Gail Carson Levine's Blog, page 4

7/13/2023 Prompts

Jo and Joe (twins) are taken by their father to a department store to buy winter jackets. When that’s done, he shops for shoes for himself. The twins sneak away to explore. They find themselves in the vast warehouse behind the store, where there is no cell phone connectivity. When they lose track of time and are locked in for the night, they discover the warehouse’s terrible secrets (which you will make up). Write what happens.On a stormy day, Jo and Joe and their mother visit the Cloiste...

Dialogue Helper

Start with quotation marks, like this (double, not single):

            “Ouch! My toe hurts.”

Punctuation in dialogue, including exclamation points, question marks, periods, commas, belongs inside the quotation marks, like this:

            “Ouch! My toe hurts.”

It’s called a speech tag when a speaker is mentioned by name or by pronoun, like this:

            “Ouch! My toe hurts,” Fred said.

            “Ouch! My toe hurts,” he said.

Notice that the period becomes a comm...

7/10/23 Homework

Homework

The homework will be on my blog on my website: www.gailcarsonlevine.com. Click on the blog. If you’re participating remotely, email your work to me as a Word attachment or with a Google Docs link by Wednesday at the latest: gclevine@ayortha.com. I’d like three to five double-spaced pages if the work is typed. If you’re hand writing your work and bringing it with you, skip lines on your pad. If your pad isn’t lined, estimate the spaces. Three to five pages too. Please write clearly an...

Prompts

Prompts

Your main character is on a boat. It’s up to you what kind of boat and why your main character is there. A pirate ship pulls up next to it and the pirates begin to board. Write what happens.Your main character wakes up and hears fire crackling. Write what happens.Your main character is babysitting a three year old, who, while they’re reading a picture book, turns into an entirely different creature—your pick, could be a small dragon, a big squirrel, an alien, or anything ...

Dear Blog Reader,

On Monday, July 10th, I’m starting my annual writing workshop for kids in my home town, and this year I’m going to post weekly homework for participants here. If this works out (since I’ve never done it before), you’ll see five sets of prompts over three weeks. You are free to write from them too, and I hope you will. If it doesn’t work out, you’ll know because the prompts will stop.

I still keep an eye on the blog, and when comments come in, I read them, and I’m grateful for those of you wh...

Fare Thee Very Well

First off, I’m going to be signing books at two book festivals in New York’s Hudson Valley that are coming up in the next few weeks. Details are here on the website on the Appearances page. And there will be a couple of events coming up for my new book, Sparrows in the Wind, which will be released on October 25th, so please keep an eye on the page.

Second off, I’ve decided to stop posting to the blog for a while at least, leaving open the possibility of starting up again. I’ve loved writing t...

OMG

On January 30, 2022, Ruby wrote, Does anyone have any advice about writing religions?

Evelyn asked, Making up a new one or writing an existing one into your story?

And Ruby answered, I’d like to write a new one.

A discussion followed.

Evelyn: I’d suggest keeping it simple, or only mentioning the parts that relate to your story and you can hint at anything else. For instance, if you have a girl who lives by an angry river, and if you have a river god in your story, the river god will ...

Unicorn Horns

On December 7, 2021, Miss Maddox wrote, I’m having some trouble with setting. In one of my stories, I have a magical inn. In my head, the inn always seems really fantastical and fun, but when I try to write it down it just seems pretty normal and not very interesting. The same thing is happening with another magical location in another story, this one a house belonging to a family of witches. Does anyone have any tips for how to make the magical parts of these settings really stand out?

Two o...

The End of the Road

On September 17, 2021, Christie V Powell wrote, Does anyone else struggle with writing the very end of a story? I’m fine if it’s a series and there are more books coming, but if I’m writing the end of a standalone or the end of a series, I have a really hard time focusing on the last chapter or so (the tail end of the climax and the resolution stuff). My brain has already written off this story as done and wants to move on to something new and interesting. I struggled on this with my standalone ...

Flowering in the Great Plot Dessert

On September 9, 2021, Brambles and Bees wrote, Does anyone have any recommendations on how to get ideas for plot and how to cultivate them until they grow into a fully formed story ready to write? I am currently struggling with re-planning because I didn’t find the plot I had given the story I’m working on interesting or detailed enough for my liking. The problem now is that I can’t seem to think of any ideas for the story. I have vague ideas for very random scenes in the story that I might not ...