Here are my notes from the LA conference. They are a mix
and jumble of inspiration and tips on craft and are not direct quotes
unless you see quote marks (and even then, a word or two could be
missing if they talked faster than I could scribble notes). The pictures with this
post are the doodles I drew in my notebook while taking notes. There
were birds on the cover of the notebook and a bird on the back side of
each page, but there weren’t any birds on the front of the pages, you
know, where I was writing and would have been able to actually see the
birds. So I drew my own birdies on top of and around the little
non-birdie flower design.
M.T. Anderson (keynote)
- Does some things just for artistic pleasure, not necessarily for the book or for marketing.
- “Those books that take us away from what we expect show us the world anew.”
- “Don’t be afraid of your eccentricities.” (Love that quote!)
Courtney Bongiolatti (on boy books)
- Recommended Guys Read website.
- She also recommended that you know your genre. Are you writing
Action, Adventure, Fantasy, Mystery, Humorous Mystery, Sports, School
Stories, Historical Fiction, Combination of Genres, Relatable, or Out of
the Box?
- Boy books should have a boy main character, be about a kid that the reader wants to be like, and have series potential.
Carolyn Mackler (on characters)
- Quirks, details and language help define characters. Make them consistent throughout the book.
- Writing exercise: What does your character keep hidden in their
underwear drawer, and if nothing, where do they hide things and what do
they hide?
- “Number one challenge is figuring out what to omit. What you omit is more important than what you keep in the story.”
E.B. Lewis (keynote)
- “Keep forging forward – there is life after you feel like the inspiration has died.”
- “As artists you need to fill yourself up to overflowing and then give it all back.”
Gail Carson Levine (keynote)
- If a character is going to change, we have to see how it happens (the set up) or understand later how it came to be.
- Grow in the writing – as you write you get to know your characters better and develop them through writing.
- Writing exercise: 3 characters are getting ready for school. How
does each one prepare? Reveal the thoughts and feelings of each; they
should all be different.
Jon Scieszka (stories across multiple media)
- Websites, blogs, etc. that are mentioned in the book are live and
each character has their own online presence. (Talking about his
Spaceheadz books.)
- Multimedia platform books are a hard sell even for an established
author, but more publishers are starting to look for these books.
- Fully half of his budget for the project goes for online efforts (the publisher pays someone to do the web stuff).
- His books stand alone without the web stuff so that schools and kids without web access can still read and enjoy the books.
Gennifer Choldenko (being your own best editor + keynote)
- “What you experience while you’re writing, we’ll experience as we’re reading.”
- “Every detail must work within the context of the world you created (essential part of every novel, not just fantasy).”
- “To make your novel fulfilling, you have to get to the emotional core.”
- “Start on a new project before revising the last one.” (Need multiple projects/ideas.)
- “Good work takes time and major revisions.”
- “If you find yourself not wanting to work on a chapter or a
storyline, that’s a clue. Go where the heat is because if the heat is
there for you, it will be there for the reader.”
Rachel Vail (keynote)
- Middle grade is where you start to go out and notice the larger world, not just your small family.
- “Life or Death moments are a dime a dozen in middle grade.”
- “Voice sometimes comes later after you’ve done a lot of work/pages.”
- Many middle grade and chapter books have a one act play structure.
Linda Sue Park – I was fortunate to be able to take the MG premium workshop with Linda Sue Park. Here are some gems from those sessions:
- In middle grade: “They’re learning that the world isn’t fair. What
are they going to do about it? The world isn’t fair, but that doesn’t
mean it has to be miserable.”
- Character (for her) has no substance without setting. Mix/balance
emotions and setting with what makes them specific vs. what makes them
universal. Setting helps make it specific.
- Character should have an internal and an external quest.
Internal=what character needs (character development). External=what
character wants (plot). Internal quest should be subtle.
- “Story doesn’t take place inside someone’s head; it takes place in the world.”
- Need to think about balance. Stuff can’t always just happen to them
– character needs to make things happen. Plot progresses because of
choices that the character makes that cause action.
- How much space in your story do you want to give to something out
of the character’s control where they can’t act or react? (Probably not
much. Example: getting swept down a river.) The reader is waiting for
the character to act or react.
- “If your flashback is too long, maybe it’s not a flashback – it’s called flash.”
- Chapters are usually similar size. Short chapters make for quicker read and makes more impact.
- Love the process and what you’re doing. Enjoy the moments and the writing whether you get published or not.
Pages
Friday, August 27, 2010
Notes and doodles from the LA conference
Author/illustrator Stephanie Ruble has been making art ever since she could hold a crayon, and making up stories since she learned to talk. She's currently working on new picture books, images for her portfolio, and drawing art for unusual holidays. Thanks for visiting!
Picture Book: Ewe and Aye written by Candace Ryan, Illustrated by Stephanie Ruble (now available as an ebook)
Friday, August 20, 2010
New Art and New Hair
I’ve been experimenting with my digital style to make it more
painterly and yet retain the flat color that I like so much. This first
piece of new art is an example of that experiment and works for the CBIG blog prompt this month (outside) and the Illustration Friday prompt for this week (atmosphere). Instead of raining cats and dogs, it’s raining on the cats and dogs!
The other new piece of art I have is a drawing of a lantern fish that I did for Ripple. It sold before I could post it here, but I still wanted to share the drawing because it works for the WaWe oceans prompt. Plus, it cracks me up. Hope it gives you a laugh too!
The third piece of new art you may have noticed already. I have a new avatar because my hair is all chopped off. It will grow back (eventually) right? What happened was that I got a really bad haircut, which I tried to grow out for two months. Then I went to MN and asked a friend of mine that’s a hairstylist if she could fix it. She said no, so she chopped it all off and I’m starting over. The new avatar will be around until I have more hair again (I’m guessing 6 months, or maybe 9 … or 12). Eep!
p.s. Now that I’m home again, I’ll be posting notes from the LA conference and a new website design soon!
The other new piece of art I have is a drawing of a lantern fish that I did for Ripple. It sold before I could post it here, but I still wanted to share the drawing because it works for the WaWe oceans prompt. Plus, it cracks me up. Hope it gives you a laugh too!
The third piece of new art you may have noticed already. I have a new avatar because my hair is all chopped off. It will grow back (eventually) right? What happened was that I got a really bad haircut, which I tried to grow out for two months. Then I went to MN and asked a friend of mine that’s a hairstylist if she could fix it. She said no, so she chopped it all off and I’m starting over. The new avatar will be around until I have more hair again (I’m guessing 6 months, or maybe 9 … or 12). Eep!
p.s. Now that I’m home again, I’ll be posting notes from the LA conference and a new website design soon!
Labels:
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cbig,
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dogs,
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if,
illustration friday,
my art,
ripple project,
watercolor wednesdays
Author/illustrator Stephanie Ruble has been making art ever since she could hold a crayon, and making up stories since she learned to talk. She's currently working on new picture books, images for her portfolio, and drawing art for unusual holidays. Thanks for visiting!
Picture Book: Ewe and Aye written by Candace Ryan, Illustrated by Stephanie Ruble (now available as an ebook)
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