death

Does Your Story Need a Tragic Death?
A friend was talking to me about stories in which a child dies. he asked, “Is a child’s death in a novel just a cheap narrative device?”
Well, it depends.

Depth of Characterization. How well do we know the character? Do we know and care for the child? Does the story [...]

Character Bait

Letting Characters Emerge
Hurrah! My potential character took the bait!
As I was thinking of ideas for picture books, an idea came up: what if the family was structured in a distinctive way?
At 2 a.m. this morning, the character woke me up and started dictating a scene about dealing with her family. I wrote furiously for [...]

3 Writing Tips from the Season

Creative writing tips, courtesy of the season:

Peppermints! When you add sensory details to a story, the most common is visual details. The two most neglected are olfactory (smell) and gustatory (taste). Flavors of the season are peppermint, cinnamon and cloves.

Gifts! Give your character something to hold in his/her hands. It’s one of the easiest and [...]

Snooping on Characters

I’ve been reading a great new psychology book that should help in developing characters, especially the settings which reveal so much about a character.
Snoop
Snoop: What Your Stuff Says About You by Sam Gosling, Ph.D. is a fascinating book by a psychologist who studies a person’s environment and what that environment says about you.
For example, in [...]

Can Children’s Literature Change Nerds?

I’ve been nerdy lately, reading a new book about nerds.
Nerds: Who They Are and Why We Need More of Them, by David Anderegg, Ph.D.
Nerds as a Cultural Stereotype, and Why Authors of Children’s Literature Should Care
Andeggers postulates that the reason we have so few kids interested in science/math these days is the cultural shift [...]

Novel Characters Transform

When you write or revise a novel, one thing to check for is how characters change or transform one another.
Novel Characters Transform Each Other

Pillow Fight, Piazza Maggiore by Donato Accogli

In my WIP, I just created a chart showing the emotional narrative arc of two characters. Each is pushed along that narrative arc by the [...]

3 Ways to Spice Up a Boring Character

Rethinking the characters in your novels? Spice them up by focusing on three elements of characterization!
3 easy ways to spice up a boring character:

Job/Role: First, define the character’s job or role. Are they a sister, aunt, go-getter, sluggard? Does your character make equipment for astronauts or teach high school biology? Choose a [...]

Difficult Topics for Young Audiences

So, I’ve been reading Inviting the Wolf In: Thinking About Difficult Stories by Loren Niemi and Elizabeth Ellis, a book about writing difficult stories. In one of the last chapters, they discuss a story’s emotional arc story, but they mean something slightly different by that term.
Character’s Emotional Arc
Usually, I think of the [...]

Difficult characters, difficult topics

Do you have a difficult story you want to tell? You know–abuse, alcoholism, rape, etc. We all know good examples where these topics are handled well; but it’s hard to do. How to approach it?
Inviting the Wolf In
As I’m working on new stories this month, I’m casting a wider net in my [...]

Sports: Passionate characters

Sports books are action-oriented, fast-paced and full of memorable characters; but the core of a sports book–fiction or non-fiction–is people. Characters make sports interesting. Granted, these characters are constantly on the move and not inclined to deep musings about life. Yet, it is the character interacting with the unique aspects of a sports novel that [...]