It started with Sherryl Clark’s book, Sixth Grade Style Queen NOT! (Penguin) – and blossomed with a class of Year 7 students. (They loved it and I loved the discussion that it generated, especially amongst the boys. Rich analysis and interpretation – expressive reading.)
It grew reading the wonderful works of Lorraine Marwood, Steven Herrick, and Karen Hesse. By Sally Murphy’s exquisite Pearl Verses the World (Walker) I was in love. Read the rest of this entry
I panic. Part of me freezes, while another part flies off in a zillion different pieces banging into each other as they shatter-scatter about inside my body – inside my head.
I’m writing. 
It’s longer than a picture book.
It’s taking lots of words….
And I have this little panic button that is triggered by words – large counts of words.
And so my second verse novel has ‘sat’ for the past 8 months with naught but a token gesture word added to the mix.
I was right – things did slow down on my Queensland Writers Week challenge. With work, visitors and a weekend away with family, the last poems are… on the page… but only just.
So glad I had a strong start!!
Here’s a final little snippet from my new verse novel for you – very much a WIP.
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Here’s an extract of my Day Three poem, writing one poem a day on my verse novel for Queensland Writers Week. But don’t be fooled… I’m not writing the poems in sequential order. Oh no… That’s not the way I do things! 
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The Queensland Writers Centre is celebrating 20 years supporting Queensland writers. To mark the occasion, they are hosting Queensland Writers Week from 11th – 17th October 2010; an open festival championed by individual writers, community groups, schools and organisations.
Excitement of sorts – not because of an acceptance (I’d be making MUCH more noise!) but because of a milestone achieved – another manuscript ‘finished’ and away. Finished is such a funny word – because you finish a manuscript many times before it is a book. But in this instance it means that it has been completed, polished, settled, tweaked and finally, FINISHED and ready for submission. Hence the celebration – and possibilities are… exciting!
The reason this finished manuscript rates a mention is because it is my first verse novel – and it tells a story that’s close to my heart.
Any country kid who has ever travelled to school on a bus will know that bullying is an ugly but undeniable fact of life. The younger you are, the worse it is! It’s a scenario I’ve experienced. It’s been a reality for my children. The stories I could tell about the bully on the bus…
Leroy’s story started three years ago as a short chapter book. Late 2009 I did a rigorous rewrite, developing my main character (Leroy) and strengthening his young voice.
I felt the story was showing great potential when I took it to a google wave critique session with Susan Stephenson and Karen Collum – and suddenly I was back to the drawing board again. NOT because they thought it was weak or pathetic, but because they could see the potential for so much more than a chapter book.
Susan:
I have an alternative to consider. I know it’s not a picture book, but maybe it’s a hybrid, and this is how I saw it written on the page, almost as a poem, giving emphasis to those nasty stabbing movements.She hurts me with her hands.
Pushing
Pulling
Pinching
Prodding
Poking
Ouch! I wriggle… and squirm. I move away
but sly fingers follow. They don’t stop.
And suddenly that’s how we all saw it – as a verse novel.
As a chapter book, the story was always quite sparse. Not wallowing in the darkness of bullying, but giving enough that children could relate to the experiences of Leroy – and share his victory. When it evolved into a verse novel, the story was stripped to bare bones. Even just changing the format of words on the page made a phenomenal difference to the strength of each word – the power of the story. Superflous words were glaringly obvious. Cut them! But it worked the other way too, identifying areas that needed flesh and development.
Reworking this story into a verse novel was an exciting experience. The crazy thing is, I had been tempted to try a verse novel – had even made a faltering attempt midway through 2009… But almost without realising it, with a completely different story, I had done it.
I hope to have more news about this story. Meanwhile, I’m zipping and zinging inside, because in truth, I am just a little bit excited.
