by Rebecca Light
After a two-month hiatus, the Westside Lit Mingle reconvened
in September at the Santa Monica Library. The evening was spent sharing
highlights from the SCBWI summer conference in Los Angeles, as well as general writing
tips.
There are many events approaching rapidly on the SCBWI calendar,
such as Writers & lllustrators Day and the Working Writer’s Retreat.
Specifics for SCBWI events can be found on the SCBWI Los Angeles website.
Buzzing with excitement after discussing so many upcoming
opportunities, Laurie focused the room with a writing prompt. Given the word
“chair,” we took five minutes to free-write in silence, followed by readings
from a few brave souls willing to share their impromptu works. The group was
treated to a humorous poem, a thriller with a surprising twist, a
semi-or-possibly-not-at-all true account of the history of musical chairs, and
a comedy—all with one thing in common. A chair. Laurie used this exercise to
exemplify one of her favorite moments at the SCBWI conference, when Jon Klassen
told the story of an art professor who gave an assignment to a room full of students
worried about finding their own style. He instructed them to draw a blue
square, and the class consequently produced a room full of entirely unique squares
in varying shades of blue. Both the blue square story and Laurie’s writing
prompt give excellent reminders to not concern ourselves with whether our
content is original or whether we have found our voice. Write what you are
compelled to write and how you are compelled to write, and you will end up with
an exceptional blue square.
The discussion continued with more valuable tidbits from the
conference. Highlights included Neil Shusterman’s strategies for imaginary
world-building, Bruce Coville’s breakout on plot development, and Sophie
Blackall’s illuminated adventures in research and collecting. We also touched
on the state of children’s publishing from a business standpoint, which is
given in a briefing every year at the summer conference. In a much abbreviated
nutshell, kidlit remains alive and well.
The Mingle discussion then broadened to writing tips in
general, from the conference or anywhere else. One Mingler shared advice from
Bruce Coville, who advises writers to utilize all the senses to give their work
dimension. Another shared the innovative idea to save your manuscript as an
iTunes track and hear it read back to you. Upon mention of the word Scrivener, a
perennial love for the writing software quickly percolated through the room.
It was a hearty return to our monthly Mingle. Please join us
next month as we discuss “Writer’s Block and Fear,” appropriate topics for an
October mingle, inching close to Halloween. Scary! Fear not, we’ll tackle them
together. See you in October!
Posts
