Friday, April 17, 2009

a literary debut

At Disney World this week, I was tempted to buy a American Idol shirt saying VOTE FOR ME. This weekend I'm a contestant in New Hampshire Literary Idol, sponsored by the NH Writer's Project. In a weak moment I thought I could bear the standard for children's writers!

So I have cut one of my picture books to a three-minute reading. And I practiced, duck puppet in hand. Whatever the outcome, honing the manuscript was a great exercise. I thought at 600 plus words, it was lean. Now, stripped of everything but the essentials and the verbs, it's a 400-plus-word action-packed manuscript.

I think I gained clarity, and there seems more room for an illustrator's interpretation.

Stay tuned for results of my stage debut as a children's writer!

1 comment:

  1. This sounds like a great exercise, Joyce. How did the performance go?

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