Chat with Crystal Kite Award Winners

I participated in a picture-book chat with illustrator Dawn Lo about One Tiny Bubble, which won the 2023 SCBWI Crystal Kite Award for Canada. NYC indie bookstore Books of Wonder hosted us along with other talented picture-book creators who had won the Crystal Kite Award in their regions. This award is peer-selected, voted on by members of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, so it feels like a special honour.

You can watch our Chat with Crystal Kite Award Winners. Plus, there’s a link to buy signed copies of the books!

Upcoming Workshop: Social-Emotional Writing in Fantastic Literature

I’m happy to announce my next workshop with Whale Rock Literary Workshops. I’ll be co-teaching a workshop on social-emotional writing in fantastic literature with US author and poet Laura Shovan. Please check out her latest book – a children’s poetry collection called Welcome to Monsterville. My books with monstrous characters and social-emotional themes include my picture book Sour Cakes and my novels Monster vs. Boy and Bog.

Addressing the Monster in the Room: Social-Emotional Writing in Fantastic Literature

Dates/Times: Sept. 21 and 28 at 7:30 to 9:00 pm ET (two sessions)
Cost: $60 US
Delivery: Online with sessions recorded for later viewing

Ursula Le Guin writes in Cheek by Jowl, “What fantasy often does that the realistic novel generally cannot do is include the nonhuman as essential.”

Monsters of all sorts live in our dreams, embodying our deepest emotions. They are guides to our truth and, as such, they play a huge role in social-emotional development. While realistic fiction centers the intricacies of humans, fantastic fiction is the imagination on fire, exploring shadow versions of our world and breathing life into our inner monsters. Stories about monsters – whether they appear in a game of Dungeons and Dragons, in a poem, or in a work of fiction are essential, especially in our post-pandemic times. They help readers and listeners better understand how to manage emotions, develop healthy identities, feel empathy, and show support for others.

This two-session workshop will ask four key craft questions to help you incorporate the monstrous into your writing. What is your protagonist’s relationship to the monstrous? What are your monster’s physical, emotional, and/or magical character traits? What metaphors or image systems define your monster and why? Does your monster live alongside our real world or has the protagonist crossed into the monster’s world? Our goal is to deepen your work’s social-emotional themes, offering you and your reader an opportunity to better understand the heart, mind, and spirit.

This Workshop Is For You If

  • You are drafting or revising a picture book or novel with a monstrous theme and/or character.
  • You are seeking to deepen your monstrous character(s) (widely defined as invented creatures of any kind).
  • You’d like to explore how monsters in fiction support social-emotional learning and themes.

To register, go to the Whale Rock website. While you’re there, please also check out their many wonderful offerings for new, emerging, and established writers for children and youth. And don’t forget to subscribe to the Whale Rock newsletter!

Teaching Assistant at Vermont College of Fine Arts

I’m excited to be heading to the July 21 to 29 residency for the Vermont College of Fine Arts as a Teaching Assistant in the Picture Book Intensive semester! This will be the first time the residency happens in Colorado Springs – a huge transition for everyone. I’ll be working with faculty member Loree Griffin Burns to support the students during residency and for the rest of the semester too. I’ll also be delivering a lecture and reading. It’s a great opportunity for me to learn more about how to mentor children’s writers. I’ve been prepping my lecture, and I can’t wait to share it. Plus, it’ll be wonderful to soak up all the wisdom and creative energy of an in-person residency. I’m especially excited to connect with my fellow Teaching Assistant Laura Obuobi, author of the fabulous picture book Black Gold, and to see so many friends deliver their graduating lectures. These writers are brilliant, folks.

Here’s my lecture topic. If it’s available to the public, I’ll be sure to share a link:

Generating Story Approaches: How Else Can You Tell It?

You’ve written a good story, or you have a good story idea. How can you make it great? One way is to improve the writing craft skills you’ll need to write it. Another is to consider the optimal approach to writing it. Taking the time to generate and assess alternative story approaches at the start of your writing process and during revision can elevate a good story to greatness. This lecture will explore the process of generating alternative story approaches using mentor texts as our guides.


Reading in Colorado Springs: Monster vs. Boy

While I’m in Colorado, I’ll also be visiting local bookstore Tattered Cover for a reading and presentation of my new middle-grade novel Monster vs. Boy, which will be published on July 11. If you’re around and available, I would love to see friends there!

When: Saturday, July 29 at 6 to 8 pm
Where: Tattered Cover Book Store, 112 N. Tejon St, Colorado Springs

Prepping for Canadian Children’s Book Week 2023

I’m busy prepping my upcoming presentations for Canadian Children’s Book Week 2023! From April 30 to May 6, 2023, I’ll be touring along with many other talented creators (25 authors, 6 illustrators, and 1 storyteller in total), sharing our love of reading with young people in schools, libraries, and homes across Canada. Here’s the full list of touring creators, including where each will be. I’ll be touring in-person in Ontario, and I can’t wait. Check out the gorgeous Book Week poster below, illustrated by Jeni Chen, who will be touring virtually in Ontario and Manitoba. Thanks to the Canadian Children’s Book Centre and their sponsors and partners for helping to connect kids with books!

Drawing in the Reader into a Non-Fiction Picture Book

Many thanks to Anne-Marie Strohman for her insightful writing-craft review of my picture book One Tiny Bubble, illustrated by Dawn Lo. Anne-Marie and I both attended the Vermont College of Fine Arts, and she is certainly a writer to watch.

In her article, Anne-Marie looks at how my writing choices pull the reader into the story of LUCA – our Last Universal Common Ancestor – through the use of direct address, invitation to the reader, kid-friendly comparisons, alliteration, repeated sequences, and more. She begins:

“Non-fiction books are meant to provide information to young readers. But many non-fiction books also tell the reader a story. And some of the best non-fiction books go the extra mile to pull readers into that story. Exhibit A: One Tiny Bubble: The Story of Our Last Universal Common Ancestor by Karen Krossing.”

You can sign up for the KidLitCraft newsletter for more great content.

The Writing Quest: A Q&A with Karen Krossing

I first crossed paths with Anne-Marie Strohman when we both attended the Vermont College of Fine Arts (VCFA), and I quickly learned that she is an insightful writer and a fabulous community organizer. It was an honour to be interviewed by Anne-Marie on KidLitCraft, especially because she asked so many thoughtful questions. We discussed writing inspiration, what I learned at VCFA, writing quests, and more. Please take a look, and don’t forget to sign up for the KidLitCraft newsletter for more great content.

Upcoming Presentation: How to Build Character Cultural Literacy

I’m happy to announce that I’ve joined Whale Rock Literary Workshops as faculty! Whale Rock offers MFA-level workshops and mentorships with impressive faculty that I admire. My first presentation will be a lecture with discussion and writing prompts about How to Build Character Cultural Literacy. This talk is based on the critical thesis I completed during my MFA at the Vermont College of Fine Arts, and I’m excited to share it with the children’s literature community.

My 90-minute presentation starts at 4 p.m. ET on Sunday, March 5, 2023, and the cost is just $30. The class will be recorded for those who can’t attend. Here’s what I’ll be speaking about:

Whether you are writing picture books, middle grade or young adult literature, to reflect the full and varied reality of human experience, you need to respectfully and thoughtfully depict secondary characters with a range of backgrounds and cultural beliefs. Even when your protagonists largely mirror you, can you say the same for all their friends?

Each character you create exists within a global village and within a particular nation, neighborhood, social class, and ability level. They also live within an ethnic, gender, sexual-orientation, family, and peer group—each with its own distinct culture. Awareness of your characters’ cultural beliefs will deepen their presence on the page.

Through a discussion of cultural elements in selected picture books and novels, Karen will introduce tools you can use to identify your characters’ deep-level cultural beliefs, offering insights into their motivations and story arcs. This class will focus on family culture as that’s where we first learn and express our beliefs, although these cultural tools can be applied to other cultural groups. You will develop awareness of your cultural beliefs as compared to your characters’ and consider how and when to write within your cultural elements, bridge cultural gaps and avoid bias through omission.

There are no pre-assigned readings for this class, but you will have on-the-spot writing prompts to explore.

Note: Karen speaks from her own identity elements and does not represent any cultural group. She will share her personal identity statement with the class and will encourage you to explore your own as a tool to understanding our cultural lenses.

To register, go to the Whale Rock website. While you’re there, please also check out their many wonderful offerings for new, emerging, and established writers for children and youth. And don’t forget to subscribe to the Whale Rock newsletter!

Writing Mentorships Available (Giveaway!)

GIVEAWAY ALERT! Enter to win one manuscript critique with me (either a picture book or the first ten pages of a middle-grade or young-adult novel). To enter, leave a comment below or on one of my giveaway posts on social media before January 31, 2023. I’ll announce the winner on February 2.

One of the reasons I completed an MFA in Writing for Children and Youth was to improve my mentorship skills. In the three years since I graduated, I’ve connected with a wonderful new agent and signed six new book contracts with fabulous publishers. Now I feel ready to offer creative mentorships to writers of fiction and nonfiction for children and youth, and I’m celebrating with a giveaway!

My mentoring is informed by my background as an editor and writing workshop leader as well as my MFA from the Vermont College of Fine Arts. My own published works include fiction and nonfiction picture books, middle-grade and young-adult novels, and short stories for teens.

I see my role as a writing coach who listens to and supports writers in expressing their stories in their way. For me, mentorship is a way to give back, pay it forward, and promote community with the goal of helping all voices in our world feel worthy, heard, and valued. I want to share my writing craft knowledge and experience to help you to write the best book you can.

If you’re looking for a manuscript critique or a long-term mentorship, please check out my Mentoring page or email me to chat about options.


UPDATE: And the lucky winner of my giveaway manuscript critique is Andrea Mack! I’ll message you, Andrea, so we can get started! Thanks to everyone who entered and for those who contacted me about my mentorship services!

Nonfiction Book Launch and Panel Talk

Local book friends: Please save the date! You’re invited to an in-person book launch with Heather Camlot, Mireille Messier, and me. Please join us for readings and book sales by Mabel’s Fables Children’s Bookstore. Plus, we’re thrilled to announce that our nonfiction panel discussion will be moderated by award-winning author and editor Mary Beth Leatherdale.

Guest Post: Sparking Connections With One Tiny Bubble

Today on L.E. Carmichael‘s Cantastic Authorpalooza blog, I talk about my childhood love for science, which grew into my first nonfiction STEM book One Tiny Bubble, illustrated by Dawn Lo. I discuss:

  • how I saw my role as a translator of high-level scientific concepts into child-centred language and experiences.
  • how I used my fiction-writing skills to craft nonfiction.
  • how I helped to connect the child reader to the content.

To check it out, go to “Karen Krossing: Sparking Connections With One Tiny Bubble.” Also, please check out L.E. Carmichael’s fantastic books!

Creating Compelling Nonfiction

Want to learn more about creating compelling nonfiction for kids? Check out my panel chat with illustrator Dawn Lo, author Etta Kaner, and illustrator Brittany Lane. We are in conversation about our upcoming books One Tiny Bubble and Rock? Plant? Animal? Thanks to Taylor Lytle-Hewlett of Owlkids for moderating!

Both books will be available on September 15.

My Journey to Becoming a Picture-Book Author

In a few weeks, my debut picture book will be published by Owlkids Books. I’m counting the days!

It’s a journey that began years ago, when I first fell in love with picture books as a child and, later, when I fell in love again as I read them aloud with my daughters. I adore how picture books are kind of like poetry—simple and short, yet layered and deep. How they’re a read-aloud delight of rhythm and patterns, repetition and humour, colour and wonder. How they’re a way to connect to a child reader, heart to heart, with great authenticity and emotion.

I began my quest to become a picture-book writer by analyzing picture books I adore. How did they work their magic? Later, I started critiquing the manuscripts of friends, applying what I was learning to understand how they were written. I’m grateful, in particular, to Frieda Wishinsky, who patiently taught me much during our coffee dates. Finally, I began to write my own tentative picture-book manuscripts, celebrating my messy experiments and learning from trial and error.

I became more and more excited by the possibilities of the picture-book format, so excited that I enrolled in an MFA program at the Vermont College of Fine Arts (VCFA). My first semester was a Picture Book Intensive with wonderful faculty advisor Liz Garton Scanlon, and it was an explosion of growth and learning.

I read and analyzed over 220 picture books during that semester, and I wrote critical essays to gain more insights. You can read my articles on “How to Revise a Picture Book” (Part 1 and Part 2), which I first wrote at VCFA and later published in CANSCAIP newsletters.

And I wrote and revised 12 picture books during my first semester, including metafiction, fiction, narrative nonfiction, concept books, rhythmic/lyrical, dark/difficult topics, and wordless. I explored how to limit my words so that the illustrations could take up more space in the story. How to set up highly illustratable moments with my text. How to build a frame for my story that supports the characters and plot. How to hold a manuscript lightly so it can grow and change into what it wants to be. How to write narrative nonfiction using fiction techniques. How to rewrite a single spread twenty or thirty times until I found what works. How to play with strong verbs, rhythm, and repetition. How to cut, cut, cut words to distill my manuscript into its essence.

One of my manuscripts during this semester was titled If I Wrote You a Poem, and it went on to become Sour Cakes, wonderfully illustrated by Anna Kwan.

This manuscript began as a collision of two ideas: writing about creativity and a sibling who supports another during a low time. When I let go of it being a manuscript about creativity, it became a conversation between the siblings. I wrote the first six lines and had to let it sit. Then I wrote the next twelve lines and let it sit. Then the whole story emerged. I needed to respect the creative process, not force it to be about a theme I’d predetermined, and I needed to find the characters’ voices. I did plenty of exploratory writing on the characters so I could deepen the story.

It’s been an honour to collaborate with Owlkids and Anna Kwan on Sour Cakes. It’s become all I’d hoped for when I first typed my tentative words into a blank file – a conversation between two siblings, a big one who wants to play and a little one who feels sour. Sour Cakes is told only in dialogue as Big and Little navigate how to acknowledge one’s difficult emotions and how to support someone who’s feeling those big feels. It springs from my family experiences with mental-health challenges, and it’s a deeply personal book.

I look forward to writing picture-book manuscripts for years to come, some that will find a publishing home and some that will not. In fact, I have two more picture books under contract, which I’m excited to share. Still, it’s the writing journey that calls to me. The open-hearted wildness of writing in this format that I treasure for a child audience who I value.

An Interview on Side-Writing

Ever since I first heard Erin Nuttall read from her works-in-progress during our time together at the Vermont College of Fine Art’s Writing for Children and Young Adults MFA program, I was a fan. She is a writer to watch, and I’m sure we’ll be reading her middle-grade and young-adult novels in the future. Thanks to Erin for interviewing me about side-writing on KidLit Craft – a terrific blog you’ll want to explore. You can check out Erin’s thoughts on side-writing in her inaugural post on KidLit Craft, and stayed tuned for more side-writing exercises on the blog all month.

And if you want even more on side-writing, you can sign up for my workshop Fresh Stories for a New World: Finding Your Stories Through a Practice of Side-Writing with SCBWI Canada East on April 10.

Upcoming Talks

CANSCAIP Monthly Membership Meeting: Panel Discussion

In a virtual meeting for CANSCAIP Members and Friends across Canada, I’ll be speaking with panelists S.K. Ali and Nadia Hohn as well as moderator Glen Huser about our faculty and student experiences in writing programs and schools.

Have you considered a degree in creative writing? What degrees are out there? What is the workload? What can you gain? And – is it worth the money?

Date and Time: March 10, 7 p.m. ET
Guests are welcome, and can contact office@canscaip.org to request the Zoom link.


Fresh Stories for a New World: Finding Your Stories Through a Practice of Side-Writing

As part of SCBWI Canada East’s Digging Deeper series, I’ll be delivering a virtual workshop.

Our world has been going through extraordinary changes, and so have we as writers. Who are you now? What stories are currently simmering within you, waiting to be told?

In this hands-on workshop, I’ll explore how to tap into ourselves and our stories through the practice of side-writing, which refers to stepping away from the story on the page to explore the raw heart of it through creative exercises. You’ll explore how side-writing can help us to write true to ourselves, plumb the emotional depths of our characters to better connect to readers, and spark joy and play in our writing.

Date and Time: April 10, 1 to 2 p.m. ET
Cost for members:
$15
Registration closes at noon on April 8.

Writer’s Block

No one wants to visit writer’s block. But it happens, especially after months and months of a pandemic. The world can be distracting and disturbing. My brain and body can become too out of kilter to write. I get stuck. I doubt myself and my stories. It happens to all creators at some point.

It can feel like I’m wandering in an endless loop. Or like I’m trapped and unable to move.

When I visit schools, I often get asked how I overcome writer’s block. Here are a few ways that have worked for me. Hopefully, you’ll find something that’ll work for you when you get stuck.

Ways to Overcome Writer’s Block

  1. Set a daily word count.
    Sometimes, I need to push my way through a writing block. By writing a little bit every day, I keep my story in my head. I like to set a low daily word count, like 200 words/day. I often write more, but my goal is to get started each day.
      
  2. Put the manuscript in a drawer.
    When I’m not sure what to write next in a story, I write down the unanswered questions I have about the manuscript, then I put it away for a few days, weeks, or months. My subconscious writer’s brain will work on answering the questions while I’m doing other things. When I come back to the manuscript, I’m often surprised to discover that I have the answers to my questions.
      
  3. Get feedback from trusted critique partners.
    I’m a big fan of writing critique groups and partners, partly because it’s hard to be objective about our own writing and partly because I adore spending time with other writers. When I’m stuck, fresh eyes on my manuscript can help me find new ways forward. And helping other writers makes me a better writer too.
      
  4. Re-read what I already wrote on a story.
    When I sit down to write each day, I usually re-read what I wrote on it the day before. Sometimes, I need to re-read an entire draft of a novel to be able to see how to write the next part.
      
  5. Talk with a friend about why I’m stuck.
    I often talk to a friend or family member when I’m stuck. As I talk, the problem usually comes into focus. Sometimes, they have ideas that spark me. Either way, I feel supported and ready to dive back in.
      
  6. Write outside of the story.
    Some people call this “side writing,” and it can take many forms. For example, I might write a scene from a different character’s point of view, write a letter from one character to another, brainstorm ideas for what might happen next, ask my character a series of questions to get to know them better, write a poem about my story, and so on. There are a million ways to do side writing, but basically, the goals are to play with your story, to loosen up, to get to know your story and characters better, and to re-kindle your writing.
      
  7. Take a writing class or read about writing craft.
    When I’m struggling with a manuscript, sometimes I need to learn more about how to tackle a particular writing challenge. For example, I took screen-writing courses when I had trouble with plotting, and I regularly read books about writing for tips and techniques.
      
  8. Take a break.
    Not every day is a writing day. It’s okay not to write for days or even months at a time. Sometimes, I need to get away from my writing desk to rest and recover or to experience the world. So if writing is slow, consider taking a nap, going for a walk, or even launching a grand adventure! Of course, these days, that will be six-feet apart and wearing a mask, but we can still find ways to adventure.

If you have other suggestions for overcoming writer’s block, please let me know. I’d love to hear them!

Upcoming Talk: SCBWI Canada East Art of Story

UPDATE: Thank you to the organizers of the SCBWI Canada East Art of Story Conference, who have wisely decided to cancel it due to covid-19. I hope to be back as a speaker at a later event. In the meantime, they’re hoping to host online workshops and distance critiques so stayed tuned!

I’m thrilled and honoured to be included as faculty at the upcoming SCBWI Canada East Art of Story Conference. This is an intimate and craft-based conference focused on writing and illustrating for children and teens. I hope you’ll be able to join us.

Date: April 24 to 26, 2020
Place: Albert at Bay Suite Hotel, Ottawa

Applications for the Rising Kite Diversity Scholarship and the Gift of Creativity bursary are available.

You can check out all the faculty and workshops. My talk will be based on my critical thesis and grad lecture I completed during my MFA in Writing at the Vermont College of Fine Arts. I’m excited to be able to share it with a wider audience.

How To Build Character Cultural Literacy
To reflect the full and varied reality of human experience, all writers need to respectfully and thoughtfully depict secondary characters with a range of cultural beliefs. Even when our protagonists largely mirror us, can we say the same for all their friends?

Each character we create exists within a global village and within a particular nation, neighbourhood, social class, ability level as well as an ethnic, gender, sexual orientation, family, and peer group—each with its own distinct culture. Awareness of our characters’ culture beliefs will deepen their presence on the page.

Using insights from contemporary cultural anthropologists, I’ll introduce tools we can use to identify our characters’ deep-level cultural beliefs, offering insights into their motivations and story arcs. I’ll focus on family culture since that’s where we first learn and express our beliefs, although these tools can be applied to other cultural groups. We’ll also compare our own cultural beliefs to our characters’ to discuss the importance of respecting #OwnVoices, writing within our cultural elements, and avoiding bias through omission.

My Latest Komics

I’ve been having fun drawing my Kan’t Draw Komics, which I started because I’m a terrible artist. You can read more about that in this post. Here are my latest ones.

As author Jane Smiley said, “Every first draft is perfect, because all a first draft has to do is exist.”

May your story garden thrive!

Personally, I’m not sure the revision stage ever ends. That’s one of the wonderful and challenging parts of writing.

You can read more of my comics on my Kan’t Draw Komics page.

My MFA Journey (Part 4)

Note: I’ve been writing about my journey during my MFA at the Vermont College of Fine Arts (VCFA) in Writing for Children and Young Adults. You can read Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3 of my journey as well.

I’m just back from my second residency at VCFA, and I’m exhausted and inspired by days filled with lectures, workshops, readings, and so many conversations about writing. To tell you the truth, I was a little shocked when I arrived home and my family didn’t want to constantly discuss writing. At residency, I also delivered my very first lecture, which was about picture-book revisions.

In my lecture, I talked about revision as the heart of the writer’s craft. It’s the reason an editor might eventually be able to sense the pulse of my story. It’s the reason a reader might get to thrum to the beating heart of the story I’ve finally managed to infuse with life.

But how to revise well? I explored this question with a visit to the Osborne Collection of Early Children’s Books in Toronto to seek original manuscripts that became acclaimed picture books. My goal was to analyze how authors of both classic and recent books had revised their manuscripts. I thought of it as a game, where I could identify what questions the author may have asked when revising or what questions they answered through revision. I could then ask the same questions about my own works-in-progress.

Each time I revise a manuscript, I seem to go through the same painful bumps in the road. My hope is that, by analyzing and learning from others’ revision processes, I’ll be able to find the beating heart of my story more directly and with fewer bumps. Perhaps each of these questions I identified can become the basis for one pass through the manuscript. Perhaps I can infuse my intuitive process with some of this analytical knowledge.

My lecture was part of a panel discussion of picture books with four amazing students I studied with during the Picture Book Intensive (PBI) semester. Together we wrote, critiqued, and analyzed picture books in an online forum, as well as working one-on-one with our faculty advisor, the talented Liz Garton Scanlon. I found the PBI discussions to be more demanding and focused than monthly writing groups. It fostered deep thinking and valuable insights.

With my lecture done, I received a PBI certificate, since this semester can be taken separately from the whole MFA program. I was also thrilled to receive the Beyond Words Scholarship! It’s awarded to a student who demonstrates a passion and commitment to picture books. Now, to use my new knowledge of this genre, I’ll be reviewing picture books for Canadian Children’s Book News as well as continuing to write my own.

I’m now back at my desk and diving into my pile of second-semester work. In this semester, my advisor is a writer with great heart and instinct—Amanda Jenkins, author of the Printz Honor Book Repossessed, among others titles. I’m super stoked to dive into how to better connect to my characters and convey emotional depth on the page, which are my goals for this semester.

Taking this MFA program is the best gift I’ve ever given my writer self. It’s a transformative experience, and I’m so grateful for it.

Want more? You can read Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, and my final MFA post.

My MFA Journey (Part 2)

Note: Many writing friends have asked to hear about my MFA journey, so I’ll be posting about it regularly. To read Part 1, go here.

My first six-month semester at the Vermont College of Fine Arts (VCFA) started with a ten-day residency in snowy Montpelier, including dorm life with a roommate who was wonderfully matched to my habits, cafeteria food that I did not have to make or clean up (thankfully), and lovely welcoming traditions designed to help me make the most of my residency. It was a jam-packed schedule of inspiring and insightful lectures by faculty and graduates, readings by everyone, nuts-and-bolts workshops, and so much more.

During the residency, they have a saying: “What happens at VCFA, stays at VCFA.” It’s a time to focus on craft rather than Instagram posts and Tweets. So what is it like? It’s mind-bogglingly busy. I could barely text my family, or remember where to be next. It’s event after event with generous, enthusiastic writers in rooms that are steeped with creative energy. It’s a marathon of insights and laughter with people who love writing for children as much as I do.

For me, winter feels like a great time to start an MFA. To borrow from Persephone imagery, the seeds are resting under the snow in preparation for spring, and my ideas are gestating too, ready for the deep exploration of writing craft that will bring them new life.

So how does the program work? I’ve created my own independent study plan for this semester, with the help of my wonderful faculty advisor, Liz Garton Scanlon, author of numerous books for children, including the Caldecott-honored picture book All the World, illustrated by Marla Frazee.

Here’s what my study plan includes:

Process Discussion

I’ll have an ongoing discussion with my faculty advisor about my writing practice and process, including drafting, revisions, frustrations, and successes.

Creative Writing

My focus this semester is on writing picture books. I’m stretching my writing muscles to try a totally new genre, which is scary and fun because I have a LOT of picture books to write over the next six months.

I’m particularly excited about this writing because I’ll be able to both write and revise manuscripts, based on feedback. I’m fascinated by the revision process, since so much of our craft lies in that stage.

Reading

This will include an annotated bibliography of all the books I read, so that I’m reading with an eye on writing craft (i.e., what works and how I can use these techniques in my writing).

Critical Essays

I’ll be writing monthly critical essays on topics that relate directly to my writing craft. These are not papers on literary analysis, but on craft analysis.

To tell the truth, the critical work didn’t appeal to me when I was first considering this program. I wanted to focus on my creative work. I wasn’t an academic. But after I wrote a critical essay for my application, I began to understand its value. I wrote about establishing multiple point-of-view characters (using Caroline Pignat’s wonderful young-adult novel Shooter), since I’m currently writing a novel with three points of view. As I wrote my first draft, I kept thinking about my essay, and I feel it helped me hone my various points of view. I can just imagine how much my craft will improve as I incorporate more analysis into my writing practice. I’m already a convert.

Critiques

As part of the Picture Book Intensive semester, I’ll also be interacting with four other writers at various stages of the program in an online forum, where we’ll critique one another’s work and share insights from reading and analyzing books. I’ve been workshopping with these students during residency, and we’re already a tight-knit group. I trust their insights, and I love their enthusiasm.


Back at home now, I’m diving into work and trying not to worry about the crazy amount of writing I’m aiming to accomplish between now and mid-June. Hopefully, I can get my sea legs quickly and balance all I want to accomplish. Then I’ll head back to Vermont for my second-semester residency in July, which I’m already looking forward to.

Want more? You can read Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, and my final MFA post.