Website: http://www.timothydavisauthor.com/

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Pacifica, CA, United States
Tim Davis got into trouble at age 12 for reading Treasure Island under his blankets by flashlight when he was supposed to be sleeping. When he grew up, he pursued his love of children’s literature by earning a PhD in English and teaching Children’s Literature at university. He left academia in order to move to the San Francisco Bay Area and teach elementary school under an emergency program that let college graduates teach if they worked in the inner city. Tim Davis still lives in the Bay Area with his family, and recently began writing a series of children’s books that he hopes will get some other kids in trouble for reading under the blankets with a flashlight.

Thursday, August 25, 2011

Writing is Re-Re-Re-Writing.

When I  finished Perlas Grandes, I had the entire book memorized. That's because I rewrote Perlas Grandes five times. I wanted to make sure that there were no place where a child reader could get the least confused and miss the suspense. Then, when I turned Perlas Grandes into Sea Cutter: Book I in the Chronicles of Nathaniel Childe, I rewrote the book three times. Sometimes, I would spend hours contemplating the way I wanted two sentences to work together. But I was having fun! I could imagine a child not wanting to put the book down, with no place to trip him or her up even for a second. So, aspiring authors--rewrite! Not as a chore, but as a delight. And kids, I hope you have as much fun reading Sea Cutter as I had writing it.

3 comments:

Elaine Campbell said...

I'm wondering if the rewriting process can be as inspired as the original text.

michelle isenhoff said...

I published my first book this year. One I started EIGHT years ago. Talk about re-writing! Very gratifying to see such work finally reach print.

Anonymous said...

That's an interesting question. I think anyone who's tackled rewrites has dealt with the effort to keep the writing fresh. Sometimes finding a problem with the story-line actually can force a whole new angle on the story and suddenly it feels new again.

And, since I'm Tim's wife and I know the history of the rewrite, I can say definitely that it was inspired. :)

Michelle, congrats on hanging in there and getting published!