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Roy Blount, President of the Author’s Guild has an opinion article, The Kindle Swindle, in today’s New York Times. True, you can already get software that will read aloud whatever is on your computer. But Kindle 2 is being sold specifically as a new, improved, multimedia version of books — every title is an e-book [...]
When you write or revise a novel, you must pay careful attention to the first chapter. Opening Chapters of Novels MUST Accomplish These Goals Grab your readers attention. Something must grab the reader’s attention immediately. This can be an unusual use of language, a unique voice, a startling action, a bit of dialogue, an active [...]
Why Some Distractions Are OK I am distracted these days from writing my novel. It’s partly because I’m teaching a Novel Revision Retreat in Illinois this weekend. But I also find these things to be distracting. Family. Well, of course, family interferes. Katherine Paterson has said that family takes up so much time and energy, [...]
Guest blogger, Joni Sensel writes about cutting her story so much that two books became one. I read an ARC of this new book and loved it — the novel revisions worked! Why Cut Out Important Parts of a Novel? Originally I thought my new middle-grade adventure, THE FARWALKER’S QUEST, would be two books of [...]
It’s well know that I don’t want an honest critique on my novels or picture books! But for some reason, people keep giving me exactly what I don’t want. Conflicting Emotions of Receiving a Critique Yesterday, when my local critique group talked about my latest picture book manuscript, three emotions held sway. Embarrassment. I am [...]
I’ve written before about Different Styles of Critiques and When to Ask for a Critique. Today focuses on the different types of critique groups. Different Critique Groups Meet Different Needs I’m heading off today to my local critique groups and I realized I have several different types of critique groups, each one filling a different [...]
Every Novel Needs a Scene In my WIP, I need to write a big scene: cast of dozens, culmination of major plot threads, emotional high for major characters. Big scenes should be a part of every novel, because there should be places where characters, plot events, outer and inner narratives arcs, and subplots intersect. The [...]
How Firm are Book Publisher’s Guidelines on Book Length? I had a question come up last week: how hard and fast are the rules about the length of a picture book manuscript? Can you get by with 1900 words? 2000 words? 2500 words? The length requirements for every genre, from picture books to easy readers [...]
Last weekend, I was in Chandler, Oklahoma, a sleepy little town on the old Route 66. I didn’t get much sleep, though, because I was there to teach a Picture Book Retreat. Here are reports from Sara, Susan Meyers, and Leeth. Also, check out the Okie Book Woman, who added lots of photos of the [...]
Stiff Competition for These Picture Book Topics Dial editor, Liz Waniewski (ONE–es-key) spoke at the Arkansas SCBWI 2007 conference. For a couple months before the conference, she kept track of her slush pile picture book submissions by category. This resulted in my 2007 posting 12 Picture Book Topics to Avoid, one of the more popular [...]
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