writerjenn

I'm done with the chapter-by-chapter revisions on my WIP.
Now I will begin a few editorial passes through the whole novel. I've worked over the individual scenes and chapters; now I step back and see if it all works together as a book.
My first pass will be what I call a "Lubar edit," named for David Lubar , who demonstrated this approach at a SCBWI workshop I once attended. I won't steal his thunder by going into details, but I will say that it involves knowing the motivations of your characters and making sure every scene counts. If you get a chance to take a revision workshop with him, I recommend it. Not only will you learn this technique, but you will probably get to laugh too, as he's an entertaining speaker.

In the journals they kept of their historic voyage across this continent, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark often used the phrase, "We proceeded on," to indicate their continued daily progress. They used this phrase so often that the magazine produced by the Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation is called WE PROCEEDED ON. And I give you all this background so you will understand what I mean when I say, of my WIP, "I'm proceeding on."
Not that I expect my voyage to be as historic as Lewis and Clark's. And I have encountered plot problems and uncooperative characters rather than mosquitoes and grizzly bears. But my voyage certainly feels as long as theirs.
So here I go, proceeding on.

Once upon a time, a writer named David Lubar wrote a darned good book called HIDDEN TALENTS.  It was funny and fun and fascinating.  I liked all the major characters, and they had such interesting lives, that I did wonder what happened to them "after" the book.

Apparently I'm not the only one, because as he tells us in the afterword to the sequel, David Lubar was supposed to write the sequel a few years ago.  He even wrote a sequel (unpublished) that didn't feel quite right to him.  And so he, and his publisher, and we readers, waited.  

Good move, Mr. Lubar.

The sequel, TRUE TALENTS, came out this year, and to me it proves that sometimes the best thing you can do is wait for the story to be right.  We all know the problems sequels can suffer from; too often, they're just not as good as the books they follow.  But TRUE TALENTS is faster-paced and more action-packed than its predecessor, and the stakes are higher.  Much, much higher.  And the main character in TRUE TALENTS is Trash, the character I found most compelling from HIDDEN TALENTS.   Lubar just made one great call after another in putting this book together, and for that, I'm dishing out this heaping helping of praise.  Check this one out, especially if you're one of those people who laments the shortage of good books for boys.