SCBWI - Prepare Yourself for the Conference

Saturday morning I went to the workshop to Prepare Myself for the May SCBWI conference.

Nicole Marie Schreiber was the speaker and she gave a lot of great pointers, tips and hints to first-time conference attendees.

Some of her important tips about getting a professional critique, in my opinion, were:

1) Follow the proper manuscript format;
2) Have a critique partner or beta reader read your manuscript; and,
3) Follow the guidelines of submitting your manuscript.

These are all really important things to remember.

She also said to remember the following self-editing tips:

1) Check your spelling and grammar;
2) Show/don't tell;
3) Run through your point of view and verb tenses to make sure you stay consistent;
4) Watch out for adverbs (and cut them out whenever possible) (all "ly" words should get a second look - like she ran quick"ly". You don't really need the quickly.
5) Try to make sure you know who the main character is and that you have a good amount of conflict.

There were lots of other tips but those are the ones that stick out in my head.

Nicole also recommended reading some good books on self-editing. My favorite is Stephen King's book, On Writing.

And one of the great things about this workshop is the way the community gathers around to help each other become better writers.

It was a fun morning, filled with great tips, hints and new friendships :D

Sitting Down to Pay Your Bills - What Could Be Worse?

Self-Editing

Writing is easy. The hard part comes with revising.

Writing is like daydreaming . . . on paper. Editing is like sitting down to pay your bills. It’s not fun or easy and a lot of the time we hate doing it.

Editing is like searching for lice in your kids’ hair. You have to use a fine-tooth comb. And be prepared for a little nitty-gritty work, which might seem a little distasteful and could even make you a little queasy. But, if you prepare for your editing session like you would prepare for an important date, you’ll be miles ahead of the game.

And, if you add these tips to your writing toolbox, editing just might be a little easier:

• Critique Partners:

Check over your manuscript—carefully—for typos, extra spaces, and grammatical errors before giving it to your critique partners to read.

If you don’t have critique partners, get them. If you write for the children’s market, your local SCBWI (Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators) will help hook you up with other like-minded individuals and get you into a critique group. This is important because it is difficult to find your own errors. You know what you meant to say and you can read the words the way you meant them without ever noticing even the most blatant errors.

• Computer Software:

Your computer is only one tool in your writing toolbox. Common software such as Word, WordPerfect and others will scan your document for typos, extra spaces and grammatical errors for you, but this is only your first line of defense.

After you have scanned your document for the obvious red flags, provided by your software, you need to read over your manuscript very carefully and then hand it over to your critique partner(s) before you even think about sending it out for possible publication. .

• Critical Questions:

Ask yourself a couple of questions, after you have written your manuscript:

1) What is the topic?
2) What conclusion do you want your reader to draw?
3) What questions do you want the reader to think about, or respond to?

These ideas might help make editing a little easier but, if not, sit down and pay your bills. Then go back to editing, it might not seem so distasteful after that.