My Revision Process

As most of you know, I'm almost to the point where I'm ready to begin my agent search. I thought I was ready around Thanksgiving, but a dear writing friend advised me that I should have three perfect picture book manuscripts before I begin. Agents want to know you're not going to be a one hit wonder. With that in mind, I went back to my little writing pad and began scribbling away. (Yes, I write my first draft with pen and paper.) My latest story involving twins Jordan and Jeffrey is really coming out nicely. I'm in my revision process, and just thought I would share with you. After I write out my "shitty first draft," as the eloguent Anne Lamott calls it, I type it into my computer. Then I go through and clean up spelling and punctuation and all that. It might seem silly to do that first, but by doing that it makes the story easier to read and easier to find the big mistakes. After that I go through and change things that don't make sense or take out extra chunks that have no purpose. I tend to be super wordy when I write and when you are writing picture books, you gotta get in , say what ya want and get out! After that I begin isolating. I print a hard copy, I take my favorite pink pen and I circle all the verbs. This is usually where I notice I have used the same word fifteen times. Then I will go in and look at my dialogue to make sure it's true to each character. Around this time when it's beginning to make sense I read it out loud to my family. It's extremely helpful to hear how it sounds and to get feedback. My hubby actually pointed out a part where I talked about the peanut butter jar being empty and then had the kids still using the same jar. (See, hubbies are good for something besides bug killing and car repair.) Now I am working to make sure I have the five senses involved throughout the story. This step ensure that your setting comes to life for your reader.

I am having a lot of fun with this story. It turns out that my twins really love to bicker, and the girl twin is very bossy. (Hmm, sounds like someone I know. Hello daughter.) In January I'm coming into just a little bit of money (don't tell the hubby) so I plan to use that to send my story out for professional editing. Have I mentioned how much I love Eileen at F1rst Pages? She rocks. I learned so much from working with her on Color Me Cori that I was able to apply those same corrections to this story. I think she will be impressed with how much I have grown. I know I'm impressed with myself!! Until next time.