Writing the story that resonates

Starting over when a manuscript gets rejected

I sat at a wooden table, head in my hands, pages of notes piled around me. It was the fall of 2018, and I was on a writing retreat. I had checked myself into a state park cabin for a few days. No internet. No TV. No family. No chores. Just time to write.

I had brought along my notes for a recent picture book project. A year earlier, an editor had requested a nonfiction picture book about pollination. I’d been working on it diligently and had turned in three different manuscripts. All three had been rejected. With the last rejection came the news that the editor had acquired the manuscript she was seeking from a different writer.

And so here I sat. I was tired. I felt defeated. I’d brought along my notes to see if I could conjure something new.

Sitting at that table, free from distractions, I realized that the editor’s vision had never quite thrilled me. But was there something in these pages of notes that did thrill me. If so, what was it?

I realized it was the winged animals. In my research, I had been delighted by the variety of winged things that flowers recruited to carry their pollen. Hummingbirds. Butterflies. Bats. I loved the variety of animals—birds, insects, mammals—and the different ways their wings worked.

Could I do a guessing book on wings? Earlier, I had played around with a guessing book on pollination. I described the flower and invited the reader to guess the pollinator. But that approach had never quite worked. It was too difficult for the reader.

Still, maybe a guessing book on wings would work. I pulled out a blank sheet of paper and jotted down the names of some different things with wings.

Early sketches for a pollinator guessing book (left) and my initial brainstorm for a guessing book on wings.

Right away I noticed a pattern—a BUM-bah-BUM rhythm. Dragonflies. Hummingbirds. Butterflies.

Could I write this in rhyme? I had never written anything in rhyme. I didn’t even know where to begin.

As it happened, in my piles of notes was an article that I had clipped from the SCBWI magazine. It was written by the wonderful poet David Harrison and was about how to choose a rhyme scheme. I started there.

That’s the short story—of how a series of rejections, coupled with a decision to start over and try something new, led me to write Wonder Wings: Guess Who’s Flying. The book comes out on April 15 and is available for preorder now.

Illustrated by Sally Soweol Han, the cover on the left and an interior spread on the right.

Back then, I didn’t know if this new direction would lead anywhere. But I knew at least I was stretching and growing as a writer. And as the months passed, and I attempted to wrestle words into verses, I discovered I was having fun.

This winter, I looked at those rejected manuscripts with fresh eyes. I pulled out one that I think has potential. I’ve begun to play around with it.

Now it’s your turn. Go ahead, pull out something old, maybe something that wasn’t working, maybe something that was rejected. Try a new direction. Try a completely different approach, even if you aren’t sure you can pull it off. I am cheering you on!