Here's Anna!
Confession time: I used to hate revision. I was in love with
every word I put on the page and thought I knew what I was doing from the first
sentence. Then I got serious about writing and realized I had a lot to learn
about the process of creating a novel.
Now I can honestly say I love revision. I think of it as
solving a puzzle. I have all these separate pieces that need to fit together
neatly by the end.
Once I have a draft, the first step for me is outlining what
I have. (I write a synopsis of the story before I start drafting, but that
usually changes as I write.) I list what happens in every scene, along with
chapter length, setting, etc. This gives me a larger picture of the story and
it helps me figure out if there’s anything missing.
Then I start reading through with an eye for character
development, plot holes, etc. I can’t help fixing wording and grammar issues as
I go, even though there’s a big chance I’ll be cutting some of those sentences
later. And yes, during this process, I cut A LOT. Nothing on the page is
sacred.
When I’ve gone through the manuscript several times and am
happy with it (or, more likely, sick of looking at it) I hand it over to my
husband who is always my first reader. Based on his feedback, I do a round of
revision. Then I send the manuscript to a critique partner and revise based on
her comments. I keep going like this until I’m finally ready to send the
manuscript to my agent and then to my editor. The process is long and tedious,
but it’s worth it.
When I think back to that young writer who was tied to every
word on the page, I have to smile. She was in love with telling the story. I’m
in love with getting the story right.
Born in Poland and raised in the United States, Anna
Stanszewski grew up loving stories in both Polish and English. She was named
the 2006-2007 Writer-in-Residence at the Boston Public Library and a winner of
the 2009 PEN New England Susan P. Bloom Discovery Award. Currently, Anna lives
outside of Boston with her husband and their black Labrador, Emma.
When she’s not writing, Anna spends her time teaching,
reading, and challenging unicorns to games of hopscotch. She is the author of
My Very UnFairy Tale Life and its sequels, My Epic Fairy Tale Fail and My Sort
of Fairy Tale Ending, all published by Sourcebooks Jabberwocky. Look for the
first book in Anna’s next tween series, The Dirt Diary, in January 2014, and
visit her at www.annastan.com.
