Revision and Character Growth

by
Dave Amaditz

When writing for children and young adults we all know of the rule that says our characters should grow throughout the story, to come to some new realization about themselves, the community and\or the world in which they live. But I've been wondering how many of you are like me and have had your characters change from your first revision to your last.

The current novel I'm revising, (see post entitled, When Is the End, the End?) has seen my character change. In the first few chapters of my first draft my main character was an eight-year-old boy. Fortunately, I discovered quickly the story I planned to build around him did not have the necessary details to make the story interesting. After rethinking the vision for my story my main character leapt from an eight-year-old boy to a thirteen-year-old boy. This worked a little better, but it wasn't quite what I wanted. Would fourteen work? I tried that. I thought he was getting closer to developing into the character that met the needs of my story. So, in my next revision I made him a fifteen-year-old. That seemed to work and that's when my story really took off. All the parts of my story began to fit together because I made discoveries about my main character along the way that were necessary for my story to develop correctly, things I didn't know when I began. For example, I know he no longer likes to listen to music since it reminds him of the day he found his father in the basement attempting suicide. I know he doesn't like to drink alcohol because his father is a drunk, yet any time he's given the opportunity to have a drink he can't pass it up. I know how angry he gets when he sees his ex-girlfriend walking arm in arm with his ex-best friend. And I know the little details, too, like the fact that lasagna and meatballs are his favorite food because his grandma makes that for his birthday meal.

I've attended breakout sessions at conferences that talk about how to better learn your characters. I still have the handouts I was given with questions designed to help discover your characters wants, needs and likes. Blue eyes or brown? Rock 'n roll or jazz? Afraid of the dark or not? Some writers don't need the forms. They have a solid vision of what their characters like and need from the start. But my discoveries about my characters come as I revise. In that sense, the dreaded revision is not so dreaded because I can look forward to finding out new and exciting details about my novel, the characters and how they interact.

Is there anyone out there in the same boat as me?

Blown Away: Publication and Taking Off

Posted by Kate Dopirak, Guest Blogger

When I took my five-year-old to fly kites, his experience reminded me of events leading up to my first book deal. Joey thought he had everything he needed to enjoy a fun day – a pirate dog kite, a gusty wind and an open field. He couldn’t wait.

But when Joey finally got in the grass, he discovered it was actually quite swampy. His new shoes got covered with mud quickly. He slipped. Having enough traction to run proved tricky. And the wind was, well, windy. Strong, actually. The kite flipped and smacked into his face. “Dumb kite!” he yelled, trying to battle the wind as he untangled the string that wrapped around his leg. He fell. Now his favorite pants – the ones with a muscle dog – were muddy, too.

This certainly wasn’t the way kite flying had played out in Joey’s imagination. Surely he thought there was nothing to it. Easy-peasy. One. Two. Three. But, no. It was harder than he’d expected. I think that challenge, along with the fact that his three-year-old brother’s kite was practically in the clouds, made him try harder.

Joey wasn’t about to give up. Again and again, he battled the wind and the mud and that unruly pirate dog. He yelled. He stomped. He wailed, “Please!” He ran that field until he panted like a track and field star. 

Then it happened. All at once the wind hit the kite just so and it went up, up, up. Joey smiled then laughed then cheered. “I did it!” Suddenly the mud hardly mattered. The kite was no longer dumb. Hey – this was fun. Really fun. He got more into it – “Watch me!”

            I took pictures and yelled encouragement – “Great job! I knew you could do it!” And that’s when it hit me that his kite-flying struggle was pretty darn similar to my getting-published struggle.

            I joined the SCBWI  and the fabulous Sally Alexander’s writing group in 2002. One-hundred-and-forty-four rejections later, I sold my first piece of writing, a poem to Highlights High Five, in 2008. Six years?! Jeez – no kidding about being hard to get some traction.

Luckily, Sally encouraged me to write personal essays. Once I started publishing those in newspapers and magazines, my confidence got a big, fat blast of wind. I sold more pieces to Highlights. And in the meantime, I attended as many SCBWI conferences as possible. I took notes like a nut and introduced myself to anyone and everyone. The amazing Kitty Griffin encouraged me to apply for the One-on-One Conference at Rutgers. And I read. I read magazines and board books and picture books and chapter books and middle-grades and YA (Okay, fine. So I read a little Chelsea Handler, too. Kill me.)

            So when it happened that I was matched with my dream agent for a manuscript critique at the WPA SCBWI Conference, I was ready. I had that same ‘all-at-once-the-wind-hit’ moment Joey experienced with his kite. But that’s not the end.

            On that kite-flying day, I cheered for Joey to let his pirate dog go higher.

“Let the string out!”

He panicked. “No! I don’t want to lose it.”

That’s exactly how I felt when that same agent I was dying to sign with challenged me to let go:

“Your chapter book can be a middle-grade. Dig deeper. This character deserves more.”

Joey finally let his string unwind so his pirate dog could soar – really soar. He was blown away. I trusted the agent, especially because I felt like she ‘got’ my work and me, enough to let my writing unwind, too. I was blown away as I revised my chapter book according to her suggestions. I resubmitted it as a middle-grade. 

She offered me representation (insert champagne popping here) and five days later sold one of my picture book manuscripts. Talk about being totally blown away! How fun to take that energy back to my works-in-progress. Now I know that just like with kite flying, the reading and the writing and ultimately, the publishing is really all about being blown away.  

Kate Dopirak is a reader, writer, and now - oh my! - an author too! Learn more about her at her website here.