D. G. Driver
  • D. G. Driver
    • About Me
  • MY BOOKS
    • Songwriter Night
    • Dragon Surf
    • Lost on the Water
    • The Juniper Sawfeather Trilogy >
      • Cry of the Sea
      • Whisper of the Woods
      • Echo of the Cliffs
    • Chasing the Romantics
    • No One Needed to Know
    • All the Love You Write
  • Short Fiction and Plays
    • "Mother's Night Out"
    • "King or Beggar"
    • "The Ticket to Her Heart"
    • "Hallway of Three Doors"
    • My Plays
  • Write and Rewrite Blog

Author D. G. Driver's
Write and Rewrite Blog

“There are no bad stories, just ones that haven’t found their right words yet.”

​A blog
mostly about the process of revision with occasional guest posts, book reviews, and posts related to my books.


Button Text

How to Create a Diverse Spin on a Classic Tale

8/30/2015

 
Picture

A little treat for you before the month is over. Picture book author Natasha Yim is visiting to share a revision story about her newest book Goldy Luck and the Three Pandas. To me, writing picture books is about the hardest thing to do as a writer. I have personally failed at every attempt. They look deceptively easy, and I’m so impressed by anyone who writes them well. This book looks charming as could be, and if you’re looking for a diverse book for your children’s library, make sure you pick this one up.

Natasha Yim:
As a children
’s author of four published picture books and many articles for magazines, I’m no stranger to the revision process. Still, I could never have foreseen that my latest picture book Goldy Luck and the Three Pandas (Jan. 2014, Charlesbridge Publishing) would take an arduous nine years to publication. Along this lengthy journey, the manuscript passed through the hands of four beta readers in a writing group (multiple times), five editors, marketing personnel (yes, they have significant input in whether a title is acquired or released), and two publishing houses who all had different visions, different perspectives on what the story did or did not need -- more Chinese-themed details, fewer details, more authentic setting, more American setting, and so on. At times, I felt like I was holding one of those old movie reels and the film was unraveling on the floor and coiling at my feet in one jumbled, messy heap.

  The journey began about a dozen (or so) years ago, when I learned about fractured fairy tales at a writing conference. I was intrigued by the idea of re-writing a familiar tale from a different perspective. I played around with a few fairy tales, but something about the Goldilocks story had always stuck with me. Here was a little girl breaking and entering into the three bears’ home, destroying their stuff, and leaving a mess never to be heard from again. How rude! And what kind of message does this story give kids? I wanted to re-write it with a more compassionate protagonist and a more satisfying ending.

   My first few attempts told the story from Papa Bear’s perspective (I believe it was called “Papa Bear’s Good Deed”). The story began from the moment Goldilocks ran away, leaving her hat behind, and Papa Bear’s journey to find Goldy and return the hat to her--and all the people he inadvertently frightened along the way (because he was a bear) even though he had set out to do a good deed. It went on for about 2,000 words. Yeah, not even close to publishable. And, it didn’t have the unique angle I was looking for or the resolution that I felt was missing from the original story.

   Then, a title and a “what if” question popped into my head. What if Goldilocks wasn’t a little girl with blonde ringlets, but Chinese? I came up with a Chinese name that sounded phonetically similar to Goldilocks and hence, the first seeds of a story called “Go Dil Lok and the Three Chans” began to germinate.  This was eventually changed to the easier to pronounce Goldy Luck (“Luck” serving the double purpose of being a Chinese last name as well as mirroring the theme of good luck in the story). But I wanted the book to be about more than just Goldy having a different ethnic background. I wanted the story to also offer some insights to Chinese traditions and culture. So, Goldy Luck began her fictional life in a skyrise apartment in Hong Kong (where I had spent my adolescent years), preparing to celebrate the biggest and most colorful Chinese festival of the year, Chinese New Year.

   In an attempt to give the mundane porridge/chairs/beds a modern twist, earlier versions of the story included an aquarium (Goldy smudged the glass), an oriental rug (she spilled fish flakes all over it) and a computer game (Goldy beat Little Chan’s record). It also had a greatly detailed Chinese New Year parade with lion dancers. Ultimately, an editor wisely suggested I simplify the story and revert back to the original three bowls/chairs/bed structure.

   Still, I wanted a slightly different spin. Enter my uncle’s massage chair and my parents’ Tempurpedic electric bed (as a writer, I never know what every day event or thing creeps into a story!). The really fun part was implanting the traditions and rituals of the New Year (receiving “lucky” red envelopes, eating turnip cakes) into the story and thinking up ways to make Goldy’s experiences more culturally relevant (“She felt like stuffing in a pork bun”, “The mattress felt as hard as a week-old almond cookie”.)

  The transformation process was slow, gradual--and painstaking. But with each revision the story became tighter, the narrative arc more clearly defined, and I’m truly grateful for all the editorial hands that helped shaped the book. Picture books can appear deceptively simple because of their brevity, but like any story, it can take months, if not years, of hard work, slaving over the right story line, the right word choice.

   But in the end, what better reward is there for a writer than seeing your name on the cover of a published book?


Goldy Luck and the Three Pandas

One Chinese New Year, Goldy Luck’s mother asks her to take a plate of turnip cakes to the neighbors. The Chans aren’t home, but that doesn’t stop Goldy from trying out their rice porridge, their chairs, and their beds—with disastrous results.

In this funny and festive retelling of Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Natasha Yim and Grace Zong introduce a plucky heroine who takes responsibility for her actions and makes a new friend (and a whole plate of turnip cakes!), just in time for Chinese New Year.

Includes back matter about Chinese New Year and a recipe for turnip cakes.

Where to get this lovely book:
Charlesbridge Publishing
Barnes and Noble
Penguin Random House



Picture
Natasha Yim is the author of four picture books: Otto’s Rainy Day (Charlesbridge Publishing, 2000); Cixi, The Dragon Empress (Goosebottom Books, 2011); Sacajawea of the Shoshone (Goosebottom Books, 2012); and Goldy Luck and the Three Pandas (Charlesbridge Publishing, 2014), a Junior Library Guild selection. The paperback version of Goldy Luck will be released in December 2015. Her nonfiction articles have been published in the children’s magazines “Highlights for Children”, “Appleseeds” and “Faces” as well as various adult magazines. Natasha is also a playwright whose short plays have been performed in venues around Northern California, Los Angeles, and internationally in Australia, Malaysia, and New Zealand. Natasha’s upcoming picture book, The Rock Maiden—a re-envisioned folk tale from Hong Kong, will be released by Wisdom Tales Press in 2017. She is currently at work on revising another picture book and writing her middle grade novel.



Comments are closed.
    Picture

    D. G. Driver

    Award-winning author of books for teen and tween readers. Learn more about her and her writing at www.dgdriver.com

    ​Follow her on
    Facebook
    ​Twitter
    Instagram
    Goodreads
    Amazon
    ​Bookbub

    Archives

    March 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    March 2022
    December 2021
    October 2021
    April 2021
    December 2020
    October 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    January 2020
    November 2019
    September 2019
    June 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    October 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014

    Categories

    All
    Adverbs
    Advice
    Agent
    Autism
    Blog
    Book About Autism
    Book Beginning
    Books
    Book Writing
    Boy Protagonists
    Chapter
    Classic Books
    Criticism
    Cry Of The Sea
    Editing
    Editor
    Edting
    Fan Fiction
    Fantasy Novel
    Female Protagonist
    First Drafts
    First Line
    First Page
    First Paragraph
    Ghost Story
    Guest Author
    Harper Lee
    Introvert
    Love Letter Blog
    Love Letters
    Marketing
    Mermaid Book
    MG
    Middle Grade
    Middle Grade Novel
    Moms
    Moms In YA
    Mother's Day
    NA
    NaNoWriMo
    New Adult Novel
    Novella
    Opening Line
    Point Of View
    POV
    Previously Published
    Pronouns
    Publicity
    Revision
    Rewrite
    Romance
    Romance Novel
    Romance Novels
    Sequels
    Series
    Short Story
    Shy
    Submitting
    Summary
    To Kill A Mockingbird
    UtopYA
    Vampire
    Writing
    Writing Advcie
    Writing Class
    Writing Conference
    Writing Workshop
    YA
    Young Adult
    Young Adult Novel

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly