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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Nuance Through Extended Metaphor : Partly Cloudy by Tanita S. Davis
Fortunately, weather is something people of all ages intuitively understand when it comes to a metaphor for someone’s emotional state. Sunshine is happy, rain is sad, and stormy weather is, well, stormy. Readers easily connect the dots between weather and emotions. That makes it a great extended metaphor for a middle grade novel.
Emotional Resonance Is Key: A Q&A with Tanita S. Davis
A lot of people want to be allies, or seen as friendly and open to the idea of friendship across races, cultures and social strata. This idea of “just talk to each other” may seem like it’s wildly oversimplified, but it turns out that if you want to know someone, it really is that simple. You may be nothing like a diehard gardener or wide-eyed tween, but if you’re willing to see a potential connection between the two of you, it will be there.
SUMMER RETROSPECTIVE: SPARE AND LYRICAL STORYTELLING: FULL CICADA MOON, A NOVEL IN VERSE
Verse happily sacrifices parts of the story to the reader's imagination in an effort to draw a more immediate emotional response.