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Submit, Then Revise At our spring conference, Jen Rofe, literary agent at Andrea Brown Literary spoke about sending out manuscripts. The one thing that surprised me was her attitude toward submission and revision. Rofe said she usually sends out a mss to about five editors. Then, depending on the feedback, she’ll often ask the writer [...]
Speaking Schedule Here’s an update on my speaking schedule for the rest of the year. Novel Revision Reteat. SF & North & East Bay SCBWI, San Francisco, CA. July 16-19, 2009 (SOLD OUT) Novel Revision Retreat. Louisiana SCBWI. St. Joseph Abbey, Covington, LA. Download flyer for the LA retreat. Arkansas SCBWI Fall Retreat, Ft. Smith, [...]
All About the Town InkyGurl.com is posting Comics for Writers!!! Another month to write? It’s the WriDaNoJu. This one makes more sense to me than trying to write a novel in November. Aren’t these names getting funny? The NaNoWriMo, the WriDaNoJu, the NaPiBoWriWee and so on. An interesting list of Picture Book Don’ts. Victoria Janssen [...]
Does Your Story Need a Tragic Death? A friend was talking to me about stories in which a child dies. he asked, “Is a child’s death in a novel just a cheap narrative device?” Well, it depends. Depth of Characterization. How well do we know the character? Do we know and care for the child? [...]
Do you pay attention to your audience when you write, or do you write for yourself, an audience of one? PW’s Shelf Talker Josie Leavitt has an interesting posting on when toddlers pick out their own books. Even as toddlers, boys and girls choose books differently. Both are passionate about the books they love and [...]
Learn to Listen to Critiquers Listening to critiques is hard! I have to remind myself that writing is communication, with a writer and a reader. When I get feedback, what I’m really doing is checking to see if I communicated what I wanted to. Well, no. I didn’t. I have two choices: Ignore the feedback. [...]
Introduced first in 2007, authors debuting children’s books have formed a cooperative effort to market their novels. Last year, I featured many of the stories of how the 2k8 Novels Were Revised. This is part of the ongoing stories from the Class of 2k9 authors and how they went about revising their novels. Will This [...]
10 Ways to Start the Process of Re-Envisioning How do you start revisions? You’ve got a great draft, and it’s pretty settled in your mind that this is how the story happens. BUT, readers aren’t thrilled with it. Editors and agents pass it by with a nice personal letter. Great, you think. There’s something here, [...]
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 [...]
Why Some Distractions Are OK I am distracted these days from writing my novel. It’s partly because I’m teaching a Novel Revision Retreat in Illinois this weekend. But I also find these things to be distracting. Family. Well, of course, family interferes. Katherine Paterson has said that family takes up so much time and energy, [...]
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