Gail Carson Levine's Blog, page 23
November 25, 2015
Buzzkill
To those of you who are scaling Mount NaNoWriMo, I salute you at your three-quarter mark, where the oxygen may be getting thin. Breathe deep! Stay hydrated! Dip into your trail mix! And here, again, is the link for Kitty’s support-and-encouragement forum: http://nanowrimo.org/forums/writing-groups-and-clubs/threads/260467. I’ve been lurking now and then.
On August 18, 2015, Li’l Ol’ Me wrote, Does anyone have some motivation tips? I get anywhere from 20-60 pages into a story/novel and I just...
November 11, 2015
In Transit
To all of you who are in the middle of NaNoWriMo, may the wind fill your sails! If you have time or need a break, please let the rest of us know how you’re faring. And here’s the link to Kitty’s NaNoWriMo forum, which she put together particularly for this blog’s writer-participants: http://nanowrimo.org/forums/writing-groups-and-clubs/threads/260467.
On July 16, 2015 Abigail wrote, I know you did a post on this already, but it’s not so much story hopping, but losing interest. I have a story...
October 28, 2015
The Establishment
For any of you who can get to Long Island, New York, on Saturday, November 14th, I’ll be speaking and signing at 2:00 at the Longwood Public Library, 800 Middle Country Road in Middle Island. I’d love to meet you!
For those of you who: are eighteen or will be by next fall, are writing for children or young adults, and can get to New Jersey for a one-day conference, I want to mention the one at Rutgers University, where I mentor every year. You have to apply, I think by April. People who are a...
October 14, 2015
Discomfort Zone
On June 7, 2015, Arnyoung wrote, I was wondering if anyone has had any problems with thinking about the audience when you write. I have kind of the opposite problem frommany of the others who have commented here. I really like writing about characters who are different from me. I have mostly written about adults in historical fiction, but I am a teenager and my family thinks that I should write about angsty teens and depression and things because that’s what some writing contests in my age gr...
September 30, 2015
Historical’ish
For this post, I’m starting with a word that charms me. Everyday, Wordsmith.org emails me a vocabulary word, usually one I don’t know. Here’s oneI want to remember, and posting it here will help me. This is how it appears on the Wordsmith site:
kenning
PRONUNCIATION:
(KEN-ing)
MEANING:
noun: A figurative, usually compound, expression used to describe something. For example, whale road for an ocean and oar steed for a ship.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Old Norse kenna (to know). Ultimately from the Indo-Eu...
September 16, 2015
You shout tomayto, I’m too shy to whisper tomahto, let’s call the whole story off
Does this title mean anything to anyone but me?
Before I go on to the post, I found out about this through poetry school: If you’re sixteen and older, you’re eligible, and there seems to be no fee to apply and a nice sum if you win. If you do win, be sure to let us know! Here’s the link: http://www.buildyourownblog.net/scholarship/. Good luck!
On May 28, 2015 Bug wrote, One of my main characters is extremely different from me. (For example, with Myers-Briggs, I’m an INFP, and he’s an ESFP.) I...
September 2, 2015
Plan or pants?
Before I start the main post, I’m re-posting part of a question capng asked in comments on the last post: I’m worried that if one of the minority characters dies, readers will read too much into it – I’ve seen enough criticism on the internet because of things like that.
Yesterday I wrote this and I don’t want it to get lost, because people have stoppedchecking and it’s important: I don’t think we should pay much attention to what we read online about what’s good or bad in writing. We don’t k...
August 19, 2015
The Old Writer Who Lived in a Shoe
On April 11, 2015, capng wrote, What if you have too many characters? My novel takes place on a ship, with the MC being the captain, and while I have all the secondary characters developed and planned out, I feel like there are too many to give them the page time they deserve. Any ideas, please?
Kenzi Parsons answered, I just started reading “The Hound of Rowan” Series (which everyone should read–it’s amazing!!), which has tons of characters. However, the author keeps the reader from getting...
August 5, 2015
Weepy
On April 16, 2015, this came into the website from Yulia in the old blogspot days:
My main character is VERY moody. She is rather oversensitive and gets easily upset. I reread my manuscript and she’s crying in every other scene. I don’t want a main character who’s making mountains out of, well, let’s say, gnome’s hills, but that’s her character.
I tried making her more unemotional, but then she seems bland. I want her to be passionate and vibrant like she is, but what kind of reader wants to...
July 22, 2015
Objective: objectives
On March 26, 2015, Kenzi Parsons wrote, How do you brainstorm a non-cliche plot when you have the characters and situation already? I find I have a really hard time coming up with a plot if I already have characters–I LOVE my characters but struggle with the story. Any ideas?
These two responses came in:
Erica Eliza: Look at the relationships and the conflicts that will arise between characters. Sort through other story ideas that never took off because they weren’t big enough to carry a whol...
