Nancy I. Sanders's Blog, page 65

Nonfiction Picture Book: Plot and Structure

Let’s explore plot and how to shape the plot structure in your nonfiction picture book.

Are you familiar with the 3-act structure?

Basically, it divides every story into a beginning, a middle, and an end.

Over the years, I’ve developed a worksheet that I call:

Basic Plot Worksheet A. It helps me plan out the plot structure of my children’s stories, both fiction and nonfiction.

You can download and print out this worksheet by visiting my site, Writing According to Humphrey and Friends. Scroll down the page to CHARTS AND WORKSHEETS TO GET ORGANIZED FOR SUCCESS and click on the “Basic Plot Worksheet A.”

As you can see from the worksheet, the beginning takes up about a fourth of the picture book. In the 3-act structure, the beginning is called Act I.

The middle takes up about half of the picture book. In a 3-act structure, the middle is called Act II. There’s a first half of Act II and a second half of Act II.

Then the ending takes up about a fourth of the picture book. In a 3-act structure, the end is called Act III.

In most picture books, nonfiction or fiction, you’ll find this same structure, so if you pattern your story after this structure, it will be stronger from the get-go.

(A note here…if you google the 3-act structure or even read plotting books or articles about the 3-act structure, you’ll find a lot of authors who say they don’t like the 3-act structure and it’s not needed so don’t follow it.)

• HOWEVER!!! And this is a big however!!!!!

• I have yet to meet the EDITOR who says toss out the 3-act structure. Every single editor I’ve ever worked with when it comes to discussing the plot of a children’s story, they say to use the 3-act structure.

• So am I going to listen to those other authors, even if they’re bestselling and popular? Or am I going to listen to the editors?

• You can bet I’m going to listen to the editors. Because that’s who I want to fall in love with my book so much they’ll publish it. Therefore, I use the 3-act structure.)

Let’s look a little bit closer at the Basic Plot Worksheet.

There are 3 significant changes that occur in a story that follows the 3-act structure:

1. You can see that there is a significant change that occurs at the end of the Act I to usher in the middle, or Act II.

2. There’s a significant change that occurs in the middle of Act II and this also occurs in the middle of the entire book.

3. Plus, there’s a significant change that occurs at the end of Act II to usher in the end, or Act III.

And one last element to discuss is the action of the story’s plot. The line shows how the action progresses, starting at the beginning and building up in tension until the end which is the climax of the story.

We’ll talk more about this in my next post.

Nonfiction Picture Book: Welcome to My World

Just a little background on one of the reasons I decided to focus on writing an 800-word nonfiction picture book here on my blog. A main reason is that I’ve been working on some nonfiction and historical fiction picture books about American History. Why? Because these books are hot right now and it seems like there’s a little bit better of a chance for us as writers to break into the picture book market if we write a nonfiction or historical fiction picture book about American History rather than just write another fiction picture book manuscript.

So I have a certain method I’ve been using to do these, and I thought it would be fun to share the steps and strategies I take. Plus, many of you requested this topic as one we’d focus on right now here on my blog.

I originally wrote a picture book about John and Abigail Adams.

I followed the same basic steps I’m having you follow right now:

• First I found several picture books on American History I wanted to follow the format of.

o That’s why I had you read the 3 picture books The Camping Trip That Changed America, Those Rebels, John & Tom, So You Want to Be President. These are the books we want to follow the format of when we write our picture books right now.

• Next I brainstormed topics on American History that were big and well known and I came up with John and Abigail Adams. I figured they were a “top 100” topic every kid learns about.

The homework you did was based on the steps I took next:

• I ordered every book I could find from my library about John and Abigail Adams.

• I ordered in tons on John.

• I ordered in tons on Abigail

• I ordered in tons on both of them in the same book.

• I just googled them and searched through Amazon using the advanced search and then I ordered in as many as I could from my local library and then I started to read them.

• After the books started flooding in (I had to use Jeff’s card, too, because I went over my 30 book limit, and it was pretty easy to pick the best books I wanted to actually use as my reference books. There was a big difference between the quality of info among them.

• Plus I really got a general feel for the lives of my main characters.

The homework you did after that was based on the steps I took next:

I picked several adult books to use as my reference including one on John and one on Abigail, plus I picked some primary sources which were letters I found online that they wrote. Primary sources are always a huge plus, not necessary to read them all but to look up key words in an index and find places to support your facts.

Then I watched the HBO miniseries, John Adams, to get a more emotional sense and more sensory details of that era.

After I wrote the manuscript for that picture book, I started the entire process over again to write more nonfiction and historical fiction picture books. Right now I’m writing a nonfiction picture book about Abraham Lincoln as I follow along on these steps.

The reason I took such length to explain all this is because the things we’ll be discussing during this picture book journey are steps I actually take to write these nonfiction and historical fiction picture books on American History.

These steps aren’t just a bunch of exercises thrown together, this is what I actually do when I want to prepare a manuscript to submit to my agent.

And before we move on, if you don’t yet know exactly what a picture book is, look it up online or in my first how-to book for children’s writers, Yes! You Can Learn How to Write Children’s Books, Get Them Published, and Build a Successful Writing Career. In this book I have an entire section on picture books. On pages 216-217 I give a brief breakdown of the various kinds of picture books.

In my next post we will start exploring how to structure your nonfiction picture book.

Nonfiction Picture Book: Writer’s Mini-Retreat

The good news is that we’re getting ready to start along the writing path in our journey to write an 800-word nonfiction picture book!

For those of you who are self-motivated, you can follow right along with the steps I share here on my blog.

For those of you who have already fallen behind in the research and aren’t exactly sure if you’re still committed enough to actually write that first draft from beginning to end, here’s something practical you can do to get back on track with your goals:

Invite writer friends to meet together with you for a writer’s mini-retreat! You can meet in your home, at the local Starbucks, or in a quiet room at your local library. And if you don’t know any writers who live near you, connect with one other writing buddy and work together while you’re connected face-to-face on your laptops via Skype or Hangouts at gmail. And if you don’t know anybody else who writes nonfiction picture books, get connected today! There are different online groups such as the amazing group I just joined on Facebook at Wow nonficpic. Sign up and find other like minds to connect with.

When you meet in your mini-retreat, you can follow the upcoming posts I’ll be sharing on my blog ’cause I’ll be hosting a writer’s mini-retreat in my home with a bunch of my writer buddies. We’ll be writing…actually writing…our nonfiction picture books during this retreat!

We’ll be meeting for 3 hours a couple of days a week for a couple of weeks. I’ll be posting here on my blog what we really do in real time when we really meet to really, really write the first draft of our nonfiction picture book manuscripts. You can follow along with these posts, too, and get your story out of your head and actually onto paper! Really!

And if someone in your group likes to bake, ask them to bring along a fresh-baked pie to your mini-retreat…tasty yummies always make a writing retreat more fun!

Nonfiction Picture Book: The Bibliography

Recently, my husband Jeff and I did a couple of school assemblies where we taught students about facts and writing nonfiction. It was a lot of fun!

As we’re moving forward on our journey to write the first draft of an 800-word nonfiction picture book from beginning to end, now is a good time to get our bibliography under way so we can document the facts we find.

If you haven’t yet created a bibliography, start a brand new word document today. Label it BIBLIOGRAPHY. Save this file in the document folder you create for your nonfiction manuscript.

Type in the bibliography for any of the research books (both for kids and for adults) you plan to use. These are the books over these last few weeks that you’ve borrowed from your library or actually purchased to add to your own research library about the topic you’ve chosen.

One of the benefits of creating your bibliography BEFORE you start taking research notes and BEFORE you start the writing process is that you have this information all in one file at your fingertips.

When you’re taking research notes and typing them into the computer, you can just copy and paste the bibliography from which book you got what fact, simply adding the page number you found that fact on.

When you’re actually writing the manuscript itself, you can insert a footnote at the bottom of the page you stated a certain fact. Then in the footnote you can just copy and paste the bibliography from the book you got that fact, once again just adding in the page number.

It makes both the research process and the actual writing process go so much more quickly when you already have your bibliography typed up before you start.

And then, as you’re moving forward and you find more sources, it’s very simple to add those one at a time onto your bibliography and not lose your stride.

There are different formats some publishers choose to use. If you already have a favorite one or know which style your publisher prefers, use that one. If not, here’s the format most publishers I work with use for books and internet sources:

Bibliography

Barton, David. Setting the Record Straight: American History in Black & White. Aledo, Texas: Wallbuilders, Inc., 2004.

Buckley, Gail. American Patriots. New York: Random House, 2001.

Secord, Melissa. “USS Constitution Tour (Boston, MA).” Accessed November 20, 2013. URL here.

USS Constitution. “Constitution: America’s Ship of State.” Accessed November 20, 2013. URL here.

Wright, Kai. Soldiers of Freedom. New York: Black Dog and Leventhal Publishers, 2002.

Here’s how that works for a book:

Author’s name, last name first. (List the bibliography in alphabetical order according to the author’s last name.) Title of book in italics. City or city and state where book was published followed by a colon: Name of Publisher followed by a comma followed by the date it was published.

Here’s how that words for an Internet source:

Name of organization or author who wrote the page you accessed. “Title of internet page or article in quotation marks.” Accessed month, day, year. URL.

When I make my bibliography, I consider this my “working” bibliography.

I try to include every book I think I might have the remote chance of using. I just pile up a stack of them and type in their bibliographies all at the same time. I include the bibliography for every internet site I visit.

I include personal notes underneath the info in [brackets] if I want to remember something special about it.

Then, when I’m all done with my manuscript, I create a second file called my “Selected Bibliography.” I delete all my personal notes or any sources I don’t think are important enough to include in the final one. But I keep my working bibliography intact. Just in case I need to find something I originally didn’t think I needed to include in this one.

And just a note about Internet sources. I usually try to print out at least 1 or 2 pages from each key site I’m using. And if it’s a primary source document I found from the 1700s or 1800s, I print out the entire thing or save it as a file on my computer.

Why? Because for the last two books I’ve had published, I had primary sources I’d taken from the Internet. But by the time the books came out, those sites had disappeared. Yikes! But I had the printed pages to refer to and also to verify my research.

So how about it. Have you created your bibliography yet for your nonfiction picture book? Go ahead and gather all the research books you’ve been reading and type the info in.

Nonfiction Picture Book: The Triple Crown of Success

So much of writing successfully depends on self-motivation and self-worth. So many writers struggle with these issues…both beginning writers and talented, established writers. I’ve seen writers give up on their writing projects and their dreams. Sometimes they become so paralyzed because of these struggles that they can’t even finish an 800-word manuscript from beginning to end.

I’ve led critique groups and writer groups for over 25 years and I’ve seen writers at all ages and stages struggle with these issues. I’ve struggled with them myself. That’s why I’ve developed a method that helps me be motivated and find worth as a writer and that’s why I’m passionate about helping others like you do the same.

My method is called THE TRIPLE CROWN OF SUCCESS. I talk about it in depth in Chapter 5 of my how-to book for children’s writers, Yes! You Can Learn How to Write Children’s Books, Get Them Published, and Build a Successful Writing Career. It’s a method I started using early on in my writing career that helped me gain a solid footing in this industry. It’s a method I still use today.

In fact, I’m using this method as I’m moving forward along this journey to write an 800-word nonfiction picture book from beginning to end. That’s why I wanted to share this with you today so you can use it, too, and experience success like you’ve not yet done before.

The million dollar secret to the Triple Crown of Success is this:

Use three separate strategies to meet three separate goals.

Goal #1: Earn Income

I just finished one book deadline last week and last week I also signed a contract for a new book deadline in April that I’m going to write. This week I’m expecting to receive yet a third contract for a new book deadline after that. I’m landing contracts before I write the books so that I’m earning income while I write. This is the strategy I use with the Triple Crown of Success for the goal of earning income.

Goal #2: Get Published

I have two deadlines this month for this goal. One is to write an article for an online writing-for-children column I contribute to. The other is for a children’s magazine where I’ve been assigned a topic on spec. Both of these will give me published credits this year even tho there is little or no income involved. This is the strategy I use with the Triple Crown of Success for the goal of getting published.

Goal #3: Personal Fulfillment

I always like to be working on a separate manuscript for the goal of personal fulfillment. That’s what this nonfiction picture book manuscript is for me. I don’t have a signed contract. There’s no guaranteed income for this manuscript. It probably won’t get published this year…picture books take a long time to get published.

The benefits of choosing to work on this nonfiction picture book for the goal of personal fulfillment are many. For starters, we can stretch our writing muscles and explore new avenues. We won’t feel we’re wasting our time in hours of research because we’re pursuing this project without stressing out over its financial worth or whether or not it will get published.

We can really dive in and grow as a writer through this whole experience. This can really free you up in areas you may have struggled with before.

I recommend that you classify your nonfiction picture book as a project you’re doing to pursue the goal of personal fulfillment as a writer. No strings attached. Sure, if it eventually gets published, great! And sure, if it eventually earns a nice income, super! But for now, choose other manuscripts and other strategies to work on for the goals of earning income and getting published. You can discover self-motivation and self-worth as a writer working on this nonfiction picture book project for the goal of personal fulfillment as a writer. And that will help you stay motivated and find worth as a writer so that you can finish the first draft from beginning to end!

Nonfiction Picture Book: Narrow Your Topic, Part 2

Let’s talk about how to narrow your topic down to one focus that you will write about in the nonfiction picture book you plan to write.

If you already have your topic narrowed down to one specific focus, then you’re ready to go.

If not, then I recommend you choose one of the following three strategies to use during our journey together here on my blog. This is because these are the three strategies I’ll be teaching about, so you might as well take advantage of the tips and guidelines I’ll be offering as you progress forward on this current project.

Three Strategies to Narrow Your Topic.

Choose to write a “slice of life” picture book.

Choose to write a “compare and contrast” picture book.

Choose to write a picture book of “lists.”

Does this sound like a foreign language? To help you better understand what I’m talking about, look at the three picture books we’ll be using as our samples to help guide us along:

The Camping Trip that Changed America by Barb Rosenstock

Those Rebels, John & Tom by Barbara Kerley

So You Want to Be President by Judith St. George

SLICE OF LIFE

The Camping Trip that Changed America is a “slice of life” book. It focuses on one single event (a camping trip) of a broad topic (America’s National Parks). These types of picture books are called “slice of life.”

If you want to choose to write a “slice of life” picture book, choose one significant event within your broad topic. This should take place in a week or less. If your event takes place over several months or more, it’s still probably too broad of a topic. Narrow it down to something significant that happened in a very short period of time.

This event will be your fresh and unique angle on your topic.

COMPARE AND CONTRAST

Those Rebels John and Tom is a “compare and contrast” book. It takes one universal theme (rebels) and compares the similarities and differences between two people (John Adams and Thomas Jefferson).

If you’re writing about a topic that involves two key people or two organizations or two animals, etc. you can choose to narrow your topic by focusing on those two elements. For example, if your broad topic is building the transcontinental railroad, you could choose the two different teams who worked on it, one from the east and one from the west.

First you would choose the two different main “characters” you want to compare and contrast.

Next, you would choose the universal theme to focus on. If you’re not sure what a universal theme is or how to brainstorm ideas for this, I go into great depth on this in Section 7.1 Fresh and Original on pages 164-171 in my how-to book for children’s writers, Yes! You Can Learn How to Write Beginning Readers and Chapter Books.

You can also find helpful lists of universal themes on the site of my favorite writing buddies, Writing According to Humphrey and Friends.

Armed with information about universal themes, choose one universal theme for this target age and use as your narrow focus for your nonfiction picture book.

This will be your fresh and unique angle on this broad topic.

BOOK OF LISTS

So You Want to Be President is a book of lists. You may choose the broad topic of “women in the American Revolution” or “teachers in the space program.” You might have a list of people or events that you want to write about in your nonfiction picture book.

If you choose to write a book of lists, once again, you need to choose a universal theme to narrow your focus. For example, in our sample book, So You Want to Be President, the broad topic is “American Presidents.” The universal theme is how every kid wants to grow up to be president. This universal theme is the thread that ties the entire list together.

Narrow the topic of your list by choosing one universal theme to tie your list together.

This will be the fresh and unique angle on your broad topic.

Nonfiction Picture Book: Narrow Your Topic

If you’ve already narrowed your topic for the nonfiction picture book you plan to write, you’re good to go. But if not, now is the time.

Here are some tips to guide you:

Start with your broad topic. There are two basic choices you can make:

#1. Choose a broad topic that every student studies in elementary school.

#2. Choose a broad topic that’s not been written about before in a children’s book.

CHOICE #1

IF you choose #1, a broad topic that every student studies in elementary school, you’ll know for sure that your topic fits the target age for picture books. This is a big benefit. Picture books are usually divided into 3 age categories:

4-7 year olds (these broad topics include losing a first tooth and other topics for the very young)

5-8 year olds (these can be a little bit more sophisticated such as learning the life cycle of a butterfly in basic steps)

8-12 year olds (these can be quite technical such as history of the Civil War)

Another benefit is that it’s often easier to experience breakthrough with a new publisher if you are writing about a broad topic that is on the so-called “Top 100″ topics every kid should know.

If you’re not sure if your broad topic fits these parameters, refer to Lynne Cheney’s book, America: A Patriotic Primer. Nearly any topic in that book will work for your broad topic.

CHOICE #2

If you choose #2 and write about a broad topic that’s not been written about before in a children’s book, one of the benefits is that you’re probably very passionate about this topic. It may be a bit tricker to get published because your research sources might be limited or publishers may not want to take a gamble on a topic that doesn’t yet sell well.

But if you’re really passionate about this broad topic, go for it! Let your passion carry you through.

Okay. You’ve got your broad topic picked out. Now it’s time to brainstorm a unique angle for your broad topic by narrowing your topic down to the smallest concrete idea possible. I’ll talk about this in my next post.

Nonfiction Picture Book: Back on Track

Happy New Year and welcome back to our nonfiction picture book journey! As you can see in the photo above, my husband Jeff and I enjoyed some beautiful walks together in the crispy outdoors in between the holiday rush.

We’ve had a lot of interruptions over the holidays these past few weeks, but now those are all behind us and we’re ready to start a brand new year.

I’ve been excited to hear from so many of you. What a lot of creative and enthusiastic writers we’ve got joining in on the fun!

If you’re just joining us, or feel as if you’ve been out of the loop focusing on holiday commitments, here’s a recap to get us all on the same page. These are the 10 Steps we’ve been taking so far in our journey:

Step 1: Make a commitment to follow along in the upcoming weeks and months and write an 800-word nonfiction picture book from beginning to end. Read this post for more.

Step 2: Figure out what will motivate you to follow through and write the first draft of your manuscript from beginning to end. Read this post for more.

Step 3: Read America: A Patriotic Primer by Lynne Cheney and brainstorm ideas to write about. Read this post for more.

Step 4: Choose your own sample picture book to focus on or order in these three picture books from your local library:

The Camping Trip that Changed America by Barb Rosenstock

[Just a note: This book isn't pure nonfiction, actually, but most of it is true so it's a good reference to use if you opt at some point to write historical fiction rather than just straight nonfiction.]

Those Rebels, John & Tom by Barbara Kerley

So You Want to Be President by Judith St. George

Step 5: Choose a broad topic to write about. I’m choosing the topic of Abraham Lincoln. I wanted to let you know this as you’re following along in the journey. Why did I pick this one? Because it’s a topic every kid learns about in school. Read this post for more.

Step 6: Gather research books on your broad topic. Read this post for more.

Step 7: Build your research library. Read this post. Also read this post.

Step 8: Organize your research center. Read this post for more.

Step 9: Watch a movie about your topic. Read this post for more.

Step 10: If there are any steps you haven’t yet taken, schedule yourself a personal writer’s mini-retreat in the week ahead. Set aside time to have fun focusing back in on your goal of writing the first draft of an 800-word picture book from beginning to end.

Merry Christmas!

For God so loved you…yes, YOU!

That He gave His only Son, Jesus,

to be born 2000 years ago on Christmas Day

that whoever (that’s you!)

should believe on Him

and believe that as the sacrificial Lamb,

Jesus went to the cross and willingly laid down His life

and shed His blood to forgive us of our sins…

that you…yes, you, if you choose to believe,

should not perish from the hardships

and troubles you’re facing in this life

and should not perish when you face death and die…

but have everlasting life,

an abundant life that you can live today

and every day because you know God as Savior and friend,

and after then, when your body dies, your soul will live

forever with Jesus as His beloved

in eternal life where you will never experience hardship or pain

or tears or suffering ever again.

This is God’s gift for you this Christmas.

Will you accept this gift?

Will you open your heart to receive Him today?

Your life will never be the same.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

(paraphrased from John 3:16)

Nonfiction Picture Book: Watch a Movie!

One of the things I like to do is watch a movie that features the life and times of my topic. I recommend you do the same.

Look for one movie or documentary on your topic, if any, and take time to watch it. It doesn’t have to be a nonfiction movie. For example, it could be Red Tails if you’re studying the Tuskegee Airmen. Red Tails isn’t necessarily historically accurate but it gives you a feel for the emotion and sensory details of the era.

For my project, since I’ll be writing a nonfiction picture book about Abraham Lincoln, I watched the movie, Lincoln, with Daniel Day-Lewis. Even though it didn’t cover the exact focus I plan to write about, it was an awesome way to really get a feel for the era my topic lived in and for the man himself.

When I wrote a picture book about John Adams, I watched the John Adams mini-series based on David McCullough’s book. When I wrote my nonfiction book, Frederick Douglass for Kids, I watched The Civil War: A Film by Ken Burns.

Watching a movie or documentary on your topic isn’t a way to gather accurate research, necessarily. However, it’s a great way to hear the sounds of your topic’s era, see the costumes and technology, and experience in part some of the emotions people may have felt at that time. It just helps ROUND OUT the research you’re doing and can help bring your topic more to life out of the dusty pages of history.