Scott Rhoades Writes Daily

A shared meal can be a very useful story beat. #kidlitchat

Late, but here.

I've used various ways to amp up the plot--ticking clock, mystery, impossible odds becoming more impossible, growing emotional stakes. #kidlitchat

Quick promo: Reg is open for the 27th Writing and Illustrating for Young Readers Conference. This year we have an online 5-day workshop option, taught by MFA teacher Laura Shovan.

Plus, we're running a month-long PB challenge in Feb. Check our newsletter at wifyr.com for details. #kidlitchat

Quick promo: Reg is open for the 27th Writing and Illustrating for Young Readers Conference, which I help run. This year we have an online 5-day workshop option, taught by MFA teacher Laura Shovan.

Plus, we're running a month-long PB challenge in Feb. Check our newsletter at wifyr.com for details.

I've come to really like first person present, which is weird because I really didn't like first person as a kid. But it works great for MG, and especially for verse. #kidlitchat

Best of both worlds for you, then. I never even saw an indoor hallway in a school until I got to uni. #kidlitchat

I'm in Utah now, where snow is normal, except this year all we've had so far is two light dustings. We need it in the mountains if we're going to have water this summer. #kidlitchat

The advantage of having several prepublished manuscripts, i suppose, is that at least I don't have to see something in print that I wish I could change. #kidlitchaat

Thanks. It's not my first, but the length issues mean it might be the hardest. #kidlitchat

We didn't even have halls. Every class but two or three opened to the outside. #kidlitchat

I'm currently revising a MG novel in verse that should probably be 50% longer. That's a rough kind of revision for me. #kidlitchat

I've never had a snow day, although we did get out early the one time it snowed in high school, because nobody was going to class anyway. #kidlitchat

I like to revise an older story every time I'm at a point on a newer story where I need to let it rest. I write every day, so no breaks to let something rest. I don't like multiple early drafts at once. so I don't want to start something new until the last one is feeling pretty good. #kidlitchat

I'm a frequent tinkerer. I figure nothing's finished until it's in print, so I keep working on all my manuscripts. #kidlitchat

I can't count my revisions. I'm always learning, so I go back and revise certain manuscripts, or when I'm going to workshop one at my conference, or when I just feel like it. And sometimes, I decide to try rewriting a completely different way--different POV, tense, or even prose/verse. #kidlitchat

Good evening, #kidlitchat friends.

One of my own:

In the dark, with the moon behind it and gas lamps flickering in the windows like eyes, the farmhouse looms over Eucalyptus Cove like a demon.

#kidlitchat

And then the following paragraph is about the hole, not the hobbit, and yet also about the hobbit anyway. That's breaking somebody's rule somewhere. But it's brilliant. #kidlitchat

I almost quoted a couple of Peck's openings. #kidlitchat

A beginning about beginnings:

This story was going to start like all the best stories. With a school bus falling from the sky.

#kidlitchat

My favorite first lines are punchy with a hook, but but if they're not immediately followed by something that grabs me even more, I'm not going to stay hooked. #kidlitchat

Furia by Yamile Saied Mendez. You should check it out. Bonus: I'm in the acknowledgements.

"Lies have short legs."

#kidlitchat

So many lines to choose from!

Ghost by Jason Reynolds. #kidlitchat

Here's an oldie:

About two miles outside of Centerburg where route 56 meets rout 56A there lives a boy named Homer.

#kidlitchat

"Check this out. This dude named Andrew Dahl holds the world record for blowing up the most balloons...with his nose. Yeah. That's true."

I HAVE to know this character!

#kidlitchat

I need a new butt! Mine's got a crack. #kidlitchat

My name is Nate Twitchell, but I can't help that. #kidlitchat

"If I was going to kill the Prophet," I say, not even keeping my voice low, "I'd do it in Africa."

And that was followed by a great paragraph. How could I not want to keep reading? #kidlitchat