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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Sam Subity: Keep Writing!
“The inspiration for Valor Wings came from my daughter's nightstand. One day the two books on top were Anne of Green Gables and Wings of Fire. Just for fun, I started concocting some scenes that merged the two into a story about a great granddaughter of the famous Anne who led a squadron of dragon riders in World War 2. So my working title for Valor Wings for a long time was ‘Anne of Green Dragons.’”
The Writing Quest: A Q&A with Karen Krossing
Karen Krossing shares her publishing journey--it's been a long and fruitful one!--as well as her exploration of writing in various categories, from YA to picture books, and details of her writing process.
Anne-Marie Guest Blogs at The Official SCBWI Blog
In January 2023, I had the pleasure of being the guest blogger for The Official SCBWI (Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators) Blog. Here are links to the posts, in case you missed them.
Writing Lived Experience: A Q&A with Michael Leali
Every manuscript seems to have its own distinct journey, but every story I write begins with an awful lot of daydreaming, staring into space, jotting a phrase or two onto a sticky note, and coming up with a working title.
Grounding Fantasy in the Familiar: An Interview with Sam Subity
With contemporary fantasy, it doesn't take such a stretch of the imagination for the reader to follow along when you blend the familiar with the unfamiliar.
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.
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!)
An Interview with Mae Respicio: Learning Craft Will Always Set Writers Off on the Strongest Foot
Learning craft will always set writers off on the strongest foot.
A Novel-In-Verse is a NOVEL first: An Interview with Aimee Lucido
"Craft study has helped me tremendously to make better books, and to hone my ear so that I know when something is working or not. I've become so much better at writing stronger characters with more compelling arcs, I can tell when my language is pitch-perfect and when it's falling flat, I can revise more quickly than ever before, I can look at comp titles when I get stuck, I can pull from a wider range of craft techniques when I'm struggling to convey something . . . the list goes on and on. Learning craft has helped me become a better writer in countless ways."
CRAFTING ENGAGING STORIES ABOUT TOUGH SUBJECTS: Learning from Janae Marks and Lisa Moore Ramée
These are compassionate stories that encourage readers to awaken their own inner activist. And they also model ways for kids to engage in deep conversations about topics that can be hard to talk about.
Interview with Kate O’Shaughnessy: Writing with Honesty and Heart
Ignore trends entirely, and write the book that truly calls to you.
Interview with Lindsay Lackey: Craft and Community--a Perfect Fit
I love the deep sense of wonder writers of children’s books possess, and how we all—deep down—still believe in magic. The world is so often dark and stormy, but kidlit writers relentlessly gather around the flickering candles in the darkness.
