Nonfiction writing team Mary Bowman-Kruhm & Claudine G. Wirths
1) I'm curious about your collaborative relationship. How do you work? Do you sit together in the same room and write every sentence together? Or do you each write a chapter and then give it to the other person to revise? Or do you have a completely different approach? - Dori Butler
We live about 13 miles apart and do much of our work by modem and by telephone, but we try to meet at least every two weeks, oftener if we are planning or finishing a book. When we’re starting a non-fiction book, we each select from the outline a chapter that we want to write. Once we write these first drafts, we get together again. Reading these initial chapters and talking about them helps us understand where the other writer is trying to take the book. We often find to our surprise that, although we were sure we were agreed at the start, now the other person has quite a different concept of the book. We ultimately agree on the goal and focus of the book and the audience. From there on, it is a long tedious matter of writing each chapter and trading it back via modem to the other one, who re-writes it and trades it back again, until we are both sick of it. When we think we have finally completed the book, we take turns reading it out loud while the other person follows the manuscript either on hard copy or on the computer. This catches many mistakes in thoughts and conventions of grammar and mechanics, since the ear often picks up what the eye doesn’t. Last, we set it aside for a week and read it yet once again. We confess to being bored silly with a book by the time we finally feel it is polished enough to send out. Of course, by the time the book is published we have forgotten what we wrote and have to read it as a new book, since we’ve long since moved on to other writing projects.
Our fiction, which we write less often, is usually written by one of us and then edited and critiqued by the other.
Fiction or non-fiction, we have learned to value and trust the other person's judgments, even if they are painful. If a sentence doesn’t sound right or is confusing, it has to go, no matter how tenderly and lovingly it was wrought by the original writer. By now, we know what the other will respond negatively to, but Mary still tries to include some super sentences of awesome and astounding alliteration and Claudine still puts in lots of prepositions that aren’t needed to make her points with.
An aside: A big advantage of writing with someone is being able to ship it off to the other person. Last week one of us had tons of non-writing obligations; sending a draft of a chapter to the other person, who had time to work on it, was an unbelievably glorious relief.
2) I am a teenage writer and I'm interested in knowing how you select your topics, how you research them, and if it is possible for me to get into the nonfiction market for young adults. - Janice Dru
Getting into the nonfiction market today is one of the *best* ways to break into writing. As a teen, many books on markets open to young people are available. Check them out with your friendly librarian or at a bookstore.
Young person or adult like us, the process is much the same. We keep lists of topics that interest us. Then we write a careful proposal letter about one of them to a publisher who has noted interest in similar topics. For example, we might send an article on "elegant ways to stuff a turkey" to a magazine like Gourmet but we would not send it to a vegetarian magazine. Editors report that many, many contributors clearly have no idea of the focus of the magazine when they make submissions.
As for research, there is the library as always, but increasingly we make use of the Internet, both Web pages and e-mail, to get information about our topic and up-close and personal interviews. The research often rewards us with new and more interesting perspectives on the topic.
3) Since both of you list professional experiences in special education or related areas, have you had opportunities to consider whether there are humorous sides to coping with disabilities that might be grist for several children's books? If so, do you think you will ever write any funny stuff, someday? - John Cowan
Heaven knows we try to be funny, or at least write with a light touch, in all of our books! We sometimes laugh ourselves silly over what we have written, only to find that the editor did not even chuckle and red penciled that section instantly.
Yes, there are humorous sides to coping with disabilities, but in these days of political correctness, it is hard to be humorous about anything without offending someone. Doing this in a children's books has to be done with extra care because children do not always understand how to apply what they read. One of us remembers reading a great story to her son about "germ shoe." The term was coined about a kid who always scrunched his foot around to get the shoe on (as if it had germs and he should not touch it.) The story pointed out that this broke down the back of the shoe. Perversely, the little boy who heard the story loved it, and never, ever, ever again used his hands to put on his shoes! Similarly, it would be possible for a reader to pick up some of the humor in a book about a disability and use it meanly. Humor about disabilities is probably best written by a person with a disability.
4) Your titles are great attention getters. What are some of your favorite writing techniques to get children to enjoy reading your books while learning to help themselves? - Sandra Bartman
We like to make children grin and chuckle. We also like to make them realize that they have the power to get along with adults and to control much about their lives. When children learn they are not alone and that other children have similar problems, they can relax a bit. Most of all we try to help them realize that actions have consequences. If you stand on the bike seat and do not balance carefully, you will fall off because of the laws of nature -- not because your mother is screaming at you, "Don't do that, you're going to fall off!" Some things in life you just can't change. Deal with it, we tell them -- take as much control as you can at this stage of your life and be responsible for your actions. We feel kids want this kind of power and are receptive to our message. We also give them ideas how they can convince their parents to hear that message with regards to letting go of their kids!
5) I have written many things for children, but I am very apprehensive about letting people critique my work, although I know it is essential. Do you have any tips for helping me jump this hurdle and get moving down the road to possible publication? - Kimberly S. Conway
You might try sticking lighted matches under your fingernails or pouring hot molasses on your head to accustom yourself to the feeling of being critiqued. Seriously, you simply have to put your ego aside. If the story is important to you and you don't want to change one word of it, don't. But don't try to get it published. Either self-publish or save it back for your great-grandchildren to find in your files some day long hence.
Criticism is vital if you want to get published professionally. Critiquing can improve any draft. Besides it is jolly fun for the person doing the critiquing. One of us once gave the other a beautifully stitched plaque that read "No passion in the world is equal to the passion to correct someone else's draft." Why we have not killed each other over the other's criticisms is a tribute to the power of true friendship and a shared goal of MAKING MONEY! Note from Mary: When Claudine e-mailed the first draft of answers to these questions, she prefaced them with the comment that here are "some samples of my thinking for you to slash up!" Claudine was not being mean--that’s what we expect each other to do because our goal is to end up with a fantastic final product!
6) Mary, Where do you and Claudine get the ideas for your books? Do you ask input from children, in the editing, or at some other phase, so that you are sure it appeals to the age group you are trying to reach? - B. Lafayette
We would never run out of ideas if we lived to be two thousand and two. We have pages and pages of ideas. All we have to do is sit down over a cup of tea and a sinful piece of chocolate cake at Jennifer's Restaurant and we end up with a whole napkin full of scribbled ideas. We figure that if we like them, kids will like them too -- IF we present them correctly. The idea is not the problem; the problem is hooking the reader and then presenting the idea simply and carefully and interestingly, and, of course, convincing an editor to support our doing so via a contract.
7) I'd like to know what techniques you use to keep your books from seeming "preachy." How are you able to make the advice you offer seem palatable rather than parental? - Frances Cohen
First, we know what worked and did not work with our own children. Then we constantly hit "delete" if the other one's writing comes across as "preachy." As schoolteachers, we both find it hard not to go rambling off and be sure the reader "learns" something. But we try to be smart about editing all that stuff out. Here is where another reader helps you spot when you have put on your invisible clerical collar or picked up your chalk and blackboard.
8) I am currently trying to "break in" to the children's literature scene. I write short stories, poetry, and current issues articles for children's magazines. I am a mother of three, have owned and operated a daycare for three years, and I have two years Early Childhood Ed. I don't, however, have any educational background in writing, and I am as of now, unpublished. Am I out of luck, or do I have a chance to get an Editors second look? I believe that my writing is good, is that enough? - Scott Wilson
Nope, good writing is not enough. Example: We know lots of people who write better than we do and aren’t published. Getting published is a game. Like any game there are rules and there are unwritten tricks to winning. Learn them. By all means check out the writing courses offered here at CBI. They will give you most of the mechanics of submission that you need to know. Then go to your library and read current magazines to be sure you know the market place. You can also network at writers’ conferences, especially those sponsored by a chapter of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and targeted, obviously, to childrens' writers. You wouldn’t try to sell your manuscript there, but you do make friends and you do learn exactly what some editor or agent is looking for. Online you can also often find editors looking for material; they may pay only in copies, but you will have a start to your publishing portfolio.
To hone your writing skills, join a local critique group. How do you find one? Look in the paper or local magazines. Don't find one? Start one. Put an ad in the paper saying you want to meet with other writers in the area who are interested in a critique group. Have them over at your house and you will soon be off and running. Or, if you’re online, leave a message about what kinds of writing you do and ask if someone is interested in an online group. In any critique group you can follow or not follow the advice you’re given, but thinking about what’s said will strengthen your writing.
Alternatively, do as we did, and hook up with someone with whom you collaborate. Through modem magic, collaborating online is very doable. We have a picture book coming out next year that was written entirely on line with a third person, although scanning rime via e-mail was an interesting task!
Breaking in is not easy, but what else is new? If you really, really want to do it, go for it, work hard, be patient, and hope for some luck.
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