Not long ago, in the stories, the narrator was all-knowing, neutral, god-like, omniscient. The narrator freely observed the story’s world from above, reported all actions to the reader, and moved seamlessly from one character’s head to another, sharing their thoughts. For example, Only the omniscient narrator can tell the […]
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“Hook the reader’s attention as early as you can.” You’ve probably heard this piece of writing advice a gazillion times. But how often does it actually work? Especially in picture book biographies? I became curious. My Study I read only the first two spreads of seventy traditionally published
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This blog post is not a summary of STORY. Claiming otherwise would be the height of naivety. STORY is a very dense book. You wouldn’t digest it by reading bits and pieces before falling asleep or on the train. It demands full concentration. Yet, every single sentence of the book is worth
What is a lead? How do I begin? Theoretically, I knew that the first lines (lead) have the crucial job of drawing readers into the book and capturing their attention. But practically, how to do so? If writing the first lines isn’t more difficult than writing the rest, it isn’t easier either.
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I knew one of my nonfiction manuscripts was mission something—something that I couldn’t identify! The topic was interesting, about a space telescope. The text wasn’t wordy; less than 800 words. The language level was appropriate for my target audience. Yet, I felt something crucial was missing, SOMETHING that should be in the blueprint of
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Previously, in this blog post, I discussed the Narrative Structure. In a nutshell, the most used Narrative Structure is the Three Act Structure (Beginning-Middle-End). The term Narrative Structure is self-explanatory: a Narrative Structure constructs the Narration. Yet, this simple concept has been prone to many misunderstandings. When
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What is Informational Fiction? Informational fictions are stories with the main purpose of conveying information and facts. They have the Narrative Structure as each story should have. Therefore, they are NOT non-fiction. They are NOT narrative nonfiction (biography or memoir) either. Because informational fictions have fictitious characters with made-up
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Postmodern literature After World War II, a new movement in literature began: postmodernism. Postmodern literature rose to prominence in the late 1950s and early 1960s. This form of literature is characterized by the use of metafiction, unreliable narration, self-reflexivity, and intertextuality. Postmodern Picture Books The classic postmodern picture book
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INCOMPLETE Writing a book is one skill. Pitching is another skill. Previously, we looked at two main components of a query letter; Logline and comp titles. In this blog post, you will read the pitches authors used to sell the manuscripts we see now as picture books. I would love to
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Why analysis of Narrative Structure? I found out that I cannot fix the Narrative Structure’s problems for two reasons: I am emotionally attached to my work. I don’t have enough experience to logically analysis my work. Thus, it is better to start practicing dissecting the works I have no emotional connection with—other people’s work!
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