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Ours is a business of ideas: unique, fresh, high-concept, sweet, outstanding. Without a great idea, your story has little chance of flying in “today’s crowded market.” One new source of ideas is the curriculum that is taking shape around the Common Core State Standards. In the past two years, education reform has swept across the [...]
Private v. Public Stories: When to Hold Back We’re talking about those old files, old stories, old passions that are hidden in your file drawer. Here are four manuscripts that should stay in your drawer. Your first manuscript. No, you are not allowed to air your first attempts at writing fiction to the world. No. [...]
A 5-part series. How Valuable is Your File Drawer? You are writing fiction and building a career. One of your valuable assets is your file drawer, your rejected stories. I have 2 four-drawer file cabinets full; plus, my flash includes many partial or complete manuscripts and ideas for stories that never made it to a [...]
Continuing the series on plot: Plot templates are helpful in telling an author the possible events for different sections of the story. I like to consult these when I’m first thinking of a idea for a novel and when I start a revision. I want to know what is typical for the type story I’m [...]
How do you find fresh eyes to read through a manuscript? Don’t claim it. One trick I’ve heard is to put another writer’s name on it and
I am between projects. I don’t have a WIP. No work in progress and not sure what to do next? One novel is being read by friends and it may have a major flaw that will mean gutting part of it. We’ll see. Another novel is making its way into the publishing world. We’ll have [...]
Where do you find your ideas? Every author gets this question, but I’m one of the few who has a straightforward answer. Go to www.illustrationfriday.com. Friday Ideas 2008 Last year, in the midst of lots of family struggles, I asked several people to join me in trying to come up with more original picturebook ideas. [...]
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