The shortest distance between two points is a straight line. That’s what I wanted for my writing career: a nice, straight short line from typing my opening lines to holding my published (and well-reviewed) book in my hands. I should have known it wouldn’t happen like that. I already know that the most interesting stories… Read more »
Big Ideas
Three Ways Reading Picture Books Helps Me Write Better Novels
I love reading picture books. Yep, I’m turning 49 this year and I read almost 200 picture books every year!! I teach a graduate writing class about picture books and an after school club on writing picture books. But I also read them for pure enjoyment because I love picture books. I write picture books,… Read more »
The Three O’s You Need in Every Scene
Writing a gOOOd bOOOk How do you write a book? Word by word, sentence by sentence, and SCENE BY SCENE. Strong scenes show readers what they need to know about your main character: their secrets, their struggles, and their successes. There are three O’s you need in every scene you’re writing. I wish I could… Read more »
Three Things From Movies that Make Books Fun
Summer blockbusters are all about fun. So while you’re at movie nights in the park, pay attention to these three things from movies that you can add to your book and make it lots of fun! Mini Quests! We rewatched the first Percy Jackson movie after the new streaming series came out. I realized that… Read more »
Three Movies that Are Great at Dropping Clues about Characters
3 (Three) 3 Are you working foreshadowing into your story? OK, good, but are you doing it in a clever way? Consider this example I just read online. “Foreshadowing is a warning of a future event through context clues in storytelling. In a movie like Jurassic Park, the foreshadowing is subtle. When the helicopter is… Read more »
Three Things I Used to do as a Beginning Writer (But Now I Don’t)
Welcome to the next part of the Three Things series! Want to catch up on some other Three Things? Three Things I Ask My Critique Partners Three Things I Give My Critique Partners I’ve been a writer for a long time – all the way back to when I started a literary journal in… Read more »
Three Things That I Give My Critique Partner When I Share a Story
I’m a member of some fantastic critique groups. I’m actually in three groups that meet regularly, two over zoom and one in person. I love these groups, and I feel like my critique partners give me some fantastic advice. You can read about their advice on creating characters here, on tightening the focus of my… Read more »
Three Things that Help Me Be Creative that Aren’t Writing
When you’re writing a story, any kind of story, including graphic novels, nonfiction, news articles, funny stories in a text to your best friend – WHATEVER!!! – you want to be creative. At least, I want to be creative. I hope you do, too! But creativity can be hard to turn on some days…. Read more »
Three Things to Help You Write A Better Story that AREN’T Writing
In this month’s post, I’m going to share three things to help you write a better story thatAREN’T writing. There’s a lot of writing advice out there about how to write better that are focused on actual writing. Things like dialogue, voice, and clarity. And those are incredibly important parts of writing. But sometimes… Read more »
Your First Bird of 2024
The start of a new year is one of my favorite times – because I can start a new year list of birds! Did you notice the first bird you saw this year? It could have a special meaning. People have used birds to predict the future for generations. So, what do the birds have… Read more »