Word for 2011

My wonderful mentor, Claudia Mills, comes up with the most delightful ideas. For example, as she talks about in her blog, she chooses a word each year that will be her word the year. This year she has chosen the word "grope". Today, the first day of 2011, I decided to pick a word, too, and the word I chose is "celebrate." It's fitting because less than an hour ago Claudia sent me an email, and after reviewing my most recent revisions to my tween novel, SEASHELL SECRETS, she proclaimed it DONE! And that is certainly something to celebrate! I wrote a blog a while back talking about how important I believe it is not only to celebrate the big things (like contest wins and your first book offer), but also the small accomplishments along the way (settling on a topic for your next book, completing the first chapter, the first draft...sending it out). This is true not just in writing, but in daily life. We certainly scold ourselves for mistakes made, but all too often, we forget to pat ourselves on the back for jobs well done. I will be taking Claudia out to dinner one evening soon so we can both celebrate, and I can hardly wait!

TRY HARDER, WRITE BETTER

I learned so much from Claudia Mills as she mentored me through my middle grade novel, DON'T LOOK BACK, that I asked her if she'd consider mentoring me on a revision of my tween novel, SEASHELL SECRETS. Both of these manuscripts are "completed," and both have won awards in the Pikes Peak Writers contest. But I knew in my heart that both manuscripts had problems I couldn't identify. And both had been reviewed by my wonderful critique group. I believed in the stories in each book and didn't want to give up on them. The SCBWI Mentor Program offered the perfect vehicle for me to move forward. I'm excited about the revised manuscript and have begun sending it out. Meanwhile, I'm delving into revisions to SEASHELL SECRETS with the hopeful attitude that working with Claudia gave me with DLB. In our very first meeting on SS, she made a suggestion that completely transformed the approach I'm taking at the beginning of the novel, and I'm loving it, and hope my reader will, too. It's amazing to be excited about a book you've already revised a number of times, but I am. SEASHELL SECRETS is a story about racial prejudice and racial identity during the turbulant times surrounding the Civil Rights Movement. I first wrote this book about four years ago, set it on the shelf for a while, but am ready to revise and polish it now. I recently read THE HELP and was humbled by the depth of the story and the beauty of the writing. I've heard some writers say that reading such magnificent books makes them question their own ability. It makes me want to try harder, to write better.

Tension in story telling

I had a really interesting meeting with Claudia this morning. She hit on a key ingredient to writing a good novel, and one I was struggling with as I reached about the halfway mark of my novel. The ingredient I'm talking about is TENSION. I didn't have any trouble with it in the beginning of my novel as I put my character in a tense situation right off the bat. But there comes a part in many novels where things begin to mellow. In mine, it was a part where the main character and a secondary character were beginning to gel. I mean, gelling sounds like a good thing, but not if it puts the reader to sleep. I had actually recognized this problem in my novel before starting my mentorship with Claudia, and tried to remedy it by introducing a whole new tense-filled storyline. However, Claudia pointed out that this thrown-in storyline only detracted from the main story. The tension needs to revolve around that main story throughout. So I've deleted the added storyline (which was no small task since in wound through various areas of the book) and am back to work with setting a few road blocks and setbacks in my character's path in order to heighten the stakes in her main quest...a very interesting challenge!

Character Driven Novels

I'm drawn to character driven novels in which the plot and tension revolve around the main character. Some of my favorite character driven childrens authors are Sharon Creech (won the Newbury for Walk Two Moons), Katherine Paterson (author of Bridge of Teribithia and many other beautifully written award winning novels), and Kate DiCamillo (Because of Winn Dixie among others). These authors skillfully develop incredible child protagonists with such wonderful detail to personality that you feel you've known them all your life. As I attempted to write my own character driven novel, DON'T LOOK BACK, I found myself developing tension through additional storylines rather than through the character herself, a flaw Claudia Mills (who has created her own delightfully dazzling characters in the 40+ books she's published) immediately honed in on. I could see it so clearly as we discussed it, and I'm now in the process of getting rid of one (and possibly two) entire storylines, and working on developing my character's personality more fully, down to her little habits and innermost feelings, and centering most of the tension around her motivation, goals, setbacks and growth. It's quite a challenge but so satisfying when it starts coming together. Character development is crucial in any novel, but when you're not writing a mystery or an action-packed sci-fi, and the tension in your story centers almost entirely on the character herself, it's imperative that the author know this character as if it were her own child, or maybe even herself, an incredible challenge since the character is actually a figment of her imagination.

My Mentee Experience So Far

I'm into my second month as a mentee in the Rocky Mountain SCBWI's new Mentoring Program. Claudia Mills is a terrific mentor. First she makes me feel like a Newberry winner by identifying the parts of my book she loves. Then she hones right in on problem spots and is so good at voicing what's wrong with them, I wonder why I ever wrote it that way in the first place. It's up to me to fix the problems, of course, but Claudia remains so positive that after our discussions I can hardly wait to tackle the changes. My first chapter is now 3 chapters. Many writers are told to do just the opposite and start the book at a later place, but my new beginning feels so much richer. My character and the setting came more alive in those earlier chapters. I'm about a third of the way through my novel, and even though I've revised this story several times, I'm excited to work on it again, almost as if it's a brand new book. I have some hard revisions coming, though, and it'll be interesting to see how these go.

SCBWI Mentor Program

I'm so impressed with the energy and creativity of our Rocky Mountain Chapter of SCBWI! They recently came up with a "Mentor" program, aimed at many of us who have been writing for years with no publishing success yet, but with completed manuscripts and some kudos (e.g. contest wins) along the way. The essence of the program is that you get to work with a local author on a completed manuscript for 6 months! I applied and was accepted, and am now being mentored by the wonderful, talented Claudia Mills, author of over 40 childrens books. What an incredible opportunity. We've just begun and I've already completely rewritten the beginning of my novel, and I think it reads so much better. The six months will involve a lot of work, but whether or not I walk away with a publication, I'll learn a ton from Claudia, things I can apply to future work. So thanks, RMC-SCBWI, for this opportunity!