Anna Staniszewski

Archives: October2009

• Writing a Good Beginning

  What makes a good beginning? It might seem hard to pinpoint, but there are a few specific things your story beginning should (and shouldn’t do) to draw in the reader and establish the story. Here’s a list of things to aim for, and to avoid, as you’re crafting your beginning.
  A story opening should:
  1. introduce your

• Choosing Fantasy Characters

  As I’ve been perusing Orson Scott Card’s How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy, something he said about choosing your main characters really stood out to me. In his previous chapter, he focused on world-building: how to create a believable setting with its own unique history and characteristics. Then, moving on to developing a character,

• Wimpy Kid for Adults?

  I’ve only read the first of Jeff Kinney’s Wimpy Kid books but it’s no secret they’re hugely popular right now. In a recent NPR piece, Maureen Corrigan praised the books’ humor and their ability to speak to young readers. I don’t think anyone can deny that the books have struck a chord with children, though

• The Children’s Lit Project

  I hope everyone had a good long weekend. Mine was filled with errands, revising, and some family time. Overall it was a productive few days during which I barely used the internet (which was actually very nice). I did find a children’s literature gem at the end of last week that I had to share.
  The

• NaNoWriMo is Near

  As hard as it might be to believe, November isn’t that far off, and that means it’s almost NaNoWriMo time! I remember first hearing about NaNo about six years ago from a co-worker and thinking, “Write an entire novel in a month? Why would anyone try to do that?” But last year a friend of

• Short Story Flashback

  As I mentioned yesterday in my post on short stories, I used to write quite a few of them. In fact, in fifth grade I wrote an entire collection of stories  for my English class (and even illustrated them with my questionable drawing skills). They were strange and rather dark; I can’t imagine what my

• On Short Stories

  We’re looking at short stories in my writing class this week and as I’ve been going through and reading some, it occurred to me that I used to read and write short stories constantly when I was younger. All the way through college I wrote short stories, and I even wrote one or two in

• October 2009

  I discuss the role of “The Chosen One” in fantasy literature on The Enchanted Inkpot.

• Library Love

  Yesterday I made a trip out to the cute town of Norfolk, Mass. to visit their library. I’d never been there before so it took me a couple of tries to figure out which rotary exit I was supposed to get off at (oh, New England towns with their rotaries). Once I found the library,

• Apples, Chosen Ones, Wild Things, and Pooh

  Yesterday was absolutely perfect weather here in Massachusetts and a lovely day to go apple picking. After some careful tree-combing, we came home with two bags of delicious apples. Now we have to figure out what to do with them all. If you have any favorite apple recipes, I’d love to hear them!
  To start off