Conference Day TWO

The second day of the conference started out with me falling on the ice. It was a humbling experience that hurt my pride and my knee. What I found most interesting: people simply look at you when you’re on the ground as if you intended to be there. I honestly would have preferred that someone snicker at me.

Anyway! Once I hobbled to the train and into the conference, I found that there were a significantly lower amount of people there. No seat stealing needed this day. There were plenty to spare. I came in during the award presentation in time for them to announce the Art Showcase Winner. I missed the name of the grand prizewinner but not her screams of joy. Congratulations whoever you are! I hope you get that limo you requested!

After that, Sara Zarr gave the opening keynote speech of the day and let me just say now… wow.

Sara started out with a detailed description of her personal 15 year journey towards publication. By doing this, she immediately showed to every writer in that room that we are not alone. We understood and felt her struggles because every one of us has been where she was. Some of the people in the room were probably there at that moment. Words simply cannot describe the connection she made to everyone in that room. A hush descended at her words and no one wanted her stop talking. Eventually, she came to the hopeful part of her speech. The advice that was in part given to her and in part her own lessons. “The time between when you are beginner and breaking in is the hardest of all. And no one can tell you how long that time will be.” To make it through Sara’s advice was this: create and feed your creative life. This life cannot be taken from you by a lost job, a husband, money, or anything. “It may be the only thing in this life that is truly yours” And it is filled with days of normal, small, progresses that might not seem like a lot until years later they result in a work or body of works.

In order to create this creative life, you must:

• Realize that there is always something more to do towards your career, because for writers, there are no retirement fantasies. In general, you are doing it for life.
• Your creative life must be sustainable, engaging, invite company,  and avoid obstacles
•  Obstacles include:

• Self obsession (not allowing yourself to do things for or with others)
• Loss of faith in yourself (believing that you aren’t good enough)
• Disenchantment

• You must also seek out mentors and be mentors to others. They can be older or younger, the only stipulation is that they must help you with something you’re missing; discipline, social media, calm under pressure.
• Set up the content of your life to make it less stressful. “Leave the drama for your stories”
• Take care of yourself. Do what you need to do to take care of mental health and physical health then worry about getting work done.
• Find what habits and routines feed your creative life.
• Understand that the REAL SATISFACTION IS IN DOING THE WORK.
• Know the industry but understand the difference between what your work means to YOU and what it means to the BUSINESS.
• Choose your people wisely. Surround yourself with people who encourage you to write and keep to your goals.

Finally she stressed that all that matters in the end is the work. And if you focus on doing your best with that, then you don’t have to worry about being published, because the work will speak for itself.

She gained a standing ovation when she was done. She deserved it.

The day continued with the “Look Whose Laughing: How to Do Funny for Young Readers and Why” panel. I didn’t find the panel’s advice very useful to me, so I didn’t take very many notes about it. However, if you didn’t see it you missed a pretty funny panel. They were openly fighting one another for the limelight on stage. Marvin Terban stepped in for Leonard Marcus and nearly stole the panel before he was even introduced. Lenore Look at one point even took away his microphone to which he responded, “I can still be heard without it!” And he was. 

Apparently, during his talk, which he claimed to be unprepared for, he gave all the advice the Lenore Look had intended to discuss. She declared he looked at her notes.  Therefore, both stated that incongruity, wordplay, and misheard words are three keys to writing funny.

The third panelist was Mo Williams. Who didn’t say much during the exchange between the other two, but when he did say something, it had us all in stitches. His main key to writing funny: “I do believe if you're going to be funny that you need a New York/LA joke and a urine joke.” And his essential ideals about his audience: “I trust my audience. The fundamental difference between kids and adults is that kids are shorter”.

The final speaker for the 2011 SCBWI Winter Conference was Linda Sue Park. Who encouraged us all to NOT believe in ourselves. That’s right. I wrote that correctly.

Linda told us that when you know you can or can’t do something you have confidence in those things. But when the outcome is uncertain, this is where people begin to say, “You can do it” and “Believe in yourself”. “If I could believe in myself, then I wouldn’t need you to tell me to believe in myself,” answered Linda.

Therefore, don't believe in yourself believe in the work. It’s not about you; it’s about the story.

You can train yourself to better understand what makes a good story by reading. Through reading you find out what you like or don't; what works and what doesn't. And you take that information and apply it to your work subconsciously. “If you read enough great stories, novels, poems and memoirs, you begin to build a mental standard.” – Linda Sue Park.

The conclusion then becomes that training for writing is reading. So you must find the time to train a little every day.

In the end, day two was inspiring, funny, and hopeful as all SCBWI conferences are. The next step for me, following the advice given. Which is always a challenge.