The Writing Process

Totally Awesome Takeaways from Mary Kole’s Beginnings Workshop

Literary agent, Mary Kole, who specializes in children’s literature at the Andrea Brown Literary Agency, recently completed her 5-part Novel Beginnings Workshop. Her thoughtful critiques of 5 submitted novel openers are brimming with tips on writing beginnings that hook your readers. Stop by her blog to read these detailed critiques AND to have a look… Read more »

Revising Beyond the Critique

Last week I brought a new picture book manuscript to my critique group. They loved it (YIPPEE!) with the exception of one minor detail – the opening line. Unanimously it “didn’t work” for them which is critique-speak for “we hated it and we didn’t know how to fix it.” My mission: Rewrite the opening line…. Read more »

Writing Book Review: Second Sight

Second Sight: An Editor’s Talks on Writing, Revising and Publishing Books for Children and Young Adultsby Cheryl B. Klein Paperback: 320 pages Publisher: Asterisk Books (March 9, 2011) Language: English ISBN-10: 0615420826 When I received the request to support Scholastic (Arthur A. Levine Books) editor, Cheryl Klein, in her endeavor to publish this book, I… Read more »

Writing the *Breakdown* Novel

I’m getting ready to read Save The Cat! The Last Book on Screenwriting You’ll Ever Need in yet another attempt to understand novel structure. Then I’ll add it to my library of books that has had me trudging along The Hero’s Journey, climbing Freytag’s Triangle, breaking out in hives with my breakout novel, squeezing seven… Read more »

The Necessary Work of Downtime

How many of you meditate? Take a daily walk? Go for a run without your iPod? If no downtime is built into your day, you may consider it too much of a luxury in an already over-scheduled life. But, in fact, practices like meditation or quiet walks are a necessary part of your writing work… Read more »

Write When You Least Expect It

I do very few things well under pressure. So when I sit down to work on a book, especially a novel, I usually make sure I’ve set aside a large block of time, giving myself a chance to get back into the story, set up achievable goals for words on the page and then actually… Read more »