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Rose Sheffler wrote a new post 6 years, 4 months ago
I’ve noticed a vacuum developing in fiction. Popular novels, particularly fantasy and young adult, tend to exclude child characters. And if children do play a role, they’re caricatures of how small people act […]
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Rose Sheffler wrote a new post 6 years, 5 months ago
After you’ve written a paragraph, have you ever stopped to squint at the words, wondering if you’ve chosen the right ones to convey the mood you intended? Did you manage to craft a distinct voice for your vie […]
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I realized I can export notes I take on a kindle book, so I’m going to start noting any killer lines in books and saving them in a file.
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This is an excellent practice. I challenge you to write them by hand in addition to keeping the digital file. The connection between learning and writing is strong, as you noted in your article about “The Book Thief.”
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Rose Sheffler wrote a new post 6 years, 5 months ago
A new story is hard to write. And generating ideas to fill it is even harder. When you’re staring at a blank page, Solomon’s words in Ecclesiastes might haunt you: “What has been will be again, what has been done […]
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This is one of my favorite articles. Thank you so much for it!
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Catherine, I’m so glad you like it. It was one of my favorites to write 🙂
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Rose Sheffler replied to the topic Help with Final Battle Scene in the forum Plotting 6 years, 8 months ago
@elisha-starquill you are welcome. Let me know how the scene turns out. I’m curious.
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Rose Sheffler's profile was updated 6 years, 8 months ago
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Rose Sheffler replied to the topic Help with Final Battle Scene in the forum Plotting 6 years, 8 months ago
Another question to ask yourself is “What is at stake?”
You have the outward battle, yes, but what ELSE is at stake? What “moment” have you been building towards in your MC/the good guys?
An example from Star Wars might help. The external “Final Battle” from The Return of the Jedi, is when Luke vs. Darth Vader. But the “real” internal battle…[Read more]
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Rose Sheffler commented on the post, 3 Keys to Protect Your Writing Time from Being Crowded Out by Responsibilities 6 years, 9 months ago
“When you say ‘yes’ to something, you say ‘no’ to two or three other things.” I forget who told me this. But this article is a great reminder that we must prioritize and actively chose those things which we are called to. Thank you for this.
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Rose Sheffler commented on the post, 3 Keys to Protect Your Writing Time from Being Crowded Out by Responsibilities 6 years, 9 months ago
“When you say ‘yes’ to something, you say ‘no’ to two or three other things.” I forget who told me this. But this article is a great reminder that we must prioritize and actively chose those things which we are called to. Thank you for this.
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So. Much. Yes.
Thanks, Maddie.
Thank you so much for this! I had some children in my novel, but wound up cutting them out. When/if I return to that novel, I’ll have to add them back in!
You’re very welcome. I hope it will make you reconsider. Kids are great fun, in life and in stories, but they’re difficult to do well. I hope you do revisit that novel someday.
Great article, Rose! Thanks for writing it.
You’re welcome. I enjoyed the topic and I’m glad you did too.
Wow! So many great points in here.
Thank you. I have to ask, which point was your favorite? Mine is that children can voice truth in a way no one else can.
YASSS!!! We need more children in fiction! Love this. ❤️
I absolutely agree. All the children!!
Ooh, I never thought about this… Do you think that children are super important to bring out and mention and stuff if the story I’m working on has the protagonists as young teens?
Joelle, I think it depends on the settings and situations. I would argue that SO MANY books focus on just teens and young teens, and completely ignore children and older adults. Remember that generally people don’t live in age vacuums (although it does depend on the kind of story your telling and where it’s located). I think you lose valuable perspectives when you don’t even consider a child’s perspective at all. That being said, if your story purposefully leaves out children, then great. My hope was to encourage writers to at least consider children to enrich their stories.
Mrs. Sheffler,
Good points! Your article actually gave me ideas for reasons why kids would be less… um… populous than in a normal setting. Although, that would be cool. Must dive into this. 😉
This article is AMAZING!!!! I totally agree about not leaving children out. Of course, for me, it’s not really a problem in my book because the main character IS a kid (12).
~Kylie
Thanks Kylie, and good luck with your writing. I’m always happy when people take something away from one of my articles.