Writer's Support Room - Open Forum Transcripts

Event start time: Tue Jul 06 14:13:45 2004
Event end time: Tue Jul 06 15:27:52 2004


Legend:
Questions from the Audience are presented in red.
Answers by the Speaker are in black.
The Moderator's comments are in blue.

mel boring Join us this afternoon in the AUDITORIUM-Scheduled Events Room for an "Open Forum" with Web Editor Mel Boring. Mel has published some 25 magazine articles and stories, as well as eight books for the young readers market. He taught writing for 18 years, while being home husband and parent to two of his four children, and doing his own writing. He welcomes your questions on time management, getting started, writer's block, marketing, writing rights, writing earnings, or anything else you'd like to discuss. Bring your QUESTIONS to this open forum-in five minutes.
mel boring The Tuesday afternoon "Open Forum" will begin promptly at 4 Atlantic/CANADA, 3 p.m. Eastern, 2 p.m. Central, 1 p.m. Mountain, and noon Pacific. While you wait for the "Open Forum" to start, feel free to use your ASK A QUESTION button RIGHT BETWEEN THE YELLOW "MAP" AND THE RED QUESTION MARK IN ICHAT to post some questions for the discussion group-two minutes from now.
mel boring Good afternoon! Welcome to this Tuesday afternoon's "Open Forum" session. I'm your moderator, Mel Boring, and the Web Editor for this site. We're back for an informal time of answering any questions you might like to ask, on any subject. So feel free to ask what's on your mind--and I'll tell you what's on mine! First, please read these announcements, then we'll get started.
mel boring IMPORTANT INSTRUCTIONS: Send questions you'd like answered or discussed by using your "Ask a Question" icon/button. (It looks like a thought bubble icon, RIGHT NEXT TO THE RED QUESTION MARK.) The moderator (me, Mel Boring) will post the questions one at a time in the chat room and do my best to answer them. Also note: If you want to make it possible to ask the longest question you can, first type "/ask" (without the quotation marks), then leave one space after the end of "ask", then type as many characters of your question as you can. If your question is not complete, send the second part next, then if necessary the third, etc.
mel boring WARNING: If you don't post anything at all, SOME of you will be bounced off the system in 15 minutes. TO PREVENT THIS, type something (either a question to the moderator or even a private message) every 15 minutes to stay active and remain online.
mel boring First of all...
mel boring THANK YOU for all the Fourth of July messages, which I DO enJOYed. Chris, Emily, Dianna, Carol, Rachel and Barbara. Thank you, friends!
mel boring We also have LOTS of GOOD NEWS today:...
mel boring This GOOD NEWS from Bernice Fishpaw: I recently attended the Southeastern Writers Conference at St. Simons Island in Georgia and was both surprised and delighted to receive two first place awards and an honorable mention. The one that was most gratifying was the "Angle Award" for the best holiday short story. My other first was a limerick. Honorable mention was awarded to my chapter book titled, THE ENCHANTED BRIDGE. This was the end result of my basic course with ICL under the tutelage of Gillian Richardson. Now I would like to see it published.
mel boring HEARTY CONTRATULATIONS, Bernice! Awards at that particular conference have OFTEN "predicted" what WILL be published. GOOD FORTUNE AND PUBLISHING TO YOU!
mel boring Vonnie sent us this GOOD NEWS about a great rejection letter: I recently sent off a middle grade novel I wrote through an ICL novel writing course. I entered my novel in the Ursula Nordstrom Fiction Contest at HarperCollins. Though I didn't win the contest, I never expected to get back a a personal letter(with an inked signature)from an editor who read my
much more than just a rejection. She told me
be very promising and extended a personal invitation to me that if I have any other projects (which I do!)that I think might fit with Harper, she would be be happy to consider them. Now
ends by hoping I will continue to pursue writing and
year, and in the meantime she sends her best wishes for my novel's successful publication. I love this rejection letter!
mel boring We have talked about the HarperCollins contest before, and I am VERY PLEASED to know of this EXCELLENT outcome!...
mel boring CONGRATULATIONS to you, Vonnie!!! It sounds like we'll be seeing your byline at HarperCollins!
mel boring Purple Plume sends this GOOD NEWS: This is my first time at the forum. Currently I'm working on assignment # 8. My good news is I sold my assignment # 4 to BOY'S QUEST and my assignment #6 won third place in a writing contest at writetightnow.com. I am very thrilled with my class and my progress.
mel boring That is GOOD NEWS indeed, Purple Plume!...
mel boring It's always exciting to this former ICL instructor to hear that your assignments have been published. CONGRATS to you, Purple Plume!!!
mel boring Before the last GOOD NEWS, I have several things that I...
mel boring promised recently that I didn't get done in the past two Open Forums....
mel boring First, I promised to give you the URL for WRITER BEWARE, which mbvoelker told us lists writing scams, among other things. Here is their URL:...
mel boring http://www.sfwa.org/beware/...
mel boring That is an EXCELLENT site where I could just stay and enjoy wandering around it! THANKS AGAIN, MB!
mel boring Secondly, I promised to give you the URL for the ASSOCIATION of AUTHORS REPRESENTATIVES, where all bona fide AGENTS are listed. The AAR is at:...
mel boring http://www.aar-online.org/about.html
mel boring These will be in the transcript, remember, so you don't have to copy them down. Finally,...
mel boring Someone asked where they could find the CHILDREN'S WRITERS WORD BOOK, which lists words that CAN be used with all the age and grade groups....
mel boring I'm not an Amazon salesperson, but here is their site URL where you can SEE the book, and order it if you want:...
mel boring http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-form/104-7002454-9239956
mel boring dnjc3 has this GOOD NEWS and a question: I recently went to a conference and had a manuscript (2 chapters of a fantasy novel) critiqued by an editor. She gave some very positive feedback, but recommended I work more on developing the main character early on in the story - before getting into the "great adventure." So, I've been trying and trying to work on character development, and trying to reveal it early on without going overboard. I've even mentally held some interviews with this character. But, I'm not quite getting at the heart. My question is this: are
methods of "fleshing out" a character
mel boring CONGRATULATIONS on your news, dnjc3!!!...
mel boring About character development, read the chat we had with ELAINE MARIE ALPHIN,...
mel boring who is THE RESIDENT EXPERT on characterization....
mel boring In that chat, I believe she mentioned at least three of the BEST books about characterization, which should help you, dnjc3....
mel boring For my own self, what I do to develop characters--and they do need to start development early,...
mel boring is to SEE them in my mind....
mel boring This not really earth-shaking advice, but I close my eyes and IMAGINE the character....
mel boring I WATCH their movements behind my eyelids, or their LACK of movement....
mel boring I look at what they're wearing, where the scenery LOOKS LIKE they might be....
mel boring I watch for whom they might be WITH, and all on "the TV of my mind."...
mel boring It's simply a device I use to "see" my characters....
mel boring and it works well for me. Try it, dnjc3, see if it works for you.
mel boring Barbara Mank sent a WELCOME answer to a question from last week's Open Forum: I just wanted to respond to a question from loretta last week, asking if the person waiting on a check from Kid Zone ever received it. That was me, and I thank you for responding to my e-mail. By the time you were able to answer my question about whether or not to e-mail an editor regarding a check that still hadn't been received, even after the magazine was already on the stands, I had already gone ahead and e-mailed the editor and hoped it was an okay thing to do. In the most professional manner that I could, I did explain my situation to Jennifer Winquist, editor at Kid Zone and asked if, perhaps, the check might have gone astray, or perhaps they mail checks out once a month as had been suggested by someone.
and told me that there had been a problem in mailing out the checks for the July issue of Kid Zone, but that it had been corrected.
checks were now on their way ("the check's in the mail!" ha ha), and that the checks were mailed out from a different location other than where the magazine is put together and printed up, so they didn't have any control over that aspect of it. She was very nice, and I did receive my check about a week later.
mel boring Thank you SO MUCH, Barbara, for taking the time to answer this question!...
mel boring It helps anyone who might be submitting to KID ZONE.
mel boring Here is also an answer to last week's question about ANIMAL CHARACTERS:...
mel boring An answer to last week's question about animal characters from our children's writer friend in Switzerland, Nancy Guye-Vuillème: My editor told me that MERRY CHRISTMAS MATTY MOUSE was their (North South's) best Christmas book. He didn't understand why, but I do: Matty is a real little person that wee ones identify with and would like to have for a friend. The whole time I wrote the story, I WAS Matty, living in HIS world. He has weaknesses that make him "human" and believable, but he
that draws others to him. Between Nora Hilb (the
created a little character with friends and a world that is be fun for a child to be part of. Matty's second book will be out in Spring 2005
mel boring I bought a copy of Nancy's first Matty Mouse book last Christmas...
mel boring and even got it autographed from Switzerland! It is a DELIGHTSOME mouse book, and Nancy's advice is right-on right! THANKS, Nancy!
loretta I can't seem to find the transcripts to Tuesdays Forums. I find the ones from Thursday. Where are they posted? Thanks
mel boring Thank YOU for asking, loretta!...
mel boring They are at:...
mel boring http://www.institutechildrenslit.com/rx/ws09/index.shtml
mel boring By the by, they are usually posted about ten minutes after they're over.
albertine Do you know about Pipeline to publication?? Is it a helpful supplement to the course?
mel boring I'm sorry that I DON'T know about Pipeline to publication, albertine....
mel boring But can you give me ANY info about them that you DO have, so I can search them out and find out for next week, please? Send it o
mel boring n the way you sent the question, and I'll see what I can find.
albertine When you say, write a story that involves pirates would you make the pirates talk 'different' and with that i mean like " matey, 'er, goin' , etc.
mel boring Yes, I would, albertine--and GOOD question!...
mel boring First of all, look up Sid Fleischman's children's books...
mel boring I can't remember the exact titles of the PIRATE books of his,..
mel boring but he's written some EXCELLENT ones....
mel boring I think ONE is GHOST IN THE NOONDAY SUN...
mel boring But look at Sid's "pirate talk," and you'll find he uses it sparingly....
mel boring Kids will get confused if there is too much of it....
mel boring I've read "matey" in Fleischman, for instance, but too MUCH clipping of words will make kids stop reading....
mel boring Use the pirate terms like table salt: sparingly.
mel boring The end of Albertine's question!
mel boring For those of you who joined us after we started, this is an "Open Forum" session where you are free to ask any writing and publishing questions you have, and your moderator (Mel Boring) will do his best to answer them--the sky isn't even the limit!
mel boring IMPORTANT INSTRUCTIONS: Send questions you'd like answered or discussed by using your "Ask a Question" icon/button. (It looks like a thought bubble icon, RIGHT NEXT TO THE RED QUESTION MARK.) The moderator (me, Mel Boring) will post the questions one at a time in the chat room and do my best to answer them. Also note: If you want to make it possible to ask the longest question you can, first type "/ask" (without the quotation marks), then leave one space after the end of "ask", then type as many characters of your question as you can. If your question is not complete, send the second part next, then if necessary the third, etc.
mel boring PLEASE remember NOT to talk between yourselves, use the Messaging Feature to do that...
mel boring If you chat between yourselves, it will appear between the questions and answers....
mel boring The Private Message function is done by clicking on the little white envelop, then follow the instructions.
loretta Thank you mel and Barbara, I also e-mailed Jennifer regarding payment. But that helps. Jennifer is very pleasant to talk to and Kid Zone, while the pay is not great, is a nice looking magazine with a lot to offer children. I would recomend it.
mel boring I WOULD TOO, loretta!...
mel boring It's a VERY SMART way to get into print if you forget about the "big money" for now....
mel boring I say that, having started my OWN writing career by selling stories to Sunday School magazines that sometimes paid...
mel boring are you ready for this?---ONE-FOURTH OF A CENT PER WORD!...
mel boring So for one 1000-word story I remember, I was paid two dollars and fifty cents!...
mel boring But the Sunday School magazines use LOTS of material, some EVERY WEEK,...
mel boring so they are MUCH EASIER to break in with....
mel boring Also, keep in mind KID ZONE, where you can get an easier start than at the HIGHLIGHTS's and the CRICKET's.
tkat_2 I found out by reading my current issue of Storyteller Magazine that they won't even reply if there is no SASE with your submission. They used to let it slide but not any more. There is an incentive to read and follow the guidelines!
mel boring THANKS, tkat_2! That move on their part is prolly because of...
mel boring every magazine's financial struggles....
mel boring If you have to provide, say, a thousand SASE postages, that's about 37 thousand cents, I believe, or in dollars,...
mel boring (I had to pause to use my calculator) about three hundred-seventy dollars, lots of money to small mags.
albertine I got a folder with an assignment that came back and also a separate package from the course about Pipeline to Publication. If you bought it in so many days, you'd get a free book and i asked a student counselor if when you order it they'd take off the price of the market book and the 64 first time authors. they would, but it's still pricey...i'm just wondering if it'd be worth the money...
mel boring THANKS, albertine! I've copied your words and WILL look into it by next week!
remus Hello Mel! I got some good news. I got a story published in this issue of WeeOnes Magazine. It is a rebus story called "Sandcastles" and I illustrated it as well. You can read it at www.weeonesmag.com
mel boring HURRAY and CONGRATULATIONS to you, remus!!!...
mel boring I'll be going to read that right after the forum, friend....
mel boring and THANKS for letting us know. The URL will be in the transcript, so I think your rebus will have LOTS of visitors!
grandy1983 In the fourth chapter of my middle-grade novel, my protagonist changed his attitude about something he was against since chapter 1. Is this too fast? He still has a lot of changing to go, but I tried to make his reasons valid enough for him to change his attitude about this particular person. Any advice would be great.
mel boring No, nothing can be "too fast" for kids, grandy1983....
mel boring As long as their are character changes in your protagonist...
mel boring that have not yet come about, that is fine....
mel boring Just remember that the protag's most SIGNIFICANT character change(s) should only come out in the end of the book.
mel boring SORRY, folks,...
mel boring but I just got bumped off the Internet, in spite of all I've been saying!...
mel boring Pretty fast comeback, though, huh?...
albertine Mel, do you know how come chickadee, owl, etc are not accepting submissions any longer?
mel boring Usually when a magazine does this, albertine,...
mel boring it's because of budget cuts....
mel boring What they do is EITHER, 1) go to their "freezer" and use stories/articles they've already bought....
mel boring or 2) have their staff do the story/article writing....
mel boring I don't know specifically about CHICKADEE and family, but I would GUESS that is what has happened....
mel boring Many times the "nature magazines" depend on donations and grants and sponsorships,..
mel boring and they don't come through as planned...
mel boring So, rather than close their doors, they look to the "freezer" or their staff...
mel boring The GOOD NEW, albertine, is that magazines ALWAYS come back to receiving submissions, if they survive the budget crunch,...
mel boring because they NEED new material if they've gone to the "freezer,"...
mel boring and if they go for being staff-written, they know that can lead to an ingrown kind of staganation. They need our "outside blood" for survival in the long run!
writermom Mel how about an easy magazine to get into for middlegrade to YA
mel boring That would probably be in the "religious" category, writermom,...
mel boring and that would include BREAKAWAY,...
mel boring BRIO, BYU MAGAZINE, CAMPUS LIFE,...
mel boring CLUB CONNECTION and CRUSADER, just to name a few....
mel boring If you have ICL's CHILDREN'S MAGAZINE MARKET, look up in the back index,...
mel boring and look for "Religious (Fiction)" or the nonfiction,...
mel boring and you'll see them listed WITH age groups, the teens and YAs included. GOOD question, and VERY PRACTICAL, writermon
mel boring WHOOPS! I mean WRITERMOM! SORRY!
casey I just looked at Pipeline to Publication. For new authors, those just finishing the course it would be helpful.
mel boring THANK YOU, casey, coming from YOU, that's a GOOD recommendation!
arnalda Congrats, remus!
mel boring Belated, since arnalda sent it some time ago, remus,...
mel boring but CONGRATS, frm arnalda and all of us!
mel boring PA asked this question that could benefit ALL of us: In the article Energize Your Tired Words the book CHILDREN'S WRITER'S WORD BOOK is mentioned. Where is this book available? It sounds like a good tool, but I don't recall seeing it with my course before now.
mel boring THis is the book I mentioned at the beginning, where I gave the AMAZON URL where you can see the book, and order it if you want to.
mel boring Wee Willie Winkie wonders: What are considered subject taboos when writing fiction for Middle Grade and YA?
mel boring Wee Willie Winkie--marvelous username---there are very FEW taboos today....
mel boring In the area of sexual taboos, which have been strong in the past,...
mel boring most of the taboos are turned off, except at certain publishers....
mel boring The ONE taboo that is STRONG right now is gun violence....
mel boring Because of the Columbine tragedy, the use of guns for that kind of senseless destruction is taboo...
mel boring Even if you're trying to "teach a lesson," I wouldn't do it....
mel boring Until the tragedy of Columbine fades, it will be taboo,...
mel boring and I'm not sure that will EVER fade.
grandy1983 Mel, is it okay to use the name of an actual department store, etc? As long as the town name is made up?
mel boring It depends on the store, grandy1983...
mel boring What I would suggest is...
mel boring to WRITE TO the store in question, and ask....
mel boring You can prolly find the corporate address on the Internet....
mel boring But it's always SAFEST to ask. And some won't, but SOME WILL! And good luck!...
mel boring Will you PLEASE let us know how you come out?
mel boring MEW e-mailed this question: Presently, I am writing a fictional Children's story and would like to contact an agent for representation. I work in Boston and live just south and know there are many agents in the Boston area. Still, I would appreciate any you could recommend as I've not had an opportunity to evaluate all the companies.
mel boring The URL I gave at the beginning for the AUTHORS REPRESENTATIVES will give you their addresses too, MEW,...
mel boring and you can find ones near Boston.
mel boring EVG asked about cover letters: When writing a cover letter, what's a professional way of saying that I am making simultaneous submissions of the manuscript and will notify them if I am accepted by another first? I don't want it to sound as if I

mel boring Here's an example of what to say, EVG:...
mel boring I am also now submitting this article to ___ other publishers. I will notify you immediately if another publisher accepts my book (or article) to let you know....
mel boring You MIGHT put the number of publishers you're submitting to on the ___, but not necessary.
ani Do the teachers get angry when you send a late lesson???
mel boring EXCELLENT question, ani!!! THANKS for asking it!...
mel boring I NEVER got angry when an assignment was sent late, because I had lots of other things to do....
mel boring HOWEVER, it IS necessary to keep up a certain pace for YOU doing the course....
mel boring And of course instructors DO understand that "life happens," as John Lennon said....
mel boring So things come up in your life that slow down your lesson-sending....
mel boring IF you let the instructor know, there'll be absolutely NO PROBLEM, ani.
writermom mel I'm not sure if the story is appropriate for religious mags it is about a teen talking to the ghost of her dead sister to learn to deal with the death of the sister
mel boring Yes, I think it WOULD be appropriate for some religious mags, writermom....
mel boring especially for the YA age range. BEST is to look at samples of those you THINK...
mel boring might accept it, seeing if they have "similar" stories.
mel boring KM needs to know: If I write on a craft idea or particular activities that help get children processing information better, how do I know if I am "stealing" an idea? For
we did many activities that were standard for our industry, that many therapists write about in therapist periodicals, but if I want to share them with parents, teachers, and homeschools is it okay since I am putting the information in my own words? Wouldn't it be the same as if I wrote a how to on jumping rope, etc? Regarding crafts: Think of all the generations of school children who have glued together two sections of egg cartons together to make chicks or rabbits for Easter.That idea doesn't "belong" to anyone. So, whether these were 30 year old art or craft projects left in a drawer by a retired teacher or whether I got them from a book, is it okay if I am explaining to
am coming up with my own directions in my own words? I wouldn't submit the line work from a book and I would probably do my own drawings of say,"the leaf people" art project, since I don't know where the original work came from. So, when is it called recycling and when is it called stealing
mel boring No, KM, you need not worry about "stealing."...
mel boring First of all, IDEAS are NOT copyrighted,...
mel boring only the SPECIFIC FORM OF THE WORDS that a story or article has been published in...
mel boring And you're right, crafts have been DONE MANY times, some of them...
mel boring but if you "recycle" an old craft, and don't copy the exact wordage it was in before, you're perfectly safe, friend!
mel boring ITeechABC e-mailed to ask: For one of my assignments some time ago, I wrote a story with inanimate objects as characters. My instructor liked the story itself, however, discouraged me from submitting anything with inanimate characters. If I remember correctly she said that was "out". It seems lately I'm reading/seeing more and more stories that do have objects as characters. (Toy Story, Brave Little Toaster, Thomas the Tank Engine, etc.) Should I dig up my old story, dust it off, and submit it?
mel boring The KEY to inanimate characters is this, ITeechABC: Do they work?...
mel boring If they work as well as TOY STORY and THOMAS once did, then by all means submit them!...
mel boring But editors have a built-in "radar" for POOR animated inanimate characters,...
mel boring so you should be prepared for that. The reason is that they've received SO MANY "imitations" of TUGGY THE TUGBOAT and such, that they are defensive about it.
mel boring Sarah is asking: Is there an article on your website that explains the hierarchy of editors? I know there are Exec. Editors, Managing Editors, Senior Editors, & Assistant Editors. Who ranks whom? Are some of the titles specific to certain houses?
mel boring There is no such article on our site right now, Sarah, but how about somebody writing one and submitting it, OK?...
mel boring I would be PLEASED to consider it for our ICL Web Site....
mel boring Right now, one of the BEST sources that explains the kinds of editors is...
mel boring THE COMPLETE IDIOT'S GUIDE TO PUBLISHING CHILDREN'S BOOKS...
mel boring It is by Harold Underdown, who has been a chat guest of ours....
mel boring That book is VERY FRESH in its new recent edition, and has such a TREASURY of information! I HIGHLY recommend it.
mel boring Sarah also asked: After graduation, do we still have free access to your website?
mel boring An EASY final question! YES, YES, YES,...
mel boring You are ALWAYS welcome at our web site, Sarah!...
mel boring and ANYone, even people who have NOT taken the ICL course are WARMLY WELCOME!
george kulz I'd be in BIG trouble if the teachers DID get angry for late lessons ani ;-)
mel boring Thanks for that affidavit, george!...
catlady Thanks, Mel!!!
mel boring Thank YOU all, for being here. WOWSER, I see that I'm WAY overtime! See you next Tuesday, friends
loretta Bye, Mel.

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