I have a foot each side of a divide. It’s not an eye-wateringly wide distance to span – children’s publishing is still a small pond -- but it is brain bending, not least because the size of each lily pad is so very different. One is as broad and bendy as an 80k word novel (yes, careful counters amongst you will have noticed that it has grown), while the other is as tight as a 347-word picture book text (and one that I have been asked to reduce, at that). But the trick doesn’t really lie in balancing between two such mismatched things, the trick is allowing them both to bloom despite my size 12 clod-hoppers. If you hear a splash, you’ll know what’s happened.
I am in the exact same boat as you- trying to pull a YA novel and a picture book out of the same brain- not an easy thing!!!
ReplyDeleteYou've got long legs. But if you fall in, a few frog kicks and you'll be back on your lily pad in no time and all the more skilled at hopping. Admittedly, a few friendly minnows would be handy to hold those stems in place...somehow, though, I think you'll be fine.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Julia. Good luck! Hope you don't fall in.
ReplyDeleteRachel, I do have very long legs. Good for swimming:)
Sounds like quite a juggling act - hope it works out!
ReplyDeleteSounds to me like you're bestriding the world of literature like a colossus. The Colossus of Toads maybe?
ReplyDeleteThanks, Simon:) I hope your comment doesn't spawn a wave of pond puns.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure you can weed any puns out if they do get posted.
ReplyDeleteOk. I'll wait for the rush...
ReplyDeleteDo you favor one over the other?
ReplyDeleteHi, Terry. Yes, the novel definitely takes priority. How could it not? But at the same time, I have to be professional enough to make sure that everything I write that finds its way into print has to be as good (accordingly to its own lights) as it can be. That picture book text will end up about 200 words long. And that's not as easy as it sounds.
ReplyDelete