Weekly Note: Making Writing Fun Again
Plus upping the word count, dealing with lows, and local events
Does it feel like fall where you live yet? We had a heatwave last week although thankfully the temperatures have calmed down now and leaves are even falling from the trees. There’s definitely a shift in seasons coming but I think I’ll be wearing my shorts and sandals for a while yet. How do you feel about the change of seasons? I enjoy the feeling of something new around the corner and my favorite celebrations are approaching (Christmas is my number one favorite, followed by Halloween).
Here are ten things from me this week.
How to Make Reading Fun Again from Publisher’s Weekly. There has been a drop-off in middle grade sales and this article talks about how to encourage kids aged 8-12 to put down the screens and read more. I liked this part in particular:
“Ultimately, in order to make reading fun again, I think we need to make producing books fun again,” says Graci Kim, author of the Gifted Clans series.
“That means the onus is on publishers and authors to exercise their creative muscles together in a different way.”
Any thoughts on this subject? How can we make producing books more fun? Educators - what are the kids in your schools looking for? Leave a comment or reply to the email if you’d like to share your thoughts.How do you feel about book to TV or film adaptations? I often don’t remember endings to books so when I watch the adaptation the outcome is a lovely surprise. I’m not someone who says, “this is different to the book” just because I simply can’t remember. I just finished watching The Perfect Couple, starring Nicole Kidman (the queen of TV adaptations?), adapted from the Elin Hildebrand book and I had to google all the differences afterward. I also loved hearing from both Elin and Nicole on Elin’s podcast, Books, Beach, & Beyond, when I went for my morning walk today.
I’m still reading Lies and Weddings by Kevin Kwan and I’m thoroughly enjoying it! I could see it being adapted into a movie.
This week on Kidlit Survival Guide I covered writing nonfiction. On Monday I’ll have post about the lows of publishing - the parts we don’t talk about on social media.
Speaking of lows, what do you do when you’re in a slump? I went on a long evening walk and delivered a book to a local Little Free Library after getting some not-great publishing news this week.
I also turned my attention to my middle grade which is sitting at 15,023 words. In my last update I said it was 4,788 but then I realized my word count statistic wasn’t increasing. I discovered in Scrivener that I’d managed to start new manuscripts instead of having everything sit under one manuscript. Now that’s fixed! So my last word count was probably more in the region of 10,000 words. I’m such a Scrivener-newbie!
Here is the podcast I mentioned in last week’s newsletter that I was interviewed for. Hopefully the nerves I mentioned I had beforehand don’t show!
Local educators, have you seen this event coming up at Linden Tree books on Monday? Word has it there are going to be some pretty cool authors there!
Another one for the locals, will I see you at Fairyland for their Children’s Book Festival on September 21st? I’ll be at a table meeting and greeting from 11.20am-12.30pm.
Finally, I loved Ode to a Grapefruit by Kari Lavelle and Bryan Collier. It’s a lovely tribute to James Earl Jones who died this week.
Have a lovely week and happy writing and reading,
Christine xo