Sue Bradford Edwards's Blog, page 245

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 […]

Twitter Pitch

I’ve written short pitches for my book ideas — three sentences, one sentence — but I hadn’t considered limiting myself to 140 characters until I heard two writers discussing twitter pitches.  I suspect this was at the Missouri SCBWI retreat but don’t actually remember who or where.  Yeah, when it’s overloaded my brain is just […]

Research and Writing: The Joy of Not Understanding a Source

Now that I’m back from the retreat, I’m doing a hard copy edit of the NASA book.  Hint:  I don’t care how often you read something on a screen, you will miss several mistakes.  Missing commas, singulars that should be plural and overused words (word, words, words) all hide themselves when reading on a screen. […]

Finding Your Voice

I’ve long suspected that at least in terms of nonfiction I have found my voice.  That was confirmed by the critique I got from Chronicle’s Taylor Norman at the Missouri SCBWI Advanced Writer’s Retreat.  I submitted the picture book version of What’s Up, Chuck?  which is basically a scientific take on vomit.  Yes, there is actually […]