Hi, everyone! My name is Christie Wild and I'm happy to be visiting you today. Heather invited me to do a guest post on her blog about my experience with The Institute of Children's Literature (ICL). As many of you know, she is taking the ever-popular Intensive Picture Book Workshop by Anastasia Suen (pronounced 'soon'). I may take that class in the future, but today's post is based on a different writing program. I just signed up to take my second class through ICL. It may seem like I'm advertising for them, but I'm not. They are a for-real organization with professional instructors (editors and published authors). Lots of great freebies on their website, too. Kristi Holl is the blogger for Writer's First Aid, a Medicine Chest of Hope. Her blog has well over 30,000 RSS subscribers. She is a graduate of ICL (and is now an instructor there) and has gone on to publish over 35 books and hundreds of magazine articles and short stories. She says that ICL is the only formal writing instruction she ever had.I took the first course right out of high school and finished it during college, where I majored in Creative Writing. My instructor back then was Cindy Savage. The course was very comprehensive and informative. I wrote a lot of teen romance short stories back then. Cindy was very encouraging and gave great critiques. That was for the Writing for Children and Teenagers course.
The one I'm enrolled in right now is called Writing & Selling Children's Books, An Advanced Writing Program for Selected Students. ICL's promise is that they will help you develop a manuscript ready for submission. The course I'm in right now will help you complete one long book, or two to three short ones (picture books). So of course I'm going the picture book route. There are nine assignments and you have two years to complete the course. It costs $707. My current instructor is Clara Gillow Clark. The assignments go about like this:
- letter about goals plus three ideas
- book idea in summary form
- 1st book
- 2nd book
- revise 1st book
- revise 2nd book
- revise 1st book again and propose a 3rd
- revise 2nd book again and a draft of 3rd
- all revisions requested and cover/query letters, outlines, resumes, etc.
I'm excited-beyond-Santa excited! :D If any of you have specific questions, just ask. I'll be happy to try to answer them.
Oh, and over at WRITE WILD, my own personal blog, I'm having a GREAT giveaway contest to celebrate my taking this course AND to celebrate my 100 followers! I am giving away TWO copies of the market guide published by ICL. One 2011 issue, and one 2010 issue of Book Markets for Children's Writers. If you think you know your picture books, go comment on my blog post for 11-5-10. And come back on the 6th for an interview with Tara Lazar, the creator of PiBoIdMo!
Thanks for having me! See you around the blogosphere! And good luck in my contest...
Hey Christie, thanks so much for your guest post! You're fantastic and I heart you big time. I've been wanting to learn more about ICL, so I would appreciate your post wherever you put it. I'm so glad you included specifics, as they're strangely hard to find with regards to ICL. Am I eligible to enter your giveaway? If not, I totally understand!
ReplyDeleteI am a regular reader of Kristi Holl's blog Writer's First Aid and can attest to its value. I'm also a participant in Anastasia Suen's Intensive Picture Book Workshop, and am thrilled with the mountains of knowledge I am amassing. (Soon? Who knew?) And I can't wait to see your interview with Tara Lazar! Wow! Energy's in the air and good things are a'comin'.
Again, thanks so much for honoring me (and us) with a guest post. Have a great weekend, incredible lady!
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Heather Kephart, Heather Kephart. Heather Kephart said: Calling All Picture Book Lovers! http://goo.gl/fb/lkj7V #scbwi [...]
ReplyDeleteHi, Heather. Thanks for having me. Of course you're eligible to enter my contest! Tweet it up, girl!
ReplyDeleteTo take the first class with ICL, you have to take a short writing aptitude test. They don't accept everyone, so it's an honor to be able to enroll. Don't remember how much the first course is, but it's online, and the course is similar, but still different.
I knew nothing about any of this! Thank you for the info, Christie! And thanks for hosting, Heather. Good information!!
ReplyDeleteHello fellow YBRs! Stopping by to say hello. I agree with Christie in that ICL's course is very comprehensive and informative. I took the class too and finished in January of 2008. I really recommend the class for all inspiring children's writers. I wish I had taken the class sooner. It certainly jump-started my career! I couldn't have done it without ICL.
ReplyDeleteAnd Heather, great blog! I can definitely see that you are on your way to a successful career!
Sounds fantastic! I miss going to school (as a student, that is)!
ReplyDeleteHeather - I left an award for you on my blog today. : )
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you found the information to be new and useful, Megan. Thanks for taking the time to say so. We appreciate it!
ReplyDeleteHi, Jessica! I miss it as well. We should never stop going to school.
ReplyDeleteHi Romelle! We appreciate your support, fellow YBRer! And thank you. We've got to keep the faith, right?
ReplyDeleteHey - THANK YOU, Megan! That's awesome!
ReplyDeleteHi, Heather and Christie (and fellow YBRers)! Thanks for the great article! It's nice to see such support among all of us who reside in OZ <3 I just adore you both and the work you do to share and pay it forward. You are two girls after my own heart! :love:
ReplyDeleteHeather, I will be glad to do a guest post for you, and please consider an invitation to come to the Playground as share an inspiration as well: www.mywordplayground.blogspot.com
What great information from an awesome writer (Christie is one of my CPs - lucky me).
ReplyDeleteI've often toyed with taking one of ICL's courses, and I'm glad to hear such good things about them. Depending on what happens with my current round of queries, one of those courses may be next on my list of ways to improve my writing!
Hi Lynne!
ReplyDeleteThank goodness I saw a mistake in my blog name on the email that notified me of Julie's comment below, or I wouldn't have gone into my Admin and noticed that YOUR comment was in SPAM! AAAGH! I HATE it when an important comment gets shuffled to spam. It does that sometimes. Maybe it was the link.
In any case, thank you for your support, the kind words, and for your offer. You're so knowledgeable and honest. And you know I'll be hitting you up :evil: - will email you the details so you can post when the urge strikes.
Julie, thanks for coming by! I adore the duel Julies on the top left of my blog. :D I agree that Christie is awesome. I love her blog, too, and read it long before she joined YBR. I'd say the two of you are lucky as thieves to have each other for crit partners!
ReplyDeleteI'm with you - I'm always wanting to improve my writing. I'm hoping I win one of the books in Christie's contest! Will be by your blog soon to soak up some more of your wisdom. :kiss: