How to write for children ~ from picture books to young adult

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Entries Tagged as 'Plot'

Plot ~ Internal Conflict

October 31st, 2008 · No Comments

We know we want conflict on every page because conflict is what keeps the readers turning the pages. They want tension. It’s true that we love blood and guts. We loved them in the days of the Coliseum and we still do love them. We want car chases. We want bombs. We want fistfights. When [...]

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Tags: Craft · Plot

Conflicted

October 31st, 2008 · No Comments

We’ve established the fact that good stories need conflict. Plot is all about conflict and resolution. I think we’ve all heard some variation of the saying, “When the book gets boring, throw a body out a window.” Maybe because of the graphic violence on TV and in the movies we think, “If we need conflict, [...]

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Tags: Craft · Plot

Plot ~ Conflict

October 31st, 2008 · No Comments

So we’ve determined that a story must move. Hero has to move from point A to point B. But those letters can’t represent just any old points. You can’t move Hero from the bed to the breakfast table and expect anyone to care. Unless, perhaps, he has to fight a man-eating tiger along the way. [...]

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Tags: Craft · Plot

Plot or Characters ~ What Drives Your Story?

October 31st, 2008 · No Comments

Which Came First, the Characters or the Plot? Without plot, a piece of writing is not a story—it is a static description. Plot is what gives the story locomotion. And stories must move or they are not stories at all. Stories have beginnings, middles, and ends, and they have characters that stretch and grow. So [...]

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Tags: Characterization · Craft · Plot