Sue Bradford Edwards's Blog, page 234

Creating Spot-on Characters

As I do the various bits of prewriting necessary before I start writing Iron Mountain, I’m spending a lot of time noodling over my characters. My story is science fiction but I want me characters to seem real to my young readers.  Here are some tips on how I plan to accomplish this. Abandon Being […]

Holiday Writing: Do You or Don’t You

With Thanksgiving behind us we are heading hard and fast into the holiday season.  Decorating. Shopping. Events and more.  How does a writer find the time to write? For some of us it isn’t entirely a choice.  This is how I keep the lights on.  I like electricity and water and all the other utilities […]

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 […]

Developing a Story: Do you talk to others about your work or not?

I’ve been gathering the material for the story I’m calling Iron Mountain. It is a science fiction novel for teens. Since it hasn’t entirely come into being, I don’t know yet if it is middle grade or young adult. I think it may be young young adult but there is a “thank you but no” […]

Plot Planners: Making Writing Advice Your Own

As I write this, I’m still in Chapter 4 of Martha Alderson’s The Plot Whisperer.  One of the things that I was supposed to do way back in the beginning of Chapter 3 was make a plot planner. A plot planner looks a lot like the graphic for acts and rising tension in a story.  Something […]

Theme: Take some time to play

Ask me what the theme of a book is and I’m going to stare blankly for a moment.  It doesn’t matter if it is something I am reading or something I am writing, I am a do-er.  Generally the first thing that I identify is plot.  Or character.  Theme may come into play only after […]

Graphic Novels: Telling Nonfiction stories

Oh, the vagueries of the internet.  Monday or Tuesday a story popped up in my blog feed.  It was extolling graphic novels that tell stories of science, nonfiction stories of science.  Awesome!   Then I took a closer look and realized that the original post was from 2013.  Okie-dokie, not sure why it decided I […]

Our Audience: Listening to What Teens Have to Say

One of the best things about the internet is that it gives us a chance to connect with a wide variety of people.  Some of these people are even our target readers.  You can check out what teens post in chats or the videos that they post on Youtube.  Some of my favorites are the […]

SCBWI Reading List Available

I’m between jobs at the moment.  Yes, I’m still writing and working but I always feel a bit adrift when I don’t have a real deadline.  I should have known SCBWI wouldn’t let me drift along for too long. The SCBWI 2016 Winter Reading List is out and my book, The Bombing of Pearl Harbor, is listed on […]

Details: Keeping in Character

This morning I started a new audio book.  No, I’m not going to tell you the name because, as much as I love it, I’m pointing out a detail that pulled me out of the story.  The main character is teenage girl from “upstairs.”  Her family is old money and she attends finishing school for […]