by Karen Krossing | May 8, 2019 | Kan't Draw Komics, On Writing
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.
The first one is about how writing can become a struggle between what the writer wants and what the character wants. It’s always better to listen to your characters rather than trying to force them to do what you want them to do. However, a story is also about a character in conflict, so writers need to be prepared to put their characters in dire situations!
Anyone who knows me well will tell you that patience is not my strength. But I love the zen of my weekly yoga classes. When I submit to publishers, I definitely need more zen. Tree pose anyone?
You can read more of my comics on my Kan’t Draw Komics page.
by Karen Krossing | Mar 19, 2019 | On Writing
As one of my many explorations during my MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults at the Vermont College of Fine Arts, I wrote about how to revise picture-book manuscripts. Now, that writing has become a two-part article in the CANSCAIP News!
For the article, I visited my local archive—the Osborne Collection of Early Children’s Books in Toronto—to seek original manuscripts that became acclaimed picture books. I then analyzed how three authors revised their manuscripts. This included Kathy Stinson’s Red is Best (illustrated by Robin Baird Lewis, published by Annick Press), Linda Granfield’s The Road to Afghanistan (illustrated by Brian Deines, published by Scholastic Canada), and Paulette Bourgeois’s Franklin in the Dark (illustrated by Brenda Clark, published by Kids Can Press).
Many thanks to the Canadian Society of Children’s Authors, Illustrators and Performers for publishing the article, and to Kathy Stinson, Linda Granfield, and Paulette Bourgeois for permission to quote from their archived material.
You can read the first part of the article here (in the Summer 2019 issue). This part discusses beginnings and endings. The second part will explore how to revise the messy middle of a manuscript.
