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About Me

Jess: I'm a lover of books, especially middle grade and young adult fiction. Mom and stepmother (the non-wicked kind) to 4 kiddos, author of THE ACTUAL & TRUTHFUL ADVENTURES OF BECKY THATCHER, NOOKS & CRANNIES, WAITING FOR AUGUSTA, and UNDER THE BOTTLE BRIDGE September 2017), wannabe home owner and watcher of HGTV.

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PLACES FOR PRACTICE/FEEDBACK

Absolute Write Forums
Verla Kay's Message Board (via SCBWI)
Miss Snark's First Victim
Query Shark

RESEARCHING LITERARY AGENTS

Literary Rambles- Seriously good info on agents (PB/MG/YA~ mostly children's lit)
Query Tracker
Agent Query

AUTHOR INTERVIEWS

Linda Urban -Advice You Don't Want To Miss
Anne Ursu- Characters, Writing, & Voice in Middle Grade Literature
Robert Kent- Character Development in a YA zomie novel
Melanie Crowder- Writing with Multiple Points of View
Shelby Bach- Character Development in a Middle Grade Series

Follow Me On Twitter

Follow @JS_Lawson

Followers

QUERYLISCIOUS- Advice and Agent Rants

What to include in your query~ Agent Vickie Motter
The Biggest Mistakes Writers Make When Querying Agents
Writing a Simple, Compelling Query Letter- Mary Kole, Andrea Brown Lit. Agent
The Secret Strength of Killer Queries- Nathan Bransford
I Stop Reading When... Bookends Literary Agency
Writing the Hook- Query Tracker Blog
Why I Reject- Bookends Literary Agency
Top 10 Reasons Query Letters Are Rejected (post is regarding scif-fi and fantasy, but applicable to all)-Agent Kristin Nelson
Top 5 Things Agents Look For In A Query
Query Don'ts - from agent Jessica Faust of Bookends, LLC
Queries & Synopsis: How to get an agent salivating over your manuscript- Ingrid's Notes
5 Stages of Querying- Guide to Literary Agents
What agents DON'T want in a query letter- ACP
How to grab an agent's attention in a query
Anatomy of a Good Query Letter- Nathan Bransford
Prequeries and Follow-ups- Jennifer Laughran

HONE YOUR CRAFT!

Essentials of Middle Grade Writing- Advice from 2 Agents
Crafting an Agent-Catching Chapter One- Mary Carroll Moore's blog
Checklist for Eliminating Unnecessary Prose
Crafting Character Likeability- Adventures in Children's Publishing
ULTIMATE submission checklist **MUST READ**--10 tests your novel should pass before you submit
Crafting Outlines That Work- Janice Hardy (awesome author)
On Edits and Revision- Great post on where to look in your manuscript by Janice Hardy
Opening Lines, First Pages- Author Janice Hardy
How to write a one-page Synopsis ~from Let the Words Flow
40 Questions for a Stronger Manuscript - Adventures in Children's Publishing
Self-editing Checklist- The Blood-Red Pen
Agents' Chapter One Pet Peeves-GLA
Short Pitches-Upstart Crow
Craft, Story, and Voice- Rachelle Gardener
How settings make or break your characters- Plot to Punctuation
How To Outline A Novel
What "Show, Don't Tell" Really Means- Mary Kole
MORE Agent Chapter One Pet Peeves
Seven Keys to Writing Good Dialogue~ Nathan Bransford
GMCT- Goal, Motivation, Conflict, Tension - Adventures in Children's Publishing
Writing Middle Grade~ J.S. Lewis
Emotion/Setting Thesaurus- INCREDIBLY USEFUL RESOURCE from The Bookshelf Muse - Scroll down on the right
Developing Scene Conflict- ACP
Memorable Characters in Middle Grade Fiction- Agent Sara Crowe
One Sentence, One Paragraph, Two Paragraph Pitch- Nathan Bransford
11 Questions for Crafting a Pitch- Agent Rachelle Gardner
Grab a Beat- Rhythm in Dialogue- Author Janice Hardy
Developing your craft- Character
Point of View- Demystified
When to Show and Tell- Adventures in Children's Publishing
Writing Tips- Institute of Children's Literature
6 Keys to Revising your Fiction- GLA website
Tips on Writing Middle Grade: What Kids Love

Publicity Links

Using Twitter for Networking Success- Guide to Literary Agents
Five Golden Rules of Publicity for Authors
Twitter for Writers: How to Navigate the Twittersphere
Why a Pre-Publication Web Presence is Important- The Book Publicity Blog
6 Ways Authors can Promote on Facebook
Facebook for Authors

What's in a Title?

Why Book Titles Are Important- Publisher Terry Whalin
Best Book Titles- List of the most eye-catching or unique book titles!

Revision and When to Submit a Manuscript

Mary Kole, Andrea Brown agent-When to submit
Jessica Faust, Bookends Literary agent- When to query
Omnific Publishing- How do I know if my manuscript is ready to query?
Kate Schafer Testerman- Is it done yet?

Places to Submit While You're Waiting...

Kids Magazine Writers- list of publications that take submissions
YARN- Young Adult Magazine- Submissions
YA Lit Review- Submissions
Flash Fiction Online- Submissions
Winged Halo's Flash Me Magazine- Stories under 1,000 words

Overdone and Overused Concepts, Characters, and Plots

Joelle Anthony: A Countdown of 25 most overused things in MG/YA fiction
Stories We've Seen Too Often- Strange Horizons
Overused Plots- Discussion thread on Absolute Write

Mistakes to Avoid in Fiction Writing

Beginning Writers' Biggest Mistakes-From the Mixed-Up Files of Middle Grade Authors
The Biggest Mistake Writers Make? Multitasking!
Biggest Mistakes New Writers Make

Writing With The Five Senses

Sensual Fiction- Use your five senses in writing a story or novel
How to Employ All Five Senses in Creating Your Setting
Use Your Five Senses to Creat Better Writing
Sensory Details To Make Your Story Real
Using the Five Senses to Enhance Your Writing
The Senses- By Wikipedia
Write Using All Five Senses- Velda Brotherton's Blog

Here hooky, hooky, hooky...

What is high concept?
Hook, Line, & Sinker--Intitute of Children's Lit
Argg, ya need a hook, Matey-- Rissa Writes

Writing Conference Resources

Writing Conferences By State
Shaw Guides- Writer's Conferences & Workshops
Writers Conferences and Centers
Writers' Conference Tool Kit- writermorphosis
What to bring to a writing conference- Anne Mini's Blog (it's a cool blog, FYI)
Why a Writer's Conference is Important

Finding Inspiration in Writing

How to Find Inspiration for Fiction-Novel Writing in the Real World
Generating Innovative Ideas for Writing (extra links if you scroll down)
7 Ways to find inspiration when the Muse disappears
31 Ways to find inspiration for your writing

On Writing Tension:

Hook your Readers with Tension ~ Children's Fiction Factor
Creative Story Tips- #2 Layers of Conflict ~ Creative Juices Books
How to Build Tension in Fiction- Conflict and Stakes ~ Suite 101

Writing/Reading Outside Your Genre

Writing Outside Your Genre- Corra McFeydon
Think Outside Your Genre- The Writing Bug
Reading Outside of Your Writing Genre- Melissa Georgia

Writing on Deadline

Sunshine Shouldn't Stop Us
How to Write Every Day (and why you should!)
Why writing deadlines may be (almost) as good as money- POE WAR
Writing with a Deadline- Columbia University

Fiction Checklist & Character Arc info

Agent Laura Rennert's Checklist for MG/YA fiction (other cool stuff on this site too!)
On Character Arc ~Fiction Writers' Mentor

Bestselling Novel Must-Have Tips (Warning...these are for entertainment)

Ten Ways to Write a Bestselling Novel- Flatman Crooked
How to Write a Blockbuster Novel- CNN.com
How to Write a Bestselling Novel- eHow
Your Very Own Best-Selling YA Novel--put in a name, this spits out a title for you (tee-hee points)

Editor/Muse, Left Brain/Right Brain

Right Brain Characteristics
Left Brain Characteristics
How to Call your Writing Muse
Left-Brain, Right-Brain Test

Action Tags/Dialogue Tags

The Use and Abuse of Dialogue Tags- Anne M. Marble - Writing-World.com
Dialogue Tags- Fiction Writers' Mentor
Dialogue tags versus action tags- Reena's blog
Dialogue Tags- Use Alternatives to "he said" sparingly

Go to http://thefarseas.blogspot.com to see Trisha's blog!

Blogger Awards

Click on the awards to see Catherine Winn's blog, The Writing Room

Award from Brittany at Hills & Corkscrews and Michelle from Perfecting the Craft...

Thank you Trisha from Words & Stuff

Click award to go to Trisha's awesome blog!

From E. Arroyo at Chandara Writes

Click blog to get to Chandara Writes

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My loves, Charlotte & Tess

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