Looking for a Quality Critique?

PICTURE BOOK CRITIQUES

BY ROB SANDERS

I’ve been staying busy with my critique service, but now have some openings. If you have a picture book manuscript in need of an in-depth critique, please check out my services. Reasonable, realistic, and reliable!

WHAT YOU RECEIVE IN A CRITIQUE

n I begin with an overall list of the things I love about your story and your writing, possible concerns, and possible fixes.

n Then I provide a line-by-line critique, which may include suggested cuts, additions, and comments.

n I will also look at the BIG PICTURE of your plot and story development.

n I offer next-step suggestions to get you moving forward with your manuscript.

WHY YOU CAN TRUST ME TO PROVIDE A QUALITY CRITIQUE

n I am a published picture book author and have been published in other genres as well—educational resources, inspirational books, and magazine articles to name a few.

n I critique nearly a hundred picture book manuscripts a year.

n I have taught creative writing to children for years. I know how to teach and coach as well as critique. And I know what kids love and what they don’t.

n I worked for fifteen years as an editor, editorial group manager, and a coordinator of children’s product development for a major not-for-profit publisher.

For more information, rates, and availability, visit: http://robsanderswrites.com/Critique_Service.html!

BLOG-BATICAL

I am taking a sabbatical from Picture This! until the end of the school year—which is either nineteen days away, four weeks away, or five hundred years away depending on how you count it. In the meantime, I’ll be writing and working on updates for my web site.

By the way, stay tuned for some incredible news . . . it’s a done deal but some final pieces need to be put in place before announcing.

Keep your chin up and your fingers on the keyboard.

Rob Sanders

QUOTES ABOUT MOVING FORWARD TO REVISION

WEEK OF APRIL 29, 2012: QUOTES AND TOOLS FOR NAPIBOWRIWEE 2012

Friday, May 4—Quotes About Moving Forward to Revision

You’re in the midst of drafting your seven picture books for NaPiBoWriWee. But the hard work is ahead—revision. Never settle for a first draft (or a second, or a third). Revise until your work shines. Below are some quotes to inspire your revision journey.

The beautiful part of writing is that you don't have to get it right the first time, unlike, say, a brain surgeon. You can always do it better, find the exact word, the apt phrase, the leaping simile.

—Robert Cormier

Sit down, and put down everything that comes into your head and then you’re a writer. But an author is one who can judge his own stuff’s worth without pity, and destroy most of it.

—Colette

I believe more in the scissors than I do in the pencil.

—William Capote

I can’t write five words but that I change seven.

—Dorothy Parker

Half my life is an act of revision.

—John Irving

Revision is one of the exquisite pleasures of writing.

—Bernard Malamud

Books aren't written—they're rewritten. Including your own. It is one of the hardest things to accept, especially after the seventh rewrite hasn't quite done it.

—Michael Crichton

The difference between the right and the nearly right word is the same as that between lightning and the lightning bug.

—Mark Twain

The wastebasket is the writer's best friend.

—Isaac Singer

Writing is rewriting. A writer must learn to deepen characters, trim writing, intensify scenes. To fall in love with the first draft to the point where one cannot change it is to greatly enhance the prospects of never publishing.

—Richard North Patterson

It is with words as with sunbeams -- the more they are condensed, the deeper they burn.

—Robert Southey

Go create!

Go write!

Go revise!

THE PLOT CLOCK--ANOTHER PLANNING TOOL

WEEK OF APRIL 29, 2012: QUOTES AND TOOLS FOR NAPIBOWRIWEE 2012

Thursday, May 3—The Plot Clock—Another Planning Tool

My friend and mentor, Joyce Sweeney, (along with Jamie Morris) developed what many writers in Florida know affectionately as the Plot Clock. The Plot Clock is a great tool for planning out any piece of fiction—including picture books—and is also a powerful way of determining what is missing is a story once you’ve completed your first draft. Just by looking for each component of the Plot Clock you can easily see where a hole is in your plot, where you’ve spent too much time or not enough, and how to add more dramatic tension to your writing. (Face it, even a funny picture book has dramatic tension.) Here’s the Plot Clock:

For more information about the Plot Clock, review these earlier posts from Picture This!

·        http://robsanderswrites.blogspot.com/2011/08/plot-clock.html

·        http://robsanderswrites.blogspot.com/2011/08/plot-clock-in-picture-books.html

QUOTES ABOUT FIRST DRAFTS

WEEK OF APRIL 29, 2012: QUOTES AND TOOLS FOR NAPIBOWRIWEE 2012

Wednesday, May 2—Quotes About First Drafts

Completing seven manuscripts, seven stories, or seven picture books in seven days seems overwhelming. But wait a minute . . . what we’re really completing is seven first drafts. First draft sounds much less intimidating than manuscript, or story, or picture book. You don’t have to get it perfect during NaPiBoWriWee, you just have to get it down on paper! To help with the process, today’s post features some inspiring quotes about first drafts.

Writing the last page of the first draft is the most enjoyable moment in writing. It’s one of the most enjoyable moments in life, period.

—Nicholas Sparks

I would advise any beginning writer to write the first drafts as if no one else will ever read them—without a thought about publication—and only in the last draft to consider how the work will look from the outside.

—Anne Tyler

I generally write a first draft that’s pretty lean. Just get the story down.

—Nora Roberts

I don’t fiddle or edit or change while I’m going through the first draft.

—Nora Roberts

I have never written anything in one draft, not even a grocery list, although I have heard from friends that this is actually possible.

—Connie Willis

I’m constantly revising. Once the book is written and typed, I go through the entire draft again.

—Chaim Potok

On a less inspirational note, comes this quote from Ernest Hemingway: “The first draft of anything is sh@#.” I don’t necessarily agree, but it does make me laugh!

MY PICTURE BOOK GRAPHIC ORGANIZER

WEEK OF APRIL 29, 2012: QUOTES AND TOOLS FOR NAPIBOWRIWEE 2012

Tuesday, May 1—My Picture Book Graphic Organizer

I imagine it’s the teacher in me that always wants to find ways to present information in new ways, to create a new graphic organizer to help with a problem, or to plan step-by-step how to do something (and the to teach someone else the steps). In that spirit, I’ll share once again the graphic organizer I designed to help plan a picture book. I don’t use this tool every time I write—no tool is that wonderful—but this graphic organizer has come in handy more than once.