Author: Kristin Wolden Nitz
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Inserting Characters
A few years ago I was on a walk with my son when he was in seventh or eight grade. He’d just finished reading a first draft of one of my manuscripts. “I really liked Sophia,” he said. “But you’re really going to have to introduce her earlier.” I laughed because he was exactly right. My…
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The Writers’ Revision Retreat
There is no great writing, only great rewriting. – Justice Brandeis That quote sums up the importance of revision rather nicely. It will be one of the themes for the 2010 SCBWI Missouri retreat on revision, which will be held April 23-25 at the Trout Lodge YMCA. I’ll be one of the presenters. Here’s an excerpt…
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Chapter 5: Done! At Least for Now.
I finished up the conversations in Chapter 5 and linked them together loosely in a rougher than usual draft. I know that I’m going to have to go back and add in more specific detail, but I’ve done a lot of meditating on the changes that I’ll need to be doing on my YA mystery,…
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Climbing Stairs
Katrin, my current main character, needed to race up to the fourth floor. I’ve run up flights of stairs any number of times, including the time that my daughter and I went on what we called the Chicago diet. (Climb up and down the 2o flights of stairs to our hotel room and eat absolutely…
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First Chapters: A Contract with the Reader
As a writer, I’ve long been aware of the importance of the first page and chapter of a book. In fact, I discussed the approach one editor takes to first pages in the entry called Chapter One: More or Less Done. But I think that it’s only been the last few years that I’ve though of…
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Revising STAND-IN FOR MURDER
Last week, I received a phone call from my editor at Peachtree. She called to let me know that she was just about ready to give me some feedback on my YA mystery, STAND-IN FOR MURDER (working title). It now has a tentative place on the schedule: Fall, 2010! She asked me to read through…
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A Semi-Polished Draft of Chapter 4: Done!
Whoa! I knew that Chapter 4 would move pretty fast since I did have the bones of the biggest scene written. But I didn’t expect it to take less than two weeks. I have now just about reached the point where my previous draft of this novel began. I’ve added 37 pages and perhaps 7000 words. …
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A Ruth McNally Barshaw Original
During the first weekend of October, the Michigan SCBWI put together a lovely conference at the Yarrow Golf Course near Augusta, Michigan with a number of talented speakers from the children’s publishing world. I noticed that several other participants had specially decorated nametags, and I recognized the artwork. It came from the distinctive pen of Ruth…
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Behind the Scenes of Saving the Griffin: The Illustrations
Typical authors don’t get a lot of say in what their covers look like. And frankly, award-winning authors often don’t either. For example, I heard that Richard Peck was less than excited about one of his covers. And that came after the Newbery win for A YEAR DOWN YONDER! The people in marketing had made their decision. …
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Behind the Scenes of Saving the Griffin: Working with an Editor
“…it clearly demonstrated where the old cliche of “breath-taking came from.”
Kristin Wolden Nitz 