I have been working on another picture book hoping to submit it to publishers by April 1st. It hasn't even gone through ten revisions, but it is very close to being ready. After getting some great feedback from our RACWI critique meeting last Thursday and my two critique groups this week I am getting excited about meeting my personal deadline goal of April 1st. A major edit I had to make brought the word count down from around 600 to about 400. This seems crazy since that is less than half the length of my last story. But I am learning a lot about "bare-boning" my writing.
"Bare-boning" means looking at each and every word and asking the following questions:
"Does this advance my plot?"
If the answer to this question is "No" then I should probably cut it.
"Is this something the illustrator can take care of?"
"Is this my voice being inserted into the story?"
If the answer to these questions is "Yes" then I should probably cut it.
"Is there a shorter way I can say this?"
"Is this text showing rather than telling?"
If the answer to these questions is "Yes" then I should probably re-work the text.
With that being said, I am well on my way to submission.
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