The biggest mistake most people make when they try to write a synopsis for the first time is to create a bare bones plot summary, along the lines of “First this happens, then this happens, then this happens...” Synopses written this way tend to be so dry and boring even the author would have trouble understanding why anyone would want to read the full novel.

Some great tips on how to write a synopsis of your novel:
http://www.how-to-write-a-book-now.com/how-to-write-a-synopsis.html

Donald Maass Character Checklist

Summary by Kathy Temean:

http://kathytemean.wordpress.com/2010/04/14/donald-maass-character-checklist/

Create Vivid Images to Bring a Novel to Life

“Vivid imagery makes a story world come alive,” says Stacy Whitman, Associate Editor at Wizards of the Coast (Update March, 2010: Whitman is now editorial director of the Tu Books imprint at Lee & Low.) Everyone agrees that a writer’s ability to create an image in a reader’s head through their words is integral to fiction and effective novels. When writers and editors push toward imagery vivid enough to transport readers to new worlds, there are many options.

Darcy Pattison offers some great tips in her article:
http://www.darcypattison.com/revision/vivid-images-sensory-details/

The first thing you want to know about any story is "What’s it about?" The unfolding of events in the story, the plot, describes how one thing leads to another and how everything is resolved in the end. The plot tells how your characters move through time and space and what happens to each of them. To write for kids, you must know how to devise a strong, workable plot.

Many new writers are unaware there are guidelines and rules for numbers of pages or words per type of literature as well as specific ages each category applies to. Listed below is a compilation of some of these guidelines.

Here are twenty DOs and twenty DON’Ts for writers of picture books, to make sure nothing vitally important has been left out from the previous information!:

20 Do's and Don'ts from Mem Fox about writing picture books:
http://www.memfox.com/20-dos-and-20-donts.html

Tips on how to write humorous picture books from Pam Calvert:
http://wwwpamcalvert.blogspot.com/2010/02/if-you-wanna-be-picture-book-writer...

Transcript of Cheryl Klein's talk about creating a picture book. Some excellent tips: http://www.cherylklein.com/cookie.html

 

Another week has passed, and I'm eager to dig into my story. Before I begin, though, I have to rip my story apart chapter by chapter, scene by scene, remove what doesn't work, add new material, and put everything back together again. Here are the steps I'm taking

Excellent tips on how to tackle a major novel revision - @keligwyn http://bit.ly/dzKJiI (via @RachelleGardner)

I found this article by James Plath sharing

21 ideas on how to get your submission out of the slush pile.  James has taught creative writing on the college level for almost 20 years, so he knows alot and may be able to

steer you in the right direction and turn that thumbs down to a thumbs up!  

 

Here are 21 tweaks to consider when trying to revive a rejected story:

List of suggestions on how to revive your rejected manuscript.
http://kathytemean.wordpress.com/2010/02/21/stop-getting-rejected/

Books for young children are usually short. Young children themselves are usually short. This leads to an assumption that children have small brains and that writing for them is easy. The reverse it true. Young children have large, active brains, and writing for them is enormously difficult. It is even more difficult than writing for adults since only the best is good enough for children—the best words in the best places, and the best characters in the best stories. Where do we begin?

Some great tips by Mem Fox.
http://www.memfox.com/so-you-want-to-write-a-picture-book.html

DEFINING SYNOPSIS
The synopsis supplies key information about your novel (plot, theme, characterization, setting), while also showing how these coalesce to form the big picture.

I need to write a synopsis for my graphic novel, so have been poring over tips on how to write a good one. Writer's Digest has a good overview of the basics.

I firmly believe that in any situation where the description of a thing only does one thing (tells you what something looks like), it can probably be left to the reader for the most part.

Great advice from Doyce Testerman.

Q:  There’s some background information I need to include so my narrative makes more sense.  How can I do that without breaking the flow of the story?

Q: There’s some background information I need to include so my narrative makes more sense. How can I do that without breaking the flow of the story?

Alan Rinzler offers some great tips.

Psst!  Wanna write a scorcher for the booming YA market?

OK, here’s the secret: The first thing you need to do is create an authentic, quirky, true-to-life voice.

 

Plot, Plot Layers, Subplot

Darcy Pattison ⋅ January 26, 2010 ⋅ --> Post a comment

Tags  book, events, how to write, layer, novel, plot, scenes, subplot, template

OK, you’ve narrowed down your story to a plot template and you know what characters, events, settings are implied by the story you are thinking about and the plot template. You know some of the pitfalls of plots. Now what?

It think this is the hardest part of plotting a novel, going from generalities to particulars, actually choosing and writing scenes. But you have to make a start, so let’s get to it.

Great plotting tips from Darcy Pattison.

http://www.darcypattison.com/plot/plot-plot-layers-subplot/

  

Twenty Writing Tips From Jane Yolen

The amazing Jane Yolen ended the SCBWI Winters Conference in New York City this past weekend and shared 20 Writing Tips with us.  She felt they could also be used by the illustrators in the audience.

 

Excellent tips, via Kathy Temean's blog.

 

When plotting out or revising your novel, it’s important to understand the difference between an epiphany and a character arc. Both are useful and important, but they serve very different roles in the narrative. Think of them like salt and sugar: They’re both dry, granular materials, both are very important in cooking, but the two are hardly interchangeable.

http://www.plottopunctuation.com/blog/show/60