Brandon VanOver and Tristan Bancks

WEDNESDAY

Here, Random House Australia Managing Editor Brandon VanOver gives an intimate insight into the editorial process on my new book of weird, funny, gross short stories for kids, My Life and Other Stuff I Made Up. Brandon was an essential player in pushing me to the end of the line as a writer and making these stories really zing.

1. Why do you think Zoe asked you to edit My Life and Other Stuff I Made Up?

Even though I work principally on the adult side of the ledger, I’ve had the pleasure to be involved with several children’s authors on an on-going basis. My sense of humour is a bit skewed, and perhaps Zoe thought an odd mind might match up well with odd stories and quirky illustrations (and those strange individuals responsible for them). There’s a fair amount of match-making involved between editor, author and illustrator, and working on MY LIFE felt like an instance where we were all on the same laugh track.

2. What did you enjoy about the process?

The stories were in great shape before they even reached my desk, so I was able to see the stories in their near-final form. It was fun to look for the more subtle places where a tweak here or there might make take the story that little bit further. I wasn’t bogged down on getting the storytelling fundamentals right, so all my energy was focused on taking the volume from 10 to 11. Short story endings are notoriously hard – some of Edgar Allan Poe’s stories feel like he was knocking out an exercise in English class and ran out of time (‘Pencils down!’) – and I love the process of kicking over the various possibilities, weighing them up, plucking one out and massaging it into the text for the best possible conclusion, be it shocking, profound, humorous (quietly or loudly so), heart-breaking or gross-out.

3. Can you remember any of the challenges or major changes that you suggested to any of the stories during the editorial process? (eg: I remember your encouragement to take The Dog Kisser further which led to Tom going full circle and becoming a Dog Kisser.)

I think the ending of ‘Swoop’ was the only place where it took a couple of versions to nail it down. If I remember correctly, the version I first saw had a fairly dark, abrupt ending, and then in another version the final confrontation with the magpie was taken out, a plot twist that I loved. I made a few wrong-headed suggestions of making Sasha’s dad the Dog Kisser and Tom looking over to see Bando having breakfast at the table with the dad, adding to his humiliation, etc., etc., so it goes to show how many wrong back alleys of the imagination you can follow until you find the ending that clicks. It’s often that volleying of ideas back and forth between author and editor that produces the best story. The final version is perfect to me (the magpie returned!) and says a lot about Tom’s personality: even in the face of wholesale defeat, he grabs onto that one thread of optimism, that one last scheme that will get him back on top.

4. As an editor, do you have any methods that you use to tap into a character, setting or story? How did you manage to understand what Tom should do next?

The author lays down the blueprint, so it’s really a matter of examining that structure, which is really a snapshot of that author’s mind and imagination (scary!), and making sure the story stays tight, on track and follows through to the best possible conclusion. There is an element of thinking about the nature of the character you’re presented with – in this case Tom Weekly – and comparing it with everything you know about the wild, weird and wonderful nature of human beings. Thinking about kids’ behaviour is great because childhood is a tremendously free and virtuosic period in your life. You don’t always have to make sense, so the plot possibilities are limitless; you just need to shirk off that adult part of yourself that has been socialised and tamed. How many times do I look at my son, Will, and think: what the heck were you thinking? It’s almost impossible to go back to that uninhibited self, so it’s a challenge to be authentic in children’s writing and editing. But I’m pretty there are a lot of Tom Weeklys running around out there.

5. Are you a dog kisser, have you ever been involved in competitive eating and could your Nan beat Tom Weekly's in a back-alley brawl?

I’ve never had a dog, but I also never kiss and tell. I was once in a sarsaparilla spider eating contest when I was a kid – a half hour after the contest I was still eating the ice-cream in the backseat on the drive home. My granny would’ve smoked Tom’s like a cheap cigar.

Tomorrow, it's illustrator Gus Gordon taking us inside his process on the book.

 www.tristanbancks.com