I won a query critique from professional story editors Carly Howard and Jeni Chappelle, and this week, they aired their comments on their podcast! What is a query? A query, in case you're unfamiliar, is essentially a cover letter to your book manuscript. It's supposed to entice either a literary agent or editor enough to get them to request pages of your book and/or pick up your project for publication. In other words: a good query is essential for traditional publishing! What is Story Chat Radio? Story Chat Radio is a podcast that reviews story elements in popular movies from a story editor's perspective. (My favorite episodes so far are Princess Bride and Dark Crystal.) At the end of their movie discussion, they look at a winner's query letter and talk about whether it entices them (and why or why not). I was (ahem) such a winner. I may not have been a guest on the show in the traditional sense, but my story was! My query critique is at the end of their discussion of the movie, The Lovebirds. I, personally, have never seen that movie, but their discussion on Point of View is pretty awesome. If you want to jump to where they talk about my query letter, go to 35:28 or see the snippet of the transcript below. In case you're wondering, I shared my query draft of my Dragon book. I used the comp (comparison) titles Jim Hensen's Labyrinth and Dan Gemeinhart's The Remarkable Journey of Coyote Sunrise. My thoughts on the critique? This is a really positive critique! (Yay!) I had toggled back and forth between adding in the internal stakes or leaving them out. I'm glad they asked for it, so I now know that I should have put them in the query letter like I thought. I had been worried about my word count. I wasn't sure how much room I had exactly, especially adding in the brief bio and genre (etc), so it was great to hear that I have some wiggle room for more details about the story. I never thought about being specific about my "allies" in my query letter. I've always learned not to give too many character names or unnecessary details. Anyway, my main character meets up with her grandpa in the afterlife, who is a pretty important side-character to the book! I never thought about adding him into the query, but since they're asking, I'll slip him in there. Oh, yeah...
I forgot to mention how I won the critique. All I did was retweet something that said "follow and retweet to win." That's it! Nothing fancy. ha ha! So this was a cool experience! I've been followed Carly and Jeni on Twitter for a while now. I actually belong to Jeni's online writing community on Slack, so it was pretty cool to have them look at my writing. I was nervous, but I think I did okay. I'm really grateful for the help. I'm looking forward to their next episode!
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In part 1, I talked about finding beta readers and in part 2, I talked about having readers sign up and giving them resources, dates, and expectations. For this post, I wanted to talked about the nuts and bolts. It's nice to have readers and an informative email with links and stuff, but if you can't get your book to your beta readers, it's all for nothing! Scriviner I use Scriviner to write my books. If you haven't heard of it, you should check it out. I recently upgraded to Scriv3, and I love it! I probably only use about 10-15% of the features, but it's worth it to me because it breaks up the text into manageable bites. I like putting my chapters/scenes into folders, color coding them, and stamping them with draft type (eg. 1st, 2nd, etc). I'm also pretty much obsessed with composition mode! Compiling the Book Another spiffy advantage to using Scriviner is that it makes it really easy to compile your book. It looks scary, but it wasn't that bad. It helped that I found a really great video that walked me through everything I needed to do, but, honestly, it's about trial and error. I complied my book several times before I got it to look the way I wanted, and that's fine! It's a process, and that only took me a little longer because I had to take a little more time figuring out how to get the table of contents to look right. I recommend compiling the book twice. Make a mobi and epub. These are the two doc types that work best with most mobile and computer ebook apps. When you do the mobi, you will need to download Kindlegen. I don't know how this will work on a PC, but the Mac process was pretty straightforward.
I uploaded the mobi and epub (no PDF). I didn't know how to do a jpeg, so I don't have a cover on my ebook, but I figured for my purposes that was fine. I like that I can choose how many downloads and I could have more than one ebook floating out there. I chose some expiration dates, but I'm glad I can change them if I want. Evaluation of my process
I knew Scriviner was awesome, but I always told myself I'd "figure out" the compiling after I finished drafting and revising because I thought it would be really challenging to compile the book. I'm relieved that it didn't take that long and that it wasn't too difficult. Scriviner is designed by and for writers, so it makes sense that it would have the exact compiling options I needed. BookFunnel is really cheap! It cost me $20 a year for 500 downloads or something like that. That's plenty for my needs! The only problem I had with BookFunnel was that it seemed too easy. I uploaded my files, made my landing page, and got my link to share out in less than an hour. I thought I had messed up somewhere! But I didn't. The ebook option is great for beta readers because it saves on printing paper and buying binders (which is what I was planning to do originally) and allowed for mass sharing. It also allowed my readers to access the book anytime/anywhere. Concluding thoughts So there you have it! Sending out to beta readers is more than just saying, "hey, you, read this!" and throwing them an ebook. I guess it could be that way for some people, but I wanted the experience to be as rewarding as possible. In the future, I want to have thank you gifts for my beta readers. It might be cheesy, but I'd like to give bookmarks or (if I was rich enough) $5 gift cards to an indie bookstore or something like that. I invited all of my beta readers to subscribe to my blog because I thought they might enjoy reading more about my writing and publishing journey. Plus, all new subscribers get a behind-the-scenes excerpt. I wish I could do more! If you're one of my beta readers, thank you for reading my book! I really appreciate your support, encouragement, and eye for detail! In part 1, I talked about finding beta readers. In this post, I want to focus on how to work with those beta readers. I don't think I need to say this, but just in case, remember that when someone agrees to beta read your book, you need to be grateful. In my case, I was probably overly grateful, but that's better than the opposite, I think. I suppose it could be easy for someone to forget that beta readers have lives and may not get to your book the moment you send it out. You want to argue with readers about what they say about the book, but don't. I know these are our babies! It took me four years to complete my first draft, so I'm pretty protective of my work. Still! When I asked people to read my book, I acknowledged the greatness of the task and groveled at their feet for anything they could give me. Signing up This leads me to the sign up form. When I started asking people to beta read (even close friends), I asked them to fill out a simple (online) form. All it asked for was their name and email address. I did this for a couple reasons.
Expectations: Providing resources I knew that for most of my beta readers (particularly those in my first hand-picked set), this would be their first experience in reading an unpublished work and giving feedback on it. Along with telling them that a beta reader was simply a test reader, I also provided some resources. The links to these resources were subtly mentioned (and given) in the form and then popped up again in the email with the downloading instructions. I never said they had to read the articles, but I said they may want to, especially if they were new to beta reading or were unfamiliar with my genre. Here are the resources I provided (and how I worded it in my email): Before getting started, you may want to...
More on Expectations: the Email So, after the sign up form and setting up my ebook draft (more on that in part 3!), I sent out an email. Maybe it's because I'm a teacher, but I wanted to make sure my readers knew what I expected of them and make sure they had what they needed in order to do what I was asking them. I shared the resources mentioned earlier, for example, as well as some other stuff... I definitely didn't want my beta readers looking for misplaced commas or grammar errors, so I told them to please not to do that. I also gave them a list of things I did need their help with. My list varied between the two beta reader sets, but I said I was looking for a better title, wanted them to note where the story seemed to slow down too much, or if there were any moments where they got confused about what was happening in the story, etc. Most importantly, in the email, I provided instructions for downloading the ebook and gave some flexible but hard-fast dates. I told them I wanted their feedback as soon as possible, but also gave them a month if they wanted me to incorporate their suggestions, but also told them that I would take feedback anytime. Lastly, I included a link to the quick-comments-form. Similar to the sign up form, I drafted some multiple choice and short answer questions. If you want to see what questions I asked, see my quick comments google form template. Evaluation of my process
As I mentioned, the signing up form turned out useful for not only confirming readers' email addresses, but also subtly made my readers commit to the beta reading experience. Providing resources turned out to be useful for those who were new to beta reading. It gave them the option to learn more if they wanted to but it wasn't required or pressured, so I didn't get any pushback from readers about having given them something "extra" to read. I recommend doing something like this because it for sure increased my chances of getting better feedback in the end! Drafting the email took a long time, but once I had it, I could use it for both sets, all I had to do was tweak what I wanted my beta readers to look for in the draft I was giving them. The hardest part was, actually, after sending the email, because I wanted to call up everybody and make sure they got it and that they were able to download the ebook draft. Instead, I made my husband check his email and download the book and assumed that it worked for everyone else. I put a note in the email that if they had any questions or problems to let me know, so I assumed that no news was good news, and it turned out to be true. The quick comments form was awesome because it put all of my feedback in one place. I still gave people the option to email me back, by the way. If that happened, I plugged in their answers into the form myself so everything stayed organized. Feeling anxious When the comments started rolling in, I got really nervous and a little overwhelmed. I reached out to more experienced writers and was told that what I was feeling was totally normal! One friend said to read the emails/feedback when I notice them because otherwise they will haunt me, but then set it to the side for a couple days and let them simmer. That proved to be good advice! Sometimes our reactions to criticism is to fight back or (for me) cry. It's best to read it, let it sit, and then come back to it in a couple days with a more level-head and make the tough decisions. More to come in Part 3! A while back, I wrote about beta readers (what they are, etc.) and specifically about my experience as a beta reader. When I wrote that post, I figured my turn to ask for and work with beta readers wasn't going to be for a long, long while, but here I am! I have a book with a beginning, middle, and end, and I revised that 1st draft and edited (as my dad would say) "the snot out of it." Pretty soon, it came time to ask for some "test readers" and see what they think. Disclaimer: I'm extremely new to this process and am by no means an expert in working with beta readers. In this post, I will outline my current process for sending out my manuscript to beta readers. This process may change as I gain more experience.
Hand picking I decided to send out my manuscript in "waves" or in sets. I'm the kind of person that can easily get overwhelmed with too much feedback, and my confidence as a writer is still somewhat fragile, so I "hand picked" my first set of beta readers. Through my four-year drafting journey for this first book, I had friends who supported me and said things like, "I want to be your first reader!" or "you better not let anyone else read your book before I do." These were the first people I reached out to and they were more than happy to be not only be test readers but also a guinea pig in my beta reading process. I wanted to make the experience the best I could make it.
So I reached out to those referrals next, but I knew I had to eventually step out of my comfort zone and, you know, have people who didn't all ready love me or people who would love me because they knew the people who did love me--- read it.
In other words, I needed "strangers" to read my book and give me feedback on it. Again, finding them was easier than I expected! I belong to several online writing communities, so it was pretty simple posting something about me looking for beta readers and sharing a quick description of my book, just like I'd seen others doing, in appropriate forums. It's a busy/crazy time (school starting, COVID-19, etc.), so I wasn't expecting too many people to sign up, so I was happy when anyone did. I had one writer tell me about his avid-reader-daughter (13 and 1/2 year old) and when I reached out to her via email like her dad suggested, I told her she was welcome to share the sign up with any of her friends, and she got four of them to be beta readers for me, so that was pretty awesome! Evaluation of my process There were seven people in my first (hand-picked) set of beta readers. For my second, I had about fifteen. I revised my book, by the way, in-between giving these different sets of beta readers, so the first set had a different book draft than my second set. I don't know if you're supposed to do that, but that's what felt right to me. Some of my first set of beta readers were curious about the changes I made and offered to reread the book as part of the second set, which I was happy share again. (I didn't count these rereaders as second set beta readers). Whether handpicked, referrals, or strangers, I highly recommend having a sign up form! (more on that in part 2) It made it really easy see who I needed to set the book to. I also used a quick comments form (again, more on that later), which also made the beta reading process smooth on both their end and mine. Overall, I'm happy I got anyone to agree to read my book! I remember sending it out to the first set and turning to my husband a little while later and saying, "someone could be reading my book right now!" It was thrilling to think about others falling in love with my characters and just as rewarding to hear back that they did. Beta reading makes me feel like I'm a published author.... almost. I think the next time I send out, I need to be braver and do a little more work to get readers. If you're new and fragile like me, though, I still say to start with people you trust and go with their referrals after. It's really the best way to get into it! As many of you may know, I'm an academic writing coach and ESL teacher. As we've seen a spike in online tutoring sessions over the past few months, what with the pandemic and all, I've noticed a pattern of advice I often give students when it comes to writing... which I really need to apply to my own writing process!
I thought I'd take a moment to explore a few of those. They're all things that I'm really good at telling other writers to do but don't always do myself when I'm drafting my book. 1. Give yourself permission to "write it wrong." This is a piece of advice I've often given to students suffering from perfectionism, or those rushing to get the assignment "done" and "over with." They want to get it "right" the first try, and I can totally relate! I've often sighed over the fact that words don't flow perfectly onto the page like they do when I'm reading a favorite book. The key part in this advice, I just realized, is giving yourself permission. This is an essential part of the writing process, though, because if you don't write anything down, you can't fix it. So give yourself permission to make mistakes. This is how we learn! (That's something I also tell students a lot.) 2. Writing is trial and error This is something Victoria told me once. We were talking about Point of View, I think, and she said it's usually a good to write a chapter or two in first person and then write the same chapters in limited third person, etc. It's often the only way you'll know if something is working or not. This of course, can apply to other aspects other than point of view. I've added in a character, taken him out again; written a scene one way and wrote the same scene a totally different way; wrote in present tense and switched it to past tense, etc. My students might need to do similar trial and error types of activities with their writing. This is a hard piece of advice--for myself, not just for my students-- because it's a lot of work! ha ha! I sometimes talk students into doing this with their outlines. It's usually faster to write a bunch of different outlines to see the best way to organize your essay than writing entire drafts more than once. But, essentially, good writing is rewriting. Yeah... this is something I need to remember, for sure! 3. Ideas come when we don't expect them, so be ready! This is one my favorite things to tell students. It's pretty common for me to talk about prewriting and brainstorming activities in a tutoring session. I encourage doing t-charts, mind maps, outlines, and free writing. But rarely do I ever sit down and do them. ha ha! But one thing I'm really good at is recognizing ideas when they come when I'm not expecting them. I get ideas in the shower, while I'm doing dishes, talking with a friend or my husband, and when I'm trying to go to sleep. (That last one can be pretty darn annoying.) I actually did keep a little notebook with me everywhere I went for a long time. Now I try to record ideas in my phone. By the way, Liz Gilbert has a really awesome Ted Talk about where ideas come from. It's worth checking out if you haven't seen it before. 4. No one writes it perfect the first time This is pretty similar to the first advice I listed, but this goes beyond giving yourself permission to write badly. It's recognizing that the first time is going to be bad, and that's normal! Again, this is something I'm trying to remind myself of. Each time I give this advice to a student, it's like a flick on my own nose. Come on, Kassie! You can't tell students this if you don't believe it yourself. I'm trying, I'm trying... So there you have it! Four things I tell students that I really need to work on telling myself when I'm working on my work in progress. Teacher or not, what advice to you tell other writers that you're still working on doing yourself? A common piece of advice I've heard (and I'm sure you have, too!) is write what you know. In some respects, this is pretty useful for my writing process, but in other ways it isn't. The idea behind it is that you don't have to go far to find interesting things to write about. If you are a teacher, for example, write about that. If you are drummer, write about that. This makes sense! Some writers, though, want to go outside of their comfort zone and write something...less boring. To this, my creative writing teacher would say that if you survived grade school, you have more writing material than you could use in a lifetime. Valid point! There are a lot of interesting things in childhood and school experiences to write about: friendships, heartbreaks, bullying, embarrassing moments-- just to name a few. In this respect, write what you know has served me well. Write what fascinates you I watched an #EverywhereBookFest author panel called "Plot the Spot." There were four published authors on the panel and they each gave a tip for writers struggling with plot or coming up with ideas. One of the authors, Stuart Gibbs, said something about the write what you know thing. He said he could see where that advice came from but when he does school visits and he talks with kids about their project ideas, he says they all sort of end up writing about the same thing. They probably are writing what they know; it's what their teachers told them to do. Stuart Gibbs said, "...what I like to do instead is write about what fascinates me." He used his book about dinosaurs as an example. Dinosaurs are something he has loved since he was a kid. Fossils especially fascinated him so he did some research and interviewed somebody who works with dinosaur fossils, and that's where he got the best ideas for his book. I feel like my current work in progress (WIP) is a mixture of what I know and what fascinates me. #OwnVoices If you're unfamiliar with this hashtag, you should check it out! Basically, it's the call for more stories told by unrepresented cultures and languages. So... for example:
Am I worthy? My question, then, since day one of my WIP has been "Am I worthy?" or "Am I the right person to tell this story?" #Nanowrimo drills it in us that, yes, we are! Just write. No one can tell the story quite like you. But sometimes I'm not so sure... I read somewhere that if there's a story you want to tell but you don't feel worthy to tell it, then become worthy of it. There's definitely truth to this because I've seen successful writers becoming worthy of the stories they want to tell and they do it beautifully! Some examples:
Becoming worthy
My current WIP is about the Chinese zodiacs. It's something that fascinate me. I think visiting the Great Wall and other places in China has greatly influenced this fascination. I'm also an ESL teacher, so there's that. I've had really cool teaching and tutoring opportunities to tap into and learn about the Chinese culture through my students from China. But I don't think that's enough. So I've done a ton of research on Chinese zodiac personalities and mythologies, using varying resources to cross reference, infer, and compare. My best friend is in China (and is Chinese), and when I told her during one of our weekly chats that I was working on this project, she was really excited and supportive! She lets me ask random questions to her whenever I want, and I do. Same with another friend from China that lives here in Arizona. He's helped me a ton with the martial arts stuff I want to include. But I don't think that's enough. I wanted my story to be set near Chinatown, so I visited LA's Chinatown and called someone on the phone concerning a character's occupation. When I decided to write for MG, I met with a class of potential readers and asked them questions about their interests and knowledge of the Chinese zodiacs. That isn't enough, I don't think because this week I've been updating my characters' sheets, backstories, and voice, and I discovered that in my first draft, I accidentally slipped in Western dragon characteristics in my Chinese Dragon. Oops! Instead of panicking (okay, I did for a moment but when I was done), I took a step back and did some more research on dragons and pinpointed the things I want to change in my story which will (hopefully) give it a more Eastern feel to it. More work I'm beginning to believe that I am becoming worthy to tell this story, but there is still more work to be done. More reading. More videos. More interviews. More on location research (if COVID-19 will let me). But most important... I need beta readers, sensitivity readers to be exact. That's what they're called in the writing community because they are #ownvoice perspectives. A general guideline is to have them if you're going to include a character from or address a culture (in general) other than your own. (That's me!) My Chinese friends I told you about have already offered to read my book when I'm ready, but I think I'll need others. This post isn't about me not being worthy to be a published author. That's not what I meant by my question. Writing is hard, yes. And publishing is difficult, yes. But I can do it. No, I'm talking about recognizing what I need to do if I want to make my story the very best it can be. Which I am. Am I worthy to tell the story I want to tell? Almost. Give me a little more time. I'm becoming worthy of it. About two years ago, I read Amanda Rawson Hill's Middle Grade debut: The Three Rules of Everyday Magic. It's one of those books that spoke to my fifth grade heart, and which I plan on sharing with my kids someday. Amanda Rawson Hill has done it again with her debut Picture Book, but this time she spoke to my child, teenage, young adult, and maturing heart. The truth is, the older I get, the more I want my mom and dad with me. That's not to say I had a bad relationship with them when I was younger, but I remember many times in my life when all I wanted was for them to "get lost." I wanted to "get out of the house," and "be with my friends." I pretended not to like my dad's kisses and hid the fact that I was inhaling my mom's smell when she hugged me.
I visited China after graduating from college, and I felt like my Dad was with me because when he was fighting the war in Vietnam, he got to go "on leave" to Hong Kong. So I grew up with him telling me about the crazy landing strip with water on both sides and the beach where he and a buddy went for a swim. I moved a state away in hopes to discover myself but instead, I said things like my mom and did things like my dad. It used to bother me. Why couldn't I be me without them? But over time, that feeling turned from anger and frustration into heartfelt gratitude and longing to be even more like them. Basically, you can find me in Amanda Rawson Hill's new book. I'm always looking for my mom and dad... in everything I do now. I look for them in my book collection, in my baking skills, and love for traveling. I find them when I get mad or sad. I find them when I'm scared but, thankfully, they are (as my mom reminds me all the time), a "phone call away."
Today is the book birthday for The One and Only Bob. This is, of course, the highly anticipated sequel to The One and Only Ivan. In normal circumstances, the author of the "book birthday" would visit schools across the country, like a rock star on tour! I don't know if she would have visited where I live. Maybe. But because of COVID-19, she's had to put a halt on her traveling. Instead, Katherine Applegate had a "virtual" meeting about the book, and yours truly somehow managed to weasel her way into it! Katherine's writerly beginnings Surprisingly, Katherine Applegate was not a reader as a child. She admits it and says she makes a point to tell kids this at her school visits! Usually there's a gasp and (unfortunately) some clapping. She didn't have dyslexia. Reading wasn't hard for her; it was just boring. But then, as she tells the story, she found her "best friend book." It was Charlotte's Web. "You may think that's your best friend book, too," Katherine says, "but it's really mine." It's what got her to see story telling in a new light. My best friend book? It's hard for me to pick one! Unlike Katherine Applegate, I was an reader as a kid. Still am! I probably had best friend books all the time! But I'd say that The Summer of the Monkeys was up there for me. That and The Outsiders and Anne of Green Gables. If you write, you're a writer! Even though she wasn't a reader, Katherine was a writer. She wrote stories all the time! During the Q&A of the virtual meeting, someone asked her when she knew she wanted to be a writer. In answer, Katherine first of all explained that you don't have to be published to be a writer. When she was a kid, she wrote a story about a pig. She says there was probably a plot, but she doesn't remember it. But when she finished that draft, she says, "that's the day I became a writer!" Writer's block? No such thing! When asked about what she does for writer's block, she claimed that it doesn't exist! "I know it's not a popular thing to say," she admits. "But it's true." She went on to explain that they're just problems. Nothing more, nothing less. Writers, she says, are "narcissistic," so we think our problems are bigger than others, so much so that we have to give it a name: writer's block. "We don't have teacher's block," she reasons. "Mother's block or plumber's block. They're just problems." Once you can recognize it for what it is, then you can work through it:
Behind the scenes Because it's Bob's book birthday, we talked about Bob. He's, remember, the little dog in The One and Only Ivan. Even though Ivan was inspired by a very true story, Katherine had chosen to write his story in a fictionalized way. She felt that Ivan the gorilla needed a friend, so she gave him Bob. He started out as a cockroach. Then a mouse. She needed something that could slip into a small hole of Ivan's cage. Since she was fictionalizing the story anyway, Katherine decided to make the hole a little bigger and make Bob a small dog. She based his character on her own feisty and somewhat grumpy pup, Stan. The One and Only Ivan, as some of you may know, is now a motion picture! It's scheduled to be "out" in theaters August 2020. Of course, we don't know what that will look like in our uncertain circumstances right now, but as Katherine says, that's when it's scheduled to come out! Danny DeVito voices Bob in the movie. (What a cool idea! He's perfect for Bob!) They asked, and he agreed to also do the audiobook of The One and Only Bob! At the end of the virtual meeting, the hosts, SLJ, supplied an audio excerpt and a "Behind the mic with Danny DeVito." So much fun! My writing journey
I think going to book launches (even virtually) like this really helps me in my writing journey. It's not only something I can shoot for, but it reminds me that the authors of the books I love are normal people who also struggle with writing. It's tough to write a book! When Katherine was asked if she would be writing a third book about Ivan and Bob, she laughed and said, "Look, writing a book is like giving birth. You need a little time to recover." ha ha! When asked if writing this second book was challenging for her, she said, "Well, it took me eight years. That probably says something." But she did it. And I can, too. A couple months ago, I attended WriteOnCon, an affordable online conference for writers. I think it was my second or third time attending this yearly conference. Anyway, at the end of a how-was-it-survey, I was asked if I wanted to put my name in for a few raffles. I said, okay. There were a lot of things offered (i.e chat with an agent, first 5-page critique from professional editor, etc.) I wasn't expecting to win anything, but I did! I won a phone call with children's author Kelly Starling Lyons.
Talking with Kelly I admit that I was bit nervous to talk to Kelly because, as many of you know, middle grade (MG) is my thing, not Picture Books (PB). She's done a bit of chapter books, and I have this one idea for a chapter book series (possibly), so I thought we could chat about that. But as I approached the week before our scheduled phone call and I started drafting questions to ask her, I found that I really am interested in writing picture books! I sent my questions to her beforehand, and while we talked, I took notes. Before I jump into what I learned, I just want to say how easy it was to talk to Kelly! She was interested in me, how I'm doing in my writing journey, and congratulated me for completing my first draft of my MG book. What's it like working with an illustrator? I've always been curious about this, so I asked Kelly. First of all, I learned that the publisher usually picks your illustrator. They decide who would be the best fit, based on the manuscript you've given them. I don't know--- I always imagined the illustrator and writer submitting a manuscript together or something, but they're separate. The illustrator, employed by the publishing house, will illustrate, according to the words that the writer has written. Sometimes, after you've published a few picture books, the publisher (or agent) may ask you if you have an illustrator in mind, but even in those cases, you rarely get to choose who you want to illustrate your book. To me, it almost sounds like a blind date! Except, you don't actually work directly with the artist. Kelly explained that artists and authors are kept separate because they don't want the author to take control over the vision of the art. Basically, the writer works with an editor, and the illustrator works with an art director, and then the final product slowly takes shape. When it comes to historical fiction, though, Kelly says she usually gets to see more of the art work as they draft. What's the process for writing picture books? Which comes first, the chicken or the egg? In case of picture books, the pictures or the words? Kelly says the words. You write out your MS, just as you do with any other book. The main difference is that you write with illustrations in mind. Oftentimes, you'll see picture book manuscripts submitted with storyboards: simple stick pictures to show what might be happening with the words you've written on the page. A lot of agents accept manuscripts digitally now, but Kelly said when she started out, she had to send in her submissions by mail and often got rejections back by mail, too. Now it's all done by email. Are picture books easy to write?
Kelly I spent a while talking about this because I've heard on social media (etc), that picture books are not easy! Kelly says that we sometimes go into writing picture books with the idea that it will be easy. Maybe it's because it's for a younger audience and, therefore, it must simpler. So, writers draft a picture book, don't put (maybe) too much thought into it, don't do their research into the market, don't have mentor texts from the current market (etc). They submit and are suddenly so surprised that they got rejected! Wow, it's harder than they thought. In reality, those who understand the craft of writing picture books stand a better chance of getting picked up. That's true anywhere in the publishing world (I've learned). Of course, there will still be rejections. That happens to us all! But Kelly says, "Good stories find homes." What a great mantra, right?! As far as the craft of writing picture books goes, Kelly says it's pretty similar to writing poetry! We work with imagery, simile, and word choice. I mean, poetry applies to all types of art form, but I can see how it's especially applicable to picture books. This was good news to me because that's where I "restarted" my creative writing journey. I took poetry classes at the community college I loved it! It's really challenging, of course, but fun, too. So picture this: me writing picture books. Why not? Four score and seven years ago... (Okay, not that long ago, but it feels like it!)
...In my Introduction to Children's Literature class (four years ago this month!), I had to create a character that broke gender stereotypes: a girl who likes "boy" activities or a boy who likes "girl" activities. Little did I know that this character would lead me into a four-year drafting journey. After years of false starts, tears, and persistence, I'm proud to say that last week, I completed a first-draft of my middle grade book! It hasn't always been easy, and I probably did a lot of things you're not supposed to with a first draft, but my WIP now has:
That's all you need in a first draft, isn't it? Shannon Hale says, a first draft is simply "shoveling sand into a box so that later [you] can build castles." And Terry Prachett says, "The first draft is just telling yourself the story." Pretty long story, don't you think?! Well, never mind that. What matters is that I've got the story down. (Finally!) But "now what?" you might be asking. Luckily, I took that editing workshop over winter break, and I have other writer friends who have given me advice on what to do next. Combining the two sources, my plan begins with:
Then, it'll be time to find some beta readers, (I have a few lined up) make more changes, jump into the query trenches, and find a dream agent! I know that there's still a lot of work ahead of me, but I'm taking a moment to exhale. You know in yoga how you take in all the air, hold it, and then let it all out. That's what I'm doing right now in my writing journey. What a relief it is to finally have a beginning, middle, and end to my WIP! It almost doesn't feel real. The day after I finished, I woke up and turned to my husband and told him that I had a dream that I finished my first draft. He laughed, held me tight, and said, "That was no dream, Babe. You did!" I did? Yeah, I did! Maybe, because I did that, I can do this. Meaning, if I can finish a first draft, I can finish another and another --- until it's a solid book, ready for querying, editing, and publishing. That's my plan, Stan! For those of you in the drafting stages, slogging through that mirky middle and reaching for that mythical unicorn holding the words "The End" in glittering gold letters under a rainbow--- there is hope. There might not be a unicorn, but "The End" is possible. Look-- If I can finish a first draft, anyone can! So don't give up. You've got this. |