Welcome to the Kite Tales Writing Prompt: #KTWriteOn. Each writing challenge is crafted by a kid-lit publishing professional to help spark ideas, creative energy, and get your work moving out into the world. If you don’t have the time or headspace right now for sustained or long-form writing, don’t worry or feel guilty! Instead, try these fun, QUICK exercises to lift your creative spirits and keep those writing muscles strong.

This #KTWriteOn was created by Deborah Underwood, author of numerous picture books, including the upcoming Outside In (illustrated by Cindy Derby), Ducks! (illustrated by T.L. McBeth), and the New York Times bestsellers The Quiet Book (illustrated by Renata Liwska) and Here Comes the Easter Cat (illustrated by Claudia Rueda). She lives in the Bay Area with her feline muse, Bella, and today we’re all talking about using limits to heighten your creativity. For real. No April fools here! Read on for Deborah’s excellent exercises!

Message from the author: I wrote the following post before Our Current Situation developed. As I sit here now, sheltered in place in San Francisco, a blog post about limits seems a little too on-the-nose—we’re limited in where we can go, what we can do, who we can see. Writing limits too?

But. Children’s authors and illustrators do tremendously important work, as you know. And I do hope that the exercise below, in some small way, will help you do that work.

So let’s plunge ahead. Know that I am sending my very best to you and yours during this strange and unnerving time. I’m hoping that these limitations on the way we live will help us find new and unexpected ways to connect with each other. Be well. – Deborah Underwood Continue reading →