Highlights from July 2012 VCFA Residency!

I just got back from my 4^th VCFA residency. Woot! Woot! I can’t believe I only have one semester left and then I will have an MFA in writing for kidz! (How time flies!) As always, I’m super inspired from residency and have lots of great tid-bits to share. So without further adieu…

Tid-bits and Sassy Snippets from July 2012 VCFA Residencyin Writing for Children and Young Adults:

Try revising your manuscript from back to front. We spend so much time on the opening that the ending can get lost when we lose steam.
Structure is the overall form, and plot is a series of actions.
Ask your protagonist: “What is the incident (or incidents) in your past that got you believing in a lie? And what is that lie?” The presumption here is that your character has been hurt in the past and because of that event the character has created a “front” which they present to the world. Additionally, they act a certain way, or believe the world is a certain way, because of that lie.
Load your story events with stakes and symbolism.
Good vs. evil can be good. But, good vs. good is even better!
99% of all art you make will fall short. You only make good work from lots of not-so-good work.
What’s “not” on the page is just as important as what “is” on the page. Don’t explain things too quickly. Tension is gained in what is held in the gaps.
Write in service of your characters! Get deep in your character and be with them second by second. A true “moment” is not a feeling you dictate to your character, but something that arises from what they would honestly think, say, or do.
“A kid will forget a book that reinforces their security, but they’ll never forget a book that introduces them to a truth for the first time.”
Consider revising like a poet. Take every sentence and analyze it like it’s a line in a poem. Add line breaks, edit, revise, and delete. It will help you to see what is necessary and what is excess.
Dead parents are not your plot bitch!
Characterization is the sum of all observable qualities of a human. Character is revealed in the choices (and actions) a human being makes under pressure.
The protagonist doesn’t have to change in a short story (there may not be time due to length), but the reader must be changed.
If you lose your way in your novel, go back to the place where you fell in LOVE with your character and begin again there.
Surprise readers by crafting villains who do not easily fall into the label of “evil”!
When writing in dual point of view you are doubling the fun, but you are also doubling the trouble.
Don’t for get that the medium we work in is the reader’s imagination!