Craft Articles
Join us in exploring others’ craft and building our own.
Here you will find explorations of mentor texts – articles that dive into specific craft elements in published books, interviews with authors, and tips on growing and improving as a writer.
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SIDEWRITING TAKEOVER: Time Traveling with Jennifer Ziegler
I always start with character. For me, that’s the spark that makes me want to write. Who is this person in my head? What are they grappling with? What do they need to figure out (about themselves and/or life in general)? To answer these questions, I write scenes about them and sometimes in their voice.
SIDEWRITING TAKEOVER: Interviewing your Character with Karen Krossing
I ask you: What questions do you need to ask your characters? If that feels too challenging, Walter Dean Myers’s advice in Just Write: Here’s How! is to “Come up with a bunch of questions you might want to ask about someone you just met in real life.”
SIDEWRITING TAKEOVER: Why sidewrite? (And what is it anyway?)
If you’re a writer then you likely have feelings about sidewriting. You know, all that extra writing you do (or wonder if you should do) in order to figure out and enhance your story. Sidewriting can be anything from doing a story spine to free form writing to letters from your characters to hand writing a scene to word associations to writing from a new POV to plot graphs to--well, you get the idea. Sidewriting is any writing you do that (generally) doesn’t go into your actual manuscript.
Making Every Character Integral to the Story, Even Pets! Syd in Kate Messner’s Chirp
The more characters there are, the harder it is for the reader to connect with the important ones. As authors, we want to make sure every character serves a purpose.
Heightening Emotional Response Through the Poetic Device of a Refrain: Red, White, and Whole by Rajani LaRocca
The primary purpose of a refrain, or a recurring line throughout a poetic work (or prose for that matter), is to draw attention to something important. Used effectively, it can heighten the emotional resonance of your story and make it feel more universal, and LaRocca uses hers to great effect.
Tackling Different Styles and Genres in Children's Literature: A Q&A with Rajani LaRocca
"I’ve learned that the most important thing is to keep writing about what I love, what’s important to me, what I’m curious about. I’ve learned to put a piece of myself in every story. And I’ve learned that being vulnerable in my writing means that it will resonate with others."
Scene Questions: Give Your Scenes Shape and Momentum
A SCENE QUESTION is a story question on a smaller scale. Introduced at or near the beginning of a scene (or even at the end of the previous scene), the scene question is a yes/no question that will drive the tension in the scene and keep readers turning pages so they can find out the answer.
Back Matter? I have to write Back Matter? Using Mentor Texts for Non-Fiction Picture Books
Non-fiction picture books vary so much, instead of just giving you an exhaustive list of possibilities, I’m going to give you something much better: the tools for YOU to figure out what you need. (And I’ll share what I’ve learned along the way.)
Techniques for a Slow-Build to An Overarching Story Question: From the Desk of Zoe Washington
With an awesome opening sentence, Marks not only introduces the inciting incident, but creates a storm of wondering questions for the reader,
CRAFTING MEMORABLE MIDDLE GRADE NOVELS: A Q&A WITH JANAE MARKS
I love exploring what it’s like to be twelve years old, an age where you’re not quite a kid or a teenager. It’s such a transitional time, and can be full of so much drama. (My middle school days certainly were!)
Leading your reader to ask the right questions: Revising your first chapter Part 2, Pay Attention, Carter Jones by Gary D. Schmidt
Today, let’s look at a middle grade novel--one very different in style and tone--to see how well framed questions can guide the reader through the first chapter.
Leading your reader to ask the right questions: Revising your first chapter Part 1, Sadie by Courtney Summers
One way to be sure your first chapter will have the effect you want is to focus on what questions will arise in the readers’ minds as they read, and then revise to control those questions to serve your purpose.
Building character quickly: Definition, Dialogue, Desire, and Doubt in Vicky Fang’s Layla and the Bots series
In her early chapter book series Layla and the Bots, Vicky Fang manages to incorporate STEM topics, design thinking, AND interesting characters, all in just over 1500 words each. Let’s take a look at techniques she uses to create interesting and memorable characters.
Design Thinking for Writers: A Q&A with Vicky Fang
"As a product designer, I am used to solving creative problems. I think that’s partially why I’m drawn to different formats, because I get inspiration from the problem. My design experience also helps me take critique feedback well as I’m very used to harsh critiques and revising based on understanding the problems that a critique uncovers."
Voice is Where the Magic Happens: Sal and Gabi Break the Universe by Carlos Hernandez
Through a combination of humor, culture, warmth and language, Hernandez uses voice to make his characters unforgettable and his novel hard to put down.
Opposites Create Instant Conflict: Ginger and Chrysanthemum by Kristen Mai Giang and Shirley Chan
Lots of classic books have two main characters--Frog and Toad, Max and Ruby, Elephant and Piggie. I bet you can name some other favorites too. These stories work well, especially in a series, because the differing personalities create built-in conflict. In order to figure out how to approach a story with two main characters, let’s look at Kristen Mai Giang’s Ginger and Chrysanthemum, illustrated by Shirley Chan, a contemporary story of two cousins who love each other but don't always get along.
How Rejection Helps to Shape a Story: An Interview with Kristen Mai Giang
This particular inspiration was already the second or third version of this story, which I knew I wanted to be about girls and friendship. In previous versions, they weren’t cousins. And for each version, I did literally dozens of revisions.For Ginger and Chrysanthemum, part of that was due to the submission process, during which agents and editors asked to see widely varying changes. The characters of these hot-and-cold cousins never changed once they were born, though, and it wasn’t until then that the story began to attract attention.
Controlling Beliefs: The Secret Engine for a Novel
Sometimes in planning a story, you might find that the character’s desire is a little too abstract, or that their desire isn’t really something they can affect. There is a solution: a controlling belief.
Building Engaging Stories Through Conflict and Tension: Something to Say by Lisa Moore Ramée
If you only give your readers one conflict after another without tension in between, you are in danger of exhausting, and maybe even boring them, to the point that they lose interest. Tension turns the page.
An Interview with Lisa Moore Ramée Who Has More Than Something to Say
With an issue of a debate being at the heart of this story, it’s of course important to try to truly explore the issue, and I hope I did that.