Sue Bradford Edwards's Blog, page 242

Picture Books: Leaving Room for the Illustrations

For those of us who write but don’t illustrate, part of the balance we need to achieve is writing a story that leaves space for the illustrations.  I knew better than to include specific character descriptions or clothing descriptions.  After all, unless the story depends on the character’s bright red hair, that’s the sort of […]

Rewriting: Sometimes It Means Starting Anew

If you’ve been writing for any length of time at all, you’ve probably realized that 95% of any writing project is rewriting.  When I say rewriting, I don’t mean copy-editing, such as fixing commas and checking spelling.  I mean rewriting — shifting paragraphs, deleting pages, coming up with concrete verbs and more. Most often I […]

Brainstorming with Blippar

I have to admit that I was really excited when I read Lee Wind’s post on brainstorming with the Blippar ap.  In short, you open the app and point your phone at whatever.  As soon as Blippar “recognizes” what the object is it will pull in a labeled photo which goes into a menu bar […]

Sidebars: Formatting and Voice

Those of us who write nonfiction often use sidebars to include information that isn’t “on topic” enough to go into the main text but can still provide insight into the topic.  In Ancient Maya, my chapter on Maya society includes sidebars on murals that show life in the marketplace and jade.  In The Attack on Pearl Harbor, the chapter […]

Researching Setting: Walk It When You Can

My middle grade science fiction novel is set on an Earth-like world.  The area where the main character lives is very like an area I frequented as a child and still visit as an adult.  That said, my mom and grandmother never encouraged off-road strolling.  There were too many snakes and ticks and chiggers. Lucky […]

How do editors decide what to publish?

I’ve been wondering a lot lately about how editors decide what to publish. Wondering and discussing it with my fellow writers.  Here are a list of theories I’ve compiled in a non-scientific (these are the ones I remember) way. Editors are influenced by the “wish lists” produced by teachers and librarians. They are out to […]

Plot: Essential for your Biography

One of my students this semester is writing a biography of two well-known historic figures.  When you write about someone who is already the topic if numerous books, one of the trickiest things can be finding something to write about that isn’t the focus of anyone else’s book.  Fortunately, my student has done that because […]

Story beginnings

One of the things that Taylor Norman kept mentioning at the Missouri SCBWI Advanced Writer’s Retreat was the need for a strong start to your story.  Surprisingly enough a strong start Taylor-Norman-style did not start with a bang.  It wasn’t necessarilly a high-action scene.  It wasn’t the moment that the character’s life started forever. Nope. […]

Extra, Extra: Including photographs, artifacts and more to help sell your manuscript

Recently I read a blog post by agent Janet Reid about a would-be client who wanted to know if she sould include a historic, handwritten resume and a photograph as part of her manuscript.  Wouldn’t these awesome items help the manuscript sell? Reid’s answer was short and simple.  No. Her advice to authors was this […]

Coming up with a Top Notch Title

Every now and again I come up with the perfect title for my manuscript.  It is catchy, alluring, and just revealing enough. Then there are those times that I think I’ve pulled that off but  — no.  I have not.  That was the case with What’s Up, Chuck?  I mean, what could be better for a […]