beginning reader Archives - Page 8 of 67

Explore how published #kidlit authors actually “show and tell” their board book – YA stories in the January 2026 Show, Don’t Tell #kidlit Revision Workshop with TWO 60-minute ONE-to-ONE developmental critiques for the same manuscript in Google Meet.

Show, Don’t Tell #kidlit Revision Workshop Syllabus

01. Tell Me a Story

Show, don’t tell is standard writing advice, but like so many pithy sayings, it’s not quite accurate. To fully understand a story, readers need context, they need information — and in a story, information is told, not shown. To write a complete story, you need to show and tell the story.

02. Read as You Revise

In this workshop, I use comps from each children’s book category (board book – YA) to show you how published writers show and tell in their books. I invite you to do the same. Find books like yours to see how published authors show and tell a story.

03. Study Story Beats

A story beat is the most basic part of a story. It’s the smallest part of a story that you can see.

04. Check the Voice

How can you use all three voices – your writer’s voice, the character’s voice, and the story’s voice – in your book?

05. Watch the Time

Time is an essential part of every story. How you show time in a book changes as your readers grow older.

06. Show and Tell

The difference between showing and telling is the difference between scene and summary. Scene shows readers a picture they can see. Summary uses the author’s words to tell readers something about the story. There is a time and a place for both.

Workshop meetings take place during my office hours: Wednesday – Saturday 9:00-11:30am and 1:30-4:00pm (Pacific Time). The calendar app will only show your time zone.

After you sign up for your FIRST 60-minute meeting, the calendar app will send you:

A confirmation email with the Google meeting code
An instructions email with the login to the private workshop site
An instructions email for your SECOND critique

If something comes up and you need to change your critique time, just use the Reschedule button at the bottom of your confirmation email. The calendar app will send both of us the new time and Google meeting link for your critique.

I look forward to working with you in the New Year!

Many writers have a writing ritual. They show up in the same place at the same time everyday when they write. Doing the same thing everyday is a very helpful way to build a writing habit and get your book written.

But what about those days when things don’t quite work out? Holidays happen, people get sick, and travel takes you away from that perfect writing spot. It’s better to have a plan for busy days now, because of what happens after you sell your book.

Surprise! After your book comes out, you can’t just stay home and write any more. Being a published author means you have to get out there into the world — and tell people about your book — while you also write the next one.

Juggling two jobs at once can be tricky, but you can do it. The secret is to be open to working on your book at any time. For example, in 2010 I had a Boxcar Children book due — and a month of back-to-back school visits. It was wonderful to be invited to visit every elementary school in a large school district, but it was also busy. I went to one school in the morning and another in the afternoon. In the middle, the librarians from both schools took me out to lunch.

Visiting elementary schools day after day made me a commuter, so I had to watch my time very carefully in the morning. Some days I used a timer while I did a quick write after breakfast, and then I joined the rush hour madness. For schools that were farther away, I made the commute first and wrote in the car until everyone else arrived and the building opened for the day. That was my first writing session of the day.

After I came into school and set up all of the audio-visual equipment, there was always a small pocket of quiet time before the children came for the program. At school after school, I opened my notebook and did another quick write as I waited. At some schools, there were also long waits between sessions, so I used that time to write as well.

Depending on the length of the commute home, some days I also had time to write before dinner. Day after day, all of those small snatches of time added up, and by the end of the month, I had a complete draft, ready to revise. I met my book deadline — and I met an entire school district of young readers as well.

Having a long stretch of uninterrupted time to write is glorious! I love to lose track of time as I sink deep into the story. But most of the time, my life is filled with interruptions, so I decided to use it to my advantage.

The flip side of having a very short amount of time to write is that I don’t have time to fuss over every word. I don’t have time to worry about the words being perfect. I don’t have time for writer’s block.

Whenever I have a small pocket to time to write, I just let the words come. I write until my time is up. I know I can fuss with the words later when I have more time. That’s what revisions are all about, fussing with words.

I’m not the only one who writes this way. When asked about her writing ritual, award-winning author R. F. Kuang told The Wall Street Journal, “Ideally, I’m at a nice desk in my home office or a library or a cafe somewhere, but I really try to train myself to write anywhere and at any time.”

Can you do the same for KidLitWriMo?

Category: beginning reader

January 2026 Show, Don’t Tell #kidlit Revision Workshop