Guest Post: Balancing Your Writing with School as a Teen Author with Rachel Yurchisin

I recently have been working with teen author Rachel Yurchisin, who just published her first picture book, Dairy of My Days in Kenya. She’s been a real inspiration to me and others as she focuses on her studies as a junior in high school, sports, her love for wild life and still finds time to promote her book. I started wondering if a teen author has the same challenges as adult authors.

Rachel is the fourth youth author I have encountered during my years in the world of ink and she is no different from many of us oldies who love to write and dream about sharing our work with young minds searching for a good story and a better understanding of the world around them in a good book.

So today, I have asked Rachel Yurchisin to share her thoughts on being a teen author and balancing her writing with school.

*****

When I first got the notification my manuscript was accepted by Halo Publishing, I was overjoyed. 

It was an amazing feeling when I got the first shipment of books and saw my name on the cover, and my picture on the back. It was really a dream come true. 

This whole experience has not changed my relationship with any of my friends- many of whom have bought my books for the holidays. Even some of my teachers have expressed interest in my book. Also, now since I am a junior in high school- the college search is currently taking place. 

When I visit various colleges, many are impressed with the fact that I am a published author and I hope that will assist in my college acceptance probability.

I have found it very difficult to balance writing, the process of publishing and publicizing my book "Dairy of My Days in Kenya" with my schoolwork and hobbies. I give Virginia a lot of credit with putting up with me not keeping up with deadlines, etc. 

However, I believe that family comes first, and then school work, and then anything else. However, on the side I participate in the Zoo Crew at the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo, which is a group that teaches the public about the animals on exhibit. I also am in involved with the Future Scientists groups at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History that does surveys of wildlife on various museum properties throughout the course of the year. In addition, since 6^th grade, I have been participating in science fairs on the state level and last year I represented the state of Ohio in a national science fair. 

For school, I am on the varsity tennis team and hopefully on the varsity softball team in the spring. As you can imagine, it’s hard to have a social life when you’re involved with all of these extracurricular activities- thank goodness I have very understanding friends and family, who support me through all of my endeavors. 

 

If you haven’t written anything yet, but you want to become an author, I would suggest starting to write about anything you find interesting. For me in particular- I have always found inspiration in nature and past experiences. 

If you get a spell of “writer’s block” make sure you relax- in most cases there isn’t a deadline and if you relax more than likely you will be able to think of something. If you already have something written that, you feel has potential for becoming a published work- send it in as soon as you can! 

The worst thing they can do is say no and suggest a few changes. It may make take a few tries but it is definitely worth it once you get the satisfaction of seeing your name on the cover of a book that YOU wrote. 

 About the Book: Diary of My Days in Kenya…is a fictional story loosely based upon the real life occurrences of a nomadic lioness who nurtures baby oryx as if they were her own young. During a drought, a naturalist, Susan Polling, and other professionals, are sent on assignment to observe and document this special pairing. The book’s spirited protagonist, Polling, offers the reader interesting insights as to why this unique phenomenon has transpired. The story explores how the traditional relationship of predator and prey is transcended, presenting a spellbinding account of how a parental bond, even a non-traditional one, can never be broken.

Diary of My Days in Kenya

Publisher: Halo Publishing, Int.

ISBN Number: 978-1-935268-89-5

Genre of Book: Children’s/Educational

Publication Date: May 2011

About the Author: Rachel Yurchisin’s love of science and nature has inspired her to write her first children’s book in the hopes of passing on her passion to other young ‘budding’ naturalists. Yurchisin is a junior in high school and participates in educational programs at her city zoo and natural history museum.

About the Illustrator: Fred Fulcher, the author's grandfather, is a retired Clevland firefighter and business entrepreneur residing in Parma Hts., Ohio. He is a self-taught artist and has enjoyed creating the illustrations for his first children's book.

Places where Diary of My Days in Kenya is available for sale:

http://halopublishing.com

http://amazon.com

You can find out more about Rachel Yurchisin’s World of Ink Author/Book Tour schedule at http://storiesforchildrenpublishing.com/RachelYurchisin.aspx. There will be giveaways, reviews, interviews, guest posts and more. Make sure to stop by and interact with Yurchisin and the hosts at the different stops by leaving comments and/or questions.

In addition, come listen to Blog Talk Radio’s World of Ink Network show: Stories for Children at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/worldofinknetwork. The hosts VS Grenier, Kris Quinn Chirstopherson and Irene Roth will be chatting with Rachel Yurchisin about her book and writing.  

The show will air live January 23, 2012 at 6pm EST. You can tune in live at the World of Ink Network site at http://www.blogtalkradion.com/worldofinknetwork.

The Word vs The Thing

By Scott Rhoades

2011 was the year I discovered that, as much as I love books as objects and as much as the physical object is part of the comfort of reading, I enjoy ebooks. The first one I read was on my phone. I expected to hate it, but I was hanging out at the airport, waiting for my daughter to arrive, and I gave it a try. Even on the little screen, having several books in my pocket was pretty cool, and the reading experience wasn't bad. Then I got an iPad from work, and that was that. Of the 40 books I read last year, 15 were ebooks. Two years ago I expressed my disdain for ebooks in comments on a couple blogs. Once I tried them though, I learned something.

What I learned should not have been a surprise. As much as I love the feel and smell of a book, It's the words that made me love reading as a kid. That is what I love most about reading now.

To be sure, curling up with an iPad is not the same. It's a cool gadget-on-roids, but it's heavy and awkward, and not that comfortable to hold, especially with one hand, a big deal the last six weeks of the year, when I've been one-handed due to arm surgery. You can't really hold the iPad in one hand, and you certainly can't curl up with it.

Of course, the iPad, isn't the only, or the best, ereader in town. Kindles and Nooks are much smaller and more comfortable to hold, even the newer tablet-style readers. I've resisted those readers for a while because of the number of books you can buy for the price of the reader. But because I have enjoyed ebooks so much this year, I asked for a Nook for Christmas, and was thrilled to get a Nook Color.

And guess what, I can actually curl up with it, and hold it in one hand. It doesn't have the same warm comfort as a worn paperback, but the physical object itself is enjoyable. Of course, the words are the most important thing, and they are comfortable to read on my new gadget. As for the price, well, so many books are available for free or in collections of 20-80 books for between 99 cents and 3.99. I read a lot of classics, so those collections have more than made up the difference between the price of the screen and the books I could buy for that money.

Of course, I still love books, and books I want to keep will be bought and squeezed on to my shelves, consigning other books to the boxes in the closet. But there are a lot of books I want to read that I don't care about showing or storing in my dwindling space. The words and stories are what I love the most, and they are the same in whichever media.

Now that I've seemingly gone to the dark side (or the backlit side), I should mention something else.

A couple days after Christmas I got a box containing books full of classic children's stories. Those books had been in my Grandma's homes all my life. Grandma died in July at the age of 92. My aunt knows how much I love books, and that I read from this set when I was much younger, so she gave them to me. I opened the first volume and was overwhelmed with a variety of emotions. It stll smelled like the room in her house in San Jose where I used to sleep as a wee bairn. I'll never get that experience from bits on a screen. Ever.

So it's not an either/or thing. The stories are why I read, but there's so much emotion attached to special books, whether they remind you of Grandma or of the time and place where you bought them, or where you were in your life when you read them.

What this all means is that I have room in my life for both types of reading experience. I can enjoy them both for their own benefits. I will never give up my books. But I'll also never give up the joy of carrying a library in a convenient and comfortable reading device. I love both the words and the multiple ways those words can be consumed these days.

There's really only one conclusion I can come to: it's a good time to be a reader.

Trolling for Inspiration in News Stories

Ever searched sources of truth for inspiration for fiction? Just a line, a bit of a statement, part of an explanation, when viewed with the right mindset, can provide immense inspiration for current and future stories. A couple weeks ago I heard a story on NPR's "The World" and one single line from the story stuck out to me as a promising start (or addition) to a story. It was something about how the fighting was so intense between the three warring parties that an independent priest had to carry the only set of keys and lock and unlock the local church each night.

Fiction from Nonfiction? Absolutely!

Here are some promising statements I dug up after a quick search of today's new stories:

"The immediate problem is that the body can't be found."


"It's one thing to be the rabble-rouser. It's quite another thing to be the leader."


"She seemed genuinely surprised when [he] informed her she was being held for investigation of attempted murder. She bent her chest into her knees while sitting, and cried."


The person who signed it "Pie Fairy" also wrote: "My wings are shorter now and I am a little too fat to fly anymore. But I still love you!!"


Doing too much too soon is a common mistake. Injuries and burnout are often the result.


Along the way, someone else nearly always got an invitation to ride with him, whether it was a student on the way to school, a person going to work or someone waiting for a bus.


"It's just surprising when design finally meets toilet paper — that's sort of the final frontier," Adamson said.


She was fat. She could see it in the mirror.


"Part of my job is trying to convince that 85-year-old woman that she really should start weight lifting," says Dr. Dennis Kerrigan, senior exercise physiologist 


yet on the tsetse-fly scale of restaurant years, it was many mutations ago. Things have changed.


 He lived outside conventional ideas, he implied, because “I live alone mostly, in the middle of nowhere.”


But these young people are not battling alcohol or drugs. Rather, they have severe cases of what many in this country believe is a new and potentially deadly addiction: cyberspace.


What could possibly justify such an early wake-up call? 


Among them are foot stomping, tail flagging, head bobbing, ear twitching, hoof pawing and nose licking; lunges, charges, chases, pokes and antler thrusts; and aggressive sounds he describes as grunt-snorts and grunt-snort-wheezes. There are also alarm snorts and bawls and less disturbing sounds, like social-contact grunts between does (deer). 

Pulled from KSL, Deseret News, NPR, and NY Times. 

Know Your Genre

What is genre?

What is genre?
It is literary technique, tone, content, length etc.
Fiction is the hardest genre to break into.

• Realism-Plausible story about people and events that could really happen. Romance, thriller, historical, sports all fit under realism.

• Fantasy-Fantastical elements in traditional or modern fantasy.
  • Traditional fantasy follows the quest. 
  • Modern fantasy has elements of magic in the human world. Horror and sci/fi are sub genres of modern fantasy.

Elements in Fiction:
Plot-Plot is the backbone of the story. In fiction plot is the action that grows out of conflict.
Conflict-is the obstacle, the problem
Initial Conflict-First event that starts the quest, the hook. Only needs one page (sometimes a chapter) to establish. It creates the next cause & effect (conflict) then moves the character to the next conflict. Initial conflict will predict the climax.
Exposition-Back story weaves through out the story.
Rising Action-Series of at least three conflicts
Climax-The most intense part of the story. Everything in the story moves the story to this point and the main character has an Epiphany to the resolution. Needs only one chapter.
Resolution-Is the outcome. Needs only one chapter

 

Non-fiction SELLS THE MOST

• Biography-needs more factual support.
• Autobiography-Bigger piece of time
• Memoirs-Small part of life
• General non-fiction (Dewey decimal)-Different stories from life in one book

Elements in Non-Fiction
All non-fiction needs:
Plot
Conflict
Hook
Exposition
Climax-lesson learned
Resolution-reader says “I can do that!”

What are the target audiences?
Picture book: 1-3 pages
Chapter book: Max 100 pages
Middle grade: 100-200 pages
Young Adult: 150-300 pages
Adult: 150-several hundred pages, 70,000-90,000 words max

Making Time to Write

by Deren Hansen

In a session on organizing the writing life during Life, the Universe, and Everything (LTUE) 2011, Julie Wright said, "Time is always made, never found."

So how do you make time to write?

At one level, it simply comes down to the question, "What are you willing to give up in order to write?"

Of course, saying it that way makes you sound less than committed if you're not a writing hermit.

So how can a person who has a life outside of writing make time?

Consider the following techniques (all of which were discussed in the LTUE session I mentioned above).

Ways to Make Time in General:

Priorities

Many of us treat our writing as a hobby--not that we're lacking in commitment but rather that we approach it more like a leisure activity. Let me hasten to add that there's nothing wrong with writing as a hobby if you're satisfied with the time you are able to devote to it. If, however, you wish you had more time to write (a lament I've heard from nearly every writer I've met), raising the priority of your writing to the same level as, say, exercising, would mean that it's no longer optional.

Sandra Tayler said, "When I write first, the laundry gets easier."

Little Systems

Now that you've raised the priority of your writing, how can you make time by spending less of it on other things? There's an entire industry devoted to offering answers to that question. And every situation, of course, is different. That said, I've found the pattern of making little systems to be surprising powerful for something so simple.

I've discussed little systems elsewhere. In brief, a little system is anything that helps you streamline a recurring task. For example, I sort mail (the paper kind) over the trash can because most of it will end up there.

The most effective sort of streamlining is to remove decisions points. If you like to write in the morning, but find it hard because of the time it takes you  to get ready for the day, choosing your clothes the night before means one less decision to make in the morning.

Ways to Make Time to Work on Long-form Fiction

Clear Space, Both Physical and Temporal

Creativity is a safe, adult-appropriate word for play. In order to sustain the focus we need to create long-form works, we need a place in time and space to play. We need a place where we can leave our half-built castles in the air while we attend to other things secure in the knowledge that they'll be there, undisturbed and ready for us, when we return.

In this age of convenient mobile computing systems, setting up your writing environment may be no more complicated than opening a laptop and firing up a word processor. Clearing your schedule and your internal worry processor are more difficult. This is why many writers will go to a library or a cafe. Whatever you do, the key is to find a time and space where you can focus on your project.

Create Stability

Emergencies will derail your writing. You can't prevent all emergencies, but you can take care of things under your control so that you're not creating problems for yourself.

If, for example,you paid your bills when you receive your statement, you'd never run the risk of leaving it all to the last moment and then having a fire drill to get everything paid. I know people who, as a matter of principle, pay their bills at the last possible moment in order to deny the entity whatever interest it might have earned having the money a few days earlier. I prefer to discharge my obligations as soon as they come due so that I can devote the time I would have spent keeping track of my unpaid bills to my writing, secure in the knowledge that it's safe to play.


Deren blogs at The Laws of Making.

Suspending Disbelief

I finished a book the other night by one of my more favorite authors. I love her recent historical fiction for young adults and thought I'd read some of her earlier work.

I didn't get it.

At all.

It got me thinking about the concept of "suspending one's disbelief" in fiction writing. Writers ask their readers to set aside natural disbeliefs and suspicions and go with them in a fictional journey all the while pretending that it is real. Sometimes the journey involves other worlds and creatures, other times and places-- Orson Scott Card and JK Rowling come to mind immediately. Sometimes the journey seems almost identical to everyday, run-of-the-mill life, and yet we still must trust that somehow, somewhere, in someone's life, these events truly could happen.

The author's book I read had too many yarns woven together, too many lives being explored, and too much of a stretch that the main "collision of worlds" described on the cover flap could actually happen at all. I walked away thinking: "Really? Would that even really happen?"

That response is the sign of a failure on the part of the author to keep readers engaged. When I read Harry Potter, I closed the book and thought "Oh, if only!" I knew it was fiction; I knew Hogwarts was the creation of a talented author, but oh how I wanted to go there! I'm not alone in that. Look at how many millions of people try, in their own simple ways, to recreate the Wizard and Muggle worlds around them.

How do you do that? Here are a few keys I thought of:

Consistency. You can't be changing the rules every other chapter; it won't work. Write the rules for your world/story and keep them the same throughout.

Plausibility. Yes, it is fake, but it must be believably fake. For example, a raging blizzard in Hawaii won't get your story anywhere-- unless that topsy-turvy weather is plaguing the whole globe.

Depth. Your story must be well-rounded and have substance. Pretend your creation is a boat-- the bigger the boat (tale), the deeper the water needed to support it. A shallow story does not justify sufficient suspension!

Description. If you're solely creating the characters, the world, the fantasy, then assume your readers know nothing. Show them everything. Yes, there is a fine line to walk between description and belaboring that all authors must walk, but in this discussion, walking that fine line is the difference between failure and success.

Anchor. Keep at least some aspect of your story moored in reality. Throwing a reader into a newly-created, uncharted existence in a story is sure to leave them feeling like a tourist dropped off without a guide in the middle of nowhere.

All of these keys--and the skills behind them-- are learnable. Some authors are blessed to get them right off the bat (just like some authors are able to make millions with their first book). Most of us don't get it right away. We need practice and experience. We need to look through our manuscripts with a hearty dose of skepticism to make sure our story merits the "suspension of disbelief." Being aware of this will help make it easier for you to spot the holes in your own fantasy as you're writing.

Good luck! Please post your comments below! :o)
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For more reading:
http://readerviews.com/Articles-Writing_Creating_Suspension_Of_Disbelief.html

http://www.redchurch.com/quantum/2007/09/14/6-secrets-to-suspension-of-disbelief/

http://writinghood.com/style/how-to/the-magic-of-harry-potter-suspending-disbelief-in-fiction/

Websites I've Stumbled Upon

"Writing Excuses: Fifteen minutes long, because you're in a hurry, and we're not that smart."
Brandon Sanderson contributes to this one so it's got to be good! 15 minute podcasts to listen to. 
http://www.writingexcuses.com/

"How to write a famous blog in 6 steps" 
Most of you have a blog. Do you know how to make it famous? (me neither)
http://www.wikihow.com/Write-a-Famous-Blog

"Creative Writing Prompts."
Pick a number, any number, and be inspired by the prompt. LOTS of ideas here!
http://creativewritingprompts.com/

"The 18 most popular writing articles from 2011" 
Let someone else do the searching for you. One list of great articles to read.
http://www.writersdigest.com/online-editor/the-18-most-popular-articles-on-writing-of-2011

"Is my story worthy?" 
Not sure if it's worth your time. Here are some great tips from a good webforum.
http://www.fuelyourwriting.com/avoiding-pressure-is-my-story-worthy/

The Road to Creating a Great Book

Tips from Writer’s Digest and a few Words from VS Grenier

Every writer who has ever submitted his work to an agent, editor or publisher in the hopes of getting it published has at one time or another received the dreaded “rejection letter.” But do you wonder how other writers are doing it…getting published? Some will tell you they self-published or started their own publishing house. Others may say they have a friend, who has a friend, who has a friend in publishing. You may wonder if they just happened to scratch the winning lottery ticket. In most cases, these are all true but the one thing they also have done is called the softer side of marketing…or as I like to call it…selling yourself!

Writing is more than creating a great book, article, poem or short story. It is about sharing yourself with the world. A great way to do that is by building your author platform. If you are like most of us, you want to devote most of your time to writing. However, it is just as important to build your platform as an author if you want to reach your target readership and build a fan base. 

Most writers get queasy even imagining having to sell themselves but without a plan, you cannot truly figure out a way to sell your book. You need to think of this as your business plan, after all—this is your new business (writing and publishing), so you need to put a road map together for your book and/or business’ (you the author) success. You also should have this in place, or at least working on it, the moment you begin writing, especially if it is a new book.

In the publishing industry, not having a road map to detail your goals, book’s message and marketing plan will only land you lost among all the other books in the slush pile or on the selves trying to find a potential reader. Nevertheless, your map will keep this from happening by guiding you from staving writer to successful author. I talk about this often on my blog talk radio show, “What is Success” every Friday and this last month,  Writer’s Digest also had an article on this very subject: “50 Simple Ways to Build Your Platform in 5 Minutes a Day.”

With that in mind, you must be wondering, “What do I put in my author business plan?” A very good question, so let’s start with...what do you need to write a book? Now I know you must be thinking “imagination”, however, we both know you need more than that. What you will need is a “WOW” factor and some talent. To get started you will need some paper and a pen or if you are like me, a computer (laptop or desk) will do. However, what happens next?

So to get you started, here is a short list of ideas:

1. Outline who you want to reach with your book. Knowing your target readership is important, not only in writing but in also knowing whom you need to market to after you are published, and better yet…before your book even hits the bookstores. Time to jot down all those people who will want your book and how effective they will be at getting more people to want it; after all, if you hit the right target market, they will be more than happy to share about you and your writing with others who like the same things they do. Nothing beats word of mouth marketing.
2. Sign up for Google Alerts. Google Alerts (google.com/alerts) can help you track who is following and talking about you or your book. I use this for not only myself as an author and my books, but also for Stories for Children Magazine, the World of Ink Tours and everything else I do. Why is this important? So I can make sure I am reaching my target readership or a group I might not have thought about to begin with. The other important thing to do is send a "Thank You" when you see they have posted, twitted or shared about you. Remember…Network!
3. If you have a blog/social network site, post pictures of you out promoting your book and at writing events. Readers like to know you are actively involved with your writing. Trust me; I know how hard this can be. I am not the best about this either, but my goal in 2012 is to be better. I have a blog, I have a newsletter and I should be posting my picture at writing and community events. So get ready to see more of me in 2012, even if I hate having my picture taken.
4. Hold your own local event. This one is not as tough as we make it out to be. There are many local businesses that are willing and happy to host a book signing or author event. You just need to ask, but I would first build a networking connection with the business first and also offer something in return for their help. Make it a partnership.
5. Offer guest posts to those who have blogs or websites on writing or topic of your book. This helps build a fan base or following. Those of you who have been reading or following me for sometime know that I write guest post for a few blogs and websites (free of cost). I do this because I love sharing about writing, marketing and publishing.
6. Be a guest on a talk radio show. This is a great way to show your expertise as a writer or on a topic in your writing/book. I have my own blog talk show but before I become a blog talk radio host, I was a guest on many different talk radio shows local and on blog talk radio. This helped me build a following and fan base for my writing and my services.

If you want more tips and suggestions, read the Writer’s Digest article: “50 Simple Ways to Build Your Platform in 5 Minutes a Day.” The tips I shared are also listed along with 45 more!

Wishing you much success in 2012.

Also, don’t forget to check out the January SFC World of Ink Tours. We have some great authors touring with us every month. You can learn more about our World of Ink Tours and the authors we are currently hosting and have hosted at http://storiesforchildrenpublishing.com/WorldofInkTours.aspx.

In addition, tune in to blog talk radio’s World of Ink Network every other Friday where I’ll be hosting the “What is Success” show on Fridays and the “Stories for Children” show on Mondays. You can also catch me monthly on the “Families Matter” show, which airs live on the 3^rd Wednesday of every month. You can learn more about BTR’s World of Ink Network, our guest and hosts, and our shows at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/worldofinknetwork or on our blog http://worldofinknetwork.blogspot.com. 

Bio: VS Grenier is an award-winning children's author, founder & owner of Stories for Children Publishing, LLC., award-winning editor-in-chief of Stories for Children Magazine and chief editor for Halo Publishing, Int., and also, the host of the blog talk radio shows Stories for Children, Families Matter and What is Success. To learn more about her, visit http://vsgrenier.com