Cynthea Liu's Blog, page 2

to draw or not to draw?

If you’re like many people you’ll wonder where you’re going to get that illustrator for your book. STOP RIGHT THERE. Unless you are a professional illustrator, do not try this at home, folks! This is the great thing about a writing career. You don’t have to know how to draw! So remember: writers write. Illustrators illustrate. For once something makes sense. Whooopee! I bet I know what your next question might be…

“Well how will the publisher know what I want them to draw?” STOP RIGHT THERE. What did I just say? Your job is to write. If you know what you’re doing as an author, the illustrator will have plenty to work with. Why? Here’s the thinking on this: a picture book text is only half of the story. An editor will find the illustrator who will take your words and make the whole thing come alive visually. Now who would be better at this? You or Mr. Rhode Island School of Design graduate?

The same holds true for easy readers, chapter books, and so on. You write. Let the experts handle the rest.

But if you’re an author and a professional illustrator, then whoopee! Best of both worlds. Hoorah. This is very hot these days.

If you’re taking the crash course, return to step three – write.

Order WRITING FOR CHILDREN AND TEENS: A CRASH COURSE

Another Major WFCAT critique event is coming to this website next month!

Yup, you heard it. Jump on my email list here if you want to be the first to be notified when Cynthea, the pooches and her hungry and slightly fishy crew are ready to gnaw on your manuscript. All major event notices for this event will go out by email so everyone can stay in the game and play. Also this event will be celebrating something very special to Cynthea, so you know that this will be SUPER FUN, SLIGHTLY STRESSFUL, BUT WILL ALSO BENEFIT HUMANITY.

One year, we raised thousands for a pet adoption society. Another year, we raised thousands for a school in need. This year, you bet, we will be helping out a cause. The only thing I want you to do now is to hold yourself back from buying ONE Venti Latte from Starbucks or a glass of wine or a fancy beer if that’s your beverage of choice. Because that $5-$10 is going to go a lot farther for you during this special critique event! We can’t wait. Stay tuned. Again, get on the email list if you don’t want to miss out!

How to write a eulogy (one real person’s take even though this has little to do with children’s book writing or maybe it does?)

Hello WFCAT fans, I’m going to commit a huge SEO faux-pas here and write this article about writing eulogies because I’m getting older and it just seems like people I know are dying everywhere. Facebook is a disaster for me. It used to be my happy place but now I find so many sad things happening to my peers with the loss of their loved ones, that I feel compelled to try to help as a writer.

I write for children, edit for children, and publish for children, and I spend my days thinking about how to engage children in stories and books in meaningful ways. But I don’t spend a whole lotta time thinking about death when it comes to them, though that is a real legit thing that we as children’s book writers should write about, for sure. So maybe I will write on that one day. But for now bear with me as I change the channel and talk about this.

I am not an expert eulogy writer; that’s for sure. But who really gets formal training for this? Right? But I do know that when my father passed, I was suddenly nominated to write the eulogy WHILE grieving. IT SUCKS. Sorry, Dad, but when all you want to do is go into a hole and cry, the last thing you wanna do is write something compelling AND stand up and read it aloud to a room packed with people – half of whom you don’t even know. It’s far worse than the book signing where no one shows up or the bookseller didn’t even remember you were coming!

And in true, CLIU-style, I will break down the eulogy for you in my usual analytical style so you can keep a few pointers in mind when you write yours for whomever it may be that you have lost. (BTW, I am very sorry for your loss if you got this far, and I know, too, that you may be very sick of people apologizing to you for your loss, but this is how it is.) I am happy that you found this article though, and I hope it will give you some sense of joy or relief, no matter how small, that can be had, during this sucky time.

At any rate, I’m going to share with you the actual eulogy that I gave.

I don’t claim the spelling or grammar is perfect. No one will care, really. Just remember, that your audience is glad it’s not them standing up there. So here goes:

A Eulogy Written for My Father’s Funeral (btw, you don’t need to title your eulogy. One less thing to think about!)

It seems like an impossible task to sum up my father in
about 5 to 7 minutes. But fortunately for me, I realized that Dad unknowingly
left me an outline. I know exactly what I’m going to do and where to start.

It begins with the violin.

If you can imagine our house with the three children, who all
were taught to play, you would hear my father cracking watermelon seeds, as he
watched TV, listening to us practice. His voice would boom, HIGHER, LOWER,
HIGHER [make spitting sound] -and if we were still messing it up, he would take
the instrument and show us. Little did I know the history of Dad and his violin
until I read his memoir. His father would pay him to play the violin to keep
Dad out of trouble. My father was so proud when he clocked five hours of practice
in one day, that my grandfather paid up and promptly took to a movie. As you
can imagine Dad got pretty good. To hear my father play was not only one of the
reasons my mother fell in love with him, but one of the most amazing things you
could ever hear coming out of a wooden instrument. I believe the violin in many
ways symbolized to my father, Honor. My father honored my grandfather for many
things, including giving him those lessons. It was this same fatherly love that
gave Dad the violin and the violin to us.

There’s another word besides my father’s love of violin that defined my father—integrity. Daddy always had a strong sense of what was right versus wrong, especially when it came to our Chinese heritage. When the real estate market turned upside down, our financial situation was pretty bad. We children often helped maintained the homes my father built on the weekends. I’ve painted enough surfaces to cover Disney World and pulled weeds for a continental forest. Often our parents would reward us with pizza and a rental movie after a hard days’ work but one day we decided to go to this plain-looking restaurant called Razor Clam. When the doors opened, we saw the Maître D in tuxedo and realized this was no Pizza Hut. Imagine Us, this Chinese family in Tulsa in the 80s, with paint on our clothes and in our hair. Did Daddy say, whoops, wrong kind of joint? No. We stayed.

My dad and William borrowed jackets from the restaurant. I ate escargot for the first time. We would dine like any other high-class family, even if we didn’t come close to looking like one. I don’t think he wanted us to think we Chinese weren’t good enough, even though at the time, I’m sure we kids were thinking – where’s the buffalo wings? But now I understand the significance of that memory. In the late 60s, when Dad was in college in the US, Dad did the same thing for Mom when despite changes in the law, a school administrator still wouldn’t allow Mom to hold a job as a foreign student. He refused to leave the man’s office and caused a scene, scaring the living crap out of the man. All because Dad had something called integrity, and he made sure we knew what was right and wrong.

There’s another thing about my dad that you may all have
noticed. He’s like a bulldog with most things when he set his sights on
something. Trying to dissuade my father would be like trying to stop a tsunami
with a thimble. From putting together meticulous model airplanes with my
brother, building giant hotels with shopping centers, shopping in Mexico for
the best tequila, picking up a staple gun within a week of open-heart surgery, and
even yes, planning this funeral, Daddy persists until the very end. I have
pages of Dad’s writing in the hours before his passing – scraggly lines – with labels
where he tried to tell me to build a spreadsheet to help plan his funeral. From
picking out the music, the kind of flowers, to the color of Daddy’s tie, that
was all my father. You are completely surrounded by my dad’s persistence.

Generosity. My father embodied this word. As an example,
Daddy could not stand the fact that children were dying just going to the
bathroom in poor orphanages in China because they would fall in the pits. So he
built them bathrooms. Even in his last hours, he prayed for the lives of those
he loved, from all of our relatives to even his doctors and nurses. But he
still had one last gift to give. He made sure not to leave until he told Mom to
please enjoy her life without him, travel, see the children, have fun. I think
knowing that he could not take our mother with him was his most difficult gift
to give. He gave her to us, to those he leaves behind, and with that, he was
finally able to go.

Kindness: I would like to qualify this one a little bit,
Daddy was very kind, but if you mix that with his ideas of honor, persistence,
integrity and so on, you might get why he could get so mad about certain things
that would leave the whole family wondering where he was going when he got out
of the car in the middle of the highway, mad. But no matter what you went
through with Dad, you still knew he was kind and whatever it was, it was coming
from a good place, but I’ll take that word further for Dad. We will revise that
to love.

You see, the Liu Family has certain qualities which my father
made sure we knew–we were LIUs. Dad taught us that family is family. That
friends are family. That even a complete stranger could be treated as family as
quickly as you can say the word family.
And when Family needed help, you stepped up. Just like many have done for our
father from our Grandpa John and grandma Lulu to Auntie Amy, Uncle David,
Auntie Helen and Auntie Ruth, and all the generations of offspring that come
from the Liu line.  Just like my father’s
colleagues have his, at the church, his tenants, the neighbor across the way, and
the good friend that he meets at one of this favorite restaurants.

So it makes perfect sense, we are all here now, our Liu family
including our extended family of friends, and those with us in earthly spirit
and above, that you are gathered to support us and celebrate our father. Dad
would call you all Honorary Lius, whether or not you share the same last name
as me.

Daddy would want it this way, and I know he is forever
thankful and appreciative that you are here. So now I shall recite for you, the
Liu Family Motto, which I did not really know existed in written words, until
he created it for his memoir. That was the outline he left me without even knowing
it: his memoir, where he actually wrote “The Liu Family Motto: Honor,
Integrity, Persistence, Generosity, and Kindness.” I am now bestowing this
motto upon you on his behalf.

My father hopes all of you Lius you will uphold the Liu
family motto as much as I do.

Thank you.

That was the eulogy I gave. Now here are my tips if you feel like you really need someone to tell you what to do.

Identify a purpose for your eulogy. Let this purpose be your guide. What is the main takeaway you want to give to your audience? Generally, eulogies are about respect, remembrance, and positive things, uplifting things. What is the uplifting purpose (even if you feel sad as all-get-out ) that you want to give to your eulogy and to the people who are listening to it? Write that down. Your purpose can simply be to make people remember what was wonderful about your loved one. Your purpose may be to inspire people based on the story of the loved one who passed. What is the point (or purpose) of your eulogy? If you don’t know, ask someone what they hope will be the purpose of your eulogy. They can help give you ideas.Say something they haven’t heard before. Not everyone at a typical funeral knows each other or knows all the dimensions of the person who has passed. If you’re standing up there, you may not either. But chances are you know something that they don’t. To make sure people listen to what you have to say, provide specific and concrete details that is new to many of them that makes the eulogy yours to tell. Call upon special memories that you have. What memories do you have that will make your story rich about who the person was to you? Share a brief anecdote or two about these special unique memories.Acknowledge what your audience knows. Connect. To balance things out, I remember thinking that I should share a few themes about my dad, that most people know, too. In fictional character development, readers love to hear about the many dimensions of any character. My dad had so many dimensions (as most people do, that can’t be covered in one eulogy or one book), but think about what your audience probably already knows about your loved one. Include memories and details you have that is likely a shared experience about the person. For example, was she/he compassionate, boisterous, painfully shy and a great listener? Identify those adjectives that you remember about your loved one, and share a story or two that touches on those qualities so your audience will connect with the person you are speaking of. Be authentic AND kind. Tell your story from your POV. You can’t please everyone, but you’re up there for a reason (whether it was voluntary or not). Was my father a perfect person? No. But I felt like I couldn’t speak for anyone else really, except from my own POV. I had to guess some things about my father but I backed it up with DETAIL so people would understand why I felt the way I did. DETAILS are your friend in eulogies, I thought, when I wrote one. They are your friend in fictional writing. It’s a psychological thing about us humans. When we learn details about a person, we tend to care more about them. So I provided details about how my father would eat watermelon seeds, I provided details about how he said and did things – these details are strong memories in my mind. What DETAILS do you remember that backup your authentic, unique and shared memories of your loved one? Be practical. Don’t complicate. Remember that your time is and should be limited. When I was thinking about doing the eulogy, our pastor was very clear about how long to make it. Think two minutes, for every 250 words when read slowly, for one double-spaced typewritten page. You can see how long my eulogy was. Not THAT long. This will really help you focus on being practical and not over-complicating something you want to simplify. No one wants to hear a eulogy that lasts for hours. Short and sweet. Ba-boom. In and out. I remember constantly telling myself not to go too far with too many stories or be too general that no one really sees the point of the eulogy. I found my purpose, I used stories and details (both unique memories and shared) to backup my purpose, and I concluded with that purpose. I did not try to wander or meander far from that.Bonus tip: Bring it full circle. Seriously, if you only do some of these things, you’re going to be good. But if you’re the type that really want to bring any piece of writing home, you do what I call, bring it full circle. You start with a hint of something and you bring back the detail at the end. For me it was the outline. I hinted that Dad gave me an outline and then I explained how I got that outline. Seems really lucky, right? That my father would give me an outline? Well it wasn’t; it took some thinking. And the main question I asked myself was … What would Dad want to say to all of us at his funeral? What would be his outline? What would be your loved ones’ outline? And maybe this is how you bring it full circle. Find the outline to guide your purpose. Work in the hint at the beginning. Then tie it up with the answer at the end. The outline for me was my dad’s memoir. This is the detail I bring in at the end, that explains how I knew to say what I did. This was really just my architected, analytical thinking and not a miracle. It took me a while to figure out how to bring it full circle. I initially started with memories and the violin and what my dad meant to me. The rest was done by the professional writer in me.Second Bonus Tip: I remember feeling like I was worried I would cry throughout the whole thing, and no one would understand me, so to prevent that from happening, I read my eulogy out loud and at a slow pace, several times before I had to speak. This way, I cried the first couple of times I read it, but by the third time, I was over the crying and the eulogy was just words on a page that needed to be read to people at a funeral. I did cry a little during the actual reading but not like I had when I read it aloud the first or second and third time. So I would suggest you read aloud your work to yourself or someone you feel comfortable with a few times or more, before you read it at the funeral.ABOVE ALL: If you’re feeling overwhelmed from all of this advice. DON’T WORRY. My last tip for you is: Go back to tip #4. Probably my most important tip of all. Followed by #5. You don’t even need to type anything if you don’t want to. And #7. So three things.  Three is a good number. The rest is stuff you can pretend you never read. You’re going to do great.

Finally, if you feel this article may be useful to someone, please feel free to share it. Again, I hope that sharing this with others will make it just a little bit easier for someone else. That’s why I do what I do with kids’ books. That’s my purpose–not as a eulogist, but as a writer. So maybe this article does have something to do with kids’ book writing.

All my best,

Cynthea Liu

Attention WFCAT Fans: Free feedback opportunity with Starts With Us #LMAA

If you’re look for feedback on  your latest children’s and YA manuscript, hop on over to Starts With Us and check out the #LMAA challenge.

Happy subbing,

Cynthea

Welcome 2018!

For those of you with big writing goals this year, I congratulate you on challenging yourself to such a feat. Me too! I’m also running a few one-on-one-coaching courses this year that I hope to roll out in 2018. If you would like to learn more about how to sign-up, please sign up for my paid critique list at bit.ly/wfcatlist as the first notice will go out there. Thanks to everyone for their support, and I hope I can help you get to the next level (and entertain you with more writing challenges in the upcoming months)!

Happy writing,

Cynthea and the WFCAT crew

Attention: WFCAT Fans! Important opportunity you will not want to miss!

Hello everyone – both newcomers and long-time fans, I am about to make you an offer you can’t refuse via my free-tique and paid-tique email lists. PLEASE, sign up for the email list if you have not already, as this opp is first-come, first-serve. You will not want to be slow to pull the trigger on this one. An all-important email will go out later today via the email lists with instructions on what to do.  I promise it will be an offer you can’t refuse!

Going once, going twice ….

#HLS2017 Sudden Catch Results: Who caught the big one?

Hello Anglers,

Without further ado, the crew has cast their votes, the judges have judged, and we have our official #HLS2017 Results. We decided we would separate out the CB category from MG so those could be judged separately, so we will be awarding 4, instead of 3 winners.

PB: #200 caught the big one!

CB: #172 caught the big one!

MG: #215 caught the big one!

YA: #175 caught the big one!

For those of you who are saddened by these results because you threw your bait out there and didn’t bring in a giant flopping fish, trust us, we at WFCAT.com know exactly what it’s like to be on the verge. Feel free to read all of our Authors on the Verge interviews for inspiration. While this competition wasn’t about getting a book contract, you may have noticed that it felt awfully like what it feels like to try. But the name of the game in publishing (and fishing!) is to persevere, be patient, understand that sometimes you have to try a different approach, and even if you catch nothing at all, you keep on fishing anyway because you LOVE IT.

That said, we do want every angler who made it to Sudden Catch to have some idea of what might have prevented the fish from picking their particular work, so Captain Cynthea will be getting back to each of you by email to offer a few comments to you. Please be patient for that as she is traveling this week but rest assured, you will hear from her before the holidays.

For the winning anglers, Cynthea will also be getting back to each of you next week to schedule a time to discuss your work by phone.

Congratulations to our winners and every angler who participated in the challenge. We hope that. regardless of the outcome, everyone came away feeling they are part of something much bigger than their work and themselves. You all belong to a wonderful community of writers who work hard at what you do. Your passion is immeasurable, and we here at wfcat.com are so proud to be part of your journey!

Happy fishing (and we trust you will never look at fishing in the same way again)

The WFCAT Crew

 

#HLS2017 Round 4 Results Complete, Sudden Catch Deadline: Mon. Dec 4 @11:59PM CST

Hello Anglers,

After a bubbly debate, the judges were able to narrow down finalists in each category but it was impossible to agree upon a clear winner based upon 250 words and one line. Therefore, the crew has decided to put our finalists up for the ultimate challenge: Sudden Catch! If your entry was selected for this round, you must now submit the first 2500 words of your work (if novel) or your complete ms (if PB) before the deadline listed in the headline of this post. Please title your email subject: “Sudden Death: Entry #, Format, MS Title.” (E.g. “Sudden Death: #99, PB, If You Give a Fish a Frying Pan.)

For those of you who had entries with last lines but got the boot in this round, please know it was not because of the last line itself. In Round 4, judges began to weigh the total entry against other entries who were competing for the big one.The deckhands and skippers were sickened to see some strong entries let go. Be sure to review feedback on Twitter for further info on why it may not have made it through to Sudden Death.

For everyone else, we want to sincerely thank you for participating in the challenge and we hope you enjoyed the feedback fun on Twitter. Review past Round Results for notes on how entries were judged in each round. If you’re feeling down after reading your Round 4 results, please remember your free-tique oath. Watery opinions from three fish who can’t even type isn’t worth any heartache. Just keep on swimming and catch the big one, and if you haven’t already, sign-up for the free-tique email list to be notified of free-tique challenges on the horizon!

Happy Fishing, everyone! And stay tuned to see who will catch the big one next week!

The WFCAT Team

Round 4 Results

Entry #
Format
Round Result
Sudden Catch


103
YA
You got the boot.

#HLS2017 Round 4 CLOSED as of Sat 11/26/2017 @11:59 pm CST, Results IN PROGRESS

Hello Anglers,

UPDATE: As of Saturday, November 26, 2017 at 11:59 pm, Round 4 of the Hook, Line, and Sinker Writing Challenge was closed. Results are swimming your way soon, so keep an eye out for them!

The crew is working hard on getting feedback to all entries on twitter, so make sure to follow @cynthealiu on twitter for those. Also, feel free to join in on the conversation: tell us how you’re feeling about this round, if the feedback is helping you, and if you’re just as excited about the challenge as us! And don’t forget your giphy

#HLS2017 ROUND 4 OPEN until Sun 11/26/2017 @11:59 PM CST, New Anglers enter anytime

Existing Anglers who passed the last round, please read the Official Rules about how to make your next submission.

This round will close at the date and time (CENTRAL) listed in the title of this post.

New anglers can enter anytime as long as the entire challenge is still going, even if you miss this round. READ THE OFFICIAL RULES before you cast your first line! Failure to follow the rules could result in an automatic sinking of your ship. Please make this easy for our skippers and deckhands!

Please help us make this even more fun by letting others know what’s going on and inviting them to join in on the competition! This is also your chance to earn bonus casts by sharing the fishy love.

The more fishing there is, the bigger the frenzy, and the more likely our judges will hang around to offer free feedback and see what’s worth nibbling on!

#HLS2017 is the official hashtag for this challenge.

Good luck, everyone! Happy fishing!