I'm so excited to have been asked to be a part of the blog tour for THE WIG IN THE WINDOW, a fun middle grades mystery by Kristen Kittscher (a middle school teacher!). I'm especially excited that Kristen offered up a guest post on her revision process (an aspect of the author's writing life I'm looking to share more examples of with my students - and in fact am co-chairing a session about at NCTE in November).
Title:
THE WIG IN THE WINDOW
Author: Kristen Kittscher
Publisher: HarperCollins Children's Books
Release Date: June 18, 2013 (tomorrow!)
Number of Pages: 368
Sophie Young and Grace Yang have made a game of spying on their
neighbors, but when they stake out the home of notoriously phony middle
school counselor Dr. Charlotte Agford (aka Dr. Awkward), they stumble
across a terrifying scene.
Or do they? The girls are convinced that Dr. Agford’s sugary sweet
façade hides a dark secret. But as they get closer to the truth about
Agford, the strain of the investigation pushes Sophie and Grace farther
apart. Even if they crack their case, will their friendship survive?
Perfect for fans of The Mysterious Benedict Society, The Wig in the
Window is a smart, funny middle-grade mystery with a Rear Window twist.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Kristen Kittscher was a child neighborhood spy but
(allegedly) grew up to be an upstanding citizen and middle school
English teacher. A graduate of Brown University, she now works as a
writing tutor in Pasadena, California where she lives with her husband,
Kai, and their hyperactive lab mix.
The Wig in the Window is her first novel. Visit
kristenkittscher.com to investigate more about her and Young & Yang’s next adventure,
The Tiara on the Terrace.
I’m
so delighted to be continuing my blog tour for The Wig in the Window at Heise Reads & Recommends!
Given
the prying nature of my enterprising tween sleuths, Young & Yang, I’ve been
taking you all behind-the-scenes for some top secret investigations into how a
manuscript is turned into a real, live book.
Before I wrote THE WIG IN THE WINDOW, I cursed
my own lack of talent. If I were a real
writer, I thought, I’d be able to produce tighter, cleaner prose – and I’d be
able to do it faster. Though I’d been preaching the importance of getting
feedback and revising work to my own students, for some reason I thought my own
writing should be better from the get-go. I’d start projects, fall into despair
far too early, and toss my work into the trash.
Fortunately,
I had not one, but two, fantastic editors at Harper Children’s who worked as a
team to guide my revisions: Editorial Director Rosemary Brosnan (who edits one
of my favorite authors, Rita Williams-Garcia) and Associate Editor Andrea
Martin.
They
were kind enough to let me share with you some of their notes on an earlier
draft of The Wig in the Window. If
you read the final product, you’ll see just how much their questions and
comments improved my work!
First,
Rosemary and Andrea collaborated on what’s known as an “editorial letter” to
outline what was working in my manuscript and what bigger picture story and
character problems needed to be addressed.
One
challenge in writing a kids’ mystery is ensuring the kids are driving the
action while those pesky, hovering parents stay out of things! I was so focused
on Sophie Young and Grace Yang’s sleuthing hijinks that I found far too
convenient ways to sideline parents. In an early draft, Sophie’s parents were
very easily manipulated by the (potentially) villainous school counselor, Dr.
Agford. Rosemary and Andrea weren’t about to let me get away with that!
Sophie and Grace’s families
could stand to be developed more. We barely see Sophie’s parents, and it’s a little
hard to believe that they would so quickly accept all of Agford’s suggestions.
Sophie’s parents would understandably be mortified by her behavior, but would
they completely cave to Agford?
Uh,
nope. They sure wouldn’t. My editors were right. To revise, I dove down into my
story and tried to see it from my main character’s parents’ point-of-view. I
found a new way to keep them out of the main action and also tried to give more
true-to-life interactions with Sophie and Dr. Agford throughout the book. I’ve
gotten a few compliments on the parents in the final version, which always
makes me laugh—little does anyone know how bad they’d be without that editorial
help!
In
their editorial letter, Rosemary and Andrea always provided possible solutions
for problems they saw. In most cases, though, I found that I’d discover
different “cures” to the symptoms they diagnosed—ones that felt natural to me
in the story. Though I agreed with most of their notes, there were always
times, too, when I felt I couldn’t address them without wreaking too much
havoc. We’d talk it out together, then, and decide how I could best work around
those flaws.
I’d
send them updates and questions sometimes, too. (The references here are to
characters in the book):
I just wanted to let you know I’m still
alive and working. Everything is progressing normally, which is to say that
some days I feel very certain this manuscript is the equivalent of Sophie's
turd volcano and others, it spews its fake lava as splendidly as Marisa's Mt.
Etna. Assuming neither impression is entirely accurate, I press on.
I
then asked if I should be weaving in descriptions of my potential villain’s
Halloween décor. I had noticed that I point out her love of over-the-top
holiday displays throughout the book, but the book takes place at Halloween and
I don’t mention so much as a pumpkin!
Their
replies:
Rosemary:
I would go with some Halloween decorations, as
they are in character for Agford, they add humor, and it seems counterintuitive
that Agford would draw attention to herself that way, as you say. What do you,
think, Andrea?
Andrea:
I really like the idea of a smattering of Halloween
decorations. They’re very much in keeping with who Agford is, and it’s
also a nice way to set the time period of when the story takes place. And
it’s another great instance of phony outward appearances!
A
snippet from my revision:
The first
Halloween pumpkins and decorations were starting to pop up. I was surprised
Agford’s house wasn’t fully mummified in fake cobwebs yet. She’d gone so
overboard for Flag Day, we were positive she’d hauled out a Ouija board and
conjured up Betsy Ross to consult on the project.
After
my revision, Rosemary and Andrea then did what’s called a “line edit” of the
manuscript, where they look at how the book is working on a sentence level.
While some editors now work with MS Word’s comment feature to give that
feedback, I’m glad that Rosemary and Andrea still send back pages with their
handwritten notes – it’s much more fun—and feels all the more caring. Besides,
how great is that? Here Rosemary spilled a little soup from her lunch and
apologized:
In
the line edit, Rosemary and Andrea provided a few more detailed notes on specific
moments or phrasing that weren’t working—or things I hadn’t been ready to let
go of yet in the earlier draft. Take, for example, the opening chapter:
There are many
things we love about your opening (how Sophie keeps track of summers, for
example) but we thought they weren’t as critical as the need to keep Sophie and
Grace moving forward to Agford’s house. If you dearly miss those passages,
perhaps we can find a place for them…or you can always save them for a blog
post about all the beautiful, witty gems that your editors foolishly asked you
to cut.
What
do you say? Shall this be the blog post for it? Here’s a peek at a deleted
paragraph right near the beginning:
I couldn’t tell you exactly when we started the patrols.
Southern California’s vague seasons make it hard to track time. To make it
easier, I’ve developed my own system of charting years. It’s pretty basic. I
remember every year by its summer, and each summer has a theme. For example, my
guinea pig Agatha died shortly after the Summer of the Highly Unprofitable
Lemonade Stand but before the Summer of Truth or Dare at the Petersons’.
We started spying on our neighbors sometime before the
Summer Everyone Started to Shave Their Legs….
Maybe
the voice and observations are nice enough, but it was slowing down the action.
When supposedly “good writing” is getting away of the story---it’s no longer
any good!
Hope
you enjoyed this little behind-the-scenes investigation – and that you’ll take
heart the next time you’re looking at one of your own messy first drafts of
writing. The magic comes in revision.
Want more? Links to the author online and book extras:
Follow the whole WIG IN THE WINDOW Blog Tour:
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