The Red Pencil is Your Students' Best Friend

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If you have taken a writing workshop with me or who are familiar with Teaching the Story, you know that I always stress a positive approach to revision. DevoKids, a Christian website dedicated to providing spiritual inspiration, fun activities, and writing instruction for young people, is now featuring my article on this topic.


A funny thing happened as I worked with Terri Kelly, the editor of the website. Neither she nor I gave the article a final proof before it went live. As a result, we had three more rounds of revision before we finally got it right. That goes to show you that even professional writers and editors have to run through several cycles of write-read-revise before they're ready to hit "publish!"

The article is written for young writers; I hope you will share it in your classroom or with your home school students.

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Is a Red Pencil Friend or Foe?

How many of you have students who write a first draft, turn it in, and considered it "done"? Most students would rather eat beets and liver for dinner than rewrite their stories, essays, or papers. Why is that? Perhaps it's because we haven't taught them what every published writer has realized: good writing depends on multiple rounds of critique, revision, and re-writing. Even though students may lack the maturity to realize that "written" does not equal "finished" or "publishable" But we can help them in this process by communicating that their own red pencil is really their best friend, not something to be "forgotten" at home, buried in the deep recesses of their backpack, or thrown away.

How can you communicate this important principle?

Three ways:

1. Accept critique of your own work. When you write a sentence on the board, ask your students if they can think of a more vivid verb than what you have written. Is there a more specific noun? A more descriptive adjective? (Notice that adjectives are last on the list and adverbs are not even included! Lively writing is empowered by active verbs and precise nouns.) For some fun activities on using vivid verbs, see pp. 5 – 13 of Jane Kiester's book, Blowing Away the State Writing Test, also from Maupin House.
   
2. Give your students tools so that they can critique their own work. When they have the red pencil in their own hands, they have responsibility and power. Click here for a free mini-lesson on peer editing from my book, Teaching the Story: Fiction Writing in Middle School.
   
3. Encourage your students that all professional writers spend a lot of time and effort revising their work. "Very few stories are aced on the first shot. Leo Tolstoy rewrote Anna Karenina seventeen times. Jean Auel calls the revision stage 'where I get a handle on the book.' And Isaac Bashevis Singer considered the wastebasket the 'writer's best friend.'" Nancy Kress, Contributing Editor, Writer's Digest, July, 2005.
   

The Red Pencil is Avi’s Best Friend Too

As many of you who have taken my "Red Pencil" workshop know, I believe that teachers must communicate to their students that real writers revise. This was confirmed when I heard Avi, one of my favorite authors, say at the South Carolina Reading Association that he revises each of his books 60-70 times! That's a fact to dangle in front of all your students. Here are other gems I gleaned that day; I hope you will share them with your colleagues and in your classroom:

• "Your primary means to teach writing is to teach reading."
  
• "Kids are impatient. They don't want to do the hard work of revision. It may look OK on the computer, but in fact it's not."
  
• "Unless the writing is clear, engaging & interesting, the reader won't turn the page."
  
• "At some point a person begins to think like a writer…when they have the capacity to see what's missing and add to it."
  
• "No surprises for the writer? No surprises for the reader."
  
• "Teaching reading and writing is like teaching a second language. When kids begin to write, they write like they speak; the grammar of talking is different than the grammar of writing."
  

And my favorite:

• "Want to get higher grades? Read a book every week. Guaranteed."
  

This picture is proof that I can't go to a reading conference without buying a book—especially when signed by the author!

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Red Pencil Advice from Chekhov

"To write a story you need five or six days, during which time you must be thinking about it every moment, otherwise you'll never be able to frame good sentences. Before it reaches the page, every sentence must spend two days in the brain, lying perfectly still and putting on weight. It goes without saying, of course, that I'm too lazy to mind my own rule, but I do recommend it to you young writers, all the more so because I have experienced its beneficent results firsthand and know that the rough drafts of all true artists are a mess of deletions and corrections, marked up from top to bottom in a patch-work of cuts and insertions that are themselves recrossed out and mangled." –Anton Chekhov in How to Write Like Chekhov, edited by Pero Brunello and Lena Lanček, quoted in Writer's Digest, February, 2009.

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Wikis, Word Choice, & Red Fonts—the Revision Wave of the Future

“Maryanne walked into the room and looked around. She was surprised that no one noticed her.” Steve Johnson (pictured here) read the sentences that were projected on the screen and turned to the 6^th-grade class. “Pretty boring, isn’t it?” Everyone in the class nodded their agreement. “I wouldn’t want to keep reading, would you?”

A chorus of voices concurred with his analysis. “Can you help me make it better?” he asked. “Let’s see if we can jazz it up.”

With that introduction, Steve Johnson, technology facilitator at Washington Street School in Rockingham, NC, hooked his students into the fun process of digital revision. I was there observing him pilot the technology mini-lessons he wrote, which will be incorporated into the next edition of Teaching the Story. Five hours later, 75 students had learned about a wiki, practiced word-processing skills, discovered the nuances associated with word choice, worked collaboratively, and started on their way to becoming better writers—and had fun every minute.

First, Johnson projected a page from Wikipedia on the screen and discussed how these were Internet sites which could be edited by anyone. Opening the Wiki page, he projected the boring sentence about Maryanne onto the screen and invited students to edit it. With sometimes-comic attempts to outdo one another, students tried out different action verbs while Mr. Johnson egged them on. (“Did she stroll? Saunter? Creep? Smash?) As the students played with replacing vague pronouns and nouns, (the room, no one) with specific nouns (Her bedroom? Her parent’s bedroom? Who didn’t notice her? Her younger twin brothers? Her parents?) and by asking, “Why didn’t anyone notice her?” Johnson prompted the class to picture what Maryanne was doing and where she was doing it. While he demonstrated how to line through a word and add a new word in red, he engaged students in a running dialogue about how word changes take stories in different directions.

The students got the picture and were ready to play with sentences themselves. Johnson directed the class to go to the Washington Street Wiki and gave them their password for access purposes. On separate pages, he had already written six boring sentences. Working in small groups, students were each assigned a sentence to revise. As Johnson and I walked around the room, we encouraged the students to “show, not tell” through vivid verbs, specific nouns, and figurative language. Asking them, “Can you see it? Hear it? Feel it? Touch it?” (some of Nancy Atwell’s favorite questions) helped them become more concrete and specific with their descriptions

Before the end of the 70 minute period, each group had the opportunity to read their revised sentences to the class. By the end of the day, three groups of students had worked in Johnson’s computer lab. The final group was able to view how other classes had revised the same sentences, further illustrating that there wasn’t one “right” answer. When you visit the site, click on “Sidebar” and then on one of the teacher’s names, such as “McInnis-Red Pencil.” You’ll see how these engaged 6^th graders revised, played with words and red fonts, and came up with original ideas. As Johnson said, “One good sentence is a story waiting to happen.”

So, where was Miss Maryanne and who didn’t notice her? Check out this class’s revision:

Maryanne went stomped into the room The Oval Office. She looked around and was surprised that the Secret Service didn't notice her. A thick, green ooze wound its way out the open office window.

Red Font. The revision wave of the future.

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Entering the Blogging Universe

I have officially started my blog, with some hand-holding by Emily Gorovsky, one of the editors at Maupin House. I plan to update this a few times a week and share news about my book as well as what I'm learning about teaching writing to young adults. Bookmark the website: www.carolbaldwinblog.blogspot.com.

If you haven't already checked out my first review at Teaching K-8, please read it here.

My conference schedule now includes the National Middle School Association meeting in November when I'll be presenting, "Making the Red Pencil Your Best Friend: Fostering Critical Thinking Through Focused Revision."

Teachers- check this out. In honor of Teacher Appreciation week, from May 6-12 Maupin House (www.maupinhouse.com) will be giving 50% off ALL their titles. Just use code TA07 when you check out.

Attention South Carolina Homeschoolers!

I just wanted to let you know that I'll be giving three presentations at the South Carolina Home Educators conference on June 15-18 (Scroll down and you'll find me on the speakers list). I'll be giving workshops on "Mining Your Students' Lives: Writing Fiction in Middle and High School", "Show Them How to Create a Character (and More) With a Little Help from the Masters", and "Making the Red Pencil Your Best Friend: Fostering Critical Thinking through Focused Revision." You will learn skills that you will be able to take home and use with your children…and probably a few that you'll try out yourself! My hands-on workshops are always fun and go so fast that the hour is up before I even know it. Hope to see you in Sumter.

In Which I Take My Own Advice

If you have taken a writing class with me, than you have heard me extol the virtues of the red pencil as your best friend. One of the themes of Teaching the Story is that revision happens on many levels. Writers must be ready to delete their "word treasures," rewrite  sentences, add or remove paragraphs, and sometimes condense pages and pages into one paragraph. There are times when a writer finishes a piece, only to realize that what she has completed isn't exactly what she wanted to say and must begin again. In addition, one change often necessitates changes in the entire work. 


I created the "Writing-Revising Cycle" to reflect this dynamic. Feel free to download this file and use it as your own reminder or use it with your students. 


As it turns out, I find myself in the middle of this writing/revising process with my own work-in-progress, Half-Truths. Having completed the first draft at the end of last year, I have been editing it chapter by chapter. Aware that some writers totally rewrite their work in the second draft, I was thinking I could avoid that step.


I was wrong.


As I mentioned in my last post, I recently attended the SCBWI-Carolinas conference. I was fortunate to have ten pages of my manuscript critiqued by Mary Cate Castellani. Her feedback was both encouraging and heart-stopping. She liked my writing and the voice of my two characters. But since the story's main characters are of different races, she thought it would be a more marketable work if I re-wrote it from the viewpoints of each character using alternating chapters.  


I had never thought of that. 


After feeling both shock and denial (I lost track of how many times I said to my writer friends, "I can't believe I have to start all over again!"), I began to re-plot my story.


Since I needed to "see" the entire story, I used white and striped note cards to show the alternating chapters. I laid it out on my dining room table. This is what I ended up with:

Having gone through the "Writing-Revising Cycle" many times, I'm now back at the beginning. But believe it or not, my dread has been replaced with excitement and energy. I agree with Ms. Castellani. I think my book will be far richer as a result.


Now, if you'll excuse me, Chapter 1 is waiting for me. 


Meanwhile, I'd love to hear from you. Where are you in the writing-revising cycle?

Humility in the Marketplace

As a Christian writer I have struggled with the tension between Biblical instructions to be humble, and the publishing world’s advice that I should promote myself. As a result, when Jean Hall, Write2Ignite’s founder, asked me to be a keynote speaker at this year’s conference I thought I’d tackle my own quandary.

As it turns out, I’m not the only one who wrestles with this issue.

I opened the keynote by asking the audience to consider the following questions:

Which is most important:

• To learn humility?
• To practice writing skills?
• To promote yourself through social networking?
• Or perhaps, some combination of all three?

I then asked participants to probe their motivation by considering:

• Why do you write?
• Who do you imagine telling when you get an assignment or get a piece published? (Why this person? What will you say?)
• Would you still write if there was no hope of getting published?

One of the principles that I believe should guide Christians, comes from 1 Corinthians 4:7:  “What do you have that you did not receive? Now if you did indeed receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it?” Just as salvation is a gift from the Lord (Ephesians 2:8), writing and teaching abilities are also gifts.  I encouraged my audience to pray as I do, that they would glorify the Lord in the use of their gifts (1 Corinthians 10:31).

After discussing five examples of Biblical humility: Sarah, Joseph, Moses, Paul, and Jesus, I suggested that there were three tools that provide “humility training.” The Bible shows us our sin; trials show us our need to look to the Lord for wisdom; and the editor’s red pencil shows us our writing weaknesses.

In the final analysis, I admitted that I didn’t have any easy answers. Instead I emphasized that humble thanksgiving for the Lord’s gifts will help Christian writers develop the right attitude about self-promotion.

Afterwards, several people came up and thanked me for the presentation.  Cheryl Reid, a songwriter said, “If I take credit for a song that I write, it takes away credit from the Lord and doesn’t matter eternally.”

Brian Keay thought that our desire to promote ourselves has deep roots: “We all come from painful backgrounds so that we yearn to be significant, to gather attention to ourselves.” He added, “When we are doing what is right we are a reflection of Christ’s glory.”

As I was walking out the door, a woman came over to me and thanked me. “I’ve attended many SCBWI conferences in Virginia and the D.C. area,” she said, “and have never heard a talk on humility.”

That same weekend, the Lord used my own words to remind me of my tendency to “think too highly of myself” (Romans 12:3).  I was both thankful and humbled to receive the Lord’s gentle chiding.

How about you? If you are a Christian writer, how do you handle this tension? I welcome your comments and dialogue on this topic. 

Thinking BIG in Greenville, SC

Last week I had the privilege of being a part of the inaugural writers’ conference for AnAuthor World, a place and program in Greenville, SC. The co-founders Tim Davis and Pam Zollman opened the morning with welcoming comments. Tim, reflecting on his week at the Highlights Writers Workshop, said that he had learned to “Think BIG as a writer.” He introduced each one of the presenters with that adjective. As a result, I was the person with a “big vision” since my goal is to educate the next generation of writers. I think that may now be my favorite introduction!

Pam, a former Highlights editor, reminded the group that if we use an experience, it has to fit the story. She also recommended the book, Techniques of the Selling Writer, which anyone who is serious about the writing profession should check out.

Our keynote speaker was Vonda Skelton who reassured us all that we were a weird group of people. As we basked in those affirming sentiments, she relayed several personal events- some humorous, some tragic—and how in the middle of chaos she would stop and think, “This is a really good scene." As the author of both adult and children’s books, she apparently had learned how to mine her own life, as I instruct teachers in Teaching the Story. “Life is happening all around you. Everything in your book has happened or will happen,” Vonda stated. “Don’t waste anything.”

According to Vonda, there are four reasons why writers don’t write. I resonated with each:
1. Fear of failure. (oh yeah!)
2. Fear of success. Sounds crazy, but it’s the, “If I get a contract then I’ll have to write the book” fear or, “What if I write it and no one buys it?” fear. (or for me, “what if I write it and can’t find a publisher” fear. Very common ailment among writers.)
3. Fear of being transparent. Although good writing comes from hurts and disappointments, writers are afraid of letting these emotions show. (Ask me about the time I sat in the Chautauqua library trying to dig out my character’s motivation. I ran out of Kleenex.)
4. Fear of cost, commitment, and time. Writers shouldn’t expect brilliance at the first shot and wanting to be a writer isn’t enough. (In other words, the red pencil must be a writer’s best friend.)

I guess you can figure out why I resonated with Vonda. Our thinking about writing ran along similar tracks and I’m delighted to have made her acquaintance. Check out AnAuthor World’s events calendar--BIG things are happening in Greenville, SC. If you live within a 50 mile radius, are interested in writing or illustrating for children, and need more instruction or encouragement, this is the place to go.
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Google Surprises

Every once in awhile I google my name along with Teaching the Story. I found some sites that I expected, and some surprises:

Not Surprised by:

My "interview" with Joyce Hostetter on her blog. Not only do Joyce and I teach together, but I also consider her to be my writing mentor. When she invited guest bloggers, I thought I'd include musings I have in my head about writing historical fiction. Here we are at NWRESA.



There were several references to our newsletter Talking Story.



I saw Elysabeth Elderling's, author of the Junior Geography Detective Squad series, postings on how she is skyping with a teacher in Utah and using my book. Very cool!

There was an announcement about my upcoming library event (listed under "If You're Bored..." I guess that's a good thing!)

I found a review that I had read before, one which was fairly recent, one that I hadn't seen, and one from Orton Gillingham.

Surprised by:

I read a great blog about how social media is here to stay in the classroom written by Steve Johnson. Steve wrote the technology lessons for my book and is now completing his own book for Maupin House. Here he is teaching some students in Rockingham, NC:



I found an internet bookshop advertising my book in Spanish (the ad, not my book!); an Italian website offering English language arts materials; and a listing in an Australian bookstore.

I found several sites that had uploaded handouts from the book. Here are some from creating a Genre Setting; handouts from Making the Red Pencil Your Best Friend; and one of my favorites, my Build-a-Plot.

I discovered an excerpt about using technology to teach revisions that was on Literacy Connections and a blog from a teacher who attended one of workshops at the SC Middle School conference.

These were other surprises: an article in Better Teaching on "Show, Don't Tell" writing. (p. 3); and an article just posted 7 hours ago which shows my video on teaching creative writing in the classroom!

I found out that my blog was on a list of 150 useful, educational, and inspirational blogs.

Finally, I discovered a website about wikis in the classroom which showed my video about wikis. Here it is:


It goes to show. You never know where a Google search might take you.

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Coming Up on Write 2 Ignite!

Congratulations to Deb Allmand who won the Audio book of Between the Lines on last week's blog.

I'm excited about several upcoming teaching opportunities. In September I'll be presenting three workshops at the Write2Ignite Conference. Geared towards Christian writers who want to write for the children's and young adult market, as well as to teen writers, Write2Ignite is a day and a half of learning, networking and encouragement. 

I hope these teasers will inspire you--or a writer you know--to register for the conference.

Strangers in a Strange Land

In Exodus 2:22. Moses named his son Gershom because he was a stranger in a strange land. As Christians, in some ways, we are also "strangers" in the secular publishing world. 

How do we honor Christ as writers in a largely non-Christian domain? What is our calling as Christian writers? What is our privilege?  How do we fit in--or don't fit in--to the secular publishing world? There are no easy answers. But in this interactive workshop we’ll examine ourselves, what this "strange" land is, the ways we can integrate our faith into our writing, and our presence in the secular world.

Fiction Writing (Teen Track)

I love teaching teens--they have out-of-this-world ideas for their characters and plots. True, sometimes their lack of inhibition has to be tempered by plausibility--but their enthusiasm is contagious and inspirational! 

For my part, I'll teach them to,

• Exercise their muscle words (all groans aside, this does involve actual EXERCISE!).
• How and why writers need to use mentor texts.
• How the red pencil is their best friend.
• How to jazz up their writing through "Show, Don’t Tell."
• How details make the difference when crafting genre fiction.

Writing Historical Fiction

I love historical fiction almost as much as I love teaching teens! 😁


This hands-on workshop will include: 

• R—Research. Should you read newspapers? Magazines? Books? Fiction or nonfiction? Microfilm? How do you know when your research is done? 
• E—Experts. How to find experts for your story? What do you ask? How do you use your expert's story to inform yours?
• A—Arrange. Create a system to keep track of notes, interviews, and photos. 
• D—Details and Drafts. What details do you need to create an authentic story? How do you move from rough drafts to honing on your story?

If you plan to attend this workshop, please bring your favorite historical novel. If you're working on a project, bring one or two pages of your work.

**************

Please share this post with a writer or teen who might be interested in attending the conference. And stay tuned. In a few weeks I'll share my other teaching opportunity coming up in October!

Conversation with Carol Crane, Learning through SCBWI, & More

I had a nice conversation over the weekend, with Carol Crane author of a number of beautiful ABC and number picture books. She voiced a concern that I have heard from many children's authors: people just aren't buying as many books for children as they used to. She wondered if it was a symptom of our economoy, I pointed out that most households in the US have at least one television and many have computers (and almost everyone has at least one cell phone!). We agreed that it's a matter of priorities--and that buying books may not be as important in our culture as it used to be. Any other opinions on the subject?

On another note, the Charlotte SCBWI group had our monthly meeting on Saturday morning. Even when I don't bring something to be critiqued myself, I always learn from the give and take that we share. Over the 12 + years which I have been moderating this group, I have learned a tremendous amount from the process of answering the questions, "What is wrong with this piece?" and "How can this writer make her work better?" These same questions are the same which writers of any age must ask of themselves and of their peer's work. This process of critical analysis is one that I advocate in my book and "Red Pencil" workshops.

To all homeschool educators: Maupin House's 50% discount is this week only (May 7-12) and applies to all books and all products. Just use TA07 when you check out. www.maupinhouse.com

Writing Tips #5: Nuggets of Wisdom on Editing & Revision

Congratulations to Kathy Weichman who won Beginnings Middles & Ends by Nancy Kress.  Thanks to all of you who contributed to the this series. You can find the previous posts here: Part I and II included General Advice; Part III was on Deep Point of View; and Part IV was on Story Making. 

*******

"During my time as a facilitator of various writing groups, I saw the tendency of overusing the words ‘that’ and ‘was’.

THAT is a word THAT should not be used THAT often. 

It is reasonable to say, eighty percent of that’s are not necessary.

"WAS is another overused word that takes away from the action.  I once had a writing assignment in college where the professor wanted a two thousand word story written without the use of ‘was.'  Almost impossible to do.  Try replacing 'was' with action words or dialogue.  If you use it more than ten times in a two thousand word story, you are abusing the word.   

"Misplacing a comma can turn the meaning of a sentence into something other than intended. Always place a comma before a person’s name when used in dialogue.   

 “Let’s go out and eat Nancy.”

 “Let’s go out and eat, Nancy.”

"In the first example, it looks like Nancy is dinner. 

In the second example, with the comma before Nancy’s name, the meaning isn’t so graphic."  Tommy Styles, short story writer.

"Editing will require you to kill phrases, paragraphs, maybe even entire chapters or characters that you love. Sometimes they’ll be the bits you think are clever and beautiful and certain to be the ones your fans will be quoting and sharing on social media. You must be willing to do it anyway. You must learn to become brutally analytical about your own work. If it doesn’t help the story, it is not necessary. Period."  Shannon Wiersbitzky, author of What Flowers Remember.

"I am beginning an extensive revision and working hard to cut what needs to be cut, but it helps to remember that what is cut doesn't need to be trashed. It can be saved to be used another day. Maybe it won't, but it's easier to cut when I have that mindset." Kathy Cannon Wiechman, author of Like A River.

"When you cutting, words, sentences, paragraphs don't just throw them away. That's too emotional for many of us. Open a "shards" or "discards" file for each WIP and save those cuttings. You'll be able to use them another day in another project." Jean Hall, founder of Write2Ignite.

"Writing and publishing is a long-term pursuit, so don't rush what you are working on, and don't submit before it is polished. Revision is the key to publication." Christine Kohler, author of No Surrender Soldier.

Found on http://madwomanintheforest.com/wfmad-day-18-revision-roadmap/ 

"Put away your work for a good while before revising." Rosi Hollenbeck, SCBWI critique group coordinator for Northern and Central California and blogger.

"There comes a time to put down the writing books, the notes from conferences and classes, the "he said she said" telling you what to do or not to do and JUST WRITE THE STORY THAT'S IN YOUR HEART. Sandra Warren, author of Arlie the Alligator.

If you need more inspiration, check out Janice Hardy's month of outstanding at-home revision blogs. Kathy Temean has an excellent list of things not to miss when editing your work. And here are some top editing and proofreading tips from the folks at Romance University.

Finally, here is advice from a fourth-grade teacher; I use this quote whenever I teach writing: 

  "The red pencil is your best friend."