Monday, August 10, 2009

Dinah Stevenson: May the 4 C's Be With You: An Editor Suggest Strategies for Hard Times

Dinah Stevenson is vice president and publisher of Clarion Books.
"I lied!" Dinah tells us. She'll do a bit of bait and switch on her talk.

She let's us all know up front, "Coffee is not one of the four C's." (Although, I've got mine right within reach.)

Today Dinah will talk about writing, and she wants to start with looking at hard times right in the eye. Dinah is up front saying that she is looking at everything more closely than ever before.

Her four C's are:

1. Creativity

2. Craft

3. Community

"You already know the fourth C isn't coffee, nor is it critique group or California. My fourth C is chocolate!" (Nice laughter!)

"Yours could be an anything that feels like a treat, a reward or a celebration...The writing is what you do. Writing work that’s good enough to be published is hard.

4. What's your fourth C?

5 comments:

  1. Commitment! I think you have to commit yourself to "Butt in Chair," commit yourself to submitting your work, commit fully to writing being your CAREER.

    (Those are my favorite commitment issues!)

    Namaste,
    Lee

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  2. Cuddling and Candy Corn were mentioned by the audience as some 'C's. Lin just apologized for the SCBWI being called SCBWI and thinks maybe we can come up with a new name and someone in the audience shouted "SCOOBYWOO!"

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  3. My fourth "C" would have to be cadence. Listening to musical rhythms before I write, sometimes while I write and after I write keeps me tied to the pulse and tone of whatever I'm creating.

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  4. Characters! As in, interesting people that we Care about. But I like both commitment and cadence as well! :-)

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  5. Coke, as in caffeine since I don't drink coffee.

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