http://www.annastan.com Author of Books for Children and Young Adults Wed, 10 Mar 2010 12:47:38 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en On the recommendation of the wise Karen Strong, I've been reading The Art of War for Writers by James Scott Bell. It's a brilliant little book inspired by Sun Tzu's The Art of War. Bell is honest about the difficulties of writing and publishing, but he's also full of helpful ... http://www.annastan.com/2010/03/the-writers-battle/ I've had a few people ask me about beta readers - what they are, what they do, and how I found mine. Someone also asked me if beta readers are like beta fish (aka Siamese fighting fish). As far as I know, my beta readers have yet to fight each ... http://www.annastan.com/2010/03/beta-readers/ The other night I sat down with a WIP I've been working on for over a year. I'd talked to my agent about possible changes I should consider, one of them being the pacing at the beginning. I decided to try writing a new opening scene, one I'd been thinking ... http://www.annastan.com/2010/03/wip-update-revision-euphoria/ At some point, all writers have to do it. There's a character you love, one that makes you laugh or cry. But alas, your story is getting too crowded and the plot too winding. You, beloved character, must go. Cut. Snip. Goodbye. In the past year I've had to cut out ... http://www.annastan.com/2010/03/cutting-characters-you-love/ Thanks to my agent and my writing group, I now have a bit more direction with my fairy tale revision. Happily, this means I've finally started to emerge from my reading slump. I'm currently in the middle of a couple of books, but here are some of my recent reading ... http://www.annastan.com/2010/03/recent-reading-highlights/ For the past week, I've been happily working on a revision of my fairy tale retelling, making slow but steady progress. Then, the other night, I was hit with an idea for a new story, a funny, exciting one set in space. The initial idea was immediately followed by other ... http://www.annastan.com/2010/02/when-new-ideas-strike/ These days it seems common to link writing with music by creating playlists for books and giving characters favorite songs. While I'd love to be part of this trend (since I love music), for the past couple of years I've had a hard time listening to music and writing at ... http://www.annastan.com/2010/02/music-and-writing/ I guest blog about using character to inspire world-building on Alisa Libby's blog. http://www.annastan.com/2010/02/february-2010-2/ Recently, I sent my agent the fairy tale retelling I've been working on since November. I love the story and I'm happy with the tone of the piece, but after I sent off the manuscript, I started wondering if I'd given my story enough depth. The manuscript was a bit ... http://www.annastan.com/2010/02/giving-your-writing-depth/ I've been working on revisions for the past few weeks, and in that time my reading pile has been pretty much untouched. Even though I have a stack of books I've been waiting to read, I've been having a hard time getting past the first chapter of any of them. ... http://www.annastan.com/2010/02/can-you-read-while-youre-revising/