And another perspective...

Following on my post yesterday, great minds thinking alike and all that, my friend Caroline Rose has posted a perfect quote on her blog:

We need books — and I want to publish books — that reflect the whole range of a child or teenager’s emotional experiences and take us through those experiences with them. So the stories come through a child’s heart and speak to a child’s heart; so they have the bravery and honesty to look at a muddle* and acknowledge its pain, and not to be moralistic or easy; and, in the end, to help us all make it through.

– Cheryl Klein, SECOND SIGHT: AN EDITOR’S TALKS ON WRITING, REVISING, AND PUBLISHING BOOKS FOR CHILDREN AND YOUNG ADULTS

Revision Thoughts

TIP:
Keep in mind that characters need to change along the way to their story's end. As a certain brilliant editor says, "A curtain must lift" and enable them to know something they didn't know when they started this journey.




And then there's this quote, from writer Richard Peck:
“A young adult novel ends not with happily ever after, but at a new beginning, with the sense of a lot of life left to be lived.”

(Thanks to Cheryl Klein's website for the quote. Here's another quote to ponder, from Cheryl herself:  Being obvious is the quickest way to be dull.)
 

Quotes for the Day

Every human being has hundreds of separate people living under his skin. The talent of a writer is his ability to give them their separate names, identities, personalities and have them relate to other characters living with him. – Mel Brooks

via Cheryl Klein's terrific post listing so many great quotes about characters.

http://chavelaque.blogspot.com/2011/11/quote-file-characters.html

SCBWI, I love you!

This seems like the perfect day for saying thank you to a terrific organization. The Society for Children's Book Writers and Illustrators has been with me on every step of my writing journey. And now, as I write, a whole bunch of lucky writers are convening in New York for the annual conference.

A couple of years ago, I met my amazing agent at the Maryland/ Delaware/ West Virginia summer conference. They've just announced a March one-day workshop. If you're looking for a truly informational, connected, encouraging group, check it out:

http://aseraserburns.wordpress.com/2012/01/18/registration-for-our-march-31-2012-workshop-now-open/

And of course, there's my current family of connected writers, the Florida SCBWI. What a treat to be on my very first writers' panel at the Miami conference this month. Here we are being introduced by Florida RA Linda Bernfeld:

Today I got to relive the weekend when website guru Curtis Sponsler posted a ton of pictures from the event. Click here to view the slideshow and see some articulate and bright writers/ editors/ agents/ illustrators dressed like Kings, Queens and White Rabbits. Thanks, Curtis!

Click here if you missed my earlier post on the event.

What I'm reading now, via my local library:  

Trent Reedy's Into the Dust, as recommended by so many people, especially Cheryl Klein, presenter and dancer ☺, and Sue Laneve, critiquer extraordinaire. More SCBWI connections. It just never ends!

Revision Techniques, anyone?

Now this is interesting. In a scary kind of way.
Via Cheryl Klein's very thorough book: SECOND SIGHT.
(p. 295, if you're looking it up)

http://writewords.org.uk/phrase_count.asp

Paste your entire manuscript into this word counter and see how often you've used a word. Cheryl recommends it as potentially revealing a hidden theme or image to expand on during revision.



I, of course, used it to show how many times I've OVER-used a word.

The Phrase Counter tab was particularly revealing...

74 uses of THE FRONT

60 of NEXT TO

I've got a lot of fronts going on. Steps, porches, sidewalks.
And those were just 2-word phrases.
When I changed it to 3?
I mean, really? Sixteen IN FRONT OFs?

Yikes. Off to revise. Thanks, Cheryl...

Possibly related posts:  

Still Revising

With Help From a Pro

Reading All Day... but first a writing tip

Today I promised myself to read, all day long. I meant books. Catching up with that pile that's gotten away from me this summer.  This is what I was looking forward to:

G. Neri's GHETTO COWBOY, sent to me by the publisher. FRIENDSHIP DOLL by Kirby Larson, also sent by publisher. A book I'm reviewing for Delta Magazine which is turning out to be quite fun: YANKEE DOODLE DIXIE. And Franny Billingsly's CHIME, from the library, renewed once already, loving it but need to finish.

Then I got distracted by reading Cheryl Klein's Brooklyn Arden blog.  I'm filing this on a stickie note for next week, when I promise myself to write all day long.  In the words of Ray Bradbury (via Cheryl), in answer to a question about discovering the middle of your story,  

“Find out what your hero or heroine wants, and when he or she wakes up in the morning, just follow him or her all day.” 

It's getting late. The books still sit on my deck, waiting. But we've washed windows and I've been to the grocery store and of course I had to share via my blog. 

Now, off to read.  
Hope your weekend is book and fun-filled! Happy July 4th, everybody.

Digging Deeper: Still Revising...

It's a scary thing to be told you need to dig deeper. Especially when you thought that's what you'd already done, writing-wise. And while I truly despise those character study things that ask what your main character ate for breakfast and what's lurking in his dresser drawer (It's not that I don't know this and every other mundane detail about my characters by now, I just hate filling out the little Character Profile sheets that appear in so many places purporting to teach writing craft.), sometimes thinking about a character opens up a plot twist you may not have considered.

Today I found a new way to consider my character's innermost thoughts and dreams, and how I can thwart them. You know, raise the stakes and up the ante? That good stuff?

This from Cheryl Klein set me to thinking about my main character, which made me dream up ways to create more trouble, and that, I hope, will help the Big Revision Picture to develop.

So I'll share her writing tip and hope it works for all of us-- revisioners and planners alike!

Here's what Cheryl has to say about character studies:

If I were making up a character worksheet, I’d try this:
o       LOVES
o       HATES
o       NEEDS
o       WANTS
o       FEARS
o       And then under each of those categories—WHY?
·        What these things add up to is your character’s morality—her ethical philosophy, her worldview
o       What she wants most in life
o       What she will or won’t do to get it
§        (or what can tempt or scare her into doing something)
o       And how she developed that philosophy, those loves, hates, needs, wants, etc.
·        And that’s a plot right there:  motivation; action, and backstory.
 

Distraction!

Uh Oh. On the way to my way to revision, I found myself with a big roadblock. A fun, intriguing, often baffling one, well worth my time, so I'm saying.

I was making such good progress with the Cheryl Klein notes from my evening at her revision workshop. 

Yes, it was getting harder. After printing out the revision in a new font, I was to read it without marking it up, noting the good stuff and the bad stuff. Then I was to list the first ten things each significant character says or does. Fun! I like this so far!

Then Cheryl's handout sheet says run the plot checklist at cherylklein.com.

Still good, though getting harder.

But wait!

I was just about to change my font and print out the entire revision when I got a message on Facebook that the writing software, Scrivener, had a new deal (big savings if you are participating in NaNoWriMo and complete the word count!) and an upgrade. I'd tried Scrivener before and gotten totally bogged down with the complicated bells and whistles. This time, I listened to the easy tutorial that hit the high spots and I gave it a whirl. 

No, it's not going to help with word choice, characterization, or the voice of your novel (BTW, I love how Cheryl Klein defines voice: "Kind of like air- hard to talk about..."),  but it's a neat way to organize.

Before Scrivener, I was a huge fan of stickie notes. I had a zillion legal pads, multiple versions on my computer, in a word-- a mess (but I do kind of like those Frida Kahlo stickies my friend Ivy gave me for my birthday):

Now I'm wrestling this revision into shape. If I don't get bogged down again with all the bells and whistles. So far, I'm a huge fan of Scrivener. 

Now if I could just figure out how to change the color of those pushpins...

Soon I'll get back to my notes from the excellent Revision Workshop. More to come, at a later blogpost.

But now I'm busy adding more notecards.

Part 2: Examination

This is the meaty part of Cheryl Klein's revision process from the SCBWI NYC Metro evening. Remember, much of what Cheryl teaches is on her website: http://cherylklein.com/

I'll pick a couple of highlights as I undertake them. This could take a while.

Are you ready?

Change the font. (I like this!) 

Print out and read the entire manuscript on the page before making any revisions. (note to self: This is not easy. No marking up the page?)

As you read, take notes on both the good stuff and the bad stuff. 

List the first TEN things each significant character says or does (includes internal thought for your POV character). This is a way to find out what your characters are up to at the beginning. Are they sympathetic characters?

OK, off to work. As I said, this may take a while...

Still Revising!

This morning I'm still working on Part I of Cheryl Klein's notes from the NYC Metro SCBWI revision workshop. In a few days, I hope I'll blog about Part II: EXAMINATION, which is considerably more involved, will involve a ton of hard work, and I hope to get to soon. (Lofty aspirations?)

For now, I'm trying to come up with these two points about my manuscript:

All the things you love about it ("amazing things that nobody has done before")

       and

What you suspect needs work ("catalog of faults")

Harder than you'd think when revising without looking at a story you know well but have put in that proverbial bottom drawer for a couple of months...

Back to work! All of us!

Time for Revision, with Help from a Pro

Could they possibly have known exactly what I would need, at exactly the right time?

Just as I was about to pull out a manuscript I'd begun a while back at one of the amazing Highlights Founders Weekends, the NYC Metro SCBWI announced their first Tuesday Professional series, with Scholastic editor Cheryl Klein. Having met her at a Rutgers One-on-One conference a while back, and being a follower of her blog, I had my check written the minute I noted the announcement.

In a word, Wow.

Cheryl told us this is how she works with her authors, the ways she helps them through a revision. My critique group has decided to work on some of her suggestions.

We're beginning with her first topic: VISION.

Please do not quote this blogpost as being verbatim from Cheryl. But here goes, my notes combined with her hand-out sheet.

Take some time off from the project, to get into a "fresh place." (I've been away from this project since June, so I'm good here.)

Don't even look at the manuscript again. First write a letter to a sympathetic friend, BEFORE YOU RE-READ the story. This is a tool for your use.


Here's what you want to tell yourself/ your friend/ colleague/ imaginary listener etc.:
a. What did you want to do with the book, and/or what did you want the book to do.
b. What the story is, briefly. (adventure? romance?)
c. What the book is "about" in a larger sense. (the emotional theme)
d. All the things you love about it, the amazing things that nobody has done before.
e. What you expect needs work: a "catalog of faults."


Now, take b, above and compress the story into one sentence, the "overall action" that is making the story move.


Expanding off this sentence, write a 250-word summary that gives away the ending.
(This is what our Critique Group is doing- due tomorrow- Yikes, I'd better get busy!)

These next two suggestions are helpful ideas that don't actually speak to me, but they may to others:

Make a collage for the book.
Make a playlist for individual chapters, characters, or the book as a whole.

Now you have a revision beginning! I'll share the rest of the talk on another blogpost. Soon. Great stuff!

Cheryl's website: http://cherylklein.com/

Related post: Cheryl Klein

Em Dashes-- All you ever wanted to know.

For those of us raised in the world of proper English grammar and punctuation, where formal writing eschewed things like hastily struck lines to break up phrases, the dash thing can be confusing. However, I've never been a big fan of the semi-colon, and I now embrace dashes of all stripes--- em, en, and the plain old hyphen.

But don't trust me on this. Cheryl Klein, world famous editor extraordinaire, tells it all on this blogpost.

Related post: Cheryl Klein on commas

The Comma Queen

I was once known as the Grammar Queen. I shared that honor with my friend Leslie. We knew the rules, which is important if you want to break them. The comma thing is particularly vexing. Rules change at the drop of a hat. Ditto for dashes.

But writing fiction, and especially creating dialog, requires that you hear where commas are needed and leave them out where they aren't. No matter what Mr. Strunk and Mr. White might think, sometimes, in fiction, you have to break the punctuation rules.

That's why I love this blog post from Cheryl Klein about using commas. It's taken from a book she's about to publish, and I'll be first to check that one out! As Ms. Klein, super editor at Scholastic says:
The ENEMY to sentence rhythm: the wrong punctuation..

Recently I received a critique from a highly regarded agent (not mine!) commenting that I should check for "typos" in my manuscript. Me? The Grammar Queen? I was insulted. But I knew exactly what he referred to-- those commas that separate compound sentences. I'd left them out intentionally. It just didn't sound right.

Joan talked and Julie listened. Glory raced upstairs and Frankie followed her.

Now I know those could use a comma, but it destroys the rhythm of the sentence. At least the way I hear it in my own head's voices! And Cheryl Klein gives even more excellent examples.
It's a short blog post. Click on over there and read. And whether you like serial commas or not, at least we writers need to know what they're intended for in the first place.

You do remember serial commas, don't you?

Answers from an Editor

I'm so glad to see Brooklyn Arden (AKA Cheryl Klein) has taken to blogging again. I missed her there for a while. And her latest post, a Q&A with some of her readers, includes this terrific thought, in answer to a question about what makes a "starred review" book stand out from a run-of-the-mill story? Cheryl's answer-

I think people tend to buy books for their plots, but love them for their characters, writing, and ideas.

So there's just no escaping that devil PLOT, is there...


Related post: The Challenge of Plotting