WRITING & ILLUSTRATING FOR YOUNG READERS
I attended the most amazing conference this week. Really. It was called Writing and Illustrating for Young Readers. Everyone who aspires to publish in children's and YA literature should go.
In our small class of thirteen students, we had people from Utah, Texas, Pennsylvania, Canada, and one of our friends even flew all the way from China to be there.
Why would people come all this way for a simple writing conference?
Because it's the only one of its kind.
It provides an opportunity to sit in a class with award winning children's and YA authors. I attended a class with Carol Lynch Williams. She critiqued twenty pages of our work and shared amazing lessons in writing.
There were many different types of morning workshops to choose from. Other attendees took classes from J. Scott Savage, Shawn Stout, Lisa Mangum, Ken Baker, Cheri Pray Earl, A.E. Cannon, Cynthia Leitich Smith, and Greg Leitich Smith.
Single-day morning workshops in voice, plot, illustration, world building, and character were taught by Emily Wing Smith, Sherry Meidell, Ann Dee Ellis, Brody Ashton, and Jennifer Nielsen.
Am I missing anyone? There were so many talented authors and individuals who shared their knowledge and talents. I can't believe how hard they worked giving each attendee their time and attention. I left the conference with many new heroes and role models!
Each day, following our morning workshops, we went to afternoon breakout sessions. During this time a variety of classes were offered by other incredible authors, agents and publishers. Among the agents who spoke with us were John Cusick from Greenhouse Literary Agency, Amy Jameson from A+B Works, and Michelle Witte from Mansion Street. The editor who attended was Kristen Ostby from Simon & Schuster.
James Dashner, author of The Maze Runner, gave an amazing keynote. His movie is coming out soon.
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| Here's my morning class. I'm sure we were the best WIFYR group at the conference. Someday, when we're all successful like Carol, this photo will go in a museum. ;) |
I don't know where to begin summarizing what I learned. Here's a few bullet points:
- Always write truth. It is your obligation.
- Tools for Raising Tension:
- Isolation
- Misdirection
- Disorientation
- Trust the Process:
- 1st Draft = Down Draft
- 2nd Draft = Up Draft
- 3rd Draft = Dental Work for Perfection
- Create pre-writing rituals
- Anytime you pull the reader out of the story, you've failed.
- Stop using all "thought" verbs
- As I writer, I will have to make sacrifices.
- Forget about the whole book and concentrate on doing one page today.
- We need diverse books!
DANCE PARTY!
We had a dance party one afternoon after classes. To get into the dance, everyone brought a book to donate to charity. What do you get when a bunch of introverted authors and writers hold a dance? Well, mostly just a lot of very awkward wall flowers. And while I have something of a phobia of dancing in front of people (yes, I was one of the wall flowers), I did take a few embarrassing photos of our wonderful instructors dancing and having the time of their lives.
At the end of the week Cheri and Carol got up and sang a song about WIFYR. Carol mixed up the words and they had to start over. It was kind of hilarious. I took a picture. How could I not? :)
Honestly, I loved Carol's books before I met her, but now I admire the person as well. I don't know how she finds time to teach at BYU, author amazing books, organize a huge conference, mentor four amateur writers, and still find time to mother her five daughters. She has an incredible heart.
I'm so glad that I was able to go. I made great friends, and received wonderful feedback/ encouragement.
We worked so hard. Between classes during the day and writing and revising on my own at night, there was hardly time for sleep. I'm exhausted.
Without a doubt, I'll be back next year.
Thank you to everyone who did so much for the conference! It was the experience of a lifetime. My writing is better and it changed me forever.
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