Introduction 1 About This Book 1 Conventions Used in This Book 2 What You''re Not to Read 2 Foolish Assumptions 2 How This Book Is Organized 3 Part I: The ABCs of Writing for Children 3 Part II: Immersing Yourself in the Writing Process 3 Part III: Creating a Spellbinding Story 3 Part IV: Making Your Story Sparkle 3 Part V: Getting Published and Promoting Your Book 4 Part VI: The Part of Tens 4 Icons Used in This Book 4 Where to Go from Here 4 Part I: The ABCs of Writing for Children 5 Chapter 1: Exploring the Basics of Writing Children''s Books 7 Knowing Your Format and Audience 8 Getting into a Good Writing Zone 8 Transforming Yourself into a Storyteller 9 Polishing Your Gem and Getting It Ready to Send 9 Selling Your Story 10 Promoting Your Book 11 Chapter 2: Delving into Children''s Book Formats and Genres 13 Understanding Children''s Book Categories and Formats 13 Baby and Toddler Friendly: Books with Pictures 16 Board books 16 Picture books 18 Other books with pictures 21 Working through Books with Lots of Words 27 Early readers 27 First chapter books 29 Middle-grade books 30 Young adult books 32 Exploring the Genres 36 Science fiction 37 Fantasy 37 Horror and ghost stories 39 Action/adventure 39 True stories 39 Historical fiction 40 Biography 41 Learning/educational 42 Religion and diversity 43 Gender-oriented series books 43 Licensed character series books and books into brands 45 Chapter 3: Understanding the Children''s Book Market 49 Getting Insight into Book Buyers 52 For chain and big-box bookstores 52 For independent bookstores 53 Recognizing What Reviewers Offer 56 Discovering What Librarians Add to the Mix 56 Taking a Look at Teachers 60 Considering Parents'' Perspectives 62 Thinking Like a Kid 63 Going after what kids like -- regardless of Mom and Dad 63 Knowing what kids don''t like 64 Part II: Immersing Yourself in the Writing Process 65 Chapter 4: Setting Up Your Workspace 67 Finding Time to Write 67 Figuring out when you''re most productive 67 Sticking to a writing schedule 68 Evaluating whether you''re a one-shot wonder or a committed writer 69 Optimizing Your Writing Environment 69 Locating your special writing spot 69 Getting organized 70 Preventing and dealing with interruptions 71 Chapter 5: Starting with a Great Idea 73 Once Upon a Time: Coming Up with an Idea 73 Relying on specific ideas rather than big ones 74 Tapping into your own experiences 75 Drawing from other children''s experiences 77 Pulling ideas from the world around you 78 Stumped? Break through with Brainstorming 78 Going it all by yourself 79 Giving free association a whirl 80 Taking up free-form or structured journaling 80 Buddying up to the buddy system 82 Asking the advice of a writing teacher or classmates 83 Seeking help from your audience 84 Heading back to school 86 Fighting Writer''s Block 86 Chapter 6: Researching Your Audience and Subject 89 Hanging Out with Kids 90 Go back to school 90 Become a storyteller 92 Borrow a friend''s child for a day 94 Dipping into Popular Culture 96 Watching kids'' TV shows and movies 96 Playing kid-focused digital games 97 Reading parenting and family magazines and blogs 98 Flipping through pop culture magazines 98 Surfing the Web 99 Browsing bookstores 100 Visiting children''s stores online or in person 101 Studying kids'' fashion trends 101 Researching Your Nonfiction Topic 102 Outlining the research process 102 Get around locally 103 Go far afield 104 Visit the Web -- a lot 105 Have an expert look over your work 105 Part III: Creating a Spellbinding Story 107 Chapter 7: Creating Compelling Characters 109 The Secret Formula for an Exceptional Main Character 110 Defining your main character''s driving desire 110 Fleshing out your main character to show readers her driving desire 111 Getting to Know Your Characters through Dialogue 112 Making a Character Bible 114 Surveying a sample character bible 116 Creating consistency 118 Writing Stories with Two or More Main Characters 119 Choosing Supporting Characters 120 Calling All Character Arcs 122 Character Don''ts -- and How to Avoid Them 124 Steer clear of stereotypes 124 Show your character in action 126 Toss out passivity and indefinites 127 Don''t rely on backstory or flashbacks 128 Developing Characters through Writing Exercises 129 Describe your first best friend 129 Borrow your favorite children''s book characters 130 Chapter 8: The Plot Thickens: Conflict, Climax, and Resolution 131 Remembering That It''s All about Action 132 Centering on the Story 133 Making Sure You Have a Beginning, Middle, and End 134 Using Drama and Pacing to Propel Your Story Forward 134 Drama: A reason to turn the page 135 Pacing: How you keep the pages turning 135 Outlining Tools to Structure Your Plot 136 Creating a step sheet 137 Fleshing out your outline 138 Knowing when to circumvent an outline 141 Preventing Plot Problems 141 Writing Your First Draft 142 Chapter 9: Can We Talk? Writing Dialogue 143 The Fundamentals of Good Dialogue 144 Dialogue has a function 144 Dialogue has drama 146 Listening to Real-World Dialogue 147 How kids talk 147 How grown-ups talk 149 Adding a Speech Section to Your Character Bible 149 Reading It Out Loud 150 Divulging Common Dialogue Mistakes 151 Failing to have conflict or tension 151 Repeating information 152 Describing dialogue 152 Using too many speaker references and attributions 153 Creating heavy-handed and unrealistic dialogue 154 Filling space with unnecessary dialogue 154 Improving Dialogue by Using Writing Exercises 155 Talking on paper 155 Introducing your first best friend to the love of your life 156 Chapter 10: Setting the Scene 157 Giving Context to Your Story and Its Characters with Scenery 157 Creating a Context Bible 158 Knowing When to Include Scenery and Context 159 When place figures prominently 160 When the place isn''t just incidental 161 When description of place doesn''t interrupt flow of action 162 When description of context adds something measurable 162 When you must mention an exotic locale 163 When beginning a novel and a specific place is mentioned 163 In a new scene where place is used to transition 164 Providing the Right Amount of Setting 164 Engaging Your Readers'' Senses 165 Knowing When Not to Make a Scene 166 Exercising Your Nose with a Smellography 167 Chapter 11: Finding Your Voice: Point of View and Tone 169 Building a Solid Point of View 170 Reviewing POV options 170 Picking your POV 171 Matching tense with POV 173 Having Fun with Words through Wordplay, Rhyming, and Rhythm 174 Engaging in wordplay 174 Taking different approaches to rhyming 176 Keeping your story moving with rhythm 177 Using Humor to Your Advantage 178 Figuring out what kids consider funny 179 Turning to the outrageous and the gross 182 The Mojo of Good Writing: Voice, Style, and Tone 182 Finding your story''s voice 184 Writing with style 185 Taking the right tone 185 You Know You Need a Voice Makeover When 186 you have more than one POV in a scene 186 you experience the anxiety of influence 186 you find your omniscient narrator battling one (or more) star 187 your story sounds monotonal 187 Helping Your Voice Emerge by Playing Pretend 187 Pretending to be someone else 188 Pretending you swallowed a magic potion that makes you only three feet tall 188 Chapter 12: Writing Creative Nonfiction Books 189 The Nonfiction Children''s Book World at a Glance 189 Writing a Nonfiction Masterpiece 191 Choosing a Great Topic 193 Looking at topics that get kids'' attention 193 Finding topics that interest you 194 Branching out into the real world 195 Testing your topic 196 Outlining Your Creative Nonfiction 197 Starting simple 198 Fleshing out your ideas 199 Enhancing your outline with visual aids 200 Presenting Common Creative Nonfiction Mistakes (And Fixes) 201 Writing Exercises for Creative Nonfiction 201 Pretend you''re a newspaper reporter 201 Create a funny five-step procedure to wash a dog 202 Part IV: Making Your Story Sparkle 205 Chapter 13: Editing and Formatting Your Way to a Happy Ending 207 Your Revising Checklist 208 Theme 208 Characters 209 Plot 209 Pacing and drama 210 Setting and context 211 Point of view 211 Recognizing the Power of a Good Edit 212 Editing Out Common Writing Traps 213 Strengthening your opening 214 Keeping your dialogue tight.