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Odd Links: Resources for Comedy
Do you ever stop learning? I don’t. I may be able to teach a number of things and bring out the best in my students, but for myself, I keep learning. Here are some things I’ve learned lately. Ban yellow highlighters! Highlighting is a poor learning strategy. Instead, stop ever so often and ask: Why…
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5 More Ways to Add Humor
I am deep in a revision where the request is for more humor, funnier situations–specifically, more laugh-out-loud humor. I am working on this problem in multiple ways. Looking for Bright Spots or Mentor Texts. I am reading other funny books, watching Men in Black, watching cartoons, trying to brush up on anything that is funny.…
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Should you Always Show-Don’t-Tell?
I recently had the privilege of listening to Sara Pennypacker, author of the Clementine series of early-chapter books. Her books are widely recognized as a forte in capturing the reader and drawing them in. The opening scene of Book 1 has Clementine, a third grade dynamo, sitting in the principal’s office and a frequent comment…
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Writer’s Block? Lower Your Standards
Maybe you aren’t writing because that internal editor demands perfection. Lower your standards. I am running again, following the Couch 2 5K program and there are days when it is hard! (Every day!) Like Monday. My legs gave out after 15-16 minutes and I stopped long before my planned 30 minutes. Still. That was more…
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3 Examples of Sharpening Humor for Kids
I am working on an short chapter book and I want it to be funny. My kids say I have no sense of humor and they are right. But fortunately, I have a quote for that: I love revisions. Where else in life can spilled milk be transformed into ice cream?” ~ Katherine Paterson, Gates…
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Scenes: 5 Simple Questions for Revision
My WIP is a draft of a novel that I”m going through and expanding. When I read through the draft it felt like a very long treatment, a long synopsis. Scenes weren’t detailed, emotions were nebulous. As I do this, there are questions that are helping me revise each scene.