No one knows that better than I. I've been at it since I was six years old! But being part of a community of writers helps to take the edge off.

We all want to make our writing the best it can be and, to that end, we all need advice from time to time. A community of writers helps to provide that. From now on, I want to be part of your community.

On this page, you'll find tips on writing and editing. Use what you can to strengthen your own writing. If you work diligently, there's a good chance we'll end up sitting side by side autographing books someday!

Here's my writing advice:

For tips on publishing your writing, click here.

Storytelling Through Poetry: Part I

Say you decide to tell a story in poetry. Where do you begin?

First, by understanding the importance of story. Narrative picturebooks in poetry, or novels in verse, are not the result of random poems arranged in a particular order. They are collections of poems that tell a story with a beginning, middle, and an end. They feature a main character, have a story arc, and take place within a pre-determined cycle of time (a day, a week, a month, a year, a season). They have a distinct plot, and follow the narrative of a character who learns, or grows or changes in some way during the course of the story. In other words, a story written in poetry is, first and foremost, a story, with all that that word and form implies.

So, before you sit down to write your novel or picturebook in poetry, you must first establish the story you wish to tell. You must also determine the voice through which your story will be told: the character.

Who is your main character? How old is he or she? Where does she come from? What is her history, her backstory? Until you know some basic things about your character, you can't know how she speaks, what, if any, slang she might use, whether her tone is flip or dramatic, whether her language is street or formal. Furthermore, until you know these things, you can't wisely choose which poetry form to use to tell her story.

So, to summarize, where do you begin? Step one: Determine the story you want to tell. Step two: Sketch the character who will tell it. Mind you, it's perfectly okay to switch the order of steps one and two. In other words, you can develop a character first, then decide what story you want her to tell. Either way works.

Okay, so you have your basic story line, and you've sketched out your main character. Now what? For that, you'll have to tune in for Part II!

Later—