Debbie Ridpath Ohi's Blog, page 20

Writing or illustrating a picture book? Browse my free Picture Book Creation Resource (including templates)

I've been gradually compiling my "How This Picture Book Was Created" resources, advice from the children's book writers and illustrators I've been interviewing, and the thumbnail sketch and layout templates I use for my own writing and illustrating process. Here's the link to my CREATING PICTURE BOOKS resource.

There is no charge. All I ask is that you pay it forward someday.

Where do writers get their ideas? Everywhere. But the actual magic lies in making one idea real. - Cheryl Klein, THE MAGIC WORDS

One of my goals in 2018 is to write a middle grade novel.

When I mention that I'm working on a MG project, it sometimes surprises people. Which drives a little part of me crazy, I must admit, since I began as a writer. Middle grade has always been my sweet spot.

I've always loved to draw, but I never imagined that anyone would ever want to pay me for my art. Writing, however, was a different story. I've wanted to be a writer ever since I can remember. I wrote my first chapter book when I was nine:

I signed on with Ginger Knowlton, my awesome agent at Curtis Brown, because of a middle grade manuscript (thanks to my writer friend Lee Wardlaw her help). That middle grade mss and the one after that never did find a publisher home, but the rejection letters got nicer and we did get close a few times. I wrote a third middle grade mss but never did send it even to Ginger because I could tell it wasn't strong enough....and then I got distracted by the World Wide Web (which inspired a comic strip).

And then the 2010 SCBWI Summer Conference jumpstarted my children's book illustrator career, and I put my middle grade author aspirations on the back burner.

I love writing and illustrating picture books and will ALWAYS want to write and illustrate picture books, but I've really missed writing middle grade. My long form writing skills are rusty, but I've been doing freeform writing every morning as well as carving out more time for reading (thank you for your #BookADay challenge inspiration, Donalyn Miller!). Not surprisingly, the more I write, the easier the flow.

Something else I've started doing: reading a bit of poetry or writing craft inspiration every morning. Recently I've been revisiting Cheryl Klein's excellent THE MAGIC WORDS:WRITING GREAT BOOKS FOR CHILDREN AND YOUNG ADULTS. 

It's a wonderful book both for reading from start to finish but also dipping into here and there, depending on your current interest. Right now, I'm mainly interested in reviewing Bigger Picture fundamentals, to keep me for getting bogged down too early in detailstuff.

If any of you are serious about writing for young people, I highly recommend this book.

Side note about the photo at the top:

I used my beloved Desiderata Daedalus pen inked up with some Robert Oster shimmery Peppermint Candy. Giving this doodle away today on my Twitter feed.

Things You Should Never Say To A Writer On A First Date

 

A Comic For Bibliophiles

For the curious, here are the results of my "do you dog-ear your book pages or not" survey on Inkygirl from a while ago.

A Cautionary Comic For Writers (plus one of my New Year's Resolutions)

Almost all of my comics are based on my own experience as a freelancer, as you might have guessed. This one is particularly relevant. One of my constant challenges is that for me, social media is more fun than work....but as a result, it can be way too easy to justify time I spend on social media as work.

This year, one of my work goals is to get my middle grade novel finished. 

While I can't control IF my novel is ever published (and I've become positive that this angst has a lot do with why I've been spending way too much time fussing about the outline and prep), I can focus on getting the book finished.

Which is why I've decided I really need to pull back a wee bit from some social media, especially Facebook. I suspect I'll be on much more than the average person, but I'm going to try being more conscious about when I use social media, and how I use it.

My favourite social media these days: Twitter and Instagram. Some people find Twitter too negative but I find that so much is about what feeds you follow, and how you interact.

Inkygirl in The Write Life's "Best Websites For Writers In 2018" list!

Thanks to The Write Life for including Inkygirl in their list of 100 Best Websites For Writers 2018!

One thing books teach us is that if your life sucks right now, you just haven't gotten to the good part. - Tim Federle

One of my favourite Tim Federle quotes:

One thing books teach us is that if your life sucks right now, you just haven't gotten to the good part.

You can get the above image as a free, print-ready poster in my Free, Print-Ready Archives.

Comic: New Year's Resolution

Give yourself permission to believe that ANYTHING is possible in 2018.

Thanks to @fabtic_ltd for inspiring this post via their Twitter comment about this image.

Reminder for writers & Illustrators: all the networking/promo in the world can’t help unless you get your book FINISHED first.