As many of you know, my first teacher resource book, REAL REVISION: AUTHORS’ STRATEGIES TO SHARE WITH STUDENT WRITERS, comes out this May. It’s a book designed to help teachers – and anyone who teaches writing, really – share strategies for revision that go beyond quick proofreading and spell-checking. What I love most about this [...]
Tag Archives: revision
Dystopian World Building Worksheet: Part I
My revision letter and first line edits just arrived for EYE OF THE STORM, my upper-MG dystopian novel coming out with Walker/Bloomsbury in 2012. I’ve been dying to get back to this book, but before I touch the manuscript to make a single change, I’m going to be writing many, many pages of world-building thoughts. While [...]
Posted in Uncategorized
Also tagged dystopian world building worksheet, eye of the storm
Comments closed
Friday Five: Things I cut out of my novel this week
I’ve spent my afternoons this week at a great little coffee shop in Boston, doing another revision pass on my upper-MG dystopian novel. Early in the week, I made a plot map showing where things move along nicely and where they slow down, and I decided that cutting some fat would really help the book’s pacing. [...]
Celebrating the National Day on Writing: A Revision Gallery
A couple weeks ago, a school principal & teacher in California asked me where she could find pictures of real manuscripts from real authors going through the revision process to share with her students so they’d be more excited about revising. I didn’t know of such a resource, but as a teacher, I absolutely loved [...]
Revision Process: Tackling character and balance in SUGAR ON SNOW
I’ll tell you right up front…this is going to be one of those long rambling posts about the writing process, photos included. If you don’t want to be mired in a tour of my messy revision-mind, you should probably just move on now. Nothing to see here…Still hanging around? Okay… here’s the revision story. Last [...]
Knowing your Secondary Characters
So I’m knee-deep in my revision of SUGAR ON SNOW right now. I’m sitting on the sun porch with my coffee and a nice breeze from the lake, merrily checking off all the little revision jobs my editor asked me to consider in her editorial letter. I’ve been moving right along, which is a good [...]
Making the Leap: Time to Change Manuscripts
My plan all summer long has been to get as far as I can on my new middle grade mystery and then set it aside when my editorial letter arrived for SUGAR ON SNOW, the figure skating novel that will be my second book with Walker Books for Young Readers. I knew I’d need to [...]
To outline or not to outline…?
Consider this a combination writing-process-post and request for help. There’s always a debate about whether it’s better to plunge right into writing a new draft or to craft a meticulous outline first. I know of hugely successful authors who do both, and I think a lot of it comes down to what works for the individual writer. [...]
Revision at the National Archives
Last weekend, aside from researching my new book in Washington, D.C. I got to visit someplace I’ve always wanted to go.The National Archives is home to the Charters of Freedom exhibit, including the original Declaration of Independence, Constitution, and Bill of Rights. They were breathtaking, but it was this document set off to the side, [...]
The truth about evil editors
I’ve noticed that when I talk about writing with people who aren’t writers, many ask about the role of editors in the book-making process.“Doesn’t it upset you when an editor wants you to change something in your book?”Sometimes, when I say no, people say, “Hmph.” Like I’m lying, afraid the evil editors will find out [...]