Series Writing 101 by Emma Walton Hamilton #ChaBooCha

What makes a story series-worthy?  And how do you plan a series… do you start out intending to write one, or does one book evolve into more? What are the craft elements involved?

These are questions I frequently hear from my editing clients and students, and while there are a lot of variables that can affect the answer, there are some general guidelines to keep in mind.

What makes a story series-worthy is a unique and compelling character or concept that lends itself to multiple story ideas.  In other words, something with a hook - and the potential for generating subsequent stories; something that leaves readers wanting more.

A series is generally built around one or more unifying elements, such as:

Character – Each story features the same character(s) in different circumstances. This type of series may be sequential, meaning each book is part of a larger story arc in which the characters grow and evolve (e.g. Ramona and Beezus), or it may be stand-alone, in that each book makes minimal reference to past events and the characters seldom, if ever, change or age (e.g. the Magic Treehouse series).

Theme – e.g. the Dear America series, built around the theme of American History, with each book focusing on a unique set of characters from a specific time period.

Concept - Such as scariness (Goosebumps), or science (Magic School Bus).

Setting – Such as the Wayside School series.

Some series are open-ended, and can continue as long as there is demand for more, others are designed to have a finite number of books, as in a trilogy. (This is usually the case with a series that has a unifying story arc.) 

In today’s market, publishers generally want to see if a character or concept will fly before they commit to more of the same. But it is still possible to pitch a series, especially in chapter book format, which continues to be the most popular market for series books. To be on the safe side, when conceiving a series, it’s best to draft no more than 1-3 complete manuscripts before attempting to pitch them. Then brainstorm a handful of other ideas/titles and write a paragraph or two on each, as well as a series proposal or prospectus. 

In my experience, the craft elements of a successful series are as follows:

1) A great concept – this is your hook, the character or idea that keeps your readers coming back for more. 

2) Consistency - Series readers pay careful attention to details, so it’s important to be consistent with facts, events, characteristics and voice.  Most series writers find it helps to keep a series bible, or some sort of organization system that tracks settings, character traits, events, and any unanswered questions raised from one book to the next.

3) Some fun surprises – The trick is to aim for a balance between satisfyingly inevitable and pleasantly surprising.  While still being very consistent, weave in a few surprises now and then that make the reader say, “Wow! I never would have guessed that – but it makes perfect sense!”

4) Flexibility - Avoid potentially limiting character traits, settings or other choices that may restrict where you can go with your characters or story ideas. Try to keep as many options open for as long you can.

5) Autonomy - Even if your series is sequential, it's helpful to make each book as self-sufficient as you can in case someone reads that book first. Write for the person who hasn't read the previous books, the person who's reading out of order - and make sure you’ve given them enough information to understand who the characters are, where they are, what’s at stake, and any other essentials they need to know in order to follow the story (without info-dumping, of course!)

6) Satisfaction – There’s nothing more frustrating than falling in love with a series for a particular reason and then having the style, focus or rules change on you. Remember what readers love, that hook that got them interested in the first place, and give them plenty of that with each installment while also charting new territory.

7) Perspective - Maintain a sense of the long view and what you want to ultimately get across in the series. If it’s character-driven and sequential, know, or at least have an idea, where your main character’s going to end up.  Begin at the end and work your way backwards to figure out how you're going to get there by the last book.  If it’s concept driven, don't get too far away from that concept with any one story. Even if each story has a unique setting or different characters, make sure it addresses that overarching theme and has fulfilled its mission as part of the series.

*****

Emma Walton Hamilton is the co-author (with her mother, Julie Andrews) of over 25 picture books, chapter books and middle grade novels, including the “Dumpy the Dump Truck,” “Very Fairy Princess” and “Little Bo” series.  She serves as director of the Children’s Lit Fellows program at Stony Brook Southampton, where she teaches for the Creative Writing MFA, and is a freelance children’s book editor as well as the creator of the Just Write Children’s Books home-study courses and the Children’s Book Hub. Find out more at:

www.emmawaltonhamilton.com

www.justwritechildrensbooks.com

www.childrensbookhub.com

www.childrenslitfellows.org

*****

K. M. Weiland has generously offered to offer a copy of her book, "Outlining Your Novel: Map Your Way to Success" as a prize. All you have to do is comment on this post to be entered in the drawing. Must be a signed-up member of the Chapter Book Challenge to qualify. Comment before noon on March 16th, 2014. Winner will be chosen by a random number generator on March 18th, 2014 at noon. 

How to Write 50,000 Words in 14 Days #ChaBooCha

In my third year participating in NaNoWriMo, I set a goal of writing 10,000 words every three days until I reached 50,000 words, and I beat that goal by reaching a word count of 50,020 words within the first two weeks. The following year during National Novel Writing Month, I wrote 100,126 words within the 30 days of the challenge.

You might be asking how I did it? To be honest, I'm not entirely sure how I did it, but I will share with you some of the strategies I used while writing my novel for NaNoWriMo. (I originally shared these on my Imagine! Create! Write! blog.)

But first, I will remind you that it is highly doubtful that any of you in this particular challenge need to write as much as that, and the challenge is a 31 day challenge, not 14 days. However, the strategies I used still might help you during the Chapter Book Challenge.

1. Split your focus between different parts of the story-line. I decided, on my 50,000 words in 14 days story, that, instead of writing a one-story-line novel, I was going to write a novel of short stories. Because of this, whenever I felt stuck on what I was writing or just needed a break from it, I was able to switch to a different story to write about. This can work when writing a one-story novel as well. When you get stuck on a certain part of the story or just need a break from what you are writing, start on a different scene within the story. You can always go back to finish the one you started with and when you do, you will feel refreshed and full of new ideas.

2. Set aside as much time as you can spare for writing. You may find, as I did, that you can sneak more writing time into your day than you originally thought was possible. I wrote when my kids were at school, when my youngest napped, and again when all of the children went to bed. Sometimes I had to stay up late, but it was worth it. I even took a notebook with me and wrote while on the bus.

3. Get rid of distractions during your writing time. Many things constitute distractions. My kids are very distracting, so I wrote when they were in bed or at school. The TV is distracting, so I made sure it was off when I was writing. Facebook and Twitter are distracting, so I told myself that I would reach a specific word count before allowing myself time on either site.

4. Challenge yourself. Try and beat your best record for word count in a day. Or look at how your friends are doing and try to beat their word count. Think of a daily word count that seems slightly out of reach for you and then challenge yourself to find a way to reach it that day.

5. Believe in yourself. No matter what obstacles seem to be in the way of you reaching your word count goal, believe that you will overcome them. Because you can.

6. Make writing a priority. There may be a lot of things that have to be priorities in your life, but if you are reading this, then there is at least a part of you that wants to make writing a priority too. So do it. Make writing something you will not allow yourself to set aside.

7. Get rid of your internal editor. Just write without looking back. When you finish your novel, you can go back and edit what you have written, but just let it go while you are in the middle of writing.

8. When you are not writing your novel, talk about it with others. I used to talk to my husband about my story while we walked the dog every evening. Not only was he helpful in coming up with new ideas or ways for me to think about my plot, but also, just the act of talking about it helped me come up with new ideas on my own.

9. Give yourself a break from writing every now and then. Sometimes a change of scenery is all it needs to give yourself fresh ideas and keep the writing flowing.

10. And the one thing I think it the most important is to have fun with your story! Enjoy every second of the world you are creating!

*****

K. M. Weiland has generously offered to offer a copy of her book, "Structuring Your Novel: Essential Keys for Writing an Outstanding Story" as a prize. All you have to do is comment on this post to be entered in the drawing. Must be a signed-up member of the Chapter Book Challenge to qualify. Comment before noon on March 16th, 2014. Winner will be chosen by a random number generator on March 18th, 2014 at noon. 

Winner of "Nail Your Novel: Why Writers Abandon Books..." by Roz Morris

The winner of the paperback copy of Roz Morris's "Nail Your Novel: Why Writers Abandon Books and How You Can Draft, Fix and Finish With Confidence" has been chosen by a random number generator.

And the winner is:

Anita Banks

Congratulations, Anita! Please e-mail me with your mailing address so I can send you your book!

The Education Market and Chapter Books by George Ivanoff #ChaBooCha

The Education market is full of chapter books! It’s a great place for an author to gain experience, regular publication and maybe even earn a living.

The primary school education market is HUGE! Many books are published each year and marketed directly into schools. There is a considerable variety of books — graded school readers that kids take home to practice their reading; reference books; and fiction that ties in to the curriculum.

During 2013, I wrote a total of 14 education titles. There were three curriculum-based reference books of 3,000-5,000 words each; three non-fiction school readers of about 500-1,200 words each; six fictional readers of 250-900 words each; and two fictional chapter books that tied in to the curriculum, one at 2500 words, the other at 9,000 words.

What all these titles had in common, was that they were written to a brief. I did not initiate the creative process. I was told what to write. A lot of writers have a problem with this. They like the freedom to tell their own stories in the way they want — and that’s great. I like doing that too, which is why I write for the trade market as well (with books like my Gamers trilogy of novels, and the forthcoming You Choose series). But there are also many great things about the education market.

There’s the money, which is important if you’re trying to make a living out of your writing. Education titles tend to pay a once-off upfront fee rather than royalties.

Education titles are mostly contracted, so you know that what you are writing will be published and you will be paid. (Having said that, there have been a couple of instances where a publisher has cancelled a series. Although those books have not been published, I was paid for them.)

There is the knowledge that you are helping to educate kids and foster literacy. As someone who began school life as a reluctant reader, this is very close to my heart.

But the big thing for me is the challenge. I love the challenge of writing a book that fulfils the varied educational needs of the brief, but is still something that kids will want to read.

The specificity of the briefs can vary quite a bit. The brief for one of the chapter books specified that it had to be a story set in an alien zoo, so I wrote Escape From the Alien Zoo, about a shape-changing animal that breaks out and causes havoc as the staff try to recapture it.

A brief for a set of readers wanted five separate stories with the same central character or characters, and a fairytale theme. This was my favourite contract of 2014. I had a lot of fun devising the Fairytale Fixits scenario. In each of the five books, two kids are transported into a famous fairytale where something has gone wrong. It is up to them to fix the situation so the story can be finished.

Sometimes, there is more to a brief than just the basic setting. One of the more challenging projects I had in 2013 was a fictional chapter book that needed to tie in with the Australian Geography curriculum at Grade 3 level.

The specific topic was “protecting places”, with the following description: “The similarities and differences in individual’s and group’s feelings and perceptions about places, and how they influence views about the protection of these places”. Furthermore that story had to include information on the importance of protecting places of significance. It also had to include some cross-curriculum priorities such as indigenous Australian history and culture.

It needed to be 2,000-2,400 words long, with approximately 100 words per page. Yes, I had to submit the story broken up into its 23 pages, with a new paragraph beginning each page.

The language and sentence structure had to be appropriate for Grade 3 level. And it had to fall within that level on the Flesch–Kincaid Grade Level test (For an explanation of the Flesch–Kincaid Grade Level, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flesch-Kincaid).

The end result was Lost at Lake Mungo, a story about a school excursion to Lake Mungo, an area of both environmental and cultural importance, where two of the kids get separated from their group. Over the course of their adventure, these two boys come to realise the importance of the area and why it needs to be protected.

If this is the sort of writing that appeals to you, then the education market is a great place to work. I do most of my education writing for Pearson Australia and Macmillan Education, but there are other publishers out there as well. Do a Google search and check out the publishers’ websites to see what their criteria are for writers.

Now… get writing!

***** 

George Ivanoff is a Melbourne author and stay-at-home dad. He’s written over 70 books for kids and teens, won a couple of awards that no one’s ever heard of, and managed to get some books onto the Vic and NSW Premiers’ Reading Challenge booklists. He is best known for his Gamers books, a trilogy of novels set in a computer game world. His new interactive series of books, You Choose, will hit the shelves in May 2014. Check out his website: georgeivanoff.com.au

***** 

George has many children books available, and I have chosen one from his popular Gamer's trilogy, "Gamer's Quest" for one lucky person to win. Comment on this post by March 13th (noon GMT), to be entered into the drawing for a paperback copy of George Ivanoff's "Gamer's Quest." Winner will be chosen by a random number generator on March 13th at noon GMT. You must be signed up for the challenge to qualify. 

Planning Your Story: A Checklist for Success by Roz Morris

Roz Morris, author of the wonderful Nail Your novel series of books for writers, has generously offered this guest post for the Chapter Book Challenge.

You’ve got an idea, but will it make a story? 

Some writers leap off the blocks the moment they get an idea. Inspired by a situation or a character or an overheard conversation, they fire up the laptop, dive on the keyboard, rattle off the pages... After a while they run dry because they don’t know where they’re going. A few might bluster through and find their mojo again, but most find it too hard. They give up, disheartened - and so a lot of terrific ideas get abandoned.

Where did they go wrong? Why didn't the idea fulfil its potential?

Usually, it was missing certain cornerstones.

Now, some writers hate the idea of planning. If that’s you, listen a moment. You don’t have to create lengthy dossiers of the story world, the characters, or the music that’s charting at the time the novel is set. Or spoil your journey of discovery by mapping out the plot in advance. But if your story does not have certain ingredients, it’s likely that you’ll lose your way.

Here they are.

Brainstorm the big picture

Try to establish these basics: 

• Who are the characters and why is the story situation such a challenge for them?
• Where is the story set and does that present interesting problems or add to its appeal?
• What are the characters trying to do (their goals) and why is it worth telling a story about them?
• What is at stake if they fail?
• Why will it be a long story, not a short one?
• What could go wrong and provide plot twists? 
• What three major disasters could be the pivotal turning points?
• How will the characters’ feelings about the story goals change?
• By the end, what has changed and why does that provide a feeling of resolution?

This skeleton can be expanded if you want a detailed outline, or you can use it as a rough compass and get typing immediately. The choice is yours. But this is enough to ensure that, even if you’re good at inventing on the fly, you have a frame to throw your ideas onto and you’ll recognise how to use your ideas to make a satisfying story. It will also stop you getting in a muddle because you've invented too much to keep control of. And if you've got a book that’s already run aground, you can use these questions to salvage it. 

More than anything, you’ll fulfil the potential of your idea because you’ll know you have a cracking tale to tell.

Roz Morris's fiction has sold more than 4 million copies worldwide, although you won't have seen her name on the covers as she ghostwrote for high-profile authors. As an editor, she has mentored award-winning writers and her book, Nail Your Novel: Why Writers Abandon Books & How You Can Draft, Fix & Finish With Confidence  http://nailyournovel.wordpress.com/nail-your-novel-books/nail-your-novel-%E2%80%93-why-writers-abandon-books-and-how-you-can-draft-fix-and-finish-with-confidence/  is now recommended by creative writing tutors.  She is now writing acclaimed fiction under her own name - My Memories of a Future Life and Lifeform Three. She  is a writer, journalist, fiction editor and the author of the Nail Your Novel series for writers. Her website is here, her writing blog is Nail Your Novel and you can find her on Facebook  and on Twitter as @Roz_Morris 

*****

Comment on this post by March 7th, to be entered into the drawing for a paperback copy of Roz Morris's "Nail Your Novel: Why Writers Abandon Books and How You Can Draft, Fix and Finish With Confidence." Winner will be chosen by a random number generator on March 7th at noon GMT. You must be signed up for the challenge to qualify. 

The Chapter Book Challenge 2014 kick-off! #ChaBooCha

Today, March 1st, is the first day of the Chapter Book Challenge! It's time to start writing those stories!

For those of you new to the challenge, and to save you the time of clicking the "about" link above, here is the information about the Chapter Book Challenge:

The Chapter Book Challenge, otherwise known as ChaBooCha, was created by Rebecca Fyfe and first ran in 2012. It runs every year in the month of March. The challenge is to write one completed first draft of an early reader, chapter book, middle grade book or YA novel in the month of March, starting on the 1^st of March and finishing on the 31^st of March.

During the month of March, there are helpful blog posts from published authors, agents and publishers to help members hone their craft, and there are prizes available throughout the challenge.

ChaBooCha has a very relaxed atmosphere where members help each other to achieve writing goals. You can sign up on the website using the sign-up form, and you can also join the Facebook page for updates and information. There is a Twitter page at and members interact with one another throughout the year in the Facebook group.

It is completely free to join the Chapter Book Challenge. 

Now, here is some additional information:

There are prizes, usually one or two a week, sometimes more, during the challenge. You can only win a prize if you are officially signed up for the challenge, and most of the drawings require you to comment on the specific post where the give-away is mentioned.

While most of the prizes will be books, either on the craft of writing or, possibly, some fiction books written by some of the guest authors.

There will be a grand prize of a Kindle (Wi-Fi, 6" Display). And this drawing will be from all of the people signed-up to the challenge. Make sure you have signed up with the correct e-mail as, if I have trouble reaching you, after a week, the drawing will be re-done and the prize will go to a new choice. The drawing for the Kindle winner will be done at the end of the challenge.

You will receive e-mails of the Chapter Book Challenge blog posts. The e-mails will only come to you during the month of March, but if you wish to opt out of them, when you receive the first one, just send a reply e-mail with the subject line "unsubscribe from e-mails" and they will stop coming to you.

The challenge is self-monitored. I trust you to be honest about whether or not you have completed the challenge. The challenge rules are fairly relaxed too. Many join for reasons other than writing a complete draft; some join to gain inspiration and advice while editing a completed draft, some join in order to finish a draft that is already partially completed, and others join in order to help while they plot out their draft. You've only technically "won" the challenge" if you finish a first draft, written during month of March, but everyone who has progressed further along in their goal of writing a chapter book, middle grade book or YA novel have won in a broader sense.

Municipal Liaisons Regional Ambassadors

I will probably change the title for these shortly, but, for the moment, we are borrowing the term used by the folks at NaNoWriMo. (If you have suggestions for titles for this role, let me know.)

The reason there is a need for municipal liaisons regional ambassadors is because the challenge members are so spread out across the world.

ChaBooCha municipal liaisons regional ambassadors are the people who coordinate Chapter Book Challenge events within their region. In order to become a municipal liaison regional ambassador, there first needs to be more members in your region than just you, and your main duties are to arrange write-ins and meet-ups with other members within your region and also to spread the word about the challenge within your region.

Melissa Gijsbers is our first official ChaBooCha municipal liaison regional ambassador, and she's already doing a fantastic job. I will be sending her out some promotional material soon which she can share with other ChaBooCha members in her region. A special ML RA badge will be created for MLs RAs to use on their blogs and websites, if they so choose. As things move along, there may be more perks added for MLs RAs.

If you think this is a role you might like to take on within your region, send me an e-mail. (There is only one ML RA per region, but they may choose a co-ML co-RA.)

****

So to everyone joining us for the first time, welcome to ChaBooCha! And to everyone joining us for a second or third time, welcome back! Good luck with your writing this month!

ChaBooCha 2014 Guest Post Line-Up

Tomorrow is the first day of the Chapter Book Challenge! I hope you are all as excited as I am!

We have a wonderful line-up of guest posts from some authors you will recognize and some from our own ChaBooCha members too! This list will be updated as more authors and agents are added. 

In no particular order:

1. Angela Ackerman – Angela Ackerman is the author of the bestselling writing guide, The Emotion Thesaurus, and most recently, The Positive Trait and Negative Trait Thesaurus books. Centering on the light and dark side of a character's personality, these new resource books help writers create layered, compelling characters that readers relate to and care for. Visit Angela's website, Writers Helping Writers for friendly support, description help, free writing tools and more!

2. George Ivanoff – George Ivanoff has written over 70 books for children and teenagers, including fiction and non-fiction. He has written school readers, library reference books, chapter books, novelettes, novels and even a short story collection. He has books on both the Victorian Premier’s and the NSW Premier’s Reading Challenge booklists.His teen science fiction novel, Gamers’ Quest, won a 2010 Chronos Award for speculative fiction. The sequel, Gamers’ Challenge, was shortlisted for a 2012 Chronos Award. The final book in the Gamers trilogy, Gamers’ Rebellion, was published in July 2013. George’s latest series of books, the interactive You Choose series, will hit the shelves in May 2014.George also writes short stories and articles for adults as well as kids. Of all these, he is most proud to have had the opportunity to write a Doctor Who story for the Short Trips: Defining Patterns anthology (Big Finish, UK, 2008).

3. Karen Pokras Toz – Karen Pokras Toz writes middle grade and adult contemporary fiction. Her books have won several awards including two Readers' Favorite Book Awards, First Place in the Children's Chapter Books category and the Grand Prize overall in the 2012 Purple Dragonfly Book Awards, as well as placing first for two Global E-Book Awards for Pre-Teen Literature. Her books for children include the Nate Rocks series,Pie and Other Brilliant Ideas, and Millicent Marie Is Not My Name. For adults, she recently published Chasing Invisible. A native of Connecticut, Karen now lives outside of Philadelphia with her husband and three children. For more information, please visit www.karentoz.com.

4. Kimberley Griffiths Little – Kimberly Griffiths Little has written over ten books, including "When the Butterflies Came" and "The Time of the Fireflies." She has won several awards such as the Southwest Book Award, Whitney Award for Best Youth Novel, Bank Street College Best Books of 2011, Crystal Kite Finalist, and New Mexico Book Award Finalist. you can find out more about her at KimberlyGriffithsLittle.com.

5. Becca Puglisi – Becca Puglisi is a YA fantasy and historical fiction writer. Some of her best-selling books are "The Emotion Thesaurus: A Writer's Guide To Character Expression," "The Negative Trait Thesaurus: A Writer's Guide to Character Flaws," and "The Positive Trait Thesaurus: A Writer's Guide to Character Attributes."

6. Adam Wallace – A qualified Engineer and Primary School Teacher, Adam Wallace settled on writing books for children as his career of choice. With 20 published, including Better Out Than In and the How to Draw series, Adam is fast becoming a well-known name in the world of children’s books. You can find Adam's books at Adam Wallace Books and his Facebook author page here.

7. Roz Morris - Roz Morris's fiction has sold more than 4 million copies worldwide, although you won't have seen her name on the covers as she ghostwrote for high-profile authors. She is now writing acclaimed fiction under her own name. She is a writer, journalist, fiction editor and the author of the Nail Your Novel series for writers. She is represented by Piers Blofeld at Sheil Land and by Jane Conway-Gordon. She has two novels under her real name: My Memories of a Future Life (Sept 2011) and Lifeform Three (Dec 2013). She is also the author of a series for writers - Nail Your Novel. If you want to get to know her a little better, drop in at www.rozmorris.wordpress.com and her blog www.nailyournovel.com - where she keeps a regular diary of challenges she's tackling in her writing.

8. Anne O’Konski – Anne O'Konski is a freelance graphic designer and illustrator. She has designed numerous catalogs and has been illustrating children's books for several years. She founded AOK Studios and has some stunning artwork.

9.  Julie Anne Grasso - Julie Anne Grasso is an Australian independently published author with a background in pediatric nursing.  She spent many years literally wrapping children in cotton wool. Every day she witnessed great courage and resilience from the tiny people she cared for, which inspired her to write stories about a little girl elf just like them. The Adventures of Caramel Cardamom Trilogy was the result.

10. The Fall Fourteeners - The Fall Fourteeners are a group of fourteen authors who are gearing up for their YA debuts this Fall. Representing different genres, they came together by way of their love of all things books and a publishing timeline. Please check us out at www.FallFourteeners.com for more information about them and their upcoming books.  

11. Amie Borst - Amie and her daughter Bethany are a mother daughter team, writing humorous middle grade fairy tales with a twist, such as "Cinderskella" and the upcoming "Little Dead Riding Hood." When not writing middle-grade books with her daughter, she is busy crafting her own worlds in young adult stories.

12. Emma Walton Hamilton - Emma Walton Hamilton is a best-selling children’s book author, editor and arts educator.  With her mother, actress/author Julie Andrews, Emma has co-authored over twenty children’s books, seven of which have been on the NY Times Bestseller list. Emma also works as a freelance children’s book editor, and hosts the Just Write Children’s Books home-study courses in writing picture books, chapter books and middle grade and young adult novels, as well as the Children’s Book Hub - a center of resources and support for aspiring children’s book authors.

13. Melissa Gijsbers  – Melissa Gijsbers is a ChaBooCha member, active in the challenge since its inset in 2012. She is also the Chapter Book Challenge's first official municipal liaison and recently helped facilitate a chapter book writing workshop in her region.She has short stories in three anthologies and has been blogging since 2006.

***** 

A sample of some of the topics: reaching kidlit readers, writing for the education market, how to revise your chapter book, writing magical realism, how to get unstuck and write your story, dos and don'ts of writing with an illustrator, and encouraging kids to read as well, amongst other helpful topics.

There will be some posts by me as well, and if there is a topic that you would like covered that doesn't appear to be included, let me know and I'll see what can be arranged.
I posted earlier this year at The Writers' Collective on the differences between chapter books, middle grade books and YA novels, so if you are wondering, you can check out the post here.

Here are some helpful links to some guest posts on the Chapter Book Challenge from previous years:

Breakdown of Daily Word Count Goals for the Chapter Book Challenge

Writing First Pages

On Writing: Imagination is a Wonderful Thing

Humour is the Best

How to Outline Your Novel before You Write

Weather in Writing: 3 How-To Tips

How Conflict Fuels the Story

How to Make Writing a Priority in Your Life

Talent Vs. Learning: Do You Have to Be Born to Be a Writer?

Engaging the Reluctant Reader

Writer's Block

Using Social Media to Help Your Writing

Scheduling Your Writing Life to Maximize Your Output

Childhood Inspirations

10 Things to Remember when Submitting Your Work to an Agent

How to Successfully Use Crowdfunding for Your Book Project

Happily Ever-Afters: What Makes a Satisfying Chapter Book Ending

Balancing Home Life with Your Writing Career

How ChaBooCha Helped Me grow as a Writer