A Guest Post - and a GIVEAWAY!

"Throughout the journey, I've been asked many times if I ever wanted to write. The long and short answer to that question is "Yes." But that's easier said than done." - emma d dryden

I'm delighted and honored to be featured on Cynsations today - the always excellent and informative blog kept by Cynthia Leitich Smith. I've written a post about my experience writing WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE AN ENTREPRENEUR? entitled "Putting the Internal Editor in a Timeout."

And guess what? There's a fantastic GIVEAWAY! Here's where to go: 
http://cynthialeitichsmith.blogspot.com/2016/04/guest-post-giveaway-emma-dryden-on.html

Making Choices for Our Characters and Ourselves

I've recently been talking and guest-posting about the importance of ensuring our protagonists evolve and grow through the choices and decisions they make throughout the course of their stories. Whether these choices and decisions are compelled by something awful (the protagonist up against a threat with no apparent choice) or by something terrific (the protagonist seeing the means to achieve and go for their goal), it's the choices and decisions our protagonists make that go into defining who they are, add solidity to what they're made of, and instill a drive to face new things when they think they've faced everything they can possibly face. 

Talking and writing about how the most memorable and most compelling protagonists make choices and decisions all the time, I've caught myself wondering about the sorts of choices and decisions I make in my own life. Do the choices and decisions I make go into defining who I am? Do the choices and decisions I make add solidity to what I'm made of? Do the choices and decisions I make instill in me a drive to face new things—things that may take me out of my comfort zone, things that may make me fearful, things that make me someone more complex than the person I was the day before? Sure I do...sometimes. Once in a while. Not often enough. Certainly not enough, I realize, to be most memorable and most compelling protagonist if I were the main character in a story.

Okay, maybe I'm selling myself short. Maybe every single choice and decision I make over the course of any given day actually adds to my evolution as a person. It sure doesn't feel like it, though, not when I think about what we ask our characters to face in our stories. And this gets me thinking about why we write stories in the first place and why we create the characters we create. 

Is it possible we're instilling in our protagonists the abilities, attributes, and drives we may not ourselves have but wish we had? Is it possible we're putting our protagonists into positions where they have to make seemingly impossible choices and decisions that will result in seemingly impossible repercussions in order to test our own boundaries and definitions of what's truly impossible? Is it possible we're forcing our protagonists to face their ultimate "what if?" questions so we can explore how we might behave and react when faced with our own ultimate "what if?" questions? Absolutely! I think this is what writers do all the time—not only do writers write to express and explore the stories inside their heads and hearts, but to express and explore the stories of ourselves, our humanity, our boundaries, and our capacities.

Though it may not feel like it, all of us, at varying degrees and at varying times, are in positions to make—and do make—the kinds of choices and decisions we ask of our protagonists. Some of the positions in which we find ourselves making choices and decisions will be awful, some will be terrific. Some of the positions in which we find ourselves making choices and decisions will feel utterly impossible, some will feel easy. It's from all of these experiences and how we respond to them that we evolve. And it's from all of these experiences that we write our characters and our stories, putting what we know to be true of ourselves and humanity onto the page for readers to find themselves and discover truths.

I want to be a person who makes choices and decisions that matter, that have repercussions larger than me. I want to be a person who makes choices and decisions that help me on a meaningful path of growth and continuing evolution, no matter how old I am. So when I need inspiration and confidence to keep making those kinds of choices and decisions, I feel lucky to be able to look not only to those people whom I consider to be role models and mentors, but also to protagonists in all sorts of stories.

(c) drydenbks LLC 2015

Why Playing It Safe May Be the Most Dangerous Game of All

I read some exchanges recently between picture book authors in which one posed the question (and I’m paraphrasing here) as to whether she could do whatever she wanted with her main character in her manuscript, or whether it was better to perhaps “play it safe.” 

A few authors responded right away that it’s important to “play it safe” and they meant that it’s probably best to stay in familiar territory for picture book age readers who are too young to understand the dangers of certain activities, or too young to understand the difference between reality and fantasy.  I hastened to add my voice to the comments with a quick DON’T PLAY IT SAFE! message and this got me to thinking, if any authors are out there assuming they have to play it safe for picture book age readers, my position on how detrimental that way of thinking is deserves a bit more space than a Facebook comment box allows. 

As someone who’s edited and published hundreds of picture books, my position has never flagged on one particular point about what makes a great picture book:  whether your characters are human, animal, or otherwise; whether your story is realistic or fantasy; whether your story is contemporary or historical; whether your approach is serious or funny; whether your story is practical or completely off the wall…anything goes as long as a very young child will be able to relate to your main character’s emotions, perspectives, and world view.  

A story can open with our main character in a kitchen with mom and dad and dog all safely and soundly situated—to many readers, that’s familiar, but to other readers such a scene will be a fantasy and not familiar at all—not by a long shot. A story can open with our main character caped and masked and flying through the trees—to many readers, that will be familiar because it’s exactly how they think of themselves all the time, but to other readers it will be a brand new idea, maybe a little scary, but maybe a little fantastic, too.  As long as the trajectory of the picture book story taps into the emotions and feelings a very young child will find familiar, that’s as familiar and “safe” as a picture book needs to be. As long as the emotional needs, interests, and resolutions of the main character in a picture book resonate with the very young reader’s emotional knowledge and capacity, that’s as familiar and “safe” as a picture book needs to be. As long as that’s solid, the trappings and settings and structuring of the picture book can be whatever your imagination can conjure—and here’s the very place where I see most new picture book authors not pushing themselves enough. 

Authors need to allow their imaginations to take them all over the place, particularly out of safety zones—if authors play it too safe, we end up doing a disservice to ourselves and a disservice to our young readers. Where but in stories can we allow our youngest readers to not play it safe, to try new things, to explore, to roam, to make mistakes and make amends, to reach higher, deeper, and further than we ever thought possible? And where but in stories can we allow ourselves the very same?  And if we don't do all this in stories for children, I shudder at the cost that will take on our collective imaginations and creativity.

We wrap our children too tightly in bubble wrap sometimes—and sometimes, indeed, it’s completely necessary, but not in stories. Stories are where we must let our children play and dream and imagine roles and lives for

themselves that they’ve never thought about before; that’s how stories help children explore their sense of empathy, sharpen their resolve, enrich their dreams, and expand their imaginations. There’s no harm in that at all as long as the stories we provide as the vehicle for this ride carry within them the emotional core young children will be able to understand as their own.

If we push ourselves out of the familiar to ask "what if?" and to find the magic in the world, think how much more interested our children will be in doing the same. The safest route is rarely the most scenic. So feel free to explore creatively and imaginatively in your stories so children can explore the world in the same way. And if you find yourself spinning your wheels in a safety zone, go listen to young children telling each other stories and have them tell stories to you. I promise, the emotions will be familiar, but the stories will be out of this world--and that's a trip well worth taking.

(c) emma d dryden, drydenbks LLC

Falling In Lust With Our First Draft (Or, What Not To Do On A First Date)

Some time ago I posted about Revision [read post here]. Since that time, I’ve had the privilege to speak with dozens of authors about the revision process, revision techniques, and more. As recently as this past weekend, I spoke at a workshop about Robust Revision – and all this talk about revision has gotten me thinking about first drafts.  And this has gotten me thinking about first dates…but I’m getting ahead of myself.

Writing is a process of discovery and we don’t always produce our best writing when we first get started on a book.  The first draft is the time to shout “Yes! Yes!” to our ideas and write HOT—write with passion, write with abandon, let it all bubble out there onto the page, don’t play it safe in any way. Then comes a cooling off period…the time when we must step away from the writing and the work for a little while. And then, when it comes time to revise, we will be able to write with a cooler head. Revision is the chance to look critically at what we’ve written to see: if it’s really worth saying; if it says what we meant to say; if a reader will understand what we’re saying; and if a reader will feel want we want them to feel. But before that we need to write HOT.

The hottest moments of our work is the getting it all down in a messy, sprawling first draft. The passion. The “Yes! Yes!” The hot mess. Whether a planner or a panster, however writers get that first draft down is fine. It takes a lot of courage to get something down on paper at all, and what I hope authors will embrace is the notion of writing without revision in first drafts—writing with abandon! There will be plenty of time later for the inner editor to get to work, for the critical eye to start seeing all the faults, for the lights to go on, for the rearranging and reorganizing, for the make-up and polishing.

That time of great intensity and heat is a precious time for an author and their work—and really the only time in the writing process where we can feel free to do whatever we want to do. So do it! Don’t stop. Don’t edit. Don’t think too much. Just go for it.

OK, so we’re in the heat of passion with our first draft—it’s a lustful, expressive, passionate tangle between a writer and the work.  “Yes! Yes!”  But…

…as most teenagers will tell you, the very worst thing that can happen in a heated make-out session on a first date is when someone whispers, “I think I’m in love with you.”

Whoa…say, what?

And that heat index suddenly goes down…

                                                  down…

                                                  down…

       

Come on, admit it. I’m right, right?

In the context of writing first drafts, I am a huge proponent of being as insatiably lustful as possible—with words, with ideas, with characters, with scenes, with situations, with drama, with dialogue, with settings, with STORY.  And I caution all writers to approach the writing of first drafts in lust, not in love.  And here’s why: Falling in love too soon with what we've written will absolutely prevent us from being critical and willing to change it.

If we fall in love too soon with what we’ve written, we will be far too hesitant to change it even if we know it’s not that great. But staying in lust with a first draft? That’s more like being on a hot first date with our writing—and that way we can stay open to finding out more about what we’re writing, seeing if we’re really compatible. And we won’t feel guilty for playing the field and chasing other ideas to determine if a new and better story idea comes along, so we can dump the old one without a second thought.

With a first draft, we need to be as ruthlessly lustful as we want—because it will all be over soon enough! And then the necessary period of cooling off can begin. (Because, face it, so much literary lusting can be exhausting and we need to rest and clear our heads.)  And the process of revision can commence. And that’s when the falling in love happens.

(c) emma d dryden, drydenbks LLC

Playing Make-Believe: World-Building and World-Crafting

Writers are atlas makers

Do you remember playing make-believe when you were little? Playing with your friends, or with dolls or stuffed animals, and creating elaborate and often complex scenarios, relationships, situations, and rules within a make-believe world filled with magic, or monsters, or heroes, or explorers, or princesses, or anything else we could conjure up from our imaginations?

When we’re children make-believe is a way for us to be safe while experimenting with the world, testing boundaries, trying on new personas, pretending to be older, pretending to be adults, letting our imaginations take us as far away from ourselves as we can go, into new worlds and new landscapes. And then, just as Mickey returns from the Night Kitchen in time for breakfast, we can come home again, back into ourselves and into our real worlds, richer for the world of make-believe we know we can explore again whenever we want.


As we grow up, many of us outgrow make-believe. But there are some people who don’t outgrow make-believe at all, and they became…fiction writers! I loved make-believe when I was growing up, and I have no doubt that speaks in some part to how I became a children’s book editor. And one of the most fantastic parts of make-believe for me was the world–the multiple worlds, in fact–I could create in my imagination. Worlds in which I could set all the rules, worlds in which feared creatures became friends, worlds in which puppy-love crushes were manifested, worlds in which disabilities were assets, worlds in which I could be anyone and anything I wanted. So what better way to stay close to the land of make-believe than journeying into worlds created by storytellers?


Whether fantasy or realism, crafting the worlds of our stories is really akin to setting up the worlds we created as children playing make-believe, only this time we’re responsible for creating worlds rich enough, believable enough, and inviting enough for readers to join us, to journey with us, to stay there with us.


World-building is an exciting and often complicated part of writing a great book, made more complex when you recognize that the world of a story must exist on two levels–the actual world in which a main character lives and the internal world in which a main character lives–the emotional and psychological world.

Writers are atlas makers, crafting the maps their characters will need to explore and find their way through literal and figurative landscapes. And the more clearly marked and detailed and interesting these maps are, the more excited and curious readers will be to find their way through these landscapes, too.



                                                                   

 (c) emma d dryden, drydenbks LLC

This post first appeared on May 7, 2013, as a guest post for Ventana Sierra Workshops (www.ventanasierraworkshops.com) in advance of a June 14-16, 2013, workshop in which Emma Dryden conducts a session entitled, "Constructing the World: Internal & External World Building"

Hearing and Tasting Our Work

"I always find if you read fiction out loud you know what you have to change by what you stumble over." - Alice Hoffman.

As anyone who has worked with me knows, I'm a huge proponent of reading our manuscripts aloud.  It's critical to do this when your work is a picture book--we can all agree that the most successful picture books are not only those that can be read aloud over and over again, but those that we want to read aloud over and over again. So the very best way to write a picture book is to read it aloud as you go along. It's equally critical, though, to read your fiction and non-fiction aloud. Yes, it will take a lot of time, but this must be part of the writing process because the reading process is itself a multi-layered sensory experience. We don't read only with our eyes--as we read, we feel a story; as we read, we sense a story; and as we read, we hear a story.  And so, the very best way to write a novel or non-fiction that will appeal to readers is to read it aloud as you go along. 

Saying something aloud makes it more real for us. We can think something, we can feel something, we can wonder about something, we can even write something down. But I've often found it to be true that when we say what we're thinking or feeling, when we give a voice to it, that's usually when it becomes most real, whether we like it or not. We can't take it back. It's out there.  It's been witnessed. So too, our manuscripts. We must witness our own stories, we must witness our own writing--and by doing so, we will experience our stories and our writing in new ways, in ways that will reveal flaws, in ways that will reveal poetry, in ways that will reveal what we need to adjust, revise, omit, add.  

As we read aloud, we feel our words on our tongues--we taste our words, we taste our stories--and just as there are certain textures and flavors of foods we find delicious or distasteful, so will we begin to recognize what textures and flavors of our writing we find delicious or distasteful. And in so doing, we will be refining our work in ways that will engage the deeper senses of our readers.

We must hear our words. Taste our words. See our words. Feel our words. As we do, our senses will become more acute and we will experience our stories and ourselves more fully, we will share our stories and ourselves more fully.

(c) emma d dryden, drydenbks LLC

Are You Being Served? A Recipe for a Great Critique Group

 Ingredients: 

- 2-12 dedicated authors (can be of different genres & formats; can be of same genre & format)

- heaping doses of imagination

- heaping doses of respect

- heaping doses of sensitivity

- liberal doses of gentle honesty (if you opt for brutal, critique group will become too tough and hard to swallow)

- open-mindedness and creative flexibility

- willingness to ask questions and listen to answers

- generous sprinkles of laughter (can use hysteria and guffaws if desired)

- timer (enables fair attention paid to each author)

- cough drops & water (enables requisite read-alouds)

- bathroom & stretch breaks

- delicious food

- comfortable setting (a cozy setting is even better, if you can find it)

- wine or spirits (for after critiques are completed! Some may find wine or spirits appropriate during, but proceed with caution)

- optional: friendly dog and/or cat; fireplace; views (ocean, woodland, mountains, etc.); anything else to enhance experience

_______________

Directions:

Gather ingredients together on a regular basis. Stir with professionalism, exuberance, imagination, and inspiration. Surprises may result. Quiet moments of reflection may be required. Questions can be asked for which there may be no immediate or clear answers. That's ok. Allow for staying open to possibilities; critique groups vary based upon the ratio and balance of ingredients.  

Caution: If each author doesn’t feel heard and respected, the ratio of ingredients has gone awry and you will most assuredly want to double-check your recipe.

Note: Every once in a while, it's a good idea to add a one-time ingredient to this recipe, such as a professional editor or published author who will provide a new voice and perspective to the discussion – this can best be achieved over a weekend. For a sample taste of this sort of enhanced group experience, go to this post from the Route 19 Writers blog. 

This recipe serves many, including a richer society of writers and readers.

  (c) emma d dryden, drydenbks LLC

Why Children's Publishing Needs Freelance Editors Now

"I’m one of a new sort of unaffiliated editor available to the children’s book 

industry, with allegiance only to the best practices involved in 

creating and offering the best books for children."

Throughout the earth’s history tectonic plates have either fused onto other plates to form larger plates, rifted into smaller plates, or been crushed by or subducted under other plates — or indeed have done all three. As we ride the rifting, drifting and shifting tectonic (or ought we to call them tech-tonic?) plates of the publishing landscape, there’s been some notable transformations taking place among many editors in the children’s book industry. As more editors are leaving long-time positions with companies, due to budgetary lay-offs, burn-out or life changes of various kinds, we’ve witnessed a rise in the number of highly skilled freelance editors available to the writing population.

As one of these editors, freelance after 25 years with various companies, what impresses me is not just that there are so many of us out there, but how extremely busy we are and how varied our work has become. We’re in high demand right now for a myriad of reasons that go far beyond book doctoring and editorial guidance.

I’m being hired by authors at the beginning of their careers who know they need to polish their work before it can be represented or sold; by authors (both agented and unagented) in the middle of their careers who are struggling to stay relevant and marketable and want a new career strategy; by agents seeking an impartial perspective on the changing marketplace; by publishers in need of concentrated editorial support for an intense project because they don’t have editors available; by editors craving advice about best practices and some form of mentorship because publishing houses don’t put stock in the value of mentoring as they once did; by authors weighing publishing options — from self to indie to “legacy” — in need of help to make smart decisions for their work and their goals; by start-up e-book and/or app publishers who want expert input about the content and the market; by a library exploring how they might become a publisher for local writers; by a major book review source interested in hearing about the digital marketplace.

My skills as a former publisher are informing my freelance work just as much as my editorial skills right now — and to be of service to this array of clients, I’ve found it necessary (and interesting!) to stay informed and abreast of the myriad of options authors and illustrators have (traditional, digital and otherwise). The result is that I no longer bill myself as just an editor, but rather an editorial and publishing consultant.

I suppose I ought not to be surprised by any of this — overworked editors are being reprimanded by their companies for “wasting too much time editing books” (an exact quote, I promise!); agents are grappling with manuscripts that editors won’t acquire unless they’re nearly print-ready and they don’t have time to research all of the possible indie, small venues and platforms that could offer the best publishing experiences for their clients. So many companies affiliated with children’s publishing are scrambling to incorporate bits of the new with the old; many individuals at these companies, though, are unable to focus and just don’t have time to adapt new skills or process all the input, to pay attention to what’s going on in the digital arena, to explore new options, to experiment — they’re turning to anyone who has some breadth of knowledge of the business as well as some handle on what the shifting of the plates might mean for the future, and they’re looking outside of any one company or organization, into the rich fields of the freelancer.

The word freelance comes from the knights whose lances were free for hire, and originally meant a free companion or person free of occupational or political party obligation or allegiance. I’m one of a new sort of unaffiliated editor available to the children’s book industry, with allegiance only to the best practices involved in creating and offering the best books for children. As I edit, I do so wholly and completely, without distraction by corporate initiatives, meetings, P&Ls and mandates, thereby providing an author or illustrator a more in-depth and pure assessment of their work, craft and process. At the same time, I also provide a market view not colored by any one company, but that encompasses a far broader perspective. Such services, I find, are not only providing authors, illustrators, agents and other industry clients support and guidance, but information and perspective, all of which seem to be in somewhat spare supply in the current upheavals of the business. 

What’s not changed, and this seems to me to be at the heart of what’s driving the freelance editor’s and/or consultant’s business right now, is the importance of story. Our industry’s story is undergoing some major revision right now and it’s not going to be finalized any time soon, if ever. Our own life stories change every day, leading us down paths we may not have expected. Where books — delivered by any means, on any platform — fit into all of this, particularly for young readers, is to provide us with whatever we need to feel moved, entertained, not so alone, empathetic, hopeful, engaged and better equipped to face the journey.

The Latin verb root of the word “editor” is edere — to bring forth, to bring about. It strikes me that it’s perhaps this new crop of editors of which I’m so proud to be a part — the editorial and publishing consultants whose allegiance is only to story, who are poised to truly fulfill the mandates of bringing forth, bringing about; while helping to bring forth the story editorially, simultaneously bringing forth clarification, information and guidance on a broader scale; while assisting in bringing about the story, also assisting in the bringing about of change.

This editorial by Emma D. Dryden was first published 07/20/12 in PublishingPerspectives, an online journal of international book publishing news and opinion. With correspondents around the world, Publishing Perspectives provides personal stories and analysis from those on the cutting edge of digital, global, and self-publishing.

(c) emma d dryden, drydenbks llc