Tips for Writers

On Believing in Yourself:   
Listen to the good things people say about your writing and believe them.
Work on your strengths and your weaknesses will become less significant. Don't ever
stop trying to do what your heart tells you. If you can dream about being a writer, you
can become one! And always, always, always respect the writers who came before
you. --from Dawn Reno in a  Wordmuseum Interview

On Writer's Block: 
 Sometimes life intrudes on our writing schedules, making it difficult to focus or even to get a workable story idea.  When that happens, it can take awhile to hit your stride again.  Reading some inspiring work can help, including those authors whose work you admire, in our case, children's authors.  So can browsing through the idea sources--bookstores, libraries, magazines, publisher catalogues.  Try writing something just for fun; try freewriting--set yourself a certain amount of time you must write nonstop.  Try ten minutes of journal writing a day, just to get the juices flowing.  Decide that it doesn’t have to be anything, just write whatever strange bit of anything that comes into your mind.  After awhile you’ll be ready to buckle down and seriously attack a project.--from Gail Radley

     More on Generating Ideas
Generating ideas is partly a matter of getting yourself habitually in the frame of mind to receive them.  A lot has to do with what you "feed" your mind.  Immersing yourself in children's stories and articles, observing kids and thinking about the problems that face them, learning about the psychology and development of your target age group all can help.  Asking "what if" works. So too does thinking about the child-appeal of your own interest areas.  Reading slowly and thoughtfully so that you give your mind time to wander and experimenting with various brainstorming techniques--all these can be helpful. Eventually, by allowing yourself enough daydream time, ideas will begin to come.  Write them down, no matter how inconvenient, and eventually you may have more than you can use! --from Gail Radley

 On Promotion:  
For publishers, the main question is, "Will it sell?"   When creating non-fiction, think of an angle which will interest your audience. Gail Radley has some excellent examples of this on her site.  Look at her questions on the first page of her site.  Check out  her page about "Things to do."   These might give you some ideas for catching an editor's interest in your query letters.--from Betsy B. Lee
 

                            Check Back--More Tips to Come...