“Find a group of people who challenge and inspire you, spend a lot of time with them, and it will change your life.” – Amy Poehler After a whirlwind of excitement last week, which you can read about HERE, I’ve come to the full realization that I now have an even bigger team on my […]
I stumbled upon the best query letter advice in awhile through the Manuscript Academy. It’s called key selling points. Sounds super business fancy I know. But don’t let that freak you out. I’ll break it down for you super easy. If you want to watch the original clip or to see the whole video you […]
I’ve been blessed to join a new critique group of amazing ladies. If you are in a critique group you know it can be invaluable in so many ways. I try to have a writing group for each age category I write in if possible. This means I have my picture book pals, my middle […]
For those of us that write kid lit, especially at the chapter level and below, it’s essential to understand reading levels. Unfortunately, there are nearly a dozen different scales you can use to “grade” your story. Additionally, how do you know what makes a story a higher or lower level, are your edits even working? […]
Finding a good comparable title is like following a map to buried treasure. Once you’ve got a good one you’re golden but the journey can be grueling. Let’s add some tools to your backpack on this excursion. Beware! None of these ideas will help you if you don’t fully understand your own story first. You […]
I talked last week about different types of critique. Check out that post HERE. This week I want to dig in about how to create and maintain a critique group. I saw an interview with a group of writers who’ve been critiquing for over 15 years and I took notes. These folks were making it […]
I’ve been taking a writing course for picture books and something has become abundantly clear, there are different types of critiques. Within a group of writers and authors I’m looking for specific feedback regarding plot, pacing, character, sentence structure etc. All the things that writers have learned to improve craft through the editing process. That’s […]
