Recently I finished the YA novel The Upside of Unrequited by Becky Albertalli, award-winning author of Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda (which recently came out as the movie Love, Simon). Albertalli knows what she’s doing. YA contemporary romance may or may not be your thing, but either way, you have to admire Albertalli’s ability to capture the emotional, mental,… View Post
Oh, that glorious day when you finish your manuscript. You close your laptop, pop a bottle of something bubbly, and imagine your name on the bestseller list. You’re finally done. Erm… I hate to break it to you, but the day you type “the end” is not the end of your journey, not by far. I mean, go ahead and… View Post
It occurred to me recently that as a YA and MG writer, I need to analyze well-written kidlit the way one might in school: look closely at the structure, the language, the characterization. Think about these books, write about them, learn from them. Which is why I started The Great Children’s Literature Study in which writers examine what we have to learn from… View Post
For my list of 12 Questions to Help You Create Fictional Characters, scroll down. So Why Are We Talking About Beck? I’m going to see Beck in April, and I’m pretty darn excited about it. Beck has been one of my favorite musical artists ever since his “Loser” days in the early 90’s. Talk about characters, Beck is… View Post
Let me tell you about a Middle Grade book I wrote long, long ago. The first draft was in first person. But the book was a fairy tale, and first person didn’t seem quite right. So I rewrote it in limited third person, from the protagonist’s point of view. And that worked better. I got an agent, and we… View Post