Sue Bradford Edwards's Blog, page 155
November 11, 2019
How to Create Suspense in Your Story
As I work on my mystery during NaNoWriMo, I’m keeping my eyes open for any tips on how to lay in clues and create suspense. I’m already fairly good at using cliff hangers to create suspense. If you aren’t familiar with this term, a cliff hanger occurs when the author breaks a scene mid-action. The […]
November 10, 2019
Why? What To Ask When You Get Stuck
I set myself two goals for NaNoWriMo. To finish the beat sheet for my cozy. To write, including the beat sheet, 25,000 words. And I was almost done with my outline when I got stuck. Not only does my character need to solve the mystery, she also needs to make strides in deciding what she […]
November 7, 2019
Voting is open for the 2019 Goodreads Choice Awards
On Tuesday, Goodreads posted the fifteen nominations in each of 20 categories for their annual awards. They’ve been doing it for 11 years so I have to admit that some of my favorites didn’t make the nominations. But that’s okay, you can write books in but that is possible only in this opening round. This […]
November 6, 2019
Raising the Stakes: Tormenting Your Main Character
Okay, let me get a bit of fan girl gushing out of the way. If you haven’t read Patron Saints of Nothing, read it. Now! This young adult novel is a lesson in how to plot a novel and how to torment your main character. If you don’t know this novel yet, Jay is Filipino but […]
November 5, 2019
My First Write-In and Why I’ll Attend Another
This weekend, a friend told me about a NaNoWriMo Write-in at her local library. For those of you who have never attended a write-in, the idea is simple. The library sat aside a meeting room for us to come write. Five people gathered together and sat clicking away on their laptops or writing in note […]
My First Write-In and While I’ll Attend Another
This weekend, a friend told me about a NaNoWriMo Write-in at her local library. For those of you who have never attended a write-in, the idea is simple. The library sat aside a meeting room for us to come write. Five people gathered together and sat clicking away on their laptops or writing in note […]
November 4, 2019
What is Writing?
What counts as writing? This may seem like an odd question but think about it. NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) encourages us to count only the words we write. Word count is writing. Period. This is one of the big reasons that I’ve avoided NaNoWriMo although I am participating this year. But, as a nonfiction […]
November 3, 2019
100 Years of Children’s Book Week
2019 marks 100 years of Children’s Book Week. Normally, this is celebrated for one week in the spring but given that this is a special anniversary, a second week of celebrations, November 4-10, was added in the fall. This week focuses on engaging students at schools, libraries, and after-school programs. To read more about this […]
October 31, 2019
NaNoWriMo: Yay or Nay?
Well, it has happened. I let two members of my accountability group talk me into doing NaNoWriMo this year. But don’t worry. I’m not ready to buy into the cult completely. I am joining as a NaNoWriMo Rebel. Normally, the goal of NaNoWriMo is to write 50,000 words on a new novel project during the […]
October 30, 2019
Prize Pack: Keep Calm and Carry on Children and Snacks
Today a box came in the mail. I won a copy of Sharon K. Mayhew’s Keep Calm and Carry On, Children and a variety of English snacks since the book is set in England. If I didn’t know better, I’d say that Sharon knows how I spent my Sundays growing up. First, we all went to church. […]
