Tag Archives: critique

Top Ten Pearls from the Prairie

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My brain is full and my head is spinning. I had been hitting it against a wall feeling like I had taken my MS as far as I could, knowing that it could still be better but not having an inkling how to do it. NOT ANY MORE!

pearls

About a week ago I attended the annual Prairie Writer’s and Illustrator’s Day hosted by the Illinois network of SCBWI. This was my third time participating and well worth the repeat attendance.  I’ve taken this week to process, marinate, and sort through the keynote address, three break out sessions, two expert panels, and a dozen conversations.

Of course they have rules about blogging, so I won’t go into tremendous details, but I will share some pearls that I am adding to my treasure box.  With that in mind, here are my

Top Ten Pearls from the Prairie

10.  It pays to push yourself out of your happy little shell and meet new people.  As a result I met some wonderful fellow writers, some of whom offered to read for me.

9.  Editors and agents are approachable!  Pull up those big girl pants and talk to them!  When else will you have an opportunity like this?  SO I did.  I talked to three editors and one agent and got answers to specific questions that I had about writing in general and my story in particular.  This will also give me personal sentiments to include in that darn query I will have to write to submit to them.

8. An online course you should know about: Rachel Orr, an agent at Prospect Agency, is teaching a course on middle grade novel writing that starts in January on mediabistro.com.

7. Keynote speaker, Author and Illustrator, Eliza Wheeler – (she also makes a soundtrack for her WIP, love it when I hear someone share something that I do too!) – Focus on what you like about your story, not what you don’t. It’s so easy to be critical isn’t it? But that kind of energy can drain the life and enjoyment out of a project.

I have found that when I watch my two and a half minute book trailer before working on my revision I get pumped up.  The trailer encapsulates the essence that I want my book to have.  After watching it I am in the right mindset and mood to attack my WIP.  Same is true for reading passages or chapters that work.  My confidence lifts.  I can write and I can even write well.

6. Jordan Brown, Senior Editor Walden Pond Press & Balzer + Bray, said the ultimate rule of writing is . . . drum roll . . .

You can do whatever you want as long as it works!

Do you feel liberated now?

5. Noa Wheeler, editor Henry Holt Books for Young Readers gave me the assurance that editors are on your side.  They love books and the people who write them.  Why be intimidated?  A common theme I heard throughout the day was about relationship and collaboration between writers and editors.

4.  During the mix-n-mingle session I asked Rachel Orr about platform building and the usefulness of having a book trailer for a pre-published book.  The gist of her answer, focus on writing well.  Gotcha!

3. Attended a break out session on voice by Brett Duquette, editor at Sterling Children’s Books.  Up until this point, voice has been a very abstract thing for me.  It’s becoming more clear now.  I am attacking my MS with highlighters.  Does each character sound consistent throughout?  How about my narrator?  Who is my narrator?  Does my characters’ mood influence how they see their world?  This session was filled to the brim with applicable bits of knowledge, delivered with incredible humor.  Best break out of the day award!

2.  Got a critique on my first pages from Caroline Abbey, senior editor at Penguin Random House!  It was NOT a last minute thing where she wrote a few thoughts on the airplane ride here.  It WAS on letter head!  But more importantly her fresh eyes on my stale words gave me new perspective on these opening pages.  As helpful as it was to know the areas that I can improve, it was equally beneficial to know which parts are working.  There’s nothing like seeing “Nice!” next to a sentence!  Whoop! Whoop! I don’t have to only read others’ work to see good writing.  I have it in my work too.  Now I have to work at making all words, sentences, paragraphs, scenes, and chapters equally strong.

1.  I followed up with Caroline Abbey about some questions I had from her critique.  (I wrote them down before I talked to her because I knew I’d forget! And I did, I was so glad I wrote them down!)  I asked her about strategies for thinking of a title,  how to pinpoint a tell,  and questions to ask myself to figure out how to tighten my work.

She related to how I dreaded the thought of coming up a new title.  I’ve been reading scripture and 19th century poetry about fire, playing in the thesaurus, and checking my ideas on Goodreads.  Brainstorming with writing friends and my husband.  This really is torture! I’ve been trying to zoom in on sentences that are vague or generic.  Is it a tell?  Do I need to show it or scrap it?

This week I’ve reduced by first 5 chapters by 10% and modified a whole bunch of sentences and scenes that weren’t pulling their weight.  Not a bad start.  So much more to do!

Number the Stars

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Number-the-StarsNumber the Stars by Lois Lowry is my all-time favorite children’s book ever!  It’s a historical fiction novel intended for an audience of 9-12 year old children.  It’s the story of Annemarie Johansen living in Copenhagen, Denmark during the Nazi occupation of World War II.  Her best friend, Ellen Rosen, is Jewish. When the story starts the Nazis stop merely standing ominously on street corners and prepare to relocate the Danish Jews.  The lives of the two girls are about to change drastically.  One will be forced to go into hiding while the other’s courage will be put to the test.

It is the winner of the 1990 Newbery Medal.  Though it rightfully received this award, it’s true accolades come from how it stands up to its toughest critics, children.  I have taught this book with two fourth grade and five fifth grade classes across a variety of ethnic groups and spanning the socio-economic bridge.  I have read this book with reluctant readers and avid readers.  The most challenging part of reading it was being told they weren’t allowed to read ahead!

Why children like it

The pace is quick.  The beginning of the story grabs hold of you and you don’t want to let go until the very last page.   The events of WWII are so unbelievable that the setting is both intriguing and mortifying.  The real stronghold is how relatable the characters are.  Annemarie and Ellen are very much like the children in the classroom, but are called to do extreme things.  And the themes of the story are the themes of most children’s lives: friendships put to the test, needing to be brave when it would be easier to run away, coming of age and learning the truth of the world around them.  I’ve had so many great conversations with my students because of the events in this book!

Through a writer’s eyes

Every time I have read this book I got something new from it.  And I’ve read it a lot!  (I am not one for rereading books, but this is a clear exception! – remember I’m a reformed reluctant reader).  This is a book that should be studied by every aspiring fiction writer.  It’s a study of doing it all right!  Characterization, plot, sub plot, intrigue, plot twists, symbolism, voice, show-don’t-tell.  What makes this an even more impressive feat is that the setting of this story, WWII, is one of the most written about topics.  What’s equally amazing is that it is all done in 132 pages!

Give Ms. Lowry a visit at http://www.loislowry.com and be sure to enjoy this book that I am glad was written!

Revision Step Two: Read through Rough Draft

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Read Through   Relatively painless.  But I know its the calm before the storm.

What I did:

1. Treated it like a book.  I sat somewhere comfy, usually on my couch after my whirlwinds were in bed.  Sometimes with a glass of wine.  But unlike reading for leisure, I had highlighter,  red pen, post-it tags, and notepad ready to go. Oh and a very critical attitude!

2.  Made a list of notes/symbols I would use.  My goal is not to do  major notes or writing scenes at this point.  I want to get through this bad boy in a few sittings.  The tags I used:

  • <—> reorder
  • zzzzz dragging
  • (  ) confusing
  • ?? cut/change
  • highlight – awkward/take another look at
  • + add details
  • – make concise
  • BL add body language
  • VIS visualize/add sensory details
  • 🙂 keep

3. Get reading.  The goal of this read through is big picture kind of stuff.  There is no point to line edit now, it would actually be a big waste of time.  I need to be merciless nonetheless.   I am not married to these words.  These characters work for me!  (Ever get evaluated on the job? Nothing like having a surprise observation by the principal when you’re having an off day!)

These characters and scenes have a job to do and if they’re not making life more complicated for my MC (main character), contributing to or setting up conflict, and making me want to turn the page, then I need to go back to them and consider their value – do they get the pink slip or remediation?  Yes, there are characters and scenes that are absolutely delightful.  The picture was painted vividly and the characters sounded really real.  But if they’re not doing their job, I have to be tough.  And I will keep these scenes in a deleted scenes folder for me to go back to and enjoy the beauty of my thoughts some other time.

Through the course of the read through it became very clear the parts I enjoyed writing and the parts I forced myself to get through!

4.  After reading I took some time for an essential part – more reflection.  It’s a best practice in education for a reason.  People need time to process and absorb what they’ve learned.  This is true for revising as well.  I am learning things about my writing while I’m reading it.  I need to grant myself time to reflect on my writing and not just jump right into the rewrite.  My rewrite will hopefully be more thoughtful and accomplish more if I take time to formally think about it.

Reflection questions after the first read through:

  • What glaring issues stand out?
  • Are there any scenes that can be cut? What needs to be done in order to cut them?
  • How’s the MC? Do I like him? Do I cheer for him?  Is he relatable? What changes need to take place to make him more attractive as a MC?
  • Is my antagonist believable?  Do I really dislike him?  What more needs to be done to make him more undesirable?
  • What are the really weak scenes that need a lot of attention to be saved?  What do they need?
  • What research still needs to be done?
  • Is the climax/resolution all it should be? Did I feel tension? Does it wrap up the ongoing conflict from the story? Is my end in my beginning?

I am sure there is more I should be thinking about at this point, but what it is I haven’t figured out yet.  If you have any reflection questions you think should be added to the list, leave a comment.

One more thing, I found this blog by James Scott Bell on revision.  One of his suggestions: Consider what a critic would objectively say after reading your manuscript, write it in a short essay.

I would say: The bones of the story are good, but there’s a lot of flab!

Next time I will tackle one of my glaring issues: voice! making sure each character is identifiable without seeing the dialogue tag!

til then – Enjoy Playing with Words!