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Editor Talk with BLINK YA’s Jillian Manning

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Pen Friends ~ We are elated to have Blink YA Book’s Editor Jillian Manning with us today. Hope you enjoy her insights, tips, and recommendations!

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SP: Welcome Jillian! Let’s start personal ~Who are you and how long have you worked as an editor? Which books made you fall in love with the publishing industry?

I’m Jillian Manning, one of the editors at Blink YA Books. I’m a Michigan girl, cat lover, list maker, and avid YA reader. (Grown-up books? Yikes.) I’ve worked in publishing since my early college days, and have been an editor here at Blink for over two years. According to my mother, I started reading when I was two years old (though that may be a parental exaggeration), and I haven’t stopped since. I grew up reading Tamora Pierce, J.K. Rowling, and Caroline B. Cooney, and I decided I either wanted to be them or work with people like them. When I found out being an editor meant you could read for a living…well, I was hooked. Continue reading →

The Spinning Pen Girl: A Call for Artists

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WANTED:

An artist to bring the Spinning Pen girl to life.spinning-pen-focused-colorful-square-flowers

The Spinning Pen Girl in Rome, illustrated by Sarah Kovin Synder ***A huge thanks to Sarah for bringing our first ever SP girl to life!
The Spinning Pen Team has long dreamed of an icon for our blog, and well, our icon turned  into a “she” and she had a personality and an obsession with writing and books.
Now, we are calling out to all artists to see her depicted in many ways and scenes. The pictures sent to us will be published on our blog or social media and possibly even more. The artists will receive credit and adoring glory (from us!)

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Word Count: Tips to Cut it Out!

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Critique

“Your novel is too long.”

“Your story would be stronger if you tightened the plot and eliminated the fluff.” 

“If you bring it down to a more appropriate YA word count, I’d be happy to take another look.”

Have you ever heard agents, editors, or critique partners say these things? Have friends or beta readers who have not finished your story because it’s too long?

If so, we have some advice for you.

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How to Make Readers Fall in Love with Your Characters

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How to make your readers-2

Recently I reviewed a few new writers manuscripts and found they were making very simple but fatal mistakes. The result was terrible: their characters left no impression on me.

When we read a book, at most we want to fall in love with the characters. Not romantic love, but form a real connection to them—at a minimum we want to identify or sympathize with the MC and other sub characters or else the story won’t matter to us.

Here are a few pointers on how to connect readers with your characters.

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Writing Real Boy Protagonists

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real-boysWhat qualifies as a Real Boy in young adult novels?

The boy next door? The rebel? The savior?

Who or what composes the right boy protagonist? Many people have their ideas.

People argue that they are too perfect, too strong, too brave, too good looking, and whose Peeta Mellark’s love, devotion, strength, and life-saving capabilities raise an unreachable standard for real boys. But I don’t think so. Because I see all of those things in the real boys around me.

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How to Balance the Commercial vs. Creative Aspects in Writing

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Are the words you stash deep in your journal highly personal, not meant for the light of day? Or are you a natural born story teller seeking an audience?

 

Why do you write? What is your goal?

What compels your pen to form words, that form people, that form stories?  Answering this question can help you determine your path or career in writing and which steps to take to reach your goal. Continue reading →