Karen Krossing

Author for Kids and Teens

writing techniques

Upcoming Workshop: Feeling It

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I’m happy to announce my next workshop with Whale Rock Literary Workshops. I’ll be co-teaching Feeling It: Creating Emotional Depth in Your Novel with US author and poet Laura Shovan.

Feeling It: Creating Emotional Depth in Your Novel

Dates/Times: Thursday, Feb 15, 22, 29 and March 7 at 7:00 to 8:30 pm ET (four sessions)
Cost: $499 US
Delivery: Online with sessions recorded for later viewing

“I just didn’t connect with the character.” “The character didn’t resonate with me.”

How many times do writers hear these phrases when submitting to editors and agents? These dreaded, vague responses can often leave writers scratching their heads. Was it the writing? The plotting? How can they write stories that readers can’t resist?

Emotionally deep stories grab readers’ attention and encourage them to care about the characters and their world. It’s one way to improve your writing and craft stories that readers (and agents and editors) connect to. Join Whale Rock faculty Laura Shovan and Karen Krossing for a deep-dive into getting your characters’ emotions on the page.

Participants are expected to bring a chapter from a novel at any stage of development. Each session will tackle different ways to achieve emotional depth, whether you are connecting emotionally to your writer self, your characters, or your story ideas. Sessions will include exercises and side-writing assignments and will explore drafting and revising to achieve emotional depth. Participants will have homework to complete between sessions.

Each participant will walk away with a chapter of greater emotional depth as well as the tools needed to tackle all their manuscripts. Participants will submit ten, double-spaced pages and receive feedback from one of the instructors.

This Workshop Is For You If

  • You are writing a middle grade or young adult novel.
  • You love plot and/or dialogue, but struggle with getting to your character’s heart.
  • You’ve received the dreaded “I just didn’t connect…” feedback on your manuscript.
  • You would like to explore new ways of emotional connection in your writing practice.
  • You are gearing up for submission and want to be sure your book hits the emotional highs and lows.
  • You are a novelist looking to enhance your skills.

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!

Chat with Crystal Kite Award Winners

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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!)

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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

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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.

Creating Compelling Nonfiction

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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

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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

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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.

My Interview on Cabin Tales

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Last year, author Catherine Austen began a spooky new podcast for kids and adults called Cabin Tales, which I highly recommend. Catherine is a Canadian author of many excellent books, including including Walking Backward, My Cat Isis, 26 Tips for Surviving Grade 6, 28 Tricks for a Fearless Grade 6, and All Good Children. Please check out her books!

Now, you can listen to Catherine’s interview with me on Cabin Tales. It includes my advice to young writers with writer’s block, and tales of terror from my childhood. (Yes, I was afraid of closets. Maybe I still am.)

Cabin Tales: A Spooky Podcast for Kids

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It was great fun to be part of Cabin Tales, a spooky new podcast for kids and adults.

It’s a new project from Catherine Austen, author of many books including my personal favourite All Good Children.

Each episode of Cabin Tales focuses on one aspect of creative writing, such as setting. They include original spooky stories, excerpts from creepy classics, and writing tips from authors like me. The stories are deliciously monstrous – ones you might tell around a campfire to scare your friends – so Catherine warns that they’re not for very young listeners.

Cabin Tales also encourages young writers to share their own stories with fun weekly prompts. I hope you check it out!

My Latest Komics

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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 2)

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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.

My MFA Journey (Part 1)

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Note: In August, I posted about my decision to return to school for an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults at the Vermont College of Fine Arts (VCFA). You can read that post here. I’ll be posting about my journey regularly, so check back for updates.

In January 2018, I’ll travel to Montpelier, Vermont, for my first ten-day residency. I hear that it’s a magical whirlwind of lectures, workshops, and readings from morning till night. I hear that I’ll meet like-minded writers eager to learn more about craft. I hear that I’ll form life-long friendships and be changed in ways I can’t yet imagine. Bring it on!

After the ten days, I’ll return home to work on my critical and creative projects from a distance with my faculty advisor for my first semester. I’m very happy to announce that this semester will be a picture-book intensive, which you can read about here. I’ll be studying with four other MFA students, a faculty advisor with an expertise in picture books, and a professional illustrator.

Like most children, my enchantment with literature began with picture books read aloud to me by adults. As a young girl, I “read” The Story of a Fierce Bad Rabbit by Beatrix Potter to myself long before I could make sense of letters on a page. I liked to capture members of my family and recite my version of the story, over and over. In the book, Potter portrays a fierce, bad rabbit who bullies a nice rabbit and steals his carrot. At a young age, I could already relate to the bullying. Yet what fascinated me was how a man with a gun comes along and shoots at the fierce, bad rabbit. This rabbit ends up with no tail or whiskers, and the nice rabbit avoids the hunter’s gun. There will be justice in this world, Potter’s book told me, although you may not get your carrot back.

When my own children were young, I read them too many picture books to count. Now that they’re twentysomethings, we still find time to read aloud new books I bring home, and we regularly quote from old favorites. “A promise is what you were given and a promise is what you got,” my partner will sagely say, based on A Promise is a Promise, written by Robert Munsch and Michael Kusugak, illustrated by Vladyana Krykorka. “Strength is for the wise, not the reckless. –More cake, please,” my daughter will recite, quoting young Patrick Edward in Monster Mama by author Liz Rosenberg and illustrator Stephen Gammell. Picture books built the foundations of my joy in reading and, later, in writing. As children’s poet Charles Ghigna wrote, “It is the joyous power of picture books that turns young listeners into readers and readers into writers.”

Although picture-book writing is an art I’ve admired for many years, I’ve only begun to experiment with the form recently. With this semester, I hope to learn skills that’ll apply to both short-form writing (the sound of language, how to think in pictures, economy of language) and long (story structure and depth of characterization using few words).

I’ve been prepping for my first semester by reading at least one book by each of the VCFA faculty. It’s been a wonderful exploration, and a great way to get to know them from a distance.

As I count the days until it starts, I’m sure the semester will be full of trials and joys. Will I get across the Canada-US border without trouble? Will the winter driving in Vermont be treacherous? How will I adjust to residence life? Will the workload overwhelm me?

All I know at this point is, when I talk to recent grads of the program, they tell me they’d gladly start the whole process again, if they could.

Want more? You can read Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, and my final MFA post.

It’s Not Hogwarts, But It’s Just as Magical

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I’ve had a growing urge to learn more about writing craft. After graduating from university many years ago, I’m about to become a student again. In January 2018, I’ll start an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults at the Vermont College of Fine Arts. It’s not Hogwarts, but I know it’ll be just as magical.

I’ve been a writer at heart since I personified my toy cars as a young girl. At age ten, I wrote comic books about a girl named Lucky Lisa and the dog I wished I had. At age seventeen, I scribbled angst-filled poetry about the meaning of life. In high school, I knew I’d try to write for publication, although I thought I’d have to take a sensible job first and write professionally once I retired. Imagine my surprise when, after ten sensible years as an educational book editor, I found the courage to quit my full-time job to make room for writing.

Since then, I’ve dedicated myself to learning writing craft through hours at my desk as well as through workshops like Peter Carver’s Writing for Children class at Mable’s Fables Children’s Bookstore, CANSCAIP and SCBWI conferences, screenwriting seminars with John Truby and Robert McKee, and personal critique groups.

Although I’ve achieved much with my writing, I feel the burn to learn more. How can I better translate my characters to the page? Deepen my revision process? Understand the emotional journey of readers and how writing craft guides it? I’d like to explore new genres and techniques. I’d like to discover new ways to mentor emerging voices.

For me, the Vermont College of Fine Arts is the place to do this.

Thanks to the many people who helped me during the application process: Harry Endrulat, Sarah N. Harvey, Melanie Fishbane, Shelley Tanaka, and the VCFA administration. For the warm welcome, thanks to program director Melissa Fisher, Tim Wynne-Jones, and Amanda West Lewis.

I’m honoured. I’m grateful. I’m ready. I can’t wait to begin this journey.

Note: For Part 1 of My MFA Journey, go here.

Photo credit: Hannah Morris

A Word About Word Counts

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I’m a fan of daily word counts when I’m writing a first draft of a novel. It helps me focus on my goal of simply getting it down on paper, allowing revisions to come later. As novelist Jane Smiley wrote, “Every first draft is perfect, because all a first draft has to do is exist.”

Recently, I’ve made a change to my word-count technique that’s working well. Usually, I set a count of anywhere from 500 to 1500 new words on my work-in-progress per writing session, depending on how much time I have to write. Now, I’ve changed that to include new words about my work-in-progress.

Here’s how it works: If I have half a day to write, I might decide I have to write a minimum of 500 new words of my manuscript or 1000 new words about my story. I always double the number of words that are about my story, since they are messier and tend to wander.

I’m finding this new technique is a useful way to write through blocks and challenges because I’m spending my writing time gaining insights about my story instead of writing a bunch of manuscript words that I’ll probably throw out later. I also find that I’m less distracted during writing sessions because I always have a measurable task to focus on. It satisfies me to be able to measure my progress, and I like to proudly announce to my family each evening how much I wrote.

What might I write about my story? Here are some options.

Write About Characters

I write character notes before I start writing a first draft, but those notes aren’t always thorough enough. Let me explain using an example.

On my current work-in-progress, I had two more first-draft chapters to write, but I was stuck. Depending on what one of my secondary characters did next, my plot could resolve in a few different ways. I realized that I didn’t know enough about this minor character who had suddenly developed a larger role in the story. I wrote character notes about her and asked myself questions about her current state:

  • How does she feel right now?
  • What does she notice about her world?
  • How does she view my protagonist and the other characters?
  • What details from her personal history might be triggered right now?
  • What secrets might she be keeping?
  • What’s her goal in this chapter?

Write About Plot

I write a synopsis before I start writing a first draft, but I also allow it to evolve organically.

Continuing with my example, now that I understood this secondary character better, I could begin to image her next steps. I decided to write about my plot by brainstorming alternative ideas, depending on how this character might behave and how my protagonist might react to her.

The result was a change in plot from my original synopsis. I discovered that the big moment I’d been writing toward wasn’t the true heart of my story. A new destination had emerged—one that better suited my novel.

Write from a Different Point of View

Now I knew my secondary character’s next steps. However, I discovered that I still didn’t have the whole picture. I only knew broad strokes, rather than details of her actions.

I decided to write the chapter from her point of view—detailed scenes that would never appear in the book. It forced me to develop every nuance of her thought-process, motivations and actions. When I began writing my first draft again, I knew exactly what this secondary character felt and thought. Her dialogue and deeds came to life on the page, and my protagonist and I could get on with the story.

Journal About the Story

Finally, I might write a journal entry about my story. I use this technique when I need to sort out my feelings about it. Maybe I’m afraid that the novel isn’t working or that I’ll never create a readable story. I write about my fears, trying to turn them into positive ways forward:

  • Why am I afraid the story isn’t working?
  • What revision notes can I make that will improve the story?
  • In what ways is the story succeeding?

After I’ve written about my story, I’m ready to write my actual manuscript again. When I do, my first-draft words are more targeted, with richer characters and better plot intricacies.

For me, it’s a win-win. I move my story forward, and I have a measurable result after each writing session. Even better, I eventually end up with a finished first draft to celebrate.

Hopefully, this technique will help you finish your first draft too.