Friday, May 26, 2017

Meandering thoughts and some story ideas



I like to tell stories.

I enjoy improvising tales to my children, and seeing their smiles and hearing their laughter.

I hope you do as well.

With your own children it is an easy thing to accomplish.  You know your children, and you are familiar with their likes and wants. 

What do you do then, when you are wanting to write something to appeal to a wide range of children?

You stop.

I have a hypothesis on this topic I would like to share.  You will not write something that appeals to all readers of any particular age.  It won't happen.  There will be children who don't care for your story, just as certainly as their are children who don't care for mine.  Its okay. Its normal.  Don't let it stress or distract you.  Just as all adults have different tastes in material they read, so too do children.

Write your story, and do your best to get it in front of those children who may want to read it.

Tell your story, and let it resonate with those children who enjoy it and let it fall by the wayside of those for whom it does not.   In the telling, the writing, and the creation of your work, you will have fulfilled your function as author.  From there on, it is the function of the reader to digest your work or not.

Now for some story ideas (feel free to explore this if you like):

A narrative telling of the progression of the lifecycle of a flower.   This story serving to be educational as well as visually pleasing.

Similiar theme, a narrative telling of the lifecycle of a tree.

Squirrels vs. Chipmunks... the baseball game of the century

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Just some ideas I came up with.  As per prior entries, I recommend making notes of such ideas as they fall on you.  More than just the one or two sentences described above for your own notes, but sharing broad ideas may help someone write their own story if they are having a block.


I want to thank my friends at Wood Works, for linking folks to this blog.

Please do continue to share this blog with others.
Thank you for joining me here again today.

                     REMEMBER
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Create and bring joy through your words.

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I write under the pen name W.S. Quinton.
I hope you will join me next time, for more on my work in children's books and on observations about the genre and things I learn along the way.

Comments and questions are always welcome.

Thank you for reading.

Friday, May 19, 2017

Children's books, writing with my daughter this summer, and a little more

Art by Samantha Vogelsang
You can learn more about Samantha and her art :HERE

My oldest daughter is 9 years old.  Since I've been working harder at writing, she has expressed an interest in writing a book with me and then writing one on her own.  I am very excited about this idea.

This little lady has asked to write a story with me, then she wants to write her own book. She has contrived a fanciful story concept that she wants to explore.  So I'm encouraging her to think about the story, its conflicts, plot, and all the little nuances that go into writing a book.  I think she may be writing her first book this summer!  It makes me proud that she wants to try her hand at becoming an author.

As for me?

Art is well underway on the children's books.  My other literary projects are kicking off pretty well ( I just launched my first kickstarter two days ago for one of my role-playing titles. You can find it):  Here

I received an email from an artist who wants to work with me on some projects.  So for the first time I have more artists than I do books that need illustrations.  Nice thing about that is I can spend more time with my notes on titles I want to develop, which is a wonderful leisure to have.

I've got some ideas to explore that are very exciting.  Please do wish em well.

Thank you all for following my blog.  Your comments and questions are welcome.

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Create and bring joy through your words.

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I write under the pen name W.S. Quinton.
I hope you will join me next time, for more on my work in children's books and on observations about the genre and things I learn along the way.

Comments and questions are always welcome.

Thank you for reading.


Sunday, May 14, 2017

Happy Mother's Day

Art by Samantha Vogelsang
You can learn more about Samantha Here


Happy Mother's Day!

We all owe our everything to the mothers who bore us.
I hope you have a wonderful day, surrounded by your children (and their children if such is the case).

Mothers are always mothers.  There really isn't a day off from that. So have a wonderful day!

Here in Kentucky, the sun is shining, my children are playing, and my wife and the mother of my children is enjoying a much deserved nap.

I had prepared a post I was going to put up on Monday, but I'll just tack it on below here.

In the meantime, prop your feet up a bit ladies.  Enjoy the sound of your children's laughter and the sight of their smiles.

For all the husbands/fathers out there, remember all they went through for the children.  Don't take the ladies for granted.

If you will excuse me then, I have some things to do before my wife wakes from her nap.

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Today's entry, is different from the usual.

Today, I want to ask you the questions:  What story are you looking for?  What story do you want to read to your child?  (Please comment, this should be informative for all of us).

For me:
I like to write simple association stories for infants and toddlers.... so "the ball is red"; "this is my nose", that kind of thing.

For toddlers through pre-k, I like to write simple stories of friendship and good citizenship... telling stories that exalt virtues like truth, patience, etc.

Then for children at higher reading levels up to pre-teen:  I like to write stories that build confidence in the child, through story telling... good overcomes evil, bad guys always lose, kids really make a difference, etc.

What type of books do I want for my children? Pretty much the same as I like to write.    Mysteries, fantastic tales, and basic science for my older, pre-teens.  Books that describe things or actions while being within the child's reading comprehension for my kindergarten child.   Picture books for my toddler.

I also want stories on subjects my children enjoy.

For my 9 year old daughter books on horses, fantastic stories about  faeries or other mythical creatures, bible stories, mysteries, and fiction revolving around the kind of school drama that she sees day to day.  These are the books she looks for when we are out, and the kind I look for when I'm shopping for her.

Please do comment below:  What kind of stories do you children like?


Thursday, May 11, 2017

Reading to children and writing to the reader



Art by Samantha Vogelsang
You can learn more about Samantha: HERE
Reading to your infant, can sometimes be a challenging event.

Whether you read from an e-reader, book, or from your monitor; you will usually be holding your child and pointing out images.  Regardless of the medium you are reading from, good illustrations are fun for the child. (I know, so far this is all very obvious, give me a moment I'm going somewhere here)

So illustrations in your book for the very young child need to have something that helps capture the child's attention.  Something that makes the child want to hold the book and explore it.  Soft colors that are distinguishable from one another, incorporated in an image to help draw the child's interest.

Reading with your child, is a wonderful bonding experience.  Seeing an infant point to pictures, hearing a toddler say "Ball" or "tree" and pointing them out, and then hearing your young child read on their own are all wonderful moments.

So when you are writing for children, keep in mind that for books written for very young children such as toddlers, the parent will be reading.  Tie your images to those words and make things easy for that parent.

Example: "The Dog played with the ball"
Make the Dog distinguishable from the background/setting images and make the ball a bright color that is easily picked out from the background.  You want the child to be able to associate words to images somewhat, but you also don't want to force a parent to search an image for the dog or ball.

A few points to consider:

People reading to children want a pleasant experience too.  They want the child they are reading to, to have an enjoyable memory with them.

Write for bringing joy to the children.

When writing for very small children, don't include scary figures.  Let the bad guys be mean but not frightful.  They can be bad guys by being rude, they don't need to mangle puppies!

An underlying moral to the story is fine.  It reassures the person who may be reading to the a small child that your book is a good influence for the child.  Honesty, for example, is a big lesson for small children, and one that can have a really positive influence on their lives.  Writing a story where a small young character, someone the child can relate to, is confronted with a question of whether to lie or tell the truth affords a chance to teach the virtue of honest.  It can also be fun to write!

Please remember:  Create and bring Joy through your words.

I write under the pen name W.S. Quinton
I hope you will join me again, for more of my exploration of writing books for children.

Your comments and questions are always welcome.

Thank you for reading.





Friday, May 5, 2017

Why I write for children and what I recommend for anyone who wants to... write it for the children.

My youngest daughter

Some days a little girl just wants to go to work with Daddy  😁

Children are precious.

Their joy is the hope for our future.

Their laughter is the joy of parenting.

I am very blessed to have children.  It is a huge responsibility, but the rewards are immense.

Little moments like the one captured above, which is from my evening last night, add up quickly.

From the coo of a small baby, to the giggle of toddlers, the riotous laughs of small children, and the deep belly laughs of young adults, a parent reaps the joy of their children as the reward for the struggle.

So, without going to far afield, I just wanted to share what makes writing for children special and important to me.

I am writing the children's books with a focus on making them enjoyable to the children.

The artists I am working with are producing pleasant images that are associated with the test of the respective pages.  This is being done in order to help children associate the words to the scene, and to make reading seem less daunting.

The stories I am telling, are meant to be fun and informative.  Primarily, I am writing to bring joy to the child.  A smile brought to those little faces is worth everything to the parents who are reading to or with them.

I encourage you, that if you are writing for children, don't let yourself get so caught up in deadlines and in the desire to publish that you forget the children.

Let their joy be your objective, and you will continue to feel joy in your writing.

My take away here is simple:  do it for the children.

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Create and bring joy through your words.

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I write under the pen name W.S. Quinton.
I hope you will join me next time, for more on my work in children's books and on observations about the genre and things I learn along the way.

Comments and questions are always welcome.

Thank you for reading.

Tuesday, May 2, 2017

Little touches that make for memorable characters

Art by Jennifer Fraggle Dee
You can learn more about
Jennifer: HERE
There are few joys in life that equal the feeling of bringing a smile to your child's face.

When you look at them and know that they feel happy and loved, it brings joy to you as a parent.

In those moments of self-doubt when you ask yourself "Am I a good parent?", you can find validation by simply reading or telling a story to your child.

My children like to ask for stories about favorite characters.

So I find myself inventing stories about Peter Pan, Scooby Doo, and other cartoon and story characters and improvising tales to the children.

I find, that as I tell these stories, my children build an interest in the characters, and have noted that the Peter Pan story books in my home get quite a lot of attention.

In your own writings take note of the continuity of the characters.  Build upon things that are associated with the characters to preserve the identity and theme.

By way of example:  from my children's bed time story improvisations, Peter Pan always flies and Scooby Doo always begs for a Scooby snack.

These little touches are immediately noticed by the young reader as being central to who/what the character is and does. They are nuances a child can comprehend. Don't leave them out or you will jeopardize the character's identity in the child's mind.

So if you are writing stories in series, look at your prior stories, identify what traits are key to the character and incorporate those to your tales.  The children reading or being read your stories will certainly remember if character "X" has wild hair that is always falling in her eyes, or if character "Y" is a dog that runs away when the doorbell rings, or other little details unique to those characters.

Preserve your characters personality as well as habits and they will seem very real to your children.

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I hope this helps you experience the joy of happy children.

Create and bring joy through your words.

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I write under the pen name W.S. Quinton.
I hope you will join me next time, for more on my work in children's books and on observations about the genre and things I learn along the way.

Comments and questions are always welcome.

Thank you for reading.