Ingrid Law - Writing Magic: From the Head to the Heart

A reminder of Ingrid's story: her first book published, SAVVY, went on the NYT Bestseller list, ALA and Hornbook say it is one of the ten best books of the year, Newbery Honor!, etc.

"The last writers's workshop/conference I went to was 8 or 9 years ago at BYU."

Tim Wynne-Jones and Eve Bunting were at that conference and Ingrid was too shy to share her manuscript even though Tim wanted to see more. She was very shy. She says she is still shy and just asked us if we wouldn't all mind turning around for the rest of her presentation. :)

Ingrid's keynote will be in story form! She's calling it 'Ingrid Unedited' and asks us not to hold it against her.

Ingrid Law Loves Middle Grade... But WHY?

I'll let her speak for herself:






Posted by Lee Wind

Ingrid Law: NO Villains: Play Along!

Everyone hard at work on one of Ingrid's many exercises.

There are so many types of conflict - Nature, Self, Society, Other characters who just want things that conflict with what your character wants, so many possibilities for your character to be thwarted, so many challenges to explore.

Here's one of the exercises that Ingrid gave us:

Take the story of the Three Little Pigs, and take the Big Bad Wolf out of it. Now, figure out a new conflict that makes the story still work.

It's a fun challenge!


Posted by Lee Wind

Ingrid Law: Villains or No Villains

Actually, Ingrid's session is called "Major villains need not apply: Writing fantasy without an archenemy"

ooh... we're starting out with an exercise! I love these...

And here are some great quotes from Ingrid:

I'm not anti-villain.

All sorts of things turn into monsters for kids, don't they?

After she wrote Savvy, she realized there were no major villains in it. Her characters, even with their magical powers, are coping with the problems of real life. (Problems that everyone can relate to - no dark Lords or monsters)

And when she talks to kids,

Boys want the villain.

Girls tell her they never like fantasy, but they LOVED Savvy.


Posted by Lee Wind

INGRID LAW, "Creating a Strange Voice in a Namby-Pamby, Willy-Nilly Way"

INGRID LAW, "Creating a Strange Voice in a Namby-Pamby, Silly-Nilly Way"

Another packed panel session, this time with Newbery Honor ("Savvy") novelist Ingrid Law. SHe had a fantastic handout called "Ingrid's Voice Toolkit" that conference goers found incredibly helpful. Some highlights for you:

Books she recommends include:

-- "Spunk & Bite: A Writer's Guide to Punchier, More Engaging Language & Style" by Arthur Plotnik, Random House Reference, 2005

-- "DARE - Dictionary of American Regional English"

-- "Rhyming Dictionary" (http://www.rhymezone.com)

-- "Idiom Dictionary" (http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com)

When it comes to using the dictionary, she stresses that "You should never use a thesaurus randomly or without cross-referencing in the dictionary." She lists an example such as, "Her bangs were uneven." What other words could you do to elevate this sentence? She also adds, "Better yet... find a way to SHOW the reader the bangs are uneven before simply picking a different word."

Other handout highlights included samples of long, lyrical sentences in kid's lit versus short and quirky sentences, repetition, similes and metaphors, etc. 

Pictured above is also a fun writing exercise Ingrid have everyone do - she listed a setting (apartment), two characters (young and old woman), and the action of a woman dropping her groceries. She had everyone write a scene using those plot points and trying to employ a unique voice to it.

Overall, a very thorough and meticulous lecture that inspired conference goers with new tools to use to improve their writing and create a unique voice and point of view.

Plus, she had a cake for us to eat with the words SCBWI on it!

Posted by Paula Yoo

SCBWI TEAM BLOG Keynote Speaker Interviews

Today blogger Lee Wind offers a great interview with Holly Black, one of the terrific keynote speakers for the upcoming SCBWI Annual Summer Conference. Also check out Paul Yoo's interviews with keynoters Ingrid Law and Betty Birney. There will be more interviews with SCBWI conference keynote speakers from TEAM BLOG between now and the event. (Of course we'll link to them when they're posted.)

And for those of you who still may be thinking about registering for the event but haven't yet, read Suzanne Young's post featuring feedback from three first-time conference goers.

Also be sure to follow SCBWI TEAM BLOG on Twitter (because when we're not blogging, we'll be tweeting):

• To follow Alice Pope on Twitter, click here.
• To follow Jaime Temairik on Twitter, click here.
• To follow Jolie Stekly on Twitter, click here.
• To follow Paula Yoo on Twitter, click here.
• To follow Suzanne Young on Twitter, click here.
• To follow Lee Wind, click here.
  
• You can also follow SCBWI by clicking here, where you'll find tweets linking to all the SCBWI Conference Blog posts.