Ten-Minute Blog Break - 23rd December

Is there anybody out there? I wouldn't blame you all for being frantically busy in the run-up to Christmas, but I hope you'll find a few minutes to join me for the last Blog Break of 2014.


Nicola Morgan has written a lovely post about Christmas spirit, and how it means different things to different people (and not always in a positive way). Nicola's own Christmas seems to involve a lot of food, booze and books, which sounds just fine to me!

While Nicola is full of Christmas spirit, Marie Basting has got the fear. Specifically, she's experiencing some significant self-doubt after meeting other writers in the flesh at the SCBWI conference, and realising that they're all really good! But Marie won't be kept down for long, and her post examines the cyclical nature of self-doubt.

For those seeking to polish their craft during those empty days between Christmas and New Year, a couple of our bloggers are here to help. Vanessa Harbour is looking at dialogue this week and considering its best uses within your story. And, following her post about evaluating picture book ideas a few weeks ago, Kate Peridot is now focusing on developing your chosen idea. In this week's post, she's looking at the typical structure and layout of a picture book, and how to map your idea onto it.

For last-minute gift ideas, you can't beat Space on the Bookshelf's A Book in Every Stocking series. Writers, editors and illustrators (including Sara Grant, Sarah McIntyre, Anita Loughrey, and, erm, me) suggest the children's books they'd like Santa to leave in their stocking this Christmas.

I'm convinced that Candy Gourlay wrote My Year in Books 2014 just to make me jealous. How else to explain how many more wonderful books she seems to have managed to read than me? Clearly, I need to set some reading targets for 2015!

Merry Christmas and see you in January,

Nick.

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A SCBWI member since 2009, Nick Cross is an Undiscovered Voices winner who writes children's short fiction for Stew Magazine.

Nick has delved into his archives for the third year running, and found some wonderful lost lunacy for your reading pleasure. Check out The Museum of Me - The Lost Years.

Ten-Minute Blog Break - 18th November

Diversity is a word that gets bandied around a lot, and I hope we can agree that diversity in children's books is generally a good thing. But moving from that concept to actually bringing more diverse books to the market seems to be a tougher job.

K.M. Lockwood takes on the diversity question this week, in a blog post that starts with dressing up and ends with the challenge of trying to write a character who sits outside of your own cultural experience. This is something I've been tackling in my own writing (with much trepidation), and K.M.'s post has made me think and reflect more than anything else I've read this week.

The checklist that Kate Peridot uses to evaluate her picture book ideas is immensely useful for pinning down what makes a story work. But it also strikes me as a little controversial in its focus on the commercial appeal of an idea over its creative merits. How do you choose which ideas to develop and which to put aside?

There are more picture book happenings at Story Snug, where Catherine Friess is interviewing SCBWI US illustrator Hazel Mitchell. Hazel talks about her process and the inspiration for her illustration work on Imani's Moon by (fellow Scoobie) JaNay Brown-Wood.

A lot has happened in Larisa Villar Hauser's life since we last checked in with her. In particular, her self-published book has gone out into the world and been received pretty well. Read Larisa's insightful blog for her reflections about launch week.

NaNoWriMo is motivating for sure, but also a big ask in terms of commitment. Those seeking a somewhat gentler November may appreciate Julie Day's approach, which focuses on good process rather than strict word count.

Show don't tell - this simple mantra hides a multitude of complexity, especially for a novice writer struggling with character, dialogue, structure and everything else in-between. Thankfully, Dr Vanessa Harbour has put on her teacher's hat for a succinct and illuminating post that explains when to show and when not to. Thanks, Doc!

Nick.

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A SCBWI member since 2009, Nick Cross is an Undiscovered Voices winner who currently writes children's short fiction for Stew Magazine.

Nick's most recent blog is all about the reasons Why You Should Support Stew Magazine, in their Kickstarter campaign.

Ten-Minute Blog Break - 11th November

How's NaNoWriMo treating you? You may think that writing a novel in a month is tough, but how about producing a whole comic in 24 hours (without sleep) like Sarah McIntyre did a couple of weeks ago?

I missed Sarah's blog when she first posted it, but it's well worth catching up on - there's tons of creative process, illustration technique and varying levels of sleep-deprivation into the bargain. Even better, you can read her whole comic Scribble here.

Something else that I missed in the wake of the conference was National Dyslexia Awareness week. Thankfully, Space on the Bookshelf had that all wrapped up with a series of Dyslexia-friendly book reviews. The series concludes with a review of Ransom Publishing's Star Struck books, which just happen to be co-authored by super SCBWI volunteer Anita Loughrey. Anita even gets her very own interview on the site.

Talking of the SCBWI conference, a brace of bloggers have crafted their thoughts on the weekend. Kate Peridot found that exhilaration (and not exhaustion) overwhelmed her, as she dreamed of being up on that Saturday Book Launch stage. Sarah Broadley has already blogged about the conference once, but comes back for a second bite of the cherry to detail her session with Melvin Burgess. And Loretta Schauer pays tribute to Outstanding Contribution Award winner Anne Marie Perks, then shares a wonderful picture of Nick Butterworth's Halloween party "friend" (by the way, was it just me, or was there a touch of Harry Hill in Nick's delightful keynote speech?)

As a writer, I've always been inspired by contemporary people and their stories. Yet, I know that some people are drawn to places and legends to drive their imagination, which seems to be the case for David Thorpe. In an evocative blog post for Awfully Big Blog Adventure, David talks about the inspirations for his new YA novel Stormteller (which also manages to have a contemporary theme).

Finally, not content with blogging on this site just yesterday, Natascha Biebow also wrote a piece for Picture Book Den. Following up her post on breakout picture book premises, Natascha delights in picture book plot twists that zing!

Nick.

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A SCBWI member since 2009, Nick Cross is an Undiscovered Voices winner who currently writes children's short fiction for Stew Magazine.

Nick's most recent blog is all about the reasons Why You Should Support Stew Magazine, as they launch their Kickstarter campaign.