Saturday I attended my first writers’ conference: SCBWI-LA’s Writer’s Days. The highlight was hearing from Lee Wardlaw, who’s latest book, Won Ton: A Cat Tale Told in Haiku, has won 20 awards. Her talk, titled “Ten Things I’ve Learned From My Cats About Being a Children’s Book Author” was full of helpful tidbits. Here are some of the key points:
- Cough up the furballs and move on. When rejection comes your way, make like a cat: Cough ’em up. Spit ’em out. And move on.
- Play….with your writing. Try writing your manuscript in different ways, for example prose, rhyme, free verse, first person, third person, etc. I just read Ann Whitford Paul’s book about writing picture books. I highly recommend this resource, which provides a number of frameworks for approaching your narrative.
- Nap. Lee advocates a 15-minute nap a day. Science has confirmed the importance of naps. My current idol, Jonah Lehrer, discusses what neuroscience has to say about the benefits of short naps ….. here. I must admit that when I’m having a writing problem, the “final relaxation” in a yoga class always seems to do the trick.
- Stretch. Full-time writing is a sedentary business. Get some exercise. Your body will thank you for it. And your writing might too (see yoga, above).
- You have to expose your belly to get belly rubs. Put yourself out there and take risks. Take a class. Consider if your writers’ group is working for you. Try something new.
- Beware of predators, primarily self doubt.
- Purr. Do what you love.
Also, Putnam editor Stacey Barney offered the following approach when starting a writing project. Make sure you can write a one-line description for each of the following elements. You could even write these on a post-it and stick it to your monitor so you can refer back to it constantly:
- Story. What’s your story about, for example, Harry Potter meets Captain Underpants.
- Characterization. Why should we fall in love with your characters. Who are they (briefly)?
- Writing. What style is appropriate for your story/characters? Lyrical? Tension-filled?
- Voice. What personality and emotion shine through in your writing? Some writers are too dependent on dialog and don’t leave room for narrative reflection.
All-in-all the day helped me hone my craft. I’m certainly looking forward to the international conference in August. I hope to see my fellow 12 x 12ers there.
Kirsten W. Larson 
All great tips, Kirsten. Thanks for sharing. I always find conferences so inspiring! I came home all full of energy to tackle new stories or fix old ones 🙂
It is so inspiring to meet some of your community in person, though I have THE BEST online writers’ community. 🙂
This is good stuff Kirsten! I wish I had a whole wall to map out story and post-it full of advice. But I’ve made a pdf to use as a sort of ‘desktop’ image! Whatever works! Glad you feel you really got something out of the conference. I’m working on a poster image now (deadline today!) to see if I can win the reg.-fee for our local conference!
I like the desktop image idea. I am more of a computer person too. And good luck with your poster! I’m looking forward to reading your critique of my MS this afternoon.
I so admire your work Kirsten!
Ooo, just had a book in my hands I thought you might like: Eat Your Math Homework (…maybe when yours are a little older!)
I always love your recommendations, Julie. Even if the boys aren’t old enough, I am!
Thanks so much for sharing these tips! Adly, I am so far away and can’t get to conferences, so it’s good to be able to live them vicarously through all of you. BTW, Lee Wardlaw will be on No Water River on Friday with some haiku from Won Ton, and I can’t wait!
Oh, she is so fantastic! I will be stopping by for sure. And Renee, I keep hearing discussions about your poetry all over cyberspace…including Katie Davis.
Cool, thanks for telling me! But I imagine the discussion is about my guest poets rather than my own poetry…that’s the next step, haha! 🙂
oh wow, how amazing to have heard Lee Wardlow. I love these catnips, I mean tips! All very pertinent!
She’s brilliant and VERY hard working.
As I read this my cat came in to see what I was laughing about!!! She was not amused…but oh my – what good advice! Thanks, Kristen. Am going over now to check out more on Lee’s book.
If you have a cat, Won Ton is brilliant. I bought it for my cat-loving sister and niece.
What a neat book! I don’t keep rejection letters. I know a lot of writers do and I’ve even heard of some writers plastering them on their wall. Not me though. I throw them in the garbage. Throwing them away makes me feel better.
I throw mine in the file…and rarely look at them.
Hi Kirsten – Hopefully you saw that Lee linked your post to her Facebook. Very cool. Great post. I was there Saturday as well and it was awesome. Highly recommend SCBWI for anyone writing or thinking of writing children’s books (picture, MG, YA, etc.)
Hi Tom. Thanks for the heads up! Sorry I didn’t get a chance to meet you Saturday. It was my first ever writer’s conference, so everyone was new to me.
Great post, Kirsten! I’m copying some of these down to post on my office wall! 🙂
Glad it helped, Colleen. Now I can’t wait for four days of this kind of inspiration in August at the international conference!
Congratulations on going to your first writers conference! I love the tips! I like how she compares it to cats! That’s cool. 🙂
Lee is an amazing writer and so inspiring, especially when rejection after rejection comes our way. Several houses turned down award-winning Won Ton. Amazing.
Great notes! That sounds like an interesting book, especially if it’s all in haiku! And I like the editor tips!
She’s actually working on a follow up called “Chopsticks” about what happens when a dog joins the family. I’m not sure when it’s coming out.