by Karen Krossing | Dec 4, 2019 | On Writing, Presentation News
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, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6 and Part 7 as well.
I’ve just finished my final semester! What a journey it’s been! Next stop—graduating residency!
For the last six months, I’ve been working with my fabulous faculty advisor Alan Cumyn, author of a slew of wonderful novels, like his latest one, North to Benjamin, about a boy named Edgar and the farty, lovable Newfoundland dog he cares for. My overall creative goal this semester was exploring how to write emotionally rich characters who compel readers to turn the page and publishers to say, “Yes!” Alan provided in-depth responses to my work through on-page comments, editorial letters, and video calls. His big-picture comments prompted deep revision while his enthusiasm and kindness celebrated what worked.
Fourth semester is all about writing a creative thesis, which is submission-ready creative work, and well as an academic lecture. For my creative, I revised twenty-two chapters of a middle-grade novel, and I wrote eight new chapters to complete a full draft. Through discussion with Alan, I have a plan for another round of revisions. I also revised three picture books, and my creative thesis is a combination of a fiction picture book, a nonfiction picture book and chapters from my novel. I leave this program with a pile of manuscripts to continue to work on as well as a writer’s toolbox that’s overflowing!
My lecture is titled “Peeking Beyond Our Cultural Blinders,” and I’ll be delivering it at my graduating residency in January 2020. I plan to talk about how our cultural blinders can get in the way of understanding our characters. Using insights from contemporary cultural anthropologists and touching on the #OwnVoices movement, I’ll introduce tools we can use to identify our characters’ deep-level cultural beliefs as compared to our own. I’ll focus on family culture since that’s where we first learn and express our beliefs, and show how cultural orientations provide motivation for how characters feel, what they do, what they say, and how they change. Writing this lecture has given me more confidence as a speaker and mentor, and I hope I’ll get the chance to share more of my new writing-craft knowledge with others.
At my graduating residency, I’ll also be delivering a reading from my creative thesis. And I’ll be celebrating the many talented writers I’ve been lucky enough to share this journey with. VCFA is a caring, supportive community, and I’ve met so many incredible people who’ve become lifelong friends. Here are a few friends from my class, who I’ll miss seeing at residency every six months!
Want more? You can read my final MFA post.
by Karen Krossing | Sep 12, 2019 | On Writing, Presentation News
On Saturday, September 28, I’ll be at Chapters Scarborough for a hi-lo author panel with these terrific authors! Please join me, Erin Thomas, Bev Katz Rosenbaum, Paul Coccia and Melanie Florence. Thanks to Orca Book Publishers and Chapters Scarborough for helping to organize us!
by Karen Krossing | Aug 1, 2018 | Mentoring, On Writing, Presentation News
I’m excited to be presenting at CANSCAIP‘s Packaging Your Imagination 2018 along with so many talented creators and industry experts. You can check out the full line-up here. The date is November 10, 2018. Hope to see you there!
I’ll be delivering a workshop on plot. Whether you’re outlining, writing, or revising, an analytical examination of your story will help diagnose and treat any plot problems. I’ll be discussing how to become your own plot doctor by asking yourself questions about your characters and story, and then intuitively answering those questions.
by Karen Krossing | Jul 30, 2018 | Mentoring, On Writing, Presentation News
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.
by Karen Krossing | Jun 7, 2018 | Mentoring, On Writing, Presentation News
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 and Part 2 of my journey as well.
Credit: Vermont College of Fine Arts
I’m currently finishing up my first semester, which was a Picture Book Intensive. As an author of young-adult and middle-grade novels, I took a head-first dive into writing a new-to-me genre. My goal was to delve into craft aspects of picture books such as the sound of language, how to think in pictures, and economy of language. I also hoped that a rigorous focus on picture-book story structure and depth of characterization would also strengthen my novel-writing skills. Finally, I wanted to analyze the revision process to gain insights into how to improve my rewriting and polishing stages.
Here’s what I did over the last six months:
- I read and analyzed over 220 picture books, seven picture-book manuscripts from the Osborne Collection of Early Children’s Books, 25 audio-recorded VCFA lectures or written critical theses, as well as a few young-adult and middle-grade books and many craft books.
- I wrote short essays on topics like meta-fictive picture books and strategies for writing dark subject matter in picture books.
- I wrote a long essay on an analysis of revision from early drafts to final versions of three acclaimed picture books — Red is Best by Kathy Stinson (illustrated by Robin Baird Lewis), The Road to Afghanistan by Linda Granfield (illustrated by Brian Deines), and Franklin in the Dark by Paulette Bourgeois (illustrated by Brenda Clark). My goal was to identify what questions the authors may have asked when revising or what questions they answered through revision so that I can improve my own revision process.
- For my creative work, I wrote and revised 12 picture books, including metafiction, fiction, narrative non-fiction, concept books, rhythmic/lyrical, dark/difficult topics, and wordless. I also drafted several other fledgling ideas for picture books.
- I rewrote my long essay into a lecture script, handout, and slides in preparation for a panel presentation at my July residency. I’m so excited to share my discoveries!
- In an online forum with my wonderful faculty advisor, Liz Garton Scanlon, and four other students, I discussed picture-book craft daily, and I critiqued each of my classmates’ draft and revised manuscripts for a total of 20 critiques.
I emerge from this first semester with this big-picture takeaway: how a process of detailed and individualized critical analysis of children’s books through my annotated bibliography and critical writing gave me insights into revision of my creative writing. Over and over again, I was able to directly apply insights to my works-in-progress. Let me tell you – this process is huge and life-changing. I explored things like how to respect both the intuitive and analytical aspects of writing, the importance of concept as structure in a picture book, how to use rhythm in writing and ways to tackle the revision process. I also gained skills in critical analysis of my fellow-students’ manuscripts.
As I finish my first semester, I can see that I’ve gained insights into myself as a writer, my process and where to go from here. This MFA has been one of the best gifts I’ve given to myself. I can’t wait to see where it’ll take me next.
Want more? You can read Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, and my final MFA post.
by Karen Krossing | Oct 12, 2017 | Book News, Mentoring, Presentation News
I was thrilled to to celebrate tonight with Toronto teen creators at the launch of the Toronto Public Library’s Young Voices Magazine 2017. Fifty-two years in print! Wow, that’s a lot of talent. It’s a honour to be a small part of this legacy.
Teen Creators: If you love to create, don’t miss the Young Voices Writers Conference on October 28. To submit to next year’s magazine, click here. You can check out back issues here, and pick up a copy of the 2017 magazine at your local branch! The Toronto Public Library also has its first ever Young Voices Comic Artist in Residence this year! The talented Tory Woollcott will be offering workshops for teens here!
