Week of August 7—What Rob Did On Summer Vacation—Conference Highlights
August 10—Quotes to Remember from SCBWI
My head is still spinning and my hearting is still pounding. The 40th Annual SCBWI Annual Summer Conference was sensational. By the end of Day 1, I was holding my ears trying to keep all the ideas from falling out of my brain. By Day 2, I was numb at both ends, but would have sat for hours more to listen to the literary giants that surrounded us. By Day 3, I was sleep deprived and hungering for more—more great learning that is. By the time the intensives rolled around on Monday, I was intent on coming back to another SCBWI conference ASAP.
Today I want to share some memorable quotes from the meeting. (These quotes are from my notes, not a tape recording . . . so I will be as precise as my note-taking allowed.) I hope the quotes will get your head spinning and your heart will be pounding, too.
“Children are worth our best efforts.”
—Bruce Coville
“Craft without inspiration leads to basket weaving. But inspiration without craft leads to modern art.”
—Bruce Coville
“Don’t be afraid to show your heart.”
—Bruce Coville
“Ask the reader to look over the shoulder of the main character to see the environment.”
—Jerry Pinkney
“Picture books are written to be performed.”
—Allyn Johnston
“99.9% of art notes [in picture book manuscripts] are not needed.”
—Allyn Johnson
“Getting it wrong is a necessary part of getting it right.”
—Libba Bray
“Readers want a story they can love with their heart and soul.”
—Libba Bray
“No one writes a great first draft. The work is in the revision.”
—Jon Scieszka
“Every good society is built on empathy . . . The first way to develop empathy is through a book.”
—Donna Jo Napoli
“Write from your places of joy, delight, passion. But also write from places of fright and pain. Chances are if you need to write it, someone needs to read it.”
—Donna Jo Napoli
“The body expresses what the person can’t.”
—David Small
“I start with a basic idea and then it lives in my head a long time and percolates.”
—Judy Bloom
Regarding starting a book on a day something different happens: “You may have to write a lot to get to that point and then throw those first pages away.”
—Judy Bloom
“Why do we write children’s books? Because it comes naturally to us. Not to do good for kids.”
—Judy Bloom
“Go home with your notes and forget it all. The inspiration will be inside you. Now just write.”
—Judy Bloom
“It’s easier to launch a new writer than to deal with a bad track record.”
—Alessandra Balzer
“Have a good sense of where you book could/should live in Barnes & Noble.”
—Alessandra Balzer
“There are a 1000 ways to tell a story.”
—Jon Scieszka
“Your book is something you’ll have to live with a long time.”
—Jon Scieszka
“Being out of context leads to creativity . . . Help children understand there is more than one way to interpret things . . . Spend a large part of your time out of context.”
—Norton Juster
“Forget the trends. Write the book in your heart.”
—Beverly Horowitz
“Everything I have become . . . all the books, all the awards . . . I owe that women.” (The librarian who gave him his first library card.)
—Gary Paulsen
“There’s nothing like being surprised by a submission.”
—Allyn Johnston
—Allyn Johnston
“My message for young people: Unless you find yourself on the page very early in life, you will spend your life looking for yourself in all the wrong places.”
—Richard Peck
“My best friend is my wastebasket.”
—David Small
“Take care of your muse.”
—Laurie Halse Anderson
“Every limitation presents opportunities.”
—Leonard Marcus
“Don’t think simple, think distilled.”
—Leonard Marcus
No comments:
Post a Comment