Sue Bradford Edwards's Blog, page 96

Five Minutes a Day: Refocus Before You Start Your Rewrite

I am going to restart my 5 Minutes a Day feature. It was one I enjoyed doing and is also a great way for each of us to start doing some new things with our writing. One of my goals for this month is to reoutline my middle grade science fiction novel, Airstream. Admittedly, it … Continue reading Five Minutes a Day: Refocus Before You Start Your Rewrite →

Try, Try Again: What to Do When Your Story Doesn’t Work

While I was writing yesterday’s blog post about why you need to know about inductive and deductive reasoning before you write a mystery, an idea popped into my head. It was an idea for a picture book mystery. If I played it right, it could be the first book in a STEM series. So instead … Continue reading Try, Try Again: What to Do When Your Story Doesn’t Work →

Deductive vs Inductive: Know the Difference Before You Write a Mystery

Recently I saw a blog post on West 44 Books on the importance of inductive reasoning in books for tweens. As they explained, a story that uses inductive reasoning allows young readers to reach their own conclusions as they read the story. I wanted a more complete explanation as well as some information on deductive … Continue reading Deductive vs Inductive: Know the Difference Before You Write a Mystery →

Finding Possible Publishers

One of my writing students recently came to me because she was having troubles finding potential publishers for her book. It is middle grade nonfiction. Yes, she had found suitable publishers. They were only taking agented manuscripts. Many of the publishers she found were putting out biographies but not general historical fiction. She wanted to … Continue reading Finding Possible Publishers →

3 Things to Remember about Conflict and Story Stakes

Lately I’ve been doing a lot of reading on conflict and story stakes. Many writers want to know if their stories really need conflict. But when I read more closely, I often come to the conclusion that what they are questioning is combat. Do they have to have physical confrontations? Do their characters need to … Continue reading 3 Things to Remember about Conflict and Story Stakes →

Query Letter Criticals

One of the classes that I teach at WOW! Women on Writing is Pitching, Querying and Submitting Your Work. My students breeze through creating a list of potential markets. Creating a pitch presents only minor problems. It is the query letter that gets them every single time. If you are preparing to query, don’t panic. … Continue reading Query Letter Criticals →

3 Boxes to Check as a Professional Writer

I’m not your Mom. Really, I’m not. I know this because if I was we would not be having this conversation. I have one kid, and he is so beyond me where computers, social media and all things electronic are concerned. And yet, I’m about to tell you that some of you out there need … Continue reading 3 Boxes to Check as a Professional Writer →

Writers Write and Sometimes We Draw

When I saw the graphic novel writing class taught by Melanie Faith on WOW! Women on Writing, I signed up. After all, I have a graphic novel script complete but for the ending. Have I worked on that? Cue: Maniacal laughter. No. Part of the class requires working on our drawings. I do NOT want … Continue reading Writers Write and Sometimes We Draw →

Surprise! Creating Story Endings that Satisfy

Picture books and early readers quite often seem so simply. They are short. There are no subplots. The number of characters are limited. Easy peasy! In all truth, in many ways this makes writing them tricky. This is because, within the bounds of the format’s limited word count, you have to do everything that a … Continue reading Surprise! Creating Story Endings that Satisfy →

3 Tips for Writing to the Correct Reading Level

The manuscript I am currently drafting is for 3rd graders. The problem is that I can write to a 7th or 8th grade level with no effort. Why? Because I’ve written to that level often. But it also means that writing for younger readers takes a lot more work. I tested chapter 2 today and … Continue reading 3 Tips for Writing to the Correct Reading Level →