How to Be Your Own Book Doctor

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy


If you Google “book doctor” you’ll get pages of folks willing to analyze your book and tell you what’s wrong with it. While this might be a helpful option for some, not everyone can afford to pay for this type of advice. But never fear, because with a little objectivity (and a plan), you can give your novel a checkup all on your own.

One of the reasons a good book doctor is so successful, is that they look at a story without all the emotional baggage us authors bring to our own work, and can analyze the critical elements of good storytelling. (We love our words. Our words are perfect, aren't they?)

How to Be Your Own (First) Manuscript Doctor

By Nancy Raines Day

Part of the How They Do It Series

JH: Being able to look at your writing critically is a valuable skill. Some of us come by it naturally, but most of us need practice or guidance to know what to look for to turn our first drafts into final drafts. Nancy Raines Day visits the lecture hall today, to offer that guidance on how to be our own book doctors.

In addition to authoring numerous children's books, Nancy writes for educational publishers and consults on picture book texts for members of the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators. Her first children's book, The Lion's Whiskers: A Ethiopian Folktale, was hailed by the New York Times as one of five notable picture books of the year. She earned a BA in journalism from the University of Michigan and an MA in literacy journalism from Syracuse University. A member of the Authors Guild, Day lives with her husband and three cats on St. Simons Island in Georgia. Nancy is celebrating the "book birthday" for her hot-off-the-press picture book, What in the World? Numbers in Nature today! Learn more about her books: Bookshelf: By the Numbers and at Simon & Schuster.

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Take it away Nancy...