Photo by Mathias Reding via Pexels.com My newsletter will be going out to subscribers on Thursday, March 25 (in the wee hours of the morning). It will include such things as Writing: heading into character analysis/revision with virtual highlighters at the ready Editing: the value of critique partners Resources: how to find those critique partners …
Every January, Tara Lazar hosts an amazing challenge/event called StoryStorm, in which participants are challenged to come up with 30 story ideas in the 31 days of the month. These ideas can be for picture books, chapter books, middle grade novels, young adult novels — whatever you write. They can be detailed, with ideas for …
Many of you already know Susanna Leonard Hill and the myriad things she does to benefit the writing community, but there may be a few of you who aren’t familiar with all she does. Besides, Susanna is worth being celebrated! Susanna is a prolific picture book writer (although with all the other things she does, …
At least once a month, I plan to do a post specifically FOR WRITERS as we sit in our respective Writing Rooms, highlighting writer resources, educators, opportunities and more. This, the first of these posts, highlights editor, educator, writer, and former agent MARY KOLE. I first became aware of Mary when I read her excellent …
Since March 2020, when we all had to retreat to our homes and could no longer meet in person, the wonderful Laura Backes Bard and Jon Bard of the Children’s Book Insider have been hosting weekly online meetups for writers and illustrators called KidLit Distancing Socials. NOTE: As of summer 2021, they are now known …
KidLit Distancing Socials — THE place to be on Tuesday evenings Read More »
Most of us cannot get where we want to be on our own. We need to learn from others, to be challenged by others, and to be supported and encouraged by others. The same is true for writing. At first, I was too nervous to share my writing (except my hymn texts) with anyone but …
The Value of Courses, Challenges, and Community for Writers Read More »
This is the second in my monthly series of posts about writing, This Writer’s Voice. The first post, about why I write what I write, can be found here. Whether you use the term critique partner, first reader, beta reader, or even if you have a whole critique group or two or three, one of …
A Writer’s Need for Feedback – What it means to have a good first reader Read More »
Today is Thanksgiving in Canada. Usually I would write a post about some of the things I am grateful for, and in a way, this post is about gratitude, for gratitude is important. But it’s a different kind of gratitude than the sort we usually think about on Thanksgiving. As you know, I write for …
