Gennifer Choldenko - Rewrytz: How to be Your Own Best Editor

Gennifer Choldenko

These are some very brief notes from Gennifer Choldenko's workshop at the SCBWI LA Summer Conference, 2010.

Author of “Al Capone Does My Shirts”

- After first draft, keep it and do a new one.

- Believe in the process of improving the manuscript.

- You don't run into the fridge fast to move it. You do it slowly and gently. If you get like that about your manuscript, slow down.

- If you find yourself not wanting to work on a chapter, it's a big clue that it's not working.

Go where the heat is!

- If the heat's there for you, it's there for the reader.

- Resist doing chapter one over 400 times.

- Don't 'baby' your characters, because life doesn't.

Put a character up a tree and throw rocks at them? This doesn't work for GC. She needs domino effect stuff that makes other stuff occur. The tension builds.

Eg.

- She once went to a scummy bar with a friend. (This was the inciting event)

- Her friend went home with some guy.

- The friend dropped out of school and got married to the guy from the bar. (Sub-plots included sitting her friend down to talk about it and having a huge falling-out).