It's not to tell us a story, but to let us experience a story.
Posted by Lee Wind
Your SCBWI 2026 Virtual Summer Conference "TEAM BLOG" is Jolie Stekly, Justin Campbell, and Jaime Temairik. Check in here and on socials at #scbwiSummer26 for updates, countdowns, and LIVE BLOGGING from the conference!
Sunday, August 9, 2009
Ellen Hopkins on Voice: HOT TIP!
The Goal of writing YA:
Posted by Lee Wind
Posted by Lee Wind
Ellen Hopkins on VOICE!
The official Title of this breakout session is "The Not So Mysterious Teen Voice: Like Totally Not OMG!!!"
Ellen's first sentence:
Ellen's telling us that she gets around 300 twitter tweets, myspace messages and facebook messages and friend requests across all these social media a day from teens.
She's reading a selection of them, asking us to imagine what the message senders look like.
Ellen's advice includes this gem:
Ellen spends 2 months pre-writing her books, creating the characters, figuring out who are their parents, their friends, their realm of experience. And then she layers them, figuring out what's good in their life, and what's bad in their life.
And then the plot flows from knowing all that...
WOW. Ellen is a MASTER at this. The room is glued to her every word, listening to her voice. We're all learning so much...
Posted by Lee Wind
Ellen's first sentence:
Every teen is so different, it's hard to tell you what is "teen voice"
Ellen's telling us that she gets around 300 twitter tweets, myspace messages and facebook messages and friend requests across all these social media a day from teens.
She's reading a selection of them, asking us to imagine what the message senders look like.
Ellen's advice includes this gem:
Create your characters first, and understand their realms of experience, and then you'll have their voices.
Create your characters first, and then you can figure out your plot.
Plot needs to flow from characters.
If you don't do it in that order, then like happens to Ellen, your characters will wake you up and say "You know, I wouldn't do that."
Ellen spends 2 months pre-writing her books, creating the characters, figuring out who are their parents, their friends, their realm of experience. And then she layers them, figuring out what's good in their life, and what's bad in their life.
And then the plot flows from knowing all that...
WOW. Ellen is a MASTER at this. The room is glued to her every word, listening to her voice. We're all learning so much...
Posted by Lee Wind
Marla Frazee: How Your Words Inspire Me to Draw Pictures--and How They Don't
Marla was interested in illustration the song "Hush, Little Baby" so she began to research lullabies.
She found there were three categories: soothing, bribery, threat. When Marla illustrated "Hush, Little Baby (a bribery lullaby) she set her book in the 1850s in her book. She added an older sister into the mix, who's helping her papa get her new little sister to sleep.
Marla showed us images of the whole book (which is wonderful). You can pretend you were here by checking out of copy of Hush, Little Baby and studying the way the illustrations and text work together.
POSTED BY ALICE POPE
Marla Frazee: How Your Words Inspire Me to Draw Pictures--and How They Don't
Illustrators, Marla says, need their pictures to be in a relationship with the text and she feels security in the text when she's illustrating books she hasn't written. If she's written the text and she finds herself in a spot where things aren't working, it's almost as if there are too many options--which Marla finds scary yet exhilarating.
She keeps hearing rules about picture books such as that a readers should be able to understand and follow the story just by looking at the illustrations, and that the illustrations should say something different than what's being said in the words. Marla disagrees with these rules.
Instead, the words and picture should work together, they should dance.
POSTED BY ALICE POPE
She keeps hearing rules about picture books such as that a readers should be able to understand and follow the story just by looking at the illustrations, and that the illustrations should say something different than what's being said in the words. Marla disagrees with these rules.
Instead, the words and picture should work together, they should dance.
POSTED BY ALICE POPE
Marla Frazee: How Your Words Inspire Me to Draw Pictures--and How They Don't
Marla is showing the last few page turns of The Carrot Seed. She wants her talk to focus on how to make the chemistry between words and pictures happen.
Marla is showing some great example of the chemistry.
Here first editor with Linda Zuckerman after taking 12 years to break into the field. After her first book, it took her five years to get another one. Then she got the manuscript for her book The Seven Silly Eaters.
She's taking us through her process of working on Silly Eaters. For example, she added a father to the illustrations, thought there was no father mentioned in the text, but made him smaller than the mother in the story since she was more important.
We're seeing early sketches and final art. (I love that!)
POSTED BY ALICE POPE
Marla Frazee: How Your Words Inspire Me to Draw Pictures--and How They Don't
(Marla Frazee has a hot pink Mac and she's wearing a super cool pair of Fluevogs.)
POSTED BY ALICE POPE
POSTED BY ALICE POPE
Richard Peck's special Keynote at the Golden Kite Luncheon
Richard is unbelievably quotable!
You have to read 1,000 books before you write one.
On the benefits of being a writer rather than a teacher:
We can't be fired. We're unemployed.
He's reading some letters from his readers... some of them are really funny, and heartfelt!
On his own reading:
Charlotte's Web was published the year I graduated from High School, so I was
too old for it then. But not now.
And with a final flourish, the room stood on their feet. 1,000 people, cheering for all that wisdom!
Posted by Lee Wind
Golden Kite Awards: Sid Fleischman Award Winner Donna Gephart
GOLDEN KITE AWARDS: SID FLEISCHMAN AWARD WINNER DONNA GEPHART
Donna Gephart's middle grade novel, As if Being 12¾ Isn't Bad Enough, My Mother is Running for President!, won the 2009 Sid Fleischman Award. This award is for authors whose work exemplifies the excellence of writing in the genre of humor.
Although Sid Fleischman wasn't able to attend today's award, he wrote a speech in her honor that Stephen Mooser read out loud. Fleischman wrote, "This year's recipient knew at age 14 that she wanted to be a writer. She saved her babysitter money to buy a typewriter."
Fleischman praised Gephart's "irrepressible humor" which was not simply full of "ornamental quotes." He said she understood the true aim of comedy, that it was "tragedy wearing a putty nose."
Fleischman joked that Gephart "... also wins the award for the longest title."
Here are some highlights from Donna Gephart's speech:
-- She screamed so loudly after getting the congratulatory phone call from Lin Oliver and Stephen Mooser that "... I lost my voice for three days."
-- When describing herself growing up, Gephart said, "I was the quintessential nerd... and I still am."
-- "This is the only award of its kind to honor humorous children's books, and it's pretty special. Even though I've been writing humor of different sorts for over twenty years, sometimes it's nice to be taken seriously."
-- Her advice? "If you've ever heard the words 'never' or 'can't,' I have three words for you. 'YES YOU CAN!'"
Golden Kite Awards: Steve Watkins
Steve won the Golden Kite Award for Excellence in Fiction for his novel, "Down Sand Mountain."
He's speaking about the moment when, as a child, he discovered that books weren't just THERE, but that they were written by people...
and that very day, he went home to write his very first book, "The Glisening Sword."
He's telling us the plot... The room is laughing! Applause for the suprise ending!
His parents made copies and distributed it to their family and friends as a Christmas present that year!
40 years later, his second attempt to write for young readers, he had better editors (that would catch things like the missing silent "t" in "Glistening!")
Posted by Lee Wind
He's speaking about the moment when, as a child, he discovered that books weren't just THERE, but that they were written by people...
and that very day, he went home to write his very first book, "The Glisening Sword."
He's telling us the plot... The room is laughing! Applause for the suprise ending!
His parents made copies and distributed it to their family and friends as a Christmas present that year!
40 years later, his second attempt to write for young readers, he had better editors (that would catch things like the missing silent "t" in "Glistening!")
"I'm just so blessed to be a member of this community."
Posted by Lee Wind
Golden Kite Awards: Hyewon Yum
Hyewon Yum won the Golden Kite Award for illustration for Last Night, (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
Winning for picture book illustration, Hyewon Yum spoke of how she wasn't someone who ever lifted her hand to speak in class.
And now she's before almost 1,000 people!
And she gave a very gracious thank you.
Posted by Lee Wind
Golden Kite Awards: A Life In The Wild
Pamela Turner received the Golden Kite Award for Nonfiction for A Life in the Wild: George Schaller's Struggle to Save the Last Great Beasts, by Pamela S. Turner, received the Golden Kite Award for Nonfiction.Pamela thanked George Schaller, the scientist who allowed her to profile him in her book. He was a scientist who first observed gorillas in the wild. He's now 75 years old and an active scientist and conservationists.
Pamela is donating the prize money and the profits from her book to conservation projects. How wonderful! Go great beasts!
POSTED BY ALICE POPE
Golden Kite Luncheon Awards: Bonny Becker
Bonny Becker received the Golden Kite Award for Picture Book Text for A Visitor for Bear.Ultimately, Bonny says, we want to show to our kids that despite its woes, the world is a wonderful place. She also wants to show through her books that she likes people (and this comes across in her character Mouse and Bear).
When she writes from a place she loves, she says, the writing is easy.
Work, discipline, training and luck are important.
She quoted E.B. White: I wake up every morning and torn by the desire to improve the world and the desire to enjoy the world. That makes it hard to plan my day. Bonny says she's decided to plan her days writing what she enjoys and urges the audience to do the same.
POSTED BY ALICE POPE
Golden Kite Awards: SCBWI LA 2009 Portfolio Award Winners Announced
Congratulations to the winner and honorees of the SCBWI LA 2009 Portfolio Award contest! The Grand Prize winner and two Honor recipients, their art work, and websites are listed below:
Grand Prize: Israel Sanchez, http://www.israelsanchez.com/
Honor: Brian Ormiston, http://brianormiston.com/
Honr: Stephanie Roth Sisson, http://www.stephanitely.com/index.htm
Posted by Paula Yoo
Grand Prize: Israel Sanchez, http://www.israelsanchez.com/
Honor: Brian Ormiston, http://brianormiston.com/
Honr: Stephanie Roth Sisson, http://www.stephanitely.com/index.htm
Posted by Paula Yoo
Golden Kite Luncheon
The conference goers have just finished the "rubber chicken" and the festivities of the Golden Kite Luncheon are now beginning.
Portfolio competition winners will be posted shortly. Stay tuned.
Portfolio competition winners will be posted shortly. Stay tuned.
DAN LAZAR: "How to Craft a Winning Query Letter: Secrets to Keep You Out of the Reject Pile"
DAN LAZAR: "How to Craft a Winning Query Letter: Secrets to Keep You Out of the Reject Pile"
Highlights from Dan Lazar, Writers House agent, panel on query letters:
-- Website recommendation: http://www.publishersmarketplace.com (his bio is listed here: http://www.publishersmarketplace.com/members/DanielLazar/)
-- Want some of Dan's secrets to writing a query letter that ROCKS? Here are a couple tidbits:
1. "If you can write the Next Great American Novel, then you can write a great query letter. Period." Dan brought two real query letters to demonstrate what worked for him, and one "fake" letter to show what doesn't work. One letter showed the writer's voice, which intrigued Dan who wanted to see the writer's voice in the actual manuscript. So if your voice comes through in a query letter, that can help get you out of the "reject" pile!
2. If you have never been published and do not have any publishing credits, don't worry. No need to apologize or even bring that up. You don't need logos or colored paper to impress. And it doesn't hurt to open with "a specific familiar reference. "I'm a human being and I have feelings, so you should appeal to my vanity," he joked.
3. Do NOT start with "To whom It may concern"!
4. MAIN THEME: BE SPECIFIC. Dan cannot stress this enough. He says you should be as specific as possible in your query letter, from stating why you are interested in pursuing Dan as your agent, specific details about your bio, your manuscript etc.
5. Try to avoid "What if?" when describing your book's story in a query letter. It's a "good tool" he says for sparking plot ideas and brainstorming, but not for a query letter. He recommends being MORE SPECIFIC and using more original language instead of starting off with "What if..." when describing/introducing the plot of your book in the query letter.
6. For email queries: He says find out first if agents accept these - he does, FYI. Technical note: Do not include any HTML coding because that can result in inconsistent formatting and invite spammers.
And that's just the tip of the iceberg! Dan offered dozens of tips and secrets on how to write an effective query letter. It was a packed lecture hall and it was clear everyone appreciated Dan's helpful advice. Again, another reason to join SCBWI and attend these conferences for fantastic advice from veteran industry experts!
Posted by Paula Yoo
Linda Sue Park: Scene Building Premium Workshop - cont'd
Special Guest: Margo RabbA wonderful thing about the YA market right now is that there are no rules anymore.
In CURES FOR HEARTBREAK, Margo writes in first person.
Margo is big on revision. "I go through so many drafts, I can't even count."
Margo loves interior monologue: when she learns something a little more about a character.
Jim Averbeck's Session! Opening The Door: Writing For Illustration
Jim is the author of the beautiful and multi-award winning "In A Blue Room."
Starting quote: The Illustrator is the other partner in writing a picture book. The trick is to get them to love your words and visualize what they want to do.
Jim is a writer first, who moved into illustrating as well.
For "In a Blue Room," he wrote the words and Tricia Tusa illustrated.
Then he illustrated a story by Linda Sue Park, "Long Walk To Water." (A serialized novel that came out in newspapers. To be published by Clarion.)
"Except If," his upcoming Picture Book, is one he wrote AND illustrated.
So he's looked at this from all three angles!
And here are just a few of his great tips for authors:
Choose a subject with a strong sense of time and place.
Variety of setting is really important.
Action and movement - but can you do it with nouns?
Increasing visual complication!
Character Attitude (Like Alexis O'Neill did in "The Recess Queen.")
WOW - so much great advice and insight!
Posted by Lee Wind
Stephen Fraser-The Current State of the Children's Book Market
Great session with Stephen Fraser. Quick notes:
The state of the children's book market is “cautious”. Publishers ask 'is this book essential to our list?'
We are in an era of no mediocre books. They don’t want midlist books. Pubs want books that will be best sellers.
So make your books stand out.
Posted Suzanne Young
The state of the children's book market is “cautious”. Publishers ask 'is this book essential to our list?'
We are in an era of no mediocre books. They don’t want midlist books. Pubs want books that will be best sellers.
So make your books stand out.
Posted Suzanne Young
Linda Sue Park: Scene Building Premium Workshop (Day 3)
When Linda is writing she thinks in terms of progress and impediment.
One difference between YA and MG: YA has more impediment than middle grade.
Linda never has a subplot, instead she thinks of everything as progress and impediment as they relate to internal and external quest.
Weaving:
Any element has to recur more than once. If an element is in a scene, it has to be important enough to show up again in the story. Nothing can pop up later in the book that solves some problem.
Holly Black Keynote! Basics of Fantasy - The Sequel!
The distance of fantasy lets us address issues in a way that we (and our readers) can process it.
On the difference between Horror and Fantasy:
On setting up the magic of your fantasy world:
Wow - now she's drawing out "Holly Black's Theory of Fantasy Plotting"...
Like anger. If you have a werewolf, who is helpless with rage, that's a metaphor that fantasy lets you work with...
On the difference between Horror and Fantasy:
Fantasy contains the Numinous (that was Holly's word in the word parade!)
Something at which you tremble and are fascinated by at the same time.
Fantasy contains this combination of FEAR and AWE. Horror is fear and disgust.
On setting up the magic of your fantasy world:
There's day logic and night logic
day logic is almost like science - it works the same way every time
with night logic the rules are seldom spelled out. We (the readers) don't exactly know how it works. It's hard to write, but it's very satisfying because it contains the numinous.
Figure out which kind of magic your world has. The Magical society has its own rules. So does the magic!
Wow - now she's drawing out "Holly Black's Theory of Fantasy Plotting"...
so much good stuff!
Posted by Lee Wind
Holly Black Keynote! Basics of Fantasy - A Live-Blog, Book One
Holly's speech is called "Examining the Strange: The Basics of Fantasy Writing"
She's talking about her affinity for fantasy, especially her childhood, where
Holly's mother told her to never astral-project, because if you leave your body empty, something else could get in there!
(This got a Huge Laugh.)
And if we want to write fantasy, Holly exhorts us to READ fantasy! But not JUST fantasy. We need to read broadly. Widely.
As children's book writers, Holly believes we are in a genre-less genre, because kids don't know about the boundaries of genre, and that enables us to mix and meld and experiment!
And that fantasy has something amazing that makes it unique...
To find out what, check out the Holly Black Live-Blog Trilogy, Part Two!
Posted by Lee Wind
Blue Moon Ball: Alice's Party Pics
These party goers took the theme literally.
The blue faerie needs a cocktail.
Sara Wilson Eitenne is such a wild thing.
Dan Yaccarino - continued 2
Here is the equation for the morning:
Dan Yaccarino + Lies = awesome new stories in new formats
We saw what happened when he lied to TV ad people: (sorry, I can't find any links to the great Gardenburger commercials he made, but you probably remember them)
And what happened when he lied to children's television people:
Dan's talk should maybe be retitled to: Say Yes to Lies
POSTED BY JAIME TEMAIRIK
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