Second Sight: An Editor’s Talks on Writing & Revising & Publishing Books for Children and Young Adults was a book I picked up at the SCBWI Winter Conference in January after attending Cheryl Klein’s workshop on revision.
It took me a bit of time to get through it, but that’s because I took my time. I read 5-10 pages at a time and put it aside. I let my mind mull over what I read and how it impacted my manuscript.
Ms. Klein writes in a practical, user-friendly style. You feel like she is speaking directly to you as she guides you through:
- what makes a good book,
- the publisher relationship,
- what a query letter should do,
- character charts,
- techniques for analyzing and revising,
- getting to the heart of your emotional story, and
- the quartet of plot, character, voice, & point.
I appreciated how she broke things down so that I could apply what she said to my own work. For example, when trying to get to the emotional heart of your story, there are four things to consider:
- Conflict, Mystery, or Lack: which model is your central plot and your subplots?
- What does the character want?
- Compulsion vs. Obstacles: The obstacles are the frontstory, but the compulsion is the backstory.
- Problem, Process, Solution: Each chapter should include a process step moving the story toward to the solution.
At the end of the book, she gives you 25 revision techniques and a final word on the author-editor relationship.
Definitely a book worth reading. And rereading.
Great review. I’m especially interested in compulsion vs obstacles and how to differentiate the two in my own work.
Thanks. It was a really good book on what a book should be/do. She has a great blog too at http://chavelaque.blogspot.com/.
That sounds like good advice for any novel, not just those for young adults and children!
Very true. Some of the book is very specific to YA, middle grade and picture books. But many things can be used on adult manuscripts as well. 🙂