As I’ve been struggling with my current WIP, I’ve realized I need to find a better way to think about structure in my manuscripts. Often the stories go haywire and it takes me a long time to rein them back in and figure out how to make them work. I’ve tried outlining but it’s not [...]
Since I recently posted on writing a good beginning, for the sake of symmetry, I thought I’d write a bit about endings. I’ll start by sharing some of Orson Scott Card’s brilliant advice on creating satisfying endings. Here’s an excerpt from How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy: The beginning must make the audience ask [...]
Research is essential to nearly all writing projects, though some require it more than others. When I first began my stint as Writer-in-Residence at the Boston Public Library, I spent the first couple of weeks scouring the library’s collection, looking for info about islands to model my fictional island after. Thanks to one of the [...]
YA (or young adult literature) seems to be having a bit of an identity crisis these days. YA used to be strictly for teens and focused specifically on teen issues. Now YA is read by middle schoolers to adults and its topics are limitless. I’ve heard a few people argue that YA is no longer [...]
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, [...]
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. [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
For the past couple of weeks I’ve had an idea for a fairy tale retelling bouncing around in my head. Since I have another story I’m working on now, I’ve decided to put the retelling off until November for NaNoWriMo. In the meantime, I want to read a few more fairy tale retellings and to [...]
