DON'T DIG DEEPER by Jane Kelley

DIG DEEPER!!!!

That's the answer to many problems. Are you getting weary? Are you losing hope? Are you struggling to understand? Dig deeper! 

I think this advice comes from mining for precious metals and gems. The first people were lucky enough to pick some sparkly objects off the surface. Those that came later had to dig deeper to find any. And deeper and deeper -- until people toppled mountains and destroyed entire swaths of countryside in pursuit of wealth.

We are readers and writers. Mining is a metaphor for us. But I'll share a little anecdote about why it took me 4 years to write what was supposed to be a fun comic adventure. 

As with most novels, I spent a draft or two getting to know my characters. I dug deeper. I probed all my characters' angst. I found conflict among all the family members. I gave my confident adventurer doubts. Because, sad to say, that's what digging deeper meant to me. Finding muck.

Boy was I wrong! Luckily I had wise readers who said--why have you made your hero so unhappy? You ruined the main thing we liked about her. That she was confident. And what does her depression have to do with her adventure?

Absolutely nothing. 

So I went back and took out the punitive reasons for why she goes on her adventure. No more classroom bullies. No more repressive parents. No more annoying sister. She isn't running AWAY from her problems. She's running TOWARD an adventure. As she says, who wouldn't want to go exploring?

Finally, after more rewrites, the novel is what it was meant to be. You could also say that I dug deep enough to get all the way through the muck to come out into the sunlight on the other side of the world.

Jane Kelley is the author of many middle-grade novels. She has never found treasure in a hole, but she has found it everywhere else she looks.