Enrich a Story Plot

Last week I was wondering if I could combine two plots into one. One idea was for an Event and one for Characters. While I still think they could have meshed, the character story took off on it’s own into a short story.
Now the question is what to do with the Event idea, how to [...]

Shrunken Manuscript Reveals Novel’s Strengths and Weaknesses

Shrunken Manuscript Technique Helps Visualize Problems
Following my directions for shrinking, marking and evaluating a novel, here are some recent examples:

motivation

Answering the WHY? question
It’s the WHY question that is plaguing me right now.
Why does my character want to participate in this project?
Why does she want this so much that she will

Comics

All About the Town

InkyGurl.com is posting Comics for Writers!!!

Another month to write? It’s the WriDaNoJu. This one makes more sense to me than trying to write a novel in November. Aren’t these names getting funny? The NaNoWriMo, the WriDaNoJu, the NaPiBoWriWee and so on.
An interesting list of Picture Book Don’ts.
Victoria Janssen started a [...]

Multiple pov

3 Tips for Using Mulitple Point of View Characters

Limit the number of POV characters. A general caution is to limit the number of POV characters so the reader can be emotionally invested in those few. Zuckerman, in How to Write the Blockbuster Novel, recommends no more than five main characters. Usually, one of the characters [...]

Picture Books 5

7 Children’s Picture Book Manuscripts in 7 Days

I’m taking the 7 in 7 picture book challenge.

Report on 7 in 7 for the first week of May, 2009
Overall: This was an interesting exercise that I’d like to repeat in a slower month, not May. Why is the Nanowrimo in November and this had to be in [...]

Re-Envision

10 Ways to Start the Process of Re-Envisioning
How do you start revisions? You’ve got a great draft, and it’s pretty settled in your mind that this is how the story happens. BUT, readers aren’t thrilled with it. Editors and agents pass it by with a nice personal letter. Great, you think. There’s something here, but [...]

Real Moms

I’ve been catching up reading the blogs of others, mostly those who labor to create novels, picture books and stories for kids. Here are a few interesting posts:

The Crazy Blond writes a poignant post on mothering a foster child.
Is it true? 7% more adults are reading literature? Even young adults are reading [...]

UTube Video of Picture book

There is such unexpected power and exhilaration about seeing any child taking so much joy from a book. It never grows old.

How to Use Scenes to Plot

Criteria for choosing scenes to include in your novel: