Sue Bradford Edwards's Blog, page 208
October 17, 2017
Leaving Room to Spook Your Reader
About a month ago, I read a post on Writer unBoxed about keeping your writing, especially your emotional scenes, clean and spare. In “Say a Little Less, Mean a Little More,” Kathryn Craft talked about leaving space for your reader in the scene by not over-writing your “emotional peaks” as she calls them. She put […]
October 16, 2017
5 Senses: Use As Many As Possible When You Write
One of the things that Darcy Pattison has writers do in her Novel Metamorphosis workshop is to catalog sensory perceptions for a particular scene. Don’t be satisfied with 3 or 4 details total. Darcy asks you to come up with 3 details per sense per scene. Why so many? Sensory details make your writing more […]
October 15, 2017
Hidden Human Computers Nominated!
It has been completely sureal. Friday I was working my fanny to a frazel, editing the last two chapters of a new Abdo title because I had a deadline to meet. Then I see a tweet from my publisher: The book I co-authored with Duchess Harris has been nominated to be on the Amelia Bloomer […]
October 12, 2017
How Do You Read?
Paper? Ebook? Audio? While I use ebooks when I do research, I have no interest in using a reader. I know. I might as well be a book-asaurus. But that’s ok. I work on a screen. Unless I’m gaming or watching something, I’m not going to be on a screen during my leisure time. Not […]
October 11, 2017
How Long Should It Take to Write Your Book?
I’ve been thinking about this since early yesterday when I read Sarah Callender’s post, “Bun in the Oven: The Gestation Period of a Novel.” Sarah wrote about working on her novel for 4.5 years, writing several drafts before she discovered a plot. When I write fiction, I’m a lot like Sarah. I have to write […]
October 10, 2017
3 Places to Turn for Story Ideas
One of my friends and I ended up chatting about idea generation yesterday. I may go a week or so without an idea. But then I have 5 or so in a day. I keep a list, starting a new list each year. So far the one for 237 ideas on it. This morning it […]
October 9, 2017
The Author vs Passive Voice
As you read this, I’m on Day #3 of rewriting a book for Abdo. Teen nonfiction, I’m having to tighten here and add a bit of detail there. I’m also rooting out the passive voice. Why? My editor is not a big fan. Why? Because passive voice is frequently a bit convoluted and wordy. And […]
October 8, 2017
Your Rough Draft: Slap It Down
I’ve been in critique groups with people who fiddle with their first sentence for months. They write it one way and then another, struggling for perfection. Not me. I just slap that sucker down and keep on writing. Seriously. Yes, I know that your first several sentence need to hook your reader. I know they […]
October 5, 2017
Query Letters: What would you want to know?
In about two weeks, I’ll be leading a workshop on query letters. Here is what I’ve pulled together so far: 3 successful letters. One is from a picture book author. The other two are for novels. I’ve put together a list of online resources. I discuss the hook. I compare it to the elevator pitch. […]
October 4, 2017
Novel or Movie: Wonder
Somehow I’ve managed to not yet read Wonder by R.J. Palacio. If you know me, it isn’t any big surprise. I don’t handle bummer books particularly well. But I am apparently writing a middle grade novel. I thought it was a chapter book but my characters are rather obstinate. It is middle grade. So I asked people […]
