Categories: Craft

Everyday Inspiration: Jane, Lizzie, and Mozart

by Sabina I. Rascol
Published on: May 18, 2012
Categories: Craft, Creativity, Inspiration, Writing Process
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“Focus.” A friend recently spoke this word into my life. Was that before or after I’d decided that, for Lent, I’d give up trying to pack everything in?

 

I hate missing out on stuff. Because of that, I once arrived late at a retreat with friends: I had over-extended myself to finish a task that later turned out to have had a flexible deadline. I then left that same retreat early so I could catch the first rehearsal of the choir I sang in. I missed nothing that weekend! Except the point: to savor my friends and the retreat.

 

Now, drawn to the lodestar “Focus” and deliberately not squeezing everything in, I aimed for single-mindedness. To come home from work and write. That’s it.  Forgo time-sucking trips to the library (I who have books practically oozing out of my walls) or to the store, except for produce (I’ve got a terribly well-stocked pantry). Pare down on impromptu long chats with dear neighbor-friends. Cook big pots of soup and oatmeal, let dust bunnies grow to adolescence. Forsake all my usual time dribbles to WRITE.

 

As I focused and wrote, three inspirational examples played in my mind:

 

-My friend and neighbor JANE, who just started cello lessons after playing the violin when younger. Now she comes home from work and sneaks to the cello. She plays when she should be starting dinner or doing other mundane tasks.

 

-LIZZIE, Jane’s daughter, who’s studying the violin herself with wonderful Grandma Ellie. She practices late sometimes, Jane says, and the quality suffers. Yet those mediocre evenings still count. She’s putting in the time, moving forward, cumulatively getting better.

 

-MOZART. We all know about him–or think we do. He’s the genius who effortlessly produced delightful music, right? According to choreographer and dancer Twyla Tharp (in her amazing book The Creative Habit: what’s any creative person doing without it right next to them, dog-eared from being studied?), “Nobody worked harder than Mozart. By the time he was twenty-eight years old, his hands were deformed because of all the hours he had spent practicing, performing, and gripping a quill pen to compose.”

 

Frankly, I’d prefer to keep my hands well-shaped. But I desire to come closer to Mozart’s devotion to his craft, Jane’s yearning for her cello, Lizzie’s practicing anyway, anywhen. It’s working. My book is—slowly—advancing. So is my excitement, as I get new insights and ideas to weave into my book. I can hardly wait to read it all. And for you to be able to read it, too.

 

And now… Excuse me, I have some re-focusing to do. What with longer days, new calls on my time, deciding about summer travels, new job possibilities, I need to remember Jane, Lizzie, and Mozart. To go to my writing as though to a tryst. To write even out of season. To feed my calling in various ways, becoming fully a writer.

 

Meanwhile, let’s toast all those who inspire us. Who are some who inspire you?

 

Sabina I. Rascol

www.sabinairascol.com

 

Re-thinking When to Say “Cut!”

by Melissa Dalton
Published on: May 3, 2012
Categories: Challenges, Craft, Critique Process
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In a Scriva critique, it’s not unusual to hear me suggest: “You could cut this out,” or to get pages back with slashes through paragraphs of text. These kinds of suggestions can be incredibly helpful. “Cut” written in the margin of a manuscript lets you see where you’re losing the reader or going off topic.

However, I was recently reading Alice LaPlante’s book The Making of a Story: A Norton Guide to Creative Writing, and it’s making me re-think the suggestion to “Cut.” She says:

“Then there’s the fact that the kind of advice parceled out during workshops isn’t always appropriate for the stage that a work is in. You may be trying something new that doesn’t work — yet. But a workshop may well decide that a section that isn’t working simply needs to be removed. “Take it out!” is a common phrase heard in workshops. Yet the passage in question, when refined, could become a critical part of the story or essay or novel in question. Just because it isn’t working now doesn’t mean it won’t work in the next draft…or the next…or the next.”

Now, I’ll be asking myself the following questions when I want to suggest “Cut.”

1) What is the writer trying to do here?

2) Does she do it better elsewhere?

3) Do the ideas here just need to be broken up and inserted in other places?

If the information seems completely unnecessary, a suggestion to cut would be in order. But if it is information that is just slowing down the narrative pace or could use rephrasing, that is a better distinction to make for the writer rather than just “Cut.”

As a writer, I’ll also have to think about when I receive the suggestion, rather than just reaching for the delete key. Only you, as the architect of your story, can know if that particular section is really integral to the story as a whole. If anything, LaPlante’s is a good reminder to always be true to your creative vision, to listen to the little protest that might niggle at you when you see “Cut” next to a particular passage in your manuscript. Sometimes, it seems like, no matter how many critiques you receive or creative writing books you read, it is really that little voice that you have to heed the most!

Scriva Enchanted

by Ruth Tenzer Feldman
Published on: April 25, 2012
Categories: Basics, Craft
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In preparation for a few workshops at a local high school, I borrowed Gail Carson Levine’s Writing Magic: Creating Stories that Fly from the library. This how-to book by the author of Ella Enchanted is shelved in the children’s section, and I figured I’d skim the book for a few pointers. Instead I savored every page.

Here are a few of my favorite bits of advice:

  • I write fiction for lots of reasons. One is power. I’m in charge when I write. So are you. You create the world of the story. You make the rules.
  • When you start writing a story, all the beginning needs to do is to get you into the story…. When you finish the story and go back to revise it, your beginning is likely to change.
  • A story’s plot is mostly determined by character.
  • So what makes the difference between caring and not caring? The author’s cruelty. And the reader’s sympathy. We keep turning the pages because we are worried…. Well, it takes a mean author to write a good story.
  • Don’t worry about making your main character change. Just be aware that she should, and the awareness will seep into your writing.
  • I tell myself I’m going to write down stupid options as well as excellent ones. I write down the stupid ones because they are brave. This sounds crazy, but it’s true. Whenever I start a list, my stupid ideas surge forward, but the usable ones hang back. They’re shy, and they want to see how the stupid guys are treated. When they see me behave respectfully to the dopes, they tiptoe out into the open. I snag them and write them down, too.
  • [I] phrase what I’m stuck on as a question…on a Post-It and slap it up on my office door. Then I do my best to forget about it. Meanwhile, the back of my mind goes to work. Three hours or three days later the answer arrives.
  • Do not bend your story to accommodate your brilliant words. Revising and cutting take courage and self-confidence. You have to believe that you will write equally brilliant prose again.
  • Let writing be your solace, your companion, your secret joy.
  • Write to nurture yourself.
  • Write to tell us about being you.
  • Write to tell us about being human.
  • There can never be too many stories. Add to the reservoir.

And, yes, here’s a bit of Levine’s advice on the critiquing process:

  • Just as you’ll become a better writer with practice, so you’ll become a better critic.

Amen to that. Every time I go to a Scrivas meeting, I remind myself that giving an excellent and thoughtful critique is a learned skill, and I’m still learning.

 

Revision how-to: Taking your novel to the mat Scriva Style

by Amber Keyser
Published on: April 16, 2012
Categories: Craft, Other Topics
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Comments: 2 Comments

I now have critiques on my completed YA novel from eight Scrivas.  We met and discussed the whole book.  I have pages of notes from those conversations as well as 1-2 pages critique written by each Scriva plus line edits in eight copies of the manuscript.

Now what?

I’ve posted about this before, but I thought you might be interested in the specifics of this revision.  The Angel Punk novel is 95K words (~375 pages) and 53 chapters as of the end of the current draft.  It’s told from five different points of view.

Step 1:  Read through all the notes and summary critiques from Scrivas.

Step 2:  Make a list of major issues (7 in all), consistency issues between the book and the movie and comics (3), list of medium priority issues (12 in all), and minor issues (lots)

Step 3:  Biggest issues to deal with include (a) MCs motivations, (b) her history with the other characters, (c) timing of the introduction of world-building back story.

Analysis Plan: Read through novel and note when/where every bit of backstory occurs.

Attack Plan: Move up the backstory even if this involves rearranging/combining chapters.  Use this opportunity to include more of what the MC is thinking and feeling about her past and the people around her.

Step 4:  Repeat for other major issues followed by medium ones.

Step 5:  Go through and incorporate line edits from Scrivas.

Step 6:  Read all chapters for the same POV character in sequence.  Fix voice and plot consistency.

Step 7:  Read through all and add sensory details whenever possible.

Step 8:  Use “find” function to search for words/phrases that I know I overuse.

 

…  And do it all in the next two weeks.  Wish me luck!

 

 

Tales of Revision: Helpful Tips from THE INTERN

by Melissa Dalton
Published on: March 4, 2012
Categories: Challenges, Craft, Writing Process
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I love THE INTERN.

THE INTERN is a blog that started in 2009. It is written by just whom the title implies, an anonymous intern at a big, unnamed, publishing house. (Though recently, THE INTERN unveiled herself because she signed a book deal for a YA novel. Congrats to her!) THE INTERN’s blog is hilarious, provides astute insights into the workings of the publishing industry, and often offers spot-on writing advice. Careful, though. She’s an addictive read. The only downside to reading the blog, as far as I can see, is that if I read too many posts in a row, I start narrating everything I’m doing in the third person, much like the snarky voice of her blog. And that’s just odd.

So, I am just beginning revisions of the “sh*tty first draft” of my realistic teen novel. I am about 20,000 words in and it’s…not going well. I have arrived at two chapters that I find to be, quite simply, a snoozefest. And if I’m bored writing them, what’s that going to be like for someone reading them?

But I think, I think that these chapters are necessary because they provide pertinent background information/context for the reader to better understand my main character. I know the Scrivas will tell me for sure if I need them. But in the meantime, I wondered if perhaps I could step back from the chapters and look at them a little differently.

That’s when I remembered this post from the intern. It breaks down the “formula” for the addictive prose that is The Hunger Games. (Or so I hear — I actually haven’t read it yet!) THE INTERN highlights a chapter of The Hunger Games in different colors. Each color corresponds to a certain category:

* LIGHT BLUE: Action/Description

* PINK: Dialogue

* DARK BLUE: Internal Conflict

* RED: External Conflict

* DARK GREEN: An action or decision that the character must make stemming from the internal OR external conflict

* GREY: Internal narrative: “telling,” memories, reactions

Now, I had heard of revising a text in different colors and having each color correspond to each sense (sight, smell, hear, taste, touch). And that seems like a good idea, perhaps further down the road when you are finessing things more and other things, like the plot, are solid. But this model just seemed to make wicked good sense to me. And INTERN’s conclusions after she finished highlighting the text are fascinating.

When I started to look at my own sleep-inducing chapters according to this paradigm, one thing popped out immediately: Too much grey and not enough dark green! Too much telling the character’s reactions and not enough decision making!! Could that be why I’m so bored writing and reading this???

Well, duh. Now it seems obvious. But it is hard to know these things when you’re so close to the text.

So now, I have to go back to these chapters and ask even bigger questions: What is my main character discovering here? What decisions does my main character need to make based on these discoveries? How does this contribute to either her internal/external conflict or both?

Whew. These are big questions begging answers that aren’t immediately apparent.

Hmm, that about sums up the revision process right now.

Thanks, INTERN!

Karen Cushman and To-Do Tips

by Ruth Tenzer Feldman
Published on: February 28, 2012
Categories: Celebrations, Challenges, Craft, Events, Inspiration, Writing Process
Tags:, ,
Comments: 3 Comments

 

I’ll start with the backstory: Once upon a time, the folks at Ooligan Press asked me for a list of potential reviewers for Blue Thread. Reaching for the stars, I included Karen Cushman. Much to my amazement, Karen gave Ooligan a blurb, such a great blurb, in fact, that it landed on the front cover of the book. Yes!

Karen Cushman

Fast forward to a few weeks ago. I sent Karen an email about Blue Thread and thanked her again. In reply, she wrote, in part: “I wish you great success with the book and all the to-do that comes after.” All the to-do that comes after. Oh, Karen, you are so right!

There’s the celebratory kind of “to-do,” the recent launch of Blue Thread. Exciting and kinda scary. I’m not comfortable being in the spotlight.

Then there’s the so-much-to-do kind of “to-do,” which involves thoughtful, gracious, and time-consuming attention to spreading the word about the new book. Not so exciting. Not so scary. But, in fairness to Blue Thread, necessary and important.

Finally, there’s the big item that’s not on the Blue Thread “to-do” list, and that’s writing the next book.

I’ve learned a lot in the past few weeks, since Blue Thread appeared on the scene. Here are my “to-do” tips for you:

  • Give yourself time, permission, and encouragement to enjoy your moment in the spotlight, even if it’s scary. Relax! No one’s going to remember if your hair wilted or there’s a quaver in your voice. They will remember your enthusiasm and your smile.
  • Eat well, exercise, rest.
  • Say “yes” to nearly everything, but remember that it’s OK to say “no,” too.
  • Commit to bringing spirit to your audience, whether there are two hundred people attending or two. Give them what in Hebrew is called ru-ach, a soulful, zesty, uplifting experience. Good for your audience; good for you.
  • Find your balance between doing right by the new book and “doing write” with the book-to-be. You might decide to stop working on your manuscript entirely for a few weeks, or you might decide to write 250 words on your manuscript every day. Your call.
  • Thank people. Thank your critique group, your editor, your publisher, your friends, your family, your audience, your muse.

So, with that it mind, I’ll end this post by saying, “Thank you!”

 

 

Need Some Inspiration? Read!

by ScrivaMichelle
Published on: January 7, 2012
Categories: Craft, Inspiration
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Comments: 5 Comments

I teach a class at Portland State University called “Publishing for Middle Grade & Young Adults.” I can’t believe I get paid to teach it because it’s way too much fun to be work, really. I, and a small group of publishing grad students, read 18 middle grade and young adult titles in 10 weeks: old classics like Catcher in the Rye and Lord of the Flies, along with spanking brand new titles that are either massively critically acclaimed (therefore working for that adult audience/filter) or massively popular (therefore bypassing the critical adult filters). As we work our way through several feet of stories, we discuss what gives them staying power or makes them so damned popular. We pick apart the writing as we learn good editing practices, we pick apart the covers as we learn good design, and we pick apart the websites and marketing campaigns as we learn how to generate buzz and sales.

Useful to children’s book writers? Well, I think so. When I’m critiquing a manuscript and find a particular issue, I will often (if not always) recommend some great books and authors to check out who have wrestled with and possibly conquered the same challenge. YA sex scene not as hot as you want it? Check out Graceling or Daughter of Smoke and Bone. Want to write boy characters that really resonate with boy readers? Time for some Neal Schusterman. Wonder if your unlikeable narrator will turn readers off? Try Feed or anything by M.T. Anderson to see how it’s done.

Here are the books we read last term (2011) and what children’s book writers might glean from them:

1. To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee (1960)

Historical fiction that is still engaging to teens more than 50 years later. It’s also a good example of a narrator who is much younger than the intended audience, but still works.

2. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak (2005)

Wonderful example of historical fiction that is not at all boring. Also a unique narrator to look at: Death. And the Grim Reaper is funny, even in a story set in Germany during WWII. How does Zusak do it?

3. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum (1900)

It’s amazing how fun and creative his middle grade fantasy still reads. And what a main character! That Dorothy is a heroine for the ages.

4. The Search for WondLa by Tony DiTerlizzi (2010)

Without Dorothy there would be no Eva Nine. This is a great example of a middle grade fantasy with a girl main character that BOYS still enjoy reading (hint: as my 10-year-old son explained, “She’s not a girly girl, Mom”). How DO you convince those finicky boys to read “girl” stories? Here’s a great example. The story has so many elements that boys are looking for: lots of action, short chapters, cool monsters, weapons and battles, spaceships… And a girl narrator. Ha!

5. The Candidates by Inara Scott

This is a local YA author who came to our class to talk about her very interesting publishing experience for her first two books. She was first published by Hyperion, but is now moving to an e-book publisher. We discussed the pros and cons of each experience.

6. Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (2008)

Why is this series so phenomenally popular? Especially with boys, when they hate Twilight? It’s another great example of a heroine who appeals to boys, and a storyline that contains romance but doesn’t turn off boy readers (50% of the potential audience, after all). Great action, and great example of a dystopian theme that resonates with teens right now.

7. Graceling by Kristin Cashore (2008)

Okay, I’m a sucker for fabulous heroines (still not enough of them in kid lit, if you ask me). And Katsa is my all-time favorite. Deadly assassin with a heart of gold. This is also a great book to read for writing sex scenes. The author has an excellent blog post on this topic as well.

8. Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green& David Levithan (2011)

Thinking about co-writing a book with another author using alternating POVs? Can it be done? Check this one out. Green and Levithan, YA gods, go toe to toe. Also a great example of where lgbt YA lit is at right now. And funny as hell.

9. before I fall by Lauren Oliver (2010)

A heartbreaking, amazing bully story with an unlikeable narrator and a brilliant plot structure: it’s Groundhog Day meets Mean Girls.

10. Feed by M.T. Anderson (2002)

The granddaddy of dystopian YA, truly creepy future, and another unlikeable narrator. M.T. Anderson is also a great “boy book” author (quirky boys, that is) and has a truly unique author “voice.”

11. Unwind by Neal Schusterman (2007)

Schusterman is also a master of boy books, how to write palatable romance scenes for boys, and unnerving dystopian scenarios. Also fantastic website.

12. Twilight by Stephanie Meyer (2005)

I know there are a lot of haters out there, but you gotta read it. You can’t understand what’s happening now in YA if you don’t read Twilight. Plus, it has one of the best, hookiest first pages I’ve ever read. Ever. And funny, conflict-laden dialogue all the way through. And who can write a non-sex sex scene that gets the pulse pounding like Meyers? NO ONE!

13. I Am Number Four by Pittacus Lore (2010)

Okay, we read this one just to learn about James Frey’s “YA Factory” (which is how this book/movie was created). Disturbing, fascinating story in The Wall Street Journal. The book is a hack job, but boys LOVE is. Why? Action, action, action. Aliens. Weapons. Hot girls that want you. Lots of boy fantasies here.

14. Go Ask Alice by Anonymous (1971)

The grandmother of the “drug novel.” You wouldn’t have Crank without Alice. Does it still hold up for today’s teens? Not really. But it’s still heavily banned, which means teens still seek it out. Also a good example of diary format. And some well-written drug trip descriptions. Not to mention a time trip to the good old seventies.

15. Crank by Ellen Hopkins (2004)

A drug novel writen in free verse? Could that ever work? Yes, and it could sell millions of copies and launch a YA brand. Hopkins is a masterful poet and each page is a tiny work of art.

16. Maus: A Survivor’s Tale (Book 1) by Art Spiegelman (1986)

Graphic novels are the fastest growing YA genre. This book is where it all started. With its publication and subsequent Pulitzer Prize (!), graphic novels finally started getting the literary recognition they deserved. Now they are winning all the literary awards. A novel about the Holocaust with cats as the Nazis and rats as the Jews? And it works beautifully! So much to learn from Spiegelman about panel layout and how to convey meaning and emotion through simple illustration.

17. Amulet (Book 1) by Kazu Kibuishi  (2008)

This is probably the most popular middle grade graphic novel series right now and it’s easy to see why. Another example of a female protagonist in a series that appeals strongly to boys. Like WondLa, it’s loaded with action, aliens, magic, weapons, monsters… everything those boys want. Plus a butt-kicking girl for the girl readers.

18. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (Year 1) by J.K. Rowling (1998)

What can I say? Harry Potter changed everything in middle grade and YA literature. How they are written, how they are sold… everything. And why are they SO beloved by millions and millions of readers? I could write pages, but it’s worth rereading that first book to see how Rowling does dialogue, world building, chapter endings, and tension. She is a true master and worth studying.

2012 Challenge: REVISE like a pro – Scriva secrets for applying critique to your mss

by Amber Keyser
Published on: January 1, 2012
Categories: Craft
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Comments: 1 Comment

My notes from Scriva meeting

You might expect me to start the New Year off with a motivational post.

But you’d be wrong.  Dead wrong!

I’m rolling up my sleeves and commanding you to get dirty.  In other words: REVISE.  Say you’ve formed a great critique group and you’ve been submitting manuscripts.  You’ll come home with something like this: eight copies of your manuscript hacked up by eight different writers.  You might also come home with a panic attack.  What are you going to do with all those comments?

Here’s what I do.

I take detailed notes during Scriva meetings, which I organize by Scriva.  At the end, I’ll have several sheets of notepaper where I have listed the big picture comments that the Scrivas felt were important enough to say out-loud (as opposed to leaving for me to review on my own).  Often this list mirrors the summary comments some Scrivas include with my manuscript.  I begin with these big picture comments.  I read through all of them and look for common threads.  If several Scrivas mention a lag in pacing in Chapter 5 or a completely confusing battle scene or a lapse in voice in Chapter 6, I know those are things I need to look at.  I make a list of issues with the hardest, biggest ones at the TOP.

Summary comments from Addie and Michelle

It’s tempting to go through and make the little picky changes first (word choice, punctation, rearrangement of clauses), but DON’T!  You will be wasting your time.  Many of these issues with change or vanish with major revision.  You’ve got to take on the big stuff first.  Trust me!

OK, so say I’m going to attack Chapter 5.  Scrivas mentioned a lag in pacing and a several sections where I fall out of POV (for example).  I will take a pass through the chapter ONLY thinking about POV.  I want to examine every sentence to make sure it keeps the correct POV.  I won’t refer back to the written comments from the Scrivas, but mentally I maintain a laser focus on POV.  Then I go back through Chapter 5 with the single purpose of speeding things up.  Can I replace description with dialogue?  Can I cut unnecessary or rambling sentences?  Can I make my sentences shorter and punchier?  All of this will help pacing.

Now, I take the printed manuscripts annotated with more specific comments and turn all of them to the first page of Chapter 5.  I go through page by page, collating and applying the comments from all the Scrivas to each page of the chapter.  Not all will still be relevant because of the way I addressed major issues in the first few passes through the chapter, but there will still be work to do.

A collection of critiqued copies of my mss

I’ll repeat this with each chapter, taking a single pass through for every area of concern before I go on to the next chapter.  Your brain might be able to revise for three things at once, but mine can’t.  I’d rather go through each one five times — or whatever it takes.  When I think I’m done, I go through the list of big picture comments again and check things off.   I don’t make all the changes the Scrivas suggest but I always consider each one carefully.

So here’s my 2012 challenge to you: Don’t be afraid of those critique comments.  Turn each one into a knife that will cut to the core of your story with deft precision.  And take it slow – one comment at a time.

A Post-Santa Post on Multiple Drafts

by Ruth Tenzer Feldman
Published on: December 26, 2011
Categories: Challenges, Craft, Creativity, Critique Process, Writing Process
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Santas

Santa Clones in Portland

Let’s do the math. It takes me on average about four drafts of a 250-word post before I’m ready to show it to the world. The books I write are, say, about 60,000 words long. So, 60,000 divided by 250 is 240 “post-units.” At four drafts per “post-unit,” that would be 960 drafts. That’s all?

Seriously, folks. I’m willing to put in the time and energy to revise and rewrite. I don’t go berserk when I realize that my story would be better if I killed off a minor character or rejiggered a scene. My downfall is when I make those final edits that change a draft ever so slightly, or add the tiniest bit more color to a scene. I lose patience when the draft I’m working on, like the Santa on the pedestal, starts looking like all my other recent drafts, and it’s hard to tell one draft from another. What to do, what to do?

Here’s where a critique group is invaluable. With so many different eyes reviewing, say, Draft #87, there is bound to be someone who remembers a turn-of-phrase that (s)he preferred back in Draft #86, or who still has the enthusiasm to suggest a rewording for Draft #88.

Critique group members are also a great resource for telling you when to stop revising. Enough! One Santa does really look and feel just like the other. No more tweaking.

In addition to a critique group, it often helps to put your most recent drafts in your virtual or real desk drawer for a few days, or for a few weeks if you can afford to. Your drafts won’t change, but you will have become a different reader.

And now back to my post-Santa revisions. With the help of the Scrivas, my next book should be ready to shine by this time next year. That would be draft number…?

The Gift of Recommended Reading

by Ruth Tenzer Feldman
Published on: November 28, 2011
Categories: Craft, Inspiration
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Sam-Nana readLet’s face it. I’m never going to be able to read everything I want to and still have the gazillion hours I need to write my next book. Not even when grandson Sam and I spend together time getting lost in our individual stories. Not happening. No way.

The books I choose to read now are often on a list of the top ten this or the five best that, which goes against my usual tendency to browse the bookshelves and decide for myself.  Writing is work, and sometimes reading is as well. There are some books I simply must read. Many of them are excellent, which is the reward for all that  eyeball time.

I mine Viva Scriva meetings for recommended reading, particularly because the Scrivas know exactly what I’m writing. Sara Ryan’s The Rules for Hearts is by my bedside with Amber’s suggestion to look at the “quiet girl” who resembles the main character in my sequel to Blue Thread. I devoured Jennifer Donnelly’s Revolution on Scriva advice that I look at the time travel of a modern girl back to 18th century Paris (my sequel involves a 1960s girl and 11th century Paris). You get the picture.

It goes both ways. I suggested that Sabina read Ruta Sepetys’s Between shades of gray and Robert Sharenow’s The Berlin Boxing Club because one of her writing projects includes historical fiction from World War II.  What you read does inform what you write. Recommended reading can be just the critique you need.

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Welcome , May 18, 2012