Stories, plays, books, articles and classes for children, teachers and writers.
Posted in Writing Prompts, Writing for children on Aug 4th, 2009
Okay, I actually have come up with a name for my challenge, based on the abbreviation for the Writing for Children’s (W4C) group at Spalding University, my MFA alma mater. So here goes for the first one. Let me know what you think:
THE DOG GONEDEST BIRTHDAY PARTY
“Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday to you! Happy [...]
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 A Writer's Life, Writing for children on Jul 21st, 2009
Just spent a week at the Chautauqua Institution in Chautuaqua, New York with some amazing folks! People who write for children are way cool. It was more like a family reunion than a conference even though it was the first time many of us had been there. Still waiting for my chi to catch back [...]
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, [...]
Posted in Writing for children on Jun 19th, 2008
Tasha Tudor died yesterday at the age of 92. I never met her, but feel as though I knew her, nonetheless.
All my life, I’ve read and loved Tasha’s books, from Pumpkin Moonshine, her first book, published in 1938, to Corgyville Christmas, her last book, published in 2002. In all, she wrote and [...]
Grian McFadden writes award winning fiction and non-fiction for and about children, as well as teaching materials for various educational publishers.