Sue Bradford Edwards's Blog, page 212

Dialogue, Narrative, and Action: Getting the Right Balance

Tuesday, I read a Writer’s Digest piece on what characters say and what they think.  The writer discussed needing to get the balance between dialogue and narrative just right. Balancing dialogue, action and narrative was one of the things we discussed when I did the novel rewriting workshop with Darcy Pattison.  I remembered doing a manuscript […]

YA: Writing It Real

I remember reading YA novels while my son was in upper elementary and middle school and thinking, “Whoa!  These are teenagers?  You’ve got to be kidding me.”  Kids with their own cars taking lengthy road trips.  Teens with credits cards buying this and that and hotel rooms?  No worries. Of course, now that I’m the […]

Author’s Copies: I’ve Run Out of Space

Another pair of author’s copies arrived in the mail on Friday – these are What Are Race and Racism?  The series, Race in American, is with Abdo. Once again, I had the opportunity to work with Duchess Harris who was the topic expert for this book.  After the author turns in an Abdo book, the topic […]

Plotting Your Story

As an occasional writer of fiction, I understand how important plot is.  I even know how to use a plot diagram.  But I hate doing it when it comes to working on something book length. When I use a diagram, I want to be able to fit everything on one page.  I don’t want to […]

Tension: Make It Count

When we start a new piece of fiction, one of the things that we need to figure out is how to add tension.  One of the best ways to do this is to give your character a goal but have something stand in her way. This something can be external. Perhaps two young characters want […]

The Appeal of Series Fiction

In contemplating a fix for a recent manuscript, I came across James Scott Bell’s post on what makes a great series character. As so often happens, this to me thinking . . . this time about the differences between a long-running series and stand alone fiction. Especially when you write for children, a big part […]

Anthropomorphic Animals: Creating Picture Book Characters that Work

Using anthropomorphic characters in picture books can be tough.  Sometimes the problem is that we try to write to “type.” The giraffe that is too tall and wants to be tiny.  The prickly porcupine.  The smelly skunk.  The shy turtle. Or we work too hard to go in the opposite direction.  The shy tiger.  The […]

Professional Gaming Careers

Friday, I posted on Facebook about seeing a Tweet from one of my publishers. The series is E-Sports: Game On!  That book on the left?  Professional Gaming Careers?  That one is mine.  Woo-hoo. It’s a great feeling to see your book out and about in the world.  Then guess what came in the mail later […]

Set Your Story

Recently, Kristin Nelson of the Nelson Literary Agency posted a summary of her ongoing series “9 Story Openings to Avoid.”  I started to skim the list but was stopped on item #2.  “White Room Syndrome.”  What is that? What Room Syndrome is what Nelson calls it when a writer forgets to set the story.  They […]

Top 100 YA Titles according to a SLJ poll

In November of 2015, School Library Journal (SLJ) sent out a poll asking professionals in the field what books would make it onto their Top 100 Must-Have YA books.  The poll was answered by 274 people responses.  29% said that they work in a public library. 43 percent identified as school librarians. SLJ noted that the list contained […]