Breakout Session #3 - So, You Want to Write a Memoir! With Ruth Chan

Ruth Chan is an award-winning author and illustrator of comics and children’s books, including her graphic memoir Uprooted which won the SCBWI Golden Kite Award for Illustrated Book/Graphic Novel for Older Readers, and was named one of NPR's best books of 2024. Prior to illustrating full time, she spent her teens in China and a decade working with youth and families in underserved communities. She is a proud Canadian who now lives and works in NYC.

Ruth acknowledges that writing a memoir can be an intimidating and intense experience compared to writing fiction, but it can also be fun and bring about unexpected beauty and some pretty good laughs. Ruth helps attendees explore different approaches to getting started in memoir writing, and the ins and outs of what it means to share yourself with children and others.

Memoir is pretty simple to spot, it is a non-fiction, first-person narrative that focuses on one specific time or event—it is NOT an autobiography encompassing a whole lifetime. Memoirs that stand the test of time focus more on exploring thoughts and feelings than they are focused on exploring facts. 

How do you figure out your memoir inspiration? Ruth shares a brainstorming exercise with attendees on how to find the values and themes important to their own life story and gives a great exercise for figuring out how to determine the most effective tone for your memoir.

What keeps your memoir feeling authentic to readers is to maintain authenticity in your personal story even when it might be unflattering or painful, and sharing it in a way that readers can say, "This is so me". Ruth lists some common themes children's memoirs often share, a very strong theme you can center your story around makes for a very compelling memoir that is not bogged down by sidestories that often bulk out an autobiography.

Ruth shares a number of exercises attendees can use to help focus their memoir theme as well as generate rich sensory details imperative to making a memoir stand out as unique. 

Prior to writing, Ruth recommends reading published memoirs for the age range you hope to target as well as reading adult memoir that resonates with your core themes. But she recommends NOT reading others memoirs once you've started drafting your own memoir to give your own memories room to breathe and get figured out on the page without being influenced by others.

And of course scour any of your OWN primary source materials, like journals you've kept, family and friend interviews, and photo albums to build your memoir around. 

As a fellow spreadsheet lover, this was my favorite nugget from the session: 

As Ruth started to build out her UPROOTED memoir draft in chronological order, she used Excel to build a spreadsheet for the timeline, not just for documenting the events in order, but to note how her theme of belonging was or was not present in each scene.

Check out the forthcoming conference session replays (which will be available until September 15, 2025) and hear how Ruth handled the emotional aspects of memoir-writing, both for herself and those mentioned in her memoir, as well as the unexpected gems that come from writing vulnerably about your real life and the many unexpected connections that can come from sharing your personal stories.

Success Story Panel: Pamela N. Harris

 

Pamela N. Harris is an award-winning author of young adult novels, which include WHEN YOU LOOK LIKE US and THIS TOWN IS ON FIRE.

Pam's been writing for as long as she can remember. 

As a child when Pam went to the story her parents they would get her a new Lisa Frank notebook that she would immediate fill up with words. And, in second grade she wrote a story called the Troll Princess, and she was selected to read her story to the kindergarteners. In that moment she fell in love with telling stories to others. 

Pam discovered the SCBWI while doing research and seeing that joining the SCWI was recommended by editors and agents. She attended her first conference in LA when Judy Blume was the speaker, and, of course, she cried. 

After getting her first agent, she thought all was going to be great. But it took her subbing three different YAs and a middle grade before she got her first contract. It took nearly 8 years before her break came. Pam stayed focused over that time. She also took a short breather (from writing but not reading) and also stayed connected to the community, listening to the stories of perseverance. 

If you're brand new to the SCBWI, Pam advises taking a break from your writing when you need it, but during that time devour books. - Keep writing. Keep reading. Persevere. Continue to learn. Continue to be eager. And always take care of yourself. 

To those who are already published, Pam recommends doing your best to understand the business side of things. Be aware of all that's going on. Also, continue to follow the journey of those you admire. 

Pam shares that the biggest mistake she made was querying before she was ready. Pam queried when she was only half though a manuscript (to test out the pitch) and when the agent then asked for the full, she wasn't prepared. It meant she didn't share her best work, and it felt like a wasted opportunity. 

One piece of advice that was important for Pam to hear came from Judy Blume at that the first SCBWI she attended. She had been struggling with a beginning, and Judy Blume shared to start a story on the day your character's life changes. That bit of advice has helped her and stayed with her. 

When it comes to Pam's writing routine, it's key for Pam to be intentional. She has a busy life, with a day job, and two young children with special needs. So, when it comes to writing, she schedules it. It is on her calendar. 

Angeline Boulley Closing Keynote

Author Angeline Boulley gave a perfect closing keynote! 

A highlight being when she shared the origin story of her first book, FIREKEEPER’S DAUGHTER: While still in high school Angeline’s best friend had told her about a new boy at another school that she thought was Angeline’s type, but when Angeline found out the boy hung out with a group of kids that did drugs, she gave the guy a hard pass before ever even meeting him… Only later did she find out he was working ¡undercover! for the police to help do a drug bust. That pre-21 Jump Street plotpoint moment stuck with Angeline for the rest of her life—the ‘what if’ of if they had met and there had been sparks, what would have happened next?  

But Angeline did not pursue creative writing in college, instead she worked in grant writing and education (as a former Director of the Office of Indian Education at the U.S. Department of Education) yet all that time she could not stop thinking about that highschool story idea. Angeline is a member of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians, a part of the Ojibwe community in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. The more she thought about that highschool moment, the more she wondered how an Indigenous teen girl like herself might have been needed in such a storyline.

Finally at 44, during a midlife crisis in which she DID buy a red sportscar, Angeline also decided she’d rather live with failure and write the world’s worst draft of her story than live with the regret of never trying.

The rest of the keynote expands on Angeline’s authorial career arc getting even more interesting and fantastic along the way, but a blog post will not do it justice. Angeline's talk was so lovely and so worth experiencing in person (or in Zoom) that it's worth the effort to seek out her next events or interviews, but in summary: You think you know how your path to publication is going to go, but it’s probably not going to turn out that way. For Angeline it did not, but every rejection gave her momentum and she stayed true to writing the story in her heart.

And wow, did staying true pay off: Sold in a 12-house auction, FIREKEEPER’S DAUGHTER became an instant NYT bestseller. And only two weeks after selling the manuscript did the OBAMAS approach her to buy TV/Film rights. You can now find the book in 22 different languages as well as look forward to seeing it on Netflix in the near future. 

What to Expect When You're Self-Publishing with Katie Carroll

Author Katie Carroll started in traditional publishing in 2012, but tried self publishing for the first time in 2017 and found it very empowering. She’s published YA, MG, PB, as well as non-fiction titles.

Katie provides 7 questions to ask yourself before self-publishing, here are a few of those:

Do I have the time and money to invest in self-publishing? Katie provides some cost breakdown links for an idea of what that might entail.

Is the ‘prestige’ of traditional publishing important to me? Consider what that means to you personally and whether you’re ready to give that up.

Am I considering self-publishing to get a traditional book deal? There are a lot of hybrid authors these days, but Katie recommends considering self-publishing as the end goal in and of itself, not as a vehicle for getting that title into traditional publishing.

Katie shares the steps of self-publishing and how they diverge from traditional publishing, namely all the production/marketing/distribution of a title that a publishing house would normally do for a creator after the final manuscript/art is done.

Even if self-publishing you are going to want to hire editors, and Katie talks about the various types of editing you’ll need: Developmental/big picture edits, line edits, copy edits and proofreading edits. Katie recommends asking other self-pubbed authors for their personal recommendations of the various editors they’ve used. You can also check a book’s acknowledgements and copyright pages. As always, be aware of scams.

Katie shares details of what to think about when hiring an illustrator or a cover artist, for example a picture book illustrator could be paid between $1,000 to $20,000 by a self-published author, and there will be contracts, print parameters, schedules, and payment schedules to be considered on top of budget. 

She shares a number of formatting considerations for print and e-book interiors and cover as well as a list of book distribution channels, retailers that will take on self-published titles, and libraries (which can buy direct from a self-pubbed creator but also acquire via other outlets like Baker & Taylor or Overdrive, among others).

Katie shares a list of book launch steps and marketing opportunities, at the top of which is the one thing a creator can control, their personal website. 

Can you make a living self-publishing? Katie shares the results of some surveys done in the last few years and roughly—a quarter of authors are making 0-$1,000 a year, a quarter are making over $100,000 and the rest are at a median yearly income of about $20,000. That last number is up about 50% from the last survey done for income done in 2021. 

Katie believes we’re in a second ‘golden age’ of self-publishing and part of that is due to great online resources for DIY (one of which is from Team Blog’s own Debbie Ridpath Ohi! As well as SCBWI’s Essential Guide).

SCBWI NY Conference Excitement: Piranha Pit (applications due today!)

What a wild couple of years it's been, SCBWI-ers! A huge round of applause for the incredible virtual events that have been held by regional and HQ SCBWI these last few years. 

While I'm so thankful we are starting to have opportunities to see our great community in person again at both local and international events, I'm equally as impressed that SCBWI is continuing to offer a virtual version of the 2023 Winter NY Conference for those of us with health, budget, time, location, and/or witness protection program anonymity constraints.

Check out Lee Wind's post for how the two opportunities overlap and differ. There's still time to register for either, click here for in-person or virtual!

If this is your first time at a conference, or if like me you've forgotten how to have conversations with your in-person face, check out Jolie Stekly's post for first-time attendees. 

Please also welcome Justin Campbell to Team Blog! And check out his great post on the wonderful, community building socials that in-person conferences like #scbwiNY23 provide.

A new Winter Conference element I think registered, published attendees should be really excited about: The Piranha Pit! Like Shark Tank but for book marketing plan moolah!

But you've go to get your hustles on! Deadline to apply is 5pm PST today, Today, TODAY! (The bulk of the work will happen at the conference if you are chosen, so you can do eet!). Here are the details:

• Submit your entry TODAY via email to scbwipiranhapit@scbwi.org. It may be in written form or on video for a traditionally or independently/self-published book that is a new or backlist title published within the last four years (2018 – March 31, 2023).
• Six contestants will be pre-selected by the SCBWI staff to present their plans live and have 8–10 minutes to pitch. Pitch should include telling us a little bit about yourself, the elevator pitch of your book, why you think your marketing plan will be effective, why you chose these tactics, and how you will measure success. Marketing plan pitches may use props, costumes, music, instruments, quadratic equations, theremins, small or large exotic animals*––whatever you think will help the piranhas understand your book and your plan.
• The pit winner will receive $1,000.00 and will be featured on our website, on SCBWI social media, and in Insight, our monthly member newsletter.

Good luck to everyone who enters! Just attending the pit session will provide all sorts of marketing ideas even if you don't win the cash prize, so be sure it's on your itinerary if you're interested in learning more about promoting your books.

And as a reminder, if you aren't able to attend, please join us HERE on the blog. We’ll be sharing posts and summaries of as many of the #scbwiNY23 conference events as we can. 

*SCBWI would like me to mention I'm just trying to be funny and please do not bring any exotic animals of any size, especially piranhas, to the Piranha Pit. 

Mining Memories As a Creative Tool with Baptiste Paul

Baptiste Paul is the award-winning author of The Field, To Carnival, I Am Farmer: Growing an Environmental Movement in Cameroon and Climb On. His works have garnered many starred reviews from Kirkus, Booklist, and School Library Journal, and several titles have been translated into multiple languages. He loves writing stories inspired by his childhood in Saint Lucia, and featuring words from his native language, Creole. Baptiste is also a mentor for We Need Diverse Books and the co-author of several works with Miranda Paul, including their newest collaboration, Peace. He lives in Wisconsin with his family. More at baptistepaul.net.

Baptiste mines his memories as a tool for every book he writes. 

Baptiste ask us all to write some of the sounds, the smell, the sight, the feelings that made our life interesting. He says, "Your goal is take your readers on a journey with you. If this is your goal then you have to wow your readers."

The best way to tap into your memories is use your senses (sight, sound, smell, taste, feel).

Baptiste shares the steps of his PROCESS:

SPARK

The first part of his process starts with a SPARK. Take that spark of an idea and ask: Who? What? Why? When? How? What comes to you from your own childhood memories when you ask those questions about a spark. For example: children playing outside. What comes up? What do you think of when you ask yourself those questions? 

REFLECTION

In this step, Baptiste encourages us to go deep here. To ask: Why do I want to tell this particular story? And then, in this step, make lists of all the sensory details. 

"When you are mining your memories, consider your words. Make sure they are colorful. Make sure they are ones that will take your reader on a journey."

CONNECTION

What is the universal element in your story? 

After you dig deep into memory, ask yourself: Is this universal? Is it an experience children can relate to? List the ways it's universal. And why!

WRITING EXERCISE

Baptiste asks us to close our eyes and think of our first day at school. 

Now list three examples of how you used your senses to experience that first day of school. 

    What do I see?

    What do I hear? 

    What do I feel?

    What do I smell? 

    What do I taste? 

And what a treat to listen to Baptiste, as he closes his eyes, to recall each of these for his own first day. 

Baptiste encourage everyone: Each time you go into a memory, go to a place that is quiet, and continue to ask yourself: Who, what, why when, where, and how. And then repeat the process over and over. 

Creating a Gripping Voice with Torrey Maldonado

Torrey Maldonado: CREATING A GRIPPING VOICE 

Torrey Maldonado was born and raised in Brooklyn, growing up in the Red Hook housing projects. He has been a teacher for New York City public schools for over 25 years, and his fast-paced, compelling stories are inspired by his and his students' experiences. His popular novels for young readers include What Lane?, which garnered many starred reviews and was cited by Oprah Daily and the New York Times for being an essential book to discuss racism and allyship; Tight, which won the Christopher Award, and an ALA Notable Book, and an NPR and Washington Post Best Book of the Year; and his very first novel, Secret which has been in print for over ten years. 

Torrey shares 3 Rs to help your writing be thrilling.

RIVETED

RIGHT-SIZED

RAW

"Our voice should be riveting, right-sized and raw." And Torrey adds one more: RELATABLE 

Torrey takes us back to his childhood, and his own dislike for school and books. "If stories don't love us, we won't love stories."

Torrey shares some of the questions he asks himself to be certain his voice is THRILLING. 

His mom told him: Sometimes the question has the answers.

He says, "Whenever I write something, it's like cooking. All cooks taste their stuff, or share their stuff." Torrey asks these questions to cook up great voices:

• Is this voice fun?
• How can this voice be funnier?
• Is this voice fast?
• Is this voice adrenaline pumping?
• How can it feel faster? 
• How can it feel more thrilling? 
• Will a reader skip a character? Will the reader skip this part?
• How can I tweak it so that readers won't skip, but turn to someone else and say, "Come here. You've got to read this. You've got to hear this."

But then Torrey shares with us some great questions inspired by a boy who attended one of his events:

• What's more thrilling than getting a secret or a treasure that no one else is getting? 
• Do I make my reader feel that way?

Torrey shares, "Uncertainty should be the certainty." He sees his job as the writer is making sure his protagonists wants and needs are not met. He asks how he can make the character suffer, but not for the whole story because the suffering has to be alleviated. 

"Write something that hasn't been seen before. Hasn't been heard before. Hasn't been experienced before."

"Take the known and make it feel new."

 

Paula Yoo: Keynote

Paula Yoo is a book author, screenwriter, and musician. From a Whisper to a Rallying Cry: The Killing of Vincent Chin and the Trial that Galvanized the Asian American Movement (Norton Young Readers) was nominated for the 2021 National Book Award Longlist: Young People’s Literature. Her book won the 2021 Boston Globe-Horn Book Award for Nonfiction and was selected as a 2021 Junior Library Guild Gold Standard and the 2021 Amazon Editors’ Pick for Best YA. It has received 5 starred reviews and national coverage in The New York Times, TIME, NPR, The Today Show, NBC News, and Good Morning America. From a Whisper to a Rallying Cry is also the National Education Association (NEA) “Read Across America” YA book selection for May 2022. Her other books include Good Enough (HarperCollins), Sixteen Years in Sixteen Seconds: The Sammy Lee Story, Shining Star: The Anna May Wong Story, and Twenty-two Cents: Muhammad Yunus and the Village Bank (Lee & Low Books). Her TV credits range from NBC’s The West Wing to The CW’s Supergirl, and she has sold TV pilots and feature scripts. She is also a former journalist (The Seattle Times, The Detroit News, and PEOPLE). When she’s not writing, Paula is a professional freelance violinist. Website: https://paulayoo.com

Paula Yoo, presenting at #scbwiWinter22

Paula tells us she never saw Asian American representation in school or books as a child. No AAPI history was taught, and that erasure had an impact: "I felt cheated. I had lost a valuable part of not just my childhood, but my identity."

The Asian stereotypes of martial arts, being whiz kids at math and science are harmful, diminishing individual achievements and de-humanizing people. And Paula explored those ideas in her debut YA novel, "Good Enough."

Researching NF for children and teens. "Go beyond Google," and newspaper articles. For From a Whisper to a Rallying Cry: The Killing of Vincent Chin and the Trial that Galvanized the Asian American Movement, Paula visited libraries, poured through court records, newspaper articles, letters, flyers for protests, and most importantly, conducted interviews. 

Through those interviews, she met Jared, the son of Vincent's fiancée (who had married someone else after Vincent was killed). Jared's discovering his family's secret became, as Paula put it, "the emotional spine" of her book.

The book has two threads - one the historical retelling of Vincent's murder, the Civil Rights trials, and the start of the Asian American rights movement, and the other Jared's perspective of discovering and uncovering his family's secret history - his Mom's connection to Vincent Chin.

Paula advises that it's really important to try to interview subjects, or people who knew them. When you interview in person, on zoom, or on the phone... you pick up tone, the light in their eyes, their emotions -- and it will infuse your work. For her book Sixteen Years in Sixteen Seconds: The Sammy Lee Story, interviewing Dr. Lee showed her his positive spirit which helped him cope with humor rather than anger.

And for her book Twenty-two Cents: Muhammad Yunus and the Village Bank, meeting Professor Yunus in person led to him opening up about his childhood, how his mother would share their food with homeless people, and how that inspired him to come up with his economic theory to fight poverty.

Setting becomes a character. Paula discusses how visiting the sites of her books gives her a visceral sensation to include in the writing.

Paula asks us to consider: What happens when we are erased? In the middle of this pandemic, research is showing that 1 out of 4 AAPI youth say they have experienced racist bullying. 

Today's pandemic has seen a parallel pandemic of anti-Asian stereotypes and violence, and Paula tells us of her own experience with racism today and how it motivates her. 

"Like history repeats itself, so does hope."

Just like coalitions formed back in the protests of Vincent Chin's killing and the injustice of the killers walking free, Paula cites the AAPI community joining with the Black Lives Matters movement. And today, New Jersey and Michigan are the first two states to mandate teaching Asian American history in K-12 schools.

#StopAsianHate

Finally, Paula puts out a call to our action in writing nonfiction books for kids and teens:

It is more important than ever that we make sure they know the whole truth. What happens in our past, influences our present, and what we do today influences the future - and who better to shape our future than our young readers?

Kelly Yang Keynote

Kelly Yang is the best selling author of the FRONT DESK series, and young adult novels PARACHUTES and PRIVATE LABEL. Watch for her upcoming middle grade, NEW FROM HERE, which will be out March 1, 2022. 

 

During the pandemic, Kelly was living in Hong Kong with her husband and kids. She found herself flying back to America with her three kids, while her husband had to remain in Hong Kong for work. She found herself facing life as a single parent during a pandemic, so she had to reinvent the way she wrote. She had to write in her laundry room and  in her car, hiding from her kids. She had to write in all sorts of chaotic situations. 

And so Kelly shared some tips on writing through distractions:

• Set a small goal.
• Focus on the things you can control.
• Do not edit as your go. Just write.
• Use the Notes app on your phone to jot down ideas, lines, etc. 
• Plan, plan, plan. 
• Fight for your time to write. 

Kelly also spoke about how to make a great middle grade protagonist:  

Kelly thinks a lot about creating a great protagonist for middle grade. For her, a great middle grade protagonist is someone you can relate to, someone you can follow who isn't annoying, someone who is admirable but isn't perfect. 

As writers we should all ask the question: Why does this character get to be the main character? 

And a great character takes action, and a great character grows. 

And to leave you with a wonderful note that Kelly shared: "We have the power to connect strangers, simply through the words on the page." 

Ben Clanton - InterPLAY: The FUNdamentals of Pairing Pictures and Words

Ben Clanton is the Eisner award-winning author and illustrator of books like the Narwhal and Jelly series and Rot: The Cutest in the World. He's also an editor for Little Bigfoot in Seattle.

Just going to share a tiny tiny bit from his presentation! Sorry!

Here are some questions to ask to see if your picture book will be wonderfully interactive:

Is it relatable?

Does it have some unique or interesting angle to it?
I remember meeting Ben a million years ago and he has ALWAYS loved and talked up Viviane Schwarz's There Are Cats in This Book. It remains an excellent example of interactivity in a standard paper book.

Strong central characters that come alive?
Ben says he can probably name more fictional characters than he can real people, and that he may have more fictional friends than real ones. Which he says may sound sad but trust him, he's happy with it that way!

Does it invite the reader to participate?

Does it have enough negative space/white space to let the reader's imagination have space to play?

Is there a subversive element?
Ben loves to use No, David! as a great example for this.