Rules the World and Saint Iggy really nails it.

Great Resource

I've had this bookmarked for awhile, but haven't looked at it in months. Great resource for writers for kids.

http://www.kidmagwriters.com/index.htm

Click on "The Dead Zone" for what kid's mags are closed for good or just temp. closed to subs

Here is a great link to a book for Writing A Great Children's Book, by Robyn Opie. You can buy it as an eBook and download it immediately. I found it great. Robyn Opie has written over 70 children's books. I found her book on writing really easy to understand.
http://www.robynopie.com/

thanks to cwgranny for this new link to the Children's book council--the link in post #2 must be outdated, doesn't go anywhere.

Children's Book Council Members (publisher listing)

Even if you have zero interest in any kind of course, The Institute has some stuff worth checking out...

The Children's Writers eNews -- free and contains market news, an article (usually written by me so no promises about quality) and links to industry blogs and updates on coming free workshops. http://www.institutechildrenslit.com/rx/email_updates.shtml

Articles on Writing and transcripts of interviews with industry professionals
http://www.institutechildrenslit.com/rx/ws01/webindex.shtml

I agree. ICL has a lot of great resources, whether you're a student or not. Of course, students have more resources though.

The link Stormie gave above for http://www.kidmagwriters.com is actually Jan Fields' site. She's a published author, ICL web editor, and an ICL instructor.

Nathan Bransford's blog is already listed here, but now he has it organized into a Writing Advice Database, with links to all kinds of great posts.

find it here:
http://nathanbransford.blogspot.com/

Here is a great website to Margie Lawson’s on line writing courses. They’re not children’s writing courses, but writing in general. I’m doing the Empowering Characters Emotions course at the moment. It’s fantastic and great value for money.

Here’s the link: http://www.margielawson.com/

Wow! You guys totally rock. I've been on this thread checking out links for nearly 45 minutes and fully intended to give it just a quick look see. I've so many new bookmarks I'll be days checking them all out.

Thanks!

Here is a link to a mock Newbery award:
http://www.olis.ri.gov/services/children/newbery2008.php

Here is a link to a mock Caldecott award:
http://acplkids.blogspot.com/2008/01/mock-caldecott-results-2008.html

These two links provide writers and editors with examples of new literature that are potential award winning children's books. This is a great resource for writers to find out what types of children's books are currently popular.

Timothy said:

Here is a link to a mock Newbery award:
http://www.olis.ri.gov/services/children/newbery2008.php

Here is a link to a mock Caldecott award:
http://acplkids.blogspot.com/2008/01/mock-caldecott-results-2008.html

These two links provide writers and editors with examples of new literature that are potential award winning children's books. This is a great resource for writers to find out what types of children's books are currently popular.

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Nice tip, Timothy! Welcome to AW!

Two more books recommended by someone in an old, old thread...hopefully these are still in print:

Writing and Illustrating Children' Books for Publication: Two Perspectives, by Berthe Amos and Eric Suben. It is filled with all sorts of good information, checklists, writing exercises, case histories, reading lists, and advice. It was published in 1995, but it is still the best resource I've found. Also very good (and also from Writer's Digest Books, my favorite source for writing books) is the book/workbook set called You Can Write Children's Books, by Tracey E. Dils

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JudScotKev said:

Two more books recommended by someone in an old, old thread...hopefully these are still in print:

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Yes, these are still in print. In fact, I just purchased "You Can Write Children's Books" in brand new condition on E-bay for $2.71 + S&H.

Smish said:

Nice tip, Timothy! Welcome to AW!

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Here is another website that is very beneficial. It is the website for the American Library association. The ALA is responsible for awarding the Newberry and Caldecott Medals. These also show what types of children's books are popular and receiving awards.

http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/alsc/awardsgrants/bookmedia/newberymedal/newberymedal.cfm

http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/alsc/awardsgrants/bookmedia/caldecottmedal/caldecottmedal.cfm

An SCBWI colleague turned me on to these sites. You can enter text and it will give you a readability level. Not exact, probably, but helpful anyway.

http://www.interventioncentral.org/htmdocs/tools/okapi/okapi.php

http://www.lexile.com/DesktopDefault.aspx?view=ed&tabindex=2&tabid=16&tabpageid=335

and another, thanks to Barb D. for the link:
http://www.storytoolz.com/readability/index