Sue Bradford Edwards's Blog, page 244
June 2, 2016
Writing for Children: Reality vs Something Else
One of the strangest things about writing for children is the reaction that I get from people when I tell them what I do. For a long time, the reaction I got most often was — you know, I have an idea for a book … This never came from people who wrote. It was […]
June 1, 2016
How to Create an Invoice
Recently, Duchess and I had to invoice for the first half of the NASA book. She had never had to do this before and it crossed my mind that maybe some of you have never had to invoice for a job either. It is really pretty simple. Here is my basic format: INVOICE From: […]
May 31, 2016
Writing the Senses: Sense of Smell
A number of years ago, I took a workshop with Darcy Pattison on rewriting your novel. One of the things that she taught us was to include three sensory perceptions per page. No worries. It’s easy enough to say how big something is, what color it is and describe its texture. But wait! There’s more! […]
May 30, 2016
Memorial Day
I hope that you plan to take some time off today since it is, at least in the US, Memorial Day. I’ve been keeping up a ferocious work schedule so I’ll be spending some time with my family today. That said, I had to tell an editor “no, I can’t have it ready that soon” […]
Social Media: The Down Side
Social Media for Writers. How to Use Social Media. Social Media, the Author’s Way. Everywhere I turn, there seems to be someone telling me how important social media is for me as a writer. They’re willing to tell me how and why and just how little time it will take. And I have to admit […]
May 26, 2016
How Long Will an Editor Wait for Your Manuscript?
I have heard more than one agent or editor tell a group of writers to take their time writing or rewriting a manuscript. Don’t rush it. Instead, take the time to get it right. Recently, I read an article about an author who took this to an extreme. Scientific American had contacted Dr. Ian Shine and […]
May 25, 2016
Writing Books that Break the Rules
Your child character must solve his own problem. Write picture books or listen to talks on picture books and you’re going to hear this advice. And, why not? It’s really good advice. No one wants to follow an inactive child character through the pages of a picture book. But I just read a book that […]
May 24, 2016
Boy Books vs Girl Books
Tuesday morning I read a post on girl books saving the world. The premise was that if boys would just read girl books they would be different (BETTER!) and the world would be saved. For the sake of discussion, let’s assume that there are boy books and girl books. I have a huge problem with […]
May 23, 2016
Writer vs World
occasionally, my family feels the need to point out that I, as a writer, see the world differently than a “normal” person sees it. Most recently, my son and his friend were working up a real-world zombie game, Darker Days. The premise is that you are at your buddy’s house gaming when the Zombie Apocalypse […]
May 22, 2016
Creating a Teacher’s Guide
Does your book have a teacher’s guide? If the publisher hasn’t created one this is something that you can pay a publicist to do or, with the right skills, you can do it yourself. Here are a few of the things that you might include: First things first, consider which classes your book might supplement. […]
