January 4, 2014

Day 2 Writing Routine: Children's Literature & the Natural Voice

I'm discovering it's easy enough to compose meaningful, engaging literature for a young audience. What's most difficult, however, is finding the natural voice. Children mature so quickly; it's almost a mystical undertaking, summoning a voice they'll connect to. Their regard is like a delicate cluster of butterflies in the palm of your hand, ready to flit away and scatter if a breeze sweeter than the story happens to drift by.

I find the natural voice is already there -- I am a mother, after all -- but it's as thin and fragile as a newly spun spider web. Tug too much this way or that, and the thread will snap. The natural voice suddenly becomes synthetic and alien, and away the butterflies go.

research: picture book manuscript formatting, Louisiana publishing houses
revise: The Proposal (FINAL)
write: 
  • Look at My Hat!, sight word children's book
  • Draft 1: bedtime children's book
  • Draft 1: regional children's book

Total time = 8+ hours

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