RESHAPING YOUR STORY PART 2

Last week, we started talking about how to assess your story’s structure, specifically its beginning. You can find that episode at writingforchildren.com/167. Today, we’re focusing on managing the middle of your story and getting to the tidy, yet satisfying, ending.

Let a one-on-one mentor help you hone your revision skills and polish your work so it shines in your submissions to agents and publishers! Get started here!

RESHAPING YOUR STORY PART 1

You’ve finished a draft (or several drafts) of a story you’re excited about. You set it aside to cool for several days, then reread it. While you’re still pleased with the story, you have to admit it needs more work—not just polishing, but re-engineering for better pace, suspense, and focus.

If you’re like most writers, you may also find it’s run considerably over the word length you were aiming for, an important consideration if you’re planning to submit the story to editors.

Today we talk about where to begin reshaping your story.

Be sure to catch Reshaping Your Story Part 2 here!

DON'T REVISE BY YOURSELF

When you’re about to begin revising a piece of writing, it can seem so daunting you may be tempted to bury the darn thing at the bottom of your sweater drawer, then go hide somewhere (say, at the beach) for a few weeks.

But, you’re listening to this podcast, so you’re in luck! Author and IFW Guest Blogger Rita Reali is also a freelance editor and today we bring you her advice on why you should get fresh eyes on your manuscript once you’re ready to revise.  

Let a one-on-one mentor help you hone your revision skills and polish your work so it shines in your submissions to agents and publishers! Get started here!

INTERVIEW WITH RENEE LATULIPPE

Renée M. LaTulippe has poems published in many anthologies including School People (ed. Lee Bennett Hopkins), and National Geographic's The Poetry of US and Book of Nature Poetry (both ed. J. Patrick Lewis) to name a few. Renée developed and teaches the online course The Lyrical Language Lab: Punching Up Prose with Poetry and blogs on children’s poetry at NoWaterRiver.com.

We talk about:

• What are common mistakes new writers make?
• How do you eliminate too much description but still give readers the flavor of your character and setting?
• Should all writers study poetry or just writers writing in rhyme?
• Favorite revision tips?

Let a one-on-one mentor help you hone your revision skills and polish your work so it shines in your submissions to agents and publishers! Get started here!