ReviMo Day 4 - Shirley Smith Duke

Revising a Nonfiction Picture Book

by Shirley Smith Duke

Books ordered? Check.

Articles from Internet? Check.

Reading done for all sources? Check.

Background of reading multiple nonfiction picture books? Check.

Now it was time to start writing.

I looked at my subject from a distance. There were fascinating pieces of information and some unsavory actions later in life. I loved so many of them. But I wanted to write a nonfiction picture book for children. Well, I could discuss my subject, warts and all, I decided. I knew the event I wanted to focus on.

Now, most picture books are short—less than 500 words. Nonfiction can be a bit longer, so I thought I’d check. I typed Tanya Lee Stone’s nf pb biography, Who Says Women Can’t Be Doctors?, into a document. It ran about 800 or so words. Now I had my target goal.

Then I didn’t know where to go. I worked on an interesting introduction, realizing after that I needed a story arc. A plan! Nonfiction can make use of a story arc, so I wrote mine. I filled in notes to support the plan, filling four handwritten pages with tiny scribbles.

Now I was ready to write. I found it hard. Finally, I set a goal and got busy. I filled in the story of my subject’s life, from birth to death. I was forced to leave out fascinating facts, but I kept telling myself it’s a picture book. One can’t include everything.

Wrapping up the final sentence with a flourish, I was happy. And not happy. The picture book ran 3,000 words and told the entire life story. Well, it was interesting, so I bundled it off to my critique group. A number of revisions later, I had a 2,500 streamlined version. I hastily sent it along to a paid critique through my SCBWI retreat and waited.

I wasn’t happy with the story, and I thought about what I needed to do.

Guess what? The editor made the usual, standard comments. I wasn’t surprised. I knew what she’d say already. I knew what was wrong with the story.

I needed to focus on the one event. The extra material was the encyclopedia version. I needed to write the birth to death, but that version was for me. With so many incidents and a complex character, the overwhelming information was confusing. Cynthia Leitich Smith said she tears up her first draft before writing the second. I tore mine up mentally.

Now I’m ready to do the second revision. Really revise. Revision isn’t rearranging words. It’s an overhaul. I plan to narrow my focus and return to the single event and why my character was able to carry out the contribution.

I’ll probably still have a really long author’s note!

Thank you Shirley. So pleased to have a peak at your nonfiction revision process!

 
Shirley Smith Duke writes for children of many ages and focuses mostly on nonfiction. She's a former science teacher and by next month will have written 39 books. She's branched out with her latest book, Teaching STEM and Common Core, co-written with Anastasia Suen. She also wrote a STEM column for LibrarySparks this school year with her co-author. She's also written science poetry recently for Janet Wong's and Sylvia Vardell's forthcoming book, The Poetry Friday Anthology for Science. The picture book biography she wrote about in the blog is her New Year's resolution--send it out after lots more revision this year. She lives with her husband half the year in the Jemez Mountains and half the time in the Dallas area.
Teaching STEM and Common Core, ABC-Clio, 2014 
Seasons of the Biomes, (series of 8 books), Rourke,2014
"Grow with STEM", LibrarySparks, 2013-2014


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