I've been busy spending quality time with my girls while they're between school and camp, celebrating my 16th anniversary, revising an MG and a PB, and catching up on critiques I owe by the end of the month.

I promised you more information about the 2-Day Revision Intensive with Julie Strauss-Gabel and Suzanne Supplee, and here it is! So many participants had wonderful 'aha' moments. If you ever have a chance to take it, send in your registration ASAP because the spots fill up fast!

We had the amazing opportunity to read one of Suzanne's manuscripts exactly as she submitted it to Julie Strauss-Gabel. We had plenty of time to share our thoughts (with Suzanne out of the room), and then we read the editorial letters sent during her revisions. I'm reading the published version now, and have learned so much about the revision process from this exercise.

We also read e-mails and parts of a manuscript that changed while an author worked with Julie Strauss-Gabel for over two years! It's incredible to see how much the book changed over time--including an 'outstanding first line' that caught her immediate attention, but ended up being moved much later in the book.

Each of us brought copies of the first two pages of a completed MG or YA manuscript for everyone to read. We broke up into groups of four, removing our manuscripts from the pile, then had the chance to read through them all and discuss which we liked the most, and why. One thing that stood out was how much our personal preferences guided our choices. It really showed us that when editors or agents say a manuscript isn't right for them, it still might be amazing, but the subject or writing style didn't speak to them the way it might with another editor or agent. We also read some of our favorite first pages of published novels aloud.

We did so many wonderful hands-on exercises on voice/character, plotting, and were able to fill out a Title Information Sheet (and see examples of ones used for two Dutton Children's Books).

There are so many exercises I'd love to share with you--but it wouldn't be fair to give all their secrets away. It's hard to choose just one--so many of them gave me new insight into my manuscript. I'll summarize two parts of the voice/character exercise. First, write a journal entry in your character's voice, focusing on how he or she would've responded to a miserable day at the beginning of your novel. Then write a journal entry your character might write if he or she had the same miserable day at the end of your novel.

Here's a photo of Suzanne Supplee and Julie Strauss-Gabel:



Here's one of Lin Oliver, Bonnie Bader, Julie Strauss-Gabel, and Suzanne Supplee:


And here's a photo of Julie Strauss-Gabel, Martha Mihalick, Suzanne Supplee, and Dorian Cirrone.