Nonfiction Authors Dig Deep by Melissa Stewart
Last year, award-winning children’s book author Laura Purdie Salas wrote this wonderful post for Celebrate Science. I especially love this quotation: “. . . there’s a common, crushing misconception that fiction is creative writing drawn from the depths of a writer’s soul, while nonfiction is simply a recitation of facts that any basic robot […]
Behind the Books: Still Sitting in a Drawer
During school visits, students often ask me how many books I’ve written. Before answering, I ask for clarification. Do they want to know how many books I’ve published or how many books I’ve written? That’s right. The two questions have different answers. So far, I’ve published 190 books, but I’ve written about 30 more that […]
Behind the Books: Nonfiction Writers Aren’t Robots
I’m excited to host award-winning author and poet Laura Purdie Salas, who has an important message for us to consider. Thanks, Laura. I try not to take it personally, but there’s a common, crushing misconception that fiction is creative writing drawn from the depths of a writer’s soul, while nonfiction is simply a recitation of […]
Tackling the Personal Narrative, Part 2
On Wednesday, I wrote about some of the reasons students struggle to write personal narratives and provided ideas that might help them. You can scroll down to read that post. Today I’ll be discussing a resource that really helps young writers—mentor texts. You can save student work from year to year and share good examples […]
Behind the Books: The Moment of Rest
Recently, I was cleaning out my files and found an article I had ripped out of the November 2015 issue of Delta Sky magazine. It was an interview with Lin-Manuel Miranda, creator of the hit Broadway show “Hamilton,” and I had underlined this quotation: “. . . a good idea doesn’t come while you’re doing […]
Behind the Books: The Duct Tape Rule
One of the most important steps of my writing process is sharing my rough draft with my critique group. We meet twice a month at a library near my home. Many students have a similar step in their writing process. Some schools call it peer review. Others call it buddy editing. Some schools don’t really […]
Three Tips for Writing Teachers
Recently, a teacher tweeted me with this question: When kids revise, their changes may not be improvements. How can we lead them to make their manuscripts better? That’s a great question, but it’s not something that can be answered in 140 characters. And in fact, I’m not sure there’s an answer—at least not one teachers […]
NF for NF Handout: Got Motivation?
You’ve probably heard that the secret to completing a manuscript is as easy as BIC—Butt in Chair. But with such busy lives, it can be hard to find the time and, more importantly, the motivation to stick to the writing goals we set for ourselves. How can we make writing a top priority day after […]
Writer’s Loft Handout: Got Motivation?
You’ve probably heard that the secret to completing a manuscript is as easy as BIC—Butt in Chair. But with such busy lives, it can be hard to find the time and, more importantly, the motivation to stick to the writing goals you set for yourself. How can you make writing a top priority day after day, week […]
Going International
Quite a few of my books have been translated into other languages, including Spanish, Chinese, Turkish, and Korean. It’s always fun to see what the foreign publishers do with the covers to appeal to their audience. Sometimes they keep the art, and just replace the English title. Sometimes they replace the art with images […]