by hatfield13

Wanted: Photos of Marked Up Manuscript Pages

This is a special request for my published author friends to help teachers of writing…

I got an email today from a school principal who works with a large number of economically disadvantaged kids and English language learners, and she’s determined to help them become better writers through the revision process.  She wondered if there was a place online where she could take them to see what published authors’ marked up manuscripts look like when they come back from a critique group or an editor or just when the author is revising on paper.  I don’t know of such a resource, but I told her I’d see if I could pull something together.  I’m hoping to create sort of a revision gallery or series of blog posts with this information:

  • Author’s Name
  • Website
  • JPG of a marked up manuscript page
  • Title of published book (or soon-to-be-published book) from which the page is taken
  • And (optional) paragraph from the author about the revision process

If you’d like to be included, please take a photo of your marked up page and attach it to an email  (kmessner at katemessner dot com) with your name, title of the book, website, and if you’d like, a paragraph about your revision process.  If you’d prefer to post something like this on your own blog, that’s great, too. Just send me a link & I’ll do a round-up post with all of those. The kids using this will be all ages, so if you write for older readers, please make sure the page you share is one that’s a good choice for teachers to share in the classroom.

Thanks in advance to anyone who can help out with this.  I think it could be a great resource and help to introduce kids to new authors, too!

Editing to add: I’m hoping to share a blog post and PowerPoint via Slideshare on Tuesday, October 20th to celebrate the National Day on Writing – so I’ll need all photos by this weekend if you’d like to help. Thanks!

17 Replies on “Wanted: Photos of Marked Up Manuscript Pages”

  2. Hi Kate,

    I really like this idea! Showing and telling students how writing is a big ‘ol mess of imperfection is one of my favourite things. I think it’s really important for kids and adults alike– anyone learning to write.

    I have a photo of a stylesheet online, and a whole blog post about that aspect of the copy edit: http://www.jillmurray.com/2007/09/10/yo-mama-cant-even-spell-hip-hop-hip-hop/
    (Jill Murray, Break On Through)

    I’ll look for marked up manuscript photos. My latest manuscript was all digital though– the markups aren’t so photographable. Maybe a PDF?

    Best,

    Jill Murray

  4. might I recommend getting in contact with Holly Lisle, if you haven’t already? She runs several courses, including one on revision, and may have just the resources you need.

  9. This is such a great idea, Kate! I’m going to be posting mine during the editing phase of the year-long Teen Author Challenge I host on my blog, so please let me know when this is up and running and I’ll definitely link to it. I’ll email you the page as well.

  13. Great idea!

    Hi, Kate! I saw your request for marked-up ms pages on Twitter – what a wonderful idea! I’ll be happy to forward one. 🙂

    -Kristin Tubb