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Is there such a thing as too many critiques?
A writing friend and I debated this issue earlier this week. She told me that if one critique partner doesn’t like something, she changes it, even if no one else agrees. Her opinion is that a critique group represents a microcosm of editors. She knows she can’t please everyone, but she tries to incorporate everyone’s suggestions.
My reaction was: yikes! With the wide range of opinions I sometimes receive, it would be impossible to address every critcism. I might wind up with a muddled mess of a manuscript.
My story cannot be all things to all people. We all have our own tastes, which dictates the books we choose to read, the titles we recommend to friends, and the stories we stop reading after Chapter I. If not all people agree on published books, you don’t have to wait for a concensus vote on a manuscript before considering it finished.
I only revise based on solo suggestions if the comment resonates with me. If someone points out something I was already doubting, then that’s the confirmation I need to fix it. A writing peer can highlight something I never thought of, but I immediately see the validity of their argument and make the change.
If a comment doesn’t make sense to me, I ask questions. I have to understand the reasons behind the criticism. And if it still doesn’t feel right, I leave it behind. If six people love something and only one hates it, I’m not going to strive to please that person, especially if I just don’t agree. Ultimately, I’m the author.
Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate all peer opinions and I do my best to incorporate suggestions that I think will work, especially when at least three people wave a caution flag. But just one person? I don’t feel bad about leaving it.
So how do you feel about this issue? Do you try to address every criticism in a revision? And at what point do critiques become counter-productive? How long do you go on seeking opinions, changing and revising? I want your feedback about feedback!
Who doesn’t love first page sessions? Where else can you get two non-stop hours of professional, editorial feedback? They pack quite a picture book pow. (And a middle grade wallop. And a YA smack.)
But how do you get the most out of these sessions? Take care in what you submit and how you submit it. Let the editors focus on your story rather than procedure.
These suggestions are based upon the November 19 NJ-SCBWI first page session with Kendra Levin of Viking and Lauren Hodge of Little, Brown.
1. Format properly. Some submissions didn’t use standard paragraph breaks and indents. While the editors understood that these writers were eager to submit as much story as possible, the manuscripts were confusing to read. Everything ran together. Format your first page just as you would a professional submission. Honestly, you will get more out of less.
2. Use Times New Roman font. A serif font reads well. Courier, the traditional typewriter font, is a monospaced font, meaning each letter is the same width. This wastes space. If you submit with Courier, you’ll have 50% less story on your first page.
3. Research your genre. Some manuscripts felt inappropriate for the genre the author indicated. The topic, word choice and level of sophistication need to match your audience’s age. If you submit with the correct genre, the editors will spend more time assessing your writing than genre counseling.
4. Don’t limit yourself to one gender. One manuscript indicated it was for girls. If you write this on a submission, an editor will immediately think your work doesn’t have broad appeal. Let the editor decide if both boys and girls will love your story.
5. Skip the prologue. Go right to the story. Submit page one of the first chapter, not the backstory.
6. Don’t include an explanation. One picture book began with an intro about why the author had written the story, based upon an experience with her children. And here is where editor Kendra Levin was gracious and tactful. She thought the children in this author’s life were incredibly lucky to have such a playful, creative parent. But stating how children you know enjoy your work doesn’t help sell it. The story does. The intro only left room for five lines of the tale, so the editors could not comment fully. They also emphasized that if the story is written well enough, an explanation becomes unneccesary.
7. Take notes. Don’t just wait for what the editors/agents have to say about your manuscript. Listen to the comments about every page. There’s something to learn from everyone’s manuscript.
There’s more to come from this dynamic first page session. Watch for another post this weekend. And please add your own first page tips!
This week my India-born critique partner submitted an engaging group of multicultural poems.
“Summer Paintings” featured three young girls decorating their palms in the mehndi tradition, embedding secrets in the scrolled henna designs—initials of boys and dreams and all the hushed longings of adolescence. Toward the end of the poem, the girls washed away the paste to reveal the designs. The next line, Finally freed from our impatience, caused debate among our group.
The girls in the poem had a wonderful time waiting for the henna to dry, for the patterns to stain their skin. They laughed and talked, giggled and blushed. Why were they impatient if they enjoyed the journey?
The answer? This is what childhood is about: impatient eagerness.
While children take pleasure in their activities, they are always rushing forward to the next thing. As a child, every experience is new. There is little time to let events soak in when there is something else to explore. They are motivated by an insatiable curiosity.
Moreover, children wish to repeat favorite experiences over and over again, and not soon enough. I’m reminded of this when my family leaves Chuck E. Cheese. Two seconds into the parking lot and my daughter pops like a balloon: “Mommy, when are we going to Chuck E. Cheese again?”
When writing, I will try to remember the impatient eagerness that my critique partner so eloquently showed.
Does your character display an impatient eagerness? What is next big thing for them?
A few weeks ago, the hot topic here was Five Rules for Picture Books. Follow those guidelines and you might just have a winning manuscript. Or you might just have Hop! Plop! by Corey Rosen Schwartz, Tali Klein and Olivier Dunrea.
Let’s take a closer look at this story and how it fits beautifully with “the rules.”
Rule #1: Audience Age is 2-6 years old
A picture book should include situations and characters to which children this age can relate. Hop! Plop! is set at a playground. Familiar? Check. Adorable, friendly animals? Check.
Rule #2: 500 Words is the Magic Number
Hop! Plop! comes in at about 300. Check.
Rule #3: Make it Really Sweet or Really Funny
In this case, it’s really sweet and really funny. Elephant and Mouse navigate the playground together and hilarity ensues. Elephant is too heavy on the seesaw and he pushes Mouse a little too hard on the swing. In the end, the two friends discover that their favorite playground diversion is each other. Awwwww.
Rule #4: Use Playful, Unique Language
Elephant and Mouse’s foibles are expressed through onomatopoeia and rhyme. “Skip! Tip! Zoom! Zip! Mouse did a backward flip.” and “Plop! Drop! Crash! Whop! The swings were a total flop.” Totally fun to read aloud. And not too tongue-twisty.
Rule #5: Create Situations that Inspire Cool Illustrations
Picture an elephant and a mouse on a seesaw. And a mouse sliding down an elephant’s trunk. Funny situations, cute pictures. Final check.
Hop! Plop! is a delightful romp. While this book happens to follow “the rules,” that doesn’t mean other manuscripts which color outside the lines are doomed for the rejection pile. Not at all. Remember, “the rules” are merely guidelines for new writers, to help them understand what editors generally seek in a manuscript. (I should really add to the rules: there must be a story.) I can name plenty of picture books that break at least one of these guidelines, with length being the most common one. But Hop! Plop! fits all the criteria–and it’s darn cute to boot. Check it out.
Please share in the discussion by naming your favorite rule-followin’ title! Or maybe you want to point out a rule breaker, a rebel title that deserves praise!
The KidLit Comment Challenge helped me discover some boss new blogs and websites this weekend.
Everyone is talking about Wordle by Jonathan Feinberg. Input text and Wordle creates a word cloud, your very own piece of literary art, which I’m calling “literarti.” The more frequently a word appears in the text, the larger its relative size.
I had fun pasting my picture books into Wordle. Here is The Prince of Pizza:
You can change the font, color palate, direction of the words, and maximum word count. You can even link phrases with the tilde symbol (~) so they appear together. Keep in mind that Wordle’s gallery is uncensored, so it might not be appropriate for lil’ ones.
A site you will want to share with your young readers is author/illustrator Aaron Zenz’s Bookie Woogie: book reviews by kids, for kids (and their parents). Aaron and his three children, Isaac (10), Gracie (8), and Lily (5), review their favorite books from their impressive 2800-book home library. And when the discussion is finished, they share artwork inspired by the story. Aaron’s artistic talent has definitely rubbed off on his brood! Join them every Monday for a new book.
And then there’s Bendaroos. If you have a child with an insatiable artistic soul, then these colorful, bendable wax sticks promise to keep them busy for hours. You can even make your favorite picture book characters come to life by using the illustrations as a template. Your Bendaroo sculpture will lift right off the page when you’re done. As soon as ours arrive, I’ll post our creations.
Trinka Hakes Noble once described the joy of being a children’s writer: she can relive her childhood. And not just the fun times, but the difficult ones, too. And why would that be a good thing? As an author, she has the opportunity to rewrite her own history—to take an unfortunate situation from her past and finally make it right.
She does just that in the poignant story The Orange Shoes.
Ms. Noble grew up in rural Michigan as the fifth of seven children. The hand-me-downs that defined her childhood became the inspiration for this tale.
Each child in her family received just one sturdy pair of shoes per year, and since they were to be passed down between boys and girls, they were plain loafers. At school she was teased for her boyish Buster Browns. One afternoon while browsing the sole department store in town, she set her eyes upon a pair of lovely orange Mary Janes and instantly fell in love. She does not know how they afforded it, but the next day her parents presented her with that special pair of shoes.
As a young innocent, she showed them off to the children at school so they would finally admire and compliment her shoes. Instead, the children kicked dirt on her shoes, stomped on her feet and destroyed them, leaving her heartbroken.
In The Orange Shoes, marvelously illustrated by Doris Ettlinger, the main character Delly comes from a poor, rural family who cannot afford shoes until October, when the weather demands them. And yet, Delly’s character does not feel sorry for herself without shoes. Instead, she relishes the feel of the cool earth beneath her bare feet.
Like Ms. Noble, Delly is a talented artist. The inside of unfolded, used envelopes are her canvases. Her teacher, Miss Violet, encourages her students to decorate boxes for a “Shoebox Social” which will raise money for art supplies. When Delly sees a pair of orange Mary Janes in town, she immediately wants them to wear to her school’s social, but she knows they will never be hers.
To Delly’s surprise, her father buys the shoes she so admires. The delighted young girl wears her shoes to school and her jealous classmates ruin them.
This is where Ms. Noble fixes the situation from her childhood. Delly becomes a resourceful artist, painting each crack and crease with vines, transforming bigger scuffs into flowers. She decorates her Shoebox Social box to match perfectly. At the event, her box draws the highest bid, but it comes from an unexpected source.
The Orange Shoes was easily my favorite picture book of 2007 and it deserves a place on your shelf. The illustrations and story marry beautifully, and the message is uplifting and powerful. This being said, it is a more complex tale meant for older children, making it a great snuggle-up-together tale which elicits discussion between parent and child. And those are some of my favorite moments with my kids, when we can talk about books that we love.
This post is just one in a series about the 2008 Rutgers University Council on Children’s Literature One-on-One Mentoring Conference. Click the RUCCL tag above to read them all.
My notes have been exhausted. I’ve taken a week to think hard about all the suggestions I received. About all that I learned. So what lessons have I taken away from this experience?
I just gotta be me. I may be a little more educated now, but I can’t change who I am.
One of the questions posed to writers during the five-on-five discussion was where we get our ideas. I find it odd when non-writers ask this question because the answer seems very obvious to us: we don’t know.
A spark fires in our brains, as unexpected as a lightning strike on a cloudless day. We feel an attraction to the idea and it becomes a part of us. We cherish it and nurture it like a mother cares for her child. It is ours and ours alone; we have created it. If you asked me exactly how I arrived at the idea, I might have a concrete example to throw at you. Or I might not. Writers often look for the fabulous realities in everyday life, but I get just as many ideas while I’m flossing my teeth.
I don’t look at the current list of best-sellers to find my next idea. Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight series is wildly popular, but I’m not going to drop my projects to write about vampires. It’s not my thing. It’s hers. Graphic novels are hot. Not exactly my thing, either. Yes, it’s important to be up-to-date with market trends, but follow fads too closely and by the time your work has been completed and published, the fad may have faded. Know the competition, but know how to be different and fresh.
K.L. Going was correct when she told us to write what we like, even if no one else “gets it.” Our enthusiasm is what injects our story with excitement. It’s what keeps us writing. If you try to be someone else just to please a specific audience, you won’t be a happy writer. And that can lead to not being a writer at all.
A few days before the conference, I went shopping for a new outfit. (Yes, this segue has a point.) The business-casual clothes in my closet are six years old, from my life before daughters. They’re dated and they don’t fit anyway. So I bought something very professional-looking in neutral colors. The morning of the conference, I put it on. It didn’t feel right. I didn’t feel right. So I took it off and put on a ruffled magenta-purple blouse and wide-leg jeans. Ahhh. Much better. Now that’s Tara.
So I’m going to run with my ideas. Not only do I love them, I don’t know how to exist any other way. I do have a new appreciation for how to mold my ideas to the market, however. It’s all about balance, but with the scale tilted ever so slightly in my direction.
So what did you learn at RUCCL?
This post is just one in a series about the 2008 Rutgers University Council on Children’s Literature One-on-One Mentoring Conference. Click the RUCCL tag above to read them all.
After lunch, RUCCL attendees separated into groups of five mentor/mentee pairs to discuss industry trends.
The first question was posed to the editors: “What are the biggest mistakes you’ve seen new writers make?”
Senior Editor Erin Molta from Scholastic Book Clubs said she dislikes when writers claim “their book is the next Harry Potter, especially when I read it and think, no, not at all!” Yes, writers are encouraged to compare their manuscript with a successful title, but she’s seen way too many Harry impersonations. On the other hand, she likes when a writer tells her why they have written this story. If the story comes from your heart, the genuine enthusiasm shines through.
Grace Kendall, Editorial Assistant at The Blue Sky Press/Scholastic, emphasized the need for a concise cover letter that tells her “how you see your book positioned in the bigger world.” You might have a great idea and a great character, but is it a good story? She receives great projects without story, and story trumps all. Tell her that “your book is like this [other] book, but it’s different because…” And you’d better have a good because!
Kendra Levin, Associate Editor at Viking and award-winning playwright, said her biggest pet peeve is when people call her on the telephone. One of the writers asked about sending a status query instead. “If it makes you feel better,” she said. “Honestly, if I have your manuscript, I will read it.” She also suggested, “Do your research before you send it out.” Target your manuscript to specific editors. Let her know why you are submitting to her. Information about editors is available online and she suggested looking in a comparable book’s acknowledgements. Authors often thank their editors.
Kiffin Steurer is an Assistant Editor at Philomel (and fellow Dahl fan). He wants writers to “get to the heart of the story as quickly as possible in the cover letter.” His pet peeve is “picture book authors who send [poor] illustrations with the story.” An editor will match your story with an illustrator. So if you’re not a professional artist, don’t send pictures. They can sour the entire manuscript. Let your words stand on their own.
Agent Alyssa Eisner Henkin said her pet peeve is “when someone sends a query to me…and everyone else in children’s publishing!” Agents want to know that you’ve researched their preferences and that you’re not just submitting blindly en masse. She’s impressed with a query when it mimics jacket flap copy, so do yourself a favor and read a lot of jacket flaps!
Kiffin Steurer added that he’s not looking for a message. “I’m looking for good stories. If you have a good story with a message, then it’s just icing on the cake. But if there’s no story, we don’t want it.”
Writing for Kids (While Raising Them) 
The KidLit Comment Challenge
November 12, 2008 in Children's Books, Children's Writing, Picture Books, Publishing, Writing, Writing for Children | Tags: Blog Commenting, Blog Reading, Comment Challenge, KidLit | 2 comments
How embarassing is it that a non-blogging friend turned me onto the 21-day KidLit Comment Challenge? I’m a sorry excuse for a blogger. Bad, bad Tara.
The very cool idea is to build a stronger kidlit community by commenting on at least five children’s literature blogs per day for 21 days.
Here’s the challenge from Mother Reader:
Pretty simple, huh? Ingenious, I say! Who couldn’t use a few new blog friends? And who doesn’t want to be turned onto great new children’s books?
Start zipping from blog link to blog link and you’ll discover talented writers and illustrators, uncover insightful book reviews, and find a new favorite blog topic in Mother Reader’s “WAPB” segment. (No, I’m not gonna tell you what that acronym means. Just click it!)
So please join me. You can start now by commenting below!
And pass it on! Tag, you’re it!