Opening Keynote: Lisa Yee

Lisa Yee is the author of award-winning books for kids, including her most recent MAIZY CHEN'S LAST CHANCE. Lisa has written 22 books in 22 years! 

Lisa is wearing her In the Library Perfume to kick off this conference. Can you smell the books? 

Lisa reads us the opening page from MAIZY CHEN’S LAST CHANCE.

“No story starts at the beginning.”

"Nor do speeches," she says. So Lisa takes us back. Lisa wanted to be a writer from a very young age. Lisa loved touching the edges of a book. She loved sniffing books. “Tell me there other book sniffers around,” she says. Probably not surprising, Lisa played library as a kid. 

Lisa was writing, but it took her joining SCBWI to get serious. It was career changing for her. What was a hobby turned into a goal. 

When Lisa first started attending SCBWI conferences, she wanted so badly to meet the great Sid Fleischman. And after Lisa’s first book MILLICENT MIN GIRL GENIUS came out, it won the Sid Fleischman Award! 

At the conferences she met so many author and illustrators and she made connections.  Lisa shares, “It doesn’t matter if this is your first conference or your 21st, you’re going to get something out of it.”

Lisa shares three things that she believes if you have them, you will make it:

LUCK

SMARTS

TALENT

Here are some great tips from Lisa: 

• Study the books that you love. 
• Lisa recommends reading craft books like BIRD BY BIRD by Ann Lamont to get inspired. She loves it so much that she has 3 copies. 
• If any ideas trickle into your head, write them down! 
• If you're stuck, channel all the emotions you are feeling and use them! 

"Your story doesn't start at the beginning either," Lisa says. "You've been living it and now it's time to channel it into what you're working on." 

If you want to view this session to hear the full content, along with the rest of the conference, register at https://www.scbwi.org/events/summer-conference-2023. Replays of the conferences will be available until September 10, 2023. 

Author Panel: Creating Memorable Main Characters for a Book Series - Lisa Yee

Lisa Yee
Photo Credit: Emi Fujii

Lisa Yee has written twenty novels and chapter books for kids. In addition to her Millicent middle grade series, DC Super Hero Girls as well as several books for the American Girl book series. She

When asked what makes a memorable character, Lisa responded that even if a character is unfamiliar to the reader, there is something about them that is familiar. Lisa also responded affirmatively that she puts herself in her books. But she quickly added that she steals from others' lives around her. Her Bobby books center on her son. Dan Santat illustrated the series and came to her house to draw her son, so art is based on him too.

Another question focused on whether the creators start with character or plot as they craft a series. Lisa starts with characters if she generates the series like Millicent Min, Girl Genius. Before she writes, Lisa spends time thinking about characters, what they like and don't like. It's a layered approach to their development. It's not until the end of the book do they come out fully formed.

But with the DC Super Hero Girls series, she focuses on plot because the super heroes' characters like Wonder Woman are well-known and understood. But at the same time, if I got her or any other character wrong, "people would want me dead" because they know and love these characters. But "after some mental gyrations, I realized that I'm just writing a story about these teens and their insecurities and I get started." 

Author Panel
L to R: Ben Clanton, Debbi Michiko Florence,
Bruce Hale and Lisa Yee

Follow Lisa on Twitter and find out more about her on her website.

Lisa Yee: "You Want Me to do What? An Inside Look at Writing for Hire

Lisa Yee's debut, Millicent Min, Girl Genius, won SCBWI's first Sid Fleischman Humor Award in 2004. Since then, she has written nineteen more novels. Her work includes many types of work-for-hire.

If you want to follow your muse, work-for-hire is not for you.

Kind of work for hire:

• magazines
• ghost writing
• licensed products
• novels
• short stories
• nonfiction 
• novelizations
• original stories with established characters 
• text books

There are many.

Lisa has done a great deal of work in this area for Disney, American Girl, DC Comics, even for theme parks.

With work-for-hire you need to know the parameters of what you are doing. Because of the very specific perimeters, this work really helps you become professional. You also have to know your product and do your research.

You must deliver on time. There are people waiting for you.

Getting hired for work-for-hire is a very mysterious thing, but there are two ways: you seek it out or they seek you out.

Lisa was sought out by both American Girl and DC Comics. They sought her out for very specific reasons.

Once you agree to do work for hire, you do it!

Know that sometimes work-for-hire involves an audition.

Peter Lerganis is prolific in work-for-hire. It took him over 19 years before he wrote his own title.

When you do work-for-hire you learn how to be professional, hone your craft, and meet a deadline.

Books For and About Diverse Kids: John Parra, Don Tate, Lisa Yee, Stacey Barney, and Pat Cummings

Right to Left: Pat Cummings, Stacey Barney, John Parra, Don Tate, and Lisa Yee

In this discussion-based breakout session, we have multiple perspectives from different parts of the children's literature community:

Pat Cummings, author/illustrator of over thirty-five books for young readers (and Board member of SCBWI, the Authors Guild, and the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art, among others.)

Stacey Barney, Senior Editor at Penguin/Putnam Books for Young Readers

John Parra, Golden-Kite winning illustrator.

Don Tate, author and illustrator, winner of the Ezra Jack Keats Award.

Lisa Yee, author of 16 books and winner of the very first Sid Fleischman Humor Award.


Some highlights:

Stacey Barney:
"Write organic stories." Sometimes she finds that it's almost as if writers are checking off boxes for diversity with their diverse cast of characters, but "character shouldn't feel like categories."

John Parra:
"Be respectful. Show it to others who are part of those communities. Make sure authentic is how it's portrayed."

Don Tate:
"Study. Research. Vet. ...Make sure you're not exploiting the topic."

Lisa Yee:
You can write outside your experience "but you have to get it right."

The panel are telling us fascinating stories, like Lisa sharing how her Millicent Min (in 2003) was the first middle grade book with a photo of an Asian American kid on the cover.

Don shares about doing a school visit when he was asked by a 5th grade class if he only illustrates Black people, and how he asked the two African American boys in the class if they felt like they've read books that represented them - and they said no. So he turned to the rest of the class and explained that he's made it his mission, he's built his whole career, to create positive portrayals of people that look like those two boys… and the whole class clapped.

Stacey tells us about teaching (elementary and preschool and high school), and reading picture books to the kids, and how she made an effort to choose picture books that reflected their experience. "Kids are kids."

Pat speaks of her school visits, and how kids pick up books out of curiosity. She shares how she was asked once by a British author why she only does books with Black characters. Pat countered, asking the British author why they only created books with British characters…

John speaks of how he sees diverse books being published, but the awards and reviews and the best lists of the year aren't that diverse. After they've published, how do they get recognized and supported?

They cover editorial staffing (and the importance of diversity in staffing across departments, including marketing, publicity and sales), being vetted by additional experts, and much, much more.

Lisa Yee: First and Last Sentences

Lisa Yee is the the award-winning author of many novels for children, including Millicent Min, Girl Genius, which won the first Sid Fleischman Humor Award in 2004.

You might also know her because of her famous pal, Peepy.

Lee Yee works the room.

The crowd is playing a game with Lisa Yee: Name That Line. After reading through well-known first lines and trying to name the title, the room now goes through, choosing their favorite three, and thinking about why they chose them.

Here's a sampling:

"All children, except one, grow up." ~ Peter Pan

"There was a hand in the darkness, and it held a knife." ~ The Graveyard Book

"If your teacher has to die, August isn't a bad time of year for it."~ The Teacher's Funeral

First lines are very personal. They sets the tone for your story. With that line you're giving a clue as to who is telling the story.

There's no formula for the perfect first line. Lisa likes to think of first lines like food. They can be an appetizer (a bit of a taste or a tease), an entree (nice and meaty), or dessert (really lovely and delicious). A first line needs to wet the appetite.

Check out Nancy Pearl's Book Crush to find lists of things in books for kids/teen, like great first lines. You'll find the first line of Millicent Min, Girl Genius included in that list of great first lines.

Here it is:

"I've been accused of being anal retentive, an overachiever and a compulsive perfectionist, like that's a bad thing."

Definitely worthy of that list.

What makes a great last line?

If your first line is the promise of the story, your last line is the payoff.

When you write your last line it can be helpful to know what you are writing towards as you draft.

Don't ignore that you have first and last lines within a book. Pay attention to those too, like the first and last lines of a chapter.

Writing intensive: Lisa Yee on bullies and antagonists

Lisa Yee, the hilarious and wonderful author of 10 novels for kids and young adults, made me cry during her session on bullies and antagonists.

But it wasn't on purpose.

She was just talking about the story she wrote for the DEAR BULLY anthology due out next month.

Her entry perfectly illustrated the importance of creating dimensional bullies: characters who have wants and needs, and who have reasons for harming those around them--getting as specific as identifying the day our antagonist was hurt badly enough to want to hurt others.

So, yes. Tears. But also lots of laughs as she walked us through the paces.

Lisa Yee

We started off with a rather thrilling promise: "We're going to tap into your evil side," she said.

And then we identified our favorite literary villains. Lord Voldemort, we love to hate you. The British press, meanwhile, really loves to hate Satan. They identified him--and not Camilla Parker Bowles (kidding! she's real!)--as literature's foulest villain. Which, when you think about it, seems kind of stereotypey.

We moved on to some key definitions:

A bully is a person who uses strength or power to harm or intimidate those who are weaker.

"Bully" started out as a good thing, she mentioned. Over the years, the definition morphed and it changed.

A villain is a person guilty of capable of crime or wickedness.

That word, she said, is French. A villain worked in the fields in a time when everyone wanted to be a knight. When bad things happened, they blamed the farm people. “A villain did that.” Mon dieu!

An antagonist, who could be a bully or a bad guy, is a person who actively opposes or is hostile to someone or something.

"Your antagonist in your story is going to be working against your protagonist," she said.

She shared with us seven story archetypes we writers use, from "man vs. himself" to "man vs. society," and we came up with examples of stories that fit each archetype.

Then she walked us through a couple of writing exercises: one in which we outlined a variety of characteristics we'd need to know about our antagonists (everything from their age, outward appearance, self-perception, wants and needs, as long as one word that best described them). We used that as the basis for a revealing paragraph about our antagonist.

My favorite part, and not just because I played a teen thief, was doing a Q&A with participants to figure out the characters' backstory and motivations. We then wrote a murder scene from three points of view--a third person, and first person from both the teen thief and her rich-lady murder victim. The effect was stunning. By having well developed characters with clear motivations, we ended up with richer writing that was more nuanced and compelling.

Lisa Yee
Follow Lisa on Twitter

Peepy looks scared because some participants did not survive Lisa's class.

SCBWI TEAM BLOG Pre-Conference Interviews: Jennifer L. Holm, Lisa Yee, Ellen Hopkins and Emma Dryden

Ahh, summer... Flip flops. Popsicles. Lounging poolside. And of course the SCBWI Annual Summer Conference--which is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year! I've taken a

Jennifer Holm

break from said lounging (there's a heat emergency here in the Nati--lounging is required) to clue you in on some terrific interviews with Summer Conference faculty brought to you by the also terrific SCBWI TEAM BLOG.

First, TEAM BLOGger Martha Brockenbrough talked with award-winning author Jennifer L. Holm, who will attend the summer conference to collect the Golden Kite Award for fiction as well as offer a session called It Takes a Family: Writing Historical Fiction Using Family History. Here's a snippet from Jenni's interview. To read the entire interview, click here. 

If you think of excitement as a candy store (which it is), then you can understand instantly the many flavors of excitement. They're not all created equal. Lemon, for example. It's better than nothing. But still.

When I found out I got to do the pre-SCBWI LA conference with Jenni Holm, I was the very best flavor of excited (salted caramel). (Wait, what? You haven't registered? Do it here! August 5-8. Time of your life. Promise.)

Not only am I in awe of her professionally--three Newbery Honors! Bestselling series! Beautiful, hilarious stories--I have been envious of her personally all year.

Lisa Yee

And today, Martha posted an interview with the always delightful Lisa Yee, who, in addition to being a popular author, witty blogger and friend of Peepy, serves on SCBWI's board of advisors. Lisa is presenting a Monday workshop on Creating Compelling Bad Guys and Bullies. Click here for more info. Below is a bit from Lisa's interview. To read the full interview, click here.

Being in a room during a Lisa Yee presentation is a bit like going to a lighting warehouse. The brightness! The heat! It's a thing to behold. But truly. I've attended a number of breakout sessions with her at L.A. conferences, and I always come away feeling inspired, informed, and newly recharged.

I also adore her books: The Millicent Min universe (with inspired companion titles featuring Emily Ebers,  Stanford Wong, most recently Marley Sandesky, about a boy running away from bullies); the pitch-perfect Bobby books, which are illustrated by the unstoppable Dan Santat; and Absolutely Maybe, her first foray into YA. Lisa even has a couple of American Girl titles.

Lisa is seriously funny, but her stories have heart and depth. It's no wonder she was the second recipient of the Sid Fleischman Award (the dearly departed Sid won the inaugural award, which is given to acknowledge the often-overlooked funny books).

TEAM BLOGger Lee Wind has posted a pair of Summer Conference faculty interviews on his blog, too. Click here to check out his video interviews with Ellen Hopkins and Emma Dryden!

SCBWI TEAM BLOG will be offering as-it-happens coverage of the Summer Conference and we'll continue to bring you pre-conference interviews with the awesome faculty. 

In the meantime, don't forget to register. Just click here. There's still room in some of the fantastic intensives, too!

Crossover Writing: Linda Sue Park, Lisa Yee, and Arthur A. Levine, part 2

L to R, Arthur, Linda Sue, Lisa

Lisa Yee gems:

If you've ever been to Red Lobster, I wrote the menu. Crispy Golden Fries? That's me.

(laughter)

Hey, a menu is a story: beginning, middle, and end.

Lisa said that she was working on a book, sure that the main character was 11. She morphed into being 12. And ultimately, telling the story that needed to be told, the character ended up being 17, and the book was a YA.


Arthur's advice to Lisa back then (and now):

Just write the story it needs to be.

Arthur:

In all the genres, the difficulty is letting go of the anxiety of what you percieve to be the rules of the form.

Lisa chimed in on that - she had a character who was a run-away, and her first instinct was that the character would swear a lot - the percieved rules of the form. But then she realized that her character DIDN'T swear a lot.

Linda Sue:

I want to write a story, and the best story I absolutely can. When she wrote "A Single Shard," she thought it would be an adult book.

When I write my novels, I don't know where it's going to be shelved when it's out.

And they shared so much more great advice and insight!

Crossover Writing: Linda Sue Park, Lisa Yee, and Arthur A. Levine

Lisa Yee (far right), Linda Sue Park (center),

and Arthur A. Levine (speaking as Sid Fleischman)

Since Sid wasn't able to attend, Arthur A. Levine graciously stepped in. Arthur read Sid's contribution for this panel, including these gems:

Most our lives are sequences of scenes - and in this respect, art is like life.

Emotion is common to all genres.

Without emotion to touch us, one is left with typing paper.

Linda Sue Park:

Still, today, when revising my novels, there are several run throughs on the language level, in which I revise my novels like a poem.

She even goes through the draft one time during revisions, focusing solely on where the period falls - like in poetry!

She writes poetry in the fallow times between novels.

Her first picture book was adapted from a poem she had written thinking it would be for an adult poetry collection.

More on this great panel to come! Hey, people keep coming in - it's standing room only now!

Posted by Lee Wind