While I Was Away: Novel Revision Class

It’s been a good, long while since I’ve written a post around here. March 5, to be exact. Since then it’s been quick quotes or photos, guest posts or repeats.

March and April have been busy for me. I was on deadline with BLUE BIRDS, taught a Novel Revision class for our local SCBWI chapter, spent a week in Spain, and traveled to Dexter, NM and Santa Fe for school visits.

I thought it would be fun to share about these experiences in detail with you here. I’ll start with my Novel Revision course.

The idea for this course came while I was on a run. I was listening to Cheryl Klein and James Monohan’s Narrative Breakdown podcast on Revision Techniques, and it struck me how perfect this podcast would be as a starting place for a revision class. From there I developed a course for SCBWI members who’d drafted a middle grade or young adult manuscript but weren’t quite sure how to go about revision.

Those who signed up for the course received copies of Darcy Pattison’s NOVEL METAMORPHOSIS and Cheryl Klein’s SECOND SIGHT. Because so many already had Cheryl’s book, I gave those participants Mary Kole’s WRITING IRRESISTIBLE KIDLIT.

Members were paired with partners and exchanged manuscripts. They focused on big-picture changes (character growth instead of punctuation, for example) and wrote a letter to their partner which focused on three things:

• What works
• What needs work
• What stuck out

Participants also wrote “letters to a sympathetic reader,” a technique Cheryl Klein sometimes uses with her authors when they begin the editing process together. The sympathetic letter focuses on

• The real thing / key ideas / effect on reader the author is aiming for
• Where the novel started from / idea came from
• Big ideas the author is exploring
• The things the author loves and wants to keep
• The things the author knows are not working
• How the author sees their main character (their purpose, journey, etc.)
• What the book is now and where it should be
• Mission / vision statement for the book

A sympathetic letter helps a writer to get back in touch with their initial ideas. It can also show how ideas have changed over the course of the draft. Though partners exchanged letters, its primary function is to teach a writer about their own work.

Much of our class centered around tips I gleaned from the Revision Techniques podcast and from Cheryl and Darcy’s books.

My next two posts will be a collection of quotes and links I shared with my students on revision, plot, and character.