Sue Bradford Edwards's Blog, page 210

12 Writing Books: 6 Books Librarians Recommend and 6 of My Favorites

Whenever I come across a list of must read writing books, I skim through it to see what I might discover.  So it’s not surprise I clicked through to read the list Terri Frank composed for a DIY MFA blog post. When asked a variety of questions, the librarians queried each recommended a book.  Here […]

Middle Grade vs Chapter Book

Last week I blogged about where middle grade novels fit into the “book with chapters” spectrum.   On one end, you have chapter books.  Chapter book readers have just mastered reading on their own.  Because of this, sentence structure is straight forward.  Internal dialogue is kept to a minimum.  You have a plot and no […]

Free to Use and Reuse: Library of Congress Material in the Public Domain

For those of you who aren’t familiar with the Library of Congress, it is a true treasure hoard.  The Library is the largest world library.  The largest!   It contains millions of books, newspapers, manuscripts, photos, maps, recordings and more. More and more of the Library’s holdings are digitized and placed online every year.  These […]

Looking for an Agent

Are you looking for an agent?  One of the best ways to find out what agents want is to explore the hashtag #MSWL on Manuscript Wish List Day.  The most recent #MSWL Day was Tuesday, 9/12. I have to admit that I started out with good intentions.  Since it was Tuesday, I didn’t have yoga […]

Confidential: When You Can’t Talk about Your Work

Recently, I found a new clause in one of my contracts.  The publisher now includes a confidentiality statement, otherwise known as a confidentiality clause. In its shortest form, the clause states that the author cannot distribute material that might be considered proprietary or confidential.  This can include any or all of the following: The broad […]

In-search-of-ideas: Mining Everyday Mysteries at the Library of Congress

I get a wide variety of updates sent to my in-box and that variety includes the Library of Congress.  Not too long ago, I saw that the library had a series called “Everyday Mysteries.” Take minute to check this out.  Although it is described as “Fun Science Facts from the Library of Congress,” there is […]

Folk and Fairy Tales: Inspiration for All Ages

Have you ever written a story inspired by a folk or fairy tale?  It is something I’ve been noodling over a lot lately in part because I ran across this blog post – #5onFri: Five Myths to Plunder for Ideas and Inspiration.   These age-old stories can be great sources for story ideas whether you […]

Books with Chapters: Where Does Middle Grade Fit In?

While I work on my latest nonfiction manuscript, I’ve been pounding out a new fiction draft.  Initially I thought it was a chapter book.  Because of this, when I needed a mentor book, I pulled out a Magic Tree House.  Those are fantasy.  Mine is fantasy.  Those have two main characters.  Mine has two main […]

Numbering Pages in Word

Last night, several critique buddies confessed that they still had not figured out how to insert page numbers in Word.  Yes, they could get a number to appear but . . . One woman couldn’t stop it from appearing on the first page. Another had been hand numbering pages. A third ended up with the […]

Cutting Excess Verbage

As I work on my chapter book project, I’ve been studying various fiction writing and rewriting techniques.  In part, this is because I’m trying to produce the cleanest manuscript possible.  I appreciate writing that is straightforward and concise.  I want my writing to be similar. Because of this, I work to cut excess verbage.  A […]