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One Page Summary: Questions to Ask

One Page Summary: Questions to Ask

One page summaries can be deceptively simple. After all, you’re just distilling thousands of words into 500. What could go wrong? Ask any author that’s sat down to write a one page summary only to have it be five pages, and they’ll tell you just how difficult it can...

One Page, One Summary

One Page, One Summary

It’s time for everyone’s favorite part of a query! The one page synopsis! Yay!! I can just hear the phones clicking shut and fingers slamming on the ctrl+Q keys to avoid this topic. No one likes the one page synopsis. No one. But why are they the bane of every...

Four Questions, One Query Letter

Four Questions, One Query Letter

Query Letters answer four questions. Seriously. That’s it. That’s all they do. Yes, you’ll see posts (including mine) that will talk about query letters and break them up into paragraphs. But those paragraphs are answering four fundamental questions: 1. Why is this...

Striking Inspiration

Striking Inspiration

As creatives, we often have no shortage of ideas. In fact, one of the challenges can be sticking to an idea and seeing it all the way through to the end. I don’t know how many times I’ve been mid-book only to get what feels like an even better, more interesting idea....

The Stars of Your Story

The Stars of Your Story

When it comes to writing a children’s book (or a YA), the characters are the most important part! No matter how cool your concept is, if your characters aren't compelling, readers won't care enough to go on the journey with them. So, who is the book about? Here are...

Query Letter Basics

Query Letter Basics

It’s been a bit since I’ve talked about query letters for kid’s books, so I thought it was time to review them again. I always think that the best query letters answer two questions: What is this book about? & Why should I care? However, there’s way more to a...

Why did your character do that?

Why did your character do that?

I need you to ask yourself a question: why does my character in my children’s book act the way they do? Because if you don’t know this, then I need you to go figure it out. Put yourself in their shoes and look deep. A part of you is actually in every character, so you...

How Old Is Your Main Character?

How Old Is Your Main Character?

Does it matter how old your main character is? Absolutely. This isn’t adult fiction where your main character can be just any old age. We are writing children’s books, and children’s books have very specific age ranges for specific types of novels. They are: Chapter...

How Purple Is Your Prose?

How Purple Is Your Prose?

Everyone wants to craft the perfect sentence and then the perfect paragraph, page, and book.  And to do that, you want to use evocative, colorful language. At least, you want to use colorful language as long as it doesn’t bleed into purple prose. What is purple...