Sue Bradford Edwards's Blog, page 248

Friday Fun: A Stretch for Writers and Illustrators

Technically, this wasn’t billed as a stretch for writers or illustrators but my yoga teacher has made one thing clear.  A stretch that’s good for the hands is good for the hands.  Hand work is hand work.  That means that a stretch that benefits crafters very often benefits those of us who slave away at […]

Themed Word Lists

Someone on Facebook just recommended something that looks like a really helpful resource if you ever use themed word lists.  Why would you need a themed list?  Here are some possibilities. Motion words.  In a picture book text, I needed a variety of words to describe animal movement.  This text is super brief so the […]

Reading, Writing and Becoming an Accomplice

I wasn’t familiar with Virginia Woolf’s “How Should One Read a Book?” when I stumbled across the essay online.  But I’ve been reading and blogging about how we read so it caught my attention.  I didn’t get the same thing out of it as the original commentator.  That person was all about coming at your […]

Crystal Kite

Are you an SCBWI member?  If so, have you cast your ballot in the first round of the Crystal Kite voting?  The Crystal Kite Award is a peer-given award that gives SCBWI members (divided into 15 regions) the opportunity to vote for and recognize amazing books in their regions. The first round of voting is going […]

Writer’s Block, Brain Block and Outlining my book

Recently I wrote a post about knowing when to quit writing and put something aside vs when to soldier on.  Sometimes you really do benefit from a break, but sometimes you have a deadline and a break just isn’t an option. That was the situation I faced last week when I was trying to outline […]

Reading While Wearing Your Editor Hat

Earlier this week, I wrote a blog post about the fact that I give a book 10 pages to catch my fancy.  It it fails this test, I return it to the library.  Then I had the opportunity to talk to Astor+Blue Editions‘ editor Jillian Ports.  Jillian believes in the idea that you can learn just […]

Mystery Writing: Historic Detecting for Today’s Reader

When you write a mystery set in the past, you have to do it knowing what your detective would have known about solving crimes.  It seems obvious but a detective going after Jack the Ripper wouldn’t have known anything about profiling or the psychology of serial killers.  The problem is that you still have to […]

The Key to Successful Characters: A.R.F.

Yesterday, I wrote a post about what a fickle pickle I am when it comes to reading.  I give a book 10 pages.  If it doesn’t pull me in by then, too bad, so sad, into the library bag it goes.  There are a variety of reasons to dump a book and they range from […]

Read or Stop: How long do you give a book before you stop reading?

Recently, a friend asked a group of us how long we will continue to read a book that just hasn’t caught our fancy.  She was half way through a book that has received critical acclaim and it just hadn’t clicked with her.  How much longer should she give it. I have to admit that I […]

Writing a Novel: Can a plotter pants?

You know how it is — when you have a deadline that involves a check, that’s when another MOST EXCELLENT idea reaers its head and you simply have got to start writing it.  The problem is that I need to research my next piece of nonfiction for Red Line.  Chapter 1 and the outline are due […]