On Wednesdays this fall, I’m
sharing the process of creating my recently-published book Ick! Delightfully
Disgusting Animals Dinners, Dwellings, and Defenses step-by-step. (To learn about the whole process in one sitting or to share an age-appropriate version with your students, check out this new resource on my website.)
I revised a spread to improve the text scaffolding. You can scroll down and
read that post.
Before I turn a
manuscript into my editor, I usually ask other people to read part or all of it
and provide feedback. When I’m writing a picture book, I share it with a
critique group that meets twice a month at a library near my house. We sign up
for slots a week or two in advance and can submit up to 8 pages at a time.
Since the manuscript for Ick! was more than 100 pages long, it would have
taken at least 7 months to share the whole thing with the group, which would
mean missing my deadline. So instead, I asked Joannie Duris, a trusted member
of the group, to read it over the course of a week and provide suggestions.
Luckily, she agreed.
When I sent the manuscript to
Joannie, I included a list of things to look for. One of those things was
voice. I wanted to make sure that it was strong and consistent throughout the
book.
Here are Joannie’s notes on
the vampire bat spread:
I was so grateful that she
pointed out the lack of voice in the first paragraph.
the first two sentences, but added a new third sentence. It’s more playful, but
includes the same idea as the original manuscript. I cut
paragraph 3 and tweaked paragraph 4, as shown in red. Sometimes changing just a word
or two can make a big difference. In this case, I was able to add a fun sound
effect and some alliteration.
Next, I sent
the manuscript to my editor, Shelby Lees, and we went through several rounds of
revision.
For this
spread, she requested a new beginning. She also thought the final paragraph was
a bit over the top, so I toned it down.
Here’s the final spread.
conclude this series of posts by discussing the kinds of revisions that
happened after I send the manuscript to my editor.
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