Transforming Life into Art: KIM TURRISI heart emoticon heart emoticon heart emoticon

Kim Turrisi is the SCBWI Family Favorite! She's got a background in film and TV and her debut YA novel is out now, JUST A NORMAL TUESDAY.

Kim talks about her path to publication. She was getting rejection after rejection on another project, and while talking with an author friend about how to fix this original project, the friend asked Kim if anything important or memorable happened to her while she was a teen. Kim said yes... When she was 15, Kim's sister committed suicide. The author friend told Kim that that was her next story, but though Kim was worried the subject was too hard and too close to work on, she began. Kim's book deals with the aftermath of suicide, the sort of book she didn't have access to when she was 15.

Emma Dryden reminds us these are not memoirs or autobiographies, but novels inspired and influenced by these real events. Emma asks about the areas where the panelists strayed away from the truth to better serve the book or story of the character.

Kim knew who her protagonist was, but she needed to figure out all the ancillary characters required for the setting of the teen grief camp. She spent a lot of time fleshing those backstories out, they are an amalgam of dozens of friends and family members distilled into a small group of camp goers.

Some of the writing process was very painful: Kim put her sister's suicide note on her wall, it helped Kim challenge herself every day to be authentic in her writing. Her editor readied her for the pain of potentially editing out authentic moments of Kim's life for the book by telling Kim that her job as editor is to make every reader turn the page, some of these edits may be difficult for Kim, but that they're doing this all to ultimately serve the book and its readers best.

Kim's note on writing from a painful personal experience: With any book where you are going to go deep, you're not going to get it right on the first or second or third draft, maybe not even by the 12th, but you have to keep working to get there to make the book resonate.

Transforming Life Into Art Panel Begins!

Moderated by Emma Dryden (standing), the panelists are (left to right): Alex Gino, Aisha Saeed, Ruta Sepetys, and Kim Turrisi.

About Those Manuscript Critiques

Kim Turrisi

A ton of work goes on behind the scenes to make these conferences sing. One offering that means a lot to attendees are the manuscript critique sessions.

The hilarious and hardworking Kim Turrisi makes those happen. This year, she read 372 submissions--10 pages plus a synopsis for each novel, and the entire manuscript for each picture book. That adds up to thousands and thousands of pages.

With each, she matches the writer to the most suitable faculty member. She's just as invested in our success with these as we are.

And she has good things to say about much of what she reads. "The quality of middle grade and YA is improving every year. I read some really fun and good ones that I have no doubt will be sold or get representation from this conference," she said.

What's more, there's a special prize that some fortunate critique recipient will receive. Faculty are allowed to nominate the manuscript they deem most promising for the Sue Alexander award, named for the late SCBWI legend. The nominees go before a panel of judges, and Kim sends the winner on a trip to New York to meet agents and/or editors, depending.

Jennifer Shulman

Jennifer Shulman, a New Yorker, is one of this year's nominees--and the YA manuscript that wowed editor Donna Bray was one that had been sitting in her drawer for several years.

"I decided on a whim to pull it out and get a critique this time," she said. 

What's it like seeing an old manuscript? "It’s like running into an old friend who’s cooler than you remember and more screwed up that you remember," she said. 

This is her fourth conference and she's signed up for a critique each time. "Donna Bray was very positive and very helpful." And she felt like Donna's comments on the manuscript's weaknesses aligned with ones she'd identified.

Her game plan for now is to finish what she's working on, and then "dig back in at the start [of the old manuscript] with all of her great advice in my head."

Meanwhile,  Kim said, if you plan to get a critique at a future conference, remember to follow those guidelines. It's great practice for when you to submit to agents and editors, who don't want to work with people who can't follow instructions.