award-winning picture book and middle-grade author
The Edge of Discomfort :: Pub Crawl
Writing the Next Book :: Writer Unboxed
When Your Writer’s Personality is Rejected :: Kristi Holl
Ten Things to Consider When Writing a Picture Book Biography :: Highlights Foundation
5 Tips for Writing for Children :: Nathan Bransford
9 Things You Didn’t Know about the Semicolon :: Publisher’s Weekly
I love to read about writing. These books teach me, encourage me, and help me remember I’m not alone on this journey. My creative struggles and triumphs have all been experienced before. If you’re looking for gift ideas for the writer in your life, this list of my favorites, broken down into books on craft and books on the writing life, is a great place to start. Instead of my own description, I’m letting a quote speak for each book. Note: these books are decidedly fiction focused. That said, writers of all stripes can make a home in these pages.
The Writing Life
Art & Fear: Observations On the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking
“Making art…means working in the face of uncertainty; it means living with doubt and contradiction, doing something no one much cares whether you do, and for which there may be neither audience nor reward…Making the work you want to make means finding nourishment within the work itself.”
A Sense of Wonder: On Reading and Writing Books for Children
“I will not take a young reader through a story and in the end abandon him. That is, I will not write a book that closes in despair. I cannot, will not, withhold from my young readers the harsh realities of human hunger and suffering and loss, but neither will I neglect to plant that stubborn seed of hope that has enabled our race to outlast wars and famines and destruction and death.”
Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith and Art
“Over the years I have come to recognize that the work often knows more than I do. And with each book I start, I have hopes that I may be helped to serve it a little more fully. The great artists, the rivers and tributaries, collaborate with the work, but for most of us, it is our greatest privilege to be its servant.”
If You Want to Write
“No writing is a waste of time – no creative work where the feelings, the imagination, the intelligence must work. With every sentence you write, you have learned something. It has done you good.”
Views from a Window Seat: Thoughts on Writing and Life
“Writing reminds me that life isn’t all beginnings and endings, but circles. Just as spring winds back to winter, finished goes back to not. My writing means lots of looping and splitting, moving back as much as forward, revising as I research, and researching as I revise. After staring down commas, I’m glad to be reckless again with punctuation, and even straightening my back and walking smack into mistakes. I put wrong words down on paper so I can find ones that might be right.”
On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft
“You can approach the act of writing with nervousness, excitement, hopefulness, or even despair — the sense that you can never completely put on the page what is in your mind and heart. You can come to the act with your fists clenched and your eyes narrowed…You can come to it…because you want to change the world. Come to it any way but lightly. Let me say it again: you must not come lightly to the blank page.”
Craft
“Whose life will you utterly upend?…Rather than asking who will run through your novel’s preordained gauntlet of challenge, the goal is figure out who you’ll build that gauntlet to test.”
The Magic Words: Writing Great Books for Children and Young Adults
“I believe that the number one thing that hooks readers is authority — a sense that the writer is in complete control of the story and how it’s being told. An author with authority isn’t in a rush to give away the central plot line of the book in the first page, because she knows she has a good plot, and she takes the time to set it up right. Nor is he sucking up to or desperate to attract the reader…Rather, she can offer little details, hints, shafts of light that illuminate the characters and world that’s about to open up to us, and help us get anchored within that world, so when the inciting incident happens, we readers already have an emotional relationship with the setting and the characters. The action then leads us to become even more deeply involved with them.”
The Writer’s Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers
“A myth… is a metaphor for a mystery beyond human comprehension. It is a comparison that helps us understand, by analogy, some aspect of our mysterious selves. A myth, in this way of thinking, is not an untruth but a way of reaching a profound truth.”
The Art and Craft of Writing Historical Fiction
“…You, the writer of the historical novel, will have to put your readers down in the middle of that unfamiliar place called the past, in such a way that they won’t feel alien or bewildered by strangeness…make them feel at home in that time.”
Writing Irresistible Kidlit: The Ultimate Guide to Crafting Fiction for Young Adult and Middle Grade Readers
“Choices are especially fertile moments of tension for your character. Don’t make decisions easy for your fictional people. Nothing should ever be so black and white as to make a choice or action easy. Give your characters two shades of the same issue that are complicated by their existing identity and values.”
Novel Metamorphosis: Uncommon Ways to Revise
“The connection between the inner and outer arcs, the emotional arc and the plot arc isn’t always easy to see! When you set up an initial plot conflict, you need to immediately ask yourself what obligatory action scene is set up. When the inner conflict is set up, you need to ask what epiphany is set up.”
Writing the Breakout Novel: Insider Advice for Taking Your Fiction to the Next Level
“Breakout novels are written from an author’s passionate need to make you understand, to expose you to someone special or to drag you somewhere that it is important for you to see. No breakout novel leaves us feeling neutral.”
Here are a few more I look forward to reading soon:
A Writer’s Diary
Light the Dark: Writers on Creativity, Inspiration, and the Artistic Process
A Circle of Quiet
Emotional Structure: Creating the Story Beneath the Plot
Letters to a Young Poet
This post contains affiliate links, meaning I get a small percentage of the sale if you click through and purchase. Thank you for supporting this site!
Children’s author Kate Hannigan writes fiction and nonfiction from her home in Chicago. Her middle-grade history-mystery The Detective’s Assistant received the Golden Kite Award from SCBWI for best middle-grade novel and was a California Young Reader Medal nominee. Her nonfiction picture book biography A Lady Has the Floor: Belva Lockwood Speaks Out for Women’s Rights (Boyds Mills) received a Society of Midland Authors honor and earned four starred reviews. Kate has a nonfiction graphic novel about the Chicago Fire coming out in June 2020 with First Second’s History Comics series, and five more picture book biographies about fascinating people from history. Visit her online at KateHannigan.com.
What typically comes first for you: a character? An era? A story idea? How do you proceed from there?
I typically start with an interesting person. For my new historical fantasy, Cape: Book 1 in The League of Secret Heroes (Simon & Schuster/Aladdin), I was thinking about Wonder Woman! I asked myself whether she was the only female superhero of early comic books or whether there were others. I couldn’t really name too many — beyond our mighty Amazonian, I had to pause when trying to come up with anyone else!
I’m happy to report that there were lots of women wearing capes back in the day! So I read as much as I could about them, and they inspired the superhero “mentors” who help guide my young superheroines in Cape.
What I learned when poking around in the history of Wonder Woman was that she made her debut in December 1941, which was the same time as Pearl Harbor’s bombing and the United States’ entry in World War II. So immediately we have these two great threads: women comic book heroes and WWII. The war brought out tremendous action across as aspects of society. But what I found fascinating was learning about some unsung women who were doing remarkable, even heroic things during the war.
How do you conduct your research?
I am a library junkie, so I’m dashing in and out of our local branch on a weekly basis. I get stack and stacks of books to learn about historical moments and figures. I also try to read letters to get a sense of the language used at the time, what people ate, what music they listened to, what their apartments might have looked like. I rely heavily on books to help me imagine what the era might have been like.
I also like documentaries. If left alone with the TV remote, I’ll burrow into the sofa and get lost in black and white footage. Even through the long Chicago winter, as I exercised indoors, I trudged along on my elliptical machine watching WW II battle documentaries!
But my favorite form of research is talking to people. I think it stems from when I was a little kid and sat at the dinner table listening to my parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins sharing stories and laughing late into the night. So when I researched aspects of Cape and the other two books in this series — Mask and Boots, publishing in 2020 and 2021 — I talked to people. I got on a plane and went to meet real people who either had been involved in WWII or who were close to people who had.
Of anything I’ve done related to this project, what I cherish most is having been able to interview a former WASP pilot. Jane Doyle loved to fly, and when WWII broke out, she answered the call for women fliers to gather at Avenger Field in Sweetwater, Texas. Jane was 97 when I met her at a reunion for WASPs (Women Airforce Service Pilots) in May 2018. She passed away in early 2019. While there are some survivors of WWII still living, we’re losing many. It’s important that we hear as many of their stories as we can, before it’s too late and we lose that physical connection to storyteller and listener.
How long do you typically research before beginning to draft?
I could get lost in research all day. In fact, some days I really DO get lost for the entire day and into the night. For history nerds, there is ridiculous fun to be found in digging through old newspapers, black and white photos, tracking down menus and recipes for old-fashioned meals, examining the hats or shoes of a bygone era.
I spend about a year or more just immersing myself in an era. With a previous historical fiction novel, The Detective’s Assistant (Little, Brown, 2015), I needed to nail down Civil War history, know a good bit about Abraham Lincoln, and understand the role the Pinkertons played in Chicago history. I was writing about America’s first woman detective, Kate Warne, so I read Allan Pinkerton’s accounts of the cases that involved her. It was so much fun, and if I could, I’d still be researching that book, or perhaps a sequel or two!
With Cape, again I spent a year or so trying to learn all I could about WWII history and the women of the era who broke barriers as computer programmers, code-crackers, spies, and pilots. And on top of that, I needed to learn all I could about superhero history, like powers, costumes, and backstories. For that, I read some of the books by Trina Robbins, easily the foremost authority on women superheroes. And when she came through Chicago for a lecture, she generously met me for coffee to talk about women superheroes and their history. It was an incredibly exciting experience!
What is your favorite thing about research?
The short answer: knowing stuff. Frankly, it feels bad when someone asks you something, and you don’t know the answer, right? I’ve had that happen all too many times in my life! So I love research because I build layers of knowledge and, over time, feel like I start to know a few things. I’ll never, ever know enough! But at least I’ll walk through life able to make connections from past to present, which hopefully has bearing on the future.
Research is like a Zumba class for your brain. You’re working that muscle, processing facts, making sense of dates and eras and societies and individuals, pushing yourself to find more. So it feels good to do it, and you’re all the better for it. Once you’re done, you want to get back at it again and devour more. And it doesn’t hurt that every now and then, my parents will call me after an episode of Jeopardy and ask me if I’d gotten a certain question right!
What’s your least favorite thing about research?
My least-favorite thing about research is having to leave things out. I might have to cut entire sections of a chapter full of fascinating details because I have too much material, or perhaps because what I find interesting might bore the socks off a classroom of kids! Some things that I can’t put into a book for one reason or another I will share with students on school visits or at book events.
What’s your favorite thing about writing historical fiction?
I love writing historical fiction because I love thinking about how the past impacts us. I’ve always been fascinated by the connection between generations and what might carry on from one family member down the line to another. I want kids to take a little time and think about that, too. I am keenly aware that one of my grandmothers was an immigrant who cleaned houses and worked as a nanny. She had dreams for her kids and, I imagine, her grandkids. That impacts how I treat others. I want kids to think about their place on the continuum — about who fought for the rights we enjoy, who sacrificed for our benefit, who was present at significant touchpoints in history. Maybe by reading historical fiction they’ll think about how they themselves fit in and how they will make their own mark on history, too.
age range: 9-11 years
genre / form / topics : contemporary fiction; verse novel; body image
setting: San Francisco
Chris Baron’s website
If you have ever felt lost in the world, betrayed by your body or buoyed by a glimmer of hope or the glow of friendship, then All of Me could be your story, too.
–The Los Angeles Times
All of Me is for anyone who has been in search of a tribe, in love with a friend or in need of answers to questions that they can’t bring themselves to ask. In other words, everybody.
— San Diego Union Tribune
[A] beautifully written and psychologically acute debut. Readers will be glad to accompany Ari on his journey to self-discovery.
— Booklist magazine
Please tell us about your book.
ALL OF ME is set in San Francisco. It is the story of Ari Rosensweig, an overweight, seventh-grade boy who is an outcast. He loves cryptozoology and role-playing games. Ari is tired of being bullied and letting his weight define him. His parents’ marriage is struggling. They are too busy to focus on his life, much less help him with his already late bar mitzvah, and things take a turn for the worse. Ari’s mother, a painter and sculptor, decides to open an old gallery at the beach that summer. She puts him on a diet, and with the help of some unexpected friends, he tries to make a change physically, but that’s only the beginning of their adventures and the real change that comes. It’s a coming age of story about friendship, self-acceptance, and becoming all of who you are.
What inspired you to write this story?
It’s fun to say this — the LA TIMES called this a “fictional retelling,” so my inspiration comes from the life I have lived, my own struggles with weight, bullying, and trying to find my own way in the world — it’s also specifically tied to the magical summer in the Bay Area where the book takes place. I really do believe that middle grade — even with its wide range of ages — is a time of wonder and growth like no other. The experiences we have and the stories we read at this age are formative for how we see the world, find hope, and experience so many things.
And of course — my own, middle grade aged kids are teaching me that this age is crucial — kids are hopeful and brave, and we owe it to them to give them the best stories we can.
Could you share with readers how you conducted your research or share a few interesting tidbits you learned while researching?
I did quite a bit or research into my own Jewish heritage. I also had a lot of fun developing the setting by creating maps of what I called the “Triangle,” where Ari travels from San Francisco, to Mill Valley, to Stinson Beach, and everywhere in between. It was my way of making his journey more epic! I have pages filled with maps — some in water color-some just pencil scratches. I sat with my kids in the mornings, and we all made maps together.
I also researched about body image — male boy image especially — and the impact of diets on kids this age. I also did some interviews with psychologists and nutritionists about diet and perception. The most impactful was talking to kids — they helped me develop a bit more voice beyond my own for the authenticity for the characters.
Okay — one more interesting tidbit — some research was finding some of the people that the characters are based on and sharing some of the story with them—I really wanted to honor them in the story.
What are some special challenges associated with fictionalizing a true story?
Great question. I think that sometimes, in early drafts, I veered off into overly personal tangents that sort of trailed away from the core story. This is one of the blessings of an agent and editor who can see the story through such cohesive eyes.
Another challenge was the immediacy of the story. I wrote ALL OF ME in verse because I wanted to provide a more intimate and sometimes internal connection for the reader to be close to Ari’s thoughts — understand and hopefully “feel” what he feels in the story. At times this took massive revision because every single word really matters.
So many kid lit authors have incredibly poetic, lyrical lines in their prose, so the gap isn’t always that wide. I think that poetry speaks to the heart. We see with more than just our eyes, and the music of poetry helps to make words sing directly to us.
As I get to talk to more kids and teachers, I’m finding that poetry relates to all kinds of readers. There is space on the page, measured breaks, pacing, music, and movement of lines that a reader of almost any level can find their way into. The structure of verse creates an intimacy with a reader that allows them to hear the tone and cadence of a character’s voice. This can create even stronger connections for readers.
I also have to mention one other challenge:
Writing is so emotional. My family did an incredible job of supporting me through the process. But for long periods I really had to focus on discovering how to write something vulnerable in long stretches and still be a decent husband, father professor, and all the rest.
What topics does your book touch upon that would make it a perfect fit for the classroom?
I want to shout something like self-confidence! Self-acceptance! Hope! Adventure! I hope readers will learn about empathy and kindness for others, Jewish culture and tradition — but also about the sacred in general, overcoming struggles with body image, friendship, taking risks, and learning more about being brave and being themselves no matter what. I hope readers, especially the young ones, will know that if they are going through difficult things like the characters in the book, they will know that they are not alone.
I’m definitely looking forward to engaging with teachers, librarians, and students to talk about all of these themes!
Last week a young reader emailed to ask me some advice on writing verse novels. Her questions are similar to the ones I’m often asked at events or online, so I thought I’d share my response here.
Hi there,
It’s lovely to hear from you! I’m pleased you’re writing and enjoying the process, especially that you’re experimenting with verse. Outside of that article you found, I’m not sure I have much more to say except these three things:
First, there here is no magic formula / secret answer / magic bullet. I wrote my first verse novel, May B., after reading two verse novels. The conventional rule of thumb is to read at least 100 books in your genre or form before starting your own book in a similar style. I didn’t know what I was doing at all! But I learned from trying, just as you will.
Second, reading truly, truly is the best teacher. When you read, you are constantly learning about how stories work. Dig in and enjoy!
And third, you must find your own way, mistakes and all. If your stories feel like they need to be written as verse, then by all means try them that way! I try not to think of my writing time as “writing.” That feels like I know exactly what I’m doing. Most of the time I don’t. I like to think of writing as experimenting, playing, practicing, tinkering — any word that allows for exploration and trial and error.
So read a lot and be willing to try, even when you don’t know exactly what you’re doing. There is no magic answer or right way. Be willing to try, even knowing mistakes are out there to make.
Here’s to the good work ahead!
by Lisa Cron