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If you want to write, read.

If you want to write, read.

I did not grow up wanting to be a writer. I don’t have any of those cute journals from when I was a kid. My parents didn’t save any sweet little books I made about my stuffed animals—because I never made any. I got a marketing degree in college because in the business...

When Writing Feels So ALONE

When Writing Feels So ALONE

I love watching DIY home-improvement shows. Watching someone demo a wall or grout tile or reorganize a closet is Madeline catnip. In my free time I rearrange my furniture, wallpaper the odd wall, and reorganize my own closets for fun. (I have an odd idea of fun.)...

Perfect Scene Pacing

Perfect Scene Pacing

I spend a lot of time talking about Perfect Pacing when it comes to the overall work, but scene pacing is incredibly important too. This is the rate that your scene progresses. Some scenes we want to be fast; others slow, even languid. It just depends on what’s...

7 Secret Keys to What Publishers Really Want

7 Secret Keys to What Publishers Really Want

It’s the mystery that keeps authors up at night: What do publishers really want in a middle grade or YA? Well, seven things. AUDIENCEThey want a manuscript that takes into account the DUAL NATURE of the audience. When it comes to children’s novels, you’re writing for...

Restricted Realism

Restricted Realism

Novels, even fantasies and science fiction, need to be realistic. There have to be things the reader relates to in order to connect with the story. Something has to ground them to the world you’re building, and realism does that. However, you can have too much of a...

Lessons Learned as a Bookseller

Lessons Learned as a Bookseller

For many years, I spent most of my days in a bookstore. First for one year at Barnes & Noble, and later more years than I can remember at BookPeople in Austin. I have always believed that everyone in publishing from the author to the publisher would benefit from...

Double Duty

Double Duty

One of the best ways to know whether or not your scene is meant for your story is to consider whether or not it’s doing Double Duty. Double Duty is the concept that every scene needs to be doing at least 2 of the following 3...

Breaking Down Your Chapters

Breaking Down Your Chapters

One of the key parts of any children’s book revision plan is the chapter or scene breakdowns. These are chapter (or scene) summaries that highlight the main points of the existing edit. Chapter summaries can be extensive multi-page entries for each chapter, or they...

Make Your Characters Suffer

Make Your Characters Suffer

Recently my writing partner and I were CLEARLY the main characters in someone’s novel. First my writing partner came down with a kidney stone. That alone is enough misery to fuel fifty novels. My ex was in town staying with me, so he stayed with our kid while I went...

Editors Don’t Revise

Editors Don’t Revise

Editors are amazing. (Yes, I may be biased, seeing that I am one.) But editors have their limits. A good editor—whether they’re a freelance editor your hire or one that works for your publisher—is there to help you make your book the best that it can be. But they...

What’s at Stake?

What’s at Stake?

Are the stakes of your story enough to get the reader turning the page? My definition of stakes is something your character risks or finds to be in jeopardy because of their own or someone else’s actions. Basically, the stakes are the external or internal problems...

One of Those Days

One of Those Days

Today I need to write. I need to write at least 500 words on my current novel if I want to keep my momentum going. I need to write about writing for this blog and for my newsletters. I need to write the lesson plans for the next course I want to offer. So, I set aside...

Can’t I Do It Myself?

Can’t I Do It Myself?

When I was a kid, my favorite phrase was By Myself.  I wanted to be independent. I wanted to be self-sufficient. I wanted to be left alone to do my own thing.  In some ways, I haven’t really changed. In many ways, I still prefer to do things on my own...

New Year, New Goals!

New Year, New Goals!

It’s that time of year again. That time when we evaluate where we want our lives to go in this shiny new year. I won’t lie. Last year all of my goals revolved around my health. I had my final chemo treatment in January of 2022, and I was still facing 3 surgeries and 6...

Chunking Up Your Book

Chunking Up Your Book

A pretty standard part of setting big, long-term goals is to chunk it up into a bunch of smaller goals.  And what is writing a book if not setting a big, long-term goal? So, let’s chunk a book up into a bunch of smaller easier goals. First, set the major goal:...

Whose genre is it anyway?

Whose genre is it anyway?

I’m into watching TikTok right now.  I know. I know. I’m too old. And for a lot of the stuff over there, I really am too old. I’m never going to be doing any fancy pants dances. My days of kicking up my heels passed when I hung up my pompoms.  But one of the...

What’s Motivating Your Characters?

What’s Motivating Your Characters?

When we talk about characters, we always talk about their internal wants/needs as if the two are interchangeable concepts. We say that a character must have one to sustain their inner plot arc and that meeting this want or need is what propels the character to grow....

Writing Through Cycles

Writing Through Cycles

For the past decade, I have struggled with all sorts of health issues. Disparate things like a buildup of neurotoxins during a mold exposure to a hormonal imbalance most likely caused by stress (and age) mean that I often have periods (sometimes extended ones) where I can’t get much done.

The 2018 Writing Olympics

The 2018 Writing Olympics

Sadly, the 2018 Winter Olympics have ended—and some how I managed to not see a single moment. Not the historic triple axel or the Norwegian Curling team’s pants during play. Nothing. But just because Olympic glory is over for the athletes, doesn’t mean it has to be...

The Beauty of Graphs

The Beauty of Graphs

If you’ve seen my Instagram at all in the last month or so, you will have noticed how fond I have become of graphs. I have graphs tracking my daily word counts. I have graphs for projects showing words left until completion. I have graphs of my graphs. (Not really, but I’m a little surprised I don’t.)

Checking Off the Boxes

Checking Off the Boxes

It’s a new year, and that means new organization. This year, though, I’m going to continue with a system that I started last year that worked well for me: Monthly and Daily To Do Lists.

Middle of the Book Blues

Middle of the Book Blues

We’re coming upon the end of the year, and in my case, I’m coming upon the end of my WIP. I’m now 2/3 through the novel I started for NaNoWriMo, and I have hit the hump. You know, that slow, excruciating point in your writing where you already have ideas for...

A Character’s Needs

A Character’s Needs

Last month in my newsletter, I talked about the difference between a character’s wants vs their needs. I also mentioned that there are two types of needs: physical and emotional. I thought we could explore that a little more.