A Blogiversary Blast from the Past: Encouraging Words

 Happy Blogiversary!

Hard to believe that we Teaching Authors have been together a dozen years!  I've known Carmela, and former members Jean Marie and JoAnn since our Vermont College days, but I've made so many new writing friends as others joined the blog. I especially can't imagine life with out our original and "still present" members Esther and April.

To celebrate, we are looking back at our favorite posts by fellow TA's. Difficult to select just one post to "remember' here. However, as I continue to struggle to "find the writing me" again, JoAnn's post of August 5, 2011 jumped out and said "Pick me! Pick me!" Encouraging Words reviewed Seeing the Blue Between: Advice and Inspiration for Young Poets by Paul B. Janezcko. I am always looking for author interviews, secretly hoping that one of them will have the answer to writer's block. Based on JoAnn's recommendation, I bought Seeing the Blue Between. The subtitle says it all; lots of good advice and inspiration. (However, no one has a magic formula to banish writer's block.)

Speaking of "seeing the blue," this is the current writing view from my writing porch, Ocean Isle Beach, NC. If that sort of blue doesn't inspire, I don't know what will!

Posted by Mary Ann Rodman

Five Fingers/Five Titles for Teaching Young Authors (And Those Young-At-Heart)

So, to answer April’s insightful question posed in her Friday post, you can find my current fingerprint all over today’s post, literally and figuratively.

For a variety of reasons too many to share, it’s the TEACHING part of my TeachingAuthor handle that currently fills my days. I’m a gardener of sorts, seeding and feeding writers, helping others tell their stories to young readers.  I pinch myself daily, honored to be doing so.  I also remain grateful.  Ironically, it is I who likely blooms fuller from helping such singular folks grow their diverse offerings.

As luck would have it, I often have the chance to seed and feed Young Authors. I take joy when sharing writing resources, opportunities, connections and book titles (how-to’s, biographies, autobiographies, related fiction) with teachers, librarians, parents, booksellers – and best of all, the young writers themselves who squeeze me out like a sponge.

Here are five titles I’ve recently added to my Young Authors hand-out, though in truth, all five speak to writers of all ages.

👍WRITING WITH ROSIE by Patricia Reilly Giff (Holiday House, 2016)

Thumbs up for award-winning author Patricia Reilly Giff’s writing how-to book for writers and readers ages 8-12.  The subtitle says it all: You can write a story too.

In conversational chapters that engage, amuse (thanks to her dog Rosie), inform and inspire, Giff introduces the elements of narrative (character, plot, setting, conflict, resolution), shares how she dealt with those elements, offering specific Show, Don’t Tell examples from her published books (CAN YOU SEE HOW I DID IT?), then gives the young writer a chance to try his hand (YOUR TURN). Kirkus called it “the best recent writing guide for young readers and writers.”  Giff knows her audience and how to reach them in age-appropriate meaningful ways.  Holiday House also offers an accompanying Educators Guide with Instructional Standards.  Giff’s spirit abounds.  “Writing is a joyous part of my life. I want that joy for you too, because we all have stories to tell.”

👌 WHERE ARE THE WORDS? by Jodi McKay and Denise Holmes (Albert Whitman, 2016)

 McKay’s introduction to punctuation marks and how they work to tell a story is A-OK!  Thanks to Holmes’ reader-friendly illustrations, the marks come to life, building on each other’s expertise to help Period tell his tale.  The resulting story appears at the end, punctuated correctly.  Young readers ages 4 to 8 come to know each mark in a way that makes their usage unforgettable. 

👏 HOW THIS BOOK WAS MADE by Mac Barnett and Adam Rex (Disney-Hyperion, 2016)

Applause! Applause! There’s finally a fun picture book that SHOWS readers in pictures and in words how a writer’s idea becomes a book they can hold in their own two hands. In between there are “dangerous animals, an angry mob, unreasonable editorial demands, high-seas adventure and traffic.” The Narrator-dash-Writer writes and rewrites and works with his editor so the illustrator can make his art in a timely fashion so the publisher can print the book so it eventually can sit reader-ready on a shelf! There’s just enough absurdity to keep the reader laughing but just enough reality to keep the reader and future writer learning. Barnett and Rex make making a book understandable and fun.

✋ THE UNCORKER OF OCEAN BOTTLES by Michelle Cuevas and Erin E. Stead (Dial, 2016) 

High Fives to Cuevas for her gorgeous writing and Stead for her beautiful illustrations that capture the uncorker’s one-of-a-kind life and heart-stopping situation. This book deservedly sits on numerous Best Books of 2016 lists – SLJ, the Boston Globe, People Magazine and Time. The story is a keeper, like the unaddressed party invitation the nameless character receives.  Bottled messages especially appeal to young writers. Wonder prevails and gets us all “What-if?-ing.” Just think about the author, to launch a story idea.  Or think about the recipient.  Maybe think about the message.  It’s a terrific device when a writer needs to step into another person’s – or character’s – shoes, as both the writer and the reader. A bottled message and its mystery make a swell story hook, too.  

✌ A CHILD OF BOOKS by Oliver Jeffers and Sam Winston (Candlewick Press, 2016)

V is for victory in Jeffers’ prose poem.  Beautifully illustrated by Winston’s clever typographical images created from text from favorite classics, all the words – both Jeffers’ and Winston’s - sing the praises of the travel opportunities stories bring the reader. Might this be the perfect explanation for how readers become writers?  How might young writers create text images from their favorite stories to create stories of their own? (Oh, to have a classroom of young writers ripe for such an assignment!)

🤞 My fingers are crossed you’ll come to know, explore and use the above five titles, whether sharing them with Young Writers or telling your stories.

Enjoy!

Esther Hershenhorn

3 Insights Into Improving Writing Productivity

Our current series is about beginning a new writing career or jump-starting a stalled one. Carla shared 5 things she wished she’d known when starting out as a writer and JoAnn talked about coping with a lull in her enthusiasm for writing. My post today focuses more on the latter, but I think it's also of value to beginning writers. Before I get to that, I'd like to share two bits of news:

• The revised edition of my middle-grade novel, Rosa, Sola, (originally published by Candlewick Press) is now available in both ebook and paperback, and includes a new "Discussion Questions" section for classroom use. I'm currently sponsoring a Goodreads giveaway, which I invite you to enter on this Goodreads page or via the widget below:  

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Rosa, Sola

by Carmela A. Martino

Giveaway ends October 05, 2016.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter Giveaway

• Also, for those of you who live in the Chicago area: it's not too late to register for my class on "Finding Your Writer's Voice," which begins Tuesday, September 13, at the College of DuPage in Glen Ellyn. See my website for details. 

Now for today's post.

Like JoAnn, I’ve been stalled in my writing lately. The problem started back in April, when I was sidelined with a repetitive stress injury to my dominant hand. The injury has not only interfered with my ability to type and to write longhand, but it has also caused me to lose my enthusiasm for writing. Fortunately, though, I'm currently leading a small, private class on Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way. The timing of the class is perfect, as it’s helping me examine my writing process and the causes of my current lack of productivity. Here are three insights I’ve been led to recently, via Cameron’s book and other reading I’ve been doing:

1. “In order to do something well we must first be willing to do it badly.”

These are Cameron’s words in The Artist’s Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity (Tarcher Books), but they convey a concept I've found in other books on writing and creativity--think the “sh**tty first draft” in Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird (Pantheon Books). Elizabeth Gilbert also touches on the topic in her book Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear (Riverhead Books) when she talks about the necessity of accepting imperfection if we want to lead creative lives.

I’ve always been a perfectionist, and now that I’m a published author and a writing teacher, part of me thinks that I should be able to produce a polished draft right off the bat, with little or no editing. And when I don’t do that, I feel like a failure. So I was shocked when, in Big Magic, Gilbert confesses to publishing a novel she’d written without revising a major flaw that her beta readers had pointed out. I listened to the audiobook, so I can’t quote Big Magic directly. But I did find an interview in The Guardian where Gilbert is quoted as saying:

“Perfection murders joy. You cut yourself out of the game before you even start. You cut yourself out of the game because you’ve decided it’s never going to be as good as your ideal.”

I also found the following image, which I’ve printed out and posted in my office as a reminder that I will always be a beginner. I’m hoping that trying to keep an open, “Beginner’s Mind,” will help me overcome my perfectionism.

found here with caption "Image Source: Facebook user Elizabeth Gilbert"

2. If I can’t “find” time for my writing, I need to “make” the time.

My students often complain about not having enough time to write, and lately I’ve been using the same excuse. Julia Cameron addressed this recently in a blog post:

"Most of us think, 'If only I had more time, then I would work.' We have a fantasy that there is such a thing as a 'good' creative time, an idyll of endless, seamless time unfolding invitingly for us to frolic in creatively. No such bolts of limitless time exist for most of us. Our days are chopped into segments, and if we are to be creative, we must learn to use the limited time we have."

That's how I worked on this blog post, in little segments of time stolen between physical therapy appointments, lesson planning, household chores, etc. If I can make time to blog, I can make time for my own creative writing, too.

When I explain this to my students, they often reply that they can’t just sit down to write. They need to feel “inspired.” But, as M. L’Engle says in Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith and Art (Crosswicks):

“If the artist works only when he feels like it, he’s not apt to build up much of a body of work. Inspiration far more often comes during the work than before it, because the largest part of the job of the artist is to listen to the work, and to go where it tells him to go.”

3. My attitude has a profound effect on my productivity.

It’s not enough for me to “make time” for my writing. I need to bring the right attitude with me when I sit down to write. I’ve shared before about how research is showing that happy people tend to be more productive. But this is a lesson I need to constantly remind myself of.

In an excerpt from The Artist's Way posted on her blog, Julia Cameron says:

“Over any extended period of time, being an artist requires enthusiasm more than discipline. Enthusiasm is not an emotional state. It is a spiritual commitment, a loving surrender to our creative process, a loving recognition of all the creativity around us. 

Enthusiasm (from the Greek, 'filled with God') is an ongoing energy supply tapped into the flow of life itself. Enthusiasm is grounded in play, not work. Far from being a brain-numbed soldier, our artist is actually our child within, our inner playmate. As with all playmates, it is joy, not duty, that makes for a lasting bond.”

Hmm. There’s that word again: JOY.

For years I’ve been signing my posts here with “Happy writing!” I think I need a more expansive catch phrase. What do you think of this:

For more joy and inspiration, head over to this week's Poetry Friday round-up at The Poem Farm.

Carmela

Tips to Start (or Restart) Your Writing Career

It seems the learning curve for a writer begins with the first word we intentionally write and continues every day as we pursue the dream of being an author.  I’ve been thinking about what I wish I’d known-or understood better when I first began.    

Every writer’s journey is different.  We all have different jobs and family responsibilities.  We all write in different genres and have different gifts, talents and interests.  We all have different coping skills when faced with critique and rejection.  There are so many facets to being a published author that it is like talking to a young couple expecting their first baby:  They don’t know yet what they don’t know and there is so much to learn.   

Here are a few things I wish I’d known when I first started writing.

1.  Start somewhere.  Anywhere. 

You don’t need to know exactly how you are going to handle every page of a manuscript when you begin.  Just jump in anywhere.  You can make it all work together later. 

2.  Don’t confuse you as a person with what you write. 

Writers need a thick skin to endure rejection.  Editors and agents will reject your work-and it isn’t personal.  There are a thousand reasons why they reject a manuscript and it doesn’t necessarily mean that your manuscript isn’t good.  Often you will not know why your project has been rejected.  Remember that a rejection of your manuscript is not a rejection of you as a person.

morguefile.com

3.  Understand the purpose of a critique group.

There are two kinds of critique groups.  One is a group that only makes you feel good no matter what.  The other is a group that will help you get published, even if they tell you things you don’t want to hear.  Certainly you hope your group will tell you what they love about your manuscript, but the most helpful group can point out places in your manuscript that needs some work.  When others don’t love your manuscript like you do, that is when you need that thick skin mentioned in number 2.  Listen to their opinions, but in the end you decide what is right for your own story.  Remember that a critique of your manuscript is not a critique of you as a person.

 4.  Your story is told only through the words on the page.

Your manuscript has to be self-sufficient.  If you have to verbally explain to someone all the backstory they need to understand a section in the manuscript, then it doesn’t work.  A writer crafts a story (either fiction or nonfiction) that will be read, not explained ahead of time.  A story is told ONLY through the words on the page.

morguefile.com

5.  Publishing is a business.

This is a hard one to learn.  Most of us grew up loving books.  The idea of one day seeing our name on the cover of a book is a dream we hope comes true.  Writers are passionate about books and telling stories.  For most of us it is about the love of reading, and books, and the craft of writing.  It takes a while for some of us to accept the reality that writing books published by traditional publishers is a business.  Authors write manuscripts.  Publishers take manuscripts and turn them into books to sell.  The harsh reality is that although everyone who works for a publisher loves books, publishing houses must make money.  Therefore, they usually won’t offer a contract on a book unless they believe it will make money for them.  As authors, the sooner we learn this the better.

morguefile.com

For those of you who want to start (or restart) writing books for children and young readers, it is never too late and never too early. 

You can do it.   

Carla Killough McClafferty 

Enter (HERE)  to win an autographed copy of Amy Cattapan's middle-grade mystery Seven Riddles to Nowhere (Vinspire Publishing). The giveaway is open to U.S. residents only and ends August 31. That happens to also be the day of Amy’s Facebook Launch Party, where you can win lots of other great prizes, including a copy of Carmela's own book, Rosa, Sola.

3 things I've learned About Conferences & Me

.
Howdy, Campers--and happy Poetry Friday!
(See below for a poem about being a writer by Richard Wilbur and for today's PF host.)

We're in the middle of TeachingAuthors' series on Summer Learning Opportunities.

So far we've heard from JoAnn--who, through her own fascinating Summer Science Experiments, is learning more about hatching monarchs in her backyard; Esther--who's learning about authors from her own fair city (Chicago), discovered four "eye-openingly insightful" blogs, learned about the "3-paragraph query," and how to "attend" the National SCBWI conference if you can't be there in person. Carla shares what she's learned about the unexpected benefits from attending an SCBWI conference, and Mary Ann inspires us with her summer Young Writer's Camp.

As for me, I'm looking forward to being on the faculty of the National SCBWI Conference from July 31 through August 2nd (with intensive workshops available for an additional fee on Monday, August 3rd). Once again I'll be critiquing manuscripts submitted by conference attendees who've paid extra for written and face-to-face critiques.

My very smart friend, author and poet Greg Pincus (who blogs at GottaBook) posted the link to this fabulous blog post on attending an SCBWI conference by art director Giuseppe Castellano...and our own Esther has written what is by now a classic essay on attending an SCBWI conference.

Esther and I come at conferences from two very different perspectives. Basically, She jumps into the fray carrying a bunch of balloons; I get overwhelmed by more than 10 people at a party.

So, here are three things I've learned about conferences (how they affect me and how I cope) in the 24 years I've attended SCBWI in Los Angeles:

1) Be kind to yourself.  This conference can be overwhelming. No--I take that back: this conference is overwhelming. This summer 1000 people are attending from around the world.

A few of the attendees at this year's SCBWI Conference
(from morguefile.com)

We crowd into a posh hotel over a long summer weekend. The excited, anxious, ecstatic, frightened, enthusiastic, vibrating energy of 1000 friendly/shy/talkative/mute children's book professionals and pre-professionals (thanks for that term, Carla!) can be paralyzing.  The air in any hotel over that many days with that many people gets used up. And so do I.

2) Take breaks. I usually stand in the back because there's simply TOO MUCH SITTING!  That's one way I've learned to give my body a break. I've also learned (to my astonishment) that it's okay not to attend every single session. I can actually go outside and gulp fresh air...sit on the grass with my eyes closed for a few minutes. It's amazing how so simple an action as breathing can change my body chemistry.  Ahhhhhh....

No--not me.
(from morguefile.com)

3) And I've learned that some years I just need to be VELCRO®.

from morguefile.com

Although there have been many years I couldn't wait to sign up for the conference, couldn't wait to bond with new peeps, couldn't wait to find out what everyone was doing and share what I was up to, there have been other years, too.

Years when I couldn't figure out how to write that book--the one that was going to put me on the map, years when no one had invited me to submit a poem since the Ice Age, years when I was raw, raw, raw from rejection, Those are the years when I did NOT want to attend that stupid conference.  Nope.  Not gonna do it. And you can't make me.

It's about the shame, of course. I'm judging my insides against everyone else's outsides. It's like that false fog which hovers over FaceBook where I see those sparkling photos and know that every one of my FB friends are completely fulfilled, are always at goal weight, and have (just yesterday) signed a three-book deal.  (It's true--they have, you know.)

That's when I've learned I need to VELCRO® myself to real-life friends at the conference.  Hang with them. Go into the hall with them. Choose whatever breakout session they choose--it doesn't matter. They're my peeps. My buds. The ones who believe in me...and I believe in them. They save me from the darkness every time.

So, if you're coming to the SCBWI conference, please come up and say hello!We can VELCRO® together for awhile.

And Campers--if you are going to any gathering this summer that makes you a teensy bit uneasy, a little bit insecure, maybe the following quote will help. It's helped me.

Just for today, be open to the possibility
that there is nothing wrong with you.

Finally, here is a poem to inspire you:

THE WRITER
by Richard Wilbur

In her room at the prow of the house
Where light breaks, and the windows are tossed with linden,
My daughter is writing a story.

I pause in the stairwell, hearing
From her shut door a commotion of typewriter-keys
Like a chain hauled over a gunwale.

Young as she is, the stuff
Of her life is a great cargo, and some of it heavy:
I wish her a lucky passage.
click here for the rest of this poem

The poetry gods and goddesses bring Poetry Friday to Keri Recommends today. Thanks for hosting, Keri!

posted live from the floor of SCBWI's National Conference in living color and with love by April Halprin Wayland

Where Can A Young Writer Get Published? Happy Poetry Friday!

. ~
Howdy, Campers and happy 

...which is over at Check it Out today ~
thanks for hosting today, Jone!
.

We've returned from our blog-cation tanned and rested.  Esther kicks off this round's topic about contests with her post on Lee and Low's New Voices Contest, including several juicy tidbits (did you know that an early version of Christopher Paul Curtis's The Watsons Go to Birmingham lost a contest before it went on to win the Newbery?) 

Jeanne Marie continues the discussion, touching on Las Vegas, mowing lawns, selling one's first born, her years as a Hollywood scriptwriter, and winning Houghton Mifflin Harcourt's scholarship.

On today's TeachingAuthors menu:

• links to contests for young writers;
• a poem about the delicious feeling when you learn you're going to be published;
• the secret about entering contests.

Links to contests for young writers:
Here's the page on my personal website which lists a few select contests (including a peace poetry contest), and here, on the TeachingAuthors website, Carmela has compiled a ton more.

My poem for Poetry Friday:
I vividly remember learning I'd won a writing contest when I was in second grade.  Winning came with a fancy bookmark(!) and a certificate to Martindale's Bookstore in Santa Monica for any book in the entire store!  I was intoxicated.  Any book! 

I chose Dr. Seuss' Green Eggs and Ham, much to my father's disappointment. 

(He had his heart set on The Big Book of Japanese Fairy Tales.)

Winning a contest, getting something published...the POW! of this is experience is indescribable. And no matter how many books you have published, or how many of your poems are in magazines and anthologies, most writers will tell you that an acceptance is an acceptance--the ZING! is as powerful each time.

And so, Campers: get out of your comfort zone and enter a contest or try to get something published (which is the same thing, if you think about it). 

Which brings us to today's poem. It's in my verse novel, Girl Coming in for a Landing--a novel in poems, illustrated by Elaine Clayton (Knopf, 2002).  It can be performed by one, two, or three people.  

PUBLISHED!
by April Halprin Wayland

A letter in the mail!
They're going to PUBLISH my poem.
In their magazine.
In June.

My brain is exploding!  I can’t sleep!
I woke up early,
my body buzzy
like a playground ball boing-ing down a long hallway.

THEY'RE GOING TO PUBLISH MY POEM!
I won’t tell anyone. 
I’ll wait until the magazine comes out.
How can I wait that long?

I won’t tell anyone.
I’ll just casually hand them the magazine
or wait
until someone at school sees it.

What will Carlo think?
What will Frank think?
What will Yen-Mei think?
What will Leslie think?????????

I won’t tell anyone.
I won’t tell anyone
and boy,
will they be surprised.

They’re going to
publish my poem!
My poem!  My poem!
Who can I call at 5:30 in the morning?
 
So, teens, 'tweens, ten-year-olds, scribblers...all: go forth and enter!  

Because here's the secret:
whether or not you win, 
you've won.

poem and drawing © April Halprin Wayland. All rights reserved

Today's post is by April Halprin Wayland who thanks you from the bottom of her sandy toes for reading this far.

Summertime...and the Writing is Intense

    Although it's been in the 80's here for months (winter? spring? didn't happen here), summer officially began a couple of days ago. Right on Hotlanta schedule, the temperature went from 80 something to 90 something immediately.

     I begin my Young Writer's Workshops for the parks department today. No matter what week I begin (and I've been doing this for years), it will always be the hottest week of the summer at that point.  This is a good thing, for me at least.

    I turn into a slug in hot weather, and spending six hours a day with young, enthusiastic writers gets me up and inspired.  Inspiration is what I need in the summer, when my schedule is even crazier than usual.  Writing time is sandwiched between workshops and increased practice sessions and competitions for my daughter, the figure skater. Even though everything is air-conditioned, all that running around in hot, sticky, snail-paced Atlanta traffic sucks the energy out of you. Makes you cranky. Makes you want to go sit in the neighborhood pool with a margarita (if the neighborhood pool let you bring in alcohol, which it doesn't.)

  When I was a full-time teacher, my writing time was confined to the summer months. With a work day that started at 7am and frequently went on past midnight (including the sixty mile round trip commute) I just didn't have the time. I also hadn't learned that if inspired, you can write in ten and fifteen minute mini-blocks of time. Back then, I thought if you couldn't spend four or five solid hours at your desk (before the invention of laptops) then you just couldn't write at all.

    Writing has been my "day job" for fifteen years. (Holy cow, I hadn't done the math until just now!) I also haven't done a lot (OK, any) contemplation of how the change of season affects my writing. But since you asked...

    I am a night writer by nature. I usually fight this inclination because if I write before sleep, I go on writing in my dreams. Which is not particularly restful. I can make this up in summer catnapping.

    Extra daylight hours do not inspire me to stay parked in front of a laptop inside. They do inspire me to walk (even if it's just around the asphalt parking lot of the skating rink). Maybe pace would be a better word. Whatever you call it, mindless activity gets my mojo going. I can pace outside at home, but I live in a friendly neighborhood. Passing a dog-walking neighbor without at least saying "Hi" blows my stream of thought. I never have that problem in the rink parking lot.

   More than anything, however, my young authors (ages 10-14) bring out my best creative game. They help me as much (if not more) than I help them.  Each group is different and memorable. This year I have a new venue...a converted carriage house on the grounds of an antebellum mansion. Who knows what kind of writing energy we will find there?

   Now if you will excuse me, I need to load up the car with all the teaching necessities...books, white boards, markers, dictionaries, and a pencil sharpener (wherever I am giving the workshop, there never seems to be a pencil sharpener!) I am off to meet a new group of fresh, excited and eager-to-learn writers.

    I can't wait.

Posted by Mary Ann Rodman

P.S from Carmela: Don't forget to enter our current giveaway contest for a chance to win an autographed copy of David Harrison's picture book Cowboys (Wordsong). Read April's terrific interview with him for details.

Looking for Lesson Plans? Online Resources for Teaching Young Authors

As Mary Ann mentioned on Monday, today we're sharing part 2 of our answer to an Ask the TeachingAuthors question posted by Sandra Stiles regarding resources for teaching young writers. But first, I'd like to congratulate all the writers who tackled NaNoWriMo in November. Whether or not you managed to produce 50,000 words, I commend you for attempting the Herculean feat. I'm still in the midst of the pseudo-NaNoWriMo project that I blogged about last month. So far, I've added about 23,000 words to my work-in-progress. That's 3,000 words short of where I'd hoped to be by now, but I still have a couple of weeks until my December 15 deadline. Wish me luck!

Now, back to answering Sandra Stiles's Ask the TeachingAuthors question. She asked for help in planning her after-school writing class. On Monday, Mary Ann mentioned some books with activities to inspire young writers. Today I'd like to share websites with lesson plans and other resources. Here are six, in no particular order:

• ReadWriteThink contains lots of classroom resources, including lesson plans by grade level and interactive activities. 
• National Writing Project has a list of 30 Ideas for Teaching Writing  as well as writing prompts and other resources on their site. 
• TeachPoetryK12 has its own lesson plans for teaching poetry and also links to other sites with poetry lesson plans. 
• EducationWorld offers free lesson plans, including these specifically for language arts. 
• Discovery Education provides free lesson plans as well as puzzle making tools. Their site also includes Kathy Schrock's Guide for Educators, which has additional lesson plans and tools. 
• Teachers.net features teacher-submitted lesson plans along with other resources.

Many children's book publishers also provide teacher resources and lesson plans on their sites, including:
Candlewick Press, Scholastic, and Sleeping Bear Press.

In particular, I'd like to recommend Sleeping Bear Press's 25-page Teacher's Guide to our own Esther Hershenhorn's S is for Story: A Writer's Alphabet. Esther's book is a wonderful teaching resource for writers of all ages, and you don't have to take my word for it: Among its other accolades, S is for Story was recently named a 2011 Annual Teachers' Choice Awards Children's Book Winner.

Congratulations, Esther!

Finally, if you're working with young writers who are looking for places to publish their work, see the "For Writers" page of my website.

And if you know of other sites featuring lesson plans to use with young writers, please share them in the comments.

Happy writing!
Carmela

Teaching Books for Teaching Authors

     This is part one to a question posed awhile back by reader Sandra Stiles. Sandra's question was so thorough it will take more than post to answer.
  
     Sandra has a one hour after school writing class, and basically wanted to know how to keep the mojo going, for both herself and her students. Sandra didn't mention how old her students are, but the answer is the same whether they are eight or eighteen. Those of you have been reading this blog awhile already know what I'm going to say; read, read, read!


    There is an endless selection of books on writing and teaching writing, some better than others. Here is my "go to" list (in no particular order).

Bird by Bird by Anne Lamotte.  This book is for me and definitely not the students. This is what gets my mojo going. Anne reminds me (in no uncertain, and sometimes very blunt language) that writing is a process, that it's OK to write lousy drafts and that some days (lots of days) the magic just doesn't happen.

What's Your Story?:  A Young Person's Guide to Writing Fiction  by Marion Dane Bauer
The title pretty much tells you want this book is--how to write both long and short fiction--from the ground up. Although written for middle school age students, this was my bible when writing Yankee Girl.  That this book has been in print for nearly 20 years makes it a classic in my opinion.

Paper Lightening:  Prewriting Activities that Spark Creativity and Help Students Write Effectively by Darcy Pattison
Aimed at teachers of writing for elementary and middle school teachers, this book makes a terrific companion for Bauer's book. Where Bauer lays our the blueprint for writing, Pattison's backs up that blueprint with dozens of writing activities to jump start the writer's brain and to write in more colorful and creative ways. This book was published in 2008, and I forsee it still in print in 2008.

Anything written by Ralph Fletcher. Fletcher has a series of short (under 125 pages) of how-to-books written for students, each on a different aspect of writing. These include How to Write Your Life Story, A Writer's Notebook: Unlocking the Writer Within You, Live Writing:  Breathing Life Into Your Words, How Writer's Work:  Finding a Process that Works for You, Poetry Matters:  Writing a Poem from the Inside Out.  Craft Lessons is a virtual encyclopedia of specialized exercises for every age group for kindergarden and up.
 
As I was re-checking these titles on Amazon, I found that Fletcher has a new book our this past spring,
Pyrotechnics on the Page. I'm ordering my copy as soon as i finish writing this blog!

Although I am not a poet, I am working on a verse novel, which means I am reading a lot of poetry how-to's. Poemcrazy by Pam Woolridge is written for adults, but easily understood by the middle grade poet.
I'm also reading books by Ted Kooser and Mary Oliver, however the techniques here are best distilled through the teacher.

OK, fellow writers, back to the verse novel. I had a big breakthrough over the holidays and I don't want to lose my big 'mo.

Part two to Sandra's question next time.

Posted by Mary Ann Rodman

How to Encourage Young Writers, Part Deux

     This is a terrific topic, Derin.  I have had experience on both sides of this issue. I was a young writer looking...and not finding...guidance, and I am now a writer interested in encouraging young writers. I feel strongly about this, since I was a young writer, out there on her own.
    I am always amused when students and teachers ask me "Who encouraged you to write?" The answer? Absolutely nobody! My parents thought it was nice that I wrote little stories, but were terrified that I would grow up to be a "starving writer". My parents "encouraged" me to become a librarian, so "at least you can eat and pay the rent."
    My teachers did not encourage me, because "creative writing" was not part of the "curriculum." In my school, if you wanted to be creative, you could take art or join the marching band. Period. I had to find other ways to keep writing. So I did.
    Whenever possible, I turned school assignments (even essay test questions) into fact-based creative writing events. I volunteered to be the school reporter for the local newspaper, a job I held all the way through high school. I entered every creative writing contest I could find. (I won some, too.)
     As a young writer I would have been thrilled to take a creative writing class, or join a young writers group. Alas, these opportunities are still hard to find. I have been blessed to work with the Young Writers programs at the Margaret Mitchell House, here in Atlanta. I just finished my fall class last weekend, with five of the most amazing writers, ages 9-13. They were all ready to take on a new session, starting next Saturday, but there won't be another session until sometime next spring. Since the writers in this particular group all live in the same part of town, I suggested that they get together on their own to write and share until then.
     For those of you young writers who don't live in a town with an arts center or other learning center that offers writing classes, there is the self-help route. When I began to write, there were no books just for young writers. I read the magazine The Writer (which is still published), and later Writer's Digest.  They offered easy-to-read, practical advice on all sorts of topics related to writing and publishing.
     Today there is Marion Dane Bauer's book What's Your Story (recommended in the previous post), as well as the books of Ralph Fletcher. Ralph Fletcher is another writer who teaches. His books A Writer's Notebook, How Writers Work, Poetry Matters and Live Writing are useful for both beginning writers and their teachers.
    Another handy little volume is A Teen's Guide to Getting Published by Jessica and Danielle Dunn. The Dunns were fifteen-year-old sisters when they wrote the first edition in 1996. It was recently re-issued in an updated version. Not only do they include all the advice I give (keep a journal, read, read, read, write, write, write, etc) but they include sources where young writers can actually publish their work (sometimes for money!!) They also include a list of websites, writing camps, other writing books, courses, and on and on. This book was re-issued in 2006, so there is a possibility that some of the information may be dated. I still recommend the book as being one of the most complete, all-in-one-book, young writer's guide book.
     And speaking of books....I have had a wild two weeks, that have not left me a lot of reading time. The one book I did read was YA fiction, Food, Girls and Other Things I Can't Have by Allen Zadoff.

Mary Ann