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.
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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.

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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.

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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: