INK Sisters Write

Dear Alison, Last weekend, we lost an hour to Daylight Savings. An hour doesn't seem like that big of a deal. After all, it's only sixty minutes, but that hour doubled the sixty minutes I lost between Friday and Saturday when I decided I needed another hour of sleep. That hour I lost was time I usually spend working on SCBWI emails--and if I'm honest, most weekends I spend two to three hours on SCBWI stuff in addition to being a mom, a wife, and a writer. So I entered into Daylight Savings with an hour already lost. By Sunday morning I was already two hours behind. I tried to make that hour up Sunday night, but by Monday during our critique group meeting, I felt that 3rd lost hour of sleep, and I began to lose more and more time. Alison, the snowball effect is REAL. Bizarre circumstances sprouted each day--Tuesday after track practice (I'm a coach not a runner) I had to wait a half hour for two students to get picked up. Tuesday night, I discovered Girls on the ...

I love me a good mystery. Thrill me and I’m yours ’til the end of the book, AND if my bookshelf is loaded with them, I’m yours 'til you stop writing. But how do we, as writers, create these thrillers and mysteries? Last week, I spent some time dispatching Katherine Tegen Books Senior Editor, Ben Rosenthal’s words of wisdom,  and now I bring you some writing exercises he suggested. WRITING EXERCISES from Ben Rosenthal, Senior Editor at Katherine Tegen Books Read the first line of your novel. Do you want to hear the next line? Write several first lines until you have one that screams, “YES!” to the question. Create multi-dimentional heroes and villains. Write down their defining qualities. Then, write down the opposite of that. Now, create a scenario in which your protagonist and antagonist demonstrate the opposite qualities you have identified. Write down a list of characters in your novel. Pick a character that is either an ally or enemy of your hero. Fi...