Blog Posts

Self-Editing Tips

1/9/2015

After a holiday blogging hiatus, I've planned some interesting posts for later in January. For today though, rather than provide a "Friday Five," I'm linking to a guest post I wrote for UncommonYA about self-editing. It includes a series of questions to ask about your manuscript and some reference links to help guide you. If you have some favorite self-editing tips, please share!

The usual Friday Five and Teen Tuesday will resume next week.

Inspiring Blogger Award

1/5/2015

by Yvonne Ventresca

Thank you to Marcia Strykowski for nominating me for The Very Inspiring Blogger Award!

Keeping the Blogosphere a Beautiful Place

Award rules:

Display the award on your blog
Link back to the person who nominated you
State 7 things about yourself
Nominate 15 bloggers, link to them, and notify them about their nominations

Seven Things about Me:

I've been binge-watching Criminal Minds on Netflix and am in the middle of season six. (I don’t watch a lot of TV and have never seen the show.)
My lowest grade in college was in freshman English. I have since recovered.
I have a horrible sense of direction.
My first writing goal in 2015 is completing the revision of my YA psychological thriller.
The last concert I saw was Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.
My favorite treat is Lindt’s “A touch of sea salt” dark chocolate.
I received some wonderful Christmas gifts this year. My childhood friend gave me this mug.

“Please do not annoy the writer. She may put you in a book and kill you.”

I’m sorry I couldn’t include all the blogs I follow (so many good ones!). Here are fifteen.

15 Very Inspiring Blogs:
C. Lee McKenzie at The Write Game
Susan Brody at The Art of Not Getting Published
Kathy Temean at Writing and Illustrating
Kelli Russell Agodon at Book of Kells
Frances Caballo at Social Media Just for Writers
Kristen Lamb at We Are Not Alone
Kate Ormand’s blog
Stephanie Rose Bird at Stephanie’s Studio
Special Teaching at Pempi’s Palace
Jody Hedlund’s blog
Peg Fitzpatrick’s blog
Mary Kole at KidLit.com
April Henry's blog
C.S. Lakin at Live, Write, Thrive
Angie Taylor at Band of Dystopian Authors and Fans

Congratulations to these bloggers and Happy New Year!

Friday Five: Productivity Tips During a Busy Season

12/12/2014

By Yvonne Ventresca

It's a busy time of year! How can we get writing (and everything else) done? Visit YA Outside the Lines for my guest post today featuring some productivity tips.

Happy Holidays!

Teen Tuesday: Pandemic-Inspired Writing Prompts

11/25/2014

Thanks to author Jacqueline Jules for including my Pandemic-inspired writing prompts on her Pencil Tips blog. Check them out here.

I am taking a brief blogging break for the Thanksgiving holiday. I hoping to be on the Internet less and writing more. Happy Thanksgiving!

Teen Tuesday: Mythical World Contest from Figment

11/18/2014

By Yvonne Ventresca

There are a few days left to enter Figment's Mythical World Contest.

Entries of 500 words or less are due at the Figment website by the end of day, November 21. Read complete contest rules and guidelines here. Good luck!

Teen Tuesday: The 20 Mile March and Writing Success

11/11/2014

By Yvonne Ventresca

Jim Collins studies leadership and corporate success and he's written numerous business books such as Good to Great, Built to Last, and Great by Choice. One of his concepts is that when undertaking a long (and perhaps difficult) journey, the best approach is to march twenty miles a day regardless of the weather and other conditions. Consistent progress toward a goal is better than long but undependable marches with rests in between. He uses the South Pole expedition leaders Roald Amundsen (who succeeded) and Robert Falcon Scott (who died during the expedition) to illustrate this. (Check this business article for more information about the twenty mile march.)

Now think about writing a novel. Is it better to write many pages on the weekend, skip a few days, and write another large chunk when time permits? Or is it better to write a page every single day?

What do you think? School and work may affect the answer to this. Is consistent advancement toward writing goals a key to success?

March on!

Friday Five: 5 Fun Facts from Author Niki Masse Schoenfeldt

11/7/2014

Today's blog features a guest post from Niki Masse Schoenfeldt, author of the picture book Don't Let the Bedbugs Bite.

Five Fun Facts about Don't Let the Bedbugs Bite

by Niki Masse Schoenfeldt

1. Don’t Let the Bedbugs Bite was originally a short poem I didn’t know what to do with. My critique group, The Mudskippers, encouraged me to make it into a picture book.

2. I wrote the poem after spouting the old bedbug adage to my 2 year old at bedtime and she refused to sleep in her bed if bugs were going to bite her!

3. After ten months of submitting to publishers, Shenanigan Books finally snatched it up!

4. Originally, the bug in the little girl’s bed actually was a friendly bedbug, but my publisher was concerned about the whole bedbug infestation thing (Rightly so!) and suggested I make it a case of mistaken identity instead.

5. After some brainstorming I decided the “bedbug” should be a ladybug because ladybugs are not scary. In fact, my grandmother used to say they brought good luck.

Thanks for the guest post, Niki! I've always been told that ladybugs are good luck, too.

Don't Let the Bedbugs Bite is a featured book through the READING RAINBOW LEARN & READ app from Itunes.

Bio: Niki Masse Schoenfeldt grew up in a small town in Western Massachusetts where she began writing stories as soon as she could pick up a pencil. In the fall of 2008, her first picture book, NATURE’S LULLABY was released and her next picture book, DON’T LET THE BEDBUGS BITE! followed in 2012. Mrs. Schoenfeldt continues to write picture books as well as middle grade and young adult novels. Over the years she has worn many hats, including that of a book reviewer, critique group moderator, math & reading tutor, storyteller, mom, wife, painter, professional beach bum and she even once saved a sheep from drowning!

Teen Tuesday: Create Story Obstacles

11/4/2014

By Yvonne Ventresca

A brief tip to keep in mind as you write: it's important that you create obstacles for your characters to overcome. Don't make important problems too easy to solve. Nabokov's quote (above) gets at the heart of this concept. Besides making the story more interesting, creating obstacles also helps the reader to root for your characters.

What obstacles are your characters currently facing? How can you make the fictional situation worse?

Disclaimer: "throw rocks" is not meant literally. No kittens were harmed in the writing of this blog post.

Friday Five: Blog Birthday!

10/31/2014

By Yvonne Ventresca

My blog is one year old today! This is my 125th blog post. To celebrate, I'm sharing five of my favorite posts from the past year.

My very first blog post, which was a round-up of articles about twitter.
Trick or Tweet: Six Articles to Help Writers Overcome the Fear of Twitter.

After attending the NY SCBWI winter conference last year, I highlighted some of the writing resources that were mentioned.
Friday Five: Five Resources from the NY SCBWI Conference

One of my blogging goals is to provide information to teen writers. I've interviewed a number of editors who publish teens, including Anna Neher, Associate Editor of Cicada.
Teen Tuesday: Interview with Anna Neher of Cicada Magazine

In honor of National Dog Day, I had to post some photos of Rocky and Luna:
Friday Five: Cute Dog Photos

I took part in the A to Z Blogging Challenge in April, blogging about the theme of "writing inspiration" for each letter of the alphabet. X is always a tough one for AtoZers. Here's mine:
X is for Xenocryst: #AtoZChallenge (Writing Inspiration)

I hope you'll follow my blog for another year of writing-related posts. Happy Halloween!

Teen Tuesday: Revision

10/28/2014

0 Comments

By Yvonne Ventresca

I'm teaching a workshop about novel revision this weekend at the NJ SCBWI Fall Craft Weekend. Below are four helpful writing posts I came across while preparing my presentation.

The 5 Biggest Fiction Writing Mistakes (& How to Fix Them)
by James Scott Bell
“…make sure you can 'hear' every character in a distinct voice.”

Common Manuscript Mistakes and the Writers Who Make Them
by Aimee Salter
Includes wordiness, telling, implausibility.

Six Easy Tips for Self-Editing Your Fiction by Kristen Lamb
Includes the "Painful and Alien Movement of Body Parts."

Word Choice: Weak Words by Vicky Burkholder
A chart of words to avoid.

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<<Previous

Forward>>

Self-Editing Tips

Inspiring Blogger Award

Friday Five: Productivity Tips During a Busy Season

Teen Tuesday: Pandemic-Inspired Writing Prompts

Teen Tuesday: Mythical World Contest from Figment

Teen Tuesday: The 20 Mile March and Writing Success

Friday Five: 5 Fun Facts from Author Niki Masse Schoenfeldt

Five Fun Facts about Don't Let the Bedbugs Bite

Teen Tuesday: Create Story Obstacles

Friday Five: Blog Birthday!

Teen Tuesday: Revision

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