Thursday, January 7, 2016

The Unsystematic Writer, Joanna M. Weston


Joanna Weston, author of "To Bethlehem" provides insights into her writing style in her guest blog. Joanna says,

"I am primarily a poet who occasionally writes middle-readers. My latest book,"Frame and The McGuire ", for ages 8-13, began as a short story, which is the way my novels have all got their start. I loved the characters and setting and wanted to know more about them.

The completed novel was critiqued on the
Internet Writing Workshop Fiction list some years ago. I kept going back to the manuscript to edit, tweak, and improve the plot (plotting is not my strong point). And the book came to life.

I don't have a system for editing. A section, sentence, paragraph, or single word, comes to mind while I'm out walking, in the bath, staring into space, or having a bad night. The solution is there and sticks in my head until I make the change.

It's not a orderly way of writing, in fact it's thoroughly inefficient, but it  works for me. I admire those who create an outline and follow it, and sometimes wish I could work like that, but anything I've written from a sketch seems flat and uninspired. So I stick with what works."


Be sure to do your usual research with the various publishers of children's books when deciding where to submit your manuscript.
 
Frame and The McGuire [ISBN-13:978-1-96580-59-3]

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