#write a childrens book

[markscherz]

Look at this creature. Behold this small man. In the face of it all* he does what he can. And every night, in spite of his scars, with all of his might he sings to the stars.

*Anodonthyla theoi is Critically Endangered due to habitat loss

[institutewriters]

Learn How to Become Children’s Books Writer

Explore the art of writing a children's books: Dive into the world of creativity and learn how to write an engaging book for children. From mesmerizing stories to vibrant characters, learn the secrets to crafting interesting stories that young readers will love. Enroll Now!!

[theecholegend]

The floofs

[pangur-and-grim]

Followed you on here for your adorable cats and somehow completely missed the fact that you also did some of my favorite paleoart!

I've had a weird and varied working career! it can be summed up as follows:

[champion-of-love]

alice has to go home. that's part of the story. that's the happily ever after. alistair knows this. knows it from his grandfather who went through it. knows it from his mother who did the same. knows it in his bones. that one day's going to be the day he leaves wonderland, for good.

bunny knows this too. knows that as soon as he follows her down that rabbit hole for the last time, the clock is going to start ticking for when he has to leave. so she steps back. tries to stop herself from spending all her time with him. from laughing at his jokes. from loving him. because she doesn't know if she can survive the heartbreak when it's time for him to leave.

the cheshire cat knows this as well. that it's supposed to happen. that it's because of destiny. that it's all bullshit. it's this anger that floods her senses and pushes her to steal that damned storybook of legends. the book that they signed on legacy day. the book that sealed their destiny. the book that stole alice from her.

so she sends ever after into a topsy turvy with a little curse. so what. maybe it's boredom. maybe it's pettiness. maybe it's sending a postcard to an old flame up above asking remember me?

cheshire remembers when she saw little alistair, the spitting image of his mother, for the first time in wonderland. the mad hatter was accompanying him, of course, as his mom couldn't. kitty asked if she could go meet him, but cheshire didn't react at first. her feet were glued onto the floor as buried memories came bubbling to the top.

her love had come back to haunt her.

[tolkienillustrations]

“It [The Lord of the Rings] is finished, if still partly unrevised, and is, I suppose, in a condition which a reader could read, if he did not wilt at the sight of it…now I look at it, the magnitude of the disaster is apparent to me. My work has escaped from my control, and I have produced a monster: an immensely long, complex, rather bitter, and very terrifying romance, quite unfit for children (if fit for anybody); and it is not really a sequel to The Hobbit, but to The Silmarillion.”

— J.R.R. Tolkien to Sir Stanley Unwin, 24 February 1950

[bookshelf-in-progress]

You could make a really cool cottagecore fantasy novel using the structure of Little House in the Big Woods. Where the main characters live in a stable environment and go about their daily lives dealing with the domestic details of the world, but they meet characters who have gone on adventures. So a huge chunk of the book is made up of the stories that these characters tell. The main characters would face very little peril, but you'd still have a book full of thrilling stories.

I'd try for a middle-grade fantasy. Center it on a group of siblings whose parents went on save-the-world adventures, but have settled down to raise a family. Maybe they run an inn that caters to people from a ton of the nations and races of this fantasy world. Or maybe they're just frequently visited by old adventuring companions who always have cool stories to share about the adventures they've been on or the events or history of their homeland.

[proffbon]

David Talbot: Vampires history is my history now! This is a great opportunity to record the accounts of several powerful vampires. I know, I'll ask Armand, he lived for over 500 years, he's gotta have something interesting to tell!

David Talbot on his 10th sex scene description in a row:

[thenecropolix]

I don't know who to send this ask so I'm gonna leave it out here for the public because it just came to me out of the blue: locomotive literature

And I don't mean literature about locomotives, but rather literature written by locomotives

Train biographies detailing their lives on the railway and documenting how things have changed since they were first built

Ghost writers publishing literary works written by trains

Trains with human editors sitting on their buffers as they write down what their engines say and making adjustments for those especially picky or who's words cannot be transcribed because they will be banned otherwise (looking at you Duncan)

Just

Train authors you guys

[bl-mitchum]

I can’t watch anything without analyzing it like a piece of literature. I watched Megamind for the first time the other day and I’m now a firm believer that it’s a thesis on the principle of nurture vs nature.

[a-hoe-for-dark-academia]

"I would enter your sleep if I could, and guard you there, and slay the thing that hounds you, as I would if it had the courage to face me in fair daylight. But I cannot come in unless you dream of me."

-Peter S. Beagle, The Last Unicorn, 1968

[black-is-beautiful18]

I haven’t said anything about it on here but many have said the exact same thing: how is your character described, in your own words, as having dark copper skin. Faces colorism and fatphobia from her mother…

This is official art you had commissioned that’s literally in books…

And yet you cast Amandla to play her saying that she’s exactly how you envisioned Amari???

Tomi don’t piss me off. You’re rightfully getting dragged from all sides, but I will say this to my fellow Black ppl. Be respectful to our Nigerian siblings during this conversation cuz Children of Blood and Bone is using their culture, Yoruba culture to be more specific, in a fantasy setting. Some parts of the conversation we have no say in cuz we aren’t Nigerian and we can only support them and boost their opinions. I will also say that wishing for the movie to flop does more harm than good especially in our current climate in the US. Imma still call out the clear colorism and lies that were told but I also want this movie to do at least ok in the box office cuz we know exactly what will be said if it doesn’t do well and we also know what will happen afterwards. Not saying you have to go see it but just be mindful.

[mxliv-oftheendless]

Ok I know we all like to joke about how the Battle of the Five Armies is only a page long in The Hobbit but like. Sometimes I think about how what if Tolkien wrote it that way because he didn’t want his kids to hear about war.

[thewordsarestuckinmyhead]

me (the author): hey, I was thinking we should go this way to advance the plot and build character relationships.

my characters: nah. I'm gonna do this.

me (the author): ...why?

my characters: because.

[adventuresofalgy]

Algy spent a peaceful night, high up in a tree near the edge of the forest, happy to know that he was not alone, for a small herd of red deer were moving about below him, browsing for such food as they could find in the snow, even in the darkness.

But when he woke up in the morning, Algy felt disconsolate and discouraged. He had lost the alluring comforts of the enchanted woodland, and had also lost his way home. He was altogether lost!

Flying over to a tumbled spruce in a clearing nearby, Algy perched on the soft needles with his magic pumpkin by his side, pondering glumly what he should do next, for he had no idea which direction to take when he left the forest. Suddenly, he heard a tap, tap, tap, tap, tapping sound.

"Who's there?" he called, and received an odd sort of answer:

“I can see what’s wrong with youse,” rapped the bird. “Youse needs to get yersel’ up and do the tap-a-way.” “The what away?” said Algy. “The tap-a-way,” rapped the bird. “Why, at any kind of a ceilidh, or when I’m feeling a wee bitty glumshie, I just gets up and does my tap-a-way.” The strange bird jumped down on to one of the fallen tree trunks, just a short distance in front of Algy, and tapped on the rotting wood a few times. Then, lifting one foot in the air, it started to do a crazy sort of dance, hopping and flapping about on the huge mossy log, all the while rapping a song in its hoarse voice, and bending down frequently to tap loudly against the wood with its beak. It rapped: “I just tap away, Then I flap away; I will hop away Till I stop a way Over there a way. Then I’ll peck a bit, While I think of it, Doing the tap-a-way Just in this-a-way: It’s a holiday! I can tap all day, In my happy way, And I’ll skip and dance – You should see me prance! As I tap away. Feeling low today? And the sky’s all grey? Don’t just sit around On the icy ground: Do the tap-a-way! You will feel so good If you tap on wood, Doing the tap-a-way Just in this-a-way: It’s a holiday!”

[Algy is hearing a passage from his children's chapter book The Magical Midwinter Star, which will be reissued with a new cover in paperback this coming weekend, 14th/15th December and is currently available as a Kindle e-book.]