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 Hello fellow artists!

As part of our ongoing efforts to make Illustration Friday more of a community focused on the art of idea generation, here’s our Inspiration Board for this week’s topic of HEART.

You can download, save, drag and drop, print, or do whatever you want with it if it helps you to brainstorm ideas for your illustration.

Let us know in the comments if this is something that you think is helpful or inspiring enough for us to keep doing!

Ah, the Week Two jitters… How do I manage to forget what they feel like each year until they hit me like a ton of bricks? The same things run through my mind—my story isn’t working, my prose is hackneyed, my plot points are predictable, there’s nothing original or worthwhile about this story. I hate [...] Related posts:

1. TRANSCRIPT: Week Two NaNoWriMo Jitters
2. TOPIC: NaNoWriMo: Making #1 Time for Yourself
3. TOPIC: NaNowriMo 2010—Don’t Let Implausibility Derail Your Writing

Guest post by Kristi Jenkins (cross-posted with kind permission from The Editorial Department) This happens to me a lot when I’m writing: I need an event to happen, or some characters to interact, but I can’t figure out a way to make it happen naturally. I’ll run through several scenarios, but toss them aside because [...] Related posts:

1. TOPIC: Are You Ready for National Novel Writing Month?
2. TOPIC: NaNoWriMo: Making #1 Time for Yourself
3. TOPIC: Fear! Writing What Scares You and Using the Fears That Hold You Back
4. TOPIC: Writing a Breakout Novel in a Challenging Publishing Climate
5. TOPIC: How To Self-Edit Your Manuscript

Guest post by Kristi Jenkins (cross-posted with kind permission from The Editorial Department) This happens to me a lot when I’m writing: I need an event to happen, or some characters to interact, but I can’t figure out a way to make it happen naturally. I’ll run through several scenarios, but toss them aside because [...] Related posts:

1. TOPIC: Are You Ready for National Novel Writing Month?
2. TOPIC: NaNoWriMo: Making #1 Time for Yourself
3. TOPIC: Fear! Writing What Scares You and Using the Fears That Hold You Back
4. TOPIC: Writing a Breakout Novel in a Challenging Publishing Climate
5. TOPIC: How To Self-Edit Your Manuscript

So… How do you balance writing, deadlines, family, and all the other demands on a writer’s life? With NaNoWriMo just around the corner, this is something a lot of writers are panicking about right now so it seemed a good time to discuss ways to rearrange things for November! Join us tonight, Thursday October 28th, [...] No related posts.

Are you ready for this? Two weeks ago we tried to discuss planning a series with Janice Hardy, author of The Healing Wars (Bk I: The Shifter, Bk II: Blue Fire), but due to technical difficulties with Twitter Janice was unable to join us. So this week I’ve invited her back, we’ve tested the system [...] Related posts:

1. TOPIC: Does Your Book Have Series Potential?
2. About #ScribeChat and The ScribeChat Review

Are you ready for this? Two weeks ago we tried to discuss planning a series with Janice Hardy, author of The Healing Wars (Bk I: The Shifter, Bk II: Blue Fire), but due to technical difficulties with Twitter Janice was unable to join us. So this week I’ve invited her back, we’ve tested the system [...] Related posts:

1. TRANSCRIPTS: ScribeChat interviews Janice Hardy
2. TOPIC: Does Your Book Have Series Potential?
3. About #ScribeChat and The ScribeChat Review

Author Spotlight: Arthur Slade Arthur Slade was raised in the Cypress Hills of southwest Saskatchewan and began writing at an early age. He received an English honor’s degree from the University of Saskatchewan, spent several years in advertising and is now a full-time fiction writer. He is the author of the “Northern Frights” series, the [...] Related posts:

1. TOPIC: The Steampunk Genre—Debut author Kate Milford and agent Ann Behar answer your questions

Is your stand alone novel mushrooming into something too large to contain within 350 pages? Has your publisher asked you for a second book with the same character? Join series writer Janice Hardy to discuss whether your stand alone novel has series potential, and how to spread plot over a series of books whilst still [...] No related posts.

Is your stand alone novel mushrooming into too large a story  to contain within 350 pages? Has your publisher asked you for a second book with the same character? Join series author Janice Hardy to discuss whether your stand alone novel has series potential, and how to design a plot over a series of books whilst [...] No related posts.

National Novel Writing Month has been around since 1998, but grows exponentially every year and has become an international event. The premise is simple: Write 50,000 words of original fiction from November 1st – 30th, but the process can be anything but simple. Whether you’re a first-timer or a seasoned veteran, there are many things [...] Related posts:

1. TOPIC: Fear! Writing What Scares You and Using the Fears That Hold You Back

National Novel Writing Month has been around since 1998, but grows exponentially every year and has become an international event. The premise is simple: Write 50,000 words of original fiction from November 1st – 30th, but the process can be anything but simple. Whether you’re a first-timer or a seasoned veteran, there are many things [...] Related posts:

1. TOPIC: Fear! Writing What Scares You and Using the Fears That Hold You Back

Imagine you are a literary agent. You’ve just battled the insane New York traffic, got through the ridiculously long security check in line in the lobby, fought for a space in the packed elevator, and made it to your office. You take a sip of your now lukewarm mocha and open your email only to [...] Related posts:

1. TOPIC: The Do’s and Don’ts of Querying
2. TRANSCRIPT: The Do’s and Don’ts of Querying
3. TOPIC: Lit Agent Mary Kole at ABLA announces “Novel Beginnings” Submission Contest
4. TOPIC: Writing a Breakout Novel in a Challenging Publishing Climate
5. How To Submit

by guest host, Heather McCorkle There is no rule book on querying but for the sake of your success, and the sake of agents, there probably should be. The good news is, there are a lot of writers out there who are willing to share their experiences in hopes that it will make the process [...] Related posts:

1. How To Submit

by T.S. Tate Writing is no different than any number of dreams.  Becoming a successful writer— whether the ultimate goal is millions of your books in print or simply the satisfaction that comes with knowing you’ve developed your craft— is no different than the singer wanting to see their name on a marquee or the artist [...] No related posts.

by T.S. Tate Writing is no different than any number of dreams.  Becoming a successful writer— whether the ultimate goal is millions of your books in print or simply the satisfaction that comes with knowing you’ve developed your craft— is no different than the singer wanting to see their name on a marquee or the artist [...] No related posts.

This week’s chat marks the inaugural ScribeChat Book Club discussion. Kristi from The Editorial Department will lead a discussion on Betsy Lerner’s THE FOREST FOR THE TREES. Calling upon her decades of editing experience, Betsy provides writers with a look at the inner workings of a major publishing house and inside the mind of an [...] Related posts:

1. TOPIC: Irresistible Book Titles—How To Find One and Why You Should Bother
2. TRANSCRIPT: Introducing ScribeChat’s Book Club!

This week’s chat marks the inaugural ScribeChat Book Club discussion. Kristi from The Editorial Department will lead a discussion on Betsy Lerner’s THE FOREST FOR THE TREES. Calling upon her decades of editing experience, Betsy provides writers with a look at the inner workings of a major publishing house and inside the mind of an [...] Related posts:

1. TOPIC: Irresistible Book Titles—How To Find One and Why You Should Bother
2. TRANSCRIPT: Introducing ScribeChat’s Book Club!

The first lines of a novel are more crucial now than they’ve ever been. With editors and agents feeling overworked and harried, they often don’t get past the query letter before relegating your manuscript to the trash can. And even if they find your query letter intriguing enough to glance at your writing, they often [...] Related posts:

1. TOPIC: The Storytelling Power of Point of View
2. TOPIC: How To Self-Edit Your Manuscript

My apologies for writing the article AFTER the chat this week, but I’ve been very preoccupied with moving the official Fans of SCBWI group to a fan page on Facebook.  You can share photos of your workspace with #ScribeChat very easily via Twitpic.com, if you wish. I’ve just added mine. I’ll complete this article after [...] Related posts:

1. TOPIC: Write A Selling Synopsis Without Losing Your Mind
2. F.A.Q.

Recommended Reading: Writing the Breakout Novel – by Donald Maass Writing the Breakout Novel Workbook – by Donald Maass Break Into Fiction – by Mary Buckham Flogging the Quill – by Ray Rhamey The First Five Pages – by Noah Lukeman Tweet This! Share this on Facebook Subscribe to the comments for this post? Share [...] Related posts:

1. TRANSCRIPT: Writing a Breakout Novel in a Challenging Publishing Climate
2. TRANSCRIPT: Identifying and Developing Dramatically Rich Story Ideas

Why should I blog? If you want to get published, you need a platform to prove your books have a waiting readership. Agents and publishers who are interested in your manuscript will check to see what kind of online presence you have to gauge how media-savvy you are and whether you will be a good investment [...] Related posts:

1. THE WRITER’S GUIDE TO SOCIAL MEDIA: Five Ways To Save Time On The Internet

Why should I blog? If you want to get published, you need a platform to prove your books have a waiting readership. Agents and publishers who are interested in your manuscript will check to see what kind of online presence you have to gauge how media-savvy you are and whether you will be a good [...] Related posts:

1. THE WRITER’S GUIDE TO SOCIAL MEDIA: Five Ways To Save Time On The Internet

One of the most magical storytelling tools in the novelist’s arsenal is that of point of view, or POV for short. Your choice of point of view will determine the quality of the connection your reader feels, not only to your character, but to the point you’re discussing within your story. Who do you want the [...] No related posts.

There’s a wonderful post over at Gayle Forman’s blog today, “Stuck, and Unstuck“ about the challenge of the writing and editing process. So much of it struck a chord with me. Statements like this, for example: “Some books just arrive and keep arriving and they feel miraculous because the characters just tell you where they need to [...] Related posts:

1. TOPIC: Write A Selling Synopsis Without Losing Your Mind
2. TOPIC: Mastering The Art of The One Sentence Pitch