Sue Bradford Edwards's Blog, page 184
September 27, 2018
Middle Grade: Not a Narrow Designation
Yesterday I posted about writing age appropriate middle grade fiction. Not only is it made difficult because what one person thinks is age appropriate is completely inappropriate in someone else’s estimation, but “middle grade” covers a really wide audience. Characters in younger middle grade books are 8 to 10 or 2nd through 4th grade. An […]
September 26, 2018
Age Appropriate Fiction: How Much Is Too Much?
I have to admit that I almost never look at reviews of my own books, but I do read reviews of other author’s books that I enjoyed. Today I popped over to Amazon to check out the reviews of Kate DiCamillo’s Raymie Nightingale. This is the summary from the library web site. “Hoping that if she wins […]
September 25, 2018
POV: Working with Third Person
Recently my novel suffered a POV failure. I’m writing this in third person limited. Although the novel is in third person, everything is in the point of view of my main character. Every now and again we get her thoughts but we don’t get anyone else’s. We see things through her eyes, but she isn’t […]
September 24, 2018
The Thought Police: Banned Books Week
I normally write one post a year about banned book week but this year? This year it feels critical in a way that it never has before. During my son’s sophomore year in high school, he brought home a list of books and a permission slip. They each had to read a banned book and […]
September 23, 2018
Serendipity
Sometimes it is just funny how things work out. You go into a project or an activity with one plan and something else happens. This past weekend, I went to a flea market with a friend. It sounded like it was going to be a big event. Instead, it comprised about six tables. But one […]
September 20, 2018
Banned Book Week
Next week from 9/23 to 9/29 is banned book week. Book banning continues to be a serious issue in the US. It is one thing if a parent doesn’t think their child is mature enough to read a specific book and approaches the teacher, asking for an alternate title. It is another altogether when a […]
September 19, 2018
Graphic Novels: How to Format Your Script
Not long ago, I saw a call for authors to write nonfiction graphic novels. Sounds great, but I don’t illustrate and I have no clue how to format the manuscript. I tried looking it up online and . . . nada. Part of my problem may have been that I was using the wrong lingo. […]
September 18, 2018
Picture Books: The Importance of the First Spread
Do you regularly listen to podcasts? I have to admit that I don’t. Most of them are just too long to hold my attention, especially when they ramble on for 5+ minutes about things they want me to buy. I have the attention span of my audience. The exception to this podcast rule comes from […]
September 17, 2018
Reading Level: Taking It Down
Most of the books that I write for RedLine have a reading level of about 7.5 to 8.0. That’s good news for me because my natural writing level is in that range. The book that I’m working on now has a reading level of 4.5 to 5.5. I expected to have to play with things […]
September 16, 2018
Grammar Gremlins: You Can’t Start a Sentence with a Conjunction . . . or Can You?
Yesterday one of my high school buddies messaged me. “So I’m asking an expert. Is it ok to begin a sentence with ‘And’ …..I’m proof reading technicians remarks.” Expert? At bending the rules of grammar? Yeah, that would be me. I start sentences with conjunctions (And, Or, But) all the time. But I got the feeling […]
