NYC Teen Author Festival 2014

If you’ve been a bookstore recently, there’s one thing you’re sure to have noticed. Young adult literature is on the rise. The Fault in Our Stars, by John Green, made waves when it topped the New York Times Bestseller list for 40 weeks, and it’s not alone. The Divergent series by Veronica Roth occupied spots… Read more »

Ask Becca: So What is High Concept, Anyway?

I recently got a rejection saying that the agent was looking for a more “high-concept” story. What the heck does that mean, and how can I get a high concept of my very own?                                 -Out of Ideas Here are some explanations of high concept that I’ve heard: “High concept is an old story with… Read more »

Image in the World Around You

The world around you is a busy place, but as a writer you might also think of it as a feast. Your senses awake to a buffet of images every morning. Just take breakfast, for example: the steaming scrambled eggs awash with butter lounging on a bed of toast like fluffy yellow gods. These indignant… Read more »

Why We Need Writing Buddies

The concept of writing buddies is kind of strange if you think about it. Last year, several of my writing friends and I checked in a hotel for President’s Day. We went to Jersey, where we knew we were guaranteed bad weather and unfriendly locals. While the rest of the country was sleeping in and… Read more »

What Does Your Right Brain Want You To Know?

As creative people, we look at the way our right brains work, and think we’re alone in that. We think we’re the only people who have certain ways of working or certain problems in our work. Believing you’re alone,that it’s “just you” and “just the way you work” can hold you back. When you understand what’s… Read more »

Announcing the Second DIY MFA Weekend Writing Sprint!

Have a writing project you’ve been dying to start, but can’t find the time, energy or motivation? Knee-deep in revision? Drowning in drafting? One of the best ways to get your writing back on track, or give yourself that extra boost and meet the next big challenge is to set aside a chunk of time,… Read more »

Ask Becca: The 3 Deadly Symptoms of Self-Doubt

“How can I gain confidence as a writer?” – Wendy L. Your parents have been lying to you. There is a monster under the bed. And its name is Self-Doubt. Self-Doubt is sneaky. It starts out like a small, niggling sticky note with a week-old due date: I really should submit to that writing contest…. Read more »

Are You Writing the Right Story?

When I first started writing, I wrote the types of stories I loved to read–science fiction and fantasy–but it took a while for me to figure out the kinds of stories I wanted to tell. My early attempts were never the right stories, even though they fit with what I liked to read and watch…. Read more »

Luck of the Writer

In These Happy Golden Years, the eighth Little House book, Ma Ingalls tells Laura that people make their own luck. This is illustrated in the story when Laura is kind to a girl in her class who, like Laura, wants to be a teacher. They both take the test, but only Laura passes. Because she and the girl… Read more »