Archive for June, 2007
Hattie Big Sky
Kirby Larson, author of Newbery Honor book, HATTIE BIG SKY, says, “I didn’t know how to revise until. . .
Shrunken Mss
by Darcy Pattison
The Shrunken Manuscript exercise that I devised for my Novel Revision retreat is gaining interest as people try it. It is advocated by Kirby Larson, author of the Newbery Honor book, Hattie Big Sky,
And now, Newbery Honor winner, Cynthia Lord
has tried the Shrunken Manuscript exercise and offers a picture (scroll [...]
Voice Friday: Revising for Voice
One question that often arises is,
“Can you revise for voice?”
Yes.
First Revision of 19 Girls and Me
For example, in an early draft of Nineteen Girls and Me, I revised for an editor and sent him a version that started like this:
When John Hercules Po started kindergarten in Room 9B, it was an odd class. There [...]
A Real Audience
by Guest Blogger, Dori Butler author of Do You Know The Monkey Man? and
Trading Places With Tank Talbott Note from Darcy: Dori will be talking about our parallel projects of reading our novels aloud to an audience of kids. I talked some about my experiences here. Dori will talk about reading her work-in-progress novel [...]
Revising the Griffin
By Guest Blogger, Kristin Wolden Nitz
Saving the Griffin (Peachtree, 2007).
Re-visioning
When I finished The Griffin for the first time, it was just over 18,000 words long. It opened with Kate and her younger brother Michael having batting practice in a Tuscan Garden. When Kate dove under a laurel bush to retrieve a foul ball, she [...]
Revising Samurai Shortstop
by Guest Blogger Alan Gratz
Samurai Shortstop (Dial, 2006).
The Letter
You always want to get the phone call from a publisher, not the letter.
The letter says, “We liked your novel, but . . .” and then you can pick one of a thousand different reasons they aren’t going to buy your book.
The phone call, on the [...]
Voice: Rhythm made visible
by Darcy Pattison
Robert Frost says, “Good writing is good speaking caught alive.”
In other words, the pitch changes, intonation and rhythm pattern can carry the meaning of a sentence like, “Nice haircut.” You can say that phrase and by changing your intonation patterns you can give it different meanings: ironic, disapproving, enthusiastic.
How you say something–the pitch [...]
Guest Bloggers Coming!
by Darcy Pattison
I think that it is totally fitting that the parents of the bride will take a trip themselves next week. My DH and I plan to float the Colorado River, the last 100 miles of the Grand Canyon. We had the trip planned long before the announcement of our daughter’s engagement and decided [...]
2007 Governor’s Arts Award
by Darcy Pattison
I was surprised, but pleased to learn this week that I will be the 2007 recipient of the Arkansas Governor’s Arts Award for Individual Artist for my work as a children?s book author. Sponsored by the Arkansas Arts Council, the award will be presented on October 22, 2007 at the annual ArtLinks conference [...]
50 Writing Tools
by Darcy Pattison
A Great Firefox Addon for Writers
Write it. With this addon, your computer will read aloud a webpage or text. Reading aloud your WIP is a great way to edit. Print out a hard copy and turn away from the computer and listen and mark up the text.
50 Writing Tools for Writers
From [...]
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