1.  Why you should join a Critique Group

I love my critique group.  They provide support when I receive rejections.  They share information about publishers, editors, and conferences.  They motivate me to create something at least once a month, but most of all, they have made me a better writer.  They rein me in when my writing gets academic and wordy.  They let me know what’s funny and what’s not.  They provide an extra set of ears.  Find other writers in your area and invite them to form a group.  Look on the web for rules and procedures for managing a critique group.

2.  Why you should take a class and go to conferences.

Before I wrote Holy Mole!, I took a class from Ruth Moose through UNC Chapel Hill’s extension program.  I was already an English teacher with a PhD, but writing for children is a completely different animal from writing for the academy.  The class opened my eyes to the way children’s books work—the number of pages, the word count, the double spreads, the rhythms, the beginnings and endings.  I might have eventually learned this information on my own through trial and error, but it would have been much less efficient.  I wrote my first draft of Holy Mole! for the class and had it critiqued there before sending it off.  Look for classes in your region and attend local SCBWI conferences.

When I was growing up in California in the 1960’s, bell bottoms were the new fashion statement, and fondue was considered gourmet.  Fashions and recipes change with every decade, and so do children’s books.  You can’t rely on the books you read as a child as a guide for what you write now any more than you can rely on the clothes you wore then as a guide for what to wear now.  During the summer when I am not teaching, I take ten or fifteen new picture books out of the library each week.  I keep a record of the author, title, publisher, the first and last lines, and images or characters I particularly liked.  That way I have a record of who is publishing what, of what I like, and of the trends in the industry.  Find a method of study that suits you.

Writing is idiosyncratic and where I get my ideas won’t be where you get your ideas from.  I read The New York Times every day and clip articles that interest me.  I particularly like The Science Times on Tuesdays and the food section on Wednesdays.  I read the obituaries because I like to see the story of a life sketched out in one or two columns.  I am always on the look-out for those moments in a person’s childhood when he or she started on a path to something extraordinary without necessarily being aware of it.  Those moments are the stuff of great children’s fiction and non-fiction.  And, of course, I am always combing through volumes of legends and folklore.  I didn’t set out intentionally to write folktales, but they seem to have chosen me. (Aaron Shepard, Rafe Martin, and Robert San Souci all have great websites related to folktales.) That’s my other piece of advice.  Be ready for serendipity.  And don’t forget to capture your ideas.  Keep a journal or a list of ideas that you can come back to.  I think of my list as a recipe file that I can comb through for inspiration in moments of dearth.  And I like to read inspirational books about writing and creativity.  Julia Cameron is great.  I also recommend Twyla Tharp’s book, The Creative Habit and Jane Yolen’s Take Joy.  Oh! And I absolutely love Julius Lester’s On Writing for Children and Other People.