Welcome to the Pippa Park Raises Her Game Blog Tour!
To celebrate the release of Pippa Park Raises Her Game by Erin Yun on February 4th, blogs across the web are featuring exclusive original content from Erin, as well as 5 chances to win a finished copy of Pippa, bookmark, sticker, and basketball stress ball!
5 Writing Tips
by Erin Yun
Readers will cheer on Korean American Pippa Park in this compelling middle grade reimagining of Great Expectations. Navigating friendships and cyberbullying at a new school, Pippa reinvents herself and discovers who she really is.
Life is full of great expectations for Korean American Pippa Park. It seems like everyone, from her family to the other kids at school, has a plan for how her life should look. So when Pippa gets a mysterious basketball scholarship to Lakeview Private, she jumps at the chance to reinvent herself by following the “Rules of Cool.”
At Lakeview, Pippa juggles old and new friends, an unrequited crush, and the pressure to perform academically and athletically while keeping her past and her family’s laundromat a secret from her elite new classmates. But when Pippa begins to receive a string of hateful, anonymous messages via social media, her carefully built persona is threatened.
As things begin to spiral out of control, Pippa discovers the real reason she was admitted to Lakeview and wonders if she can keep her old and new lives separate, or if she should even try.
Debut author Erin Yun grew up in Frisco, Texas. She received her BFA in English from New York University and served as president of its policy debate team. This experience came in handy for her job as the debate consultant for the Tony-nominated Best Play on Broadway—What the Constitution Means to Me. Erin is a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators and has written reviews and articles for BookBrowse. She currently lives in New York City, and yes—she used to play basketball as a middle grader!
About Fabled Films and Fabled Films Press
Fabled Films is a publishing and entertainment company creating original content for young readers and middle-grade audiences. Fabled Films Press combines strong literary properties with high-quality production values to connect books with generations of parents and their children. Each property is supported by websites, educator guides, and activities for bookstores, educators, and librarians, as well as videos, social media content, and supplemental entertainment for additional platforms.
by Erin Yun
1. Outlines Can Be Your Friend: I know that outlines aren’t for everyone, and some people prefer (and are great at!) powering straight through a book. However, for me, outlines are immensely helpful. They’re like maps to get you where you’re going, and while I often find myself taking alternate routes and straying off course, it’s nice to have some direction to start. That way, I feel like I’m never really lost. Plus, they save you time in the long run since you can catch plot holes early on and (hopefully) you won’t have to delete as many scenes during the editing stages.
2. Make Your Characters Real: If I fall in love with a character, then even if the plot is slow moving, I’m more inclined to stick around. But here’s the thing—a perfect character doesn’t equal a good character. Real people have flaws, and so should your characters. Make sure that they’re three-dimensional by really understanding them—their personalities, their backstories, their goals in life . . . even their favorite flavor of ice cream. I like to get closer to my characters by sketching them, taking personality quizzes for them, and creating playlists of songs I think they’d like.
3. Read, Read, and Read Some More: While writing as much as you can is definitely important, reading as much as you can is equally important! Reading will help you strengthen your voice, find what works and what doesn’t work for you in a book, and gain new energy when you’re feeling a little burned out from staring at your manuscript for eight hours straight.
4. Feeling Stuck? Skip Ahead: Sometimes, for whatever reason, I might be in the mood to write but still struggle with actually writing a particular scene. During those times, I like to skip ahead to a scene that I’ve been looking forward to writing (like a page full of fun, banter-heavy dialogue) and then come back to the current scene. Sometimes a change of pace is exactly what you need to get past the original roadblock.
5. Embrace Your First Draft: While writing a first draft, it might be tempting to write a paragraph, reread it, and then delete the entire thing. Writers are often their own harshest critics, so I definitely understand the impulse . . . but there’s a reason it’s called the first draft—because there are more to come! Don’t worry about making every sentence perfect. Instead, embrace the fact that first drafts are often messy, and get your words down on paper. And don’t forget to celebrate when you finally reach that last page. Because, no matter how many changes you make later down the road, you finished your book. And that’s amazing.
2. Make Your Characters Real: If I fall in love with a character, then even if the plot is slow moving, I’m more inclined to stick around. But here’s the thing—a perfect character doesn’t equal a good character. Real people have flaws, and so should your characters. Make sure that they’re three-dimensional by really understanding them—their personalities, their backstories, their goals in life . . . even their favorite flavor of ice cream. I like to get closer to my characters by sketching them, taking personality quizzes for them, and creating playlists of songs I think they’d like.
3. Read, Read, and Read Some More: While writing as much as you can is definitely important, reading as much as you can is equally important! Reading will help you strengthen your voice, find what works and what doesn’t work for you in a book, and gain new energy when you’re feeling a little burned out from staring at your manuscript for eight hours straight.
4. Feeling Stuck? Skip Ahead: Sometimes, for whatever reason, I might be in the mood to write but still struggle with actually writing a particular scene. During those times, I like to skip ahead to a scene that I’ve been looking forward to writing (like a page full of fun, banter-heavy dialogue) and then come back to the current scene. Sometimes a change of pace is exactly what you need to get past the original roadblock.
5. Embrace Your First Draft: While writing a first draft, it might be tempting to write a paragraph, reread it, and then delete the entire thing. Writers are often their own harshest critics, so I definitely understand the impulse . . . but there’s a reason it’s called the first draft—because there are more to come! Don’t worry about making every sentence perfect. Instead, embrace the fact that first drafts are often messy, and get your words down on paper. And don’t forget to celebrate when you finally reach that last page. Because, no matter how many changes you make later down the road, you finished your book. And that’s amazing.
*****
Blog Tour Schedule:
February 3rd - Sprinkles of Dreams
February 4th - BookHoundsYA
February 5th - Utopia State of Mind
February 6th - A Dream Within a Dream
February 7th - Word Spelunking
Buy: Amazon | Indiebound
Life is full of great expectations for Korean American Pippa Park. It seems like everyone, from her family to the other kids at school, has a plan for how her life should look. So when Pippa gets a mysterious basketball scholarship to Lakeview Private, she jumps at the chance to reinvent herself by following the “Rules of Cool.”
At Lakeview, Pippa juggles old and new friends, an unrequited crush, and the pressure to perform academically and athletically while keeping her past and her family’s laundromat a secret from her elite new classmates. But when Pippa begins to receive a string of hateful, anonymous messages via social media, her carefully built persona is threatened.
As things begin to spiral out of control, Pippa discovers the real reason she was admitted to Lakeview and wonders if she can keep her old and new lives separate, or if she should even try.
Debut author Erin Yun grew up in Frisco, Texas. She received her BFA in English from New York University and served as president of its policy debate team. This experience came in handy for her job as the debate consultant for the Tony-nominated Best Play on Broadway—What the Constitution Means to Me. Erin is a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators and has written reviews and articles for BookBrowse. She currently lives in New York City, and yes—she used to play basketball as a middle grader!
About Fabled Films and Fabled Films Press
Fabled Films is a publishing and entertainment company creating original content for young readers and middle-grade audiences. Fabled Films Press combines strong literary properties with high-quality production values to connect books with generations of parents and their children. Each property is supported by websites, educator guides, and activities for bookstores, educators, and librarians, as well as videos, social media content, and supplemental entertainment for additional platforms.
- One winner will receive a finished copy of Pippa Park Raises Her Game, bookmark, sticker, and basketball stress ball
- US/Canada only
- Ends 11:59pm ET on 2/14
3 comments:
Fahrenheit 451 would be fun.
I would like reimagined the book Gone with the Wind.
To the Lighthouse would be a good one.
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