SCBWI | Terry Pierce

Here are a few quotes and summations I gleaned from the 2007 SCBWI Summer Conference.

Arthur Levine—When talking about receiving professional criticism, he reminded us that editors understand what authors feel when waiting for a reply because they go through a kind of “response anxiety” (my term, not his) when they send out revision letters. He’s always a bit eager to hear what an author thinks of his suggestions and how he/she will feel about them.

Walter Dean Meyers—“I give details on the internal landscape of a character.”

Lisa Wheeler—“Rhyme is the vehicle for telling a story… It shouldn’t become a bump in the road.”

Rubin Pfeffer—“A great book is one that sets a child off to read another book.”

John Green—“Great books do not happen by accident.”

Linda Sue Park—Revision is re-seeing the manuscript (macrochanges). Rewriting is re-writing (microchanges) by word choice, details, sentences, etc.

Roxyanne Young–The first step in revving up your PR machine is to define your audience. Who is your audience?

I also made more notes to add to my “conference tips” for next year, but that will come later–much later.

That’s it for now, folks.

I’m pooped. Yup, that’s about all this little “wordsmith” can come up with to describe how I’m feeling right now. The conference was a blast, as usual, filled with sharing of great information, meetings of like-minded folks, and general merriment. Which is why my mind is pure mush right now. Yes, my mind is like that which filled that very famous bowl in Goodnight, Moon.

I’ll post a bit more on the conference later, but for now I wanted to post some other info. As the Kern County assistant coordinator on the Ventura/Santa Barbara SCBWI regional board (man, that’s a mouthful), I wanted to share some upcoming SCBWI events in Kern County, CA.

Sept. 8, 2007: 10:00 AM. Critiquenic in Bakersfield, CA. Russo’s Books at The Marketplace (9000 Ming Ave.). Free to members, $5 to non-members.

Jan. 12, 2008: 10:00 AM. Critiquenic in Bakersfield, CA. Russo’s Books at The Marketplace (9000 Ming Ave.). Free to members, $5 to non-members.

March 29, 2008: What Mother Goose Can Teach Us About Poetry. Workshop in Bakersfield, CA, featuring children’s author Ann Whitford Paul. 9:30 AM-4:30 PM. $50 members, $60 non-members.

For details on the events above, or additional info regarding other writing/illustrating events in the V/SB region, click here.