Teresa Fannin, reader, writer, gardener, chocolate fan & tea drinker

Category: Art & Craft (Page 8 of 17)

my kind of keynote…

SO. HERE IS TAKEAWAY NUMBER ONE!

A couple of years back I was advised that reading Alex Rider would be a good thing for my writing. To read like a writer and see an action novel unfold. Because of the source of the recommndation I found the first book, published in 2000, and gobbled it up. To be so cool! Here was a teen James Bond, reluctant, teenage-y, hot, and with a family member in the spy industry. Well, yes, why hadn’t I found these before? I would have killed for a book like this, Geeze, I would have killed for a life like this…apologies to my darling parents and their wonderful upbringing, but damn if I didn’t continually try to make life less sedate.

I had not focused on the conference agenda coming into NYC.I did focus on the two breakout sessions and the intensive [more on those later] and not for a minute on the speakers. So when Anthony, [oh, please can I call you Tony :-)] Horowitz was introduced by Lin Oliver, I sat up straight. I got out my note book [which I don’t do for the inspirational ones] and I was ready.

Mr. Horowitz did not disappoint. In his dapper black suit, skinny tie, and the Brit accent of the upper crust as we have been taught on BBCA, well, perhaps he could have recited the NYC phone book and I would have noted it down, but HE DID NOT.

Yes, he was inspirational. He started writing because maybe that was what he was best at of all the choices. He wanted to be Nero–set the world on fire and in the writing he knew it was a children’s book that would do it. He wrote a lot. He wrote TV shows, screenplays, and children’s books. Then came Alex!  Alex is a reluctant hero who is true to himself. Ah, to be a teenager and be true to your self. That is hard–wicked hard!

Mr. Horowitz asked for gleeful writing. Simple. Fun. And most important-True. And then he remarked that children today only experience real adventure in literature. He’s right! How many parents do let their children out to play from dawn to dusk. There is a cosseting, a cocooning, for their safety, for the parental peace of mind. And yet! What children don’t learn as a result of being tested is huge. According to Mr. Horowitz, there is not enough violence in kids books and children like violence. Life is full of violence and kids know that. That’s part of being true.

If I were in a discussion with Mr. Horowitz I would ask him about video games, and the Marvel Universe and the CGI in movies that take our breath away with their animation and their violence. About all the speculative fiction that is huge in middle grade and young adult. And, I wonder if he might say, ‘but those are not real. And kids know it.’ And he’d be right. Alex Rider is now, present, with some fantastical toys but still, now!

He said that we have a responsibility to treat this writing as an upbeat thing. To that I say, a winning thing; success, extraordinary, yes, even heroic. Write up to children, he said. Not about the ordinary, but to show the POWER OF STORYTELLING. Oh, yes!

Reflections: SCBWI NYC 2015

The NYC conference is a mash-up of greeting friends, meeting new people, get-togethers with regional members and the scheduled events. I always hope there is something I can take from the presentations be they keynotes or breakouts sessions or even intensives. Last year it was Jack Gantos who stayed with me for long after the keynote was given. The organization, the dedication, the determination was so present, not because he told us about all of that, but because he SHOWED US. He had a power point of his notebook, what his desk looked like [at a private library no less–wow] and how he plotted and planned his stories. Now that I liked, process. I can do process.

I admit to not being huge on inspirational speakers. I think just about anyone can be an inspirational speaker if the topic is themselves, talking about how they got to where they were, how much it took, what made them keep on going. And I love those speakers and speeches, they just do little for me.

When we work on our regional conferences our goal is to have solid, practical, relatable notes that can be translated into the writing or art of all participants.

The NYC conference is not based on craft for the most part. It is a series of keynotes surrounding breakout sessions with agents and editors based in New York and what they are interested in. Some, like Jordan Brown gave a craft-based presentation along with submission guidelines. Others may just tell what they want, how they want it and give submission guidelines.

So, stay tuned for takeaway number one—Anthony Horowitz.

face blind

Standing at the registration table at a writing conference I overhear famous author #1 say to famous author #2, “I’m face blind. I can’t remember a person to save my soul.”

Prosopagnosia, also called face blindness, is an impairment in the recognition of faces.  According to FaceBlind.org  with research centers at Dartmouth College, Harvard and University College London, this is a real thing. [They even have a newsletter!] To quote further: It is often accompanied by other types of recognition impairments (place recognition, car recognition, facial expression of emotion, etc.) though sometimes it appears to be restricted to facial identity. Not surprisingly, prosopagnosia can create serious social problems. Prosopagnosics often have difficulty recognizing family members, close friends, and even themselves. They often use alternative routes to recognition, but these routes are not as effective as recognition via the face.

When ever anyone, famous or infamous, makes a statement like the famous author #1, I always have to wonder if it is a real diagnosis, or an excuse of sorts, “I am so busy I can’t remember who you are, you all are a blur, so I am face blind.” As in, I looked it up in Google and it’s a real thing so I’ll just use that. In a Google Search, this even excuses Brad Pitt, who, according to the article, is undiagnosed, but uses this term.

I don’t. Have face blindness, that is. If anything I have the opposite, ‘super-recognizers’ a study called it, maybe almost total face recognition, like a program. It is annoying, to remember and acknowledge people who have no idea who you are.

There are all these quirky, legitimate and yes, maybe undiagnosed disabilities.  Akin but perhaps not as invasive as a learning disability like dyslexia.  I don’t want to call them aliments, or illnesses, because people with Prosopagnosia have perfectly wonderful full lives. More than likely they are excused by their friends and ignored by others who are offended by their unknowable, unseeable disability. That a serious diagnosis of Prosopagnosics can often involve difficulty recognizing family members, close friends, and even themselves, is scary. Imagine not being able to recognize yourself? 

I think the part of the conversation between famous author #1 and famous author #2 that was somewhat annoying was the sort of flip, offhand, casual way the diagnosis was put into the public place, more as an excuse than a significant disability.

I sometime wonder about the things we worry about now, face blindness being one of them. And I can’t help but wonder about a character with other, different, but still significant cognitive disorders. Hmm…off to write!

make every word count

In HOW I LIVE NOW, Meg Rosoff does that. The book is sparse, stark, and so is the topic and detail. Yet, without fail, we are in the moment. It is a stunning accomplishment that. And, that it is about dystopian times when we have not only long stories but trilogies filling the booksellers shelves, is part of the attraction of the book.

At the  LA SCBWI Conference, in her keynote address, THE HOW OF IT Linda Sue Park talked about exactly that, making every word count. Maxing out words. Ripping away the words that do not bring full weight to the manuscript.

She counsels us to put away our work, and bring it out after a month [not the first time I heard this in this conference]. And when we do, we can be amazed at how it looks now. She provided tools, remember this was a keynote, in the ballroom, twelve hundred people, and it worked like a small workshop.

  • Some rules included watching for orphans in paragraphs
  • take out all the narrative in a dialogue and reinsert only where needed
  • read aloud
  • think of each paragraph as a ‘thought unit’.

But most of all, remember we are bombarded with words. They are cheap currency. We are not paid like Dickens. Make words special.

LA SCBWI WowZer!

What I love about the international SCBWI conferences:

  • I can attend. Just attend. I can go to all the keynotes, panels, breakouts, socials and extras I want. I AM NOT IN CHARGE! And that is awesome.
  • I look for craft based presentations and wowzer! just sit and listen to keynotes.
  • THEN
  • I can also line up ‘acts’ from the big show to play in the sticks, i.e., in the Carolinas region 🙂  This is an opportunity to meet, greet, have a conversation, float an idea about an intensive or conference participation and try to get a commitment.

It’s a tricky thing, being in LA or in NYC, for that matter. There are thousands, well not really, but sometimes the red-lanyard club does seem highly ubiquitous. We talk a lot on our list, exchange ideas, complain, share problems, seek solutions and just generally give support. But, well, there is nothing like face to face to give the added boost to community building. And, we aren’t all even there. We have eighty (?) regions, international and domestic, in SCBWI and a regional team for each one.

These international conferences give time to interact with the home office staff and get to know them. This year, a lot of that interaction time went to the back end of the new website, specifically the registration program which many of us have been turning gray over. Alright, so I was already there, but you get the idea!

This year was a WowZer of a year, actually the years build and they are all WowZer years.  Meg Rosoff, who writes YA like a picture book, making every single solitary word count. Judy Schachner, an author/ illustrator, although those are such limited word choices for her. Stephen Chbosky who gave us a view of classic, Justin Chanda confirming Picture Books are not dead, and the life cycle of children book genres is circular, Aaron Becker, yes, illustrators do some of the best keynotes and even sing, and I could go on and on. And we aren’t even into the breakouts yet.

IMG_0804

Teresa Fannin, Diandra Mae & Bonnie Adamson

I had a special project this year. My sidekick was not able to travel to LA for all the right reasons, which means she was working on finishing up a books with Atheneum. #inlawithoutbonnie was the hashtag on my Facebook account. Bonnie actually went to a lot of places from the registration desk, to telling jokes with Chelsea, to conversations with agents, the illustrator social, the non-fiction social and the international social. Here’s Bonnie with Diandra Mae and me at the illustrator social. 

The opportunity to go is beyond wonderful. The red-lanyard advantage to approach industry professional [writers, illustrators, editors, agents] for the region is exciting. And, the ability to live my writing life at this conference is a gift.

 

« Older posts Newer posts »