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Mary Lee Donovan, workshop leader

From Frog to Prince: embracing the transformative miracle of revision

While the week is yours to use as you wish, working on a first draft, starting something new, the focus of the workshops will be on revision, so KW West may be an opportunity to bring that project that needs an overhaul, the one that merely needs some fine-tuning, or anything in between.

1. The Tortoise and the Hare: on your mark, get set, go!
Warming up for a week of revision through peer editing.

Bring to class: a copy of something old, something stuck, something raw that you would feel comfortable offering up as tutorial material.

2. Jack and the Beanstalk: plant the seed, now watch it grow.
Becoming your own best editor.

Bring to class: a draft of something that you know needs revision. Alternatively, bring a copy of something you feel is done, but others are telling you needs work!

3. The Magic Porridge Pot: stir it up, season to taste, now stop!
Interpreting and metabolizing feedback. 

To class, bring copies of editorial letters you have received, removing any  identifying marks. Bring examples of letters you found helpful and letters that left you scratching your head. Bring examples of letters of varying styles: highly detailed to broad and conceptual. We will discuss a variety of editorial and authorial styles when it comes to giving and receiving feedback. And how do we know when enough is enough?

4. The Teeny Tiny Woman: give her back her bone!
A special focus on writing and revising the “true” picture book.
Instructor will bring a few sample texts for the class to deconstruct and reconstruct.

5. The Three Wishes: If you could have any three wishes...
What an editor wants in a writer; what a writer wants in an editor. A frank discussion of a unique relationship. 

Bring to class: your own personal anecdotes and experience.

To prepare for the week, please read (or reread):
The Forest for the Trees: An Editor’s Advice to Writersby Betsy Lerner