We had a great turn-out at the SCBWI meeting last week, with lots of lively discussion before and afterwards. I guess writers don’t often escape our lairs. When we get together, it’s very motivating – though it’s important to watch the time so we don’t find ourselves locked inside the mall! But wouldn’t that have great story potential? If you missed Maureen Bush’s talk about chapter books, here are some main points:
- Know who your inner writer is and where your strengths are. Maureen believes her inner writer is about 12 years old which lends authenticity to her voice. She believes she would find writing YA very difficult.
- All of her five chapter books are first person and most have boy protagonists.
- A website is essential. It helps to connect with teachers and publishers.
- Three essentials in submitting work: quality, professionalism and persistence.
- Maureen recommends The Writer’s Journey to help focus on structure. If you focus on one weakness at a time and continually improve your writing, success will follow.
- There is little need for an agent when working with Canadian publishers, but an agent may be essential to get in with US publishers.
- Reading text aloud is an important way to catch errors. Even better, a free app called Natural Reader will do the reading for you.
It would be great to see you at the next meeting: Thursday, February 20.
