Craft Articles
Join us in exploring others’ craft and building our own.
Here you will find explorations of mentor texts – articles that dive into specific craft elements in published books, interviews with authors, and tips on growing and improving as a writer.
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Writing Engaging Young Adult Mysteries That Tackle Emotional Health Issues
“Mysteries are natural places to explore issues of emotional health, because the behavior of people who harm others can generally be traced back to their own emotional problems and issues, and of course their actions have a huge impact on the protagonists of our stories.”
How to Write a Big Emotional Scene: Fault Lines by Nora Shalaway Carpenter
Nora Shalaway Carpenter’s YA novel Fault Lines is a study in contrasts. It’s the story of Viv, a high school senior who lives in rural West Virginia, and Dex, a boy in her grade who moves to town. Viv lives a middle class life; Dex is only recently out of extreme poverty. Viv is anti-fracking; Dex’s mom works on the pipeline. But Viv and Dex are drawn to each other. This dual point of view novel barrels straight toward a huge conflict between these two characters. Carpenter handles the moment of greatest conflict with deft hands. Let’s take a look at how she helps readers connect with the characters’ emotions without getting maudlin.
Crafting a Story of Contrasts: A Q&A with Nora Shalaway Carpenter, author of Fault Lines
I needed to write what felt right and natural to me, even though I was worried my agent and editor (and readers) might think it was weird. . . . I have always felt a deep, almost spiritual or magical connection with the natural world. That’s what was coming through in my writing.
Crafting the Short Story: “They Call Me Hurricane” by Rocky Callen in Ab(solutely) Normal
I want to give you a sense of some things to think about as you approach writing a short story. Let’s look at Rocky Callen’s story “They Call Me Hurricane” from Ab(solutely) Normal to see how she approaches the short story form.
Finding Inspiration in Necessity: A Q&A with Dashka Slater, author of Escargot
"I started out writing for adults and so when I published my first children’s book, after 15 years of writing for adults, I couldn’t believe what a warm welcome I got. People were immediately supportive and eager to share information. The collegiality of kidlit authors is one of the things that I love the most about this field."
Using a Small Thing to Big Effect: The Wreath in Linda Urban's Talk Santa to Me
Linda Urban’s stories are studded with angst, anguish, and hope, as well as problems, pathos, and humor. She is stellar at structuring stories so that something small, seemingly insignificant, becomes the integral to the climax and the protagonist’s understanding of the situation. In Talk Santa To Me, surprisingly, it’s a gaudy silver Christmas wreath that takes this hefty role.
The Writing Quest: A Q&A with Karen Krossing
Karen Krossing shares her publishing journey--it's been a long and fruitful one!--as well as her exploration of writing in various categories, from YA to picture books, and details of her writing process.
On the Road with Louise Hawes, a Q&A
Louise Hawes: I often spend months (sometimes years) filling a notebook with my character's responses and thoughts before I begin writing an actual draft. That notebook is all in long-hand, as you know, and I don't stop to edit or erase anything. My characters' letters are in the first person, and result from a fluid, bodily connection from my heart to my hand to the page. In contrast, my draft will be typed on a laptop, the far less spontaneous product of me thinking and feeling my way into a story that features the character whose voice has already filled my notebook.
In Summary: Emotion
Our summer series, In Summary, draws together a number of posts from are archives on specific craft topics. Today's posts offer strategies for how to capture your characters' emotions, communicate them to your readers, and make your reader feel something too.
Striving for Unfiltered Vulnerability: A Q&A with Misa Sugiura
"I create my characters’ flaws, misconceptions, and spiritual wounds around a theme or a question that interests me, and then I give them a personal conflict that directly challenges those flaws, misconceptions, and wounds. After that, it’s a matter of developing broader challenges, events, relationships, and conflicts that can revolve around the same theme." ~ Misa Sugiura
Making a Character's Desires Concrete
Sometimes when writing, we know what our character wants, but it’s a struggle to turn the nebulous desires into something tangible, something attainable, something concrete. Here's how.
Crafting Characters: Building Character Relationships
In our final Crafting Characters post, we dive into character relationships. These authors share the questions they ask, the strategies they employ, and the exercises the use to develop rich character relationships.
Crafting Character: Discovering Desire
What does your character want? Desire drives a story. Yearning creates propulsion. But how to you find/create/discover your character's desire? These seven authors give us their strategies for engaging with their characters' desires in ways that make their stories richer and keep readers turning pages.
Crafting Characters: Getting to Know Your Non-Fiction Characters and By Working Outside In
It's CRAFTING CHARACTERS post number 5! Today we've got something for everyone--working from the outside in, and special tips for getting to know your non-fiction characters. Whether it's asking "what if"? or interrogating a character's economic circumstances, whether diving into research or interviewing a real live person, in this post you'll find wisdom for taking your characters--both fictional and real--to the next level.
Crafting Characters: Getting to Know Your Character Through Writing Your Story
It's our fourth installment of our CRAFTING CHARACTERS series, and today, we check in with writers who work their characters out on the page as they draft. Some of these authors do use some freewriting techniques, but usually after they've seen their character in action on the page, or during the revision process. Read on for some excellent insights!
Crafting Characters: Getting to Know Your Character's Traits
In our third post of Crafting Characters, our authors and contributors share how they connect with their character's traits--whether through pulling from their own personalities, using tarot cards, or looking for opportunities for opposition. Read on to find out their strategies.
Crafting Characters: Getting to Know Your Character By Thinking and Listening
Welcome to our second post in our Crafting Characters series. For some people, working out character before putting pen to paper is the best way forward. Others have characters show up nearly fully formed, or at least with enough substance to have something to say. Those people often make efforts to listen to their characters--whether through freewriting, through scenes, or through meditative daydreaming. These authors and our contributors share their favorite ways to develop their characters. Read on for some mindful strategies for uncovering character and letting the characters speak.
KidLit Craft's Comprehensive Guide to Character
Looking at voice, interiority, internal arc, character relationships, and more, our writers have analyzed mentor texts in all categories to discover strategies for creating characters that leap off the page and into readers' hearts. This list is one you can return to over and over to find just the post you need in the moment.
The Heroine’s Journey in The Beast Player by Nahoko Uehashi
The Heroine’s Journey celebrates the gifts of the matriarch. It explores themes of family, community, collaboration, cooperation, and love. As an author, and as a person, it’s important to me to write books that support those values, so everyone who reads them can be inspired to evolve toward a more feminine, collaborative, resilient society. To illustrate the points I make in this post, I’ll be examining the Heroine’s Journey of Elin in The Beast Player, a Japanese YA fantasy by Nahoko Uehashi. Elin’s story is an excellent example of the Heroine’s Journey.
KidLit Craft Goes to the Movies: The Emotional Antagonist in Eddie the Eagle
Some great stories make use of what Melanie Jacobson calls the emotional antagonist. The emotional antagonist is on the protagonist’s side, but the protagonist doesn’t have their approval or support.Jacobson believes emotional antagonist can be a powerful addition to a book because it gives a story an extra satisfying ending–a resolution with the emotional antagonist. We can see the emotional antagonist in action in Eddie the Eagle (2015).