I have a children’s stories update for you plus some other odds and ends to share.

3 Children’s Stories Nearing Completion

As you may or may not know (or remember),  a few months ago I edited some stories for my Puerto Rican friend Sonia Morales. A first time children’s writer, she has written between 12 and 15 children’s stories.

I line edited the first drafts she sent. She reviewed and approved my edits, so then we sent them to my power partner Lisa Twining (who will be the illustrator of her stories and book formatter) for her to beta read and weigh in on.

Lisa is a masterful fiction writer and beta reader

… and was involved with NaNoWriMo for years, so I knew she was the perfect fiction writing coach to weigh in on whatever she felt might be missing in the stories.

Some of the story arcs weren’t compelling and all of the characters seemed too perfect (personality-wise) to be believable. There were plot holes and a few character development issues. And most prominent was the fact that there was too much “storytelling” and too little “story showing”.

(“Storytelling should be called “story-showing” unless you’re referring to a live actor telling stories around a campfire, for instance, in my opinion.)

Children’s writers need to inhabit their characters

… before they ever put a single word down on a page. (Same with all other fiction writers.)  It isn’t enough to treat them like chess pieces on a chess board and simply have the hand of God (the creator of the piece) move them around.

The motivation for each action has to be known. The actions, reactions and consequences of each movement in the manuscript needs to lead from wherever the character is to the next action, reaction or consequence. It isn’t easy, and first time fiction writers usually have to develop the skill. It isn’t native to them.

Sonia, like most newbie-but-promising writers, needed to get inside each of the characters she had created so that their thoughts and feelings could be shown (not reported) within the story.

And Sonia is a wonderful student!

The fact that it only takes about three follow up iterations/drafts (on average) to achieve Lisa’s story quality goals for each piece is a testament to the fact that Sonia’s stories are definitely diamonds in  the rough: they simply need a little chiseling and some laser-beam nips and tucks to make them presentable, un-put-down-able, and good reviews–worthy.  (It usually takes first time children’s writers far more back and forth than Sonia’s stories require to get the job done.)  

Which is a testament to both Lisa and Sonia:

…to Lisa for giving concise, helpful feedback and guidelines/examples; and to Sonia for being eager, able and amenable to changing or even deleting some of her favorite passages or ideas in service of achieving the ultimate goal: a decidedly better overall result.  

When I Was Critiquing Stories Back in the Day

…at a church where I worked and worshipped, writers would come in on the first session clutching their manuscripts to their chests in a defensive manner, afraid to show them the first time.  In this way, they were telegraphing to everyone in attendance, “Please don’t call my  baby ugly.”

As a writer myself, I know how precious our “literary children” are!  I made it a point, right away, to say, “We are all in this room as fellow writers to help each other’s baby become irresistible. You have a beautiful baby. But remember: it’s in its infancy; wet and dirty diapers come with the package as sure as day follows night. We’re all here to help wash them up so your baby becomes as precious to everyone else as it is to you!”

That helped a lot of newbie writers relax. They knew I didn’t expect publication-ready manuscripts. It took the pressure off.

Some Continued to Clutch 

Some writers (egotists) wanted immediate, blanket, unanimous confirmation of their awesomeness as storytellers and would fight every suggestion. Those people were no fun and usually didn’t stay long. But most of the attendees knew the assignment: help others shine and receive help to shine.

My rule of thumb was

… “We will all read your story. If just one person shares an insight, makes a suggestion, or shares a concern aloud about something in your story and you want to entertain it, go ahead.  But when two, three or more readers agree that they have the same insight, suggestion, or concern, it’s important to pay attention and see if you can address or correct it.”  (Readers often see things that we we can’t in our own manuscripts, so if numerous beta readers mention the same anomaly, it probably needs to be addressed in some way.)

Sonia Doesn’t Clutch; She Embraces Our Help

Sonia takes our insights, concerns and suggestions and evaluates them.  The final decisions and iterations are always 100% hers, because her name will go on the cover. She is the story’s author. She is the final arbiter. When she’s satisfied with a story, we can call it a wrap and Lisa can then illustrate and format it for printing.

We will do this with each of Sonia’s stories

…and then decide whether to publish them as stand alone books or in an anthology.

In Other News…

A tico passerby accused me of being fluent in Spanish yesterday! I was very tickled — it was heartwarming — but I quickly responded, smiling, “Mas o menos! Aprendiendo! (more or less! Learning!). He laughed and gave me a hearty thumbs up.

What happened was Cindy and I were walking dogs when this man — a restaurant owner — and his wife (two people she recognized) passed us. They talked about Cindy’s eight dogs for a  little bit and then Cindy mentioned to me that they have a restaurant in San Isidro.

The man responded (in Spanish) to Cindy that no, they had moved the restaurant two years ago to CoopeVictoria.

Cindy thought he said they had two restaurants now and told me that. I said (in Spanish) , “No, just one. They moved it to CoopeVictoria two years ago.”

That’s when the gentleman marveled, “You are fluent in Spanish!” (in English) to me.

WHEEEE!!!  But no… not really!

I do sound fluent when I speak, usually. Pronunciation is easy in Spanish. No guesswork required at all.

Emphasis is sometimes a problem if I don’t know where an accent mark is in a word. But that comes with time and familiarity and hearing words repeatedly.

Tomorrow I’ll Go to Grecia Again

…for an INR check, colones and groceries. I’ll also see if the Subway restaurant is gone for good or of it was just being remodeled the last time I was in town. I hope it’s just being remodeled/renovated. I’ll be bummed if it’s gone for good.

Guess that’s all the news that’s fit to print for this time.

Have a good evening!