Monday, June 17, 2013

SCBWI-NJ 2013 Summer Conference (Part Three)

All work and no play makes for a dull conference.  Part of the fun is meeting new writers from near and far, catching up with friends you haven't seen in a long time, and (so I hear) karaoke night!

I learned about the about the karaoke party too late (watch out next year, though), but I was warmly welcomed by a friendly critique group from Connecticut who meet monthly to discuss their picture book projects. I was introduced to the group by Susan Montanari, who is a fellow coop-mate with Hen & Ink Literary Studio.  




...Susan and me



And here is most of the CT picture book critique group (there are 4 or 5 others who are absent):

They look dignified but they are really wild and crazy women.
       
 

Next year I'll get karaoke photos...




 

SCBWI-NJ 2013 Summer Conference (Part Two)

Here are some more helpful gleanings I took from conference events:

Heather Alexander of Dial Books/Penguin led a workshop on Voice.  
Two types of voice:  Authorial: the writer's own voice   vs.   Narrative: the voice of the character  
     invented by the writer.  [Songwriter vs. Singer; Director/Playwright vs. Actor]
There are FIVE components to voice:
1. DICTION: the characters' way of speaking (vocabulary, style of expression).
2. PERSPECTIVE: how the characters relate to the world (family, friends, religion, setting, school).
3. CHARACTER: the core of the person (what type? angry, optimistic, shy, extrovert). Voice
     can reveal age, gender, motivation.
4. DIALOGUE: The most direct link to voice. Normal speech patterns and dialogue are boring. Build
     in layers of meaning and subtext. Short sentences can create tension in a scene.
5. INTERIOR MONOLOGUE/DIALOGUE: What the character is thinking (feelings, judging, reacting). 
     May reveal an unreliable narrator. Reader may know more than the character does. Can
     be used to fill in backstory. Good for humor, sarcasm, emotion.
And lastly, some aspects of a YA voice:
Inexperienced, not worldly, growing, evolving, DRAMATIC (everything is a crisis, everything is for the
     first time), passionate.
**

Kit Grindstaff and Jennifer Hubbard gave suggestions on “Battling Your Inner Censor.” Jennifer is a fan of compartmentalizing (physically and mentally separating the writer and the editor).  Kit prefers to take breaks from the work and do visualization exercises to get perspective.
**
Sudipta Bardhan-Quallen claimed in her presentation “Believable Contemporary Characters” that all her main characters are aspects of HER. Characters must be deeply flawed.  You want readers to identify with the character, see their own flaws and empathize. Empathy is born of intimacy.  When characters confide in the reader, they become more real.  Real characters feel, change, grow, resist, experience highs, lows, epiphanies, triumphs, embarrassments, sorrows, growth, regression.  Sudipta knows the end of her book before she writes the middle.  She has to know where her main character is going.
**
Lauren Oliver, who was the final (amazing) keynote speaker, says that writing is a daily dose of decision making/problem solving.  Practicing builds skill. “Working every day builds a tolerance…like drinking!” When fans ask how she came to be such a good writer, she responds, “It’s hard not to get good at something you do every day for 21 years.”  All her books have two “macro” themes: Redemption and Transformation.  Every writer should figure out what his/her themes are.  
Here she is, signing her books:





Friday, June 14, 2013

SCBWI-NJ 2013 Summer Conference (Part One)


Last weekend was the annual NJ-SCBWI conference. Our new RA, Leeza Hernandez, managed her debut conference with efficiency, good humor, and grace. Congratulations to Leeza and her fabulous team.

Everyone gets something different out of these events, but here is one of my highlights:

Lexa Hillyer of Paper Lantern Lit spoke about her company’s 3-step process of taking an idea for a novel through to publication: “Spark, Structure, and Sparkle.”  The Spark is the idea you begin with, and she discussed how to heighten the concept. Be passionate. Don’t be afraid of big ideas, and allow the book to have a macro concept/theme (involving the greater world) as well as a micro concept/theme (personal to the main character).  Structure: PLL uses a classic 3-Act structure starting with an “inciting incident” in Act One, which leaves the main character with a problem to solve.  Act Two keeps raising the stakes and the hurdles that the main character has to overcome until the climax, a culminating event in which all the plots and subplots converge and come crashing down into a giant mess.  Act Three starts with a “moment of revelation” out of the ashes of destruction—the main character realizes that what she (he) thought she wanted was not what she really needed. Cue: character change.  Sparkle is the polishing process.  How to make your book the best it can be. Come up with the best possible title.  Consider the integrity of your chapters, and always re-write your first chapter after you finish the first draft (or second, or third).

More to follow!