Season 2, Episode 25: Why Now?
IN THIS EPISODE
During a Valentine’s Day cupcake party, Abby read more of her book to her daughter’s 3rd-grade class, and they treated her like a rockstar, guys. She realized that the first part of her Chapter 4 didn’t really hold their attention, and this got her attention. After reading Kemlo’s feedback on the later Chapters 9-10, she is going to go back and made Chapter 4 stronger with the same advice – little suggestions to highlight more of the why in her story. Why her main character feels she has to be normal, why it matters to her to fit in, why it matters to be more vanilla, and stand out less. Making that part stand out more is going to help her readers identify with her main character.
“The two powerful ‘why’ questions are why? And why now? Because sometimes people will know why in general, but you also have to know why in this particular moment.”
Kemlo asks Abby some important questions on specificity – would Abby’s character Bernadette really not care about a locked section of her house? Would any kid not care? You’ve got to channel your inner kid when writing middle grades, get into that specificity of the character, and capture the way they’d really think about it.
Abby had this to say about coaching, and how her ideas about it have changed between drafting and revision:
“That’s the good thing about sending stuff to you – I know there’s no judgment there. I know I’m just trying to get it out of my head, and even if I know it’s not 100%...when I was first being coached, I felt like the whole goal was to make an “A” on my first draft. That’s really not the point, and feeling that stress is not helpful. What’s more, the point is not losing my momentum, getting it out, and getting Kemlo or Jennie’s eyes on this, and they’ll help me make it better…and then I’m going to get an A on it.”
Abby says that this chapter she’s working on, Chapter 10, is one of the only chapters she’s taken something from her rough draft and used it in the revision. She didn’t use a lot from the first half of her rough draft because she felt the second half ended up being stronger. She wasn’t 100% comfortable with it – somehow, the blank page felt more comfortable than trying to make what she already had fit into the story. She still ended up changing it enough and incorporating ideas from the original chapter but improving upon them in revision. Kemlo notes that now Abby’s figuring out what needs to happen to Bernadette and using plot and story to highlight her changes throughout the book.
