I don’t know about you, but I’m one of those people who doesn’t like to ask for help; I’m afraid of putting anyone out or making a fool out of myself. But if you think about it, a big part of writing is asking for help. There’s workshopping where you’re literally pouring your work into [...]
I’m so excited the Letter to Myself series has continued for this long. At first I wasn’t sure if anyone would even want to take part. The series isn’t over yet — I’ll post more letters as they trickle in — but since I didn’t have one lined up for today, I thought I’d take [...]
The fab Elana Johnson is conducting a Great Blogging Experiment and I’ve decided to take part. Today’s mission: blog about what I think makes for a compelling character. Easy, right? Right… The more I think about what makes a character compelling, the more I realize it comes down to two things for me: -Creating a [...]
The other day, Heather Kelly blogged about following your creative energy. It came at the perfect time for me because as I was trying to work on my fairy tale revisions, a picture book idea kept poking at my brain. It was demanding to be written. I’ve been stressing about this revision for a while [...]
It’s time for another installment of the “Letter to Myself” series in which authors write letters to their younger writers selves giving encouragement, advice, and words of warning. Today’s letter comes from one of my favorite author/illustrators, the hilarious Adam Rex. Dear Younger Me, DON’T READ YOUR REVIEWS. I hope I’ve caught you early enough. [...]
My fairy tale revision has been coming along slowly but surely. Now that classes have started up again, it’s more of a balancing act to get everything done. But I find that I actually write more when I have less time because I use my time more efficiently. My goal is to get this revision [...]
I know there are a lot of revision checklists out there, but since everyone revises a bit differently, I thought I’d add my own to the mix. While there are lots of smaller things to think about during revision (language, dialogue, etc.) I’m listing the top three things I address in revision, with examples from [...]
That’s right, it’s time for another installment of the “Letter to Myself” series in which authors write letters to their younger writers selves giving encouragement, advice, and words of warning. Today’s letter comes from YA author, and all-around lovely person, Jennifer R. Hubbard. Dear younger self: You know that sale you made while you were [...]
I was talking with a couple of my students about writer’s block yesterday. Feeling blocked can be such a tricky thing to overcome, and it’s easy to get frustrated or overwhelmed by it. Based on my experiences, I believe there are 3 major causes of writer’s block. 1. You’ve put too much pressure on yourself. [...]
As I’ve been working on revising my fairy tale (yet again) I’ve been thinking about something my agent said in her comments about one of my two main characters: You need to make us fall in love with him. Easy task, right? Um. Yeah. One of the things that makes characters relatable is when we [...]
