Ellen Hopkins Keynote! The TOP!

Ellen's formula for Success:

Talent + Perseverance + Luck

(A formula in different amounts for different author journeys!)

Ellen's final pieces of advice:

Forget the helicopter.

Expect to work hard and enjoy the work.

Don't make Everest your first climb!

Don't climb alone! (Be part of SCBWI, for instance!)

And find YOUR OWN PATH. (they stories YOU have to tell)

And Ellen's penultimate words, from the summit:

"You are the future of children's publishing. Be a shining light."

Wow!


Posted by Lee Wind

Ellen Hopkins Keynote! Not for the Faint of Heart: The Climb to the Top! The middle...

And then, after her personal family tragedy unfolded, she needed to write about her daughter's addiction- and Ellen needed to find the voice to tell the story.

And here, at the SCBWI LA Conference, in a session with Sonya Sones, Ellen discovered that in

Poetry - in telling a fictional story in a poem, she was able to tap into the emotions of being a Teen.

And she could tell the story she had to write... And she knew how to write it!

"And now I was climbing the mountain for real."

Posted by Lee Wind

Ellen Hopkins Keynote! Not for the Faint of Heart: The Climb to the Top! The early path...

So Ellen's working a metaphor...

not everyone takes a plane or helicopter on the journey up the mountain.

sometimes there are detours and switchback trails... (relationships, children)

Then you're writing, walking on the path...

and then rejections, and entering contests, and freelance writing...

Discovering SCBWI, teaching writing, publishing Non fiction books...

what a journey!

Posted by Lee Wind