Writing Groups that Work: Give and Receive Feedback that Supports the Writer
Date/Time: Thursday, June 6, 2024, 7:00–8:30 PM (EDT) Cost: $30 US Delivery: Online with session recorded for later viewing
Get the scoop on writing groups that work. In fact, why not invite your writing group (or writing partners) to join?
A well-run writing group can be a training ground for collective growth, support, and motivation to write. But some traditional groups can be unintentionally off-base, judgmental, and even harmful. In this 90-minute session, you’ll explore how to set up a writing group that centers on each writer’s needs, including creating a discovery experience to explore a project – where it came from, where it’s at now, and where the writer is inspired to take it next.
This course will cover:
how to form your ideal writing group, including where to find members and how to set it up for success.
how a writing group can foster inclusion and support for a diverse range of experiences.
how to prepare for feedback on your writing, including the value of an artist statement to introduce a piece of writing.
how responder(s) can prepare for a feedback session.
how a group can co-create a safe, nurturing feedback experience.
the roles of the responder(s) and writer during feedback.
what to do with the feedback you receive on your writing (and when to set it aside).
This workshop is for any writer or writing group seeking ways to offer and receive targeted, constructive feedback that inspires revisions and meets writing goals.
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!
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.
I’m currently finishing up my second semester with my genius advisor Amanda Jenkins, author of the Printz Honor Book Repossessed, among others titles. My goal this semester was to understand how to convey authentic and deep character emotion in both revised and new manuscripts. It expanded to include how to structure a story based on a character’s emotional journey.
Here’s what I did over the last six months:
I read and analyzed books in a wide range of genres — picture books, chapter books, poetry, novels for kids and teens, graphic novels, novels in verse, manga, short stories for kids and teens, nonfiction and memoir. I listened to 20 audio-recorded VCFA lectures and a handful of critical theses.
I wrote short essays about how to use humor to maximize reader engagement with emotionally taxing characters and how to use micro-level tools to focus emotion in a scene. At the request of my advisor, I wrote a personal essay on why I’m drawn to write monstrous characters like Bog, since one of my works-in-progress has a monstrous character in it. I also wrote two long essays about power relationships and group dynamics in kid-lit families and peer groups.
I researched for my upcoming critical thesis, which I’ll write in my third semester, and I wrote a proposal for it. I’m super-stoked to start writing this!
For my creative writing, I wrote side writing about my works-in-progress as well as new manuscript pages. I focussed on two projects: a revision of a YA novel and first draft of an MG novel. My creative was focussed on depth of characterization and understanding the story that occurs off the page as well as on it.
I emerge from this first semester with this big-picture takeaway: how I can transform my writing process to achieve greater depth of character emotion and use that emotional depth to form the inner arc of a story. I’ve now got a handle on my characters from both my novel projects, and I’m ready to write them in a way that is both honest and deep.
My third semester starts in January with a residency filled with workshops, lectures and readings — and a new faculty advisor. I’m so grateful for what I’ve learned so far and I’m excited for the next steps!
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.
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.
