Author: Kristin Wolden Nitz
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Endings
When I’m not sure what to do with a certain section of my novel, I frequently reach for my copy of the Newbery honor book, The Perilous Gard by Elizabeth Marie Pope. I’ve done this with first chapters, last chapters, chapter openings, chapter endings and transitions in general. So when I was struggling with an…
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Writing Novels
Some writers don’t know what’s going to happen next when they sit down at their computers. Others follow their outlines religiously. Sir Terry Pratchett, author of the Disc World books, compared his process of writing novels to wood carving on his website: You find the lump of tree (the big central theme that gets you…
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Writing Historical Fiction
Frankly, I’ve always been terrified by the thought of writing historical fiction because of how much research need to be done in order to get the time, setting and characters right. I’ve had a big enough challenge with contemporary fiction whether it was constructing an imaginary a realistic Italian estate in Saving the Griffin or learning the proper…
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One More Personal Note
I’m happy to report that things have settled down in my sister’s Cairo suburb. The people of Maadi have essentially taken their neighborhoods back with a little assistance from the Egyptian army. Undoubtedly, sentiments about Westerners vary widely throughout Egypt, but one stranger came up to a friend of my sister’s on the street and said: “Don’t worry.…
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Friday of Wrath
I tend to stick to thoughts about writing on this blog. But when I had a request for a school visit this morning, I couldn’t help thinking about the ones that I did in Egypt a couple of years ago at my sister’s school, Cairo American College. These were unpaid events for my sister’s friends. …
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Illogical
In the latest round of revisions, I’ve been dealing with issues of story logic. Why this? Why that? Sometimes people agree that there’s a problem, but I’ve noticed that different people are often stumbling over different things. Stephen King once wrote: “…if a lot of people are telling you something is wrong with your piece, it…
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The Things that Still Aren’t on the Page
Author and writing teacher Darcy Pattison has observed that writers have two stories when they finish a manuscript: the one on the page and the one in their heads. The challenge is bringing the two into alignment. (That’s not quite a quote, but it’s really close.) Today, that was brought home to me again as one…
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The 2011 Edgar Allan Poe Awards
The Edgars Awards are given out by the Mystery Writers of American. The nominees for titles from 2010 came out today on the 202nd anniversary of the birth of Edgar Allan Poe. I’m delighted to report that my friend and fellow writer Dori Butler was nominated in the best juvenile category for THE BUDDY FILES: THE…
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Wrestling with Transitions
Transitions. How do I hate thee? Let me count the ways. The first would be that I’ve just spent a half an hour struggling with a chapter opening and still haven’t found anything that works to my satisfaction. Ordinarily, this is the point where I would decide to march past this section and attack it another…
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Best Fiction for Young Adults 2011
Alas and alack, SUSPECT did not win through to the final list of 99 titles. But then, I didn’t really expect it to. A quick tour through the nominations assured me back in November that my book was quite light by comparison without having the high concept of something like Natalie Standiford’s CONFESSION OF THE…
Kristin Wolden Nitz 