|
Post by Hope on May 3, 2009 9:01:35 GMT -5
In my copious free time, I am taking a correspondence course from the Institute of Children's Literature. So far I am pleased with the course and instructor; I'll keep you informed!
Ursula LeGuin commented that if a subject was especially difficult, she wrote the book as YA. Given how hot the YA market is right now, that may be especially good advice....
|
|
|
Post by Anna on May 3, 2009 21:35:44 GMT -5
Good for you, Hope! And good luck! Keep us posted on how it goes!
|
|
Trini
Dragonrider
Posts: 83
|
Post by Trini on May 4, 2009 18:28:58 GMT -5
Ditto what Anne said! Good luck. By the way--for everyone who is interested in getting some great writing workshops for free online, author Candace Havens runs a workshop through an email loop. She has a class every month, taught by all kinds of award winning and best-selling authors. Past classes have been on things like breaking through writer's block, finding the high concept in your novel, writing query letters, creating great characters, blending genres, all kinds of stuff. Linkage: groups.yahoo.com/group/Write_Workshop/
|
|
|
Post by Hope on May 16, 2009 20:43:11 GMT -5
If I weren't already in this course, I'd definitely be looking into that, Trini! May still if I have enough down time. (Hah!) Got Assignment One back from the instructor today, and I was very impressed; her feedback was constructive, thorough, and specific. I did the rewrite tonight (which is optional, but it would be silly to skip the opportunity), and I am pleased with the changes. Having done the assigned reading (I'm kind of a marathon person when it comes to assignments), I'm trying to decide if the story I want to write can be done in a thousand words for assignment two. (I'd envisioned it as chapter one of a book, and that's one short chapter, even for YA...but I think the exercise of writing it sparsely might be good for me. And if I get 1,500 words in and the story isn't even half done, I can always put it aside and write something else for the assignment.) Of course, my high opinion of my instructor is slightly influenced by the fact that she loves Pern and thinks it's cool that I'm involved with a Pern fan club.
|
|
|
Post by Chantal on May 17, 2009 22:14:58 GMT -5
I think you'd make a great author, Hope--YA or otherwise. I ope this does tur into a book.
|
|
geo
Dragonrider
Posts: 151
|
Post by geo on May 17, 2009 23:43:56 GMT -5
Very nice. I second Chantal, and YA is a very good place to be writing nowadays. I have a friend at school who's 17 and published in the YA area.
|
|
|
Post by Hope on Aug 15, 2009 17:16:47 GMT -5
Update: I did get the story down to 997 words...but I didn't feel that it really worked. It felt to me that it needed to be a minimum of double that, and could easily have gone to 5,000 words with all the additional conflict I wanted to put into it. Little sister liked it as it came out, husband did not, so I wrote another story to submit and chalked up that one to an excellent learning experience. I think I want to keep the first story almost this sparse in language, just develop it a lot more, and put back in a smattering of description. I'm getting better at saying more with fewer words. The feedback on the second assignment was very insightful, and again was just what the story needed. Definitely considering submitting it after it's revised a few times. My instructor encouraged me to keep thinking of the other story as the first chapter of a book. Third assignment was an exercise in description, just mailed off 2 days ago...one day before deadline. Even that was hard to keep to the 500 word limit! So far, I have to say that this course is as useful as the best writing courses I had in college, and far cheaper. Especially since books are included. Hey, Geo--what's your friend's pen name, and what did s/he write? And have you tried to recruit him/her for StarRise? Ack, pen names. I understand the wisdom of them, yet so much want to write under my own name....
|
|
geo
Dragonrider
Posts: 151
|
Post by geo on Aug 15, 2009 21:08:22 GMT -5
Pen name is A.M. James. She's written the first in a series titled St. Martin's Academy. The book is called The Gifted Rule.
As for recruiting her, uh, knowing her it ain't happening.
|
|
Trini
Dragonrider
Posts: 83
|
Post by Trini on Aug 19, 2009 0:19:59 GMT -5
Hope -- I know many many people who write under their own name, or some variation of it (their maiden name, for instance). There are pros and cons. A pro is that people who know you for ages can see your books/stories and go: wow, I know her! A con is that people who know you for ages can see your books/stories and go: wow, I know her! ;-) But seriously, it all depends how much you want to keep your non-writing life separate from your writing persona. Doctor by day, writer by night can be a cool thing, but if you want to write scathingly hot erotica, you might not want that coming up on a Google search for Dr. Ring. But basically what happens is, whatever you chose, your public (i.e., Internet) face becomes a kind of persona. Even if you use your own name. It's not that you're fake, is that you always have to be careful what you post on the Internet, and that does get a little tiresome sometimes. But you can always use a personal pseudonym instead of a professional one. (Whatever you chose, though, make sure it's not too long. Twenty-two characters, for example, is too long. *sigh* Your name will always be smaller than everyone else's to get it to fit on one line. And forget using it as a twitter screen name...)
|
|
|
Post by Hope on Aug 20, 2009 20:58:12 GMT -5
I was thinking of using my own name for young adult/ kids books, and a pseudonym or three for anything else. It's hard for people to get too horrified by kids books, and the ones who manage.... So, do you like "Hope E. Ring" for length?
|
|
Trini
Dragonrider
Posts: 83
|
Post by Trini on Aug 21, 2009 22:44:51 GMT -5
Hope E. Ring is a very nice length, gets the "three name" feel without an actual third name. Has a nice flow to it, too. I approve. ;-)
|
|
|
Post by Hope on Nov 10, 2009 20:02:14 GMT -5
Well, here in the middle of NaNoWriMo, I get my latest assignment back from my instructor, and she thinks, with a little polishing, that I should submit it. And what is it, you ask? Fantasy? Science Fiction? Stories from my childhood?
No. It's an article that explains mendelian genetics to middle readers.
I'm still very psyched, and more than a little stressed. I DON'T HAVE TIME FOR THIS!!!!
|
|
|
Post by Chantal on Nov 11, 2009 17:18:17 GMT -5
Neat! Where would you submit it to? Are there children's science magazines? A textbook?
I hope not a textbook. Textbook censorship is evil.
|
|
|
Post by Hope on Nov 12, 2009 7:24:19 GMT -5
Most kid's magazines take non-fiction articles, and science is a big and hard to fill subject. haven't decided where to send it to first, haven't even rewritten it yet; migraine hit Tuesday, lingered Wednesday, and turned to fever, chills and body aches last night. Hmmm...wonder what I have? Debating calling in sick to work; I think the fact that I'm contagious is probably the deciding factor.
|
|
|
Post by JustPlainKitty on Nov 12, 2009 16:31:36 GMT -5
I was taking classes through the Institute many many many years ago. My teacher was Nancy Garden and she was fantastic. Unfortunately about midway through the course my life went into upheaval (I moved out on my own in a rather dramatic fashion) and I never finished the course. I've considered going back but never could fit it into the budget. It was a great course during the time I was in it though. I learned a lot even though I didn't get to finish it.
|
|