New Agent for MG and YA...Plus Writing This Week

In case you missed it, Tara Gonzales, a new agent at the Larsen Pomada Literary Agency, accepts submissions for picture books, middle grade and young adult works. For more details, check out Introducing Agent Tara Gonzalez over at Kris Asselin's blog.  

How was your writing this week? Sometimes when I’m working on my own writing, it's like I'm a magnet for new strategies and ideas that I don't really have time to try out. This week I ended up with lots of ideas and fuel for my own writing. Here are a few of the things that caught my interest:

1) James Scott Bell at the KillZone on How to Work on More Than One Book At A Time.

I'm always on the lookout for ways to get more writing finished. After reading this, now I’m determined not only to make sure I finish at least one scene of my work-in-progress every day (my latest middle grade novel) but also to spend a little time working on a different project (even if it’s only doodling in my notebook while I watch TV).

2) People Who Are Not Like You by author Patricia C. Wrede, on how to write characters that are not like yourself.

It’s much easier to assume a character has some of your own background and experiences. I realize I need to examine my characters even more closely to make sure the non-me parts are believable.

“The greater the differences between the writer and the character, the more aware the writer has to be of how the differences affect everything else in the character’s life.”  

3) Since my new not-yet-started project has some fairytale elements, I found the latest Writing Excuses podcast on Retellings and Adaptations so useful I listened to it twice. I especially liked the idea of playing around with a plot that already works to create a new story.

 

Did you come across anything that gave you a new perspective this week?