There is a lot of down time between completing a draft and getting it back from you editor with his/her notes. Even though it took Stanford Wong’s novel two years to be released, my writing time was about a year of that. I would like to add that there is an incredible amount of time and effort that goes into producing a book, that has nothing to do with the author. It went through about two or three more drafts until the final version.
Girl genius how to#
By then I had figured out how to write a book. Although at one point, real life took over and for an entire year I didn’t write at all.įor Stanford Wong Flunks Big-Time, I wrote the first draft in three months. He kept saying, “I want literature.” I wrote two more completely different novels, each time changing everything but the main character, before it became the book that is out today. I sent in the novel (the one about the child psychologist) and Arthur loved the main character, but not the broad humor. Instead, I was encouraged to keep writing. When I told him this, I expected to be banished from publishing forever. He loved it and asked to see the complete manuscript. I sent a synopsis and three sample chapters. I had been pulled from the slush pile by Arthur Levine, but was told “this isn’t the one, but I would love to see anything else you have.” So I told him about a story I had about a smart girl. Millicent Min, Girl Genius took years and years and years to write. What were the timelines from spark to publication, and what were the major events along the way? And so Stanford Wong Flunks Big-Time ( Arthur A. I wanted to give voice to boys who so often have a lot to say, but no forum. I really wanted to do was to show her, and others, that boys are kinder and more sensitive and more confused than she could ever imagine.
I think she thought I’d prove her assessment about boys to be correct. So I asked, “Would you read a book about Stanford?” (He was Millicent’s enemy in my first novel.) And she said, “Yes!” She was convinced they were stupid and smelly, and could not understand why anyone would want them around. But my daughter, then about 11-years old, was so down on boys. So I wrote about it.Īfter I completed the novel, I was going to write a non-fiction. I thought that many kids might feel this way, too. I had a happy childhood, lots of friends, and loving parents. The book went through massive changes, including throwing out all the plots, but one thing remained true and ended up in the final version. I wrote an entire novel about an 11-year old who solved problems for adults. Levine Books/Scholastic, 2003), came out of a two-word joke. My first book, Millicent Min, Girl Genius ( Arthur A. What was your inspiration for creating these books? Then his parents are fighting, his grandmother Yin-Yin hates her new nursing home, he’s being “tutored” by the world’s biggest nerdball Millicent Min–and he’s not sure his ballpoint “Emily” tattoo is ever going to wash off.” Read excerpt. And if THAT happens, his life will be over. If *that* happens, his friends will abandon him and Emily Ebers won’t like him anymore. If that happens, he won’t start on the A-team.
If he flunks his summer-school English class, he won’t pass sixth grade. From the catalog copy: “Stanford Wong is having a bad summer. Stanford Wong Flunks Big-Time by Lisa Yee ( Arthur A. But when she finally puts her mind to it, she realizes just what it will take to make her first friend.” Winner of the winner of the Sid Fleischman Award for Humor from SCBWI. From the catalog copy: “Millicent Min is having a bad summer.
Millicent Min, Girl Genius by Lisa Yee ( Arthur A.