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The Difference Between YA and MG Novels

The Difference Between YA and MG Novels #writingtips #YAlit #MGlit #kidlit #MondayBlogs

Recently, Robin and I had a conversation about how there seems to be a lot of confusion surrounding the differences between YA novels and MG novels. Most people know the basics, such as MG books are shorter than YA books, and MG protagonists are younger, under 14 as opposed to YA protagonists who are 15-18 years old, but word count and age are not the only differences. In fact, I’d argue that…

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#MG lit #Middle Grade #voice #YA lit #Young Adult fiction

How to Write an Epistolary Novel

Epistolary novels use fictional letters, tweets, emails and other types of communication to create a story with a unique narrative style. This is not a new form, epistolary novels have been around since the 19th century, but after a downturn in popularity they are enjoying a renaissance and the trend shows no sign of slowing. Epistolary novels are fun to read, and to write because they capture a…

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#Epistolary novels #Robin #tips for writing

How to Tell if Your Writing is Good

How to Tell if Your Writing is Good #writingtips #writerslife #writing #publishing

Writers agonize over this (and we should) but it’s difficult to know when to stop. How do you know if your writing is good enough? Is there a litmus test you can give your novel? Kind of, though it’s not one-size-fits-all, so I’m going to supply you with a template to make a test of your own. But first, I want to stress how important it is to be able to recognize good writing. Don’t fall into the…

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#books on writing #litmus test #research #screenwriting #story analysis #story deconstruction #story structure

3 Tips for Research Management

3 Tips for Research Management #writerslife

As Heather pointed out in her last post, the second half of 2017 got a bit overwhelming for us. Heather took on a huge workload, five jobs to be exact. And I balance a lot of stuff even in a normal year: work, community volunteering, political activism, one husband, two kids, three cats (one with dementia) and I own a home that sits on a chunk of land where blackberries have staked a claim for…

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#organization #Organize your writing #research #Robin #time management

Decluttering Your Writing Process

Decluttering Your Writing Process #MondayBlogs #writerslife #writing #decluttering

It’s a new year, and that means it’s time to make resolutions, set goals and implement changes in our lives. If you pay attention to trends, you’ll know that the current craze is “decluttering.” This really took off with Marie Kondo’s book The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing, and this month there’s a new book attracting attention, The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning by Margareta…

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#decluttering #desk space #notebooks #organization #Scrivener #Swedish Death Cleaning #Trello #Writer Struggles

5 Tips to Turn Slow Writers into Fast Drafters

5 Tips to Turn Slow Writers into Fast Drafters #MondayBlogs #writerslife

Can writers train themselves to write faster? This question is much debated. Many people say that yes, writers can learn to write fast, but (at least in my opinion) those people are short on actionable ways to make that happen. The common advice seems to be: 1) time yourself, 2) create self-imposed deadlines, and 3) give yourself permission to write a sh*t first draft. I especially hate that last…

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#fast drafting #game writing #Heather #slow writer

Writer Struggles: 6 Steps to Get Unstuck

Writer Struggles: 6 Steps to Get Unstuck #writingtips #MondayBlogs

Last June, I started a ghost story for Camp NaNoWriMo. I really liked this idea. I’d set it in a historical period (the Gilded Age) which I know well. I’d selected a location I loved working with (Newport, RI) but for some reason the story wouldn’t gel. I had a beatsheet and an expanded outline figured out. I had the character profiles done. The research was finished and I’d captured a ton of…

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#characters #creating tension and conflict #NaNoWriMo #Robin #writing

Writer Struggles: Isolation & Loneliness

Writer Struggles: Isolation & Loneliness #writerslife #SundayBlogShare

For me, one of the hardest things about transitioning from a screenwriter to a novelist is the isolation. Screenwriters always work with other people, especially in the television industry. You’re either in a writing room breaking stories with other writers, or on set talking to the director and crew, or in the office pitching producers and broadcasters. Even freelance screenwriters who mainly…

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#Heather #life coaching #lonely writer #social media #writer isolation #writer meet-ups #Writer Struggles #writing workshops

GAME WRITING: Adventures in Interactive Fiction

GAME WRITING: Adventures in Interactive Fiction #amwriting #gaming #wwwblogs

Confession: before this week, I didn’t know much about video games or their history. Shameful for someone who now has “game writer” on her resume. So I decided to fix this before anybody found out, and started reading a book called GAME ON! And what I began learning led me down a rabbit hole of writer discoveries… As the cover tagline says, this book is a “Video Game History from Pong and Pac-Man…

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#game writing #Heather #interactive fiction #interactive storytelling #writing games

Writer Struggles: Killing Nice Characters

Killing off Nice Secondary Characters #writingtips #MondayBlogs

Killing off a nice character, even a secondary one, is a big deal. Every single time I consider doing this as a writer, I struggle with my decision. Did I handle the death correctly? Will killing off this character just piss off the reader? Is this death achieving what I intended it to achieve within the story? Turns out there are a finite number of reasons to kill off a nice character, and…

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#characters #killing off a character #Robin

Guest Post: How to Use Scapple

Guest Post: How to Use Scapple #MondayBlogs #writingtips @scappleapp

Hannah Givens is always a favorite guest blogger at WriteOnSisters, and we’re thrilled she’s back. If you haven’t already done so, follow her wonderful book blog, power packed with great ideas for reading diverse books and authors. And now, take it away Hannah… I love sticky notes, and I’ve used them to organize my thoughts for years, but that method has some problems: notes fly off the paper, or…

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#Hannah Givens #outlining #productivity #Scapple

Writing Gender-Inclusive Romance

Writing Gender-Inclusive Romance #writingtips #MondayBlogs

For more than a year I’ve been writing and story editing a dating adventure game called LongStory. At the start of the game, players select their avatar and gender, choosing whether they want to be referred to as “she”, “he” or “they”. We don’t write different dialogue or storylines for different player genders. LongStory is written to be gender-inclusive. What does that mean? Well,…

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#game scripts #gender-inclusive #gender-neutral #Heather #LongStory #writing games

Using the Forbidden Love Masterplot

Using the Forbidden Love Masterplot #MondayBlogs #writingtips

Last year we ran a whole series of posts called Masterplots Theater from A to Z. Because we had some plots that started with the same letters, we had to cut several fantastic masterplots. ‘Forbidden Love’ was one of our unhappy victims as Heather wrote about the Fool Triumphant Masterplot instead. We did cover several other love-related plots in the series, Buddy Love, Happily-Ever- After Love,…

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#Forbidden Love Masterplot #Masterplots #plot #Robin #writing #Writing Romance

How to Straighten Your Story’s Spine

How to Straighten Your Story’s Spine #writingtips #MondayBlogs

Sometimes I write a story where lots of exciting stuff happens, my protagonist is proactive and has a goal, and I’m hitting all the right beats (if you don’t know what those are, check out this post on the 15 Story Beats), yet the story still feels flat. What’s wrong? What am I missing? The truth of the matter is often I’m not missing anything. I spend a lot of time developing my stories and I…

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#character arc #character change #Heather #internal conflict #story development #story editing #story questions #story spine

4 Core Components of an Awesome Sidekick Character

4 Core Components of an Awesome Sidekick Character #writingtips #MondayBlogs

I’ve always loved sidekicks, Chewbacca, Samwise Gamgee, Ron and Hermione. Sidekick characters can enhance the story tension, help flesh out the protagonist, and move the plot forward in a number of significant ways. Several of the masterplots that Heather and I wrote about last year include a sidekick character as a possible component. Sidekicks are often included to give the main character a…

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#character development #Robin #sidekicks

We're Back! + Writer Career Brainstorming

We're Back! + Writer Career Brainstorming #MondayBlogs #writerslife

Happy New Year! Hope you had a wonderful holiday season. We certainly did. We really, really, really needed that break! Heather was all like, “Wake me up when 2016 is over…” And Robin was like, “Yeah, 2016 beat me up pretty bad… but I’m still standing!” Politics aside, 2016 was for me (Heather) a year of constantly questioning my career path and exploring my options. I began on a high note, with…

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#creative writing program #Heather #LongStory #screenwriting #writing games

Gone Writing! WriteOnSisters.com is taking a break from blogging until after #NaNoWriMo

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