NONFICTION NINJAS
  • Home
  • Meet the Ninjas
    • Lisa Amstutz
    • Stephanie Bearce
    • Nancy Churnin
    • Susie Kralovansky
    • Pat Miller
    • Christine Liu Perkins
    • Linda Skeers
    • Peggy Thomas
  • Ninja Notebook
  • NF Fest
  • Contact

Everything But Writing! By Peggy Thomas

3/31/2020

2 Comments

 
​
Like most Americans, I am hanging out at home to avoid spreading the coronavirus. But I don’t think it’s fair that everyone else is out of their office, and I am still stuck in mine. The problem is that I have all the time in the world to write, but I’m doing everything BUT writing.
 
After speaking to many writer friends, it appears that I am not the only one. Maybe it’s having the kids home, or having your spouse home, or maybe there is just too much home home. Whatever it is, here are a few things you can do to keep your writing career moving forward during this difficult time.

1. Practice your online skills. There are tutorials about how to share screens, set up lighting, etc. but you can also practice with a virtual family dinner, or virtual critique group. 

2. Tidy your computer files. I don’t know about you, but my computer likes to hide drafts in odd places. Occasionally I have to ferret them out and put them where they belong.  There are probably documents you can delete, too.

3.  File papers. (Yes, I still use paper. And it tends to grow like mold on my desk, side table, shelves, floor….)  

4.  Create your own mentor text reference list with the books you have on your shelves.  

5.  Spruce up your website. Update your info, add more content.  

6.  Connect with other writers – Starting this Thursday - KidLit Distance Social, or on NF Fest Facebook page.  

7.  Type out a picture book to learn about its structure and story arc.  

8.  Attend a webinar or virtual conference – SCBWI Regional Webinars  

9.  Check out a fun activity from the NF Fest chart. 

10.  WRITE!  Pat Miller, author of The Hole Story of the Doughnut, challenged me to write for 10 minutes every day. It may sound insignificant, but it gets your butt in the chair and creates the habit. So, I pass on that challenge – write for 10 minutes every day and tell us about it.  

Stay Safe, Stay Healthy, Stay Writing!
2 Comments

The Back Door to Inspiration by Pat Miller

3/24/2020

3 Comments

 
Picture
For me, ideas rarely spring to life like Athena leaping from Zeus’s forehead. When I intentionally push my imagination up against the wall, patting it down for inspiration, I get nowhere but frustrated. But I have discovered five ways to slip into the back door of The House of Inspiration.

​1. Piggyback
I was delivering the annual library orientation to my primary classes. That involved repeating the same lesson 23 times. I wish there was a book we could share that detailed the procedures in a fun way, I thought.
Picture
Weeks later, we were acting out the choruses of We’re Going on a Bear Hunt when it struck me.  I could write an orientation book called We’re Going on a Book Hunt! The structure of the classic rhyme was a ready framework for my own bouncy tale about a class of bears who learn to use the library, complete with original choruses.

Tweak the tried-and-true to make them your own. Library shelves are home to a plethora of piggy-backed productions--Little Red Cowboy Hat and The Wolf Who Cried Boy are two more.
​
2. Get Emotional
My two-year-old granddaughter wanted to help make a shopping list. As I said peanut butter, eggs, bread, she made a squiggle for each. When I added tiger toes, monkey milk, and boo-boo fruit, she calmly added each to the list. Her bit-lip intensity and self-confidence charmed me. That emotional *ping* signaled to me that this incident was worth writing down.

Negative emotions *ping* as well. Recently, we received a fancy invitation to the anniversary party of a couple I didn’t know. But my husband said he was a great guy, new to their golf group. So we went. We gave them a gift, signed their bridal book, and shared a lovely dinner with a table of strangers. When we finally asked someone to point out the special couple, we realized that neither of us knew them! How did we get invited?! As we slipped out undetected, I was confused and embarrassed. *Ping!* I added the incident to my idea notebook.
​
Build a stockpile of emotional *pings* in your idea file. Cull them from real life and from your memories. An emotional connection helps kids identify with your character. But it can be difficult to generate while pressured by a blinking cursor. Stored episodes of affection, anger, admiration, embarrassment, etc. can be the yeasty starter for developing similar emotions in your work.

Picture
Picture
Picture
3. Mother of Invention
One January, my first grade teachers asked if there was a book about making New Year’s resolutions. I searched area libraries and publisher catalogs without success. Then it dawned on me that I could write that book. Two years later, I was able to supply them with Squirrel’s New Year’s Resolution in which a rookie squirrel learns about making resolutions from her friends.

Necessity is the mother of books about gluten allergies, bullies, gay parents, and overseas adoptions. Be alert when you hear (or think) “I wish there was a book about…” When I told my grown daughter I was working on this post, she said, “I wish there was a book about an Advent calendar that came to life.” I may never write it, but I added her wish to my notebook. My husband still wishes I would write a book about famous brothers. It’s in there.


4. Take note
One year I was coaxing my kindergartners to guess what special day was coming up. They made random incorrect guesses, so I gave them a clue.

“It’s the day when an animal pops out of its hole to look for its shadow.”

Blank looks. These were Texas five year-olds. There are no wild groundhogs in the entire state. Then an earnest little boy waved his hand, blurting, “I know this one!”

“Great! What animal pops out of his hole next week?” I asked.

“The armadillo!” he proudly announced.

As soon as the class left the library, I scurried into my office to record the exchange.

Three years later, that conversation inspired my first children’s book, Substitute Groundhog.

My smart phone takes dictation, but I find small tablets to be more versatile. (It’s creepily obvious if you dictate into your phone while eavesdropping.) I have little tablets in my purse, my gym bag, my car, and my kitchen. I even have a waterproof one in the shower—my best place for getting ideas. Tablets help me capture inspirations before they fly away.

5. Eavesdrop
We were touring the Boston harbor when our guide waved his arm vaguely and said, “Over there is the grave of the guy who invented the doughnut.” Really?!

I jotted that fact in my little purse notebook. It sat there for two years until I took it to the Highlights Nonfiction Workshop. There I began my research. Six months later, I wrote the manuscript as my first for Julie Hedlund’s 12×12. Her February agent requested to represent it. Joyfully, my first nonfiction book, The Hole Story of the Doughnut was published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in 2016.

How easily I could have let the tour guide’s remark fly away on the wind off the harbor. A quick jot in my notebook, and it was safely planted. You never know which homely idea will germinate when least expected, nurtured by future life experiences or eyes that see it in a different light later. So, write them all down!
​
Reinvent the books or songs that you love. Record emotional situations and capitalize on needs around you. Keep your mental nets ready. Stash your tablets. And faithfully plant your ideas. Don't wait for Inspiration. Sneak in the back door of her house!

(based on my post that first appeared Nov. 20, 2013 in PiBoIdMo.)
3 Comments

​A WEE BIT OF WRITERLY WISDOM by Linda Skeers

3/17/2020

3 Comments

 
Picture

With everything that’s going on in the world right now – coronavirus, school closings, library closings, social distancing, conferences and workshops cancelled… it’s hard to focus on writing. Here are some quotes to make you smile, laugh, ponder and encourage you as you forge ahead on your writing journey.
 
One of the signs of Napoleon’s greatness is the fact that he once had a publisher shot.  ~Siegfried Unseld
 
You can’t wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.  ~Jack London
 
The best kind of writing, and the biggest thrill in writing, is to suddenly read a line from your typewriter that you didn’t know was in you.     ~Larry King
 
The beautiful part of writing is that you don’t have to get it right the first time, unlike, say, a brain surgeon.     ~Robert Cormier
 
A hundred years from now it will not matter what my bank account was, the sort of house I lived in, or the kind of car I drove… but the world may be different because I was important in the life of a child.     ~Simone Weil
 
There are days when the result is so bad that no fewer than 5 revisions are required. In contrast, when I’m greatly inspired, only 4 revisions are needed.     ~J.K. Galbraith
 
Anyone who says he wants to be a writer and isn’t writing, doesn’t.   ~Hemingway
 
So, you want to be a writer? Ok. Be one.   ~Ed Wood
 
You may be disappointed if you fail, but you are doomed if you don’t try.  ~Beverly Sills
 
I am a great believer in luck, and I find that the harder I work, the more I have of it.    ~Thomas Jefferson
 
An editor is a person who knows precisely what he wants but isn’t quite sure.  ~Walter Davenport
 
You can’t be that kid at the top of the water slide overthinking it. You have to just go down the chute… You have to let people see what you wrote… Perfect is overrated. Perfect is boring.    ~Tina Fey
 
What’s the thing that’s not in the world that should be in the world?  ~Lin-Manuel Miranda
 
No one else knows what they are doing either.   ~Ricky Gervais
 
Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.   ~Helen Keller
 
 
DAILY MANTRA:  Today I will write on the edge of my ability.
 


3 Comments

​Query Letters, Cover Letters, and Pitch Letters—And When to Use Them by Wendy Hinote Lanier

3/10/2020

0 Comments

 
Picture

In the world of writing there are several kinds of letters related to submitting an idea or manuscript to a publisher. Words like pitch letter, query, and cover letter get thrown around a lot at conferences and in writing circles. But not everyone is clear on what those things are and when to use them. If you don’t have an agent (and many people do just fine without one), all this is on you. Hopefully, this will help.

All three types of letters are designed to help you sell something: an idea, a book, or yourself. No matter which letter you are writing, your goal is to keep it short and sweet. None of these should
be more than about 250 to 300 words. Think: one page letter.

A query letter is designed to sell an idea. The point is to get an editor to request the full manuscript. Knowing how to write one is a useful skill.

A query starts with a connection (IF you have one) that shows you either know the editor or know something about their house based on your research. You might mention that you met at a conference (IF you have), or that you were pleased to note on their website that they are looking for manuscripts just like yours, or that so and so (name drop here) suggested you contact them. Be sure the letter is addressed to an actual person, and double check to make sure you have the
right name. In a pinch, if you don’t actually have a connection and the publisher’s website was pretty vague about what they might be looking for, it’s ok to start with the hook.

Now the hook. That’s the one to two sentence elevator pitch that you have memorized for those moments when someone says, “What are you working on?” For fiction the answer goes something like, “It’s a picture book (or YA, or MG, or whatever) about X (your main character) who wants Y (the problem) but can’t get it because Z (the obstacle). For nonfiction your hook
might include an interesting fact from your manuscript, a description of some scene or process in the book, or a question your work will answer. Whatever you choose to do, try to use the same tone as the book so that the editor gets a feel for the overall manuscript.

Next is the 411 on the book. This includes a short summary and vital statistics such as title, length, type of manuscript (fiction, nonfiction, informational fiction, etc.), and intended audience. Keep it to one paragraph, and make it sing. You want this part to capture your voice and intrigue your audience (the editor) at the same time.
​
Next comes your biographical information. This is a short paragraph about your qualifications as a writer. Don’t include your education or work history unless it is pertinent to your writing. If you are a teacher, that’s pertinent. If you are a nurse but your book is about something nonmedical, it’s not. If you have won any awards for your writing, be sure to include them here.

And finally, finish up with a polite request to send all or some part of the manuscript, a closing, and your contact information. Boom. Done.

Does this HAVE to be done in this order? Nope. But all of these pieces should be there. So, might I suggest a TIME SAVING HACK?

Create a folder for each of your manuscripts. The folder may include older versions of the manuscript, notes, and/or research on the topic. And one document in that folder should be dedicated to promotion and biographical information for that book. Write out your hook (elevator pitch), your book summary (vital statistics), and your biographical information as it
pertains to that book. Then, when you write your query or cover letter, simply copy and paste the pieces. All you’ll need to add is a salutation, a connection (only if you have one), and a closing.

Which brings us to the second kind of letter—the cover letter. A cover letter accompanies a manuscript submitted either by request or through open submissions. If it was requested, be sure to note that in your connection point. A cover letter has, essentially, the same parts as a query. But instead of asking if you can send the entire manuscript, you’ll be indicating whether the manuscript is enclosed, pasted below, or attached. (Be sure to read the guidelines on the publisher’s website to see which one is their preferred method.) Overall remember to keep it simple. Let your manuscript do most of the talking.

And finally, there is the pitch letter. A pitch letter is designed to sell YOU as an author. The goal is to be awarded a writing assignment.

A pitch letter begins much like a query or cover letter. Make a connection if you have one. This is usually only two or three sentences in a single paragraph.

Next, indicate your interest in the editor’s company. Tell why you like their products. Maybe you’ve used them in your classroom. Maybe you ordered their books for your library. But let them know you have done your research by showing them you are familiar with their work. And then let them know you would LOVE to do an assignment for them. Keep this to one paragraph.

(One caveat to this is to make sure you are not only familiar with the publisher’s books, but also their guidelines for getting an assignment. If the company has a form they want you to fill out and requires a writing sample, don’t try to write a pitch letter instead. As always, follow the guidelines.)

Follow this with a short paragraph about your qualifications (biographical information). If you are not yet published, tell the editor some experience or knowledge you have that would make you a good candidate for an assignment. Don’t worry if you have no published work to list. Assignment writing is one area where not being published doesn’t necessarily work against you.

Finally, thank the editor for their time and indicate you hope to be hearing from them soon. If you are including samples (per their guidelines), make a note of that here. And be sure your complete contact information is clearly visible somewhere on the page.

There you have it. Query letters, cover letters, and pitch letters. Easy peasy. Now, go get’em!


0 Comments

Just the Facts, Ma'am by Nancy Churnin

3/3/2020

4 Comments

 
Picture

We sculpt nonfiction from a sandbox of facts. Much of the research stage of our work involves gathering facts to fill the sandbox before we shape our narrative.

But what happens when there's debris in the sand? In my new picture book biography, Beautiful Shades of Brown, the Art of Laura Wheeler Waring, a critical part of the narrative revolves around Waring hearing Marian Anderson sing. Waring sees how Anderson breaks down walls of segregation with her voice and dreams that a painting of Anderson will break down walls, too.

It was a challenge to collect all the facts I needed for my sandbox. My book, which came out Feb. 4, is the first that focuses solely on Waring. In the course of my fact-gathering, I read that Waring first saw Anderson sing in Paris in 1916.  Wonderful! Then I cross-checked the date against timelines of both women’s lives and found that while both had been to Paris, neither had been there in 1916. What?

Scramble. Search. Dig. I knew from my research that Waring had been wowed by Anderson’s singing. But where had Waring seen Anderson sing if it wasn’t Paris?

Erin Beasley, Digital Image Rights and Reproduction Specialist at the National Portrait Gallery and Dr. Tuliza Fleming, Curator of American Art at the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington D.C., put me in touch with Madeline Murphy Rabb, an artist and granddaughter of Laura’s brother, Arthur Edward Wheeler, for help.

Ms. Rabb was enormously helpful. She went back to the family with my question and searched her great-aunt’s writings. It turns out that Waring saw Anderson sing April 6, 1916 at the Union Baptist Church in Philadelphia -- a scene you’ll see in the book and in the timeline.

Whenever I can, I like to check facts with family members or trusted sources that have known my subjects. This has been the most dramatic example of how this diligence has saved me from error. But I have always found it helpful reaching out to primary sources to make sure I am on target and my sand is free of debris. I hope this approach helps you, too!

J







4 Comments

    Authors

    We are nonfiction authors who support readers and writers through our writing, author visits, and workshops.

    RSS Feed

    Enter your email address:

    Delivered by FeedBurner

    Archives

    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018

    Categories

    All
    Agent
    Andrea Somberg
    Back Matter
    Bibliography
    Biographies
    Book Dummy
    Book Promotion
    Bookstore
    Breaking Writers Block
    Deadlines
    Editing
    Editors
    Ghostwriting
    Hidden History
    Holidays
    Holiday Stories
    Humor
    Inspiration
    Linda Skeers
    Magazines
    Market Analysis
    Mentoring
    Mentor Texts
    Middle Grade NF
    Nancy Churnin
    Nonfiction
    Open For Submissions
    Organization
    Pat Miller
    Peggy Thomas
    Picture Books
    Primary-sources
    Publishers
    Questions
    Reluctant Writer
    Research
    Rhyme
    Seasonal Stories
    Selling Books
    Stephanie Bearce
    Submissions
    Twitter Pitches
    Why
    Word Count
    Work For Hire
    Writing Ideas
    Writing In Sprints
    Writing Protocol
    Writing Strengths
    Writing Tips

    Disclaimer: The Nonfiction Ninjas are a group of writers with diverse ideas . The views expressed in each post are those of the author and may differ from others in the group.​
Copyright @2022
  • Home
  • Meet the Ninjas
    • Lisa Amstutz
    • Stephanie Bearce
    • Nancy Churnin
    • Susie Kralovansky
    • Pat Miller
    • Christine Liu Perkins
    • Linda Skeers
    • Peggy Thomas
  • Ninja Notebook
  • NF Fest
  • Contact