Posts tagged as:

Fiction

The Tug of War Between Literary and Commercial…

05.08.2010

There’s been some talk lately around the kid lit blogs about literary fiction versus commercial. Although nearly impossible to define—and let’s not forget how subjective that definition would be as well—literary fiction is perceived to be more quiet, lyrical, and character driven, where commercial fiction is plot driven. Fine. But is one better than the [...]

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Ignore Your Character?

14.07.2010

Okay, ignore may be misleading. New ideas, for me, come via a character. My protagonist is the first thing that shows him or herself. And, up to now, I’ve been going with that character and focusing on him or her. But I also have such a difficult time with first drafts that I keep thinking [...]

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Eeney, Meeny, Miney, Mo…

30.06.2010

Surprises? I can take or leave them. Yesterday, I loved them. I’ve been keeping my distance from my MG WIP, circling around it, poking at it with a stick. Just when I was ready to chew myself out for procrastinating not sitting down and working on it, a rush of ideas found me—for another manuscript [...]

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Outlines (Again)

20.06.2010

I think I’m haunted by outlines. I found a quote today to justify my dislike of traditional, the-kind-you-had-to-do-in-school-and-hated, outlines. It’s from Ray Bradbury and I found it in the Spring 2010 issue of The Paris Review. When the interviewer asked him if he wrote outlines, Bradbury said: No, never. You can’t do that. It’s just [...]

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