ChaBooCha Lite begins tomorrow! #ChaBooChaLite

ChaBooCha Lite 2014 badge

Tomorrow is the first day of ChaBooCha Lite! This is the first year there has ever been a ChaBooCha Lite. Have you signed up yet?

Above is our ChaBooCha Lite logo for 2014. (Don't worry. Nabu, our badger mascot, will be back for the March challenge.) Feel free to add it to the side bars in your blogs.

ChaBooCha Lite is another chance to write an early reader, chapter book, middle grade book or YA novel within a month. The premise is the same as the premise of March's Chapter Book Challenge. (The Lite challenge will have less prizes and less guest blog posts.) You will still be trying to write your book during the 30 days of the month, but instead of running in March, ChaBooCha Lite runs in September.

You can also use ChaBooCha Lite to revise a current manuscript or finish one you have already started.

It's another chance to challenge yourself, and to give yourself a deadline for writing (or revising) your book. Want to join us?

So, if you plan on joining us, I'm curious what you will be working on. Please tell me in the comments below.

"Once Upon a Slime" winner announcement! #ChaBooCha

Winner!

We have one last give-away winner to announce. Chapter Book Challenge member and regional ambassador Melissa Gijsbers Khalinsky kindly offered to send one lucky member a copy of the children's book "Once Upon a Slime: 45 Fun Ways to Get Writing Fast!" by Andy Griffiths.The winner has been drawn by a random number generator.

And the winner is:

Dani Duck!

Congratulations, !

Last Day of the Chapter Book Challenge #ChaBooCha

Today is our very last day of the Chapter Book Challenge, so how did you do? Did you manage to write a complete first draft? Congratulations if you did, but, if you didn't, don't feel like you failed, because the simple fact is that as long as you wrote more this month than you would have done if you hadn't participated in the challenge, then you have done wonderfully!

I will be finishing my first draft by tonight (the deadline). I have about 1,000 words or so left to write, so I know I can do it. I think my story will be a bit longer when I do my revising though, because there is some work I need to do on my sub-plot, but that doesn't make this draft any less complete.

If you found, like I did, that new story ideas started to plague you while you were in the midst of writing this one, you can always join the Blog Your Book in 30 Days challenge. It is running concurrently with Camp NaNoWriMo, starting on April 1st and ending on April 30th, and it's a simple matter to combine the two. There will be one prize drawing every week during the challenge and, for those who sign up for it and actually write something every day on their blog (either a chapter of their book, an excerpt of their book or just something about their book), there will be a drawing for a $25 Amazon.com gift certificate.

If you have won a prize during ChaBooCha, please e-mail me with your name and mailing address, so I can get those prizes sent out.

For those of you who are new to ChaBooCha this year, let me tell you a little bit about something we started last year. Running this challenge is fun and rewarding, and though I know most of you would join even without the prizes being offered, I love rewarding people with prizes and I think it makes things a little more fun. But buying and sending out prizes can be expensive, so last year, we created two anthologies which helped towards the cost of this year's prizes. Someday, maybe we will make enough from the anthologies to do some advertising and do even more exciting things with the challenge. Last year, the anthologies were "Teapot Tales: A Collection of Unique Fairy Tales" and "Jingle Bells: Tales of Holiday Spirit from Around the World." The Teapot Tales anthologies are only open to Chapter Book Challenge members who are officially signed-up, but the holiday anthologies are open to everyone.

This year, we are creating two more anthologies: "Teapot Tales: Pirates, Mermaids and Monsters of the Sea" and "Ghostly Echoes: Spooky Tales from Around the World." You can aim your stories at middle grade children, YA, or even adult as long as you keep the stories kid-friendly. Check out my publishing press, Melusine Muse Press, for more information about the anthologies (and other anthologies) as well as submission guidelines.

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Give-away!

We have one last give-away to do. Chapter Book Challenge member and regional ambassador Melissa Gijsbers Khalinsky has kindly offered to send one lucky member a copy of the children's book "Once Upon a Slime: 45 Fun Ways to Get Writing Fast!" by Andy Griffiths. All you have to do to enter is to comment on this post by this Friday at noon GMT on April 14th. Must be a signed up member of the challenge to qualify. I will announce the winner on April 14th, but as of April 1st, you will no longer be receiving e-mails of these blog posts in your e-mail, so check back on the 14th to see if you've won!

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Winners!

We have several prizes to be awarded today.



First off: a paperback copy of "The Talisman Chronicles." Winner may choose either the black and white interior version or the color interior version. Winner was chosen by a random number generator. And the winner is:

Wendy Greenley!

Congratulations, Wendy!

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Next: a paperback copy of "The Negative Trait Thesaurus: A Writer's Guide to Character Attributes" by Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi. Winner was chosen by a random number generator. And the winner is:

Linda Schueler!

Congratulations, Linda!

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Next: a paperback copy of "You Can Write Children's Books" (second edition) by Writers Digest. Winner was chosen by a random number generator. And the winner is:

Melissa Gijsbers Khalinsky!

Congratulations, Melissa! 

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Next: a copy of "Writing Habit Mastery: How to Write 2,000 Words a Day and Forever Cure Writer's Block" by S. J. Scott. Winner was chosen by a random number generator. And the winner is:

Kelly Vavala!

Congratulations, Kelly!

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Next: a ChaBooCha keychain. Winner was chosen by a random number generator. And the winner is:

Cecilia Clark!

Congratulations, Cecilia!

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And now for the really big drawing. Who is going to win the grand prize of a Kindle (Wi-Fi, 6" Display)? Winner was chosen by a random number generator from a selection that included everyone signed up for the challenge. And the winner is:

Dani Duck!

Congratulations, Dani!

To everyone who won a prize during the challenge: I am not always the most prompt at getting prizes mailed out, but be patient and you will eventually get your prize! And a big congratulations to you all!

Contact me if you would like to buy a ChaBooCha keychain. If enough people want one, I will make a special order of them.

Editing Your First Draft by Radhika Meganathan #ChaBooCha

What’s not to love about a chapter book? It is a project of perfect length. Not a short story, not a mammoth epic. It is currently in demand, and it holds a very special place in a child’s heart (I still read Enid Blyton’s Enchanted Wood series every year). A month is plenty of time to write one, if you are dedicated enough, and ChaBooCha March is that month!

Many of you must be nearing the end of your book. Or perhaps you are only half-way (like me), scheduling all-nighters in the next few days and stocking up on Red Bulls. Congrats anyway, because finishing is the most important thing. You can't cut what's not there.

Let it rest

Whether you are writing a chapter book or a magnum opus, you have to let it rest for a few days – no leeway here! “The perspective, or the ability to see your work for what it is, rather than what you hoped it would be, is impossible to attain when you are caught up in the frenzy of the creative process,” says Ray Morton (http://www.scriptmag.com/features/rewriting-is-writing)

I can’t stress enough how important this step is. You need to step away from your story for a brief time, to let your eyes and mind switch off from writer mode and switch on editor mode. As soon as you write THE END, close the document (or notebook) and don’t open it again for a week (ideally a fortnight, but a week if you’re chomping at the bit).

Is it really a chapter book?

Time flies, doesn’t it? No, it does NOT, when you are itching to edit your chapter book. The wait is finally over, and you have just re-read your first draft. Apart from a few glaring errors, it is fine… and that was an interesting sub-plot that you wrapped up hastily to type THE END. You feel you wouldn’t mind expanding it a bit more. One of the characters also looks underdeveloped, and rectifying that might make your chapter book a longer book.

If you feel that your book has potential for more, explore it. Typical chapter books are about 5000-12000 words long. The books in the lower word count spectrum tend to be early readers or transition books, and those in the higher end might actually be early MG. A chapter book is like a size 0 model - some look great as they are, but some need to have a bit more flesh. Decide what your chapter book needs and give it to it!

First edit - Basics

A first draft should be readable, not disposable. When you read through the ‘rested’ manuscript, you will be able to fix most of the grammar, punctuation, and language issues. You may, possibly, fix more -  change a name that suddenly feels unsuitable for a character, or check if consistency is maintained throughout the story. A basic edit should not take more than a day or two.

I know most people print out their manuscript and edit it, but my MO has always been online. I find that using the comment box to enter any comments/warnings is preferable to jotting it down in a note (I tend to lose manual stuff!). Only after I do all these, I print out the manuscript, in the last stages, and do a final edit. This helps in paper conservation and time management, but of course you should employ the method that’s most suited to your needs.

Second edit - Specifics

You didn’t see this one coming, did you? I let the manuscript rest again for a week - this time a week is more than enough - and get back to it for the second edit. It’s amazing how leaving a gap between the first edit and the second edit enables the eye to distance itself from the story. Otherwise, we would still be in creator mode and utterly useless in spotting ANY issue at all (and believe me, there WILL be issues!). Some things to check for are:

PLOT: Has the main question been answered? Goal reached? Wisdom gained? Journey completed?

SCENES: Are they interesting? Static or dynamic? Filled with a good balance of dialogue and description?

SEQUENCE: Does story flow seamlessly? 

PACE: Does it go too slow or too fast anywhere?

CLIMAX / RESOLUTION: Exciting enough? Satisfactory?

GRAMMAR / STYLE: Qualifiers, adjectives, adverbs - are they all used moderately? Is there any cringe-worthy sentence usage?

SPELL CHECK: Is the manuscript entirely typo-free?

Fire up your email

And now, the manuscript is truly a first draft – a workable, edited first draft ready for beta testing. It’s okay if you’re not able to find much from the above checklist, but you MUST scan the story for these issues. We want feedback on stuff that we absolutely can’t find ourselves - we definitely don’t want our critique partners to locate issues that we ourselves could have, on a second edit.

I don’t, or can’t, self-edit beyond this point - this is when I stop working, and prepare the document to send to critique buddies / beta readers. I hope you have a critique buddy, because it is the next best thing to having a personal (creative writing) trainer, rant partner and goal motivator, all wrapped in one! If you don’t have the time to search for one, then you can look for manuscript swaps in forums like The SCBWI BlueBoards and Absolute Write Water Cooler.

Beta readers are your best friends

After getting your manuscript critiqued by a writer, now it’s time to pass on the job to a reader. The usual guinea pigs are children in the family or neighborhood, but they are not always reliable! Your writing group is a good bet; you are probably friends with them and no one will bat an eye at your request to pass your story to fellow members’ kids/grandkids :)

Personally, I have found Facebook and LinkedIn to be very helpful - there are many groups filled with fellow writers and book lovers and I select the ones with most parents and post a call. Parents usually love to pass on stories to their kids, to review - at least that has been my experience. I do make sure I research who the person is, his/her profile and connections etc., before sending them my unpublished manuscript. Here is a great article on protecting yourself and your WIP.

Happy editing! What are some of your editing techniques? Please share them below - I’d love to hear more tips from working writers :)

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Radhika Meganathan, an award-winning writer based in India, has published 12 picture books, with 20 more under production. She is the host of Short Story 12x12 and Chapter Book 12x12 challenges. By the end of 2014, Radhika plans to have the first drafts of 12 chapter books and 12 short stories (for her definition of a first draft, re-read this article again!). To follow her year of writing challenges, visit www.childrenswriter.in.

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Give-away!

Comment on this post by noon GMT on March 31st in order to be entered to win a ChaBooCha keychain. winner will be drawn at noon GMT on March 31st. Must be a signed-up member of the challenge in order to qualify.

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Winners!

It's time to announce the winner of a paperback copy of "When the Butterflies Came" by Kimberley Griffiths Little.  The winner has been selected by a random number generator and the winner is: 

Deb Marshall

Congratulations, Deb!

Getting Feedback from Kids by Melissa Gijsbers #ChaBooCha

A number of years ago, I remember reading a newspaper review for a kids TV show. This was a show that my kids loved at the time so I was familiar with it.

The reviewer, an adult, picked apart the scientific inconsistencies with the story – such as the fact it there was gravity on the moon. For kids aged 3 or 4, the location didn’t matter as much as the bright colours, fun stories and funny looking plants.

Writing for kids, I’ve found similar issues. I’ve had editors tell me the words I use wouldn’t be understood by children, or the language is too hard for children to understand.

This is where I’ve found giving my manuscript to children to read provides invaluable feedback.

I am lucky enough to have two children in my home who love to read, and they are usually my first readers. Aged 10 and 12, they are advanced readers, but I figure if they can’t understand something, then it needs changing. They are very good at asking what something means or telling me that something isn’t clear enough. They are also great at picking up typos.

Once they have read it, I have a number of other children who are happy to read my stories and give me feedback. They are average readers, rather than advanced readers, and again provide me with valuable comments on whether or not they can understand the story and the language.

I’ve found that children are often a better judge of what they can and can’t understand than adults are. This is one of the main reasons I ask children to read my chapter books before they are sent to my editor.

If you are looking at getting feedback from children, I recommend you print out your chapter book and have it bound so it feels like a book. This is often easier for children to read. I also give the children permission to write any corrections or questions on the print out so I can act on them when they have finished reading.

I find this feedback from children is invaluable in developing the story; after all, they are the people I want to read the stories once the books are published. 

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Melissa Gijsbers is an Australian author and blogger. She has had flash fiction stories feature in a number of anthologies, including "Teapot Tales: A Collection of Unique Fairy Tales" and "Jingle Bells: Tales of Holiday Spirit from Around the World."  When she’s not writing or coming up with ideas for stories, she’s running around after two active boys and working in the family business. You can find her online at MelissaGijsbers.com or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/melissagijsbers.

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Give-away!

Leave a comment on this post in order to be entered to win a copy of "Writing Habit Mastery: How to Write 2,000 Words a Day and Forever Cure Writer's Block" by S. J. Scott. You must comment before noon GMT on March 31st as that is when the drawing will be done. Must be a signed-up member of ChaBooCha in order to qualify.

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Winner!

Amie Borst generously offered a copy of her book "Cinderskella" as a give-away on a previous post. (Residents of the US or Canada, if a winner, may choose either Kindle or paperback formats. All residents of other countries may only enter to win the Kindle format.) Today is the day the winner is to be announced. Rafflecopter randomly selected a winner, and the winner is:

Sharon Putnam

Congratulations, Sharon!

On Editing by Karen Pokras Toz #ChaBooCha

Thank you for inviting me to be a part of the Chapter Book Challenge. Today I'd like to talk about editing your chapter book. Now that you've written your book, you may think it's time to hand it off to your editor to let him or her work their magic and clean it all up, right? Wrong. After you’ve written your first (or even second or third draft), you still have a bit of work to do before it's ready for professional editing. It's time to get down and dirty with self-edits.

I know that each writer has his or her own system for self-editing, which is understandable because it's a very personal thing. After all, you've just spent quite a long time and a great deal of effort creating your masterpiece. I’d like to share with you the steps that I take when self-editing one of my books.

You may think: But I worked so hard! Isn't it already perfect? No. While self-editing admittedly can be frustrating, it is also eye-opening and the place where I personally believe I further develop my craft the most in my writing process. For me, it is a multi-step process:

1. I read through each chapter individually and critically, looking for content flow and plot holes. This is important, as quite often a great deal of time has passed from when I first wrote my early chapters. I ask myself: Did the story still progress the way I intended? Did I answer all questions brought up in the first part of the story? Did all the characters mentioned early on turn out as planned? Is there too much info? Too little info? Does the ending make sense? Etc, Etc.

2. I read the entire manuscript out loud ... to my cats. They usually fall asleep or run off somewhere in the first three chapters, but I try not to be offended. The purpose of the “read aloud” round is to hear grammar flow, repetitive words, punctuation errors, and things of that nature. In addition, reading aloud helps continue with anything I may have missed in step 1. I know that many of the types of errors I find here are ones that my editor would also find, but I like to give her as clean a copy as possible (& even with taking all these steps, she still finds plenty to correct).

3. Beta readers. This is not always step 3, but it is always within the 1st three steps. They are vital and always have great advice and suggestions. Choose readers who enjoy your genre and who understand your voice for maximum results. Some authors like to give their entire manuscripts to their betas at one time for an overall picture. I prefer to give out chunks of 3-5 chapters. That way, I get feedback such as “this is what I would like to see happen next ...” It gives me a better picture of where the reader’s mind is after reading certain chapters.

4. Incorporate beta readers’ suggestions into manuscript and repeat steps 1 & 2 until you feel your book is the best possible story you can write.

Now it is ready to hand off to your editor for a professional polish and shine.

Good luck and happy writing!

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Karen Pokras Toz writes middle grade and adult contemporary fiction. Her books have won several awards including two Readers’ Favorite Book Awards, the Grand Prize in the Purple Dragonfly Book Awards, as well as placing first for two Global E-Book Awards for Pre-Teen Literature. Karen is a member of the Society of the Children's Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI). For children, her books include the Nate Rocks series, Millicent Marie is Not My Name, and Pie and Other Brilliant Ideas. For adult readers, Karen’s books include Chasing Invisible, and her soon to be released, Whispered Wishes series. A native of Connecticut, Karen now lives outside of Philadelphia with her family. For more information, please visit www.karentoz.com.

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Give-away!

One commenter will win a paperback copy of "You Can Write Children's Books" (second edition) by Writers Digest. Leave a comment on this post before March 31st at noon GMT to enter. Must be a signed-up member of the challenge to qualify. The winner will be chosen through a random number generator on March 31st at noon GMT.

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Winners!

Selected through a random number generator, the winner of a copy of  "Yes! You Can Learn How to Write Beginning Readers and Chapter Books" by Nancy I. Sanders is:

Kelly McDonald!

Congratulations, Kelly! 

On Writing Badly and Redefining Failure by Becca Puglisi #ChaBooCha

When Becky contacted me about posting during this year’s Chapter Book Challenge, I was stoked. At the time, I was in the middle of my own NaNoWriMo, and I know how hard it is to plan and write an entire story in one month. So when Becky asked me to contribute, I jumped at the chance. And because I just went through my own process, I’d love to share some inspiration that got me through the month.

The thing that frustrated me the most when I started drafting was how blah the writing was. It was hard enough to get the words down, and once I did, I was completely underwhelmed by them. Then I stumbled across this quote by Shannon Hale:

I’m writing a first draft and reminding myself that I’m simply shoveling sand into a box so that later I can build castles.

Yes. Yes! By all that is holy, YES! This is what we do. We shovel words onto paper, as fast as we can, knowing—even expecting—them to be fairly crappy. Don’t worry about correct word choice, proper grammar, or flair. Just get the words down. That’s what you’re aiming for this month.

And that ties in to my second mantra, stolen from Dean Wesley Smith:

Dare to be bad.

I’m a little weird in that drafting is the most difficult part of the process for me. Every day when I sit down to write, it takes forever to get going. For me—and for a lot of writers, I’ve learned—it all comes down to fear. Fear of starting in the wrong place, of wasting time, of going through all this effort and the story not being any good—all of this stymies the writing. It wasn’t until I read Dean’s advice that I freed myself up to write badly. I realized that the only writers who do get it right the first time around are the ones who’ve been doing it for years and have written roughly a gajillion words. I’m not there yet. But I will be, if I keep writing. And so will you. So when you’re struggling through that first draft and you’re afraid that it totally sucks, don’t worry. Dare to be bad, and just finish the story. You’ll have plenty of time to pretty it up later. That’s what the revision process is for.

And that leads to a favorite quote—this one from Kristen Lamb—that we all need to remember from time to time:

Redefine Failure

When I started my NaNoWriMo, I aimed for the standard goal of 50,000 words. It became clear very quickly that I wasn’t going to make it. I wasn’t even going to come close. I had to revise my goal, and I ended up with 30,000 words— barely a third of my novel. At first I was disappointed that I had achieved so little. But then I realized, No. I had planned and outlined an entire novel. Wrote the first third of it with a preschooler underfoot. Wrote 30,000 words that I wouldn’t have had under my belt if I hadn’t tried. Mastered some new techniques that are getting me closer to being able to write those solid first drafts. I had to redefine my notions of success and failure to appreciate all that I’d accomplished in just thirty days.

And that’s my hope for each of you: Get the words down on paper. Don’t worry about the quality. And realize that what you’re doing is A-MAZING. This month is about more than just finishing a book. It’s also about the writing, whether that’s 2000 words or 20,000. With every word you write, you learn. As you learn, you improve. And as you improve, the process gets easier.

You’re doing great, ChaBooCha’ers! Keep up the good work!

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Becca Puglisi is passionate about learning and sharing her knowledge with others. This is one of her reasons for writing The Emotion Thesaurus, The Positive Trait Thesaurus, and The Negative Trait Thesaurus. A member of SCBWI, she leads workshops at regional conferences, teaches webinars through WANA International, and can be found online at Writers Helping Writers (formerly known as The Bookshelf Muse).

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Give-away!

Comment on this post by March 31st (noon GMT), to be entered into the drawing for a paperback copy of "The Negative Trait Thesaurus: A Writer's Guide to Character Attributes" by Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi. Winner will be chosen by a random number generator on March 31st at noon GMT. You must be signed up for the challenge to qualify. 

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Winners!

 

I am a day late announcing yesterday's winner of  a paperback copy of "The Writer's Digest Guide to Query Letters."  The drawing was done yesterday, but I decided to announce the winner today along with other winner announcements (to cut down on the number of blog posts and e-mails you get).

The winner is:

Laura Jenkins!

Congratulations, Laura!

And for the prize being awarded today:

Chapter book Challenge member Linda Schueler generously offered this next prize, a copy of The Observation Deck by Naomi Epel. The winner was drawn by a random number generator, and the winner is:

Ashley Willoughby!

Congratulations, Ashley!

ChaBoocha Comic by Gabriella Fyfe #ChaBooCha

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Gabriella Fyfe is one of our youngest Chapter Book Challenge members at 11 years old. This is her first year taking part in ChaBooCha although she has been writing stories for many years now. Three of her short stories and several of her illustrations are published in "The Talisman Chronicles: A Collection of Stories Written and Illustrated by Children," (published in 2013).

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Give-away!



Comment by March 31st at noon GMT and one commenter will be chosen by a random number generator to win a paperback copy of "The Talisman Chronicles." Winner may choose either the black and white interior version or the color interior version. Must be a signed-up member of ChaBooCha to qualify.

Writing Humor for Kids by Amie Borst #ChaBooCha

Let’s face it. Life is hard. There’s all sorts of things to get us down. Bills. Medical issues. Work. You name it and somewhere in there you’ll find a trial.  We could cry. Get frustrated. Scream and shout. But those things tend to give me a headache, which is why I prefer to laugh.

There’s a reason they say laughter is the best medicine. It reduces stress hormones, lowers blood pressure and increases memory and learning.

So what better way to help ourselves and those around us, then to write funny books? 

I believe humor is a natural talent.  We’re either born funny or we’re not.  But, I also believe that with some guidance and practice, most writers are capable of including a laugh into their carefully-crafted tales.  Forced humor never, ever works, so try to relax and let the humor flow naturally.

Here are five basic tricks that could help you become a better writer of humor for children:

·         Wordplay – This technique can be used in so many different ways I could write several blog posts about it. 

One of my favorite uses of wordplay is creating new words from common ones.  In my upcoming book, Little Dead Riding Hood, the MC is a vampire.  Instead of saying something is fantastic, she says it’s fangtastic. Instead of using an iPod, she listens to music on a diepod. 

Wordplay can also use techniques such as rhetoric, hyperbole, and double entendre to name a few.  Another more common use of wordplay is the use of puns.

o   Puns  - These are one of the greatest sources of humor and can be broken down into multiple sub-categories:

§  Homophones: Words that sound alike but with different spellings and meanings. My favorite example of this is in Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2, when Flint exclaims, “There’s a leek in the boat!” The movie-goer is then shown a screaming animated vegetable. While having a leak in the boat would be cause for concern, the alternative creates quite a reaction from the audience.

§  Homographic: Words that have the same spelling but differ in meaning. Vampires would be great at baseball but they just haven’t found the perfect bat. A baseball bat? Or a winged creature? You decide.

§  Compound pun: Using two or more of any pun(s) in a sentence.  A good use is Douglas Adam’s famous example. "You can tune a guitar, but you can't tuna fish. Unless of course, you play bass."

o   Spoonerisms – An accidental transposition of the beginning parts of words. My dad uses spoonerisms all the time. Whenever I overslept and he had to wake me, he called me Beeping Sleauty (instead of Sleeping Beauty).

·         Figurative Language/Idioms – A classic example of humor using this technique is the Amelia Bedelia series. Who doesn’t remember Amelia Bedelia’s crazy antics because she misinterpreted the instructions? From “dressing a turkey” in a tuxedo or “dusting the furniture” with actual dust to “drawing the drapes” on a sketchpad, as a child I was “in stitches”…uh-oh! Better hope Amelia’s not around! 

·         Irony – I tend to keep my irony at a minimum when writing for children, though it makes for great humor when the reader (as well as the MC) encounters a situation which is the direct opposite of what they expected. Imagine your female character who has developed a huge zit in the middle of her forehead. In an attempt to save her already-at-stake popularity status and avoid being seen by the boy she likes, she takes an alternate route to the always-avoided-never-before-used-bathroom in the far recesses of the school to cover up the abomination with make-up.  On her way there, she bumps into three boys from the football team, the head cheerleader, and her major crush-o-rama…all of which undoubtedly see her zit.  Oh the irony! If she’d only taken her normal route to the regular bathroom, she would have avoided the embarrassment!

·         Pain and Humiliation– Sorry to say, but yes, inflicting pain on your MC or another character will cause your reader to laugh-out-loud. I’m not talking about torture devices, or having them suffer within an inch of their life, but rather a small slip.  I think of Jennifer Lawrence’s iconic trip up the Oscar stairs. Who didn’t laugh at that? Better yet was when she laughed at herself. 

·         Base it on truth – There is humor in the everyday truth of life.  That family vacation where everyone got sunburned, the car broke down and the dog ran off. You laughed during that trip (probably with an empty wallet and Aloe Vera gel smeared on your face, but you still laughed). The day your son turned four and he sneezed on his birthday cake. After scraping off the frosting and realizing the remaining mess once identified as cake was unsalvageable, you laughed the whole way to the store to buy a new one. Or how about the time your daughter used maxi-pads as band-aids? She came downstairs covered from head-to-toe with those large, white, absorbent strips.  Right in the middle of your dinner party. With your boss. After your flushed cheeks resumed their natural color and the party ended, you undoubtedly had a good laugh.

That’s what makes humor so great. Keeping it real.  

The best tip to writing humor—be yourself! If you’re faking it, everyone’s gonna know. You are. And more important, your reader is.  So don’t try to fool them with a phony, half-hearted attempt. Just write the truth and time it perfectly. Your reader will thank you for it.

For more great posts about writing humor for kids, check out these links:

Elissa Cruz http://elissacruz.blogspot.com/2010/02/writing-humor-for-kids.html

Get to the Funny Faster http://www.fromthemixedupfiles.com/2013/05/stand-up-comedy-middle-grade-writing-author-debby-garfinkle/

Humor Ain’t Just Something You Find in the Bathroom http://www.fromthemixedupfiles.com/2010/07/humor-aint-just-something-you-find-in-the-bathroom/

Write 2 Ignite http://write2ignite.com/2014/02/26/writing-humor-for-kids/

Tara Lazar http://taralazar.com/2011/06/09/nj-scbwi-2011-conference-writing-humor-in-picture-books/

Humour is the Best by Adam Wallace

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Amie Borst 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, Amie is busy crafting her own words in YA stories.

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 Give-away!

Amie Borst has generously offered a copy of her book "Cinderskella" for one lucky ChaBooCha member. Just enter through the Rafflecopter link below. (Residents of the US or Canada, if a winner, may choose either Kindle or paperback formats. All residents of other countries may only enter to win the Kindle format.)


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