Writing for Children and Teens: A Crash Course, Updated in 2022
November 26, 2022Hello, WFCAT fans, The pooch crew has been hard at work on an update of the Crash Course that started it all! Strap on your helmet. Buckle up! Writing for Children and Teens: A Crash Course has been updated in 2022. ...
<<Continue Reading...>>I dared to write a talking animal book
June 7, 2006My first novel was about a talking dog. GASP. Sounds awful, doesn’t it? The classic newbie mistake? Read on. When I showed up to my first conference, I was petrified. I had brought the first five pages with me ...
<<Continue Reading...>>anthropomorphic characters: a.k.a. talking animals
June 7, 2006Let me clear up a myth about talking animals. You might have heard it before. “You shouldn’t write about talking animals. That’s a big no-no.” Yet you see hundred of books come out, starring them. What gives? According to some, talking ...
<<Continue Reading...>>how to critique rhyming children’s poems
June 6, 2006I credit the lovely Kelly R. Fineman for writing this article. I stink at talking about poetry so I leave the task to Kelly who is quite good at it. 1. Read it to yourself. See if the words make sense and ...
<<Continue Reading...>>Status Queries: When and How To Do It
June 6, 2006So things haven’t gone as you’d hoped. Your manuscript went off months ago, and your phone didn’t ring off the hook with five editors or agents vying for your awesome book. You find yourself wondering – what are they doing with ...
<<Continue Reading...>>Oops! I Did It Again: Mistakes In Submissions
June 6, 2006Say you’ve just realized you made a bunch of typos in your manuscript or you forgot to enclose an SASE AFTER you sent the whole thing off. Should you try to contact the editor or agent and correct your mistake? ...
<<Continue Reading...>>Analyze This: Form Rejections, Personal Rejections, Revision Requests, and More
June 5, 2006No one can read more into words than a writer. It makes sense. Why? We write. We play with context and permutations of words every day. So it’s perfectly logical we’ll analyze any letter from an agent or editor better ...
<<Continue Reading...>>june jumanji justice, part two
June 2, 2006DOORS ARE CLOSED!!!!!!!!!!! You saw what happened yesterday. Cynthea offered RESERVED slots for free-tiques. Unheard of. Well guess what? Our friends overseas gave up TWO slots when the doors closed. That means, we can do a BONUS ROUND. BUT WAIT ...
<<Continue Reading...>>mid-day coffee with cynthea: anatomy of a synopsis
June 2, 2006Hey everyone, here's my contribution to fellow mankind: http://cynthealiu.com/2006/06/02/74/anatomy-of-a-synopsis/ I'm going to reward myself with a cup of coffee and jog around the kitchen to get my foot back into shape! ALSO, please leave me some nice words on my website if ...
<<Continue Reading...>>Anatomy of a Children’s Book Synopsis
June 2, 2006*UPDATE: You may now download this article to your Kindle! * Here it is: the DREADED synopsis. A synopsis is a one-page, single-spaced, summary of your book (beginning, middle, end). Typically written in third person, present tense. This is the C ...
<<Continue Reading...>>june jumanji justice: you know what that means….
June 1, 2006DOORS ARE CLOSED!!!!!! Yup, the cast is off. My foot is so small I could wear Thumbelina’s shoe. BUT LET’S NOT THINK ABOUT THAT. Because it’s time for JUNE JUMANJI JUSTICE. (it was too hard to come up with ...
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