Creativity
CREATIVITY IS A WILD MIND AND A DISCIPLINED EYE. ~Dorothy Parker. Let's feed that wild creature while we practice discipline. … [Read more...]
Learn Plotting: Miss Peregrine’s Home…
Plotting: MISS PEREGRINE’S HOME FOR PECULIAR CHILDREN Line-by-line writing is important. Characterization is key. But for most readers and editors of genre and mainstream fiction, what’s most important is story. A story that grabs the reader by the throat, hauls her inside, and doesn’t let her go until the story comes to a satisfying end. How does a writer create a work of fiction that compels the reader to keep turning pages? Ransom Riggs demonstrates his mastery of story in his wondrous first novel, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. In chapter one, our protagonist Jacob, … [Read more...]
Learn Voice from Mim in Mosquitoland
Probably the most frequently asked question of an editor by an aspiring writer is this: What kind of book are you looking for? Inevitably, the answer goes something like this: “I’m looking for a compelling story, told with a fresh, appealing voice.” So what is voice? I think of it as the personality that resonates with the telling of a story. Voice is created with a variety of elements: vocabulary, syntax (the order of the words in the sentence), grammar, idiom (expressions whose meaning might not be understood outside of a particular group or region), and the rhythms of the sentences. … [Read more...]
Before the new, updated Dork books are published, I want you to see what just arrived in my email box! This young man loves to read! His third-grade teacher said she heard giggling from her classroom library. He held up DORK IN DISGUISE and said, "It's me!" I love this picture and this enthusiastic reader! … [Read more...]
