Sue Bradford Edwards's Blog, page 243

Writing Nonfiction

I love it when I find interviews with fellow authors.  This week, I discovered Library of Congress interviews with nonfiction author Tonya Bolden.  When I was reading the description of her book Capital Days : Michael Shiner’s Journal and the Growth of our Nation’s Capital, I was thrilled to see that she is known for illustrating […]

Character and Voice: When the Two Don’t Match

Last night we watched an old episode of Bones.  They were trying to solve the murder of a body builder who had been partying on the Jersey shore. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the show, the main character, Bones, is a forensic anthropologist who is brilliant but beyond literal. Because of this, […]

Creating an Antagonist that Works

Lately I’ve been thinking about antagonists because one project stands between me and getting back to my middle grade science fiction novel. One of the problems that I’ve identified is my villain/antagonist.  I say villain/antagonist because in the original outline he is a first class villain.  He’s bad through and through and doesn’t give a […]

Slush Pile Reading

Last weekend when I was at the All Write Now! Conference, I witnessed my first slush pile reading panel.  It’s a little different from a first pages panel and works like this. Conference participants get to turn in the first three pages of their manuscript.  During the session, the reader pulls a manuscript and then […]

Accidental Research

Too bad I’m not writing a book set in the 1970s.  Hmm. Maybe I should just shift the date on the Cold War mystery.  I’m not too far to do that.  I’ve gotten to do some extra research this week.  Why?  Because while I was out yesterday our internet went out. When I got home, […]

Elevator Pitches

As most of you probably know, an elevator pitch is a 60 second pitch, something short enough to share on an elevator ride.  It needs to hook the agent or editor and make them want more.  Hint:  Saying that you don’t know how to describe your story is not the way to go.  If you […]

All Write Now

This Saturday I was down in Cape Girardeau for the All Write Now Conference put on by that chapter of the Missouri Writer’s Guild.  I gave a talk on writing short nonfiction for young readers. I actually gave this talk twice but it is really interesting how participants’ questions lead you into different territory.  Although […]

Goals: Setting Them Isn’t Enough

I’ve been playing around with goal setting lately.  Yes, I get my work out there on a regular basis.  I have three books waiting for their ABDO publication dates and a fourth in the final rewrite process.  Blog posts appear on the Muffin and I’m writing articles for CBI. But I’d like to break into […]

Finding the Right Word

I’ve always had a love/hate relationship with dictionaries.  Whenever I didn’t know how to spell something, I’d ask my mom.  Ninety percent of the time, she would tell me to look it up.  Seriously?  I loved the unabridged dictionary and took any opportunity to drag it off the shelf with a thump.  But there were […]

Word Count: How Much Is Too Much?

When you’re writing for a magazine or online market, word count isn’t all that tricky.  You just look up the author’s guidelines and take note of what the publisher wants to see.  But what are the appropriate word counts for books?  Sometimes you can find them on the guidelines but not nearly as often.  Here […]