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For the next four or five days, I won’t write. I won’t look at a novel manuscript or a picture book manuscript or even think the word, “Revise.” Just Breathe “How important it is to take the time to read literature, to look at art, to go to concerts. If all parts of your brain [...]
Yesterday’s news was sad: PW has learned that Houghton Mifflin Harcourt has asked its editors to stop buying books. NOTE: News has filtered down that the buying freeze applies to adult imprints, not the children’s imprints. How Can Writers Survive in Slow Times In light of our sluggish economy, how can writers still pay bills [...]
I’m very excited to be a part of a consortium of twenty-four published authors in science fiction, fantasy, horror, romance and young adult fiction which is now offering free online fiction. BookViewCafe.com makes fiction easily available for free Ursula K. LeGuin, Vonda N. McIntyre, and Laura Anne Gilman — and Darcy Pattison — are among [...]
I am almost sad and depressed today. Why? Because I’m looking at the wrong things. Writers of picture books or novels must remember to pay attention to their work, not the audience’s appraisal of their work. The Audience is Always Late The audience is always late to the party. When I sold The Journey of [...]
My WIP novel has hit a snag. I was just writing along, following the plot I outlined, concentrating on using strong scenes this time, when I came to a curious section. Choosing a Point of View Character Here the main character (MC) needs to be housebound because of a flu epidemic. But the plot requires [...]
This is last of a year-long series about those intrepid newcomers, The Class of 2k8. To help marketing efforts for debut novelists, these 28 novelists have banded together to create a group marketing effort. Altogether, it’s an amazing group of debut novels. Use the list at the bottom of the post to review the authors [...]
Here’s a redux from Miss Snark’s archived website: how to write a great hook for a novel? You would use this short paragraph as you compose a cover letter or a query letter. How to Write a Great Novel Hook The indomitable Miss Snark suggested that you structure a hook for your story along these [...]
For fun, I put up a poll on Friday (and finally configured it correctly): how do you refer to yourself? Here’s the result. How Do You Refer to Yourself? With 19 people voting, the results are clear: 10/17 – 53% Writer 4/17 – 21% Novelist 4/17 – 21% Author 1/17 – 5% Picturebook author 0/17 [...]
Here’s a new poll — I’ll leave this up until Monday, when I’ll post the results. OK, if you tried this before, it’s the first time I’ve tried this poll software, so I did it wrong. Vote again, please. [poll id="2"]
Western Washington SCBWI Retreat: Voice The retreat was great. There were about 40-45 people there and they were split into two groups. Group A came to me, while Group B went to Patti Gauch, then we swapped for the same presentation again. I sorta knew how Patti would approach voice (and I might have done [...]
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