Who Buys (And Who Reads) Teen Novels, by Elizabeth Wein
The headline of an article published on September 13, 2012 in the Los Angeles Times announces, Most Young Adult Book Buyers Are Not Young Adults. My kneejerk reaction to this was, ‘WELL, DUH.’ When I...
View ArticleMonth In Review (July 2013)
Writing Teen Novels has reached the end of its seventh month of articles for 2013 from this year’s line-up of novelists from the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada and New Zealand....
View ArticlePacing A Novel, by Lish McBride
Pacing is often the bane of my existence. My beginnings are never fast enough, my middles are squishy and my ends need to be slowed down. I’m three novels in and this has become a comforting pattern....
View ArticleMonth In Review (June 2013)
Writing Teen Novels has reached the end of its sixth month of articles for 2013 from this year’s line-up of novelists from the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada and New Zealand....
View ArticleSci Fi Novels For Teens, by Beth Revis
When I first finished Across the Universe, one of the first things I did was head to my local bookstore and ask for comp titles (titles that I could compare to my own). My bookstore had only a handful...
View Article10 Tips For Becoming A Good Novelist, by April Henry
1. Read, read, read. Try well-reviewed books in genres you wouldn’t normally read – fantasy, historical novels, even westerns. Don’t be afraid to put something aside if it’s not working for you – but...
View ArticleEndings And The Novel Writing Process, by Bernard Beckett
I recently read an interesting piece of research that suggests that the crucial thing when it comes to recalling and assessing an experience is the way it ends. So, for example, people asked to rate...
View ArticleWriting Novels About Teens For Teen Readers, by Bernard Beckett
When writing a piece of fiction, we try to do something more than achieve an external description of the world. We want to engage with it in a way that feels like a depiction from the inside. We’re...
View ArticleCrafting Your Novel’s Plot And Characters To Sustain Story Momentum...
I have no fear of the middle of the novel. I’m scared to death of the beginning and the end but the middle is a ledge I can regroup on, to take stock and re-energise. Writing as someone who has taught...
View ArticleTools To Develop Productive Novel Writing Habits, by April Henry
Do you ever find yourself polishing the same paragraph over and over, moving a clause here, changing a verb there and not ever actually adding any new words? Sometimes even experienced writers have...
View ArticleDoes A Novelist Need An Agent? by Amy Kathleen Ryan
Beginning writers often ask me if they really need an agent, and my answer is this: “Unless you’re really great at promoting yourself, and you’re willing to spend hours learning contract law, and...
View ArticleFirst Person Present Tense Narration In Teen Novels, by Beth Revis
The first YA book I read that used first person present tense was Libba Bray’s epically beautiful A Great and Terrible Beauty. I don’t think I really noticed it until one of the characters “says”...
View ArticleIn Praise Of Copy Editors: Masters Of Accuracy, by Monika Schroder
After the final revision when author and editor have shaped a manuscript into its final form and before it goes to the printer, copy editors comb through the text check spelling, word choice, syntax,...
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