A group of Vermont College of Fine Arts students and graduates in both the writing and YA programs joined together — and took time from busy schedules — to produce and market a Blog Initiative raising awareness for both MFA writing programs. The Blog Initiative offers a 5-Daycation to bloggers willing to host us.
The First Blog to invite us aboard is www.TeachingAuthors.com–please head over and check it out!
Teaching Authors Blog is a group effort of six children’s authors who also teach writing. Some of them are even VCFA grads and have participated in this project as both hosts and bloggers. Their blog features writing tips and exercises to sharpen the skills.
Please stop by their blog, check them out and check out the posts of our visiting authors as well. They will be posting there on the schedule below. Stop in. Say hello, and if you like what you see, PLEASE facebook, tweet and pass the link to this blog on to your friends.
Here’s a preview of what’s coming, with the description below.
6/13
The Point of Point of View
By Jodi Paloni
“In my first semester I generated a pile of papers with various characters all telling the same story at the same time…”
6/15 Decide vs. Discover: How to Figure Out What Happens Next
By Cynthia Newberry Martin
There’s more than one way to figure out what happens next in your story. Here, on Wednesday 6/15, will be Cynthia Newberry Martin, whose MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts is just a few weeks away from fruition. Her blog post, Decide vs. Discover offers some useful tips. Please stop by and read what she has to say.
6/17 What Happens Next: Inch Forward in the Dark
By Sion Dayson
Every writer has a different method for figuring out the next turn in their story. Tune in Friday 6/15 for a technique by Sion Dayson, another Vermont College of Fine Arts colleague, as she shows us how to inch forward in the dark.
6/20 What You Can Learn By Critiquing Others
By Lyn Miller-Lachmann
Why is it so difficult to see the flaws in our own work, when they literally jump off the page in the work of others? Please join us on Friday 6/17, as Lyn Miller-Lachmann, currently entering her third semester in the Vermont College of Fine Arts Writing for Children and Young Adults program, describes the VCFA workshop structure and how you can adapt their techniques to your own critique group.
6/22 Finding the Heart in Your Story
By Pam Watts
Exciting plot… great characters… exotic setting… a good story will invariably have at least one of these things going for it, but a GREAT story will always have heart. For a look at how one writer learned to find heart in her story. Please check back here on Wednesday 6/22, when Pam Watts, a recent graduate of Vermont College of Fine Arts MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults reveals her journey.
Ed note: Thanks to Sheryl Scarborough for putting this together!
