David Teague and Marisa de los Santos Note from Orly: Last September, I was at a local SCBWI conference. The keynote speaker was David Teague. David was discussing his new middle-grade release Saving Lucas Biggs, co-written with Marisa de los Santos. Marisa was at another writing event that day but had taped some remarks to […]

Sierra Godfrey Remember when you booked a flight to Marseille, France for research purposes? You toured Fort Saint-Jean, strolled around the Vieux Port, and lunched on bouillabaisse at a charming little café in Old Le Panier? Or how about the way the fishing boats sounded when they chug-chug-chugged into the harbor and the fishermen poured […]

Heather Webb You’ve been DYING to hear back from that critique partner, editor, agent, friend. You stalk your inbox. When the document finally arrives, you break into a sweat. What if they HATED everything? Then you think, naaah. That’s not possible. Your pages are so shiny you’ve gotta wear shades just to read them. So […]

Steena Holmes My house is quiet and I’m nursing a hot cup of coffee (my third actually) while staring at the screen and wondering what else I have left in me to write today. I don’t think there’s much. You see, last night I stayed up until the wee hours of the morning working on […]

Okay Orly, you say you're a pantser, and for the first draft, I agree you are. But then you happily flip into complete, committed plotter. All those post-its? Nope, I'd say you're a "hybrid-pantser." Me, I'm pantser through and through. The idea of an outline, post-it notes on charts, even Laura's famous chapter spreadsheet, all make me […]