There’s one I wish I could watch again for the first time. Curious to hear your thoughts after you finish the whole thing.

Wait, wait, wait — beginnings, middles, AND ends?

I had a college prof who loved to use a bicycle analogy. Every piece has an important function, and it's something you can learn by learning what each piece does. #kidlitchat

i imagine game development has to be really interesting because you have to think in so many... dimensions? I don't meant that literally, but hopefully you get what I'm saying. The story and the gameplay/etc. have to support each other in ways that traditional stories don't worry about #kidlitchat

I tried to replicate this in the outline for my current WIP by highlighting the various storyline beats in different colors when they appeared in the doc. My goal with the smaller ones wasn't to be super accurate, though, just to make sure I had a beginning, middle, and end to work with. #kidlitchat

I can't. I've tried, but if I don't have train tracks I tend to meander all over the place and never come up with anything coherent. My secret (that's still kind of a mess) is that I allow for track changes :) #kidlitchat

I mean, this is kind of what TV writers rooms do -- or used to, at least. Literally have a bunch of beat cards in different colors for the various storylines and put them up on a big board and move them around as necessary. It can be effective. #kidlitchat

My outline kind of IS my zero draft, which is why I want to keep improving it. The goal is always to focus on story, story, story, but lots of other stuff tends to seep in there. Not sure why I haven't done an actual beat sheet. Did them for scripts. They they feel wrong for novels. #kidlitchat

Interesting. Even though I have a separate outline file and draft file, I like copying the outline into the pages and then just kind of using/erasing as I go. (I also tend to insert dialogue and other lines that occur to me as I'm outlining, so it's useful to be able to refer to them.) #kidlitchat

That being said, I both tend to stray from that structure as the work evolves and, no matter how thorough my outline seems at the start, find myself discovering frustrating gaps and things that stop me dead once I'm writing pages. #kidlitchat

joshweissroessler.com/2025/10/29/k...

To be fair, it was the lowest form of pandering 🤣. #kidlitchat

That I do not have a picture for. #kidlitchat

Not just a KidLitCat, a symbol of unity in these divided times. Dogs and cats living together indeed. #kidlitchat

It's the frustrating catch-22. I don't want to release a book into the wild without a semblance of an audience... but it's hard to get one when you don't have a book for them. I'm trying different things. Offering free shorts. Book recs. Interviewing an author I like later this week. #kidlitchat

I basically come here for the Tuesday kidlit chats :) Other than that, I might pop in once or twice a week. #kidlitchat

Agreed. It makes sense for followers to really not matter. I've "had" a Twitter account since 2012 or something, but barely used it until a few years ago and was shocked to discover I'd magically gained 700+ followers :) #kidlitchat

To be fair, the author who shared this with me and went hard into IG posting this year before her first book came out is now getting something like 300k KU words read per day and 75 ebooks purchased/day. So... amazing results for her. And she works for it. But ugh. #kidlitchat

Yeah, I've been told number of followers doesn't even matter anymore. It's all about reaching the right people to get lots of engagement. #kidlitchat