No matter how hard you try, no matter how thoughtful you are, the first draft is always just the beginning. The blocks from which to build. So, don’t get attached to any character, point of view, setting, or plot twist. Because to make your story better, you may just have to delete your favorites, kill your darlings, resurrect your villains.
In this revision workshop, author Elly Swartz, gives your students the tools and tips they need to take the dread out of revision. She shares how Emojis, color codes, Dear Character letters, and read alouds allow your students to see revision from a different lens, recognize what’s working, and revamp what’s not.
Swartz explains how it took 15 years, 5 books, and hundreds of revisions to finally get published. How she had to lose her original, dual POV version of Finding Perfect, and reimagine the entire story from Molly’s POV only. She offers how revision and letting go of her original plan, while challenging, allowed the story to develop in wonderful, unexpected ways.
First drafts are the framework, revision builds the house. Learn how to take the dread out of revision with Elly Swartz.
45-60 minutes. 4th and up.
