Nathan Bransford - The Forums

Our little town doesn't have a bookstore anymore, so if K-mart, BigW or Target doesn’t have what I am looking for I'll would buy online. I don't have a lot of time to sit down and read anyway (that time is used for writing), so I try to buy most of mine from Audible.com so that I can listen to them ...

I have a scene that I am editing and I know the current ending is predictable and dumb(knew it when I wrote it). Now I am sitting here contemplating how to change it and was wondering what you more experienced writers do. I have three possible endings but I'm not sure which one my characters are ne...

I gave my kids guitar hero rock band (PS2 - yeah I know, it's out of date, but don't tell the kids). I spent more time 'testing' it out then setting it up. I was able to sort of get the hang of the guitar, but it seems I just don't have the coordination to be a drummer. Oh, and apparently I look hil...

I've read in a few books and blogs on writing for YA about different ways to research teen lingo. Some say to listen to YA family members, or hang out at fast food joints or malls (or anywhere frequented by teens) and eavesdrop. Read YA books and watch teen movies or TV shows. I think these are grea...

So you fell in love with the bad guy huh? How many times has that happened to me (as long as he is not pure evil). I can't say I have fallen for my antagonist though, he's just too mean and sleezy. I'm with Ink, query away :-)

Sorry, Erin, I can't help you. I hate it when I can't find and answer on the net. There goes my 'web-ferret' status.

And the title for the conjoined twins book just popped into my head. How does A PARTING GIFT sound?
And the hook... Two hearts beat as one. ?

I think the real key is to find a balance of "puff" and "destructive". Not too much praise, but not too much criticism either. If it's all destruction, you may decide what's good with the book is shite too and throw it out with everything else. And the downfall of the praise is ...

There are several great recommendations for online critiquing forums, but I'd like to meet with other writers in the flesh. If you belong to a writers' group, how did you find them? And more importantly, how did you know they were qualified to give helpful advice? It seems that joining to the wrong...

I've had this book critiqued by a couple of people and the response I got from both people was something along the lines of, "It's not bad, and I was interested, but it just felt like it was missing something" but neither of them could say what it was missing. One thing that I've been won...

There are loads of agents out there that don't seem to have any searchable info other than what you would find on their agency website. So, all you have are the genres they are interested in and little if no other information. Is saying (truthfully) that you have read at least one of their client's ...

Hi Cas,

Nathan has blogged about both the query and the synopsis.
Hope that helps.

I think Nathan might need some more moderators from different time zones to keep up with this lot. They're sneaking into individual threads now!

Ink wrote:One more villain face down and six feet under.

You guys are a hoot. Who thought deleting spam would be so much fun?

And I used to like ham in a can!

OOoooh his quick. I'm recommending him for a promotion!