by Amanda Smith

The nervous excitement as you hit send. The relentless checking of emails days before the actual due date. The anticipation of gushing praise and lofty love for your written words as you open that attached file.

“What do you mean it’s not perfect?!”

If you have ever submitted your manuscript to a critique group you know this feeling.

As writers, we get so giddy at our own marvelous ideas; the darling phrases we string together in longer even dearer sentences; our clap-it-out-rhythm; our almost perfect rhyme; our totally original, there-has-never-been-another-like-this character. We get so enthralled in our own genius.

And we miss. We miss that we do not have a story arc. Or a problem. Or a satisfactory conclusion. We miss that our amazing alliteration is all tell and no show. We miss the mark. And it is our critique group’s job to gently lead us back to our target – our goal.

So what to do with that critique?

1.       Let it rest. At first read, you may think your critique partners miss your point. You may think they are interpreting your story the wrong way. You may think all kinds of unpleasant thoughts. Close the document. Walk away. Get the emotions under control.

2.       Re-read. Sometimes at that first read, your emotions can block your ability to perceive. When you carefully re-read it during a quiet, productive time, you can process much better what your partners are saying.

3.       Print it out. I am a very visual, hands-on person. For my process, I need to have physical copies of the critiques in front of me.  I make notes and brainstorm new ideas on them.

4.       Change it up. I take all the suggestions and APPLY them to my manuscript. Yes, without question or prejudice. Every one. If someone says, “Delete all the illustrator notes” I do it. Even if it scares the living daylights out of me. Only when all these suggestions are incorporated in my manuscript, can I see which ones add value, where I disagree, which of my original ideas I want to keep and which I want to tweak.

5.       Revise, revise. No, not done yet. Revise.
What kinds of changes can you make during revision? In ONE picture book manuscript, apart from the usual cleaning up, I have made the following changes:


·         From present tense to past tense

·         From third person to first person narrator

·         I rewrote the middle and sent it for a critique

·         Then I rewrote the beginning and the end

·         I looked at all my verbs. Are they active? Are they vivid?

·         I crossed out all descriptions that could be shown in illustrations.

·         I searched for places where I could include senses the illustrator cannot show.

·         I attempted to add humor

·         I amped up the tension

·         I changed the title (three times)

One manuscript. Eleven months. A measly 466 words.

Usually, after such major revisions I will send the same manuscript again for critique.

And would you know it? It is still not perfect. But it is beginning to look a lot like a picture book!

by Francine Puckly

As much has been said and written about revision as developing a first draft. Most manuscripts go through several major transformations before reaching an acceptable format to be shared with external readers such as agents and editors. The second draft especially receives, or should receive, a complete and major overhaul, whether you’re writing a 500-word picture book or 100,000-word fantasy novel. And it is this drastic reconstruction process that I’d like to discuss.

If you have completed the first draft of your manuscript, congratulations! It takes a tremendous amount of dedication and conviction to climb over the numerous hills and descend into the subsequent valleys of story creation. It’s the mark of true accomplishment when you deliver an entire story from one single thought or tiny seed of an idea.

So you’ve finished. Now put the manuscript away. Let the words and phrases simmer in a desk drawer or in the recesses of your computer storage for two to six weeks without looking at it. Not even one little peek. Instead, celebrate! Go get that “carrot” you promised yourself when you were writing the first draft. Refill your creative well—go to the movies, see a musical, plunk out a tune on the piano. Work on a different project or play with new ideas. Clean the house. Do anything but read your manuscript.

Once you’ve allowed the manuscript to rest for the acceptable designated period, pull out your draft when you have a large block (or blocks) of time to devote to a reading session. Use your favorite pen. Take copious notes either on a paper copy of the manuscript itself or on a notepad next to your computer so that you can refer to these changes and suggestions as you work on the next draft. Read your manuscript with fresh eyes. Study it. What works? What moves, what slows, what questions have been left unanswered? Which characters are critical to the story, which characters add color, and which characters can be removed or combined? Comb over your words. Mull over the draft. Once you’ve gotten through the manuscript and have taken all the necessary notes, delete it.

Delete the whole draft?!

Making such a suggestion, especially as NaNoWriMo comes to a close and thousands of writers are chugging caffeine and working late hours in order to hit word count goals, is downright blasphemy. Yet drastic measures must be taken with the second draft in order provide the writer freedom on a blank page. This purging of the first draft prevents “tinkering”, a type of revision best saved for later drafts when the story has matured. Tinkering is not the revision method of choice when major parts of the story are still being honed, crafted, and invented. If we don’t separate ourselves from the first draft, we get locked into what is instead of what can be. The process I suggest takes the very best of what you, the writer, delivered in the first draft and mixes it with a new vision. Re-vision.

If you’re too nervous to completely release that first draft, print a paper copy before deleting. Or at the very minimum promise yourself you won’t open the electronic document unless absolutely necessary. Trust that your story is imprinted in your mind and on your heart. Releasing that first draft will blow open your writing, because the path has already been laid out in front of you. Now you have the opportunity to enrich the setting, hone in on which elements of the plot march your story forward, and develop depth of character that will make even the most reluctant reader keep turning the page.

So are you ready? Take heart and take a deep breath. Trust your story. But more importantly, trust yourself. And go after that second draft with the same gusto you did the first time around. You and the reader won’t be disappointed.


- Francine