Novel Revision 101

In the spring I taught a four-week class on novel revision. The idea for this course came while I was on a run. I was listening to Cheryl Klein and James Monohan's Narrative Breakdown podcast on Revision Techniques, and it struck me how perfect this podcast would be as a starting place for a revision class. From there I developed a course for SCBWI members who'd drafted a middle grade or young adult manuscript but weren't quite sure how to go about revision.

Those who signed up for the course received copies of Darcy Pattison's NOVEL METAMORPHOSIS and Cheryl Klein's SECOND SIGHT. Because so many already had Cheryl's book, I gave those participants Mary Kole's WRITING IRRESISTIBLE KIDLIT.

Members were paired with partners and exchanged manuscripts. They focused on big-picture changes (character growth instead of punctuation, for example) and wrote a letter to their partner which focused on three things:

• What works
• What needs work
• What stuck out

Participants also wrote "letters to a sympathetic reader," a technique Cheryl Klein sometimes uses with her authors when they begin the editing process together. The sympathetic letter focuses on

• The real thing / key ideas / effect on reader the author is aiming for
• Where the novel started from / idea came from
• Big ideas the author is exploring
• The things the author loves and wants to keep
• The things the author knows are not working
• How the author sees their main character (their purpose, journey, etc.)
• What the book is now and where it should be
• Mission / vision statement for the book

A sympathetic letter helps a writer to get back in touch with their initial ideas. It can also show how ideas have changed over the course of the draft. Though partners exchanged letters, its primary function is to teach a writer about their own work.

Are you interested in improving your revision techniques? Try writing your own sympathetic letter. Listen in to the Revision Techniques podcast. Find a copy of Cheryl and Darcy's books. 

For my posts in the months ahead, I'll share quotes and links from the class on revision and story's key components, character, plot. 

Here's to strengthening your writing, friends!

Ollie and the Science of Treasure Hunting

I had the pleasure of reading Erin Dionne’s newest book: Ollie and the Science of Treasure Hunting: A 14 Day Mystery, which comes out July 10, 2014. That’s tomorrow!! Congrats, Erin!!

First, the cover copy for Ollie:

After helping his best friend, Moxie, outsmart a gangster and uncover priceless artwork, Ollie plans to lay low at Wilderness Camp on the Boston Harbor Islands while the media frenzy blows over. Navigating new friends, new enemies, and a high-stakes game of tag, the last thing he needs is a mystery. But then Ollie meets Grey, an elusive girl with knowledge of the island’s secrets, including the legend of a lost pirate treasure, which may not be legend after all.

Ollie uses his wits and geocaching skills to keep long-lost treasure out of the wrong hands in this exciting adventure-mystery from fan-favorite middle grade author Erin Dionne.

• Hardcover
• ISBN 9780803738720
• 10 Jul 2014
• Dial Books for Young Readers
• 9 – 12

My take: Ollie and the Science of Treasure Hunting is a fast-paced read with a memorable, authentic voice. I devoured it in two sittings. I think it would work well not only for independent reading but to read out loud to a class or to your own children. But, I wasn’t the only one who LOVED this book. Here’s what the experts said:

“A well-choreographed romp starring an engaging protagonist who richly deserves his turn in the spotlight.” –Kirkus Reviews

“A cast of likable campers, each with his or her own quirks, drive this fast-paced adventure.” –Booklist

SLJ called it “a breathless thrill ride.”

Erin is no stranger to middle grade fiction. Her other books include:

 

Moxie and the Art of Rule Breaking: A 14 Day Mystery (Dial Books, 2013)

Notes from an Accidental Band Geek (Dial Books, 2011)

The Total tragedy of a Girl Named Hamlet (Dial Books, 2010)

Models Don’t Eat Chocolate Cookies (Dial Books, 2009)

A little bit more about the author:

Photo Credit: Aran Gilmore

Erin Dionne is an assistant professor of Liberal Arts at a small college north of Boston, where she teaches freshman comp, lit classes, and some creative writing electives. When not actively promoting her writing with her great humor and enthusiastic understanding of the miseries and magic of middle school, Erin reminisces about her days in high school and college marching band. She lives with her husband and daughter in Framingham, Massachusetts.

Thanks for stopping by.

A WORD FROM THE READER: Guest post by Lyric Unger Bowditch

As we drive down from a weekend in NY, talk turns to books. Actually, my daughter and I began to discuss books we love. This happens a lot. Right now, my youngest is busy with his nose deep in one and my husband is driving. We left my eldest back in NY so the conversation was between Lyric and me. Lyric, who is now 15, has often been my sounding board, my first reader, first editor, first critic. She taught me a lot about writing for kids. First and foremost, don’t do it. That is, don’t ever write down to kids because they are smarter than most adults.

So I asked her to write her own thoughts about YA/MG literature. She is an excellent writer, reader, critic, poet, and I am so glad to invite her here today.

Welcome, Lyric.

•

In the words of Le Petit Prince, “grown-ups like numbers . . . You have to tell them, ‘I saw a house worth a hundred thousand francs.’ Then they exclaim, ‘What a pretty house!’” If a novel has a 4.5-out-of-5-star rating, in the eyes of such adults, it must be a good book. Too often, adults feel a societal obligation to bear through literature that may not truly interest them because of its social or intellectual prestige. Books written for adults don’t always require the same attention-to-reader that young adult literature does.

As a young adult, I can attest that if a novel doesn’t engage me, I don’t care how highly it was rated— I’m going to put it down. If the writer doesn’t paint a world so visceral that my own world disappears as I read, then, regardless of the writer’s esteem in literary circles across the nation, I won’t keep reading. You authors of young adult literature have the difficult task of writing wholly captivating stories, as the story is all that your audience cares about. Accordingly, young adult literature makes up some of the best literature on the whole planet (and the whole universe, for that matter).

As far as I’m concerned, the labels “young adult” and “middle-grade” are largely misleading. Young adult novels aren’t too callow or adolescent to be liked only by young adults. Rather, they’re exciting and enthralling enough to be liked by young adults. Any adult that claims to be too sophisticated to be interested by Harry Potter or too refined to enjoy Percy Jackson and the Olympians is, in fact, too uncultured to appreciate fine literature on its own merit and the pleasure of being lost in a good book.

-Lyric Unger Bowditch

 •

I thought I’d include a photo of Lyric. Hers is beautiful face that shines from the cover of The Ravens of Solemano… so I’ve included that.

Thank you, my wonderful daughter! – eden unger bowditch

Which Project Mayhem Book Are You?, by: Marissa Burt

To kick off your holiday weekend, I've got a little quiz for you. Come on, we all take them. You know the quizzes I'm talking about. The ones you censor from your facebook feed, because you feel a little bit sheepish broadcasting the fact that you wanted to find out the color of your soul or what flavor of ice cream you are or whatever. Well this is one quiz you can publish without a disclaimer, because these books are all amazing!

Not only was it great fun to try and think of Lego characters and foods that match up with the fabulous Team Mayhem books, but it reminded me what a talented bunch we have with us here at Project Mayhem.

So which book are you? Take the quiz and find out. Or take it a couple of times, because there are thirteen possible results. And don't forget to share yours with us in the comments!

Which Project Mayhem Book Are You?

On Writing the Next Thing

When I was in college, I was fortunate enough to win an award for my first play, which resulted in a production of the play. It was a big deal—both my parents flew to Chicago from the west coast despite the fact that they were in the middle of a messy divorce. Sitting through the first act was strange, to say the least, and I dreaded intermission, when people would have to interact with me about my play to my face. Especially my divorcing parents.

So I was enormously relieved when my playwriting professor—who has gone on to win the Tony Award for Best New Play and has been nominated for screenwriting Oscars three times, by the by—whisked me off to his office the moment the lights went off for intermission.

I thought he was just saving me from the family tensions and weirdness of facing my audience, akin to sitting in a room with someone while they are reading your book. But as we sat down, the first thing he said to me was not about how well the production was going, or how I was feeling. It was this: “What’s next?”

My first thought: Uh, the second act?

But he went on. “What are you writing? What’s your next play?”

This mentality that my playwriting mentor taught me almost twenty years ago (yikes) has served me well as I’ve pursued a career in fiction. Just as I always began a new play by the time the previous one was sitting on desks in literary offices, I always began a new manuscript by the time I began querying the first one. And now that I have an agent…well, submission is like Fight Club and all that. But let’s just say the same rules apply.

I’ve heard some people say they cannot focus on something new when they are anxiously awaiting responses from agents or editors. But I think that’s one of the two main reasons to work on the next one. It’s not just that the act of writing something else will distract you—you’re not writing every minute of the day after all, and there will still be those times when you’re picking up library holds/toiling at your day job/wrangling children when you will continue to obsess over your submissions.

But for me, it’s more that when I am in the throes of something new, especially those exciting early days of drafting, my hope starts to shift toward that new project. When rejections roll in for the previous one, I think, That’s okay. Because this new project is going to be The One.

The second reason it’s so helpful to work on the next project is because it really might be The One. No matter how much you love your previous manuscript, there’s every chance it might not snag that agent’s interest. Or, frankly, the interest of 60 agents (not that I know that from personal experience or anything). If I had waited around to get an agent on my first manuscript, I wouldn’t have one now. And believe it or not, there are still a couple agents who requested the full for that first one four years ago and never responded. I could plausibly still be waiting.

But that manuscript wasn’t good enough. And my second, third, and fourth manuscripts—well, I still believe they were good enough and I got very close with a whole bunch of agents, but they still weren’t The Ones. But because it takes me about six months to write a middle grade novel from idea to submission-ready and because querying is a slow game, I was always ready to query my next manuscript right about the time I’d exhausted my list of agents to query and given the ones with fulls sufficient time to read.

So when my (super amazing, I love her forever) agent signed me on my fifth manuscript, I was actually just getting ready to query #6. So she read that, and was even more excited about that one. Now she’s got options, including a couple of my previous manuscripts that may still have hope.

I’ve just sent my next thing off to my agent and I’m pretty sure it’s The One. Are you writing the next thing?