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My Novel Revision Retreats rely heavily upon the Shrunken Manuscript technique. Basically, you use the magic of word processors to shrink the font of the mss until you can see the big picture of the story. Uma Krishnaswami used a variation of the technique in revising her new novel. Here’s a look at Uma’s writing [...]
Carole Estby Dagg debuts with THE YEAR WE WERE FAMOUS Introduced first in 2007, debut children’s authors have formed a cooperative effort to market their books. I featured Revision Stories from the Classes of 2k8 and 2k9 and this feature returns this year with the Class of 2k11. Class of 2008 Class of 2009 MORE [...]
Shrunken Manuscript Technique Helps Visualize Problems Following my directions for shrinking, marking and evaluating a novel, here are some recent examples:
How do you find fresh eyes to read through a manuscript? Don’t claim it. One trick I’ve heard is to put another writer’s name on it and
How I Shrunk my Picture Book Manuscript – and Why I’ll Do It Again! by Lee Wind At a schmooze of the SCBWI Tri-Regions of Southern California, discussion ranged far and wide, pulling info and tips from many sources. Lee Wind showed a shrunken manuscript of a picture book, complete with glitter, colors and stickers. [...]
Take Time to Revise Jim Danielson, who attended last weekend’s Illinois retreat, has also posted a picture of a shrunken manuscript. Here are other links for the Shrunken Manuscript technique: Instructions for the Shrunken Manuscript Technique Shrunken manuscript v. Spreadsheet plotting Intensive feedback, like you get in a weekend retreat, can be overwhelming and after [...]
Western Washington SCBWI Retreat: Voice The retreat was great. There were about 40-45 people there and they were split into two groups. Group A came to me, while Group B went to Patti Gauch, then we swapped for the same presentation again. I sorta knew how Patti would approach voice (and I might have done [...]
NaNoWriMo is in full swing! That means over 50,000 writers are slugging out 50,000 words, working on the first draft of a novel, in the 30 days of November. But I’m thinking ahead to December when that first rough draft needs revision. Here are 3 things to keep in mind as you’re writing that first [...]
I’m working on the first draft of a novel and I’m about 2/3 of the way through the plot, when something interesting happened. Embrace Exploration I’m at a point where the E, the main character, is house bound for a couple days and suddenly M, his friend, becomes the legs of the story, the only [...]
When I’m writing or revising a novel, one of the fun games I like to play is the search for an apt phrase. An Apt Phrase Lately, I’ve been listening to recorded books of Rex Stout’s classic detective series about Nero Wolfe, the overweight, orchid enthusiast. His sidekick, Archie Goodwin, tells the story and does [...]
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