Sue Bradford Edwards's Blog, page 237
October 17, 2016
Characterization: Prewriting to the Extreme
When author K.M. Weiland interviews her characters, she asks them a wide variety of questions including the name of their favorite book. As I started doing this for my main character, Clem, my first thought was that she wouldn’t have a favorite book. She is definitely working class and poor. She doesn’t have much time […]
October 16, 2016
Novel Writing: What to Know Before You Start
When I came across this checklist, it was billed as NaNoWriMo prep. “Do these things and you’ll be ready to rock.” Admittedly, that’s why I’m doing them right now but if they are good prep for NaNoWriMo then they are good prep to write a novel. Period. So what is on this amazing checklist? I’m […]
October 13, 2016
New Publishing Opportunities: St. Martin’s Press Launches a Crossover Imprint
Macmillan’s St Martin’s Press (SMP) is launching a new imprint — Wednesday Books. Publisher Jennifer Enderlin will publish YA and adult titles that focus on coming-of-age themes but are also “dynamic and exciting.” The imprint is looking for both fiction and nonfiction that is described as “bold, diverse, and commercial.” Readers who are attracted to […]
October 12, 2016
Editing Your Manuscript: Reading Level
Remember that optimistic estimate I had that it would take me three hours to finish the manuscript? It was a lot closer to five. The biggest problem that I faced was bringing things to the correct reading level. When I write for Red Line, I use the ATOS grade level calculator. My goal for this book […]
October 11, 2016
Deadlines: How Close Do You Cut It?
I have a book due today. In an ideal world, I’d have spent yesterday working through the last of my hard copy edits. Of course, in an ideal world jr. wouldn’t have come home from school spiking a fever. Granted, he’s a teenager so it isn’t like I need to be at his beck and […]
October 10, 2016
Prepping Your Premise
As I work on my NaNoWriMo prewriting tasks, I find myself doing a bit of this and a bit of that on my book. No, I’m not writing. I’m figuring things out. One of the things that I need to figure out is my premise. Not sure what a premise is? The concept is the […]
October 9, 2016
Characters: Getting to know them inside and out
As part of the pre-writing that I need to get done for NaNoWriMo, I spent some time last week scrapbooking my characters. This is definitely an exercise that I’d recommend if you’ve never done it before. Before I did this exercise, I’d given some thought to my characters. For my main character and three main […]
October 6, 2016
Narrator vs POV Character
Last not, we had a really interesting conversation at critique group on your narrator vs your point-of-view character. One of our writers is working on a middle grade novel. Her point of view character is gifted and mature. Every once in a while, she sounds a big “old” or at least older than her 12 […]
October 5, 2016
My Misfit Manuscript
I had a critique group meeting this afternoon. I love my group and really wanted the chance to get some feedback. But I’ve been working on the Race and Racism book, due Wednesday. So that I didn’t have to miss out on their feedback, I pulled out an old manuscript that I jokingly refer to […]
October 4, 2016
Scrapbooking My Characters
Have you ever scrapbooked a novel? I read an article about this in the SCBWI Bulletin and am giving it a shot. I’m a pretty visual person so this may work well for me. We shall see. First things first, I’m scrapbooking my characters. I designated one page per character but I’m not sure that’s […]
