I’ve been spending the past few years getting my doctorate degree in creative writing with the thesis Breaking the Curse: Retelling a Folk Fairy Tale to Explore Trauma and Healing in Novels for Young People. During my research, I came across Donna Jackson Nakazawa’s brilliant book Childhood Disrupted. She included a resilience questionnaire, which I have adapted here for creative writers to use in their character development process. I recommend taking this questionnaire alongside the Adverse Childhood Experiences quiz. Resilience Questionnaire My character believes that their mother loves them. Definitely True Probably True Not Sure Probably Not True Definitely Not True My...
I’ve been spending the past few years getting my doctorate degree in creative writing with the thesis Breaking the Curse: Retelling a Folk Fairy Tale to Explore Trauma and Healing in Novels for Young People. As part of my research, I came across the Adverse Childhood Experiences quiz. I have adapted the quiz for creative writers to use in their character development process. I recommend taking this alongside the resilience questionnaire. The CDC’s Adverse Childhood Experiences Study (ACE Study) uncovered a stunning link between childhood trauma and the chronic diseases people develop as adults, as well as social and emotional problems....
One of the coolest things in my life was seeing my book out in the wild, but a close second? Seeing The Eleventh Trade in different languages — and the covers international publishers choose for the story. And now, a little under a year since the English language version launched, I can finally share all of the translations with you! If you want to see a cover in more detail, just click the picture. Van Niets Naar Iets (Dutch) & L’Ultimo Scambio (Italian) The Dutch and Italian version of The Eleventh Trade took the cover from the US design....
I hope you have enjoyed these flashback entries from WriteOnCon 2018! Remember to sign up for the 2019 conference, which takes place February 8-10! In this workshop, I talk about how to find your novel’s opening — one of the hardest parts of the process, if you ask me. I give short talks, then release the viewer to do writing exercises. I also read and discuss some of examples. Early in the workshop, I ask the viewers to answer these polls. You can’t vote in them now (sorry!) but I’m including them as examples below. My YA fantasy is about a girl...
I’m continuing my theme of sharing my events from WriteOnCon 2018 (an annual online kidlit writing conference I help organize) in preparation for WriteOnCon 2019. If you haven’t signed up yet, you should! This is a recording of a live workshop I did (which basically covers the premises in my How Plot and Narrative Strengthen Stories entry). You can still follow along yourself, try out the exercises, and hear me discuss people’s entries. Questions? Leave a comment here!
Last year for WriteOnCon 2018 (an annual online kidlit writing conference I help organize), I worked with the lovely Sarah Driver and Jess Butterworth to put together a video that would entertain and educate. We all selected an excerpt from one of our first creative projects and then took a bit from the first chapters of our debut books. As we discuss and critique our writing (and the ways it’s changed), we talk through tips that can help young writers on their way. It was a lot of fun! Included in here is a sneak peak at the Very First...
As I mentioned in my last post, I recently did a huge website overhaul to make sure my blog was appropriate for a fancy author sort of person. Also, since a lot of you seem to like my blog post about author business card designs, it seems that sharing a few tips from my research here might be helpful. There are three main elements to any web design — hosting, the design itself (the way it looks), and the content (what’s on it + the way it’s organized). I’m going to address them all below, and give you some ideas...
As a mentee for writers, a critique partner, and person who generally has a lot of friends in very different stages of the author business, I end up talking to a lot of people about their first drafts. Especially their first-manuscript first drafts. The attitude of many first-manuscript writers can be summed up nicely in this graphic, which I’ve grabbed off Pinterest: (So much is wrong about this graphic, but I only got time for the starry-eyed attitude today.) There’s something very sweet and appealing about this. It reminds me of the sentimental early days of writing, and how every...
As you may have gathered, I travel. A lot. So I figured — why not take a look at my travel experiences and see what brought out the biggest differences among my companions? That way I can steal from our adventures and use it for character chemistry in my writing. (If you travel with me, there’s an 85% chance this will happen. That’s the risk you take being friends with a writer-person.) Even when you’re traveling with great people, there are subtle conflicts and compromises along the way. If you’re less lucky, those little adjustments can become stewing rage or explosive...
Continuing on in my (somewhat infrequent) story graphics series, let’s talk about one of my favorite things to make: Theme collages! These can be a fabulous way to visually brainstorm your project from all angles (character, setting, conflict, you name it). I particularly love to make collages for my fantasy stories, because there are so many pretty pictures to choose from. For maximum brainstorming effectiveness, I recommend putting on your story playlist (or a playlist of fitting music), getting a cup of tea, and snuggling down to put all this together. The music in particular really helps! Full credit where...
