Blog - Page 3 of 70 - Jennifer Chambliss Bertman

Book Scavenger Website Update!

The Book Scavenger website has a new look! I can hardly believe it, but it’s been over six years since I launched the website and the game for the publication of Book Scavenger in 2015. Six years!!!

At the Book Scavenger launch party at Linden Tree bookstore.

Back then, I had no idea if anyone would read Book Scavenger, let alone want to play a version of the game in the book. But I kept thinking about how if I had read Book Scavenger when I was a kid, I would have wanted the game to be real. And the first thing I would have done after finishing the book would have been to look it up and see if it was. So I wanted something to exist for other readers like me.

To launch the game, I asked my publisher if they’d be willing to give me 50 advance copies of Book Scavenger with the plan to give away one copy to a reader in each of the 50 states, with the hope that the recipient would read the book, like the book, hide the book, and then post a clue on the website for others to find. My publisher loved the idea, and so we did the giveaway. A book went to each state, and I waited. Soon enough–copies were hidden! And then found! And more were hidden and found, and so on and so forth until now nearly 20,000 tracking numbers have been requested and books have been scavenged in Iran, Australia, Japan, Canada, Spain, China, France, Chile . . . so many different places around the world!

I am so grateful to all of you–the young readers, the teachers, the librarians, the parents, the booksellers, everyone who has embraced my books and continues to recommend them to others. There have been times I’ve thought maybe I should retire the website and game because it does take a bit to maintain, and I often feel like I’m falling short there, but then I get a nice message from one of you, or see a new hidden book post, and I’m reminded of my kid self, the one I wrote Book Scavenger for and the one I had in mind when I launched the game, and I think, I can’t stop now. As long as you are out there enjoying my books and wanting to play the game, then I want to try and keep it going for you the best that I can.

So after six years, I decided it was time for a refresh. Take a look around–there’s some new content and a few fun surprises for you to find as well . . . A huge thank you to Websy Daisy for designing the website for me. I hope you like it!

Notes from the Revision Cave–March

This year for newsletter subscribers, I’m sharing about my process as I work on my next middle-grade mystery. I’ll repost here on my blog a few weeks after they appear in the newsletter, but if you want to follow my writing process closer to real-time, or you don’t want to miss out on my monthly Book Love giveaways, or you want to be the first to hear Book Scavenger updates and other bookish fun, then make sure to subscribe. I’ll be sending out a new one with the latest soon!

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I have a fun update for you about the novel I’ve been working on. It has a title! Well, a working title, which means it could still change before it’s published in 2022. But my editor and I both like it, and she said I could share! We’re calling it The Case of the Nancy Drews. What do you think? I bet you can guess what the mystery revolves around . . .

I’m currently in one of my favorite phases of the revision process. My ideas are starting to gel, the writing in the opening chapters feels solid, and I have a handle on the characters and what they’re doing in the story. This is not to say it’s all smooth sailing and the words type effortlessly from my fingers, but it’s exciting to see and believe in the book’s potential. I’ve also been doing a lot of supplemental reading and research, which is fun and always inspires ideas.

Something that can be tricky when you get into the middle of a revision is keeping track of different threads and plot points. When I was working on Book Scavenger, I made a color-coded outline with the story broken down into short scene summaries. The colors were used to represent different characters and their plot threads. I’m a visual person and so the different colors helped me get a sense for pacing and how the different parts of the story were working together. The photo below shows the outline for one of the earlier drafts of Book Scavenger, so there are many differences from the final version (like a character named Mr. Condor, who I cut from the book, for example).

Recently, Steve Sheinkin shared photos of how he storyboards his nonfiction novels-in-progress. Author Melissa Stewart asked him questions about these photos and posted his responses on her blog, which I found fascinating. It’s somewhat similar to what I did above, but he uses colored notecards and tacks them to a wall, in columns under the chapter where they appear. I really like how he can move the cards around, and how he can see the entire landscape of a book at once. I don’t have a huge wall space, but I do have two small bulletin boards above my desk. Perhaps I could make cards small enough to fit across them for my Nancy Drew book? We’ll see . . .

I love learning about the different methods and processes of book creators. (That’s what inspired me to do the Creative Spaces interviews on my blog! They’re listed in the sidebar by author or illustrator name.) On her YouTube channel, Melanie Conklin shares how she uses sticky notes to brainstorm, draft, and revise a novel. I also liked seeing KA Holt’s process of laying out her novel on the floor. If you are a writer, what organizational methods do you like to use?

Notes from the Revision Cave–February

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One of the tricky things with a revision, at least for me, is letting go of my attachments to what I wrote before. When I read my most recent draft, I’m not only seeing the story on the page but also the story behind the page. I see the chapter I rewrote ten times trying to get it just right, the joke that cracked up my writing group, the scene inspired by a funny thing my husband said. It’s hard to strip away the personal meaning and only consider how something is functioning in the story. But you as the reader do not have access to what is personally meaningful to me. You only have access to what is on the page. So, everything on the page needs to serve you, not my memories.

As I’m thinking about this, I’m realizing it’s not unlike looking at a disorganized closet. You might have the vision for how you want it to look. You might even know the problem is you have too many sweaters. But when you sit down with your stuff, the decisions of what should stay and what should go, and the order everything should be put in, aren’t always easy. This sweater is so soft and comfy, but also incredibly unflattering. You paid too much money for that sweater so you’d feel guilty if you parted with it, even though you never wear it because it’s itchy. The too-small sweater was a gift from a loved one, so letting go of it feels like letting go of them. Even when you’ve pared it down to your essentials, there can still be questions of order. Do you fold them? Hang them? Sort them by color, or sleeve length, or season, or casual/dressy? There isn’t a right or wrong answer to these questions. And that’s how it is with writing a novel, too. You are in charge, and you get to make the decisions. But what happens when you’re frozen by indecision?

My most recent draft and notes for the revision. Coco’s advice for feeling overwhelmed? “Take a nap.” (This is also her advice no matter your problem.)

Running with the closet metaphor, I’ve heard a number of organizing experts stress the importance of pulling all your clothes out of the closet and going through them one-by-one in a different setting. This is essentially the approach I currently take with my revisions. I started doing this out of necessity when I was writing The Unbreakable Code on a tight deadline. I felt so overwhelmed looking at all the stuff I was trying to cram in the closet. Eventually, I stopped working within the old draft, and instead wrote a summary of the new version of the story that was mainly in my head. From there I opened a new document and typed a rough outline of what happened. And that’s what I worked from, the new outline, not the old draft.

This has been my approach with my current book too. I focus on a chunk of chapters at a time, usually up until a turning point in the story. With the first chunk, I make a very basic outline of what happens. If it involves a scene that was in the old draft, then I open up the old file, find the scene, and copy-and-paste it into the new file. Then I start from the beginning, writing new material where nothing existed before and revising what did exist so it fits in with the new version. Sometimes I realize something else from the old draft can be adapted to work somewhere, and I’ll go back to the old file and copy and paste again. Sometimes the only thing that stays from an old scene is the dialogue, or a few lines of description. Sometimes the entire scene works essentially as it was written. Doing it this way helps me keep my focus forward, and fixed on the book I want to create, not the draft I already wrote.

Every writer is unique and what works for one person might not work well for someone else. And what works for one book might not work for the next. This is my approach right now, but it might not be my approach for the next book. That’s one of the best things about doing creative work—the rules are flexible. We can play with our process and change it up as we go along.

Notes from the Revision Cave–January

This year for newsletter subscribers, I’m sharing about my process as I work on my next middle-grade mystery. I’ll repost here on my blog a few weeks after they appear in the newsletter, but if you want to follow my writing process closer to real-time, or you don’t want to miss out on my monthly Book Love giveaways, or you want to be the first to hear Book Scavengerupdates and other bookish fun, then make sure to subscribe. Tomorrow I’ll be sending out a new one with the latest!

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Guess what? My next middle-grade mystery project is back on my desk! I recently received my editor’s revision letter. This means my editor read the book and wrote up her notes on what she thinks is working well in the story, and what is not quite there yet. Every time I receive an editorial letter, I go through these same stages:

Appreciation.

Even though this is the fourth book I’ve worked on with my editor, her letters always prompt a “pinch me” moment that I’m doing this thing I love and building a career as a children’s book author. I love working with my editor and value her insight, so I’m eager to hear her thoughts.

Read.

I typically read the letter multiple times. The first read is always quick. I’m gobbling up everything she has to say. In this most recent letter, the comments were mainly focused on creating a better mystery and deepening the characterizations. Neither of those things were a surprise to me—I think I even sent the manuscript with a note along the lines of, “I know the mystery needs work and I want to do more with certain character elements, but I’d love your thoughts on where the story is now.”

After my first read through of the editorial letter, I read again, slowly. Usually with a pencil to jot down ideas that come to mind and questions I have. I also highlight anything that resonates as something I want to remember when I’m working on my revision.

Process.

This stage takes me awhile. My editor and I have a phone call and talk out different ideas. I also bounce thoughts off my agent and my writing groups and my mom and my husband and my son and my pets and my houseplants and my dentist and . . .

I scribble thoughts in a notebook and type more thoughts in a Word file and write more ideas on sticky notes and then go back to the notebook.

As I move through this processing stage, certain ideas stand out as better than others. What makes an idea seem “better” is going to depend on your story goals. If I get the idea to add in a tap-dancing goldfish character, this might not be a good idea if I’m trying to write a serious and scary book. But if I’m wanting to write a silly and fanciful story about pursuing dreams that seem out of reach, then . . . maybe? The questions I ask myself are: Does this idea align with the story I want to tell? How does it serve the story? Am I excited by the thought of writing it? If my answer to that last question is no, then I ask myself why. Sometimes I’m not excited to write an idea because it feels like it will be a lot of work or I’m intimidated by it. Those aren’t good reasons to discard it.

The processing stage is also when my doubts and worries creep in. My feelings about the book go on a roller coaster ride: These ideas are exciting! This is going to be the best book I’ve ever written! No, no—they’re horrible. I’m never going to figure out how to make this story work.

But have no fear! I have a secret weapon to tame those wild thoughts! My secret weapon is:

Organization.

Okay, it’s not a flashy, but it’s effective.

As I’m working through my thoughts on what the story needs, I make a rough outline of the new version that begins to form. I’m also making a list of what I need to research and think on more. I’m not trying to work out every detail; I’m only building a scaffolding that will help me get started. At some point in the organizing, the new version of the story begins to come alive in my imagination. I’m able to turn down the volume on that emotional roller coaster and concentrate instead on my characters. That’s when I know I’m ready to . . .

Begin.

This is the hard part. The actual writing! I’ll share more about that in my next newsletter. If you have questions for me about my process, please let me know! They’ll help me understand what you’re interested in hearing about.

(This originally appeared in the December 2020 issue of my newsletter. You can subscribe here for more.)

Fun Bookish Things To Do In January!

Did you know there are lots of fun book events available to you every month? Especially right now, when most everything is offered virtually, so you can attend no matter where you live. And many, if not most, are free. Independent bookstores, libraries, and other organizations host authors and illustrators throughout the year, usually timed with the publication of a new book. Purchasing a book from the event host to support the store and the creators is always appreciated, but not typically required to attend.

I’m going to spotlight a handful of upcoming middle-grade book events that caught my eye for this month and early next, but you can find more by visiting bookstore, library, author, and illustrator websites and looking at their calendar of events. Subscribing to newsletters is a great way to hear about them too!

JANUARY 12: At Book Bar, Denver, CO: Alone by Megan E. Freeman