Posts Tagged how-to writing

Growing As a Writer – the Power of Community

By on May 23, 2025   /   Articles, For Writers  

Growing As a Writer – the Power of Community

If you’ve ever seen one of those sped-up videos illustrators post online, maybe you know the kind – of their artwork going from blank canvas to finished masterpiece all in the span of 30 seconds – I LOVE those! And yet I always walk away thinking how cool it would be for us writers to have something comparable. 

What would our sped up video show? 

 

My first thought is of a writer alone at their desk, possibly hunched over a low lit keyboard while frantically typing away. My next thought is of a writer in a cafe, at a table for one, tucked snugly in the corner with a tea in one hand and a pencil in the other. But neither capture the whole picture – or in this case: video.

 

Consider what writing looked like in early grade school. So many of us writers have a neatly “crafted” book on a shelf in our home (mine was

published via a manilla folder and some pink yarn). Then jump to middle school when our next novel’s printing press came in the form of a spiral binding machine found in the teacher’s lounge. These books weren’t written by our younger selves left alone to our own devices in classrooms or in the cafeteria sipping from tiny chocolate milk cartons. Instead, we had amazing teachers instructing us in the process of beginnings, middle, and ends. They were our first editors, showing us how to tighten our pages. And they partnered us up with peers who critiqued our work – maybe pointing out a spelling mistake or laughing at a well placed joke. These teachers and classmates were our community. They were who we bounced story ideas off of, who we asked questions about plot to, and who we sought advice from.

 

Upon graduation, if you were like me, chances are your community faded. This might be why we hear writing is a solitary effort. But, with no one to gain feedback from, to talk craft with, discuss books or the writing world with, and even perhaps no one who “gets” this side of us, how are we to grow? 

I believe community is the secret sauce. 

 

Community challenges us by holding us accountable. It lifts us up when imposter syndrome rears its ugly head. And it champions us by connecting us with experts and professionals. 

 

When I went looking to find “my people,” as happy as I was to attend conferences and workshops, I was saddened to leave the party, so to speak. It felt like the fun was over, and once again so, too, was the community. If my 30-second sped-up video were to be a true representation of writerly growth, then community needed to be a constant.

 

So I had an idea! 

 

Together with my literary bestie, Valerie Heller, we created MuchAdoAboutWriting.com where writers get to hone their craft AND stay connected. In our four years of running weekly live calls, we’ve had the privilege of seeing members truly become community as they interact with and support each other, share ideas and pages, deepen their understanding of writing craft, own techniques and skills, take in feedback and understand how to implement it when drafting and revising, and even celebrate getting published.

 

And the fun is just beginning! Now it’s our turn to grow by offering even more to writers. So, on top of our teaching calls, interactive workshops, and editing nights, we’re adding daily events to get you thinking and conversing about story on a deeper level through prompts, sprints, games, weekly eyes on pages, and much more.

 

As I round out my 30 second video, a HUGE shout out to Jon and Laura at https://writeforkids.online/ who are our biggest cheerleaders and collaborators in building this community’s offerings. We’re teaming up with them, and are inviting all the readers at From the Mixed Up Files to join us in a live webinar as we take you behind the scenes of The Insiders Coaching Club on Wednesday, May 28th at 8pm ET. Follow this link to sign up for the call: https://writeforkids.lpages.co/icc1/ 

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Pack for Where You’re Going: How to Write with Intent

By on October 25, 2024   /   For Writers, Writing  

Sitting down to write a book without a plan is like going on vacation without deciding on a destination. An exciting new idea will tempt you to simply throw things in a bag and run to the airport. But, like a heavy backpack, the farther along you get into your first draft, the more you start to feel the weight of all the decisions you haven’t made. Doubt catches up to you in the terminal. Where is this story going? How do you know if the idea is strong? What should happen, and who should it happen to?

The best way to start writing is by setting intentions. Intent is the why that informs your story, and knowing that will help you with the what and how as you write. Intent will help you make decisions on everything from theme to plot to syntax. It tells you what needs to be in the story and what doesn’t. Put another way, if you know where you want to go, you’ll know exactly what you need to pack.

 

A traveler sitting on her colorful suitcase at the beach | Setting intent with writing

Photo by Anastasia Nelen on Unsplash.

Using Theme to Set Intent

When you sit down to start a new project, it’s vital to know what you want to say. Theme is a great way to begin. I always recommend approaching theme as a sentence rather than a word or phrase like friendship or coming of age. This way, the theme becomes more dynamic and engaging because it’s expressing what you want to say about that topic. Here are ways you could craft a theme:

Friendship → Friends help you find out who you are.

Coming of age → Growing up means taking responsibility for what you care about.

As you can see, these sentences go a lot farther in helping you decide what the story will be about. To find your own theme, consider the words or phrases you associate with your book. When you have a grasp of the topic, think about what you want to say about it. What perspective would you like to share with your readers?

Using Intent for Plot and Character

Once you’ve got your theme, you’ve set an intention for what you want to say. Now let’s look at the elements of the story itself: the plot and characters that will make it happen. How can you use these elements to support what you want to say? Let’s go back to the examples above to see how intention can help you decide what needs to be in your book.

In the first example, you might be looking at plot elements that touch on identity and the kinds of characters that will emphasize that thread:

Friends help you find out who you are.

→ Your main character is unsure where they fit into a new group, school, or neighborhood.

→ A talent show or contest is coming up, and everyone is expected to participate.

→ Something or someone has changed your main character’s perception of themselves for the worse.

In the second example, you might consider ways to show the difficulties kids face as they start becoming more independent.

Growing up means taking responsibility for what you care about.

→ Your main character is brainstorming ways to raise money.

→ Your character needs to help out with a younger sibling.

→ Maybe they plant a garden, start a club, or practice hard to make a sports team.

These are just a few ideas, but I hope you can see how intent can help you see ways to use your characters and plot to keep working towards your intention.

Using Intent for Tone and Mood

Intention can also help you make decisions on the scene and sentence level. If you want to write a scary story, for instance, you need to think about everything the story needs to make readers bite their fingernails and scooch to the edge of their chairs. That’s where word choice, imagery, and setting come into play. A scary story might emphasize light and dark, creepy noises, unusual smells, or bad tastes. On the other hand, if you’re writing a funny story, you might reach for brighter imagery, more playful narration, and breezier verbs.

Reach Your Destination

When you set your intention, you have everything you need to start writing. Now you can get to work choosing elements that will support the book; everything from characters to plot to the way it’s written. Intention will also help you finish and revise. You simply have to ask yourself, “Did I accomplish what I set out to do?” If the answer is no, you can revisit scenes or chapters that aren’t supporting the intention you set and make changes so the story can get back on track. Remember, only pack what you need for where you’re going!

Interested in how other writers get started? Check out this article from the Mixed-Up Files archives!

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Learning To Write By Analyzing

By on February 24, 2023   /   For Writers, Writing  

I was chatting with a friend the other day about a picture book class they’re taking. My friend said they’d been instructed to type out the text of picture books they loved word for word. At first, they hadn’t thought much of the exercise, but they ended up very surprised at how effect it was. The act of writing out great picture book texts put that structure in their brain. While it would be hard to do use this technique for middle-grade novels, I realized that I have successfully used the same type of analyzing for my chapter books and middle-grade graphic novels.

Cover of Legends of Lotus Island written by Christina SoontornvatJumping into writing new types of books can be daunting. Children’s books aren’t like writing for adults. As well as genre, we have to consider the ages of our readers, their voice, language, vocabulary and more. And some book categories have specific things that traditional publishers are looking for. Early readers and chapters books are nearly always series, so the story has to be designed to continue in future stand-alone books. In middle-grade, there are younger middle-grade novels that are thinner, much like the AMERICAN HORSE TALES series, of which my HOLLYWOOD is one, and Christina Soontornvat’s new LEGENDS OF LOTUS ISLAND series. But there are also the longer, more complex middle-grade novels too. Analyzing what publishers are publishing, and readers are reading, can help us craft our best stories.

I used this technique a lot when I first started working on chapter books. I had the opportunity to audition for a new unicorn chapter book series. Since I hadn’t written a chapter book at that time (only middle-grade and young adult), I decided to do my homework. I sat in my local bookstore and read chapter book after chapter book. I borrowed a heap of chapter books from the library. Plus I bought a few that I knew I’d refer to again and again. But I didn’t just read them. I took my analysis a step further.

I made a spreadsheet with some of my favorite chapter books, including ones the publisher had suggested as comps. Then I noted things like: the number of chapters, number of words in the books, number of illustrations, on which pages they came, number of characters, number of settings, etc. I outlined the stories too, comparing them to the outlines I did for my middle-grade novels. And I even typed out the opening pages word for word to get a good idea of the voice, pacing and tone. I did this for multiple books in different genres, by different authors. This gave me a good sense of the category as a whole.

Cover of Gemstone Dragons: Topaz's Spooky Night written by Samantha M ClarkI didn’t get that job, but the next time I had the opportunity to audition for a chapter book series, I used that knowledge and analyzing technique again. This time, I won the contract, and I now have four books out in my GEMSTONE DRAGONS series.

I’m about to go out on submission to editors with a graphic novel manuscript, and I used the same analyzing technique when I was writing that too. I read a bunch of graphic novels, noted their page counts, and even wrote out their scripts in the form of:

Page 1 (5 panels)

Panel 1: MC does X

Panel 2…

Through this analysis, I could find the patterns and structures that are unique to graphic novels scripts. That made it a lot easier for me to create my own book, and so far, my agent loves it. (Fingers crossed it’ll have the same reception when it goes to editors.)

You’ve no doubt heard that reading is one of the best ways to learn how to write. I challenge you to take that one step further. You don’t have to type out an entire middle-grade novel, but consider ways that you can do more analyzing of those stories. Type out the first few pages or chapter. Note page counts and chapter numbers. See how your favorite authors start their stories and end them. Observe when they end a chapter. You can even catalog characters, their arcs and how their arcs intertwine.

Learning how to write by analyzing the stories you and millions of other readers already love will give you a key to unlock the tools those authors are using, so you can use them yourself.

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