Today, Linda put on her editor’s cap and gave us her reactions to the 1st pages we’d been asked to submit. She also elaborated on what motivated her reactions: Has the writer truly found a fresh idea for or approach to their story? Did they establish a distinctive narrative (storyteller’s) voice in their opening page? Does the writer’s storyteller voice refrain from commenting or editorializing? Have they really, really, really edited for punctuation, spelling and grammar? Has the writer avoided the dreaded curse of children’s writing, the cute scale? And if an editor reads on, will she find the same quality throughout the manuscript?
Very, very educational to hear all of this straight from the editor’s mouth. I have to say, editors are a very special breed. Think about spending your days wading through piles of what is, sadly, mostly the mundane to find the occasional, sparkling gem. Here’s hoping those of us attending this conference are going to be peppering those needy editors with gems only.
After saying that, it’s a bit embarrassing to admit the page I submitted got shot down faster than Cinderella speaking on mother-daughter relationships at the annual Wicked Stepmothers’ Convention. Yet, I had to agree Linda had some very legitimate reasons; reasons that confirmed the answer to questions I’d been asking myself about that particular work. Now I have a compass point to start from on revising it.
The best part of today, however, was seeing how the art track attendees interpreted the short, about 75 words, writing prompts that were submitted. These artists ranged in experience from published illustrator looking to hone her skills, to formal art students, to self-taught artists like one of my new friends. It blew me away to see the aspects those artists picked out and ran with from such a small sample of writing. The authors of the chosen prompts were beyond blown away. Even when the artwork wasn’t quite what they had pictured while writing, all agreed they loved the results. I know of at least one collaboration that blossomed out of this session. I sincerely hope they make a go of it—the finished project will be a blast to share with children.
I must be feeling more comfortable because this morning I’d worked up the courage to ask David, who did my staff manuscript critique, if he would look over my revisions to the opening chapter. He not only looked it over and jotted some comments down, but took a few minutes to go over it with me and tell me he liked what I’d done. What a generous guy. When we gathered for critique groups this afternoon, I used what he suggested—just a few cuts of extraneous, redundant material. Guess what? Yippee! My group liked my revisions, too!
Frankly, after listening to revisions from the others in our group, I think we have all grown by leaps and bounds in our writing this week. There’s still a lot of work ahead for some of us on completing and honing the revisions we’ve begun, but everyone seemed to have a clear idea of where they were headed and was jazzed about getting there. And I hope to someday be scanning the children’s shelves at the local bookstore and recognize what I once knew as a work-in-progress.
Following critique group, I decided to visit the Hauser Memorial Library for a fast tour. Fast because there were only about twenty minutes remaining until it closed, but visiting it was something I couldn’t pass up. Libraries attract me the way wildflowers attract bees. After wandering around on my own for most of that twenty minutes, I was able to find a staff person who generously took the time to share her knowledge of the building’s history. I was especially interested to find out how many expansions had been done to the library since it was originally built. Eight times, the staff person said. More than I suspected, but then you have to consider the marvelous effort made during all these renovations to preserve and tie-in the old architectural details with the new. This was perhaps most noticeable in the preservation of the original library building. You are walking the dim aisles between the muted colors of book laden stacks, a section of your typical academic library, when suddenly you are facing the brick, exterior wall of another building complete with clerestory windows. Did they just hook the library onto another building? you wonder. A wide doorway leads through the brick wall, and suddenly, you are in the original library with its soaring, cathedral ceiling, exposed wooden beams and trim, arched doorways, and shining brass chandeliers. Sublime!
This evening was the “Open Mike Session†for the attendees. Learning from my poetry reading experience, I signed up to go second. With my manuscripts all needing work, I chose to read something I’d created in response to a writing exercise our group leader gave during critique group. The exercise required you to rewrite a familiar nursery rhyme in a different style, for example: all dialog. I’d written a rendition of “Jack and Jill†that I’d shared with a few of my fellow attendees earlier this week during our lunch break. They all laughed then . . . and so did tonight’s audience. Maybe reading aloud to children all these years has given me a little talent for performance, if not writing.
Several very nice manuscripts were heard this evening. Well, at least the three and a half minutes worth of them we were allotted. I’m going to have to remember these authors and plots and watch for them in the next few years. Then I can brag, I knew them when.
Author’s note: Why do I say I’ll have to watch for “the next few years� If they didn’t know it before, all the newbies to children’s writing (any writing for that matter) hopefully learned this week just how slow the publishing world moves. From submission to acquisition can takes months, then there are more months of those dreaded revisions by the writer; beautiful artwork to be done by the illustrator; book design, marketing strategies, and a host of other considerations to be handled by the publishing house staff; and still you might be waiting for the perfect launch date for your book. Hopefully, by then you have framed your pitiful but cherished advance on the first book, left the worries to someone else, and are well into writing the next one. Who wants to be a one-book-wonder!
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