Tuesday, March 1, 2011

It's that time of year...



...and I couldn't be more excited! Tonight I start back at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD CE) teaching ‘Writing for Children’s Books,’ which is part of CE’s Certificate of Children’s Book Illustration, but works as a standalone class for those who write only.

This is an eight week course designed to cover all basic aspects of writing a picture book. Through lectures, discussions, book-shares, workshop-ing, writing exercises, and other hands-on activities, students learn about:

  • Children’s book sub-genres and markets
  • What the market will tolerate, and what publishers don’t want
  • How to get writing and stay writing
  • The importance of strong narrative structure
  • The relationship between image and word
  • Picture book structure, storyboarding, and pagination
  • Character development
  • Common language devices
  • Pacing
  • Point of View
  • How to show, not tell
  • Writing dialogue
  • Grammar tips
  • Revision and self-editing
  • Writing killer cover letters
  • Submission do’s and don’ts

My goal is that each student will finish the course with a submission-ready and publishable picture book text and a great cover letter. Students can expect to work hard to achieve this. :)

RISD and I will be designing a Part 2 advanced course, hopefully coming this fall, so stay tuned.

If you’re joining us tonight, I look forward to meeting you!  

*(Please note this semester’s class is full and always fills rapidly.)

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