Sue Bradford Edwards's Blog, page 208

Happy Thanksgiving

For those of you who celebrate, I’d like to wish you a Happy Thanksgiving.  Take the time to recharge your creative battery. I don’t know if this is just a MidWest thing but our Thanksgiving day tends to stretch into Thanksgiving Weekend.  Thursday, we have dessert with my Dad and dinner with my sister and […]

The Surprise Ending: On Way to End Your Picture Book

I’ve been thinking about Dragon’s Love Tacos today because the play is being performed at our local theater.  It grabs your attention when 300 school children traipse past the gym where you are taking yoga. I remember that one of the things that grabbed my attention about this picture book was the surprise ending. In Adam […]

Mentor Texts: Guiding Yourself through Writing a Picture Book

If you’ve been reading my blog for any length of time, you know I’m a fan of using mentor texts.  A mentor text is a book that you use as a guide in one particular aspect of your own writing. You might use I am Peace: A Book of Mindfulness by Susan Verde as a mentor for writing […]

Picture Books: Writing Biography

Recently I read a Writer’s Digest blog post by Michael Mahin, Three Keys to Selling a Children’s Picture Book Biography.  Among the things he discussed was needing a great climax. There are two types of picture book biographies.  Some of them detail a slice of the person’s life.  These are the kinds of biographies that […]

Querying Agents: Wait!

When is the best time to send out your agent queries?  In truth, I was just getting ready to send a few out.  Getting ready can take a while and that’s a good thing.  Wednesday I was reading the November 2017 Nelson Literary Agency Newsletter.  Kristin Nelson recommends waiting until January 2, 2018.  Why?  Because […]

Picture Books: Writing Funny

Whether you plan to write humorous fiction or work humor into your nonfiction, it pays to know what your audience finds funny.  Part of that is a matter of personal taste.  My son never got Sponge Bob or Captain Underpants, but Veggie Tales cracked us both up. Still, humor is also a matter of developmental […]

Rejection: 5 Tips on How to Deal with the Inevitable

I was making pretty good time on the treadmill when an e-mail popped up.  The sender immediately looked familiar.  It was one of the agents who had recently received my manuscript.  Her letter was short, simple and to the point.  “Thanks but no thanks and good luck elsewhere.” Well, poop. Some days rejections really get […]

Stories Based on Real Life: Reality with a Twist

“That would make a great story.  You should write it.” If your family and friends are anything like mine, they love pointing out when some event would make a great story.  And in all reality life is a great place to find inspiration. I was reminded of this yesterday when I read the picture book Robinson by Peter […]

Dummy: Use It to Rewrite One Spread at a Time

On Friday I blogged about using a dummy to “test drive” your manuscript.  In addition to making sure you have a solid picture book manuscript, a dummy is also a great way to edit and tighten your text. Why?  Because picture books are super short.  Each word has to have maximum impact.  But when I work […]

The Dummy: Another Way to Test Drive Your Picture Book

Yesterday, I blogged about creating a storyboard to test your picture book idea.  But there’s another tool that let’s you test your manuscript before you send it to the editor.  The dummy. Since I use the dummy to revise, that means I must have a solid draft in hand.  Some people may use it earlier […]