...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.)
