Stories, plays, books, articles and classes for children, teachers and writers.
Posted in A Writer's Life, Writing Basics, Writing for children on Oct 7th, 2009
I am working on Halloween costumes for my granddaughters (fairy dresses with “ice cream cone hats,” as ordered). As I was tweaking the pattern for the dresses, I realized how similar my process is in both sewing and writing.
When I was a beginning seamstress, I did exactly what the pattern directions told me. Now, the [...]
Posted in Writing Basics, Writing for children on Oct 2nd, 2009
I’ve been working on a YA historical novel written in first person reminiscent narrative style. This is tricky because the viewpoint continually moves back and forth between scenes of the narrator as a child and the narrator as an older person commenting on her childhood. one of the best examples of this style is To [...]
Posted in A Writer's Life, Writing Basics, Writing for children on Aug 1st, 2009
I have a daughter,Heather McFadden, who is a really cool writer and who has been challenging herself to do writing exercises on her blog.
I decided to come up with my own version of a writing challenge by coming up with prompts for myself that are geared to writing for children. I’m going to do [...]
Posted in Writing Basics, Writing for children on Aug 1st, 2009
What would Harry Potter be without Hogwarts? Just another dorky kid in a broom closet. Right? And don’t you just love the way the Secret Garden changes and blossoms, little-by-little, just as Mary and Collin do? The big woods and broad prairie of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s childhood are as crucial to her stories, and [...]
Posted in Writing Basics, Writing for children on Jan 22nd, 2009
I’m in the midst of rewriting a YA novel for the third time and was explaining to a friend of mine what I was doing.
“I’m adding a new character to the first chapter, and moving the last scene to the fourth chapter and ratcheting up my main character’s angst another notch or two and shifting [...]
Posted in Writing Basics, Writing for children on Jan 21st, 2009
There is a weird kind of alchemy which makes characters come alive on a page. It has to do with what I think of as the “five dimensions of character.”
In geometry, the four dimensions are . . .
breadth,
depth,
height and
time.
In writing, this translates into the following:
Physical setting–does the story take place in one location, [...]
Grian McFadden writes award winning fiction and non-fiction for and about children, as well as teaching materials for various educational publishers.