Cynthea Liu's Blog, page 4
August 13, 2017
2 of 9: Writing for Children and Teens: Disclaimers by Cynthea Liu
In this video, Cynthea Liu gives disclaimers for her next videos in this series. She states,
1. Apply your own thoughts to advice you get from anyone. I only speak from my perspective and not others. Do not cling on to hard-and-fast rules that will send you down rabbit-holes.
2. This is completely UNCUT and my first series of video posts about Writing for Children and Teens – please comment on the post if anything is unclear or if I’ve missed something or if something just plain seems wrong.
3. You might want to know where I am. I’m in Chicago.
The Table of Contents of the video series:
1. Writing for Multiple Formats: Introduction
2. What You Should Remember When Hearing Advice about this Topic: Disclaimers
3. Writing for Multiple Formats: The Benefits
4. How to Write for Multiple Formats: The Factors (What to Study)
5. The Factors: Age of Main Character
6. The Factors: Complexity: (Word Count, Plotting, etc.)
7. The Factors: Structure (Differences among the formats)
8. The Factors: Style
9. The Factors: Theme and Content
Note: I would also like to add that I am speaking from the perspective of my experience with the major trade FICTION market which is comprised of publishers like S&S and Penguin Random.
9 of 9: Writing for Children and Teens: Theme and Content by Cynthea Liu
Today’s the day–my last vlog! Click below to learn more about Theme and Format. http://ow.ly/byC430dE0bN
In this video, Cynthea Liu discusses Theme and Content as it relates to multiple formats withing the children and teens genre.
Cynthea discusses:
1. What is theme and what to consider when it comes to your target format.
2. How do determine if content is appropriate for your format.
The Table of Contents for the video series:
1. Writing for Multiple Formats: Introduction
2. What You Should Remember When Hearing Advice about this Topic: Disclaimers
3. Writing for Multiple Formats: The Benefits
4. How to Write for Multiple Formats: The Factors (What to Study)
5. The Factors: Age of Main Character
6. The Factors: Complexity: (Word Count, Plotting, etc.)
7. The Factors: Structure (Differences among the formats)
8. The Factors: Style
9. The Factors: Theme and Content
Note: I meant to say “millions of readers,” not “millions of schools” for Scholastic. Though it sure seems like millions of schools that they serve!
To watch the last video in the series click: https://youtu.be/J0NuwzTToJo .
To watch all of the previous videos, visit the playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list... .
8 of 9: Writing for Children and Teens: How to Fit Your Writing Style to Different Formats by Cynthea Liu
Today’s vlog post: How to Fit Your Writing Style to Different Formats! Link below: http://ow.ly/30uq30dE0gd
In this video, Cynthea Liu goes over the main ideas when it comes to fitting an author’s writing style with different formats of children’s books.
Cynthea’s main points:
1. Examine comparables.
2. Use of dialogue and descriptive
3. Showing and Telling – when are things shown versus just told
4. Transitions from scene to scene.
5. Storyboard for picture books and board books to figure out how many sentences per page on average and how it varies.
6. Novel-length works – use same cheat sheet but switch out your comparables that best fit your novel-length work.
The Table of Contents for the video series:
1. Writing for Multiple Formats: Introduction
2. What You Should Remember When Hearing Advice about this Topic: Disclaimers
3. Writing for Multiple Formats: The Benefits
4. How to Write for Multiple Formats: The Factors (What to Study)
5. The Factors: Age of Main Character
6. The Factors: Complexity: (Word Count, Plotting, etc.)
7. The Factors: Structure (Differences among the formats)
8. The Factors: Style
9. The Factors: Theme and Content
To watch the last video in the series click:
https://youtu.be/yOoFAN_9zqg .
To watch all the videos, visit the playlist here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list... .
7 of 9: Writing for Children and Teens: Structure for Different Formats by Cynthea Liu
Today’s topic on Writing for Children and Teens is about Structure for Different Formats: http://ow.ly/OySy30dE0iH
In this video, Cynthea Liu discusses the different structures for different formats and age groups.
In the video Cynthea covers these topics:
1. Structure matters, how a book is organized
2. PBs: length, page count and page turns, storyboarding and story arc.
3. Board Book: length, page count, and page turns, story-boarding and story arc.
4. Novel-length works (Chapter Books, Middle Grade, Young Adult): type of structure (chaptered or not), page counts by chapter, how does your manuscript structure map to story arc?
5. In general, consider how story arc matches to your story structure. Is it proportional?
6. What do you do when your book is not chaptered?
The Table of Contents for the video series:
1. Writing for Multiple Formats: Introduction
2. What You Should Remember When Hearing Advice about this Topic: Disclaimers
3. Writing for Multiple Formats: The Benefits
4. How to Write for Multiple Formats: The Factors (What to Study)
5. The Factors: Age of Main Character
6. The Factors: Complexity: (Word Count, Plotting, etc.)
7. The Factors: Structure (Differences among the formats)
8. The Factors: Style
9. The Factors: Theme and Content
Tip: For estimations: 250 manuscript words equals one printed page for novel-length works.
To watch the last video in the series click:
To view all the previous videos go to the playlist here:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list... .
6 of 9: Writing for Children and Teens: Complexity (Word Count, Plotting, etc.) in Different Formats by Cynthea Liu
For today’s topic on Writing for Children and Teens, I’m going to discuss the Complexity in Different Formats: http://ow.ly/2IvO30dE0on .
In this video by Cynthea Liu, she discusses how to approach complexity when dabbling in multiple formats.
Cynthea’s main points:
1. Word Count matters and how to figure out guidelines.
2. Complexity of plotting and how that varies from board book to YA.
The Table of Contents for the video series:
1. Writing for Multiple Formats: Introduction
2. What You Should Remember When Hearing Advice about this Topic: Disclaimers
3. Writing for Multiple Formats: The Benefits
4. How to Write for Multiple Formats: The Factors (What to Study)
5. The Factors: Age of Main Character
6. The Factors: Complexity: (Word Count, Plotting, etc.)
7. The Factors: Structure (Differences among the formats)
8. The Factors: Style
9. The Factors: Theme and Content
To watch the last video in the series click: https://youtu.be/m1ciekc7DvU .
To watch all the videos go to the playlist here:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list... .
5 of 9: Writing for Children and Teens: What Age Your Main Character Should Be by Cynthea Liu
Today’s vlog post will help YOU figure out what age your main character should be: http://ow.ly/83kI30dE0s2 .
In this installment, Cynthea Liu advises writers on how to determine the age of their main character. Cynthea discusses the main points of how to decide which age your main character should be based on which format you’re writing in.
The Table of Contents for the video series:
1. Writing for Multiple Formats: Introduction
2. What You Should Remember When Hearing Advice about this Topic: Disclaimers
3. Writing for Multiple Formats: The Benefits
4. How to Write for Multiple Formats: The Factors (What to Study)
5. The Factors: Age of Main Character
6. The Factors: Complexity: (Word Count, Plotting, etc.)
7. The Factors: Structure (Differences among the formats)
8. The Factors: Style
9. The Factors: Theme and Content
To watch the last video in the series click: https://youtu.be/YMdCBdPvhtE .
To watch the playlist of all the videos click:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list... .
4 of 9: Writing for Children and Teens: How to Write for Multiple Formats by Cynthea Liu
Today’s vlog post is about HOW to write for multiple formats click here to view it, https://youtu.be/zkevhILUPPE .
Cynthea Liu on how to write for multiple formats when it comes to children’s publishing. She discusses what differences mark the variations of the formats.
The Table of Contents for the video series:
1. Writing for Multiple Formats: Introduction
2. What You Should Remember When Hearing Advice about this Topic: Disclaimers
3. Writing for Multiple Formats: The Benefits
4. How to Write for Multiple Formats: The Factors (What to Study)
5. The Factors: Age of Main Character
6. The Factors: Complexity: (Word Count, Plotting, etc.)
7. The Factors: Structure (Differences among the formats)
8. The Factors: Style
9. The Factors: Theme and Content
To watch the previous video click: http://ow.ly/WTPB30dE0yw .
And to view all of the previous videos in the series visit: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list... .
Note:
Please note that I do NOT think it is a disadvantage to write in only one format. Plenty of authors do full-day visits, writing in one format and do very well! For me, it is not any harder or easier to get full-day visits related to one-format or multiple. I’ve just noticed that there are some principals or media specialists who want to bring an author for the whole school to see to stretch those dollars or bring you back again to hit other grades etc. So just keep that in mind!
I did not mention in this video, and I probably should have, that knowing all about the various formats really helps me better conceive any single work and present it to agents and editors as a potentially publishable work.
3 of 9: Writing for Children and Teens: The Benefits of Writing Multiple Formats by Cynthea Liu
In Cynthea’s second video in an 8 part series, she discusses the benefits of writing for multiple formats in children’s literature. There are many benefits to writing in multiple formats, and Cynthea discusses them all.
Cynthea Liu covers two main points in this video about the benefits of writing for multiple formats:
1. The challenge
2. Versatility for career-building
The Table of Contents for the video series:
1. Writing for Multiple Formats: Introduction
2. What You Should Remember When Hearing Advice about this Topic: Disclaimers
3. Writing for Multiple Formats: The Benefits
4. How to Write for Multiple Formats: The Factors (What to Study)
5. The Factors: Age of Main Character
6. The Factors: Complexity: (Word Count, Plotting, etc.)
7. The Factors: Structure (Differences among the formats)
8. The Factors: Style
9. The Factors: Theme and Content
If you enjoyed Writing for Multiple Formats, click http://ow.ly/WTPB30dE0yw to find out the benefits of multiple formats.
To watch Cynthea’s first video visit https://youtu.be/OsiHth24QYw
1 of 9: Writing for Children and Teens: Writing For Multiple Formats by Cynthea Liu
In a series of videos for WriteOnCon, Cynthea Liu begins an 8 part campaign on writing for children and teens. For my first blog post I am going to be discussing how and why you should write in multiple formats http://ow.ly/ZiaN30dXMQ7 .
In the first video of the series, Cynthea Liu introduces herself, and begins to expand on the idea of writing for multiple formats in children and teen publishing.
Cynthea Liu introduces herself and begins to expand on the idea of writing for multiple formats in children and teen book publishing. In a 9-part video series, Cynthea touches on important topics pertaining to writing for children and teens and its various formats (board books, picture books, chapter books, middle grade, young adult).
The Table of Contents for the video series:
1. Writing for Multiple Formats: Introduction
2. What You Should Remember When Hearing Advice about this Topic: Disclaimers
3. Writing for Multiple Formats: The Benefits
4. How to Write for Multiple Formats: The Factors (What to Study)
5. The Factors: Age of Main Character
6. The Factors: Complexity: (Word Count, Plotting, etc.)
7. The Factors: Structure (Differences among the formats)
8. The Factors: Style
9. The Factors: Theme and Content
Please note:
I did not mean to say “genre” when I meant format about what books I write, though yes, I do write for more than one genre too – e.g. mystery, straight-up humor, contemporary realistic, teen romance etc.
January 31, 2017
1 of 9: How to Write for Multiple Children’s Book Formats at WriteOnCon.org
Sit back and relax in this 9-part video series about how to write picture books, middle grade novels, young adult novels, and much much more. I will discuss theme, content, style, structure, and other major differences to help you navigate which format or formats may be “write” up your alley!
Here’s the list of what these nine videos will be about:
1. Writing for Multiple Formats: Introduction
2. What You Should Remember When Hearing Advice about this Topic: Disclaimers
3. Writing for Multiple Formats: The Benefits
4. How to Write for Multiple Formats: The Factors (What to Study)
5. The Factors: Age of Main Character
6. The Factors: Complexity: (Word Count, Plotting, etc.)
7. The Factors: Structure (Differences among the formats)
8. The Factors: Style
9. The Factors: Theme and Content
Enjoy!
