You know a story has made it into cultural canon when it's getting repackaged and updated in different versions. This has been especially common in YA fiction lately - Epic Reads came up with a spectacular chart of examplesWhen you update a tale that lots of people know, it gives you a framework on which to construct your story. You can choose ( Read more... )

So I'm reading another YA paranormal romance. I'm frequently disappointed by these, mostly for reasons that fall under the "romantic interest is a jerk" and/or "protagonist is a dopey pushover" categories, but I am convinced that these problems are not inherent to the genre. Just, you know, frequent pitfalls. Plus, this one is an Alice in ( Read more... )

I recently decided to have another go at reading some YA paranormal romance. There's so much of it, and it's so popular, that I thought there must be more of it I would like than I have thus far discovered. I do have luck sometimes - I enjoyed Magic Under Glass by Jaclyn Dolamore, and I loved the sequel, Magic Under Stone. (I even drew fanart of ( Read more... )

I went to a meeting of the local chapter of SCBWI the other day, and we workshopped a number of pieces different people had brought. One was a chapter from the middle of a longer work, ending with the protagonist forming a plan of action. I mentioned that, for the next chapter, the author would want to remember: only explain the plan to the ( Read more... )

That's right, I mean you, character in a YA or middle-grade novel. Do your parents know you're out fighting evil at this time of night? And/or solving mysteries, and/or romancing and being romanced ( Read more... )

I've read a lot of articles, blog posts, and rants about how to begin - and, perhaps more common, how not to begin - a novel. Beginnings are more broadly relevant to writers than many other topics. After all, we do not yet have the technology to create novels without them. So I've been browsing a few of the aforementioned articles, found some ( Read more... )

I just read this very interesting blog post about female warriors and how to realistically write a fantasy world in which they are common. Its approach, which I find useful and thought-provoking, is to examine why so many cultures through history don't have lots of female warriors. To summarize ( Read more... )

I just read a book that was billed as a companion to another book I'd read, but which turned out to be sort of a prequel. That is, it includes the origin of the villain who's villainizing around in Book I'd Already Read.

(Just for the sake of simplicity, let's go ahead and call the first book I read "Graceling by Kristin Cashore" and the prequel ( Read more... )

You know one piece of writing advice I see all the time? It's that one that says that your protagonist must have a clear goal that s/he desperately desires, and the conflict must come from obstacles between her/him and that goal.

To that I say: Maybe.

Honestly, I've seen this particular nugget everywhere. I saw it again today, in this article ( Read more... )

Another review on No Flying No Tights, that is! With another listing on MangaBlog ( Read more... )