by Shannon Dittemore | May 22, 2020 | Creativity, Plot, The Craft of Writing, Writing
It’s Friday, beautiful friends! And today, we’re talking about surprising our readers. I have been elated by all the mystery books appearing on the YA shelves these past few years. It’s not a new trend, by any means. Nancy Drew has been solving...
by Jill Williamson | May 20, 2020 | poetry, The Craft of Writing, Writing
Today we are continuing our talk on prosody, or sound, in poetry. While many poems rhyme, they don’t all rhyme in the same way. Take the following excerpts of famous poems, for example. In all honesty, posting only the first verse of these poems isn’t fair, since...
by Stephanie Morrill | May 18, 2020 | Writing Contests
Many, many thanks to our final round judge, Olivia Smit! Olivia was once a participant in our contests but now that her debut novel, Seeing Voices, is out in the world, she’s kind enough to judge for us. Thanks, Olivia! If you entered the contest and have not...
by Shannon Dittemore | May 15, 2020 | Author Life, Brainstorming, Mailbag, Story Ideas, Writing, Writing Life
Happy Friday, friends! Today, we’re answering a question that showed up in our mailbag. You know you can send us questions, right? There’s a form just for that purpose right at the bottom of our homepage. Feel free to drop us a line and, if we’re...
by Jill Williamson | May 13, 2020 | Creativity, poetry, The Craft of Writing, Writing
Over the 2019-2020 winter break, I studied hard to pass a test that would give me an endorsement for teaching English and Humanities in middle school. One thing I had to study a lot of that I previously knew almost nothing about was poetry. Since we have rarely talked...
by Stephanie Morrill | May 11, 2020 | Writing Contests
Congratulations to the following writers who made the top 15 (which turned into 17 because math is hard) in our 100-word contest: AdiAmanda UngleichAnna TaylorAshley SchallerAva RoxaneBethany BaldwinEmily LoJC StonemichaelJoy WoodburyKenzieMara CobbMegan GerigMicaiah...
by Shannon Dittemore | May 8, 2020 | Getting Published, Marketing, Writing, Writing As A Business
What is a tagline, does my book need one, and how do I craft something that hits on all the right notes? These are the questions we’re going to answer today, and I’m going to do that by sharing some of the taglines I found on my shelf, and by giving you a...
by Jill Williamson | May 6, 2020 | Genres, Setting, World Building
Today I’m answering a question from Lydia, who is looking for advice on writing an unforgettable dystopian novel. It’s a good question, and shockingly, one we’ve never talked about on Go Teen Writers yet. Before I dive into it, though, I want to say that there is no...
by Stephanie Morrill | May 4, 2020 | Writing, Writing Contests
I’m super excited to announce that another 100-word contest starts (and ends!) today! Here’s how these contests work: Your entry is the prompt sentence + 100 words. The prompt for this contest is: Seeing an unfamiliar vehicle pull into the driveway next door filled me...
by Shannon Dittemore | May 1, 2020 | Author Life, Reading, Writing, Writing Life
This week there’s been some buzz in the online book community. Especially in the YA sector where an author who’s been fairly quiet for a while jumped back into the thick of things. Stephenie Meyer, the author of the Twilight Saga, posted a countdown on her...
