INTERVIEW WITH VICTORIA BOND
Victoria Bond is a writer and professor. Her novel, Zora and Me, co-written with T.R. Simon, won the John Steptoe/Coretta Scott King Award for New Talent and was nominated for an Edgar Award in the category of Juvenile Fiction, as well as being a Junior Library Guild Selection. Victoria holds a MFA in poetry. The occasional essayist on issues both personal and political, she teaches first year writing at John Jay College, The City University of New York.
WE TALK ABOUT
FINDING YOUR CHILDLIKE VOICE
Voice is the number one thing that can make or break your children’s story. So, let’s see how to find a childlike voice that appeals to your audience. Readers love dialogue. It lightens the page, making the whole story feel easier to read. It allows us to hear the characters directly, helping us to know them. And it is often the best place to sprinkle in some tasty humor. Unfortunately, it's also one of the quickest ways to lose the reader. In this rebroadcast, we're discussing three ways to find your character's childlike voice.
AUTHENTIC KID VOICES
A while ago on the Institute's Facebook page, someone was asking about dialogue, which made me think again about this important writing tool. Readers love dialogue because it makes a scene and a character come to life. Dialogue puts us into a specific moment within a story and that's a powerful thing for readers. But many writers struggle with dialogue and with making it feel lively, purposeful, and real. So what should you do first in the pursuit of good dialogue?
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INTERVIEW WITH MAGGIE TOKUDA-HALL & JAMIE TAN
Katie interviews award-winning author Maggie Tokuda-Hall and Candlewick Senior Publicist Jamie Tan about Maggie's latest book THE MERMAID, THE WITCH, AND THE SEA.
We talk about:
ACTIVE AND PASSIVE VOICE
Voice can be a tough thing to define and a tougher thing to master, but when I ran across this article about active voice and passive voice from my old friend Mary Rosenblum I knew I had to share it with my listeners. See how you can improve your active voice with these tips and take your work to the next level and beyond.
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YOU'RE THIS CLOSE
We're wrapping up our five part series on National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) with special guest Jamie K. Schmidt. Even if you're not writing a novel this month, we think you'll learn some tips and techniques to help you finish your novel on your timeline. We're so close to the finish line. Let's make these final days a success!
We talk about:
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NANOWRIMO SUCCESS PART 4 - THROW IN A DRAGON?
We are continuing our November National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) celebration with tips for writing 50,000 words in one month, which is 1,667 words per day. This is Part 4 in our 5-part series to help our listeners get through NaNoWriMo with support, encouragement, and some great ideas from Jamie K. Schmidt.
WHAT WE TALK ABOUT
• The sagging middle
• How to go forward
• Should you throw in a dragon?
• Raising the stakes
• Putting your characters in danger
• Getting off your butt and doing something
• Jamie's new book Necessary Evil
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NANOWRIMO SUCCESS PART 3 - GET PAST THE SLUMP
We are continuing our November National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) celebration with tips for writing 50,000 words in one month, which is 1,667 words per day. This is Part 3 in our 5-part series to help our listeners get through NaNoWriMo with support, encouragement, and some great ideas from Jamie K. Schmidt.
WHAT WE TALK ABOUT
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NANOWRIMO SUCCESS PART 2 - DIGGING IN
Welcome to Part 2 in our 5-part series to help our listeners get through NaNoWriMo with support, encouragement, and some great tips and ideas from Jamie K. Schmidt. Jamie is a bestselling author and a NaNoWriMo enthusiast. We talk about:
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NANOWRIMO SUCCESS PART 1 - PREPARE
National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) is about to start. Every November, writers from around the world set out with the goal of writing a novel, about 50,000 words, in one month. We thought, how cool it would be to help our listeners get through NaNoWriMo with support, encouragement, and some great tips and ideas from someone who has successfully completed it. Join Jamie K. Schmidt and me for a little inspiration and a lot of motivation in this 5-part series.
Let a one-on-one mentor help you get that book out of your head and on to the page. Get started here!
TIPS FOR YOUR MYSTERY OPENING CHAPTERS
The first page of your mystery needs to intrigue your reader. It has to pull them in and make them wonder what’s going on or who did it. Today we bring you tips for your first pages from author Chaunie Bruise.
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PLANTING CLUES
You’re in a race with your readers. The readers are trying to guess what will happen. You’re trying to spring that ‘whodunnit’ on the readers before they guess. Who will win? Those readers really don’t want to guess…they want to be surprised. But they want that sporting chance to beat you and get there ahead of you. Ideally, you have planted just enough clues, you have sneaked in just enough hints, that when you unveil that ‘whodunnit’, your readers sigh, “Oh, I should have guessed!” THAT gives you a satisfied reader! Join us as we talk about how to outfox your readers.
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PLANNING YOUR NOVEL
At any time you speak to a writer, they may easily be either planning a novel, writing a novel, or revising a novel. Always. And sometimes a writer could be doing more than one of those at a time. As a result, a fairly streamlined process for novel creation can develop––for that writer, anyway––and Jan Fields’ process is a good one to share here.
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8 STEPS TO PERFECT DIALOGUE FORMAT
Formatting dialogue in any manuscript can be perplexing. This rebroadcast of a popular episode has 8 guidelines to make your dialogue the best it can be.
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COMMA LONG WITH ME
I admit I love punctuation. I love all the little rules surrounding periods, commas, and quotation marks. Maybe it’s because my mom was a professional editor, maybe it’s the added structure punctuation gives to a piece. A lot of times it’s because it makes communication more clear––we’ve all heard the following sentence with and without a comma in the right spot: “Let’s eat, Grandpa!” and “Let’s eat Grandpa!” Whatever it is, punctuation makes me happy. Let's dig into this punctuation primer.
Special thanks to Rita Reali for contributing to this episode.
BASIC STORY ELEMENTS
Today, we’re discussing three basic story elements: characters, setting, and theme. Learn how they all work together to help you tell a complete story in this rebroadcast of a popular episode.
INTERJECTING HUMOR INTO YOUR WORK
We constantly hear that agents and editors are looking for humor. If they don’t say “humor” outright, we hear it in words like “quirky” and “whimsical.” So how do you bring humor to your own work? Let’s look at a few different ways and thanks to Andrea Collier for contributing to this episode.
GETTING DOWN AND DIRTY WITH PLOT
Today we’re continuing our conversation around plot. Our IFW blogger Jamie K. Schmidt contributed to a great article on plotting. Every good story, whether picture book, middle grade, YA, or adult, needs an excellent plot to get your manuscript past the slush pile. If you’re starting a new book, it’s helpful to have a plot outline in front of you when you’re stuck as to what to write next. When you’re revising, it can be helpful to pull out a plot outline to make sure your manuscript is hitting all the right beats.
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INTERVIEW WITH WANDA BRUNSTETTER
Wanda Brunstetter is an award-winning romance novelist who has led millions of readers to lose their heart in the Amish life. She is the author of over 100 books with more than 11 million copies sold. Many of her books have landed on the top bestseller lists, including the New York Times, Publisher’s Weekly, CBA, ECPA, and CBD. Wanda is considered one of the founders of the Amish fiction genre, and her work has been covered by national publications, including Time Magazine and USA Today.
We talk about:
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INTERVIEW WITH EMMA DRYDEN
Over the course of her twenty-five year career (including as Vice President and Publisher of imprints at Simon & Schuster), Emma D. Dryden has edited nearly 500 books for children and young readers, ranging in format from board books and picture books to poetry, novelty books, non-fiction, middle grade fiction, and young adult/teen fiction and fantasy. As a publisher, Emma oversaw the annual publication of over 100 hardcover and paperback titles, many going on to win prestigious awards in the publishing industry.
We discuss:
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SETTING AS A CHARACTER
Today’s episode comes from Jamie K. Schmidt, a regular blogger for us on the IFW Blog focusing on writing for adults. We’re talking about stories where the setting is a character itself. In books where worldbuilding plays a factor, the setting can often feel like a character— someone we’re getting to know and someone who is integral to the action in the story. We’ll have many examples from classic adult books. Their familiarity makes it easier to grasp the concept but we’ll also add some more recent kidlit examples for you to explore as well. Let’s get started.
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200th EPISODE
When you’re about to begin revising a piece of writing, it can seem so daunting you may be tempted to bury the darn thing at the bottom of your sweater drawer, then go hide somewhere (say, at the beach) for a few weeks. But, you’re listening to this podcast, so you’re in luck! Author and IFW Guest Blogger Rita Reali is also a freelance editor and today we bring you her advice on why you should get fresh eyes on your manuscript once you’re ready to revise.
Let a one-on-one mentor to help you hone your revision skills and polish your work so it shines in your submissions to agents and publishers! Get started here!
ELEMENTS OF SETTING
If you’re going to build a whole new world in your story, you have got to get the setting right. Today’s episode explores the elements of setting with contributions from Jan Fields.
INTERVIEW WITH POET PATRICE VECCHIONE
Poet, nonfiction writer, and teacher PATRICE VECCHIONE has edited several highly acclaimed anthologies for young adults including, most recently, Ink Knows No Borders: Poems of the Immigrant and Refugee Experience, winner of a Cybil Award.
We talk about:
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10 THINGS THAT MAKE EDITORS CRINGE
Nobody wants to make an editor (or anyone) cringe when they read your manuscript. Inspired by a post from Jamie K. Schmidt, we’re covering 10 things that make editors cringe and tips to avoid them. Be sure to head to writingforchildren.com/187 to download the show notes because many of these tips will be easier to see in writing.
Everybody knows to use spellcheck or Grammarly when going over their writing. However, some mistakes aren’t generally caught by these two programs. And if you want to stop an editor’s eyes from rolling to the back of her head, you should check your writing for these errors.
Let a one-on-one mentor help you hone your revision skills and polish your work so it shines in your submissions to agents and publishers! Get started here!