Telling the Stories That Want to be Told

Back in early May, I was anxious for the release of Wilder Mind, the new album by the band Mumford & Sons. I’m using more than one meaning of “anxious” here; I was excited to have new music from a band that’s become a favorite of mine over the past few years, but I was also a little concerned. There was every indication this new album would be a serious departure from their signature sound.

Initially I was a bit disappointed with the changes, because the band had always been such a reliably unique feature on the landscape of popular music, and the sound of the new album was definitely a step away from that direction. But I kept listening and gave it every fair chance to connect with me. Eventually it did, to the degree that when I listen to it now I hear more similarities to their previous work than differences. The new songs convey the same emotional resonance as the older ones, and have the same storytelling aesthetic. The band still wrote the songs that wanted to be written, but just wound up writing them differently than before, and trusting what followed.

I thought a lot about how my reaction to this album could be like a middle grade reader expecting a certain kind of story from a favorite genre. Most kids in the middle grade age group will identify what they want to read by genre more than anything else, whether they realize they’re doing it or not. They’ll think, “Well, if I liked reading Book A, which has this kind of story, then I’ll probably like Book B because it has a similar story.” This kind of favorite-associating connection is a common discussion point between teachers and parents while searching for ways to engage reluctant readers. Scary books, funny books, books about animals, sports books, myths and legends, historical fiction, science fiction, graphic novels, sad books, adventures, non-fiction, or something from a series -- all of these and more are explored while trying to find that magical gateway that will get a child interested enough in reading. A lot of middle grade readers, both the tentative and the self-motivated, are more likely to try a book if they have a good idea about what to expect from it before they commit to reading.

So where does that leave us, the middle grade writers? Should we focus on horror stories because the Goosebumps books have had such staying power? Should we start sketching characters for graphic novels to take advantage of that current popularity, or create a boarding school filled with extraordinary people where we can send a misfit character who will make friends and enemies, face challenges, and have adventures? Should we mold our story ideas to conform with the most popular genres, and then keep driving along while always staying in the same lane?

Of course not. I’d like to think anyone who would seek out a blog devoted to middle grade literature would understand the futility of chasing trends as a key to success. But what about establishing a platform when you’re starting out, or even just trying to find a niche?

Let’s take me, for example. I don’t read a lot of fantasy. I don’t have anything against it, it’s just never been something I’ve actively sought out. If I decided to try and write a fantasy novel, I’d find myself at the beginning of a steep uphill battle because my passion isn’t there. But what if I was lucky enough to have a tidy little pile of published books years from now, and one day a brilliant idea for a fantasy story came out of nowhere and smacked me upside the head? Would it be better to take it on and work out the idea, or ignore a story I felt strongly about and move on to something else I felt was more expected of me?

The way I see it, there shouldn’t be anything wrong with a writer trying to demonstrate the kind of range they potentially have, especially when they’re still working to become established. Since there really aren’t any guarantees in publishing, I think the first rule has to be for a writer to stay true to their passion. If that means living inside of one genre for all the reading and writing you do because that’s what you love, great. You’ll have plenty of background knowledge to work with, and that will translate into your writing, and you’ll still likely find ways to keep yourself challenged. But if not? Well, I think that’s okay too. You still have to write something you feel strongly about, and maybe your stories will take you in different, unexpected, and exciting new directions.

If publishers do guide their established writers to work inside the genres that fit their familiar platforms? I suppose that would be the kind of problem I don’t think I’d mind having. But until it happens -- if it ever does -- I’ll just keep telling the stories that want to be told. Even if that means sometimes telling them differently than before, and trusting what follows.

Genre: Shackles or Rocket-Powered Jet Pack?

If you put any serious effort into writing stories, regardless of whether they’re 400,000-word epic fantasies that stretch the limits of Microsoft Word’s ability to keep your words safe without getting corrupted or a short story hand-scrawled on the back of a new band flyer, sooner or later someone is going to ask you what it’s about. Which is good, because you should probably want to talk about what it’s about, at least if you have any interest in having people who aren’t your mother read it.

All too often, though, on the heels of being asked about the subject, comes the standard assessment of your work’s perceived genre.

“Oh, I don’t read fantasy.”

…or…

“Wow, sounds awesome! I love Sci-Fi! Have you written any others?”

And just like that, your work will forever be pigeonholed, and may the Three Laws of Robotics save you should you find the inspiration to veer off course and work on something—gasp—off genre.

“I liked your romance novel. Why didn’t you stick to that?”

You subversive radical, you!

The problem gets even stickier as you carve out success along your journey as an author.  Most publishers will want you to build an audience with each new book, and there’s not nearly as much reader crossover between Historical Mystery and Science Fiction as you might think. So if your first book is a fictionalized version of Betsy Ross solving the mystery of the White House while spy single-handedly fighting off Redcoats, it’s going to be a bit of a trick to get them to buy your follow-up, where four orphan kids befriend a lonely ghost who leads them on a rollicking adventure through space.

I’m not saying that no one will want to read about both Betsy Ross and four orphans with a restless spirit in the Pegasus galaxy, but it’s probably a pretty small set of people. Not exactly how you want to build an audience. You know, an audience that pays you to write?

As you can probably tell, I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about this. That is, considering whether genre, as a label, is a blessing or a curse. Because I’m the guy who’s writing Betsy Ross and the Spirit Space Gang.

I mean, I’m not exactly. I haven’t written those books (although I might have to now…that Betsy Ross adventure sounds pretty cool and who doesn’t love orphans in space?), but since I began writing, I’ve written one fantasy horror for adults, MG novels in science fiction, mystery, horror, and fantasy, as well a second adult novel that’s kind of, sort of, fantasy. Or maybe Sci-Fi? I’m not sure what you’d call it just yet.

Well, besides awesome, but I’m not exactly objective about it.

And as my agent and I stalk the corridors of publishing in search of the right editor, I understand that sometime soon I’m going to have to limit my expression to fit a publisher’s marketing concept. Which scares me a little, since I started writing MG because I wanted to share my writing with my kids. Those rascals, it turns out, have tastes that are just as varied as my own.  They don’t want to read just fantasy. They want fantasy and mystery and origami science fiction.

Wait…is that a thing?

Either way, it’s hard to argue that genre won’t become a shackle around my ideas. That’s especially an issues for new authors.  I mean,  sure, if you’re Stephen King, you can write The Shining and The Shawshank Redemption and  The Gunslinger and no one’s going to bat an eye.  He could probably write stereo instructions at this point, and as long as there was a bloody corpse in there somewhere no one would complain.

Which I guess says a lot about King’s genre. He’s the master of the that “Bloody Corpse” section of the bookstore.

But the options seem a lot more limiting for you, and me, and anyone else just starting the trek down Publication Road.

Maybe, just maybe, you don’t have to let that genre label own you. Sure, a publisher might not want to pay for a cozy mystery when they just signed you to a three-book deal for dragon stories. But that doesn’t mean they control what you write. They may control what you publish, and, admittedly, squeezing in time to scribble down a few lines about Miss Ginny’s search of the stables at the Brokeback Bed and Breakfast might be a challenging when you’re on deadline to deliver Dragon-Hearted Two, The Enflamaning, but if her story means that much to you, you’ll find a way.

Or at the very least, you’ll occasionally give your imagination a 10 minute break to run with it.

Because, really, isn’t that what got us all here to begin with? Not genres labels, or shelving locations, but an imagination strapped to a rocket-powered jetpack, screaming around freely and coming up with exciting stuff.

So not matter what I end up getting paid to write, I always intend to give my mind a little jetpack time.

After all, pen names exist for a reason, and you never know what story might launch your career into new and exciting heights.

What genre(s) do you write? Do you stick to one primary one, or let your mind bounce around like a Super Ball in a glass laboratory?

Pud’n

PS: Don’t forget that tomorrow is MG BOOK BOMB 2015! Don’t miss out on the fun!

It's Baaa-aaack! MG Book Bomb 2015!

Last year, people all over the universe participated in an event so awe-inspiring, so share-inducing that we here at Middle Grade Minded have decided to help promote it once again.

It's the MG BOOK BOMB 2015!

We want to thank Ginger Lee Malacko for letting us help out again this year. The "rules" (in quotes because there are no rules, really) are the exact same and very simple (and nonexistent, but let's just stop interrupting ourselves, okay?). Here they are:

1. Wait until Saturday, July 11th to do this. 
I guess that's kind of a rule. Maybe. But when that day arrives, you just...

2. Pick a book.
This can be a copy of your book, an ARC of your book, or a favorite classic you want to share. And then you...

3. Print out the Book Bomb notes.
They can be found here and are ready to be cut, colored, written on, or left alone. Just add one of the notes to the inside of your book and...

4. Drop the book.
Anywhere. Literally. The weirder the better. But don't forget to...

5. Tag it.
Take a picture of the book in its location and tweet it into the twittersphere using the #mgbookbomb hashtag.

That's it! Sure, it's fun and you can promote your own books or a friend's book, but the most important thing is that we're sharing books with kids. I'll be dropping an ARC of my own book, My Seventh-Grade Life in Tights (out April 12, 2016, shameless plug) somewhere in Tennessee. If you want some helpful hints and tips on how to make your own MG Book Bomb a roaring success, just click here.

So, have fun and we'll see you on Saturday, June 11th! Happy, um, dropping!

Guest post by Rachel Pudelek: THE YEAR I READ MY BOOK to 4th GRADERS

Earlier this year I began volunteering in my 4th grade daughter's class. I've helped out before, but this time I came with an agenda. My daughter's teacher had asked me to visit every Friday to teach the kids how to write and to offer creative inspiration. And during my visits I could read a little of my middle grade novel, THE CURSE of the MUMMY PRINCESS. A chapter a week.

That's how it started.

During my first visit, as I sat down in front of a classroom full of kids to read my manuscript, I freaked out inside. And apparently outside too, because a girl in the front row pointed out to the rest of the class that I had a dark red rash growing up my neck.

With a shaky voice and a red, blotchy neck, I read the first chapter of my story...out loud...to kids.

And they loved it.

I was no longer asked to spend my time teaching writing, but to read as much as possible of my manuscript before the bell rang.

Over the top of my purple Kindle I'd see the teacher pause from grading papers to sit and listen. And my heart would quicken.

The kids started drawing pictures of the characters and scenes from the story. And with great detail. They caught the part that explained the gold in Aziza's braids. And the part that showed Aziza's dark skin and her servant Halima's lighter skin tone. They caught everything!

Some days, if I finished before the bell rang, the teacher would excitedly pull up pictures of ancient Egypt for the class to see and I'd tell the kids little historical tidbits that weren't included in the story. Two weeks ago, the teacher explained to the class that my manuscript challenged some ways of thinking, which led into a great class discussion on gender roles and religious freedom. (Yes, my daughter's teacher is AMAZING.)

Not only did the kids (and an adult) enjoy my story, but it inspired important conversations.

And you know what else? While some would call it a "girl book" because the main character is female, the boys liked it just as much. Today one of the boys told me his favorite character is Isis because she's tough and strong.  

Today I finished telling the story. My heart sped as I read those last few pages, hoping the ending didn't disappoint the children listening and picturing the action unfold in their heads. When I said "The End" I received applause from twenty-something sets of hands. And my neck probably still got red and blotchy, but for a completely different reason than before.

I wouldn't have experienced any of these things if I hadn't read my manuscript to a big group of kids. A big group of amazing, intelligent, imaginative, deep-thinking kids.

I'm not saying you need to run out and read your manuscript to an elementary school class. I am saying, though, it's an incredible experience.

Rachel Pudelek

www.rachelpudelek.blogspot.com

https://twitter.com/rachelpud

www.facebook.com/pages/Author-Rachel-Pudele

You Got Feedback, Now What?

Feedback can make you want to twirl or tear your hair out. But when you get it from a critique partner, beta reader or maybe even an agent what do you do next? You’re drowning in notes and suggestions, some seem awesome, some don’t make sense, and others conflict with each other. How do you break down all the notes and decide what is useful and what information you should be listening to? Surely that agent critique holds more weight than your critique partners, right?

Well that may not always be the case. There are a number of things to consider before diving into revisions. If you aren’t careful you can give yourself whiplash from all the back and forth and end up with an over edited manuscript and/or query.

Are you saying no for the right reasons?

You should never blindly follow feedback from someone, I don’t care if they are an agent, editor, published author, or critique partner. Writing is subjective and what one person loves someone else might hate. Therefore just because someone is an “industry professional” doesn’t mean he or she knows everything or that his or her suggestions are right for your book. Only you know your book best, so you have to choose advice that works for you, even if that means sometimes ignoring industry experts.

Now I’m not saying you should ignore every agent, editor, and author out there, but you also don’t have to take every piece of advice you get from them as the final word. Honestly, some of my best feedback has come from unagented writers who are readers first. They understand good storytelling because they spend a lot of time reading. But that's not to discredit industry professionals, they can help make your book more marketable or see  your book from a different angle. Each person can bring a unique perspective to your work and it's important to realize not everyone will agree. I recommend not always weighting feedback by who it came from, but really evaluating each piece of advice and trying to decide if it will make your manuscript better or not.

Does the feedback resonate with you?

Are the notes sparking ideas or are they making you nauseous and confused? Well, good notes may still make you nauseated, but they also give you that push and drive to want to work on things. It may not happen right away, in fact a lot people (myself included) need a little time to let it sink in. I know my first instinct is to get defensive and start explaining everything I got feedback on. But once I have a chance to sit back and really think about it, things become a lot clearer. I start getting ideas about the things that need to be changed and how to go about making it happen. The things that don’t resonate don’t seem to fit into my story and I'm able to let them go.

Are you hearing the information from multiple sources?

If you hear some feedback once or maybe twice, it might be okay to ignore something. But if you start hearing something three or more times, it’s probably time to take a step back and re-evaluate. Multiple people saying the same thing usually means you have something that is confusing to the reader, a character and/or plot point that isn’t working or something that isn’t resonating with your readers. But also note, if the same feedback is coming from a public critique on a blog or forum, you may want to scrutinize the advice. Public critiques can be great, but sometimes people repeat things because they see others saying it not because they truly believe it. So you have to weigh the feedback from public settings in a different way.

Are you running from the work?

Writing is hard. Editing is hard. Nothing in this industry is easy. And if you are saying no to a major revision because you're scared, you think it’ll take too long, or you don’t think you can handle all the work, you are probably saying no to a revision for the wrong reason. Don’t run from the work, embrace it. I know some of my best revisions have come out of some of the most extensive notes that I was pretty scared of at the beginning. But in the end the hard work paid off and I ended up with a manuscript that was a million times stronger. It might seem like an uphill battle when you start, but when you finish you’ll be on the top of the mountain enjoying the view.

At the end of a revision, the feedback you received should make your manuscript shine. If you are ever unsure about some feedback it never hurts to try it out. You can always go back to your previous draft if it doesn’t work out. Feedback is designed to help you improve your work not cripple you and/or your manuscript. Always be sure to take the necessary time to think through the advice before diving into edits. A little extra time up front will provide the clarity you need to make your next draft the best one yet!

How do you decide which feedback is valuable to you?

Cover Reveal and Giveaway: The Eye of Midnight by Andrew Brumbach

We at Middle Grade Minded are geeking out right now. We're fangirling. We're fanboying. We're positively verklempt because today we've got a glorious cover to show you.

*deep breath*

It's Andrew Brumbach's debut MG novel, The Eye of Midnight which releases March 2016 from Delacorte/Random House. Here's what The Eye of Midnight is about:

On a dreary day in May of 1929, William and Maxine arrive on the doorstep of Battersea Manor to spend the summer with a grandfather they have never met, resigning themselves to a three-month exile of bird-watching and backgammon. But the cousins soon discover that Colonel Horatius Battersea is not the sort of grandpa who spends his afternoons napping on the porch swing, and that his past career as a British soldier, world explorer, and special agent has earned the old man a pith helmetful of formidable enemies and family secrets.

Their summer becomes decidedly less sedate the moment a cryptic telegram is delivered to the manor, and Grandpa promptly whisks the cousins off to New York City to meet an unknown courier and collect an ominous package. On their way to the midnight rendezvous, though, Grandpa vanishes without a trace. Lost and alone in the city’s underground, the cousins stumble upon Nura, a young Turkish girl who promises to help them track down the parcel and rescue Colonel Battersea. But with a ring of cold-blooded gangsters and a secret society of assassins all clamoring for the same elusive object, the trio soon finds themselves in a desperate struggle just to escape the city’s dark streets alive.

Wow, right?! And if you thought the description sounded incredible, wait until you see the cover! Are you all ready? Yeah, me, too.

Scroll down and prepare to have your minds blown from pure cover awesomeness!

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Beautiful! We love the color and how packed full of detail it is. I feel like this cover is telling us more than we realize. It's one of those pieces of art that you can go back later, after you've read the book, and find things that were right in front of you that you just didn't notice before. So, yeah. In a word...amazing. And as a special treat, we've got an interview with the author and a Rafflecopter giveaway where one lucky winner will receive a signed copy of The Eye of Midnight!

Interview with the author

Q 1: Andrew, thanks for talking with us today. We love your cover! There are so many incredible details that jump out at you. When you first saw the cover, what did you fall in love with first?

Thanks for saying that. There’s a lot to love about the cover, right? It grabs you and dares you to find out where you’ll be taken if you open its pages. I’ve always been a sucker for classic adventure stories because of their ability to transport. It’s a genre that inhabits the everyday ordinary world but allows the fantastic to seep in. I think this cover captures all of that. There’s so much narrative there in the imagery—the kids slinking around under the shadows of the New York skyline, the swirling mist and the starry sky, and the lurking menace beneath. It pulls you into the atmosphere of the story, makes you ask questions. I have high hopes that kids will pick up the book and want to read it just because of the cover alone!

Q 2: I think they will! How much input did you have while the cover was being designed?

I was a studio art major as a college undergraduate, so I figured that entitled me to all sorts of opinions about what the cover should look like. My cover designer and my wonderful editor, Rebecca Weston, humored me throughout the process, listening to all my inspired suggestions and even taking a couple of them to heart. In the end, the cover surpassed anything I could have hoped for, but it was really all thanks to the staggering talents of my designer and my cover artist.

Q 3: Well it certainly surpassed anything we could've hoped for, too! So who are the masterminds behind this stunning piece of artwork?

Right—so the masterminds you’re talking about are Kate Gartner, one of the art directors at Random House Children’s Books, and California artist Jeff Nentrup. Kate is some kind of uber-maestro-designer-extraordinaire, and she makes all the books she gets her hands on look absolutely stellar. I had the chance to meet her the last time I was in NYC, and I can say she is as lovely and fun as she is talented. And Jeff is this amazing digital/traditional artist who seems able to move effortlessly between all kinds of different styles. He’s really passionate about bringing visual context to an author’s vision, and cover illustration is just one of his many gifts, so if you get a chance, you need to drop by his website at www.jeffnentrup.com and check out his work. It will make your day.

Q 4: The book is set in 1920s New York which is such a cool idea for a MG book. What inspired you to write about that time and place?

The twenties were great, weren’t they? With all the roaring and whatnot? I love the texture—gangsters and flappers and speakeasies and climbing skyscrapers and depraved dances like the Charleston and the Flea Hop and people saying things like “Applesauce” and “Posilutely” and “Go chase yourself.” I love that back in the twenties Adventuring was still a legitimate career choice, thanks to the exploits of people like Percy Fawcett and Lawrence of Arabia and Freya Stark. I love that this setting gave me a chance to come up with a plotline that didn’t have to account for cell phones. And the epicenter of the era, for me, has always been New York City. I feel a certain amount of wistfulness for that particular time and place. I’m not sure if young readers almost a century removed bring the same sense of nostalgia for all of it, but wouldn’t it be great if I could impart some of that to them?

Q 5: I love that sentiment—adventuring was still a legitimate career choice. Brilliant! And speaking of brilliant (10 points for an amazing segue), what are you working on now? 

Up next I think there’s more trouble for my main characters, Maxine and William. I have all kinds of peril planned for them if they manage to survive this current adventure. Which I’m not saying they do. But they may. I guess you’ll just have to read the book to find out.

Andrew Brumbach grew up square in the hippie community of Eugene, Oregon, surrounded by artists and musicians and storytellers. He studied art in Texas, traded options in Chicago, and spent a few years lost in the neon neighborhoods of Tokyo. Somewhere along the way, he married the girl of his dreams and had four practically perfect kids, but he never overcame his weakness for the power and transport of story. Now he lives in suburban Illinois but secretly daydreams of chasing bandits across the desert with Lawrence of Arabia and Gertrude Bell under cloudless, starry skies.

You can find Andrew on: 

Upstart Crow Literary     Twitter     Goodreads     Website

Thanks, Andrew, for giving us the opportunity to show this cover to the world! Everyone, while you wait for this book to finally hit the shelves, you can go ahead and add it to your Goodreads TBR shelf right now. And then earn some chances at winning a signed ARC of The Eye of Midnight in our Rafflecopter giveaway!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

MG Minded Talks - Revisions, Editing, and Critiquing

Welcome to another installment of MG Minded Talks! We will ask each of the bloggers a series of questions and they will share their responses. This month we are talking revisions, editing, and critiquing. Here's the questions:

1) How many drafts do you usually go through before you think it's ready for submission (agent, editor, querying etc.)

2) How do you know when your manuscript is "finished"?

3) What are your favorite kind of revisions?

Brooks B.

1) I generally edit as I write. Which makes for a longer draft time, but when I'm finished, it's generally ready for CPs or my agent.

2) That's tough, but when I feel like it has enough peak-and-valley moments with the conflict and the loose ends of the plot and subplot are tied up in a nice enough neat little bow, I can call it ready. If I don't then I'll continue to edit forever.

3) Ones where someone has a brilliant suggestion that adds more tension, raises the stakes even higher, causes more conflict. It's mean, but it makes for good story. J

Stacey T.

1) Totally depends on the book. If it's one I had a strong plot for and it came out well, it may not need much. I always at least do a big picture read through, fixing anything that doesn't seem right (might be a lot or might be just some tweaks) and then a more nitpicky copy/line edit and lastly I do some searches of words I over use. There are usually a lot of them!. Sometimes I realize new problem or a better fix later and have to go through the steps 1 and 2 over again. And again. Til it's finally right. So 3 minimum, max? Unlimited.

2) It's never finished! But usually when I'm excited about it and I've completed both steps 2 and 3.

3) I like the big picture read through. I like seeing it as a finished product and planning out what I can do to make it better.

Jamie K.

1) That really depends on the book, the feedback I get, and how frequently I start a new file, but I tend to average somewhere between 7-15. I always edit as I write so that helps make my "first" draft a little cleaner. After that, I usually have an alpha reader that checks for understanding and places where I might need more or less information on a micro level. Then I do a couple rounds myself, a full read through for continuity and flow, and an abused words cull where find replace with highlights words I tend to abuse or tend to make sentences weak. Then I send the manuscript off for various rounds of beta readers for a high level overview. Are the plot, characters, pacing etc working.

2) Well a manuscript is never really finished, but when I feel confident in the story and that I've addressed all the big issues readers have brought up then I feel the manuscript is ready.

3) The abused words cull. It's usually where I see the biggest transformation. The plot and characters don't usually change during that edit, but the writing really starts to shine.

Tom T.

1) I typically need to go through 3 or 4 drafts. I tend to write whatever is in my head at first, so it doesn't make the most sense in the first or second draft, and has pretty poor technical aspects. It's only when I get to my 3rd or 4th draft that everything is really fleshed out.

2) Honestly frown emoticon mine is never finished. I always feel like there is something I could change, or tweak, but I think it's finished once my head is about to explode looking at it. If I find myself changing the same area over and over again, it's typically me just OVER-editing.

3) The revisions where it changes the whole flow of my story for the better and triggers that flag in my head that goes "I LOVE THIS STORY"

Jason R.

1) Usually 4 drafts. After the initial draft of word vomiting, the 2nd draft is to fix macro plot/character stuff. The 3rd is copy editing, language tightening, adverb hacking, etc, Then beta readers get it, and draft 4 includes their feedback. Then it goes to my agent.

2) For now, it's mostly finished for me when it goes on submission, but even then, changes will likely still be necessary down the road before it's published

3) My favorite revision is the draft after my beta readers read it. Their feedback helps me bring the characters more fully to life on the page to better match what's in my head.

Dan K.

1) 3 or 4 drafts. First draft is me telling myself the story. Second draft is me trying to figure out how to tell that story to other people. Three is to make sure it's not a piece of crap. If I still need another, then four is to make sure each word counts.

2) My manuscript is finished after 3 or 4 drafts and particularly, after that draft where I've made sure each word counts. Now, I think I know myself pretty well and believe me, this is just me talking but I know that my 15th draft is not going to be much better than my 4th draft. So, for me, If I can't have a pretty compelling story by my 3rd or 4th draft, I'm in trouble. It's also worth noting that I'm not in the business of trying to win Newberry awards. I just want to make kids laugh and let them have fun for a bit. I stay focused on that.

3) Favorite kind? I don't have any favorite kind but I'll tell you the two most important kinds of revisions I do. Number one is the revision where I go through and look for places where "nothing is happening". I do that sometimes. Just have people talking so I can have some funny dialogue. Problem is, stuff has to keep moving forward. So, sometimes I need to just look for these lull spots and cut them, change them, fix them. The second most important kind of revision I do is when I go through and make sure each character is really speaking and acting according to their own unique voice.

Tom M.

1) I do a lot of editing as I write. After I finish an entire draft I'll go back and give it a second look to see what doesn't work, and after that it'll be ready for my agent. She's fairly editorial, so I know after she reads it I'm going to get some great notes from her. 

2) The manuscript is finished when I start circling back on revision ideas instead of pushing them forward, because there's nowhere else to go. And, of course, when printed, published copies exist.
 
3) I feel like a suck-up saying this, but I LOVE getting agent notes. She tells me what's working and if I need to develop it more, and she'll point out different ideas or approaches for things that might not have occurred to me on my own, which will push me in exciting new directions.