3 Tricks for magazine writers: How to write on a theme and still make your deadline

January 21, 2013beccakinla advice, magazines, submissions, submit, words, writer, writing, writing process Tags: article, assignment, brainstorm, children, cluster, contest, deadline, graphic organizer, help, ideas, idiom, issue, journal, kid, literature, magazine, need idea, prewriting, pun, secret, story, theme, tip, title, topic, trick, what to write, word play, words, writer, writing Leave a comment

Before you start to type, you might want to try one of these 3 things.

One of my writing jobs is penning teen and tween stories for Jewish magazines. Before getting this gig, I had to learn an important lesson: most kids’ magazines select one theme per issue, and they are only open to stories on those themes. That means you have to write what they want, when they want it–but you’ve got to still tap into your creativity to make your story fresh, fun, and readable.

NOTE: Writing contests (although many are scams, there are plenty of legit ones) and classroom assignments frequently require that submissions/assignments include a specific topic or theme and have a deadline, as well. You don’t have to write for magazines to benefit from these 3 tips.

Sometimes, I get the heads-up on what story the editor wants on what theme a month in advance. But sometimes it’s a lot less. How do I come up with a story on short notice? Continue reading →

The 2 Best Ways to Improve Your Writing Skills (with a little backup from Anne Lamott)

January 20, 2013beccakinla advice, writing groups, writing process Tags: advice, Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird, bum, chair, community, consistency, improve, improvement, literature, opinion, practice, regular, reliable. help, share, sharing, sit, skill, skills, strategy, support, tush, writer, writing, writing group 6 Comments

I’m going to offer some advice today that seems simplistic, so basic as to be ridiculous. Yet recently, I’ve experienced people who have neglected these 2 important strategies that are pretty much guaranteed to improve their writing abilities. So here I am repeating them.

Almost every book about writing offers the following advice. (The wording might vary according to the delicacy of the audience, but the meaning is the same.)

Okay, so you might need more than a chair. This guy isn’t going to get much writing done if he doesn’t pick up a pen!

1) PUT YOUR TUSH IN THE CHAIR.

By this, of course, we learn that if you tell us you want to write, well that’s a nice sentiment. But we know that you mean it if you sit at a desk, pick up a pen (or keyboard) and actually practice writing. Certainly weekly, and preferably daily, you need to write. A human being is only a writer if s/he is a person who writes. Continue reading →

Coming clean: sometimes you’re supposed to do housework instead of writing

January 15, 2013January 16, 2013beccakinla advice, authors, family, frustration, how to write, mother, writer, writing, writing process Tags: author, awareness, break, clean, cleaning, dishes, family, friend, God, housework, idea, laundry, mess, mom, mother, motherhood, no housekeeper, opportunity cost, space, stay-at-home, stuck, time management, visit, work, work from home, write, writer, writer's block, writing Leave a comment

G-d wanted me to do the dishes this morning.

I finished a large-ish writing project yesterday, then pulled open another document to begin the next assignment. I got the first paragraph written, and then every ounce of creativity in my brain dried up. Okay, I had a couple ideas, but they weren’t RIPE. More like literary fetal tissue than the next baby ready to be birthed.

Those who know me or who regularly read my blog know that I rarely get writer’s block. I usually have more ideas in my mind than really is good for me. Sometimes I can’t sleep at night, because my mind is so busy that the ideas are dripping out my ears.

See this immaculate kitchen? Clearly not mine.

I spent the rest of yesterday taking care of my kids, feeding them and hubby (not to mention myself), and finishing Bird by Bird. (More on that later this week.) Then I had a Tiferes meeting, but before I left, I checked my email. A girlfriend would be dropping by Tuesday morning.

Oh, no.

You see, my back had been out, and then there had been Shabbos, and then I was writing on a “finish ASAP–please!” type deadline. Result–my house was a wreck. Continue reading →

Who’s talking? POV, Voice, and Narrator as explained in Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird

January 10, 2013beccakinla advice, authors, fiction, finding agent, finish that novel, literature, publishing, recommended reading, review, reviews, style, submissions, teachers, writer, writing, writing process Tags: advice, Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird, character, Ethan Canin, first person, Lamott, learning, Lisa Yee, literature, narrator, novel, point of view, POV, third person, voice, writer, writing, writing process 5 Comments

Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott

There are few books that come up with my writer friends more often than Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird. In the same way that I feel like I’m not quite smart enough because I’ve never taken Calculus, I’ve felt like a slacker because I never got around to reading it.

And I should have felt guilty–because it’s great.

Okay, so it has a lot of rather vulgar language, but Lamott’s writing is so funny, and yet so useful, that I’m pretty much in love with the book.

One of the interesting bits of advice that Lamott gives writers is a gem she attributes to the author Ethan Canin. The most important way to improve your writing, he says, is to employ a likeable narrator.

Here’s the thing that struck me about this advice: for many, many years, I always wrote in third person. Continue reading →

2 Major differences between writing a picture book and writing short stories

January 6, 2013January 16, 2013beccakinla advice, authors, book, books, children, children's books, editing, editors, illustrations, literature, manuscript, picture books, publishing, revision, stories, submissions, submit, words, writer, writing, writing process Tags: author, book, change, changing, children, code-switching, cut, difference, edit, essential, folktale, genre, illustration, kids, length, literature, narrative, picture book, retell, revision, short story, snip, storytelling, submission, tradition, write, writer, writing 2 Comments

So the folktale project turned out to be an eye-opening experience for me.

Am I a writer, or a barber?

When I first started writing for kids, I didn’t really understand the difference between short stories and picture books. I’d submit short stories to book publishers, and picture books to magazines who published short stories. Selling Raizy and being guided through revisions by Devorah Leah Rosenfeld, the editor at Hachai, schooled me in the differences between the two media. After a couple years, I started writing regularly for children’s magazines, and her lessons allowed me to jump between the two formats.

2 Major differences between picture books and short stories:

1) The length differs significantly in the two formats. Oddly, an entire picture book has about half the words (sometimes less) as a short story for a kids’ magazine.

2) The illustrations in a picture book replace almost all the description. And the only words that could appear in a picture book text are ones that drive the narrative forward. When I learned this lesson, my picture book writing attained a sharpness that it had previously lacked.

Continue reading →

When good things happen to anxious people: the beginning of a new project

December 30, 2012January 21, 2013beccakinla authors, picture books, submissions, submit, trying, writer, writing, writing process Tags: anxiety, arts, attempt, author, begin, beginning, books, challenge, children, difficult, effort, folktale, hard, hope, kids, literature, nerves, nervous, new, picture book, plan, project, research, retell, retelling, try, worry, writer, writing 3 Comments

I hope I say something original, for once.

I’m close to wrapping a piece for a magazine, and I’m waiting on the opinions of some of the beta readers of one of my WIPs, so Friday morning, I started rummaging though my old journals for some new-old project ideas. Among my scribbling, I found notes about a folktale that really appealed to me. A little research has indicated that there is only one picture book retelling of this story. Which is why, for the first time, I’m attempting a folktale retelling.

Good for me, right? It’s good to try something new, right? Continue reading →

Rebecca Klempner

Author page of Rebecca Klempner

writing process

3 Tricks for magazine writers: How to write on a theme and still make your deadline

Coming clean: sometimes you’re supposed to do housework instead of writing

Who’s talking? POV, Voice, and Narrator as explained in Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird

2 Major differences between writing a picture book and writing short stories

When good things happen to anxious people: the beginning of a new project

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