RESOLVE TO WRITE

by Pam Smallcomb

It's a brand new year, and like many of you, I am taking stock of myself and my writing habits. One bad habit I have seems to stand out (I am speaking of creative habits, since all my bad habits would take up far too much time to discuss), and I am betting at least some of you share this with me: I have trouble plowing through to the end of the first draft.

I'm gangbusters on the beginnings, and then somewhere mid-story, I stall. I stare at the ceiling. I think about my story. I ponder my characters. I wonder if they are believable. I outline my story (again). I stare at the ceiling. You get the picture. I've been reading about this problem, and talking to other writers, and I thought I would pass on some things that might help. I know I need all the help I can get.

1. Set a daily word count.

I've read that Stephen King recommends writing a minimum of 1000 words a day, six days a week. Ernest Hemingway supposedly kept to a strict schedule of 500-1000 words a day. Hemingway also said he liked to end the day while he was on a writing streak, so it would be easy to pick up the story again the next day.

Bottom line: set a word count goal (I'm going with 1000), and stop while your story is still fresh. Face it, if you write 1000 words a day you will eventually get to the end of your story. At the very least, you will feel like a writer, because you are writing!

2. Don't go back to the beginning each time you sit down to write.

Here is one of my biggest problems: every time I sit down to write, I start by reading the story over again. I fiddle with the wording. I delete sentences, and then add them back in. By the time I get to the new part of the story I should be writing, I've lost steam. Frankly, I'm a little sick of the story. It's not fresh when you have read the beginning a thousand times. I've discovered I'm not alone in this. A few writers have mentioned that they only let themselves read the last chapter (or even the last paragraph) they completed before beginning to write new pages.

3. Try not to think your story to death.

I am the first to admit that I love the comfort and direction that comes with an outline. But just as re-reading your pages begins to numb your enthusiasm toward your story, plotting a story too carefully can, well, make it boring to write. If you know exactly what is going to happen on every page, where's the fun? Sid Fleischman, who won the Newbery for his novel, The Whipping Boy, said in an interview with Reading Rockets:

“I don't plan my novels in advance. I've tried that, I find that I can't do that very well and that my best procedure is just to get a beginning with a few characters that give me some hope of conflict or story, just start and then improvise, as we improvise our daily lives. And I improvise the story day-by-day, never knowing the ending.”

Moral? Well, maybe that if you think too much you will end up 'reasoning' your story to death. I think there is something to be said for giving in to the story. Let your characters drive the bus and see what happens. Don't reread your entire book every time you sit down to write. Just finish your word count, and go have a cup of tea. You've done your job for the day. You've written. Even better, you've edged that much closer to the end, and won't that feel good when you've reached it? Yes, yes it will.

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ACTIONS SPEAK LOUDER THAN WORDS

by Pam Smallcomb

I remember when I decided to focus on my writing, and I attended my first SCBWI Writer’s Conference. It seemed to me that at each presentation, I was given this advice:

“Show, don’t tell.”

I looked around at my fellow attendees and saw them nodding sagely. In my head I was thinking, “What in the heck are they talking about?” Since I was obviously the only one who didn’t ‘get it,’ I sat quietly and hoped to break this super-secret code on my own some day.

Eventually, I figured out that what these writers and editors were saying was that the actions of your characters should reveal their character traits and flaws (not to mention the plot itself). But how do you check for ‘telling’ in your own work? One way is to take a close look at your adverbs and adjectives, and consider each one a candidate for the old axe.

For example, the sentence “She looked at the box carefully.” doesn’t really tell you how she went about examining the box, nor does it reveal anything about her character, her emotional state, or the plot.

Instead you could write, “Her hands shook as she turned the box over and over in her lap.”

This sentence could convey nervousness, or excitement, or even fear (depending on what is in that box!).

Another way to check your own work is to keep an eye out for the verbs ‘is’ and ‘are’ (and the past tenses ‘was’ and ‘were’).

For example:

“David is charming.”

How is he charming? Does he remember everyone’s birthday? Have a smile that can melt ice cream? Perform magic tricks spontaneously? How does his particular charm manifest itself?

In other words, if I were to watch David in action, what would he do that would cause me to think of him as charming? ‘Showing’ instead of ‘telling’ is what draws your reader into your story, and makes them bond to the characters. It allows your reader to become the character.  It forces the reader to watch the characters and deduce what their actions mean. It doesn’t spell everything out the way ‘telling’ does. It’s a less passive experience all around.

An exercise that students can do to help them see the difference is to first make a list of adverbs and adjectives, then write two sentences: one ‘telling’ and one ‘showing’.

Ex. Loudly:

I watched Rosi clap loudly when Ralph won first prize.

When they announced Ralph had won, I glanced at Rosi and covered my ears.

Ex. Grumpy:

Sid was pretty grumpy when I woke him up.

Sid slammed me in the side of the head with his pillow when I woke him up.

I recently watched the BBC version of Charles Dickens’ Little Dorrit. More importantly, I watched the characters. The actions and mannerisms of each character were unique: from the servant Flintwinch’s gruff behavior, to Amy Dorrit’s gentle and kind-hearted manner. You knew Amy Dorrit was kind-hearted not because everyone pointed to her and said, “Now there goes a kind-hearted girl!” but because Dickens shows us. He shows Amy saving part of her lunch to take back to her father in debtor’s prison. He shows her taking care of people. He doesn’t tell us to think of her as kind. We begin to think of her as kind, as we watch her actions.

When trying not to ‘tell’ your story you can remember the old adage, “Actions speak louder than words.”

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PIECING TOGETHER A MYSTERY

by Pam Smallcomb

Kids love mysteries. I love mysteries, too. It’s one of the first genres I latched on to when I was young, and it has followed me into adulthood. In many elementary schools, children study the mystery genre and try their hands at writing them as well.  It’s not easy to explain to kids how to go about writing a mystery. It’s a rather mysterious thing, when it comes right down to it.

 At its core, a mystery is a puzzle. Just like a puzzle, a mystery story has pieces. A mystery starts with a question. The more puzzling the question, the better. This question will be what you solve in the story.

For example:

Who took the jewels from the sealed tomb?

What if my best friends stopped talking to me and I didn’t know why?

And of course, the traditional…

Who is the murderer and how did they do it?

Another piece of your mystery is your main character. He is the one who solves the mystery. He is your detective (whether amateur, accidental or professional). He’s the one who will figure out the clues in your mystery. In other words, he’s your hero.

When developing your main character, consider giving him/her unique character traits. Set him apart from the pack. Eccentric habits are great. Remember,  Hercule Poirot was a fastidious neat freak who loved his waxed moustache, and Sherlock Holmes played his violin to relax.

Kids can have eccentric habits, too (as we parents well know). For example, your main character could:

Chew gum constantly.

Never go anywhere without her stuffed yellow cat.

Talk to his pet tarantula about the clues in the mystery.

Another way to "build" your detective/main character is to give him special skills.

Maybe your hero:

Knows baseball history inside and out

Plays the piano brilliantly

Likes to collect coins

But how can you use this special skill when you write your mystery?

If you know the ending of your mystery - what your hero/detective  is searching for - what he needs in order to solve the mystery, you can go back and lay in a special skill that will help. A special skill that will be useful in solving the mystery.

Here’s a simple example:  let’s say that your mystery involves a valuable coin (maybe a rare penny!) that has been stolen. The bad guy takes the coin and stashes it in a penny jar where he hopes to come back and get it later. Make your hero a coin collector. He is the one that recognizes it from all the coins in the jar. Use your hero’s skills to help solve the mystery.

Expertise in a subject is just one kind of special skill. Here are a couple of examples of different special skills from other authors:

Cam Jansen:

Her photographic memory comes in very handy when she has to solve a mystery. She can remember everything she sees, including  all those visual clues.

A Series of Unfortunate Events:

Each Baudelaire orphan has a special skill, even little Sunny with her strong bite. Sister Violet is an inventor; brother Klaus reads everything he can get his hands on, and remembers what he’s read.

Artemis Fowl:

Artemis is an Irish child prodigy and a ruthless master criminal who has amassed his family’s fortune using his special talents in crime. He is an eccentric anti-hero.

You might want your hero to have a sidekick as well. The advantage of having a sidekick is your hero can discuss the mystery with him. Best friends make good sidekicks. Lots of times sidekicks can be funny. They can comment on the action in your story. But remember, your main character must solve the mystery in your story. Dr. Watson just helped out.

Of course, there is a lot more to writing a mystery including: victims, villains, clues, suspects, alibis and motive.  Beginning your mystery with an intriguing question and a protagonist that has eccentric habits and special skills will give you (or your student) two important pieces of the puzzle.

To find out more about writing mysteries (and fill in some of those other puzzle pieces), take a gander at Writing Mysteries: A Handbook by the Mystery Writers of America by Sue Grafton. There is a specialties section that focuses on mysteries for young people and short story mysteries.

OUR SEPTEMBER BOOK GIVEAWAY WINNER IS:  M.G. King. I’ll contact you soon about sending you the signed copy of I'm Not.

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Writing Humor: Parallels with Advertising

by Pam Smallcomb

Hello, my name is Pam Smallcomb, and I have been hitting my head against the writing wall for twenty years (even more, but that would make me feel really old to admit). I have the dents in my forehead to prove it. I work really hard at coming up with ideas that don’t make me cringe. Maybe some of you have that problem, too, or your students do. So, in the spirit of piggybacking on to Joan Waites’ great post about Story Starters, I thought I would share part of a presentation I did for an SCBWI workshop.

My inspiration for the workshop came when it occurred to me that writing a humorous picture book has some parallels to advertising. The original brain jiggling thought I had was this: advertisers cram a lot of story into a short amount of time and space.

Advertisers are highly creative and innovative. They get a message across in a fresh way. Advertisers love humor and are very good at it.

So how do they go about making their advertising magic?

First, they decide on their target market. They define who their product is for.

As a picture book writer,  our target is a young child. But we have another target, too, because it is an adult that buys the book. Having something in your humorous picture book for a parent or an adult to chuckle over is a big bonus.

Think about Knufflebunny by Mo Willems. Both target markets are touched with this story. If you are a little kid and you lose your lovey, it’s like the world has ended. If you are a parent, and your kid loses his lovey,  you know you are in for a rough ride.

Advertisers also focus on the message they want to get across.

As writers, we should think about our ‘message’ or theme, too.

Here are some things to ask yourself when developing the theme of your humorous picture book:

Is my story of value to a young child (will it resonate)?

What are the worries of young kids?

What are some things that parents have to help their kids with (sleeping through the night, etc.)

Is the humor something a child will ‘get’?

Did you leave a little nugget for that parent/adult who is reading the book to the child?

Another thing that advertisers do when they get a new project is to brainstorm ideas.  We can brainstorm to generate ideas for humorous picture books as well. There are lots of ways to brainstorm. One way is to blend two unlike things.

Think of the Geico Caveman ad: cavemen and insurance. Not at all alike, which is why it is funny. Make two lists of items (just let your imagination run wild!). Then draw lines between unlike things. Connecting unlike things can help you find a jumping off point for a funny story. There is humor in incongruity. Take two things that are incompatible and build a relationship between them.

Here are some picture books that blend unlike things:

Is Your Buffalo Ready for Kindergarten? by Audrey Vernick

This is a fun book about the first day of kindergarten with one's own buffalo. Buffalo and kindergarten – couldn’t be more different!

Todd’s TV by James Proimos

An affable TV takes over the parental duties of busy parents with hilarious results.

Shark vs. Train by Chris Barton

An humorous imaginary battle between a shark and a train. Two unlike things pitted against each other, and two things that boys will especially love.

So the next time you get stuck trying to come up with an idea for a funny picture book, break out a pencil, make two lists, draw lines between unlike things and see what happens! All our brains need a good jiggle now and then.

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A Literary Picnic

by Pam Smallcomb

It’s summer now, and having a picnic this time of year is a piece of cake. But what about in the winter, when the weather is not quite so lovely, and you might be trapped inside with a group of antsy (no pun intended) kids?

Having a Literary Picnic might help to bring some sunshine into the room. What do you need to have a picnic? People and food. And of course, you’ll need a blanket to spread on the floor.

In this case, there will be two kinds of people at the picnic: the real ones (children) and their ‘guests’ (each child will bring a favorite book).

The book can be a favorite from when they were very young (Green Eggs and Ham), or one they have just finished reading (The Hunger Games).

While each child takes a turn introducing his guest at the picnic, the rest of you can nibble on picnic munchies. Food at a Literary Picnic can be as simple as crackers and juice (which is a bit plain, I have to admit), or if you get really energetic, you can ‘theme’ the food to match the books. You might even decide to go for that dish of Green Eggs and Ham!

Here are some questions each child can think about before they come to the picnic and introduce their ‘guest book’ to the other picnic participants:

Why did you pick this book to take to the picnic? Is there one scene that is your favorite?

Besides Frisbee, is there another game/sport your character would like to play at your picnic? (I’m pretty sure Harry would like a good game of Quidditch.)

Does the main character in your favorite book have a favorite food, or is food mentioned in the story? For example, in Alice in Wonderland, there are several different foods mentioned: treacle tarts, orange marmalade, and the small cake that spells out EAT ME in currents, among others. Harry Potter is chock full of food references and of course; Winnie the Pooh has his beloved honey jar.

Would the main character in your book want to bring a friend along to the picnic? Who are the character’s friends?

Is there someone your main character would not like to see at the picnic?

Where do the characters in your book go to eat?

In Lemony Snicket’s Series of Unfortunate Events there is a salmon-themed seafood restaurant called the Café Salmonella. It serves such delicacies as salmon ice cream, salmon pie, and salmon ravioli.

Illustration by John Tenniel

How does the author’s use of food add to the feel of the story?

I can’t think of a more enjoyable way to spend a cold or rainy afternoon than to eat snacks while discussing books (and food!). Besides, it’s always good to make some new literary friends.

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PLOTTING A VIDEO GAME

by Pam Smallcomb

As the mom of three boys, I know that getting a boy to read a book can sometimes be a challenge. Getting some boys to write, well, it might be easier to just go outside and move a mountain. I have found one topic that has never failed to excite interest when I talk to boys: gaming. I’ll go out on a limb here and say that most boys over the age of six are well versed in the gaming culture. They not only know the games out there, but are playing a good deal of them in their spare time.

So how can you translate this excitement for gaming into a writing experience, while limiting explosions, weaponry and other assorted violence?

How about having them design a game setting? Defining the setting as a stand-alone task has its advantages. It takes the narrator/character out of the writing (and the weapon temporarily out of his hands). By focusing the writing on describing the world of their imaginary game, they will learn the valuable skill of creating a story ‘bible.’ There are many appealing aspects to video games. Their scenes are richly landscaped. There are distinct cultures and hierarchies. Different realms operate by different rules. Just ask anyone who plays WOW (World of Warcraft, for the uninitiated).

Some questions to ask your students about their gaming environment could include:

Will there be any environmental obstacles that your characters will have to overcome?

What kind of lives do the different characters live (different professions, etc.)?

Do the characters live in different realms? What are they?

Are there any traditions? Taboos?

If I were to walk into a market or meeting place within your game setting, what sounds would I hear? What would people be eating?

What does it look like (the actual landscape)?

Where are we in time?

Do they have any magic? How does it work?

What scientific gizmos do they have? For example, can they teleport?

Within every game, there are groups of characters, or ‘tribes’ that need defining. Some questions about the general characters that inhabit the different gaming realms could be:

What do the different groups of characters look like? What is their temperament?

Any monsters among them? What kind?

Are some characters  ‘more equal’ than others?

Are there grudges and prejudices among the different characters?

What skills are valued?

Are there rules that must be obeyed?

Are there boons to secure? Missions or quests to complete?

And the one they will like best: How do they protect and defend themselves?

Once the general game setting has been written, you can then ask your students to continue their gaming ‘bible’ and define the specific characters who will take the lead in their game, and of course, describe the point (or story) of their game.

As the student defines his gaming world, hopefully the story of the game will become clearer. If this sounds like the steps you would take to plot a fantasy or a science fiction novel, that’s because it’s very similar. But the good news is, your gamer doesn’t have to know that.

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GETTING TO KNOW YOUR CHARACTERS

by Pam Smallcomb

What is it that makes us keep on turning the pages of a book? An enthralling plot will certainly help, but interesting stories alone won’t necessarily keep our interest. What we need to keep reading is to become captivated by the characters in a story.

Movies and books are filled with fascinating characters. How did the screenwriters and authors develop them? One tool used in writing both screenplays and novels, is to create a character bio.

Students can write a character bio to get to know their main character, as well as his/her supporting cast, before they begin to write their story.

There are many different systems for documenting the scenes and characters in your story. Celtx is a screenwriting tool that is available on-line for free (which is a definite plus). Here is an example of the types of questions you will find there:

Character’s description?

Here you can write a brief summary about your character. I like to think of this as a high-level view, with little or no detail. You can start with something like “Sarah is a high school freshman, living in a small mid-western town. She is the only child. She’s shy. She loves singing.”

It’s a chance to put down anything and everything you can think of about your character. Don’t worry about the details. Just brainstorm. You will come back and update this later, to reflect everything you have learned about your character.

Detailed physical description?

This section includes a place for you to enter the character’s age, distinguishing features, hair color, eye color, height and weight. Now you know what your character looks like.

Key character traits?

When you are thinking of character traits, I think it’s helpful to start with the ones you know for certain, and see if they help you to think of others.

For Sarah let’s say these:

Shy

Musical

Obsessive

Fearful

Loyal

Caring

Sometimes one character trait will lead to another. If I decide Sarah should be obsessive (maybe about singing?) then she must have some fear as well (maybe she is afraid of losing of losing her dream? Maybe she has a fear of singing in public?). One character trait will often point you to the next one. If Sarah is loyal, then I think she should be caring as well. I’m starting to see she might be a good friend, or maybe she has always tried to be a good daughter. A small picture of Sarah is starting to form in my mind.

The next section is on motivation. Now things start to get interesting.

What is the goal of this character?

Go back and look at your summary paragraph. Mine said that Sarah was an only child, living in a small mid-western town. Maybe she feels stifled? Maybe Sarah’s goal is to break out of her small town life.

What is the character's plan to achieve the goal?

Once you figure out your character’s goal, you can decide how she is going to get there. What does Sarah have? She has her singing. Maybe Sarah wants to make it as a singer.

There are other sections that will help you to refine and get to know your character better: family background, habits and vices, education, personality, likes and dislikes.

Students can use this tool in another way: to analyze a character in a story. Filling in the different sections about a book character will help them see how the author used certain character traits, goals, and even physical descriptions to his advantage.

Developing complex and interesting characters requires some elbow grease and time (and it’s something I am always struggling with), but it’s time well spent if in the end you have yourself a ‘page-turner’.

    

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Writing Tall

by Pam Smallcomb

            In most elementary schools, students complete a study unit on tall tales.  Many of these wonderfully funny stories came from our own continent. Some of these tales originated in Canada, and some in America. The heroes in these stories faced challenges and dangers that pioneers and the working class of the 19th century might have had to face in their own lives. Things like drought, or building a railroad across our country. However, the way the hero solved these problems was different.  He used abilities that no normal human could possibly have. Today we might call those abilities superpowers.

            In the beginning, many of these stories were based on real people. As the stories were told and retold, they became bigger than life.  Perhaps gathering around a campfire, telling a story of a hero gave people the courage to try again the next day (or maybe they were just fun to hear).

            When writing your own tall tale, it’s good to remember that there are some things that these stories have in common. Here are just a few:

1. Your hero should have an unusual childhood or birth story. For example, it’s said that John Henry was born full-sized. He was over 8 feet tall! He went to work on the railroad when he was just 3 weeks old.

2. Your hero should have a regular job.  During our frontier days, Paul Bunyan was a logger, Pecos Bill a cowboy and John Henry a railroad worker. The tall tale hero in your story could have any job we have today: computer specialist, autoworker, plumber, etc.

3. Your hero needs a superhuman trait (of strength, size, etc.). He should have courage. Pecos Bill rode a tornado like a bronco. He used a rattlesnake for a lasso.

4. Exaggeration. There can never be enough in a tall tale. More is better. For example, it took five giant storks to carry the infant Paul Bunyan to his parent’s home.  He was just that big.

5. A tall tale is written as if it were completely true and factual.

6. A tall tale often explains natural phenomena (like the Painted Desert or the Grand Canyon.)

7. A tall tale is a story that is told humorously, and the problem of the story is solved in a funny way.

Many tall tales do feature male heroes. For a look at some female heroes starring in their own tales, grab a copy of Cut From the Same Cloth by Robert San Souci.  Tall tales are always a fun read, and a great way to teach kids about exaggeration, humor, and putting an upbeat spin on the hardships we face in life.

       

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PENCIL TIPS WRITING WORKSHOP: STORY IDEAS FROM FUNNY FAMILY STORIES

by Pam Smallcomb

A common complaint from kids (and adults, for that matter) is “I can’t think of anything to write!”

Trying to help a group of kids come up with ideas for stories is a little like trying to catch smoke with a net. The more you try to explain the different ways to generate story ideas, the murkier things become.  Looking out into the room, you can see their eyes glazing over.

A good exercise for elementary school aged kids is to have them write about their own childhood (as short as it may be!). That’s too general, of course, and so tightening their options is a good idea. One direction to go would be to have your students write about the funniest memory they have of their own family. The great thing about this exercise is that if they can’t remember a funny episode, they can simply make one up. By using their own families, each student has a cast of characters who are defined and ready to go. All they need to do is either ‘pretend’ that a funny event has happened in the past, or retell a real one.

Maybe their funny memory happened during a holiday (a Thanksgiving dinner disaster, perhaps). It could have happened on a family vacation.  Remind them of those long car rides to DisneyWorld, or of family reunions. Many will have brothers and sisters, or dogs and cats.  If they don’t, they can add one into their story and see what happens. It’s their chance to have the pet llama they always wanted for their birthday, but never got.

While they are writing their funny family memory, it’s a good time to remind students that when you write humor, exaggeration is your friend. If Aunt Ethel is tidy, she is super tidy. She is so tidy that she walks around the dinner table wiping the condensation from the water glasses so it doesn’t drip on the plastic tablecloth.

If Uncle Ernie snored through your big sister’s wedding, he was so loud the bride and groom couldn’t hear their vows.

 

  When retelling a funny memory, exaggeration is like an amplifier. It turns up the funny volume. But if you use too much exaggeration, your reader won’t know where to focus.  If Uncle Ernie is the star of your funniest memory, let his story build and climax, and make the best use of exaggeration when he snores through your sister’s wedding.

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PENCIL TIPS: WRITING HUMOR

by Pam Smallcomb

Most kids love humor. They love reading funny books, telling jokes and seeing funny movies. Kids in middle school refine the art of sarcasm; practicing this skill with deadpan remarks to their parents (who are amazed to find a stand-up comedian lurking inside their child).

But when you sit down to write a humorous story, where do you start? Understanding the different kinds of comedic stories can help students to focus, and as a bonus, it will help to give them ideas for their plots. One type of story is the ‘fish out of water’ variety.

In a ‘fish out of water’ story, a normal character is plunked down in a humorous world, or a humorous character is thrown into a normal world. In the first case, your normal ‘fish’ could be a regular guy who has just landed on a planet populated by intelligent ducks. It could be your average kid who finds out the survival camp his parents have sent him to is run by zombies. Wherever a writer sends his normal ‘fish’, it should be somewhere that he will be given the worst time of his life. From adversity springs the opportunity for humor.

In the second case, where you have a humorous character thrown into a normal world, your ‘fish’ can be an alien who visits our world.  Or a mummy from ancient Egypt could come back to life in Kansas. Whoever your ‘fish’ is, put him in the ‘normal’ place that will cause the most mayhem and misunderstanding all around. Mayhem and misunderstanding are also opportunities for humor.

An exercise for students (to help them to understand the ‘fish out of water’ structure) is to have them list movies and books that follow one of the two types.  Here are some examples for younger kids:

Examples of a normal person in a humorous world:

Movies:

Freaky Friday

Who Framed Roger Rabbit?

Planet 51

Princess and the Frog

Books:

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court

James and the Giant Peach

Alice in Wonderland

The Phantom Tollbooth

Examples of a humorous character thrown into a normal world:

Movies:

Enchanted

School of Rock

Herbie, the Love Bug

Books:

Aliens For Breakfast

Amelia Bedelia

Mrs. Piggle-wiggle

Mary Poppins

Of course, many tall tales have a ‘fish out of water’ element. Paul Bunyan is a comic character thrown into a normal world, as is Pecos Bill. You could even say some modern legends, like Bigfoot, follow the formula. ‘Fish out of water’ stories, don’t have to be humorous, of course, and students will be able to spot many other examples (Gregor the Overlander, Twilight, Star Wars, Tarzan, Avatar, to name a few).

A book on writing that I have found immensely helpful in writing humor and writing in general is The Comic Toolbox by Peter Vorhaus. Older students (middle grade and up), and adult writers will find it contains many useful writing nuggets and is a fun read, as well.

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