 Thanks to author Jacqueline Jules for including my Pandemic-inspired writing prompts on her Pencil Tips blog. Check them out here.
I am taking a brief blogging break for the Thanksgiving holiday. I hoping to be on the Internet less and writing more. Happy Thanksgiving! There are a few days left to enter Figment's Mythical World Contest. 
Entries of 500 words or less are due at the Figment website by the end of day, November 21. Read complete contest rules and guidelines here. Good luck!
Jim Collins studies leadership and corporate success and he's written numerous business books such as Good to Great, Built to Last, and Great by Choice. One of his concepts is that when undertaking a long (and perhaps difficult) journey, the best approach is to march twenty miles a day regardless of the weather and other conditions. Consistent progress toward a goal is better than long but undependable marches with rests in between. He uses the South Pole expedition leaders Roald Amundsen (who succeeded) and Robert Falcon Scott (who died during the expedition) to illustrate this. (Check this business article for more information about the twenty mile march.) Now think about writing a novel. Is it better to write many pages on the weekend, skip a few days, and write another large chunk when time permits? Or is it better to write a page every single day? What do you think? School and work may affect the answer to this. Is consistent advancement toward writing goals a key to success?  March on! Today's blog features a guest post from Niki Masse Schoenfeldt, author of the picture book Don't Let the Bedbugs Bite. Five Fun Facts about Don't Let the Bedbugs Bite by Niki Masse Schoenfeldt 1. Don’t Let the Bedbugs Bite was originally a short poem I didn’t know what to do with. My critique group, The Mudskippers, encouraged me to make it into a picture book. 2. I wrote the poem after spouting the old bedbug adage to my 2 year old at bedtime and she refused to sleep in her bed if bugs were going to bite her! 3. After ten months of submitting to publishers, Shenanigan Books finally snatched it up! 4. Originally, the bug in the little girl’s bed actually was a friendly bedbug, but my publisher was concerned about the whole bedbug infestation thing (Rightly so!) and suggested I make it a case of mistaken identity instead. 5. After some brainstorming I decided the “bedbug” should be a ladybug because ladybugs are not scary. In fact, my grandmother used to say they brought good luck. Thanks for the guest post, Niki! I've always been told that ladybugs are good luck, too.  Don't Let the Bedbugs Bite is a featured book through the READING RAINBOW LEARN & READ app from Itunes.
Bio: Niki Masse Schoenfeldt grew up in a small town in Western Massachusetts where she began writing stories as soon as she could pick up a pencil. In the fall of 2008, her first picture book, NATURE’S LULLABY was released and her next picture book, DON’T LET THE BEDBUGS BITE! followed in 2012. Mrs. Schoenfeldt continues to write picture books as well as middle grade and young adult novels. Over the years she has worn many hats, including that of a book reviewer, critique group moderator, math & reading tutor, storyteller, mom, wife, painter, professional beach bum and she even once saved a sheep from drowning!  A brief tip to keep in mind as you write: it's important that you create obstacles for your characters to overcome. Don't make important problems too easy to solve. Nabokov's quote (above) gets at the heart of this concept. Besides making the story more interesting, creating obstacles also helps the reader to root for your characters.
What obstacles are your characters currently facing? How can you make the fictional situation worse? Disclaimer: "throw rocks" is not meant literally. No kittens were harmed in the writing of this blog post.  My blog is one year old today! This is my 125th blog post. To celebrate, I'm sharing five of my favorite posts from the past year.  My very first blog post, which was a round-up of articles about twitter. Trick or Tweet: Six Articles to Help Writers Overcome the Fear of Twitter.  After attending the NY SCBWI winter conference last year, I highlighted some of the writing resources that were mentioned. Friday Five: Five Resources from the NY SCBWI Conference  One of my blogging goals is to provide information to teen writers. I've interviewed a number of editors who publish teens, including Anna Neher, Associate Editor of Cicada. Teen Tuesday: Interview with Anna Neher of Cicada Magazine  In honor of National Dog Day, I had to post some photos of Rocky and Luna: Friday Five: Cute Dog Photos  I took part in the A to Z Blogging Challenge in April, blogging about the theme of "writing inspiration" for each letter of the alphabet. X is always a tough one for AtoZers. Here's mine: X is for Xenocryst: #AtoZChallenge (Writing Inspiration) I hope you'll follow my blog for another year of writing-related posts. Happy Halloween!
I'm teaching a workshop about novel revision this weekend at the NJ SCBWI Fall Craft Weekend. Below are four helpful writing posts I came across while preparing my presentation. The 5 Biggest Fiction Writing Mistakes (& How to Fix Them) by James Scott Bell “…make sure you can 'hear' every character in a distinct voice.” Common Manuscript Mistakes and the Writers Who Make Them by Aimee Salter Includes wordiness, telling, implausibility. Six Easy Tips for Self-Editing Your Fiction by Kristen Lamb Includes the "Painful and Alien Movement of Body Parts." Word Choice: Weak Words by Vicky Burkholder A chart of words to avoid.  Here are three interesting posts for writers this week:
And here are two upcoming events I wanted to share:
Sadly, I need to change to my comments settings to "approval" first, due to an increase in spam. I hope you still take time to comment. Have a happy weekend!
Writers spend a lot of time focusing on the main character (MC), particularly if the story is written in first person. But what about the secondary characters? The best friend? The older sister?  Sometimes when a scene with multiple characters isn't working, it can be helpful to think about the action from another character's point of view. If the MC is arguing with her best friend at lunch, you may have a good handle on the MC's emotions and the events that led up to the argument. But what about the BFF? She can't be manipulated to say what you need for the plot to move forward. She should be a believable character with her own set of emotions and actions. What if she was telling the story? What happened during her morning that might be contributing to the argument? What is she feeling about the MC? You wouldn't necessarily add all of this background (and probably shouldn't, in most cases), but working on the supporting characters can help a scene-gone-wrong.
 Thank you to author Marcia Meara for tagging me in this World Blog Hop. You can read her original post here. According to the hop rules, I start with a quote, then answer four questions about my creative process. One of my favorite writing quotes is from Anton Chekhov: “Don't tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass.” And now for the questions: 1. Why do I create what I do? I took a novel writing class years ago that said to write what you read. A quick glance at my nightstand answered the question: a big pile of young adult books towered on top of it. I also like to write about situations that keep me awake at night--contagious fatal diseases are definitely on the list. That led to my debut young adult novel, Pandemic, which was published in May by Sky Pony Press. 2. How does my creative process workI find the first draft is the hardest; I’m happiest when I have a rough draft to work with. I tend to revise, reread, revise, share the work with my critique group, then revise again. I like to keep a notebook for brainstorming ideas and tracking plot and character decisions. I also tape pictures and others bits of info into it, so it becomes a physical complement to my computer files. 3. How does my work differ from others of its genre?I’m interested in portraying realistic, contemporary situations and I like the idea of creating scary circumstances in our ordinary world. For example, pandemics are inherently frightening, and my debut novel includes details about how a deadly outbreak could actually play out if it occurred tomorrow. Pandemic (which is about bird flu) was published before Ebola became a major news item but it's been a bit surreal to read about current events and draw parallels to my story. 4. What am I presently working on?Besides working on publicity for Pandemic, I’m revising a YA psychological thriller about a girl who fears she is either being haunted or going insane. I started this story years ago, before Pandemic, and I'm excited about its recent evolution.  Next up on the blog hop, I’d like to tag C. Lee McKenzie. Lee is the author of several novels, most recently Double Negative, and she frequently blogs about interesting topics for writers.
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