The SCBWI 2021 Winter Conference Manuscript Gallery Offers Writers An Opportunity To Be Discovered!

 

Illustrators have the Portfolio Showcase, putting their illustrations in front of the top publishing professionals working today. And the winners of that portfolio showcase have gone on to have significant careers as illustrators!

Now, on a scale the SCBWI hasn't done before, there's a parallel opportunity for writers:

Registered Winter 2021 conference attendees who are SCBWI members can post up to 500 words of ONE children’s book manuscript, PB text, PB dummy or manuscript synopsis to our online manuscript gallery. Over a hundred editors and agents will be invited to peruse the gallery starting on February 19, 2021. These agents and editors will then reach out to authors whose work is a good fit for their lists. This is a fantastic opportunity to get your work in front of industry professionals!

The deadline to submit your manuscript is February 12, 2021. Find out all the details here.

The full conference information is here - it's going to amazing!

Illustrate and Write On,
Lee

Erin Entrada Kelly: Writing the Contemporary Novel

Erin Entrada Kelly is not only an award-winning writer, she loves the word "peculiar," favors the color red slightly more than yellow, and has a dog name Marlowe the Gentleman Mutt.  Her novel Hello, Universe received the 2018 Newbery Medal.

In contemporary novels Erin believes character is key, and those characters need to solve their own problems.

Erin urges writers not to be didactic. No one wants to be lecture to, no matter how old.

Writers should see the world through their character's eyes and not their own. Kids today are seeing the world through a different lens than you did.

A common pitfall: Not having enough conflict. You have to make things as difficult as possible for your characters.

Erin likes to know what her characters greatest fears are, usually 3 to 5. When you know what you character is afraid of, you often figure out what they want.

Pacing can also be problematic for writers. Erin says something needs to be happening, every sentences, every scene, from the beginning.

Raul Colon: Picture Book Panel

Raul Colón was born in New York City, went to school for art in Puerto Rico, has illustrated over 30 children's books as well as done public art for New York and his work has appeared in numerous illustrious editorial publications.

Laurent Linn calls him a LEGEND, and if you know his work, you know you can spot his pieces out of any crowd. Laurent had the pleasure of art directing DRAW! (among other luminous titles) for Raul.

Raul jokingly says the original text for the DRAW! dummy was so good, that his editor Paula Wiseman said to cut it. Truly, the images stand alone without text, so they did decide to turn it into a wordless picture book. Raul says many teachers and librarians use the book as a creative writing exercise, asking students to write stories to accompany the images (and Raul thinks sometimes those are even better than what he had written!)

Laurent asks what a typical day is like:

"I get up early in the morning, have to have coffee, toast, take my time, hear NPR for a little bit (which hasn't been good news for the last six months...) and then I go to my studio, which has papers and books everywhere...

I sit there at my desk and the way I approach the book, after I've read the manuscript, I have to come up with the sketches. When I see a manuscript and I say yes to it, before that, during the first reading, I've got to have visions for the book come to me as I start reading, otherwise I can't say yes to it.

Then I turn on some music. Could be rock 'n' roll, could be Rachmaninoff. Doesn't matter, I get lost, especially when I get into the color/painting time. Many times I don't do more than three sketches per illustration. Usually I start with thumbnails, and then I make the larger sketch..."

Laurent asks how does Raul start an idea?

Gregory Colbert photos

DRAW! came about after Raul went to a Gregory Colbert photography exhibit of big, beautiful prints of animals. The exhibit included videos of Colbert in action. It blew Raul away. He'd been illustrating a lot of biographies, but Raul really wanted his next book to have animals in it. As a kid, Raul was very sick and indoors a lot drawing, so he put all of those elements together for DRAW!

Laurent asks what is Raul's revision/working process like?

Raul does NOT like to do color sketches before he gets to the final art, he wants to keep everything loose until the final. Because when he starts to do final art he wants to be free to change things, which keeps the energy up and the art fresh and allows him to go in the directions that best serve the art and book.

Writer, Wrestler, Stutterer, Spy: Finding Your Voice as a Writer

Megan McDonald, author of that beloved Judy Moody series and more, shares with us some stories of her life and career.

Megan tells us about growing up the youngest of five sisters and gives a delightful anecdote concerning one her favorite books growing up, a wrestler and rabies (and for those of you not here you can read the story IF you have a Horn Book subscription and get the awesome issue that's the recent HARRIET THE SPY anniversary/tribute issue! Or borrow it online...)

It's Harriet that started Megan on her path to being a writer and finding her own voice at the ripe old age of eight. But then she lost that voice for a while...

Read the Horn Book link before you look at the image below, which Martha Brockenbrough found and is making me include, the wrestler Bruno Sanmartino.

After some traumatic college writing courses and lots of self doubt, Megan began finding her own voice again, which happened to be that of eight-year-old Megan. Megan shares a Jung quote with us: No matter how isolated you are and how lonely you feel, if you listen to your own voice, unknown friends will come and seek you.

And that's when she started finding those characters like Judy and Stink and Amanda Frankenstien.

What it's like to work with editor Mary Lee Donovan: "With every book she helps me to see the true story in that mess of first drafts... and second...  and third drafts. She helps me see through the fog to the story in my heart.