Terry Pierce - Writing Tip of the Day

Terry Pierce and I have been buddies for many years. Terry is a skilled author of chapter and picture books and a great teacher. She also has a successful blog. I knew she would come up with a unique Writing Tip of the Day.

Play with your highlighters! Not only do highlighters take me back to my younger days of engaging in art activities, but they're a valuable tool for manuscript revision. I have two favorite ways to use highlighters for picture book revisions; first, after I've done that initial draft, I go through my manuscript and I highlight every adjective and adverb.

Then I go back to those highlighted words and revise my work with stronger nouns and verbs. That way I eliminate those weaker adjectives and adverbs (the ones I had highlighted). Not only does this strengthen the language, but it helps reduce word count, something picture book writers often struggle with.
 
The second great use of highlighters I learned from Ann Whitford Paul (she's a delight and such a smart writer). After the first draft, I take six different colored highlighters (to represent my main character, the story problem, where the story takes place, when the story takes place, the story tone and the hook). I read through the manuscript and highlight where each of these things *first* comes into the story. If my first page doesn't look like a rainbow (meaning those things don't all appear on the first page), then I know I've got work to do to create a stronger opening.

http://www.terrypiercebooks.com
http://www.terrypierce.blogspot.com
 
Newest Book:

Blackberry Banquet

Sylvan Dell Publishing
 
TERRY PIERCE is the author of seventeen children’s books, her most recent works being Blackberry Banquet (Sylvan Dell Publishing), Tae Kwon Do! (Random House Step-Into-Reading, 2007 Bank Street College Best Children’s Books) and Mother Goose Rhymes (Picture Window Books, AEP Distinguished Achievement Award Winner). A former Montessori teacher of twenty-two years, she now writes fulltime, teaches children’s writing workshops and is a visiting author to elementary schools. 

Comments

[Cathy C. Hall]

These are brilliant tips! I am all about the highlighters so I'm gonna get my set out and get to work on my current story.