Author Skype with MarcyKate Connolly

We had a really fun author skype visit with MarcyKate Connolly, author of the middle-grade fantasy books, Monstrous and Ravenous.

 She gave us the following writing tips:

• If you want to publish, you should get a literary agent.
• It takes time and lots of trial and error before you can publish a book.
• Plotting and pacing are very important, and it takes trial and error and listening to critique partners to get it right.
• Writing is rewriting. Many people don't like to revise and rewrite, but that's what most of writing is.
• When giving critiques, it helps if you say something good first, then make a suggestion, then say something good again. This is called the sandwich method.
• To help with pacing, you can use a plotting tool like Blake Snyder's Beat Sheet
• There are lots of places to find critique partners online, like AgentQueryConnect or AbsoluteWrite.

Thank you so much, MarcyKate, for taking time to talk to us!