Final Call for 2013 NESCBWI Conference Proposals

August 27th brings with it the close of
2013 New England SCBWI Conference Proposals,
so take a moment and submit your most awesome idea today! 

Proposal Due Date: August 27, 201

Presenter Notification Expected: October 15, 2012

For Additional Information go to NESCBWI

Presenters from New England who send in more than one, well-crafted and detailed proposal will receive preferential consideration. Also, you may be asked to present your workshop twice during the conference. You might consider doing a 120 or 180 minute presentation and then tweaking it to fit a 55 minute format. With so much talent in our New England and surrounding regions, bringing you together to share knowledge and skill is what makes New England SCBWI the largest regional conference.

Types of Presentations:
55-minute workshops; 120-minute intensives; 180 studios w/15 minute break.

To Submit a Proposal: Please complete a conference proposal form. Separate submissions are required for multiple presentations or workshop/intensive versions of the same presentation. 

Selection Criteria and Topics

Every year SCBWI New England receives so many excellent proposals, more than can fit into a conference schedule. Therefore, we must choose on the basis of experience, quality, variety, novelty, attendant costs, and other factors. Please use the 2013 NESCBWI Workshop Rubric for more explicit selection criteria and standards.

We would love to see presentations on the following topics. If you are an expert on one of these topics, we would love to see your proposal.

• Hands-on writing workshops that spotlight elements of craft: outlining, story arc, tools, tips, character, dialogue, sketching, etc.
• Hands-on illustration workshops
• Publishing 201 session for intermediate authors or illustrators
• Developing an idea from conception to completion
• How to complete a Detailed Novel Outline
• Secrets of Story Arc
• How to lay out a picture book dummy
• How to start your own publishing company
• Gesture and emotion for illustrators
• School and library visits and promotion
• Grassroots Marketing strategies to libraries and other overlooked venues
• Writing nonfiction articles and short stories
• Mystery writing, organizing your mystery
• Planning Out Clues
• How to write chapter books
• How to design an eBook
• Writing Teen Romance
• What I publish/represent and why
• Historical Fiction for middle grade and YA - What makes it work!
• How to reinvent yourself as a writer and reignite your career
• What exactly happens at BEA, ALA, Frankfurt, Bologna and how can it help you with book sales? 
  
• How to write suspense for MG & or YA
• Illustration techniques - making the magic happen
• Defining the terms: High Concept, Realistic Fiction, Magical Realism, etc.

Got Questions? Ask in the comments section below!

Marketing your book – 3 Ways to Promote Your Books

We all want our books to sell. So how do we make this happen?

1. Join in on Twitter Chats. I like #MGlit, #YAlit, #indiechat, #bookbloggers. Lots of love for those trying to get the word out. Read and review the books of other authors, and they will read and review yours. It's called sharing the love.
   
2. Post book discussion questions on your blog or website, along with a press kit. This can go a long way.
   
3.  Join a Book Blog Tour. Really, this increases your books visibility.

Do You have more marketing ideas that have worked for you? You could win a Hardcover edition of The Casting. Please add your successful marketing idea to the comments below. Be sure to include your email address so I can contact you if you win.

Want more chances to win? Tweet and Facebook this post. Include the URL in the comments section for additional chances to win.

this post, and  and and you could win a Hardcover edition of The Casting.

Labyrinth, Lost, Ladder, and Lager

Sometimes you become tangled in the structure of your book. You go back to check a detail or fact, and you find yourself lost in a labyrinth full of dead ends. The structure you thought you had so carefully crafted, has unraveled. 

Being lost is not the worst situation to find yourself in. We all have a writer’s toolbox, but do you have an escape route?

How about a ladder?

Sometimes you need to be able see the whole structure and rise above the Labyrinth to find your way around the dead ends. My ladder does this.

It's my outline.

When I started my first novel, chapter one spilled out. Wow, writing was so easy! After six months, I had a perfect chapter one and no more. I knew where I wanted my book to end, but I had no idea how to get there.

A very wise, very well published writer said to me, write an outline. I cringed. That would be so much extra work, I said.

The look she gave me conveyed how lazy she thought I was and that I would never be a real writer. What she actually told me was was:

1.     Write one or two sentences about what needs to happen in each chapter.

2.     Don’t feel locked into the outline; let it be alive and allowed to change.

I started with a ten-chapter outline. I know, I can see your eyes rolling, only ten chapters, but from that short outline I was able to expand and build my story’s structure. The final revision of my middle grade novel has twenty-eight chapters and clear path.

Lager!

I just like how this word makes my mouth move - say it! Lager.

Inside my Revision Toolbox

The 10 Most Important Tools For Revising

1.     What is the story that I am telling?

2.     How will my character change?

·      Does my character get to where s/he needs to be?

No – How do I make her change?

~  Introduce a crisis situation that makes my character  change.

Yes – Do the things that happen along the way help get my character where s/he needs to be?

3.     What does it mean to move forward?

·      Reveal something about the character.

·      Propel the plot.

·      Build a relationship that is important later in the book.

4.     Summarize the things that don’t move the story forward.

·      An example of this is Charlie Brown, Linus, and Lucy speaking, but the adults always sound like, “Blah, blah, blah.”

·      One sentence summary of the scene.

5.     Is my main plot a character development arc?

·      Subplots

~  Do they fit in?

~  When do they resolve?

~  How do they resolve?

6.     Characters

·      What are my character's quirks and personality traits?

·      Do my secondary/minor characters grow with each appearance they make in the book? 

7.     Dialogue

·      Do my characters have unique voices?

·      Do they reveal everything about their characters?

An example of this is sub vs grinder (sandwich) 

Their socio-economic placement

·      Does the dialogue let their relationships evolve?

·      How authentic do they sound?

8.     Setting and Description

·      Picture it then brushstroke the description. Let the reader envision it, unless it must be specific.

·      For it to be specific, it must be important later in the book. If not, take it out.

9.     Wordsmith

·      Search for commonly used, but unnecessary words.

~  Examples are just, so, next, that, but.

10.  Show, don’t tell.