Anna Staniszewski

Categories: Resources

• Top Posts of 2009

  Since it’s getting close to the end of the year, I thought it would be fun to go back and see which posts have been the most popular (i.e. the ones that have gotten the most traffic). Not surprisingly, they’re almost all on craft, a topic I love to blab about. Here are this year’s

• Using Sidekick Characters

  Yes, it’s time for another bit of wisdom from Writing the Breakout Novel. This time it’s on the topic of sidekicks in fiction. Maass begins by acknowledging the traditional uses of sidekicks; crime fiction, for example, is a perfect medium for sidekicks because they balance out the detective and help show just how smart s/he

• Children and Reading

  Yesterday I was reading an article by Jon Scieszka about his two years as the National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature. It was interesting to hear about his experiences and to get a breakdown of some of the advice he’s been giving people about children and reading over the past two years.
  Overall the advice is

• Revision Tip Roundup

  Now that NaNo is over, I’ve noticed there’s been a lot of revision advice floating around the internets. Everyone goes about revising a bit differently, but I think it’s interesting to read about other people’s methods and see what works for you. Here are some  revision tips I found especially helpful:
  -The great Laurie Halse Anderson

• When Are the Stakes High Enough?

  I have one WIP I’ve been working on for a few years. It’s a complicated story and I keep struggling to figure out how to tell it. It’s gone through so many versions at this point that it’s hard for me to figure out what it needs or what it’s lacking. But I keep coming

• Five Great Books on Writing

  If you haven’t noticed, I like to read a lot of books on craft. Thanks to a comment by Shannon Brochu, today I’m going to list some of the ones I’ve found particularly helpful, especially in relation to writing for children and teens.
  1. What’s Your Story? by Marion Dane Bauer – This book is a

• Books That Rattle

  I’ve just started reading Writing the Breakout Novel by Donald Maass, a craft book that’s been on my reading list for quite a while. What’s stood out to me the most so far is Maass’s definition of what a breakout novel does, not just what it is. This is what he says:
  Breakout novels are written

• Writing Link Roundup

  I’m always on the lookout for good writing-related posts in the blogosphere, and this week has been filled with them. Here’s a list of a few I found especially helpful.

  -What do all stories need to keep readers going? Tension. Julia Rocchi talks about adding tension to your writing.
  -First person narration seems more popular than ever

• Short Story Flashbacks

  Last week I wrote about using short and long flashbacks in novel writing. Today I wanted to say a few words about the use of flashbacks in short stories. While many of the usual rules apply, short stories are a slightly different animal. Here are a few general guidelines:
  1. Try to avoid long flashbacks. In

• The Egg Timer Method

  I don’t know about the rest of you, but for the past few months I’ve been having a hard time focusing. I think it might have something to do with this newfangled thing called the internet and all its fun features such as email, IM, and Twitter. So yesterday I tried out a new time-management