Breakout Session 4: How Tension and Conflict Drive Storytelling with Krista Marino

Krista Marino is a VP & Senior Executive Editor at Delacorte Press where she acquires and edits Young Adult and Middle Grade fiction. Among her list are bestselling series, like the Maze Runner; literary gems, like Kathleen Glasgow’s Girl in Pieces; genre-bending classics, like Rory Power’s Wilder Girls; trendsetters, like Karen M. McManus’s One of Us Is Lying; and masterful works of fantasy, like Amélie Wen Zhao’s Song of Silver, Flame like Night. Whether it’s an original voice, a unique world, or a compelling plot, she’s looking for stories you can’t stop thinking about.

How Tension and Conflict Drive Storytelling

The basics:

• Conflict is the engine of plot.
• Tension is the emotional strain that keeps readers hooked. 

How Conflict Drives Tension:

1. Conflict sets opposing forces in motion--it is "a problem with resistance"

2. Tension lives in the place between want and outcome--between a character and a character's desire and whether they'll achieve it

3. Conflict raises stakes, which amplifies tension

4. Unresolved conflict sustains suspense

So...

• conflict creates friction
• friction produces uncertainty
• uncertainty + stakes = tension

Tools for building tension:

• layer conflict (external and internal)
• use secrets and silence
• raises the stakes 
• mix fast-faced conflict with slow-burn emotional tension

Now, make it more tense:

1. withhold key information (peel back in layers)

2. Use time pressure

3. Layer internal and external conflict

4. Raise the stakes in every scene

5. Exploit secrets and lies

6. Shorten scenes in high moments (pacing)

7. Trap characters together

8. End chapters on uncertainty 

Krista takes this breakout group through all of these many aspects of conflict in tension in story, uses the books above, and more. Check out the greater depth of exploration and conversation in the replays.

If you are not registered and want to view this session to hear the full content, along with the rest of the conference, register at https://www.scbwi.org/events/virtual-summer-conference-2025. Replays of the conferences will be available until September 14th, 2025.

The Book Chooses You with Soman Chainani

Soman Chainani’s debut series, THE SCHOOL FOR GOOD & EVIL, has sold over 4.5 million copies, been translated into 35 languages across six continents, and has been adapted into a major motion picture from Netflix that debuted at #1 in over 80 countries. His book of retold fairytales, BEASTS & BEAUTY, also debuted on the New York Times Bestseller List and is slated to be a limited television series from Sony 3000. In 2026, Soman unveils a brand new universe with YOUNG WORLD, a global political thriller. 

In his career, Soman has visited more than 800 schools around the world, where he continues to share his secret with students of all ages: that reading is the path to a better life.

When Soman wrote The School for Good and Evil, he kept it under wraps, so when completed and on the shelf, it was as if the book was dropped by magic. But in these times of AI, and process being manufactured so quickly and easily, he realized it's important to show the process of how books come to be; an artisanal stamp of how it was created. Soman now tries to open the doors of writing, just like Willy Wonka did with the Chocoalate factory, so people can see behind the door. To see how the book is created. 

This has become his mantra. To pull back the curtain. Soman has a substack, Diary of a Novel, tracking the week by week making of his latest book. He also has a podcast called Plot Twist- revealing everything!

"This has become my entire ethos," he says. "I'm all about showing you how the thing came to be."

The book chooses you. 

This is how writing started for Soman. Out of college, he joined his father's business, but he was always found working on his book in the corner, and in fact, work realize he'd been working on his little fairy tale project all day long. That little fariy tale was The School for Good and Evil. 

Fast forward to when the book was finished and on submission, 16 of 17 editors said no. Just one said YES. A good reminder that it only takes one yes! 

Soman walks us through the next books that also chose him. He found that when books organically came out of him, that's when the good stuff happened.

 However, after his many books, he found himself pigeonholed in fairy tales, and that chance for an instant sale pushed him into writing books that were not choosing him. He chose to let go of a sure thing, and let his brain start working on something very different. He had an idea: What happens if teenagers interrupt a presidential election between two old zombies? That book is called Young World and it's coming out this May (cover reveal coming in September).

But after turning in pages of this new book, his agent was honest with him. The concept was great, but the writing was not that good. Soman couldn't write this book like he did the middle grade fairy tales. So he threw out everything and started over. This time he started in diary form. 

Soman leaves us with this great wisdom, perhaps giving us all a mantra to walk away with:  "The book chooses you every single time...the more you trust yourself and what your body and your voice is telling you to create, and you have the right people along the way who support you and don't push you towards money and easy answers, the more you'll get what's meant to be your career."

This talk! The reactions in the chat. The emojis flying up. If you're not signed up for the conference, it's not too late to registerer. 

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/virtual-summer-conference-2025. Replays of the

conferences will be available until September 14th, 2025.

Breakout Session: Creating Memorable Characters with Shamar Knight-Justice

Shamar's bio: Hi! I'm an author/illustrator based in Atlanta, Georgia. My artwork focuses on mixed media, and unique textures. I've illustrated Ari J.'s Kinky, Curly Crown, which was written by Ain Heath Drew, Big Tune: Rise of the Dancehall Prince written by Alliah Agostini, Repeat After Me written by Jazmyn Simon and Dule Hill, Ari J.'s Firefly Adventure written by Ain Heath Drew, Forever and Always written by Brittany Thurman, and Dante Plays His Blues written by Allen Wells. I work full time as the principal of Ethos Classical, and am entering year 15 in education. In my spare time, I hoard collage materials and take long walks with my wife, dog, and three year old. You can see more of my work on Instagram at @shamarknightjustice, or my website www.shamarknightjustice.com.

Shamar's intro slide:

We start with character study: 

Essential Questions:

1) Who and what does this character represent?

2) How is that reinforced by the artist's character design?

3) What does this character say about the artist as a person? What do they value?

Shamar walks us through some examples of characters in picture books--and what makes them memorable, including Peter from A Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, and Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? and Big by Vashti Harrison.

Then Shamar walks us through the process of his developing the character Shane from Big Tune, written by Alliah Agostini. We get to see reference photos, notes, the original manuscript with art notes, research materials, and early sketches of both setting and character.

Shamar explains that he appreciates art notes and actually likes to talk to the author before starting the illustration process! (Note: this is pretty unusual for traditional publishing. Often publishers and editors don't want authors talking to illustrators, because, as it has been explained to me, they want the illustrators to be working in service of the story, not in service to the author.)

There was much more, as well as an engaging Q&A session.

Super interesting data point: One of the questions asked about how amazingly productive Shamar is, with the illustration work and a full-time job as an educator, and Shamar told us that it takes him about 300 hours to illustrate each picture book!

Even as an author (and not an illustrator), this session gave me lots to think about regarding my picture book manuscripts and characters!

Make Your Story Take Flight with Torrey Maldonado

Torrey Maldonado is the author of popular books for young readers, including WHAT LANE?. His newest book, HANDS is a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection, won a starred School Library Journal review and is a “Best New Book of 2023”. Learn more at torreymaldonado.com.

This session is packed with good gems of advice from Torrey. Here are a few:

Torrey's mom always told him, he belonged. She could see he had imposter syndrome. For his mom, she had road blocks, so she was sure to  tell Torrey that he belonged. Torrey hopes you carry that with you, that any space you are in, you belong. 

As writers, many of us get anxious to speak or share. Torrey's tip is: Don't fight the energy, invite the energy. He even uses the energy of music to invite his words to take flight. 

And here we can see Torrey bring the energy as he talks about some writing advice he got watching Daredevil. 

Practice the power of the pause, so you can see how engaged your audience is. 

Torrey shares that when we write with musicality, not only do we create universality, but the readers will remember it better. 

Some tools Torrey used when crafting his books:

• Mya Angelou's words: "People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel." These are words Torrey takes with him when he writes and reads his work to others. 
• A tip he received from the producer of one of his audio books. He suggested to think of each character as a feeling. To put each feeling into each character. What's the one feeling you want to get from each? Torrey says this will help you hit your readers "heart keys."
• A set of questions Torrey asks every time he writes or recites: 
• Am I delivering the emotion that I want the reader to feel? 
• Is what I'm writing or reciting fast? How could it feel faster? 
• Will a reader want to skip this part? 
• What about this part will readers want to read (to hear more of)?

.

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. 

Writing Queer and Trans Identity with Lexie Bean

Lexie Bean (they/he) is a queer and trans multimedia artist from the Midwest whose work revolves around themes of bodies, homes, cyclical violence, and LGBTQIA+ identity. They are a Jerome Hill Artist Fellow, member of the RAINN National Leadership Council with 10+ years of facilitation experience, and a Lambda Literary Award Finalist for Written on the Body for their work with fellow trans survivors of domestic violence and sexual abuse. Their debut novel The Ship We Built is noted as the first middle grade book at a major American publisher centering a trans boy to be written by one. Their work has been featured in Teen Vogue, the New York Times, The Feminist Wire, Ms. Magazine, Them, Logo’s New Now Next, Bust Magazine, and more. www.lexiebean.com

Lexi's debut MG novel, "The Ship We Built"

Lexie's breakout session is called "Writing Queer and Trans Identity: Going Beyond the Binary of Victims and Perfect Heroes."

Lexie Bean (top) presenting, also shown is Lucy, the session's ASL interpreter.

Lexie opens with a question, what does each of us consider child appropriate?

Lexie explains it's a question they get a lot - their novel has a ten year old Trans protagonist. The story includes child sexual abuse. It's also set in the 90s... Their book has been banned, and that, as well as the rash of anti-Trans legislation happening in the US, as well as the media and our publishing industry's portrayals of Trans people, all feed into their presentation.

He asks us to consider the first examples of Queer and Trans storytelling we encountered in our lives. For them, Lexie remembers the show "Cops" in the 1990s was their introduction to Trans women - “someone blurred out and arrested.” They didn't know Trans boys existed until college. Their first exposure to gay people was on the news, news about AIDS and the fights for Gay marriage. Those exposures influence storytelling, and memory...

Something that makes Queer and Trans literature for youth, for those of us who create that literature, is that so many of us are raising ourselves in different ways now.

Lexie's book, "The Ship We Built," was the first middle grade novel about a Trans boy to be written by a Trans author from a major publisher - and Lexie speaks to the meaning of that.

On the false binary of the Victim vs. the Perfect Hero:

If you're going to tell a Queer or Trans story from a first person perspective in YA, there's the idea that there needs to be trauma, trauma, trauma... “Sometimes trauma is put forward as a strange attempt to humanize us.”

On the other end, especially for young readers (MG and picture books) everything needs to be perfect at the end, and the Trans child is the one who saves everyone. “That can be dehumanizing, too.”

The lack of nuance is often so far from people's lived experiences, it makes it hard to connect. Like “we can only speak to our experiences if they've been resolved already.” A lot can be lost in that strive for 'perfection'.

“Falling in either road can be dehumanizing. This is a call asking for something in-between.”

As to the books for kids that already are out there, there are lots of stories about Trans girls, though they are often written by cis people and the 'happy' resolutions convey that the Trans experience needs to be understood and fall within the binary. “Not everything about being Trans is visible.”

There are not many stories about Trans boys.

There's a difference between “Trans people are here to save us all” vs. empowerment. There's a lot going on for Trans kids - “Where are the adults who are helping them? We need to see examples of this. And kids not always knowing how to save others and themselves. It can be a great service to our community to know it's not always on us.”

On ideas of marketability and the role of the publishing industry:

Lexie speaks to the pressure put on them to either take the childhood sexual abuse out of their novel completely or to heighten it so it would fit better into the victim/hero binary.

The specificity of having their book include both actually meant they were not narrowing their audience, but expanding it by including people who have other ways to enter the text. “It is not limiting.”

“Children are really freakin' smart, but they also have feelings deep enough to want to die. They have experiences that need to be reflected.” Lexie's answer to the opening question, as a trans survivor of childhood sexual abuse themself, is:

“As long a child is experiencing something, it is child appropriate.” 

Letting children know can help them by leading to resources that can point them to hope, and letting them know they're not alone.

There's lots more shared, on Lexie's experience of having their book banned for multiple reasons, the pressure they felt about the ending to their book, and advice for authors to follow our instincts – and know what parts of our story we want to protect as we go on our publishing journey. Lexie reads their author's note from "The Ship We Built" and finishes the session with a Q&A.

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."

 

Keynote: Stephanie Garber

Stephanie Garber is the #1 New York Times and Sunday Times bestselling author of THE CARAVAL SERIES, which has been translated in over 25 languages. Her newest book, ONCE UPON A BROKEN HEART, came out late last year and is the start of a brand new series.

Before being agented or published (and at the time also unemployed) Stephanie tells us the story about being on a date and getting asked what she wanted to do with her life. When she replied that she hoped to be on the NYT best seller list one day... The date went sideways. She felt so ashamed, embarrassed, and rejected that she stopped sharing her dream out loud. And when Stephanie learned about SCBWI, these same feelings kept her reluctant to join and fearing the worst until she attended her first conference which Stephanie described as life changing.

Some of those life-changing keynotes from SCBWI conferences were given by Lin Oliver, Richard Peck, and Mac Barnett. And from those inspiring keynotes Stephanie started to gain confidence again in having her big, NYT list dream. Though Stephanie had a full-time job at a college, the writing she was doing in her spare time as her passion project turned out to be a much better match than that original jerky date and she found herself falling in love with writing stories. For her, pursuing publication was the only way she could see being able to afford to write full time.

Stephanie is a big fan of big goals and dreams and says, "Goals and dreams don't need to be explained or justified, but they should be big and out of reach. Big, impossible dreams make for big goals and big writing... Have a dream so big that it makes other people laugh, those are the dreams that bring stories to life."

Stephanie found that burying her big NYT dream made her writing suffer and made her feel like she wasn't herself. When she tried to make her dreams "more practical" she found she stopped having fun and was writing from a place of fear. Great, big-goal writing needs three things. Here are the first two:

1."You have to banish fear," says Stephanie, "Fear shrinks your brain and makes you less creative, even if we don't know the science behind that we know we can feel that. Look for the fears you may not know you have but that may be holding you back, discover your fears so you can banish them." 

2. Write with your superpower, but do you know what that power is and are you currently using it? Stephanie was compared to Anne Shirley a lot as a kid, she was very dramatic—crying wasn't just crying, it was wailing in the depths of despair. But there's more to Anne than emoting, it's how she sees the whole world through a lens of romance and drama. Stephanie loves that lens, too, and writes romance, drama and settings that feel beautifully alive. Your superpower might not be something you love about yourself, at first, but try fully embracing it and see how that changes your writing.

Stephanie says 50% of writing and publishing is simply failing, so accept that and then ask yourself: 

If you knew whatever you wrote would succeed, what would you write? What kind of story would you want to tell?

#SCBWIdigital Workshop: Linda Sue Park presents "Using Scene To Build Story"

This is the 7th #SCBWIdigital workshop, free to SCBWI members in this time of global health crisis.

Linda Sue Park is a master writer and teacher of writing. She is the author of many books for young readers, including the 2002 Newbery Medal winner A Single Shard and the New York Times bestseller A Long Walk to Water. Her most recent title is Prairie Lotus, a historical fiction middle-grade novel.

Today, for the SCBWI community, Linda Sue is sharing "Using Scene To Build Story." She cautions us that this is how she writes fiction, and that it's not the only way to do it. "Writing is so personal," meaning that everyone's process is different. She hopes we might gain a tip or two, add our own spin, and eventually we'll develop our own process for writing a story - different from Linda Sue's process, and different from everyone else's process, too.

Linda Sue shares her definition of story, in a graphic:

Linda Sue Park (bottom right), the slide showing her definition of story, and ASL interpreter Jennye Kamin (top right)

"Before I start, I need to know" what the character WANTS (external quest), what the character NEEDS (internal quest), and the setting.

"Most of the time, the character doesn't know what they need" at the beginning of the story.

Linda Sue shows us how she applied this story definition to her latest book, Prairie Lotus, also in a graphic:

Hannah WANTS to graduate from high school and work as a dressmaker in her father's shop. Hannah NEEDS to learn to stand up for herself against bias, racism, and sexism. The setting is 1880 Oceti Sakowin homeland (what is now South Dakota).

Linda Sue speaks of how she thinks in scenes, not chapters. In fact, she explains that it's a few drafts in before she figures out the chapter breaks.

She suggests we do this exercise:

What’s your character’s external plot (what they WANT), their internal plot (what they NEED), and the setting?

There's a great demonstration of how, when you compare a book to a movie, a half-page of text is about 15 seconds of film... Linda Sue illustrates this (simply and dramatically) and has us consider, if we've spent half a page to describe something, or to have our character's internal dialog, that's like 15 seconds of a movie not moving forward! Seriously, count out 15 seconds... that's a long time for a reader to get distracted.

Using her novel, A Single Shard, she demonstrates how a single sentence should be able to encapsulate what a scene is about.

Linda Sue advises us,

With every scene, your character is going to make progress or face impediment to one of their quests (external or internal).

She keeps this in mind as she writes, looking at her character's internal and external quests, and asking herself "is this scene progress or impediment?"

There's so much more, with discussions and examples from Linda Sue's Project Mulberry, and Keeping Score, her distinction between middle grade and YA, and her technique for developing depth in a story - in every scene - along with an exercise to get more depth in our own writing.

And an explanation of how the story's ending should have "unexpected inevitability."

Linda Sue Park (at bottom, in pink) - ASL interpreter Jennye Kamin (at top)

It really is a master class, with so much to learn and apply!

Thank you, Linda Sue.

Stay safe, all.
Lee

#SCBWIdigital workshop: Henry Winkler and Lin Oliver "How We Write Children's Books and Why"

New York Times bestselling authors Henry Winkler and SCBWI's own Lin Oliver have published 35 books together! Today, they shared the key ingredients of writing humor for kids and gave us insight into their collaborative process and what motivates them to reach out to children.

Both Henry and Lin shared their backgrounds, and how they met over a fateful lunch... leading to 18 novels in their Hank Zipzer middle grade series, and then a series of chapter books (also the stories of Hank, for a younger age, where Frank hasn't yet been diagnosed with dyslexia), published in a typeface that helps kids with reading issues decode the page.

They discussed their collaborative process and its connection to both of their backgrounds in television.

Henry holds up a copy of his and Lin's latest book, Alien Superstar

And we got tips!

Some highlights of Henry and Lin's tips for writing humor:

"Make yourself laugh." Write what you think is funny - not what you think kids will find funny. As Henry puts it, "When we write from our center, it connects with someone else."

And there are so many kinds of humor: Observational humor, character humor, wordplay, slapstick, jokes...

Another tip on humor:

"Don't be general. comedy comes from specific details."

They then shared examples of funny details from their books. Like the mole shaped like the statue of liberty (without the torch) on the face of Hank's school principal.

Or, as Lin put it for another example, "It's the coconut soap that makes it really funny."

They shared tips on Dialog, Book Series, Creating Plot, and Creating Heart and Warmth. Henry did some acting exercises to illustrate their points, and Lin shared some writing exercises she uses as well. Henry gave a brief reading to show what it means to write with heart – such a sweet moment. There was also a Q&A, touching on critiques, how to best handle a lesson you want your story to convey, and so much more!

Final tip to share here:

Writing a Book Series: Rule #7: Series readers want to be part of a recurring group of friends. Develop each member of your cast and characters fully.

It was an informative, inspiring, funny(!), and heartfelt session.

Thank you, Henry and Lin.

Stay safe, all.
Lee

p.s. - Did you miss it? The video is available for 30 days to SCBWI members here.

#SCBWIdigital Launches with Kate Messner's "Big Picture Revision for Middle Grade and Young Adult Novels"

As a member benefit during this global health crisis, SCBWI has organized a series of eight free workshops - today, April 2, 2020, was the first, and it was taught by Kate Messner.

A screen shot of Kate Messner beginning her #SCBWIdigital workshop from her home.

Kate is a former TV news reporter and middle school English teacher, and her award-winning books span genres and categories. Kate is

“passionately curious and writes books that encourage kids to wonder, too.” 

Her titles include award-winning picture books like Over and Under the Pond, Up in the Garden and Down in the Dirt, The Brilliant Deep, and How to Read a Story; novels that tackle real-world issues like Breakout, All the Answers, and The Seventh Wish; mysteries and thrillers like Capture the Flag, Eye of the Storm, and Wake Up Missing; the Fergus and Zeke easy reader series; and the popular Ranger in Time chapter book series about a time-traveling search and rescue dog.

Who attended? As Lin Oliver shared in her introduction, just on today's digital workshop “We are 3,000 people strong.” And she encourages all of us to know that we're part of this wonderful community.

Kate starts out by sharing that, in this extraordinary time,

“Expecting normal productivity in a period that isn't normal just isn't going to work out. Be kind to yourself.”

Her first 3-minute exercise is for each of us to write two sentences about our current work-in-progress:

The first is to answer "My book is about ___________________."

This is the cover copy.

The second is to answer "But underneath that, it's really about ________________."

This is the heart of the story.


As an example, Kate shares that for her book The Seventh Wish, her first answer is:

"My book is about an Irish dancer who catches a wish-granting fish."

Her second answer is:

"But underneath that, it's really about accepting the things we can't change instead of holding on to wishes."

A screen shot of one of Kate's very helpful slides.

The next exercise was about finding your character's knot, the thing that makes them tick. Example: For Harry Potter, his knot was "what happened with his parents," and his being "desperate for their love."

Kate advised us to consider not just our protagonist's knot, but our antagonist's knot as well. It's what drives their actions and motivations, too.

There are more revision exercises, covering point of view and narrative distance, and with the use of multiple examples, we're urged to have the structure we choose serve our story.

Kate also answers attendee questions, including 'How do you know when your manuscript is ready to submit?," and offers ideas for getting back into a manuscript that you've put aside.

There's so much more, including multiple ways to use (and select) mentor texts, and Kate's favorite revision tool, "The Big Picture Story Chart."

It's a session packed (PACKED!) with great information, exercises, and tips to get us revising our middle grade and young adult manuscripts.

Thank you, Kate!

Stay safe, all.
Lee

Ann Whitford Paul: Picture Book Openings That Grab...

... With fewer than 50 words

Writing Picture Books
by Ann Whitford Paul

Ann Whitford Paul is the author of the seminal picture book craft text, Writing Picture Books: A Hands-On Guide from Story Publication to Creation. She's also written more than 20 books of her own, including If Animals Kissed Goodnight.

Her session was standing room only. A mosh pit. A festival. A mud-free Woodstock—or wordstock, depending on your tolerance for puns. We ran out of handouts: That's how eager people were to learn at the feet of Ann, who is an absolute legend as a teacher, and a master at the craft as a writer.

Picture book openings should make readers feel as if anything is possible. Readers need to smell possibility.

"Editors and agents can tell from the opening whether they want to read on."

The length of picture books is something authors need to pay close attention to, as well as the age of the reader. For very young readers, 300 words is a threshold. Older PB readers can handle 500 words.

Here's what the structure looks like:

Ann Whitford Paul

• The opening of a PB is the first act of a three-act structure. 
• The bulk of the work is the second act in the middle. 
• You reach a climax at about two-thirds through—a terrible point where the character fears they won't solve their problem.
• You quickly get out in the third act. 

Plunge in. Your opening shouldn't be more than 1/5th of your word count. 

Writers can do an opening in 50 words, but if the book is short, the opening needs to be even tighter. 

She talked about the many things the opening of a book has to address: 

• Who
• What 
• When
• Where
• What tone
• Wow

Here are a few examples she used to show us how it works in real books.

"Farmer Brown has a problem." 

This is the opening line of Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type by Doreen Cronin and Betsy Lewin.

In five words, Cronin gives who it's about, where it's set, and what is amiss (also what the character wants). 

"I'm so excited I run all the way home from school."

 This is the opening line of Big Red Lollipop by Rukshana Khan.

We want to see why this character is excited. 

"Will you miss me?" Abe asked. 

This is from I'll See You When the Moon Is Full by Susi Gregg Fowler. It's a powerful six words.

The opening functions just like an invitation to an event. It has specifics. It's enticing, she said: "You are inviting someone to come along this journey in your book."

Follow Ann Whitford Paul on Twitter

Linda Sue Park: The Voice Equation: Voice in Writing = X + Y

Linda Sue Park has spent her whole life hunting for tools and tactics to trick herself into writing and revising stories--a quest that has resulted in more than two dozen books, including the 2002 Newbery Medal winner, A SINGLE SHARD.

What is voice? We are always told: I'm looking for a good voice.

But what does that mean?

Linda Sue shares her answer:

voice = word choice + rhythm

word choice = vocabulary

rhythm = sentence length + punctuation 

These are our tools as writers.

"When I go to writer's conferences I don't hear writers talking about punctuation. Why the hell not?"



When Linda Sue worked on the collaborative book FATAL THRONE, the seven authors hit a unique problem with voice. Six authors were writing the different wives of Henry the VIII (who was written by M.T. Anderson). After turning a draft into their editor, they were told they had a problem. All the wives sounded the same. They had to tackle unique voice for each individual queen.

To make her changes, Linda Sue considered character and then took exactly what she'd written and look specifically at: vocabulary and
sentence length, which is connected to punctuation. Her editor thoughts she'd completely rewritten her chapter, though she'd only focused on her voice equation.

When it comes to STORY voice, embody it as if a character. You might imagine who is reading the audio voice as a tool. "In third person, who is telling this story?" Picture or embody this character in your head.

Photoshop Tips for Illustrators: Debbie Ridpath Ohi

Oh, boy!—what an abundance of information Debbie Ridpath Ohi offered to illustrators. Debbie is a social media guru, but she's also a successful illustrator and an SCBWI success story. She won the portfolio showcase at the 2010 SCBWI LA Conference, and has gone on to illustrate several books, including Sam & Eva and Where Are My Books? (Simon & Schuster), more.

Fortunately, most of what Debbie offered in her workshop is also available on her website, including BONUS MATERIALS!

Elana K. Arnold: On Tension

Elana K. Arnold is the award-winning writer of books for kids and teens, including National Book Award finalist What Girls Are Made Of.

It's our job as writers to create tension and release it. It's the spinal cord of the book. It gives the book energy and movement. 

On the other side of tension is comfort, which comes from the relief. 

"Let me hurt you, so later I can heal you." That's what we do as writers. "A writers job is to take away comfort to create tension." 

Any time we create imbalance, that causes tension.

How?

• change the frame
• zoom in
• zoom out
• Speed thing up, slow things down, suspend time
• Hyper-focus on details
• Let details wash over the reader and run together
• Focus on something mundane and wrong for the situation
• Add a ticking clock
• Give someone a secret
• Dialogue 
• Lie
• Present a paradox
• Use cycles to your advantage

Our job as writers is to:

• push the reader
• unbalance the reader
• give the reader the pleasure of being uncomfortable

Stephanie Garber: Five Tips on How to Write a Five Star Ending

Stephanie Garber, author of CARAVAL, garnered wild, breakout success for her YA fantasy which has been on the NYT bestseller list. She's also a creative writing teacher who knows a thing or two about spicy endings. She knows at least five things, actually, but the blog will only share one exercise.

First, Stephanie has us think about the sorts of books we love to read, and FINISH reading. She says you'll read a book with a slow beginning as long as the rest of it picks up, but you'll ask for your money back for a book with a bad ending. Or if not bad, a mediocre or forgettable ending you may not bother to finish, which is just as upsetting. A bad ending in this instance means it's got plot holes, or unanswered questions, or a nonsensical resolution or is overly tragic or is a combination of all of the above.

Stephanie is a 'discovery' writer vs. being a 'plotter,' and she struggles with the adage that a good writer knows their story's ending before they start writing the beginning... Her compromise, which may work for you, is that you may not know exactly WHAT will happen in your ending, but at least know what TYPE of ending you want so you can steer yourself in that correct tone and direction.

Stephanie maps out six types of endings (we'll share 3) that we should work towards to keep our books from being returned to Barnes & Noble:

1. The Happy Disney Ending, this can be happily ever after or happy for now. A happy ending had better be earned by the character to be believable and satisfying, Stephanie says.

2. The Tragic Ending. This is typically a sequel's ending in a trilogy, think of Star Wars's The Empire Strikes Back. The hero gets what they want, but something important has been lost, like a Han(d). The villain may triumph or get away.

3. The Series ending. This is often a book's ending if it is in the middle of a series, it's a cliffhanger ending. Stephanie admonishes that you'll want to write your book's ending as potentially standalone if this is a first submission for you. The initial ending will need to satisfy, if the editor agrees it would be great to turn it into a series, you can adjust the ending to return to being a cliffhanger. This is something Stephanie did for CARAVAL.

One of Stephanie's five exercises for better endings is:

With your existing manuscript or story idea, pick an ending type, first, but then examine within your ending what has changed, the character? The world? The past? Someone's/the world's outlook/thoughts?

SOMETHING MUST CHANGE for a five-star ending, you can justify a characters actions, but that will never be as satisfying as watching a character actually change. Stephanie brings up her one beef with the latest Pride & Prejudice reboot. Darcy is a very proud man whose haughtiness and manners soften as he gets to know Elizabeth Bennet. In the latest reboot, though, there's an added line where Lizzie explains away his earlier behavior by saying Darcy was acting that way because he was just 'shy,' which to Stephanie is a total cop out and a disservice to Darcy's character.

Stephanie asks us to think about how much fun we have noticing the changes to the characters and the world at the end of BACK TO THE FUTURE. Though Marty's character stays the same, everyone/thing else is a bit different.

Raúl Colón's Workshop on The Dream of Visual Storytelling: Tools and Procedures

Raúl Colón was born in New York City, studied art in Puerto Rico, and is the award-winning illustrator of over thirty books for children. Raúl has received a Golden Kite Award, a Pura Belpré Award, and both a gold and silver medal in the Original Art show. Some of his most beloved titles include Draw!, Gabito, Baseball Is, God Bless Our Troops, and Sugar Cane: A Carribbean Rapunzel.

Sharing art from his portfolio and tool box, Raúl talks color and line, technique, undertone, visual feel, layering translucent layers of watercolor and adding color pencil on top. Some highlights:

It's not really about inspiration. "a lot of times you just do the work and it comes out."

He speaks highly of "Making Color Sing" by Jeane Dobie

Shows us a tool he uses to make his scratch lines

And passes around a finished piece that we could see close-up...

The illustrators in the room are rapt!

Andrea Davis Pinkney: Beginning Chapters

Andrea Davis Pinkney is an award-winning, NYT bestselling author and editor-at-large for Scholastic. In short, an all-around genius.

She started by telling us how she begins her day. At 4 AM. (At which point everyone realized they are not going to become Andrea Davis Pinkney because regular humans are not made of steel.)

As this wee hour, Andrea puts her iPhone on her knee and sets a timer. Then she closes her eyes and thinks of happy things. It's a way for her to get her feet on the floor. Then she picks up a notebook--she showed us hers. Slim and elegant, just like Andrea. Every one of her books begins in a notebook like those.

After that, she hastens to the swimming pool and does her workout. She returns home, writes a bit more, and goes to her day job at Scholastic.

"Writers write daily. Every day." On their birthdays. When they don't feel like writing. When their houses are messy. When the children aren't feeling well. "Writers write every day under all circumstances and conditions."

Whatever you want to do, you have to be actively engaged in the pursuit of doing it. It doesn't mean everything is publishable.

First chapters are the hardest ones, and she talked to us about this from the perspective of a writer and editor.

Andrea is a theater buff. She sees everything she can. She loves the moment before the curtain rises. It's a moment of great anticipation, a moment before potential greatness.

"I have to lift that curtain and dazzle instantly."

There's something she likes to call the Chapter 1 Pact. Or the Page 1 Pact. The promises is that the writer reaches out a hand, invites a reader on a journey, and pulls the reader along. A book called The Crystal Ribbon by Celeste Lim is a recent title that does this beautifully.

Andrea urged us to kill "the committee"—those voices in your head that say can't, won't, and other things that get in the way. You can't get to Chapter 1 if you're engaged with negativity. (Or, if you're a pacifist, kiss the committee goodbye.)

She also takes care to turn off her editor switch when she's writing. "Do not edit yourself. It's like doing dental work on yourself, or being your own psychotherapist."

Another piece of advice: "Bring your twinkle." What you bring to the party. The unique thing everyone has. The gift God gave you. "You can't bring your twinkle if you bring the committee with you."

Chapter 1 has to have this twinkle too. You don't have a lot of time, and there are a lot of elements to pack in, including:

• voice 
• emotion
• texture/color
• psychic condition

SaveSaveSaveSave

Sara Pennypacker: Making Your Work Memorable

Sara Pennypacker is the author of seventeen children's books, including the New York Times bestselling Clementine series, Summer of the Gypsy Moths, Pierre in Love, Sparrow Girl, and The Amazing World of Stuart, and most recently Pax.

Kids can read an extraordinary number of books, but you want yours to be the one they share with friends, and the one they go back and buy again when they are adults.

Pay attention to what you connect to in books. For Sara, it is children and people in need. People often place a book with some significant event in their own life (something we have no control over). But this speaks to the idea of connection.

"A books connects a reader to the rest of his tribe through time and space."

A reader is connecting because he or she is going through something.

As writers we want to expand the emotion so readers connect in the way they've experienced that emotion.

This is easier to do with realistic fiction, but this is still important in fantasy. Find something universal.

What makes a book memorable:

Character: Start with a name. Create multi-dimensional character, but those characters must be paired with the right plot.

Omission: Leave room for the reader. When the brain sees a pattern, it shuts off. Add something a bit irregular.

Voice: A great voice grab you by the throat.

Show, Don't tell: This happens in scenes, and scenes must be vivid. Discomfort is extremely powerful (fear, anger, danger, embarrassment, physical pain). 

Honest Emotion: If you don't have honest emotion about that "thing" then find something else to write about. 

Elizabeth Bicknell: Writing Picture Book Text

Elizabeth Bicknell is Executive Vice President, Executive Editorial Director & Associate Publisher at Candlewick Press. She edits picture books, fiction, poetry and nonfiction. Two recent picture book projects include Mac Barnett and John Klassen's Sam and Dave Dig a Hole

and Carole Boston Weatherford and Ekua Holmes' Voice of Freedom

Liz spoke about the different kinds of picture books, using examples of 12 books she's published to, well, illustrate her points. Story picture books, concept books, biography, poetry collections...

It's fascinating that she's able to break those twelve down into six that had an author/illustrator create them, and six books that had different authors and illustrators. (Additionally, eight of the eighteen people were not agented at the time she acquired their work.)

She tells us that she's "a sucker for dog stories," and jokes that now that she's said that, "everyone feverishly changes their main characters to dogs."

Some quotes:

"I am very fond of poetry."

"I like books that are a little bit wicked."

"There are no rules you can never break."

Liz tells us more about what she's looking for, breaks down the reasons she really doesn't like rhyme, and talks about those critical first (and last) lines.

There's lots more good stuff, some handouts, and so much wisdom. Here's one last bit of wisdom:

"If the ending isn't working, really the whole thing isn't working."

Rainbow Rowell and Martha Brockenbrough: Creating Teen Characters

I'm so excited about this session! Rainbow Rowell is the New York Times bestselling author of the Young Adult novels Eleanor & Park and Fangirl and Carry On. She's even received a Printz Honor for Eleanor & Park!*

Martha Brockenbrough is our very own team blogger, author of the YA novels The Game of Love and Death and Devine Intervention.**

They're talking about Creating Teen Characters, and you'd think it would feel like this:

But it really felt like this:

Rainbow and Martha had great, in-depth discussion and we were right there. They spoke about the shift that happens for writing a teen's perspective, and the shift that happens for a teen reader (versus an adult.) Rainbow said,

"I don't think about audience... I can get stalled."

They both worked as journalists, and Rainbow spoke of the good training that was (like how it was great for dialog and made her not so precious about her writing) and the challenges that same background created (her voice got "slammed out.") Rainbow joked about her contemporary realistic novels,

"What I'm doing is journalism, but lying."

Martha played the song "Hast Thou Considered The Tetrapod" by The Mountain Goats so we could all hear a bit of it. Rainbow then told us about how the song (and the whole album) inspired her novel Eleanor & Park, and "how it unlocked me." They spoke about different tools they use to get into the writing. Martha used period photos for The Game of Love and Death. Rainbow uses music as a "shortcut to get back to the emotion of that scene," describing a particular scene from Eleanor & Park and how it had a specific song.

They spoke about diversity of characters, aspirational characters versus real characters, and Rainbow's breakthrough in writing fantasy. It was a great story, about research and tropes (and playing with tropes) and how Rainbow ultimately realized that for fantasy, "I've read enough to find my own voice in it."

There was so much more, and Rainbow also answered questions from the rapt audience.

Two final bits of wisdom:

Speaking about today's teens versus the teens of the 1980s, Martha Brockenbrough said,

"We've been this age, we know what we need to know." 

Telling us of a particular character she found challenging to write, (Agatha in Carry On), Rainbow said,

"As an author, you need to find your way in."

And then she explained how she found her way into Agatha... So fascinating!

Useful. Inspiring. Very special.

What a breakout session!




*Check out all of Rainbow's titles here.

**Check out all of Martha's titles here.