KidLit Craft Podcast
At KidLit Craft we look at mentor texts to discover ways to improve our own writing. Our Deep Dive series looks at one novel over multiple weeks.
Listen on:
Episodes
Monday Dec 04, 2023
Monday Dec 04, 2023
At KidLit Craft we look at the mechanics of how writers do what they do, so we can improve our own writing. In this series, we’re taking a deep dive into Martine Leavitt’s YA novel Buffalo Flats. Erin has called this the perfect novel, so we’re tearing it apart to see how Martine put it together.
In this introductory episode, we cover how we met (at Vermont College of Fine Arts, where we both did MFAs in Writing for Children and Young Adults), how the podcast came about, why Buffalo Flats, and what you can expect from this series.
Links:
Martine Leavitt’s Buffalo Flats
Vermont College of Fine Arts, Writing for Children and Young Adults
Some of Anne-Marie’s writing about craft
Some of Erin’s writing about craft
A sample KidLit Craft Newsletter
The KidLit Craft Podcast is hosted by Anne-Marie Strohman and Erin Nuttall. Email us at podcast@kidlitcraft.com
Support KidLit Craft
Patreon
Buy T-shirts and sweatshirts (click on “small logo” or “big logo” for a range of styles)
Monday Dec 11, 2023
Monday Dec 11, 2023
Erin takes us through the powerful opening scene of Martine Leavitt’s YA novel Buffalo Flats and examines how the elements of the first scene set up the entire novel–character, desire lines, themes, setting, voice, tone, humor, and more.
Links:
Martine Leavitt’s Buffalo Flats
The Sound of Music
Hadestown
Six
A tor
Nerd term: limited omniscient
A KidLit Craft post on an omniscient narrator that use sections of limited omniscience.
The KidLit Craft Podcast is hosted by Anne-Marie Strohman and Erin Nuttall.
Support KidLit Craft
Patreon
Buy T-shirts and sweatshirts (click on “small logo” or “big logo” for a range of styles)
Email us at podcast@kidlitcraft.com
Sign up for our newsletter
Monday Dec 18, 2023
Monday Dec 18, 2023
Erin takes us through the four scenes that make up the first chapter of Martine Leavitt’s YA novel Buffalo Flats. We talk desire line (both internal and external), character, setting, language, humor and more.
Links:
Martine Leavitt’s Buffalo Flats
"Making Your Character's Desires Concrete" by Anne-Marie
"Crafting Character: Discovering Desire" from KidLit Craft
Backstory, articles from KidLit Craft
The KidLit Craft Podcast is hosted by Anne-Marie Strohman and Erin Nuttall.
Music by Trevor Strohman.
Support KidLit Craft
Patreon
Buy T-shirts and sweatshirts (click on “small logo” or “big logo” for a range of styles)
Email us at podcast@kidlitcraft.com
Sign up for our newsletter
Sunday Dec 24, 2023
Sunday Dec 24, 2023
We’re three episodes in, and we’re taking a holiday break! Anne-Marie and Erin share how life is in podcast land and encourage you to read Buffalo Flats during the break. Starting in Episode 4 there will be spoilers. But the book is so rich that even if you listen first, you’ll have wonderful moments of discovery when you read the book.
Links:
KidLit Craft website
Martine Leavitt’s Buffalo Flats
The KidLit Craft Podcast is hosted by Anne-Marie Strohman and Erin Nuttall.
Support KidLit Craft
Patreon
Buy T-shirts and sweatshirts (click on “small logo” or “big logo” for a range of styles)
Email us at podcast@kidlitcraft.com
Sign up for our newsletter
Wednesday Jan 10, 2024
Wednesday Jan 10, 2024
Martine Leavitt’s YA novel Buffalo Flats is full of desire. The main character, Rebecca Leavitt, wants more than anything to own a piece of land near where her family is homesteading in the Northwest Territories of Canada. Erin traces how Martine introduces the external desire right from the start, where Rebecca runs into obstacles, and what the stakes are for Rebecca.
Links:
KidLit Craft website
Martine Leavitt’s Buffalo Flats
Heroes Trailer: Save the Cheerleader, Save the World
Newsies
Louise Hawes on YEARNING
Making Desire Concrete at KidLit Craft
Another way to make desire concrete: Controlling Beliefs on KidLit Craft
The KidLit Craft Podcast is hosted by Anne-Marie Strohman and Erin Nuttall.
Support KidLit Craft
Patreon
Buy T-shirts and sweatshirts (click on “small logo” or “big logo” for a range of styles)
Email us at podcast@kidlitcraft.com
Sign up for our newsletter
Monday Jan 22, 2024
Monday Jan 22, 2024
Martine Leavitt’s YA novel Buffalo Flats is full of desire. In addition to wanting to own a piece of land, the main character, Rebecca, also wants to become the person God wants her to be, and that means loving other people, most of whom she finds annoying or unlovable. Erin walks through how the desire is introduced, what standard Rebecca is holding herself to, and what internal obstacles there are. She also examines how the external and internal desires conflict with each other and support each other.
Links:
KidLit Craft website
Martine Leavitt’s Buffalo Flats
Hamilton
A KidLit Craft post on Internal Journey
The KidLit Craft Podcast is hosted by Anne-Marie Strohman and Erin Nuttall.
Support KidLit Craft
Patreon
Buy T-shirts and sweatshirts (click on “small logo” or “big logo” for a range of styles)
Email us at podcast@kidlitcraft.com
Sign up for our newsletter
Monday Jan 29, 2024
Monday Jan 29, 2024
In this mini-episode, we switch things up! Anne-Marie defines what a misbelief is, how it connects your character’s internal and external journey, and we see the concepts in action in Martine Leavitt’s YA novel, Buffalo Flats.
Links:
KidLit Craft website
Martine Leavitt’s Buffalo Flats
Writing exercises to explore a character’s misbelief
Misbelief in Paul Acampora’s How to Avoid Extinction
A different kind of controlling belief in How to Trap a Tiger, MG by Tae Keller and Calvin, YA by Martine Leavitt.
The KidLit Craft Podcast is hosted by Anne-Marie Strohman and Erin Nuttall.
Support KidLit Craft
Patreon
Buy T-shirts and sweatshirts (click on “small logo” or “big logo” for a range of styles)
Email us at podcast@kidlitcraft.com
Sign up for our newsletter
Monday Feb 05, 2024
Monday Feb 05, 2024
A novel requires more than just one main plot. In this episode, we look at three major subplots in Buffalo Flats by Martine Leavitt, one that involves Rebecca’s family, one that involves her local community, and one that involves the larger community. We look at how Martine weaves in these subplots and how she makes them work hard for the story and for Rebecca’s internal journey.
Links:
KidLit Craft website
Martine Leavitt’s Buffalo Flats
A KidLit Craft post on using best friend subplots in middle grade novels
Another look at subplots: thinking about threads introduced and carried through a story.
The KidLit Craft Podcast is hosted by Anne-Marie Strohman and Erin Nuttall.
Support KidLit Craft
Patreon
Buy T-shirts and sweatshirts (click on “small logo” or “big logo” for a range of styles)
Email us at podcast@kidlitcraft.com
Sign up for our newsletter
Monday Feb 26, 2024
Monday Feb 26, 2024
In this episode, we’re talking ROMANCE! We look at how Martine Leavitt sets up the balance between physical intimacy and emotional intimacy, uses contrast in secondary romances, and manages a perfectly balanced love triangle for the main character, Rebecca, in her YA novel Buffalo Flats. We also talk about how to write a perfect romantic kiss.
Links:
KidLit Craft website
Martine Leavitt’s Buffalo Flats
A KidLit Craft post on playing with tropes in romance
The KidLit Craft Podcast is hosted by Anne-Marie Strohman and Erin Nuttall.
Support KidLit Craft
Patreon
Buy T-shirts and sweatshirts (click on “small logo” or “big logo” for a range of styles)
Email us at podcast@kidlitcraft.com
Sign up for our newsletter
Thursday Mar 14, 2024
Thursday Mar 14, 2024
At risk of making Martine’s humor less funny, we take apart the humor in Buffalo Flats, from set-ups and punchlines to adding a funny twist, from individual sentences to full subplots.
Links:
KidLit Craft website
Martine Leavitt’s Buffalo Flats
Laurel & Hardy, “Chickens Come Home”
Pizza Pirate
This is Us
The KidLit Craft Podcast is hosted by Anne-Marie Strohman and Erin Nuttall.
Support KidLit Craft
Patreon
Buy T-shirts and sweatshirts (click on “small logo” or “big logo” for a range of styles)
Email us at podcast@kidlitcraft.com
Sign up for our newsletter
A Deep Dive
At KidLit Craft, we look at mentor texts to figure out the mechanics of how writers do what they do, so we can improve our writing. Each series of the KidLit Craft podcast will focus on a different novel or shorter work.
Season one focuses on the YA novel Buffalo Flats by Martine Leavitt. We encourage you to read along as you listen.
If you like what you hear, you can support KidLit Craft on Patreon.
We also have T-shirts and sweatshirts. Find them at Cotton Bureau.
Tell your writer friends about the podcast.
We can't wait to nerd out with you.
Your Hosts!
Erin Nuttall (left) holds an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts and is an active member of SCBWI and ALAN. She lives outside of Chicago with her family where she writes stories for middle grade and young adult readers that offer a humorous take on friendship, identity, feminism, and romance. She is a regular contributor to KidLit Craft.
Anne-Marie Strohman (right) writes everything from picture books to young adult novels, and writes flash fiction and short stories, too. She is an active member of SCBWI and holds an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts. She teaches courses on writing for kids, lectures at regional conferences, and co-founded and edits KidLit Craft. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area, where she finds all her best ideas on long hikes.