Monday 15 November 2010

Ten Things I learned at the SCBWI Conference

The British bit of SCBWI celebrated its tenth birthday in Winchester this weekend, and a meme has sprung up -  ten things I learned at SCBWI conference. You can read others here, here and here.
So..here are mine.

1. Those little avatars on Twitter? Those grinning boxes on Facebook? Real live three-dimensional people, I tell you. It is true. Although I was disappointed that @PoodlePowered had no poodles.
That's me...and me....

2. Such are the powers of persuasion of Candy Gourlay and Sarah McIntyre that I allowed myself to be branded an Internet Slut for our debate on Social Marketing – Curse or Blessing. So creative and prolific are they on the internet, that after we’d all introduced ourselves, we were left with three minutes for debating.

3. If you want to get published you should go to SCBWI conference. It is one of the best places for writers to meet and hear from people in the publishing industry. If you are published, or have no interest in being published -  you should still go to SCBWI conference. There's something about being with so many creative people that just feels great.

4. If you tell a room of writers to dress ‘smart casual’ 98 per cent will wear black, blue or purple.

5. If you gather together three or four writers, hand them two newspaper cuttings and give them less than ten minutes discussion time, they can weave them together into perfectly plausible plots...even when they’re looking at the wrong side of the bit of newspaper.

6. If you are lucky enough to be chairing a panel on which the fab publisher David Fickling appears, sit him at the far end of the table so he can gesture enthusiastically without danger of knocking your glasses off. His natual projection means he won’t need a microphone either. He will enliven the entire debate, which covered industry matters such as gender stereotyping, government spending cuts, discounting, digital books and trends.

7. David Blanch, editor of Carousel children’s book review magazine thinks that crime might be the Next Big Thing. Hear that, vampires and angels? Crime. Oh hang on, my next book does feature vampires and angels.  Damn.

8. ‘If you haven’t got a notebook for ideas - you’re not an author.’ Marcus Sedgewick. Hmmm. May have to visit Paperchase. Or the Ideas Shop.

9. Jon Mayhew , author of the fantastically creepy Mortlock, works four days a week, has four children, writes books and works tirelessly to promote his books at schools, shops, folk festivals. I haven’t met her, but my total respect to Mrs M.

10. SCBWI conference is an incredibly uplifting experience, full of the loveliest people.  For me, Marcus Sedgewick's presentation on writing about places was the highlight of the weekend.  You can join SCBWI here. (Don't worry if it looks all American, you'll join and then discover the British bit )

18 comments:

  1. Excellent post, Keren! And thanks to you for your fab sessions! Really interesting.

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  2. @maryom That debate was such fun - I was nervous before, but it flew by..
    @Sue - thanks!

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  3. I really enjoyed your sessions, Keren, and thanks for your calm hand on the tiller when others became a tad "passionate"

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  4. Great list. Thought you managed the panels extremely well and enjoyed listening to your views on social networks.

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  5. CRime the next big thing? Excellent.

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  6. Hi Keren, it was lovely meeting you. You session on writing 'from the real' was great fun and very informative. I was in the group that looked at the wrong side of the paper and I still couldn't tell you what was on the 'interesting' side. All I can say is that for someone who is still very much a Newbie to this game it was like having all my Christmas wishes come true to be in such company. I now have to go purchase a notebook so I can continue to fool the writing community while I persevere in learning their secrets by osmosis.

    I'm looking forward to devouring When I was Joe as soon as my eyelids have the lead weights removed from them. All that fun is exhausting!

    Jane Volker

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  7. Great post. I learnt even more things by reading it :)

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  8. So I keep telling myself I need to do this joining up thingy. I can't really put it off much longer. I feel a bit fraudish though...

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  9. @Becky Not fraudish at all...you're a school librarian a respected book blogger and you write yourself. The perfect SCBWI-ite. And you would love it. Actually next year there ought to be a book blogger on a panel.

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  10. Hi Keren, Great weekend and great to meet you. I really enjoyed your session on "writing about the real" as it's something I do myself. Having read and really enjoyed When I was Joe, it was fascinating to hear the story of how you wrote it and the decisions you made along the way – thanks for sharing! As for the newspaper clipping exercise – I still think that Bobby Moore's Leg could be a huge hit!

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  11. @Dave - I have to agree on Bobby Moore's Leg. After saying it was unsaleable at the time, it seems more pleasantly quirky to me now. But maybe a more modern footballer? Wayne Rooney's Ear?

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  12. I always thought it was saleable..just the words angry footballer sold it to me.

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  13. Looks like you had a very fun time! Nice! I probably can't go to the meetings :( But I am thinking of joining SCWBI.

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  14. Next time I'll pack a poodle, just for you!

    It was great to meet you (and other tweeters) in the flesh. Comforting to know that you are real and not just figments of my over-active imagination!

    I really enjoyed your session on writing the real. And I too am pretty happy about crime being the next big thing!!

    Everyone should join SCBWI!

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  15. Keren great post! Especially loved item 4, 7, 3 and 2. And also liked 1, 9, and 5. And also 6, 8 and 10. But not necessarily in that order. Oh -- and what I also learned from your "write real" session was that I need to subscribe to the Guardian...

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  16. @Linda Actually I went out especially to buy the Daily Mail for that session!

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