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Our recent Writing 101 and Writing 201 Blogging U. courses were a huge success — so we thought you should be able to enjoy them even if your schedule didn’t allow you to take them in real time.
We’re happy to announce that both courses are now offered as free ebooks, available for download in .pdf, .mobi (Kindle), and .epub (iBooks) formats. While conceived with nonfiction writers in mind, fiction writers (we know you’re out there, NaNoWriMo participants!) could find both courses just as useful.
Which ebook should you choose?
Writing 101: Build a Blogging Habit was initially designed as a four-week course. It includes 20 writing prompts, each with its own (optional) twist to push your writing in new directions, from improving your descriptions to thinking about voice and pace. In ebook form, now you can follow the course at your own rhythm and in any order you wish.
Writing 201: Finding Your Story, an intensive four-part course, focuses on editing your unpolished or unfinished drafts into compelling narratives. Loaded with advice and practical tips, this ebook will help you hone some fundamental storytelling skills, like creating powerful openings and writing engaging scenes.
Of course, you don’t actually need to choose — why not give both a try? (Did we mention they were free?)
While you’re ebook-browsing, don’t forget our other available titles: 365 Writing Prompts, Photography 101, and Grow Your Traffic, Build Your Blog.
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Mark Armstrong,
on 9/24/2014
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We’re back with another collection of our favorite stories from across all of WordPress! You can find our past collections here — and you can follow Longreads on WordPress.com for more daily reading recommendations.
Publishers, writers, keep those stories coming: share links to essays and interviews (over 1,500 words) on Twitter (#longreads) and WordPress.com by tagging your posts longreads.
* * *
After a successful “creators’ conference” in Portland, Maly asks some tough questions about whether the creators are taking into account the factories and anonymous services that help them succeed in the first place.
The Nazis stole his family’s paintings. He emigrated to Canada and became one of the country’s foremost gallery owners. And now, twenty years after his death, he is changing the rules of restitution.
Journalist Meagan Flynn chats with New York Magazine and Rolling Stone writer Vanessa Grigoriadis:
I just really try to write fast. And I think it’s so much better for my writing. When I used to agonize over every sentence and every section, the stories were so much worse. My problem is, if the content is not interesting to me, I don’t want to go back and revise it.
The London Review of Books writer reflects on childhood diversion:
In spite of The Poet and me being pretty old, we’re still young enough to remember from our childhood being told off for watching too much television and not, like the parents, making our own entertainment.
How Christian Rudder, the 39-year-old president and co-founder of the online dating site OKCupid, found himself at the intersection of dating and Big Data.
The little-known story behind Wonder Woman’s origins:
Wonder Woman’s debt is to feminism. She’s the missing link in a chain of events that begins with the woman-suffrage campaigns of the nineteen-tens and ends with the troubled place of feminism a century later. Wonder Woman is so hard to put on film because the fight for women’s rights has gone so badly.
A mother visits her young son in a psychiatric ward:
Kids with mental illness stand out profoundly, and, thus, become bullying targets. That’s why Connor is a victim no matter where he goes—even here.
Dr. Robert Lanza has racked up a slew of scientific accolades—and generated an equal amount of controversy—for his pioneering work on cloning and stem cells. He also lives alone on his own island, collects dinosaur bones, and is often the subject of Good Will Hunting comparisons.
A conversation with Susan Cain, who speaks out about what we need to do to make classrooms more accommodating for introverted students.
A look back at the pioneering group of women who worked on one of the earliest computers:
Shortly before she died in 2011, Jean Jennings Bartik reflected proudly on the fact that all the programmers who created the first general-purpose computer were women: “Despite our coming of age in an era when women’s career opportunities were generally quite confined, we helped initiate the era of the computer.”
* * *
Photo: dennissylvesterhurd, Flickr
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I thought this process is fitting for this week’s Illustration Friday word “layers.” I am in the preliminary stages of drawing a somewhat complex illustration, and above are studies from the larger illo I did to help me decide my approach. The study on the left is created with hot press watercolor paper, and the one on the right is cold press.
I create many of my illustrations and fine art work using cold press. I like the ease of color blending and the richness of color you can achieve. However, the texture sometimes can be a distraction, especially if the illustration is on the small side–the peaks and valleys in the paper are even more apparent. With hot press paper, it is much easier to add details, either with pen, pencil, or finely brushed ink, and there is no texture to distract from the image. However, it is more difficult to work with (for me), as blooms and uneveness in washes are more difficult to avoid. In fact, the study above is probably the most success I’ve had using hot press paper!
I would enjoy feedback and opinions on which is the better way to go with this piece. Thanks for looking!
“And then, at last, he surrendered to the dreams that awaited him.”
I enjoy drawing and painting in black and gray, but being a watercolorist and especially a colorist, I prefer to mix my gray with French Ultramarine blue and Burnt Sienna to alter the warm and cool tones throughout the piece. It is just more interesting to me than just using watered down black ink.
Converting to true grayscale is a simple click in photoshop, and as long as the highlights and shadows are consistent throughout, it will still work for assignments that truly need to be grayscale. Just for comparative purposes, here is a converted version below:
Which one do you like best? I welcome 
Which one do you like better? I welcome your comments and feedback!
I had a chance between Christmas and New Year’s to do a mini-remodel and reorganization of my art studio. I spent some time thinking about what was working (north light!) and what wasn’t (storage!) and planned accordingly. Here are some before shots (quite embarassing I let it get so bad, really…)
Everything from the bland walls to my collection of children’s books in boxes on the floor (gasp!) was keeping me from being fully focused on my business and art.
After a couple coats of paint and some utility shelving from Home Depot, I made it look like this:
The drafting table was a Christmas gift to myself. It was a great price, is made with real wood, and the glass top allows me to double it as a lightbox (notice the clip lamp I attached under the surface!) 
I have my book collection displayed, with some of my favorites and autographed copies sitting on small easels on the bottom shelf. I think I will soon have to get longer shelves, however.
I have my printer, scanner, and computer on the other side of the space now, away from my paint and water jars (only would have been a matter of time before an accident happened!)
I have a little nook where I keep my oil painting easel and taboret, and can wheel them out whenever I get the urge to use them.
My desk space with shelves for invoice files, expenditures and receivables, and other business documents. Again, AWAY from the paints and water jars!
It’s still a bit of a work in progress. I would like to put up some more artwork and get a better chair for the drafting table, but the bulk of the work is completed. The main thing is I now have an inviting space where I can get much more accomplised.
2 Comments on Studio Makeover!, last added: 1/17/2011
This is a great WordPress feature, and it’s revving my creative engine for 2011! It’s encouraging to see how well my blog did in it’s first full year. For this coming year, the goal is definitely to share more information to my fellow illustrators. Stay tuned!
The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health:
The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Wow.
Crunchy numbers
A Boeing 747-400 passenger jet can hold 416 passengers. This blog was viewed about 1,700 times in 2010. That’s about 4 full 747s.
In 2010, there were 23 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 36 posts. There were 47 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 10mb. That’s about 4 pictures per month.
The busiest day of the year was September 6th with 77 views. The most popular post that day was Illustration Friday: “Dessert”.
Where did they come from?
The top referring sites in 2010 were illustrationfriday.com, auralesnjak.com, zero2illo.ning.com, clubhouse.zero2illo.com, and google.com.
Some visitors came searching, mostly for archaeopteryx, owl illustration, sketches of owls, hedgehog, and owl and the pussycat.
Attractions in 2010
These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.
1
Illustration Friday: “Dessert” September 2010
12 comments and 1 Like on WordPress.com,
2
SCBWI Conference Part 1: Illustrator Tips August 2010
6 comments
3
Illustration Friday: “Drifting” June 2009
10 comments
4
About May 2009
4 comments
5
Illustration Friday: “Clumsy” January 2010
11 comments
It has been just over a month since the SCBWI Summer Conference came to an end, and I wanted to acknowledge just a few of the wonderfully talented and inspirational people that I met there before the memories of the whirlwind weekend begin to cloud:
Kelly Light A talented illustrator in her own right, Kelly is also the founder of “Ripple,” a not-for-profit that raises funds to help the animal victims of the gulf oil spill. Her efforts of coordinating buyers of original art sketch cards and the artists who create them have already raised thousands of dollars. To get involved, please click the link for info.
Molly Hall One of the most sincerely friendly people I’ve ever met, Molly is a YA writer and has a funny, witty and entertaining blog that I highly recommend following.
Heather Powers Heather is a Regional Advisor for the Southwest Texas chapter of the SCBWI. She is a printmaker, jewelry designer, and author, as well as an award-winning illustrator and she took the time to answer so many of my questions during the conference. Thank you Heather!
Jennifer K. Keller I got to know Jennifer during the Illustrator Social on the first night of the Conference. Her illustrations are so lively, and she conveys such wonderful expressions on her animals!
Lea Lyon A published illustrator and watercolor teacher, Lea had a lot to teach me about technique. Her paintings look effortless, something I try to achieve with my own watercolors. Plus, I really enjoyed her company during the Golden Kite Luncheon.
For each of these people, there were many others who I had conversations with between sessions, on the elevator, at the Heart and Soul ball, and all the inbetweens. It was really amazing to be surrounded by 1000+ people who all share the same passion for this industry, and I will always cherish the feeling of being connected to the creativity and energy that is embodied by the members of the SCBWI. I hope to make it next year for the 40th annual conference…maybe I should be working on getting some commissions so that I can pay for it!
I have a confession to make. The prior process posts I had–well, posted–were all done after the fact. In other words, I knew how they turned out before I even put up the first sketch. I am going to risk a little more and be braver with this one, because as I post this, I have no idea how its going to turn out. In fact, I haven’t completely decided what medium to use. I have been wanting to experiment with acrylics, but this piece seems to be calling to my watercolorist’s nature. And then, will I paint it on cold press watercolor, like 90% of my other work, or try hot press with colored pencil? I guess we shall see…
I also should mention, feedback is always appreciated. Thanks!
Since I have so much I want to share from this amazing weekend, I thought it would be best to break it into several posts, so please keep on visiting to see my updates! For Part 1, I will share some of the great tips I learned throughout this last weekend.
First of all, I was not anticipating that there would be 1139 members in attendance, and it was amazing to be surrounded by so much talent. Since illustrators made up a smaller percentage (1 in 10? 1 in 7?) compared to the authors, the breakout sessions for illustrators tended to be a little bit more “cozy.”
Illustrator Tips (from Editors, Agents, and Art Directors):
1) What is looked for in a portfolio is technical ability, variety of composition and points of view, and narrative ability.
2) If you don’t show hands in your portfolio, it raises a red flag that you can’t do them.
3) Don’t just illustrate a caption, but think beyond the words.
4) Often the illustrator will get a job based on only 1-3 pieces in his/her portfolio
5) A beginning illustrator will often be asked to “prove” him or herself with a few sample pieces from the book in question, however, he or she should ALWAYS get paid for this work, even if not selected for the book contract.
6) On a website portfolio, it is often a good idea to show contact information on EACH page.
7) A permanent link from the website (not just on the blog) that shows an arttist’s process is often interesting and engaging to an A.D.
8 ) When illustrating a character or scene in a book, imagine it having an appropriate “theme song” to help you bring out the emotional quality (Thank you Loren Long!!)
9) Themes of Trust, Loyalty, and Security are to be taken very seriously by children’s book authors/illustrators.
10) Portfolios should have no more than 15 pieces, and should show 80% consistent style.
11) Important: A.D.’s will often keep a copy of the WEAKEST piece in your portfolio on file, so they know the worst they could expect if they decide to hire you.
12) Use perspective to direct the emotional point of the scene.
13) When it comes to children’s book illustrators, know the imprints! An A.D. or editor does not need 10 copies of the same postcard.
14) Develop a distinct point of view and know how to describe your work (influences, etc.)
15) For email submissions, its better to submit links to a website rather than attachments for security/safety reasons.
That’s all for now! Next post I hope I can share the links of other attendees and some of the keynote speakers and guest faculty that I met and learned so much from.
I am seriously overdue for an update, but I’m back and I want to share my process for how I conceived of and created this illustration. The idea first came to me when my mom and I were watching youtube videos, and we stumbled upon this (Forewarning–you may want to listen to this on mute…when you hear the voices you will understand):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXjPQYgT25Q
This process is one that had a couple of false starts. Here is a lesson: Always make sure you are 100% happy with your drawing before you transfer it to your good watercolor paper. I wasted time and resources just because I jumped into it too early.
This was the sketch that I traced onto my watercolor paper. I decided it wasn’t working because the ducky was too small compared to the hedgehog, making him look too big, and the spines were way too labored. Also, I thought the eyes didn’t work for a hedgehog, so I changed those as well.
The improved hedgehog will reveal himself in later steps. I made the bubbles by painting just clear water inside the circle, and painting winsor blue along the perimeter, letting it bleed into the center. They each turned out differently and that’s OK–its part of what gives watercolor character.
Working on spine detail…
After working on more shading and adding the fine white hairs with gouache…
Added whiskers, nails, and final touches, and he’s done! You can see him on my website www.auralesnjak.com as well as a couple other new pieces.
2 Comments on
Process: Hedgehog in the Tub, last added: 6/26/2010
This is my newest portfolio piece created with watercolor and colored pencil. The SCBWI Conference is looming (only 56 days away!) and I still have a lot of work to do to improve and update my portfolio. I am reaching a certain level of consistency, and am focused on making a cohesive presentation.
OK, enough cerebral analysis…you like this little guy? He knows how to enjoy the simple things.
On a post in the near future, I am going to show another process journal for coming up with my logo and brand identifyer, or, to borrow from Fight Club, my “Power Animal.” This will comprise a new header for my blog and website to make the two sites less disparate.
The logo part will be difficult to achieve with only Photoshop Elements (with my limited knowledge) so it should be…interesting!
This is the first of what I plan to be regular posts that involve a step-by-step process, showing how I get from sketch to final. This is my newest piece, “Goldilocks.” This is by no means a “meet the expert” session. Rather, I will discuss my own learning process for each of these process posts I create, in the hopes that it will help someone else along the way, especially those also engaged in the wild world of watercolor!
The first stage after getting my composition the way I want it, is to create a value study (shadows vs highlights) and a rough color study. I have to admit, I am notoriously bad about this. I get so impatient to jump right in because I have a fear that after doing too many studies, I will lose enthusiasm for the project. So I am trying to be a good little artist and do my prep work!
Once I am happy with these, I trace my drawing onto my paper (I use Arches Cold Press 140#) I decided to paint what I *think* will be the most challenging parts, and in this case it’s the hair and face of Goldilocks. The hair was very time-consuming, because each group of strands was painted separately in a wet wash. If I were to paint the whole head yellow and separate later with shadow and highlights, it would have lost a bit of its depth.
When two colors touch, I try to paint the lightest one first. In this case, the yellow touches blue, so I painted the yellow first. After painting the blue walls, I got a false sense of security that closer to being done than I actually was!
This seemed like it was coming along, and I was so confident that the stylistic way I was going to paint the backs of momma and papa bears’ heads would be just fine:
Then I realized: bad idea. Or, as my wonderful husband dutifully opined, it looks as if they are “Being Electrocuted while on Fire.” Or to put it more subtly, the harshness of all the zaggy lines was very distracting and didn’t fit the mood of the piece at all.
Now, for those of you who don’t know this, I will let you in on a little secret: watercolor is not as unforgiving as we are led to believe. It was not too difficult to lift much of the pigment up from the paper and try a new approach, to give it a softer look:
From here, I just need to change mamma bear’s fur to look like papa’s. Well, I don’t need to now, because I already did it. I often mix up my tenses…sorry.
Here we at about the 75% mark, though at the time I think “Wow! I will be done in just 20 minutes!” Or something ridiculous like that…
As promised, to prepare my portfolio for the SCBWI Conference in tandem with my task for week 4 of the “12 Week Challenge”, I have posted a sketch for review. It is a little more finished than I had initially planned it to be, but once I began drawing in feathers I just couldn’t stop!
I plan on using only gold, yellow, light and dark blue, and maybe some dark purple. This will be completed with watercolors, and will be probably twice as large as the sketch (which is currently regular 8 1/2″x11″ printing paper.)
I really wanted to stretch my myself by creating more dynamics in my illustration. In this case, I played a bit with the angle. I know the angle of the boy isn’t quite accurate, but I seem to like it better than “deeper” versions I have tried…maybe it’s a style choice, and hopefully when I’m finished it will look deliberate…what do you think? Any feedback will be appreciated!
P.S. –
I have been asked what my process entails, so in the near future I will be posting a step-by-step demonstration from sketch to final, so stay tuned! (Maybe someday I will attempt streaming video…YIKES said the wallflower!)
I will be attending the SCBWI conference this July in Los Angeles! I was on the fence at first about attending, but I had to jump on it since Twitter said it sold 100 seats the first 20 minutes of open registration. I also signed up for the portfolio review, so I will be working very hard over the next 3 months to make my portfolio the best it can be. I have already received some great critiques from my new friends at zero2illo’s 12-Week Challenge(see sidebar) so I will be using that to help push my creative limits. What I propose to post on my blog between now and then is this:
1) Post preliminary sketches and rough drafts on an at least weekly basis, and
2) Take all comments, critiques, and feedback I receive from you under consideration and apply to the design, and
3) Post the final, completed image
The skills I want to improve on are composition (describing the scene through different angles, perspectives, character points of view) and unity of color throughout each piece, and as a thread throughout the portfolio as a whole.
Please stay tuned…I have a lot of ideas and I will be posting the first of my series soon!
) You’ve done an amazing job with cross-hayching. Something that I tried and tried. Failed and failed. You most certainly succeeded. NICE!
Reblogged this on Halina's Thoughts and commented:
Wonderful collection of stories from across all of WordPress!
Reading and story telling for my students.
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What a great collection of stories. I particularly like “Blind Curve”,
The Science Geek
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Great read – but #4 rings so true these days
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A particularly good selection, this time out.
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I always anticipate what you will post next on Longreads.. Love them!
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Nice job! Keep it up!
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Amazing collection, thanks for sharing. #9 is my favorite
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I really like the idea of this feature, but it would be great if there were more selections from ‘normal’ blogs/bloggers, rather than selections from traditional media organisations. I don’t think the New Yorker needs this coverage, but an normal WordPress user could really benefit from it!
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I am a bit confused by this. Lots of links to non WordPress publications so why is this called Best of WordPress ?
kind regards,
Joanna
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Love seeing these each time!
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