BIG NEWS! I’m well into my second children’s book called Amos THE Famous! You’ll note my title rhymes? Well actually, my second book has been done ALL in verse. It’s been challenging, for sure. The idea came to me on one of those cold, January 2023 mornings at 4 am when I could.not.sleep. So I got up, and started typing my heart out. I stayed with it….and by noon that day I had my first draft nearly finished. And it rhymed…mostly.
Life went on and I continued with my writing courses. They Called Me Quirky was also a seed in my mind and I started focusing on it. This manuscript was also super challenging as it had three moving parts of speech — the main text, the speech bubbles, and the ‘hidden” bone clues — ALL at the same time. I decided to move forward with my ‘quirky’ manuscript first because of it’s difficulty, and I had the editing genius of Sharon Jennings supporting me. Amos the Famous would remain in my writing folder.
Fast forward to January 2024….They Call Me Quirky had been launched successfully the month before. The whole process of publishing my first book had gone so well. My thoughts returned to my character, Amos the bear. He wanted to be famous. He wanted to become a magician. I knew it would bother me NOT to bring Amos into the literary world, so I peeked in my writing folder.
Egads…. my 4 am ramblings were rougher than I remembered. My rhymes weren’t horrible, but they needed soooo much work. My word count was well into 1200 words, way over the recommended 1000 word maximum for a children’s book. I pondered and floundered. I debated and deliberated. I decided to scrap the rhyme, and started over completely in prose.
Roadblocks seemed to be everywhere. My new draft was just not working in prose. I could see that the magic in my story was dissipating—-vanishing before my very eyes. Amos THE Famous needed his story to rhyme.
Back to previous rhyming versions of my manuscript. I persisted and persevered. Major ‘must-haves’ in my story were tossed. I wrestled with the writing, but won. Thirty-seven drafts later, I was happy. But the next hurdle, was handing my manuscript, my ‘baby”, over to…. THE EDITOR. *cue foreboding music
The first edit is known as a story analysis. Did my story make sense? Does it flow? Is it child-centered? Is there a strong plot? Is there a satisfying conclusion? Is the manuscript under 1000 words? *cue more foreboding music
There’s always that nervous pit in my stomach when I hit “SUBMIT”. Then the waiting begins. I wanted feedback, yet I didn’t. I would check my in-box multiple times a day for a response. Days pass, then a week, then…it’s back! Turns out my story had merit. But it needed work, even after the hours and hours I had already put in. I found I needed a break from my story, which is the best thing I could have done. I busied myself with promotion of They Call Me Quirky.
I needed to digest the suggestions of my editor. After two weeks I returned to my manuscript and found that my editor was absolutely right, on all counts. My story was now better. It was stronger, and I was happier.
The second edit is a refinement of the story structure. Though I had made the suggested changes, my editor asked me to revert back to my original writing in a particularly tricky spot. Upon reflection, she liked my original writing better. In the end, it was my decision, and I was happy to follow my heart in those instances.
The third and final edit is the COPY edit. By this point, all grammar and punctuation had been finalized. These edits went much more quickly. Amos THE Famous turned out to be quite magical, indeed. It’s written in rhyme AND…it’s under 1000 words.
Now, onto Illustrations…..where the magic REALLY begins.
