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This week’s teleclass for members of the Children’s Writers’ Coaching Club will take place Thursday night, April 3, at 8:00 central time.

And, if you have something you’d like to promote on the show tomorrow, call 1-646-716-9239 between 2:00 and 2:15 central time tomorrow.

Tonight’s the night!

Come on. You know you want to!

Do you know how to avoid the most common writing mistakes in your manuscripts?

Do you even know what the most common mistakes are?

Children’s author Lila Guzman will talk about these common mistakes (which are “red flags” for editors) and how to avoid making them this Thursday night in a special teleclass for members of the Children’s Writers’ Coaching Club.

Join the club and receive an email invitation to this event.

Manuscript Red Flags

What mistakes do bad manuscripts contain? Here are some of the most common ones:

1. No hook on page 1
2. No hook at the end of Chapter One to compel me to read on.
3. No clear goal. (X wants to ____ because ______)
4. It starts too slow
5. It’s unoriginal.
6. Wrong facts.
7. No redeeming qualities in the antagonist
8. A protagonist who is too unlikeable
9. No overriding theme/no book goal
10. Lack of goal, conflict, disaster
11. too many characters
12. too many characters introduced too soon.
13. telling vs. showing
14. starting with someone other than the protagonist (unless it starts with a prologue)
15. not having the protagonist carry the action
16. POV switches from paragraph to paragraph. (One of my favorite western authors does this and it works for him, but he’s written more books than I can count).
17. keeping secrets from the reader.
18. characters doing things apparently unrelated to what other characters are doing.
19. Plot glitches. (Example: A Moslem mother is not going to take her newborn to the Catholic Church for baptism.)
20. Straining belief.

This Thursday, February 28 , 2008, at 2:00 p.m. eastern time, the Children’s Writers’ Coaching Club will offer another exciting and informative teleclass for children’s writers.

Rita Milios will present session 1 in the Writing for Children’s Educational Markets Series - The Lucrative Educational Market: Where Do YOU Fit In?

Join the Children’s Writers’ Coaching Club today and find out on Thursday if writing for the educational markets is right for you.

When you join the club you will receive links to these other three teleclasses that were presented earlier this month:

Lila Guzman - Show Me the Money: Writing Biographies for Young Readers

Margot Finke - Picture (Book) Perfect

Simon Rose - Beyond Belief: Writing Science Fiction and Fantasy for Young Readers (part 1 of a 2 part teleclass)

Every month, club members are given the opportunity to attend 4 LIVE 55-minute teleclasses about some aspect of writing and publishing for children. Later, the links to these recorded classes are sent to all members, too.

Join the CWCC here.

Members of the Children’s Writers’ Coaching Club are in for a real treat tonight with this teleclass at 7:00 central time.

Lila Guzman, Ph.D.
www.lilaguzman.com
LORENZO AND THE PIRATE (Blooming Tree Press, Fall 2008)
LORENZO AND THE TURNCOAT (Arte Publico Press, 2006) ****WINNER: 2006 Arizona Authors Literary Award****
KICHI IN JUNGLE JEOPARDY (Blooming Tree Press, 2006)
MOHAMMED (Blooming Tree Press, 2009)

Children’s author and instructor for the National Writing for Children Center, Lila Guzman will be speaking at the Louisiana Association of School Librarians on Jan. 26, 2008. That’s tomorrow!