SCBWI Days 3 & 4

Highlights from the last two days:

• Why Narrative Nonfiction is Hotter than Ever: Susan Campbell Bartoletti, Deborah Heiligman, Elizabeth Partridge, and Tanya Stone. Ken Wright headed up the panel. This was informative and interesting. These authors discussed the lengths they must go to and the depths they must reach to uncover the most insightful information about their subjects. And research is only half the battle. You have to write the manuscript and make it be so riveting that a twelve year-old won't put down a book about Hitler's Youth.

• Keynote by Carolyn Mackler. She was funny and shared stories from her most difficult times with over a thousand people. She discussed how after her most successful novel to date, the words dried up. She couldn't write anything when her audience was expecting greatness. She giggles a lot, probably like her main characters. 

•  Golden Kite Luncheon. This included awards and a special tribute to Sid Fleischman.  I saw Sid speak at UCLA a few years ago and he signed The Whipping Boy for me. His son Paul presented the Sid Fleischman Humor Award. It was awesome.

• Keynote by Rachel Vail.  Finding the Humor and Heart in Middle Grade Novels. Rachel spoke from the heart, or more like from the character's heart. She wrote a first draft of Justin Case: School, Drool, and Other Daily Disasters and then scrapped it because the main character wasn't writing the book, she was. She opened herself up to us all, coming to tears on a few occasions, while talking about digging deep for your character's heart and letting he/she tell the story. Listen to your character's whispers. Let them guide the way. Her speech was as admirable as it gets. 

• Closing Keynote by Ashley Bryan. Okay, so he's pretty much crazy, and at 87 years-old it's a relief to see. This guy has more energy than everyone-in-the-room times ten. He had the audience recite poems from Langston Hughes among others. It was an inspiring way to end four days of sitting on my butt till it was numb and learning more than you could imagine.    

• Linda Sue Park's Master Class. On the last day Linda closed with these words. What if in 15 years you're still not published? Will you still be writing? Or will you have given up by then? Her point is that you must enjoy writing for what it is. If someone plays an instrument, you don't ask them when are you going to play Carnegie Hall? You ask them what instrument they play, how long have they been playing, what's their favorite music to play? But society has labeled writers as unsuccessful if they're not published. You CAN be a writer and never be published. Writing is something people do for pleasure, enjoyment, because they have stories to tell, they have something to say. But writers should enjoy every moment of that process, like musicians plays music for the way it makes them feel, for the pleasure it brings them. Writers should focus on the same outlook. It's about appreciating the process, and until you can do that your work probably won't be publishable anyway.