PICTURE BOOKS

MIDDLE GRADE

YOUNG ADULT

author:

LA Biscay

Jewell Parker Rhodes uses five different types of opening lines in her novel Towers Falling. Great mentor text for how to hook a reader in the beginning of a scene.

In your story, consider how your character’s Lie and Fear impact the plot. And look to the Midpoint and All is Lost moments to ratchet up the stakes for your character. See how the climax resolves both the plot problem (what the character wants) and the Lie (what the character needs to change).

craft review by LA Biscay In the first post of Structuring Story with Character Arc in Hello, Universe, we examined some early plot elements–the hook, the inciting incident, and the key event–and how those elements are tied to Virgil’s Lie (or Belief that Must Be Changed) and Fear. The Character Arc in the early part […]

craft review by LA Biscay Whether or not Erin Entrada Kelly used a prescribed form of story structure while writing her 2018 Newbery Award winning book, Hello, Universe, I could sense solid bones during my first reading. I giggled, I teared up, I enjoyed the characters’ journeys, and since the novel is told from four […]

craft review by LA Biscay In his craft book Plot and Structure, author James Scott Bell challenges writers to find the strongest hook for scene openers: “The hook is what grabs the reader’s attention from the start and gets him pulled into the narrative. And here is where many a writer stumbles. “Feeling there needs […]

craft review by LA Biscay A 2017 Newbery Honor, Wolf Hollow by Lauren Wolk is set in rural Pennsylvania in 1943 and is a coming of age story about almost-twelve-year-old Annabelle. Right from the beginning, I sensed her story would be emotionally fraught. In the prologue, an older Annabelle reflects: The year I turned twelve, […]

Craft Review by LA Biscay I’ll admit it. I’m a map junkie.  I can’t get anywhere without GPS.  Even before that technology, I was the road trip companion with a stash of fold out paper maps, ready to highlight the best roads for our journey. Maybe that’s why I’m a plot junkie. I need to […]