It's about time I said something...

It's March 12th! And I haven't posted since the very start of the year. Where did that time go? And why did it go so swiftly? 

Well, I have been editing up a storm (and we're all storm weary, right?), working with both previous and new clients on projects as diverse as non-fiction for adults, historical biography, fantasy (adult), chick-lit, and my usual fare of YA, middle grade, chapter books, and picture books. I'm also working on interior illustrations for a chapter book due to be published shortly. 

I'm also deep into preparation for the New England SCBWI 2014 conference, working on a few new portfolio pieces, which I'm excited to share with you soon. 

Copyright  ©  Marlo Garnsworthy 2104

Character sketch for one of my new pieces.

Plus, I'm back at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD CE), teaching "Writing for Children's Books" for the spring semester. (And I have absolutely awesome students.)

So I suppose I can be forgiven for not being a very Wordy Birdie here on the blog. 

BUT, I have been blogging over on Editing-Writing-Proofreading, and you can read my latest post on Narrative Structure--The Parts of the Narrative HERE and What's Wrong With My Picture Book? HERE. 

And SCBWI members, I hope you'll read author and editor Chris Eboch's article in the March/April edition of The Bulletin, in which she talks about the design process for the cover of her latest book The Genie's Gift. You can read more about my process for illustrating the cover HERE. 

And spring is coming! Cause for celebration. 

New Fall Classes

I'm looking forward to teaching two new offerings at RISD Continuing Ed this fall.

• Writing Chapter Books for Children: a 12 week course, Tuesdays 7-10 pm. We will be discussing aspects such as narrative structure, pacing, POV, language and voice, dialogue, character development, showing-not-telling, submissions, the market, how to turn an idea into a series, and more. 

• On Screen Editing: Picture Book Texts: a weekend workshop for those with existing texts at the revision stage. I will be editing students' manuscripts on screen and discussing revision techniques and tools. 
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Check the RISD/CE site or fall catalogue for more information. 

Guess What?

You've been asking for it, I've been wanting to do it, and now it's finally happening! Hooray!


This fall, I'll be teaching a new ten week course at RISD CE about writing chapter books. Through a series of writing exercises, lectures, group discussions, and workshops, we'll be looking at:

• Discovering your writing process
• Narrative structure 
• Developing characters that engage, excite, and endure
• POV, language style, and developing a voice
• Handling exposition
• Pacing... keeping your reader turning the page
• How to imbue a single chapter book text with series potential
• How to approach agents and publishers and writing great query letters
• And much more.

RISD and I have some other children's book offerings in the pipeline, too, so watch this space.

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.)