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Revising a Picture Book: Length, Common Core, Details and Research
I just did a quick revision of a picture book that’s in progress. Shorter. One goal was to shorten the story whenever possible. I cut out an entire page, and an entire sentence. Doesn’t sound like much? At only 700 words, the story is as streamlined as I can make it. Well, no. I just […]
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Novelists: You are Gifted & Talented
Gifted and Talented If you have finished a draft of a novel (however messy!), you are Gifted and Talented. The fact that you are Gifted and Talented has an important implication for revising your story. GT Learners. First, I’ve talked with Gifted and Talented Teachers about how their students learn. When they learn something new, […]
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Revising Bird
Guest post by Crystal Chan Crystal attended a novel revision retreat a couple years ago and the result is this amazing book, her debut. Here, she talks about her revision process. –Darcy The biggest editing challenge that I encountered my forthcoming novel, Bird (January 28, 2014, Atheneum. PREORDER NOW!) was trying to put too much […]
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Point of View: Inside a Character’s Head
How does an author take a reader deeply into a character’s POV? By using direct interior monologue and a stream of consciousness techniques. This is part 3 of a 3-part series on Point of View: Techniques for Getting Inside a Character’s Head. Read the whole series. Outside Outside/Inside Inside Going Inside a Character’s Head, Heart […]
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Point of View: Outside/Inside a Character’s Head
Partially Inside a Character’s Head: OUTSIDE AND INSIDE POV How deeply does a story take the reader into the head of a character. Many discussions of point of view skim over the idea that POV can related to how close a reader is to a reader. But David Jauss says there are two points of […]
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Awful First Draft: It’s Hard to Trust the Process
I am in the midst of a truly awful first draft. Really. I have NEVER written such a bad first draft. This is a sequel and it must be written to roughly follow an outline, but the outline seems sorta dead. Here’s what I am doing: Push on. I am pushing forward, trying to write […]