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While it’s not as well-known as most of the other books I’ve featured on the blog so far, Virals was one of the first YA series that I fell in love with. Written by crime writer and forensic anthropologist Kathy Reichs—and her son Brendan Reichs later in the series—it’s full of mystery, action, humor, and…
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Intro If you’re a writer on social media, you’ve probably seen all sorts of accounts posting writing advice pretty much daily, telling you the many dos and don’ts of this particular creative pursuit. Most of these are pretty common, repeated over and over again by multiple different accounts, but others are less so. Today, I’m…
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The Maze Runner is one of the more well-known YA action/adventure books, highly acclaimed for its heart-pounding action and shocking twists. From the very beginning, it’s rife with mysteries and questions waiting to be answered. Despite its popularity, I actually only recently started reading the series, and I was pleasantly surprised by how quickly I…
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Writing good dialogue is one of the most important things that fiction writers have to know how to do, at least in my opinion. Not only is dialogue one of—if not the—best way to give the reader information about the plot, world, and characters, but it’s also a lot of what makes the characters feel…
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Legend has been a favorite of mine ever since I first read it during my early teens. Packed with action, intrigue, and a nice side of romance, it’s one of the first books that I think of when I think of YA, so it was pretty much guaranteed to be among the first reading recommendations…
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Intro There’s lots of writing software out there, some free, some paid for, and some that are somewhere in between. Some are packed with a million different features that can help you super customize your workflow and let you have everything you need all in one place, while others are more simple and less finicky,…
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Intro If you’re at all familiar with popular YA fantasy, you’ve probably heard of Children of Blood and Bone. And trust me, the hype is worth it. Packed with action, magic, and a strong heroine, it’s pretty much a must-read for lovers of YA fantasy. So let’s dive into it, shall we? Children of Blood…
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Intro As I mentioned in last month’s How I Create My Characters post, the name is usually one of the first things I come up with when I make a new character. I come up with the basic character concept and personality that I’m going for, and then I either find or make up a…
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Intro I love fantasy of all sorts but, in my opinion, there’s nothing better than high fantasy. The quests and dragons and elves and sword fights type of high fantasy, to be exact. And, weirdly enough, I haven’t had much luck finding YA fantasy that includes those classic tropes. Maybe it’s widely considered to be…
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Intro Characters are the reason why I write. I come up with an awesome character and want to tell their story, and then the rest of the process starts from there. It always starts with the characters. Obviously, not every fiction writer starts their process like this, but that’s how it’s always been for me,…
