Pitch Wars is here! The excitement is spreading through social media as hopeful mentees ignore their laundry, home-cooked meals, and the clock as they get their manuscripts ready. Mentors are also getting ready by putting on their reading glasses, grabbing their red pens, and stocking up on coffee and tea. The lucky mentor-mentee pairs will work together to get the full manuscript ready for the … Continue reading Let’s Meet the Pitch Wars Mentors!
Welcome to this week’s Master Your Craft post! Last year, we walked you through every step from getting the big idea through polishing your finished novel. Now, we’re discussing what to do with that novel once it’s written! So far, we’ve talked about the mechanics of querying and how to face rejection. But did you know that there are an entire range of responses an agent can … Continue reading MYC: Responses and what they mean
Welcome to this week’s Master Your Craft post! Last year, we walked you through every step from getting the big idea through polishing your finished novel. Now we’re talking about what to do when you’re ready to put that book out in the world. Last week we heard from Agent Hilary Harwell on querying from an agent’s perspective. This week, we’re going to talk about rejection. No. Nope. … Continue reading MYC: Surviving Rejection
Welcome to a bonus Master Your Craft post! We’ll still have our regular post Wednesday, and in the meantime… Chapter endings are like fish hooks. A hook alone can catch a fish, but it’s easier with a worm. So what lure can you use to entice readers to take the bait and keep turning pages? Two good options are “contagious” emotions and the sometimes-misunderstood cliffhanger. In Jonah … Continue reading MYC: Chapter Endings, The End is Only the Beginning
Welcome to this week’s Master Your Craft post! Each Wednesday we’ll discuss writing a new book from the BIG IDEA to QUERYING. Last year, we walked you through every step from getting the big idea through polishing your finished novel. Now we’re working on what to do once you’ve actually finished your book. Get caught up on last week’s post on researching agents before you check out … Continue reading MYC: Querying Strategy
So you’ve finished your book, polished and pruned and read it through a few million times. What do you do now? The Winged Pen’s Master Your Craft (#WPMYC) Series is back to guide you through all the hard work that comes after you finally complete your novel. Next week, we’ll be tackling the very first question you should ask yourself when you’ve revised as much … Continue reading It’s BACK! Master Your Craft Returns
I’ve been writing love letters to books that shaped me, as a person and as a writer, and for this month, it’s Karen Foxlee’s Ophelia and the Marvelous Boy. I so enjoyed this book, a dreamy and beautiful retelling of the Snow Queen. What I want to talk about today, though, is how it influenced my writing. I write contemporary fantasies, and love to come … Continue reading Dear Ophelia and the Marvelous Boy
For the last couple of years, every time one of my writer pals would ask me what I was working on, the answer was the same breezy, “Oh, I’m still plugging away on that rockstar mom book I told you about ages ago.” I’m pretty sure that more than a few of them wondered if I shouldn’t just give it up and move on to … Continue reading How to Survive Your Toughest Draft
Welcome to The Winged Pen, Kara! Thank you for taking the time to talk with us about Writing About Native Americans. I know many readers/writers in my circle are eager to learn more about this topic. Tell us a little about yourself and your passion for Native American Literature, especially for children. Kara: I’ve been a Literacy Coach and Reading Specialist in the public schools … Continue reading Writing About Native Americans: A Diversity Conversation with Kara Stewart
Welcome to this week’s Master Your Craft post! Each Wednesday we’ll discuss prewriting and drafting a new book from the BIG IDEA to QUERYING. Last week, we talked about Writing with Your 5 Senses This week, we’re discussing feedback. Writing is a lonely business. We joke about our “co-workers” being animals and cups of coffee, and for the majority of the work, such as drafting and querying, that … Continue reading MYC: Do You Need Feedback? Yes!
At The Winged Pen, we’ve written about Angela Ackerman’s and Becca Puglisi’s wonderful writing books before. So we’re super excited to tell you about their newest one: The Emotional Wound Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide to Psychological Trauma. Yay!!!!! *shoots off rockets* A wound, in the writing world, is the hurt the main character carries around that keeps him or her holding onto a lie. A … Continue reading Need Stronger Backstory for Your Characters? The Emotional Wound Thesaurus to the rescue!
Welcome to this week’s Master Your Craft post! Each Wednesday we’ll discuss prewriting and drafting a new book from the BIG IDEA to QUERYING. Last week, we talked about Sentence, Paragraph, Chapter, and Story Length. This week, we’ll discuss Ten Steps to Tightening. One of the important steps in the revision process is tightening. This is a multi-level, multi-step process, but oh so important to make your … Continue reading MYC: Tightening
