Draft Two, Is That You? - Strategies for Revising Early Drafts of Picture Books with Editor Luana Horry

Draft Two, Is That You? - Strategies for Revising Early Drafts of Picture Books 

with Editor Luana Horry

We began with the question:

Who are you and what are you writing? 

With a mic in the middle of the room, some of the attendees were able to introduce themselves and talk a bit about what their manuscript is about. 

Post Erin Entrada Kelly’s keynote about bravery, I thought it was so inspiring to see people take a chance on themselves, and even through shaky hands and voices, they told the room about the stories that they wish to bring to life. 

Once introductions were done, we dove into the presentation. As an editor, Luana has edited a number of books and she uses six elements as she moves through a manuscript:

Six Elements of Picture Books

Character & Voice: giving a character personality, depth and motivations that propel them through a story and the unique perspective of a piece of writing. 

Visual Storytelling: Cues in the text that inspire or suggest certain imagery

Meaning/Message/Theme: What is the work trying to say?

Pacing: the rhythm of the story and how the chain of events fall into place.

Arc/Structure: Exposition & introduction, Rising action, Climax, Falling action, Resolution

Setting: The time and place in which a story is told

From there, we dove into the text of “The Big Squeeze” that she edited for her one of her client, Molly Harris. 

Luana presented the original manuscript with all of the notes and edits. After reading through the original text, Luana circled back and walked us through some of the notes. Using the six points, Luana was able to dissect the notes, showing us how they were able to get to the final manuscript. 

From there, Luana read three manuscripts of the attendees, using the same guidelines to edit in real-time. Now with these six elements, we paired up to edit a peer’s manuscript. 

It was really great having a peer edit my work and vice versa. 

Some things that I discover were:

1. Condense through line edits

2. Find the arc and the essential plot points

3. Use illustrations to tell the story, remove anything that is already being shown

Once we received our notes from our partner, we spent the rest of the time editing our work. Luana encouraged us to face our work and not wait to edit. 

This was an insightful lab and I’ve already edited half of my manuscript! One step closer to the next draft!

About
Luana Kay Horry is an Editorial Director at HarperCollins Children’s Books and Versify. She is interested in picture and board books of all kinds, and select graphic novels and celebrity titles. Her sweet spot is humorous, character-driven picture books with charm and fresh voices. Using her background in Africana Studies, Luana also focuses on building a diverse list featuring Black creators. Her list includes many New York Times and Indie bestselling books that always keep children at the center.