Planning and Revising Your YA Manuscript
Westport, CT: April 27, 2013 at Write Yourself Free(sm)
Learn some tools for handling the complexities of a YA manuscript, including both the planning and revision of it, in this one-day workshop. Submit your current manuscript or one that's stuck or needs new direction. We--Eileen Robinson and Harold Underdown of Kids Book Revisions--will teach you a variety of techniques, help you try them out, provide editorial feedback on your manuscript, discuss "the market," and get you ready to use the techniques. The workshop will run from 9 AM to 5:30 PM on Saturday, April 27, at the workshop space, Write Yourself Free/The Editing Company, 252 Post Road East, Westport, Connecticut, (the little red schoolhouse).
Schedule and plans:
In advance: submit manuscript (up to 100 pages, synopsis/outline, and mocked-up query letter) for review and comments by ER and HU.
Class "textbook": Make a Scene, Jordan Rosenfeld (we will give copies to all students). Also recommended: A Family of Readers, ed. by Roger Sutton and Martha Parravano.Optional advance reading for market discussion:
- The Fault in Our Stars (or other contemporary realistic YA).
- The Maze Runner or Hunger Games (or other dystopian YA).
- Daughter of Smoke and Bone (or other paranormal romance YA).
9:00 - Welcome, introductions, and review of schedule.
9:15 - Introduction: The Teen Reader's Response: your manuscript, your readers, and what makes a YA a YA and not a MG or adult story.
10:00 - Planning the Plot (or not)
10:45 - Imagining Character and Setting: theory and useful exercises.
11:30 - Critique Groups and Beta Readers
Manuscripts returned with comments immediately before lunch. Sign-up sheet available at lunchtime in case people want to do impromptu critique groups or work with partners, etc., during 3:00 to 4:30 individual meetings with HU and ER.
12:00 - Lunch.
1:30 - Big Picture Revising – Some techniques and what they do for you.
2:15 - Sweating the Small Stuff -- Yes, the details matter! Again, techniques and what they do for you. We will try out some of the techniques [examples: being read to, color-coding, word graphic, reading backward]
3:00 - Writing time guided by insights from our notes, OR spontaneous critiquing. During this time every student will meet briefly one-on-one with Eileen or Harold to discuss direction of manuscript—next steps, goals, how to apply what you learned today.
4:30 - Lessons Learned—what you've learned about yourself, what do you do next? The importance of reading. "The Market." Discussion. Final questions.
Who the workshop is for: If you are a writer with a finished but not polished draft of a YA manuscript, you will learn from this workshop. Do not submit an incomplete draft or a fully polished draft. Do submit a story you have been working on for some time, perhaps one that has been through your critique group, but that you know still needs significant work, even though you may not yet know what it is.
Practical Details:
Registration: Please send the materials on which you would like to work directly to Eileen Robinson, via email, as an attachment or attachments. (We prefer to receive your submission by email; if you prefer to mail it, simply contact Eileen for a mailing address.) If for any reason we do not feel the workshop will benefit you, we will let you know immediately and refund or return your deposit.
Payment Information: Total cost of the workshop is $300 for early bird registration through March 24. After that, the cost is $330.
All checks must be made out to The Editing Company. This PDF contains all of the information you need about this and other KBR workshops; we suggest you print or save it for your reference.
The deposit is due at the same time as your submission: $70 (early bird) or $100 (standard price). Please pay online via the workshop's page at Write Yourself Free, or mail check made out to:
The Editing Company
252 Post Road East
Westport, CT 06880The Editing Company can also take credit card payments on the telephone. Please call and/or email Tish. 203-557-4614. tishpatrick@gmail.com
Balance of $230 is due by April 1st.
Deposits and the waiting list: The workshop is limited to 16 people, and you must make your deposit to be considered registered. That deposit is non-refundable but may be applied to a future workshop. If we have reached our limit of 16, you will be placed on our waiting list; we will tell you if you are on the waiting list. To stay on it, you must leave your deposit with us, but will receive it back promptly if you decide to leave the waiting list before the workshop or if you do not get off the waiting list into the workshop. People on the waiting list will be offered spaces in the workshop if and when they become available.
Harold Underdown and Eileen Robinson teamed up in 2008 to bring something different to aspiring authors. And since then they have created online classes and tutorials and in-person workshops, presenting and working with writers at SCBWI conferences, a recent workshop at Write Yourself Free, and a week-long retreat at Highlights.