Cool Discoveries: Children's Book Podcasts, Pacing Tips and More

Since I spend so much time driving kids around, I quickly finish my weekly supply of podcasts about writing.  (My favourite, Writing Excuses, is only 15 minutes long but it's packed with information.) This week I was happy to discover a new one:  PW KidsCast. It features some interesting interviews with children's authors about their books and writing. I'm so thrilled to add it to my playlist!

This week, I also came across two interesting blog posts:

Anna Staniszewki, author of My Very Un-Fairytale Life, has some great tips on pacing:

I love her revision suggestion of putting only the scenes that are clearly working into a new document and then filling in the gaps!

Cindy M. Hogan at Indelibles reminded me that it’s important to nuture other interests besides writing, because they do make your writing a lot richer: Looking Beyond Writer’s Conferences.

And just for fun: have you seen this impressive Hogwarts Castle created by Alice Finch?

My Lego-loving teen discovered it when she was home from school due to weather earlier this week and spent a long time poring over every detail of every picture with her sister. She was thrilled by the idea that Alice Finch lets her kids play with it. I heard my daughter say to her sister, “I wish she was my mom!”

Another overheard comment: “They make Lego test tubes? I’ve never seen those before and now I really want them.”

The verdict: "It is SO COOL!"

You can read more about it in this interview with Alice Finch.

 

Cool Blog Quote: Toys for the Imagination

Today's cool blog quote is about Lego bricks:

"...if we only have bricks one shape, size, and color, what we build with them remains limited; but if we build with pieces of various shapes, sizes, and colors, our creations will be infinitely more interesting."

Maria Popova, The Role of Intuition and Imagination in Scientific Discovery and Creativity: A 1957 Guide, Brain Pickings, June 1, 2012

I couldn't resist this one, because Lego has been pretty important in our family. When I first became a mom, I always said that if I could only buy my kids one toy, it would be Lego. As a toddler, we got my daughter Lego Primo, which was basically Lego for babies. I was a stay-at-home mom then, so we spent a lot of time building towers and castles.

 Later we moved on to Duplo, and my second daughter got really enthralled with "Bob the Builder".

Finally, my kids graduated to regular Lego. How exciting to find that Lego brought out sets based on Harry Potter, the perfect combination of a favourite book and a favourite toy!

I also love the sentiment of this quote. It's so easy to get wrapped up in your writing and figuring out how to get the time to write. But it's all those other fun (and sometimes not so fun) things in life that give you material to enrich your writing. It's important to feed your imagination with a variety of experiences!

Do you have a favourite childhood toy? Do you include toys when you write for children?