Good morning, and welcome back to Teachers Write!  This week’s mini-lesson is from guest author Linda Urban, who writes picture books, chapter books, and novels for kids!

Keeping a Notebook

Are you keeping a notebook this summer?

You might notice I didn’t ask if you were keeping a writer’s notebook.  That’s because, when I started writing, the idea of a Writer’s Notebook felt intimidating.  Presumptuous.  Maybe a little too precious.  Every mark I put on the page would have felt to me like it should be, if not perfect, Important.

Who can write with all those expectations?

Which is why, when I finally did start the practice of keeping a notebook, it was a blessed jumble of all parts of my life – from recipes to odd things my kids said, to doodles (mine and those of my kids), to the bits of dialogue, fragments of poetry, brainstorms and mindmaps and what-ifs that might, eventually, turn into writing projects that I wanted to pursue in earnest.

Here is an example.  My first connection to the book that would eventually become The Center of Everything is in one of those jumble notebooks.  I took this notebook to a weeklong workshop in Portland, Oregon where I was on faculty.  On the same page that I had made a note to myself about the shoes that fellow faculty-member Marla Frazee was wearing (Fluevog pumps, in case you are wondering) I also wrote my own response to a prompt I had given my students.  In it, I recalled the last exchange my dad and I had before he died, and how I wished I had said something different.  The rest of that notebook is the usual scribble and blot.

A year later, in a similarly jumbled notebook, I wrote down some thoughts about the Montpelier Independence Day parade I had just attended.  Among them was a question:  Why did the kids lining the streets get so excited?  It was the same parade as last year.  And the year before.  What could they be hoping would happen?

Which led me, a day later, to ponder about one specific kid – a kid I was only beginning to imagine – and what she might be waiting for and why it mattered so much.

Which led to more questions.  And thoughts about parades.  And some list making about the kinds of things one finds at a parade.  And a bit of freewriting . . . a narrator’s voice was starting to emerge.  There are several pages like this, interspersed with the recipes and to-do lists and doodles.

After a while, these pages started to feel more like a real project.  Like they had some heft.  And then my writing about this girl and her longing and this particular parade moved to my keyboard, and my notebook primarily returned to its happy jumble – though on occasion you can find thoughts and freewrites and scribbles of things that needed analog expression to find their way to me.

Once a draft was complete, it was time for another notebook – this time, no jumble.  This time, my notebook was dedicated to a single project.  And, because the project was now at the revision stage, it no longer felt like each word in my project notebook had to be Important.  In fact, it was the opposite.  In my project notebooks, I am able to de-important (hm… word choice?) what was already in the manuscript.  At this stage, the manuscript and all the hard work that went into it can feel a little precious, but in my notebook I could scribble and dissect and analyze.  I could keep track of what I wanted to change and what wasn’t working and play around with alternate phrasing and scenes and chapters in a free play space that was different than the space of writing, different than the space where the ultimate, final, hopefully publishable draft would be created.

Yeah, there are some mind games at work.  But mind games are part of what the writer’s practice is.  We tell ourselves stories about what can work for us and then we believe those stories enough to put in the hours and the words.  My notebooks are part of the story I tell myself about my writing process – and the story works for me.  Maybe it will work for you, too?

This Week’s Revision Tip 

This week’s revision tip comes from author Adrianna Cuevas, whose debut MG novel, THE TOTAL ECLIPSE OF NESTOR LOPEZ comes out tomorrow!  

You’ve heard experts tell you to ‘kill your darlings’ when revising. I had to slaughter mine, completely rewriting two-thirds of my debut from scratch on the advice of my agent. I cut beloved characters, carefully plotted scenes, and meticulously crafted sentences. But in the end, those elements didn’t come together to form an engaging story young readers would love, so they had to go.

If the goal of a writer is to create a story readers will respond to, we have to disconnect ourselves from our writing and look at it objectively. Keeping the following questions in mind when reviewing your scenes will help you decide what needs to be cut and what still serves your story.

• Does this scene advance the plot or reveal something essential about a character?

• Does this character serve to help my main character, work against them to create tension, or provide information about the world I’ve created? Or are they just taking up space?

• Is this sentence as active as possible? Have I taken out filler words and put my reader right in the action or am I using unnecessarily flowery language?

So be ruthless. Be ready to sacrifice your words for the sake of a better story. Yes, you should love your writing, but you always need to keep your ultimate audience in mind. And as the author of books for twelve-year-olds, I can tell you that throwing in a fart joke or two never hurts either.

This Week’s Writing Prompt from Kate

Describe a place that you love. Write a quick two-minute description. Then go back and spend one minute adding sounds to your description. Do the same thing with smells. And with the sense of touch. 

When your paragraph is done, see if you can rewrite it as a poem. Think about line breaks, figurative language, and cutting all the words that aren’t working hard. 

(This is a great activity to do with kids when you’re teaching about revision!) 

Ready to get writing? Have a great week, and see if you can carve out fifteen minutes to write at least a few times.  Remember that Jen Vincent will hosts your Teachers Write check-in on her blog each Sunday.It’s a chance to chat with other campers, ask questions, and share snippets of your writing for the week. You should stop by this week!

We’ll be back next week with another week’s worth of inspiration and writing!

I’m a big fan of Kekla Magoon’s novels (If you haven’t read HOW IT WENT DOWN and LIGHT IT UP, you should remedy that!), so I’m delighted to be hosting the cover reveal for her first picture book today!

THE HIGHEST TRIBUE: THURGOOD MARSHALL’S LIFE, LEADERSHIP, AND LEGACY is illustrated by Laura Freeman and comes out from HarperCollins/Quill Tree Books this winter. Look at this gorgeous cover!

Here’s a bit more from Kekla about the book…

This picture book biography was really fun to write. I loved learning more about Thurgood Marshall, who I had often studied in passing in the course of writing other books about the civil rights movement. Thurgood was brilliant, and a real trailblazer. He was a noteworthy attorney of the civil rights era, and the first Black justice appointed to the United States Supreme Court. He is often credited with singlehandedly making big strides for equality under the law, but the truth was, Thurgood was always working as part of a team, always learning and always teaching. He was skilled at collaboration, and he hoped that his work would not only stand the test of time but be built upon many others.

This past week, we’ve seen two major civil rights-related decisions handed down by the United States Supreme Court—one in support of equality in employment for all people regardless of gender identity or sexual orientation, and another in support of the “dreamers,”  immigrants who arrived in the U.S. as very young children. I feel certain that Thurgood would look upon these decisions and stand proud of the legacy that he left for the court. At the same time, he would surely acknowledge that there is still work to be done to create equality for Black Americans across this land. Perhaps there has never been a better time to look back on the history of these movements for legal equality and opportunity, to help us understand the struggles and the leaders that helped bring us to the place we currently stand, and to help us understand where we need to go from here.

I am primarily a novelist, which means this picture book was my first illustrated project.  It was incredibly exciting to see the words of this story come alive in Laura Freeman’s art.  The cover offers a mere glimpse of the amazing work she was able to do to bring the narrative to life. I can’t wait for readers to be able to enjoy all of Laura’s beautiful work, and to dive deeply into Thurgood’s story, as I did.

You can pre-order THE HIGHEST TRIBUTE right now at Bookshop,org, which supports independent bookstores.It comes out on January 5, 2021.

Welcome to the Ranger in Time Book Club!

I’m author Kate Messner, and with Scholastic’s permission, I’ll be sharing a chapter-by-chapter read-aloud of RANGER IN TIME: RESCUE ON THE OREGON TRAIL here on my blog over the coming weeks. I’m so glad you’ve found your way here!

Each Thursday by around 12pm EST, I’ll post a new read-aloud video with the next two chapters of the book. Readers can ask questions about this series, the writing process, researching history, what I’m reading (or really anything else you’d like!) by leaving a comment on this blog post. I’ll answer as many readers’ questions as possible after the read-aloud in the next week’s video! If you want to read more Ranger in Time books, there are eleven titles in the series, about all different periods in history, and you can find them wherever you like to buy books. If you’re lucky enough to have a local independent bookseller, please check there first! Many are offering things like curbside pickup, delivery, and shipping. Here’s where you can read about the rest of the Ranger in Time series and my other books for kids.

Okay…ready for the first two chapters? Here you go…

Ranger in Time Book Club – Week 1 – Chapters 1-2

Ranger in Time Book Club – Week 2 – Readers’ Questions Answered and Chapters 3-4

Ranger in Time Book Club – Week 3 – Readers’ Questions Answered and Chapters 5-6

Ranger in Time Book Club – Week 4 – Readers’ Questions Answered and Chapters 7-8

Note for families: Something sad happens in these chapters, so if you’re already having a sad day, you may want to pause after the Q&A today and save the chapters for another day. (They end on a happy note, though!)

Ranger in Time Book Club – Week 5 –  Answers to Readers’ Questions and Chapters 9-10

Ranger in Time Book Club – Week 6 – Answers to Readers’ Questions and Chapters 11-13

Ranger in Time Book Club – Week 7 – Answers to Readers’ Questions and Chapters 14-15 – THE END

Thanks so much for being part of the Ranger in Time Book Club this spring! RANGER IN TIME: RESCUE ON THE OREGON TRAIL is book one in the series, so if you enjoyed the read-aloud, I hope you’ll look for the other titles at your local bookstore or ask for them at your library! You can read more about the Ranger in Time series and my other books for kids here. 

Welcome to Countdown to CHIRP, a wonderfully nerdy blog series about the writing process behind my February 2020 MG novel, CHIRP. Here’s a little about the book from Bloomsbury, so you’ll understand what I’m talking about when I share all the nitty-gritty writing and revision details…

When Mia moves to Vermont the summer after seventh grade, she’s recovering from the broken arm she got falling off a balance beam. And packed away in the moving boxes under her clothes and gymnastics trophies is a secret she’d rather forget.

Mia’s change in scenery brings day camp, new friends, and time with her beloved grandmother. But Gram is convinced someone is trying to destroy her cricket farm. Is it sabotage or is Gram’s thinking impaired from the stroke she suffered months ago? Mia and her friends set out to investigate, but can they uncover the truth in time to save Gram’s farm? And will that discovery empower Mia to confront the secret she’s been hiding–and find the courage she never knew she had?

In a compelling story rich with friendship, science, and summer fun, a girl finds her voice while navigating the joys and challenges of growing up.

CHIRP comes out in less than a week! Have you already pre-ordered your copy? If not, I’d love it if you would… Pre-orders are a HUGE help to authors and in this case, pre-ordering comes with presents! If you fill out this form after you pre-order, Bloomsbury will send you a poster and set of bookmarks to share. And if you order via my local indie, The Bookstore Plus, I’ll personalize and sign your book, too!

Now…let’s talk about the final stages of making a book. After many rounds of revision, the manuscript goes off to a copy editor, who’s excellent at all things grammatical. They read and make careful notes, querying anything that doesn’t seem quite right. This marked-up version goes to both the editor and author for additional notes. Copy edits used to arrive on paper, in the mail, but they’re most often done electronically now, so the pages look like this.  

As the author, there are a few different ways I can respond to the copy editor’s suggestion. Most often, if it’s a typo or spelling error, it’s a matter of accepting the suggested change and moving on. But sometimes, I’ve broken a rule on purpose, for style or voice reasons, and the suggested change doesn’t work. In that case, I write a quick “STET” in the margin, which means the text should be left as it was.

Copy edits are the last chance I have to make substantial changes to the book, so after I’ve gone through the copy editor’s comments, I’ll do another read-through of the full manuscript. I read aloud, so I can hear what the sentences sound like, and when I hit something that feels a little clunky, I make changes as I go along. This is also the time to incorporate any late feedback from writer friends or expert readers.

After copy edits, the manuscript gets laid out as a pdf, so the pages actually start to look like pages in a book. This is where chapter headings are designed and any art is added to the pages. It’s also time for more rounds of proofreading – typically three more passes with multiple readers. At this point, the author can’t make many major changes that affect the layout, but it’s still fine (and important!) to correct any remaining errors.

While all this is happening, the book’s cover is being designed. I’ve been lucky enough to have wonderful artists and designers work on my covers. For CHIRP, Bloomsbury hired illustrator Christopher Silas Neal to design the cover art. I was thrilled with this choice. Chris is no stranger to me – he illustrates my Over & Under picture book series with Chronicle and did the cover for BREAKOUT, too!

Chris begins his work the same way I do – with brainstorming and rough drafts. He starts the cover design process by reading the manuscript and then sketching some possible ideas.

It’s hard to choose just one cover, but in this case, I loved his idea to show the girls jumping off rocks into the lake, especially because this is a story about courage in all of its many forms. Bloomsbury agreed, so Chris took that concept through to final art. The design team takes that art and works with it then, playing around with the type for the title and possible tag lines. Here’s an early version of the cover…

After some revisions to make the title and the girls stand out more – and the arrival of an incredibly generous blurb from the amazing Laurie Halse Anderson – we ended up with this as a final cover. I love it so much.

CHIRP comes out on Tuesday, February 4, so you have a few more days to pre-order. If you do that through my local indie, The Bookstore Plus, I’ll personalize and sign your copy to be mailed out on release day. And wherever you pre-order, Bloomsbury will send you a special gift – a CHIRP poster and a class set of bookmarks to share! Just fill out this form after you’ve pre-ordered.

Thanks so much for taking the time to read about CHIRP. I’m so hopeful that this book will find the readers who need it, and I’m grateful for the early praise it’s garnered from readers and reviewers alike…

“Kate Messner strikes the perfect balance of joy, pain, and strength in this deftly layered mystery about family, friendship, and the struggle to speak up.” –  Laurie Halse Anderson, bestselling author of SPEAK and SHOUT

“Chirp is so many things: a mystery, a family story, and a story of the power of friendship. It’s about learning to speak out when it seems the whole world would rather you shut up. Sure to be passed from kid to kid to kid” –  Laura Ruby, National Book Award Finalist and author of the York Trilogy

“Once again, Kate Messner has written a book that will be a dear and important friend to her readers. A loving and compelling ode to the joy of friendship, the many kinds of strength, and the everyday bravery of girls.” –  Anne Ursu, author of THE LOST GIRL

“Messner deftly weaves together myriad complex plot threads to form a captivating whole. . . . Rich, timely, and beautifully written.” –  Starred Review, Kirkus Reviews

“Messner addresses #MeToo themes authentically and with care as her story moves toward empowerment: Mia displays fear and confusion alongside a hope to reclaim the strength she once felt as a gymnast. Layering mystery elements, strong and myriad female characters, and a poignant analogy involving chirp-less female crickets, Messner gently guides Mia on a journey of resilience that both comforts and inspires.”

–  Starred Review, Publishers Weekly

“Messner honors middle graders by exploring important, relevant issues at their level of understanding. This book will prompt discussions of gender inequality, consent, and sexual abuse. A must purchase.” –  Starred Review, School Library Connection

Welcome to Countdown to CHIRP, a wonderfully nerdy blog series about the writing process behind my February 2020 MG novel, CHIRP. Here’s a little about the book from Bloomsbury, so you’ll understand what I’m talking about when I share all the nitty-gritty writing and revision details…

When Mia moves to Vermont the summer after seventh grade, she’s recovering from the broken arm she got falling off a balance beam. And packed away in the moving boxes under her clothes and gymnastics trophies is a secret she’d rather forget.

Mia’s change in scenery brings day camp, new friends, and time with her beloved grandmother. But Gram is convinced someone is trying to destroy her cricket farm. Is it sabotage or is Gram’s thinking impaired from the stroke she suffered months ago? Mia and her friends set out to investigate, but can they uncover the truth in time to save Gram’s farm? And will that discovery empower Mia to confront the secret she’s been hiding–and find the courage she never knew she had?

In a compelling story rich with friendship, science, and summer fun, a girl finds her voice while navigating the joys and challenges of growing up.

CHIRP comes out in less than two weeks! Have you already pre-ordered your copy? If not, I’d love it if you would… Pre-orders are a HUGE help to authors and in this case, pre-ordering comes with presents! If you fill out this form after you pre-order, Bloomsbury will send you a poster and set of bookmarks to share. And if you order via my local indie, The Bookstore Plus, I’ll personalize and sign your book, too!

Okay…now let’s get back to business and talk about CHARTS.

Charts are a huge part of my revision process, from my first passes, revising on my own, through the final work that I do with my editor. Some of these are charts I use with nearly every novel, and others are more specific. But they all help me to get a bigger picture view of a book with lots of moving parts.

This is what my every-novel Big Picture Chart looked like for CHIRP.

This chart boils my entire novel down into two big pages so that I can see, at a glance, what’s there and what’s not. The numbers across the top of the pages represent each chapter of the novel. The column on the far left is a list of characters, themes, story elements, ideas, recurring themes and metaphors, and other stuff that I want to make sure is represented throughout the story. After I’ve created the chart, I do a full read-through of the manuscript with the chart in front of me. As I read chapter one for example, I’ll check off each character that appears, and each idea or theme or whatever. If that character or idea doesn’t show up in that chapter, I leave the box empty.

It takes a whole day to do this read-through, checking off boxes for each chapter as I go. But when I’m finished, I have a very clear look at the balance of my story, and I can start to see issues. If a character vanishes for eight chapters in the middle of the book, for example, readers are likely to forget about them. The same goes for mystery elements or important ideas. When I look at my completed chart, I can see where the holes are. (Fun fact: I once wrote a book where the family had a dog in chapter 1 and then it never appeared again. I had to make a lot of “add dog!” notes in that manuscript.)  Once the chart is all filled out, I go back to the manuscript to see where I might be able to work in that missing character or idea, and I make notes.

I tried this big-picture chart with one of my first novels, and it was so helpful that I made it a regular part of my process. It works for just about any longer form project. But sometimes, it’s not really enough. CHIRP is a mystery, and I found that I wanted a tool for keeping track of those mystery elements, so that I could track what was happening with clues, etc. throughout the book. For this revision pass, I also wanted to look at how the mystery elements balanced with the other parts of the story like Mia’s warrior and entrepreneurs camp, and the secret she’s keeping. So I made a project-specific chart to do all of that. It was a big one! (Warning: don’t read the actual words on this chart until after you’ve read CHIRP – there are spoilers galore!)

Here’s a closer look at the first page – spoiler free, so you can see how it works.

For this chart, each row represents a chapter, and each column is labeled for something I wanted to keep track of. I chose to include my word count for the chapters (some were still kind of fat at this point in my revision process), the date in the story when each chapter takes place, the mystery elements, the Launch Camp and Warrior Camp elements, and Mia’s state of mind with her secret. Reading through to pay close attention to these elements allowed me to see the book in new ways — something that’s not always easy when you’ve already been living with a project for a year or two. That’s why I find charts to be such helpful revision tools. They force me to assess what I’ve actually put in the pages, compared to what I think is there, based on the story in my head.

Once ALL that revision is done – from my own work, to working with critiques from friends and my editor, it’s time to send the book off to copy edits and design. (It’s almost a book now!) We’ll take a look at that last step in the process next week.

For now, I’d love it if you’d consider pre-ordering CHIRP. If you do that through my local indie, The Bookstore Plus, I’ll personalize and sign your copy to be mailed out on release day. And wherever you pre-order, Bloomsbury will send you a special gift – a CHIRP poster and a class set of bookmarks to share! Just fill out this form after you’ve pre-ordered.

Thanks so much for taking the time to read about CHIRP. I’m so hopeful that this book will find the readers who need it, and I’m grateful for the early praise it’s garnered from readers and reviewers alike…

“Kate Messner strikes the perfect balance of joy, pain, and strength in this deftly layered mystery about family, friendship, and the struggle to speak up.” –  Laurie Halse Anderson, bestselling author of SPEAK and SHOUT

“Chirp is so many things: a mystery, a family story, and a story of the power of friendship. It’s about learning to speak out when it seems the whole world would rather you shut up. Sure to be passed from kid to kid to kid” –  Laura Ruby, National Book Award Finalist and author of the York Trilogy

“Once again, Kate Messner has written a book that will be a dear and important friend to her readers. A loving and compelling ode to the joy of friendship, the many kinds of strength, and the everyday bravery of girls.” –  Anne Ursu, author of THE LOST GIRL

“Messner deftly weaves together myriad complex plot threads to form a captivating whole. . . . Rich, timely, and beautifully written.” –  Starred Review, Kirkus Reviews

“Messner addresses #MeToo themes authentically and with care as her story moves toward empowerment: Mia displays fear and confusion alongside a hope to reclaim the strength she once felt as a gymnast. Layering mystery elements, strong and myriad female characters, and a poignant analogy involving chirp-less female crickets, Messner gently guides Mia on a journey of resilience that both comforts and inspires.”

–  Starred Review, Publishers Weekly

“Messner honors middle graders by exploring important, relevant issues at their level of understanding. This book will prompt discussions of gender inequality, consent, and sexual abuse. A must purchase.” –  Starred Review, School Library Connection

Welcome to Countdown to CHIRP, a wonderfully nerdy blog series about the writing process behind my February 2020 MG novel, CHIRP. Here’s a little about the book from Bloomsbury, so you’ll understand what I’m talking about when I share all the nitty-gritty writing and revision details…

When Mia moves to Vermont the summer after seventh grade, she’s recovering from the broken arm she got falling off a balance beam. And packed away in the moving boxes under her clothes and gymnastics trophies is a secret she’d rather forget.

Mia’s change in scenery brings day camp, new friends, and time with her beloved grandmother. But Gram is convinced someone is trying to destroy her cricket farm. Is it sabotage or is Gram’s thinking impaired from the stroke she suffered months ago? Mia and her friends set out to investigate, but can they uncover the truth in time to save Gram’s farm? And will that discovery empower Mia to confront the secret she’s been hiding–and find the courage she never knew she had?

In a compelling story rich with friendship, science, and summer fun, a girl finds her voice while navigating the joys and challenges of growing up.

Whenever I visit schools to talk about the writing process, I share something that surprises a lot of kids: I spent way, way more time revising than I do writing my first draft. After several rounds of revising on my own, I’ll reach out to writer-friends for feedback. Then – and at this point, we’re usually talking about draft five or six – I send the manuscript to my editor. Mary Kate Castellani is my Bloomsbury editor who worked on CHIRP. When the manuscript landed in her in-box, she read it through, making notes, and then wrote up a many-page editorial letter with feedback.

When I visit schools to talk about my writing process, I point out that these editorial letters always begin the same way — with a paragraph about how happy my editor is to work with me and how much she loves the book. “And then,” I tell the kids, “she writes EIGHT MORE PAGES about all the things I need to work on before the book gets published!” They gasp and laugh at this. But really, that’s how it works. And the truth is, that encouraging first paragraph helps to convince me that I’m a strong enough writer to tackle all the work that’s still to come.

If you look at the letter, you’ll see that there are some lines underlined. That’s something that I do on my second read of a new editorial letter, to help me distill all those good ideas into something more streamlined and manageable for me as a writer.

I used that underlined letter to make myself a new revision to-do list. It includes all the big-picture things that I want to work on, based on feedback in the editorial letter. I can’t show you the whole list because it contains a couple of major spoilers, but here’s a spoiler-free section.

One of the things Mary Kate talked about in her editorial letter for CHIRP was the novel’s opening, so one of my first orders of business was to scribble some notes on the manuscript about how I might rework it.

In addition to writing that big letter, Mary Kate also makes notes on the manuscript, asking specific questions about specific passages and making more notes.

As I revise, I go back and forth between the manuscript with these comments & suggestions and that big-picture letter, distilled in my to-do list. It usually takes at least two more revision passes to incorporate all of this feedback.

At school visits, kids often ask, “What happens if you don’t want to make one of the changes she wants? What if you don’t agree with her suggestions?” This happens sometimes, and it all works out. Sometimes, I’ll write back with a comment that says “I don’t really want to do this because….” and then we’ll talk about it. Usually, my editor’s suggestion is in response to a real issue – something in the manuscript that’s not quite working. Even if I don’t love her idea for fixing it, I can still find value in the suggestion, recognize that there might be an issue, and brainstorm some other ways to work on it. There’s a lot of back and forth.

The other thing kids ask at school visits is this: “Doesn’t that big fat letter make you mad when you already worked so hard on the book?” I don’t lie when I answer this one. There are times when the editorial letter feels overwhelming and makes me sigh. But once I’ve had time to do my underlining and list-making and thinking, the emotion I land on is always gratitude. Because a book that I’d worked on as hard as I could now has a chance to be even better than I could make it on my own. By the time I send that manuscript to my editor, I’m out of ideas. I’ve used every tool in my revision toolbox, and I’m out of tricks. But when that letter arrives, suddenly, I have another chance and some new thoughts to work with. So ultimately, it’s a pretty exciting part of the writing process.

Once the revision back and forth is all done, the manuscript moves on to copy edits – a process I’ll talk about in a future post.

For now, I’d love it if you’d consider pre-ordering CHIRP. If you do that through my local indie, The Bookstore Plus, I’ll personalize and sign your copy to be mailed out on release day. And wherever you pre-order, Bloomsbury will send you a special gift – a CHIRP poster and a class set of bookmarks to share! Just fill out this form after you’ve pre-ordered.

Thanks so much for taking the time to read about CHIRP. I’m so hopeful that this book will find the readers who need it, and I’m grateful for the early praise it’s garnered from readers and reviewers alike…

“Kate Messner strikes the perfect balance of joy, pain, and strength in this deftly layered mystery about family, friendship, and the struggle to speak up.” –  Laurie Halse Anderson, bestselling author of SPEAK and SHOUT

“Chirp is so many things: a mystery, a family story, and a story of the power of friendship. It’s about learning to speak out when it seems the whole world would rather you shut up. Sure to be passed from kid to kid to kid” –  Laura Ruby, National Book Award Finalist and author of the York Trilogy

“Once again, Kate Messner has written a book that will be a dear and important friend to her readers. A loving and compelling ode to the joy of friendship, the many kinds of strength, and the everyday bravery of girls.” –  Anne Ursu, author of THE LOST GIRL

“Messner deftly weaves together myriad complex plot threads to form a captivating whole. . . . Rich, timely, and beautifully written.” –  Starred Review, Kirkus Reviews

“Messner addresses #MeToo themes authentically and with care as her story moves toward empowerment: Mia displays fear and confusion alongside a hope to reclaim the strength she once felt as a gymnast. Layering mystery elements, strong and myriad female characters, and a poignant analogy involving chirp-less female crickets, Messner gently guides Mia on a journey of resilience that both comforts and inspires.”

–  Starred Review, Publishers Weekly

“Messner honors middle graders by exploring important, relevant issues at their level of understanding. This book will prompt discussions of gender inequality, consent, and sexual abuse. A must purchase.” –  Starred Review, School Library Connection

Welcome to Countdown to CHIRP, a wonderfully nerdy blog series about the writing process behind my February 2020 MG novel, CHIRP. Here’s a little about the book from Bloomsbury, so you’ll understand what I’m talking about when I share all the nitty-gritty writing and revision details…

When Mia moves to Vermont the summer after seventh grade, she’s recovering from the broken arm she got falling off a balance beam. And packed away in the moving boxes under her clothes and gymnastics trophies is a secret she’d rather forget.

Mia’s change in scenery brings day camp, new friends, and time with her beloved grandmother. But Gram is convinced someone is trying to destroy her cricket farm. Is it sabotage or is Gram’s thinking impaired from the stroke she suffered months ago? Mia and her friends set out to investigate, but can they uncover the truth in time to save Gram’s farm? And will that discovery empower Mia to confront the secret she’s been hiding–and find the courage she never knew she had?

In a compelling story rich with friendship, science, and summer fun, a girl finds her voice while navigating the joys and challenges of growing up.

In my last post, I talked about how I tackle revision once my first (rough!) draft is complete. With CHIRP, I worked through several revision passes on my own, focusing on different elements of craft and revising for both big-picture and paragraph/sentence-level writing. At this point in the process, I know the book inside and out. It’s time to bring in some fresh eyes.

I’m incredibly grateful to have a handful of great friends who are also amazing writers and critique buddies, and I want to share some of their feedback helped to shape the story.

My friend Laura Ruby – you know her from her award-winning YA novels like 13 DOORWAYS, WOLVES BEHIND THEM ALL and BONE GAP – sent me an email after she read an early version of CHIRP. One of her most helpful suggestions had to do with characters. There were a LOT of them and she was having trouble keeping them straight. She suggested doing more to distinguish those secondary characters – adding more gestures, facial expressions, details, patterns of speech, and quirks.

This is a great example of something I just couldn’t see in my own manuscript because I’d been working with this cast of characters for so long. But Laura’s advice was brilliant, so my next revision pass focused on working more with those secondary characters. I went back to an earlier step in the writing process — brainstorming — in order to get started.

My longtime friend & critique buddy Linda Urban – you know her from her wonderful MG novels like A CROOKED KIND OF PERFECT, HOUND DOG TRUE, and WEEKENDS WITH MAX AND HIS DAD – read an early draft, too. Linda and I read for each other often, and we use the comments feature on Microsoft Word to offer thoughts. Linda’s comments to me on CHIRP are great examples of what really thoughtful, helpful feedback looks like. Like Laura, she noted that the number of characters felt overwhelming sometimes. (I ended up fleshing some of them out & cutting others who weren’t really essential.)

A great critique partner isn’t afraid to suggest cuts when the writing isn’t as clean & sharp as it might be.

At this point in the writing process, I’m still working on big-picture revision and line edits, so I’m not too worried about typos and spelling errors yet. But if you’re critiquing a manuscript and you happen to notice something like that, it’s still helpful to point it out. Linda usually does that with a quick highlight.

Critique buddies also ask questions when something isn’t totally clear. This is so helpful, as it’s often the stuff we can’t see in our own work. We know the story and all of its intricacies, so an outside reader makes such a difference.

Another super-helpful thing Linda does when she’s reading is point out what IS working. One of my issues with the rough draft of CHIRP was the point of view. I’d intended to write in a very close third person, from inside Mia’s head. But sometimes the voice didn’t reflect that. Linda was great about pointing out the places where it worked well and asking for more of that.

Critique buddies also look at big-picture issues related to story structure. Linda offered some comments on the opening of CHIRP that prompted me to rework both the first and last chapters.

Constructive comments from writer friends like Laura and Linda helped bring this book to a level I couldn’t have managed on my own. After incorporating their feedback, I sent the draft to my editor at Bloomsbury, who offered…more feedback! More on that in a future post…

For now, I’d love it if you’d consider pre-ordering CHIRP. If you do that through my local indie, The Bookstore Plus, I’ll personalize and sign your copy to be mailed out on release day. And wherever you pre-order, Bloomsbury will send you a special gift – a CHIRP poster and a class set of bookmarks to share! Just fill out this form after you’ve pre-ordered.

Thanks so much for taking the time to read about CHIRP. I’m so hopeful that this book will find the readers who need it, and I’m grateful for the early praise it’s garnered from readers and reviewers alike…

“Kate Messner strikes the perfect balance of joy, pain, and strength in this deftly layered mystery about family, friendship, and the struggle to speak up.” –  Laurie Halse Anderson, bestselling author of SPEAK and SHOUT

“Chirp is so many things: a mystery, a family story, and a story of the power of friendship. It’s about learning to speak out when it seems the whole world would rather you shut up. Sure to be passed from kid to kid to kid” –  Laura Ruby, National Book Award Finalist and author of the York Trilogy

“Once again, Kate Messner has written a book that will be a dear and important friend to her readers. A loving and compelling ode to the joy of friendship, the many kinds of strength, and the everyday bravery of girls.” –  Anne Ursu, author of THE LOST GIRL

“Messner deftly weaves together myriad complex plot threads to form a captivating whole. . . . Rich, timely, and beautifully written.” –  Starred Review, Kirkus Reviews

“Messner addresses #MeToo themes authentically and with care as her story moves toward empowerment: Mia displays fear and confusion alongside a hope to reclaim the strength she once felt as a gymnast. Layering mystery elements, strong and myriad female characters, and a poignant analogy involving chirp-less female crickets, Messner gently guides Mia on a journey of resilience that both comforts and inspires.”

–  Starred Review, Publishers Weekly

“Messner honors middle graders by exploring important, relevant issues at their level of understanding. This book will prompt discussions of gender inequality, consent, and sexual abuse. A must purchase.” –  Starred Review, School Library Connection