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Day Five - Drafting
Chapters 26 of How to Write a Children's Book: a 7-day Workshop in a Book
I may have tricked you.
Mapping is essentially your first draft. Look at that! You’ve already written the first draft of your children’s book, and you didn’t even notice!
Since you’ve already completed your first draft by filling in your book map, it is now time to dig a little deeper into Drafting.
The Drafting stage comes to you in three parts. All parts are essential. I encourage you not to skip these steps, no matter how uncomfortable. The steps are the slow read, record and listen, and phone a friend.
We will begin with the Slow Read.
The higher purpose of Drafting is to make the story understandable and easy to read for a wider audience - wider than just you.
For this step, you will read your story at a painfully slow pace to find missing words, chunky sentences, or words that do not work well together when reading aloud.
Children’s books are meant to be read aloud. This exercise will ensure that all readers can read your book aloud effortlessly and with as few fumbles as possible.
THERE WILL BE no example for this session due to the nature of the task.
However, I can tell you that when I perform this task, I always find the same things:
Missing words
Incomplete thoughts that seemed complete when I wrote them
Repeated words
As you write more and more stories, you will find that you have the same few “writing glitches” as I call them.
It is good to see these things and know where your weak points are as it makes it easier to avoid them over time.
DAY FIVE SESSION ONE
Ready your completed book map
Read the story in a slow and deliberate way.
Tips: Use a pencil or your finger to guide you through the text word by word so as not to accidentally read at a normal speed.
I hope you enjoyed this excerpt from “How To Write A Children’s Book: A 7-Day Workshop In A Book”.
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