I find that people outside the world of Young Adult fiction often don’t understand what YA is. I have neighbors without children around or older book club members who lump it in with the whole children’s market. They see it and chapter books as being in the same category. Even people in children’s fiction sometimes have trouble. I once read opening pages a loud at a meeting of the Society for Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, and someone suggested that…
Power is a ubiquitous theme in fantasy. Over and over, we see questions about who has power, how they got it, and whether they wield it wisely. The Quest for Political Power One of the most common elements in a fantasy plot is a struggle over who should rule the kingdom. That quest for political power is often backed up by military might, i.e. physical power. So there are lots of exciting battles, ranging from single combat to large scale…
If you’re thinking of using multiple points of view in a novel, here are three things to consider that might help you decide. Do You Need Multiple Points of View? First, ask yourself if you really need more than one character telling this story. Everything in a story should have a reason for being there. That includes the number of point of view characters. Maybe you need more than one because no single character is going to know everything needed…
Cover blurbs are always tricky to write, which is why it’s so useful to have a collaborative approach without too many cooks spoiling the broth. In this post, I’m going to take you through the steps of editing, tightening and polishing the blurb for my latest book, The Trickster. If you watch people in bookstores, you see that a book catches their attention, either from the cover (if it’s shelved face out) or the title (if only the spine shows)….
Note: This post originally appeared as a Big Idea post on John Scalzi’s blog, “Whatever.” My thanks to him for hosting it. Not long ago, I realized that I always wind up writing about family, whether I intend to or not. That may be because I write YA and my characters are breaking from their birth families. But themes of family can work even with adult characters. We humans generally need the support of other who love us, most commonly…
In Writing the Breakout Novel Workbook, literary agent Donald Maass offers advice on the importance of the first and last lines of a book. That first line is what draws the reader in, often while browsing in a bookstore. The last line helps shape a reader’s final impression of a book and perhaps leads them to seek out more work by the same author. According to Maass, first lines should do one of three things to create the desire to…
Because I have a new book coming out on March X, my publisher asked me to write a post for the Inspired Quill blog on how to get the most from a critique group. I’ve belonged to a lot of different crit groups over the years and was happy to share whatever bits of wisdom I’d picked up. After I wrote that post, though, I realized that I’d only talked about how to get the most from being critiqued. But…
Sometimes I put sticky notes to myself around my computer screen. They’re advice I know I need to write well. One I have up often is “Write True.” To Write True Is To Write Well The value of writing true has been brought home to me by listening to audio books as I drive. In them, I find that good writing overcomes a lot of drawbacks. By “good writing,” I don’t mean fancy writing. I mean things like interesting voice…
I recently read Lionheart by Ben Kane. This is historical fiction that is, unsurprisingly, about Richard the Lionhearted. The book is well written enough that I finished it. However, reading it made me realize the problems presented by some kinds of plot lines when the author tries to achieve rising action. Repeated plot elements Richard the Lionhearted is a fascinating historical character. We’re probably all familiar with him at least from tales about Robin Hood, who struggled against oppression in…
Here are the ten books I enjoyed reading most in 2020. Most of them were published in 2020 also, but some are earlier. I tried to explain what made each book special to me, but sometimes the appeal of a book is mysterious. Bitterblue by Kristin Cashore I reread this, the third book in Cashore’s Graceling series, because a sequel is coming out in January. I enjoyed it more this time that I did the first time I read it, I…