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.
Disclaimer: Some posts include bookshop.org affiliate links. Use the links to support KidLit Craft and local bookstores, at no additional cost to you.
Browse the Blog
SIDEWRITING TAKEOVER: Riffing on Your Influences and Auditioning Your Characters with Jasmine A. Stirling
I’m a plotter and and not a panster, but I’m also a writer who tends to completely re-write everything multiple times, and during those re-writes, I typically go in new directions. And every time a new direction comes up, more sidewriting opportunities arise.
SIDEWRITING TAKEOVER: Asking the Right Questions with Louise Hawes
I've finally discovered a way of dumping this inner perfectionist for at least part of the journey. I learned through trial and error that the keyboard, domain of the delete key, precursor to print, was where my perfectionist tended to take control. Pencil and paper was where my heart led the way. Which is why I began to "channel" my characters through freewriting. Like poetry, freewrites are a way I ditch my inner critic and make the switch from common sense to felt sense, from thoughts to emotions.
SIDEWRITING TAKEOVER: Exploring a Character's Misbelief with Jen Jobart
For me, writing a novel is about transferring the nebulous ideas in my head to a story that feels true for others. This can be a tricky process! Sidewriting helps me understand what my brain is trying to tell me.
SIDEWRITING TAKEOVER: Dive into Character Relationships with David Macinnis Gill
Sidewriting takes us away from linear and helps us explore divergent thoughts and also digs into our subconscious, which actually does know everything about our stories and is just waiting to tell us all about them.
SIDEWRITING TAKEOVER: Writing for Emotional Power with Sarah S. Davis
Sidewriting gives me ammo in a story to write a more deeply felt and developed emotional story.
SIDEWRITING TAKEOVER: Gossip Your Way Through the Story with Mary Winn Heider
The sidewriting exercise I rely on most is really simple. I write a messy, gossipy version of my story (or scene or conflict). I handwrite it, like it’s a note I might pass in class, and I allow myself plenty of gossipy digressions. . . . I’ve developed a kind of outlining process I love, but sometimes I really crave the structure of gossip, the way it’s built on cause and effect.
SIDEWRITING TAKEOVER: Side-thinking and Personality with Aimee Lucido
I've always found it fun to do small bits of sidewriting because it feels like a novelty. Like, when someone asks you what your character would be for Halloween, or what sorts of TV shows they watch, it's fun to think about that sort of thing.
SIDEWRITING TAKEOVER: Time Traveling with Jennifer Ziegler
I always start with character. For me, that’s the spark that makes me want to write. Who is this person in my head? What are they grappling with? What do they need to figure out (about themselves and/or life in general)? To answer these questions, I write scenes about them and sometimes in their voice.
SIDEWRITING TAKEOVER: Interviewing your Character with Karen Krossing
I ask you: What questions do you need to ask your characters? If that feels too challenging, Walter Dean Myers’s advice in Just Write: Here’s How! is to “Come up with a bunch of questions you might want to ask about someone you just met in real life.”
SIDEWRITING TAKEOVER: Why sidewrite? (And what is it anyway?)
If you’re a writer then you likely have feelings about sidewriting. You know, all that extra writing you do (or wonder if you should do) in order to figure out and enhance your story. Sidewriting can be anything from doing a story spine to free form writing to letters from your characters to hand writing a scene to word associations to writing from a new POV to plot graphs to--well, you get the idea. Sidewriting is any writing you do that (generally) doesn’t go into your actual manuscript.
Tackling Different Styles and Genres in Children's Literature: A Q&A with Rajani LaRocca
"I’ve learned that the most important thing is to keep writing about what I love, what’s important to me, what I’m curious about. I’ve learned to put a piece of myself in every story. And I’ve learned that being vulnerable in my writing means that it will resonate with others."
Back Matter? I have to write Back Matter? Using Mentor Texts for Non-Fiction Picture Books
Non-fiction picture books vary so much, instead of just giving you an exhaustive list of possibilities, I’m going to give you something much better: the tools for YOU to figure out what you need. (And I’ll share what I’ve learned along the way.)
Building character quickly: Definition, Dialogue, Desire, and Doubt in Vicky Fang’s Layla and the Bots series
In her early chapter book series Layla and the Bots, Vicky Fang manages to incorporate STEM topics, design thinking, AND interesting characters, all in just over 1500 words each. Let’s take a look at techniques she uses to create interesting and memorable characters.
Design Thinking for Writers: A Q&A with Vicky Fang
"As a product designer, I am used to solving creative problems. I think that’s partially why I’m drawn to different formats, because I get inspiration from the problem. My design experience also helps me take critique feedback well as I’m very used to harsh critiques and revising based on understanding the problems that a critique uncovers."
Opposites Create Instant Conflict: Ginger and Chrysanthemum by Kristen Mai Giang and Shirley Chan
Lots of classic books have two main characters--Frog and Toad, Max and Ruby, Elephant and Piggie. I bet you can name some other favorites too. These stories work well, especially in a series, because the differing personalities create built-in conflict. In order to figure out how to approach a story with two main characters, let’s look at Kristen Mai Giang’s Ginger and Chrysanthemum, illustrated by Shirley Chan, a contemporary story of two cousins who love each other but don't always get along.
How Rejection Helps to Shape a Story: An Interview with Kristen Mai Giang
This particular inspiration was already the second or third version of this story, which I knew I wanted to be about girls and friendship. In previous versions, they weren’t cousins. And for each version, I did literally dozens of revisions.For Ginger and Chrysanthemum, part of that was due to the submission process, during which agents and editors asked to see widely varying changes. The characters of these hot-and-cold cousins never changed once they were born, though, and it wasn’t until then that the story began to attract attention.
Story Questions
Framing your story with a STORY QUESTION that gets answered by the end of the novel works because it adds forward momentum, keeps your reader wanting to turn the page, and--since you delay the final answer to the question until the end--builds tension
