Conference Goers - All a Twitter

David Richardson

There will be reviews and articles from the SCBWI Winchester Conference on the Words & Pictures blog over the next week. But to give us an early flavour of the events of the weekend, here is a compilation of some of the tweets from eager and happy conference goers.



Of course, there’s so much to do even before the conference starts. As noted by Molly Ker Hawn ‏@mollykh. ‘Frantically trying to finish a dozen things before I leave for #scbwicon. Tick tock...’ she tweeted on Friday.

Meanwhile Maureen Lynas‏ @MaureenLynas was ‘Enjoying a lovely rail journey on the way to the  SCBWI_BIconference in Winchester." Although there was a 20 minute delay!

Friday Night Pizza

Sheila Averbuch noted, the conference is an ‘Incredible opportunity to meet agents and editors in children's publishing.’

It all begins with the Friday night meal, and this time Friday night was Pizza night! “Half of us! Pizza chaos. Actually very orderly really thanks to the amazing @julietclarebell”.

Incredible opportunity to meet agents and editors

As regards the various sessions to help writers and illustrators, Jane Hardstaff‏@JaneHardstaff4htwitted “Excellent workshop by @MostlyReading and @CRALP'45% of new discoveries are made by word of mouth, bookshops and school visits.'”

Here are a couple of agent wish lists – thanks to Emma Greenwood.

First: Agent @mollykh#wishlist is contemp UK romance, cults, WW1, MG with strong literary and funny voice, narrative non-fiction.  

Second: Comm Ed Random House Natalie Doherty #wishlist - sinister ghost story beautifully written, genuinely funny MG. No direct queries.

The ‘Best thing about the conference,’ according to Miriam Craig is ‘meeting so many people all obsessed with reading and writing’.

Two titbits from the Malorie Blackman session. Miriam H Craig‏@miriamhcraigsaid: “For Malorie Blackman the plot comes first in development of story, but she spends the most *time* on the characters.”

And Emma Greenwood reported that Malorie said 'Write from the heart. Sell from the head'.

Malorie said 'Write from the heart

Eventually, Sunday comes and it’s time for reflection. For some, it is as tweeted by Nicky Schmidt‏@NickySchmidt14h. "@miriamhcraig: Shattered!" The conference does that! Hope you had fun! #scbwicon.

Or you may feel as did Dave Cousins when he said ‘I always thought sleep was over rated anyway!’

Gemma Cooper tweeted: Such a fantastic weekend at #scbwicon - Thanks to all the @SCBWI_BImembers for being so friendly and welcoming (as always)

There were other thanks too:-  Thanks to @JoWyton@Abbietheauthorand many other brilliant volunteers for such a fantastic & inspriring @SCBWI_BIconference by Jane McLoughlin‏@JBMcLoughlin2h.

Congratulations & ENORMOUS thanks to Natascha Biebow, 15 years British Isles RA. Wonderful dedication! We're so lucky to have her! #scbwicon.

Keep a looking out for more from the Conference on Words & Pictures!

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David is working hard on his next project while awaiting the UV 2014 long list announcement. He helps with the London Professional Series Events for SCBWI and is Words & Pictures' Events Editor. In his spare time he works as an adult tutor.

It's amazing what goals you can achieve over brunch

@miriamhcraig

Miriam Craig, who hosts the midweek goal-setting brunch in London, tells us what they get up to and how it all works....

For most of this year SCBWI-ers have been meeting once a month on a Thursday morning to discuss their writing and illustrating aims, set goals for the future and find out what they have achieved from the previous month. 




It’s all pretty informal. We meet at a central London cafe that does good coffee, cake and lunch. Once people have arrived we go round the table saying what we’ve managed to get done of the goals we had set ourselves the previous month, and what new goals we are setting for the next month. If someone hasn’t been to the brunch before then it’s nice if they can tell everyone else what sort of thing they write or illustrate before diving into talking about specific goals. 

 It’s mainly the act of writing it down – which forces you to be clear and specific – that’s helpful.

Thanks to SCBWI-er Michelle Newell we also have some handy little print-outs on which we write down our goals. Each printout contains space for your long-term goals, and space to break those down into more manageable pieces. But a plain piece of paper could do the same job.


Goals can vary from getting through X number of chapters per week, to getting your manuscript ready to send out to agents, to working out how to use Twitter.

Inevitably a little of our non-writing/illustrating lives seeps into the meetings too – sometimes it’s hard to totally separate out your writing or illustrating goals from your general life goals, as one might be stopping you from getting to the other.


Goals can be practical – ‘Back up my book’ – or highfalutin – ‘Add depth to shadowy forest woodsman character and develop theme of existential desolation.’ 

 Whatever the goal is, telling someone you’re going to do it helps. 

Regular attendee Irene said, ‘I find that if you make an intention public you’re much more focused about seeing it through. You hold yourself accountable. It increases your motivation and lessens your fear.’ She added, ‘And the food’s good.’

It’s true, the food is very good. After going around the table and writing down our goals we’re usually all a bit worn out and peckish, so we have some lunch. Then the whole thing devolves into general chat, usually writing-related. 

 The brunches are a forum for solidarity, the pooling of wisdom, and fortuitous connections. 

Aside from making it easier to stick to our goals, an unforeseen advantage of the brunches has been the tips SCBWI-ers are able to give each other. One person will mention her goal to get an article published, and another will suggest a suitable magazine. One will say his goal is to hammer out the rest of his plot, another will recommend a brilliant screenwriting book that might help. 



Brunch regular Jenny said, ‘Sharing information and experiences has been really important for me. I’ve cut thousands of words from my book all using one sheet of paper – of editing advice – that was sent to me by someone from the brunches.’ 

Now that the midweek goal-setting brunch has been going for a while, I’m taking a step back and looking for anyone else who’d be willing to take the reins. All it involves is posting details of upcoming meetings on the various SCBWI websites (once a month), and keeping things on track at the meetings themselves. That’s just a question of making sure everyone gets a turn to speak and that we each really pin down what our goals for the next month are going to be – otherwise it’s all too easy to talk a lot but not really commit to anything! 

It would be very easy to set up your own Goal-Setting Brunch, should you wish to. Just write it down and tell someone you’re going to do it, and you will. 

The next Midweek Goal-Setting Brunch will be Thursday, 12th December at 11am at the Fleet River Bakery near Holborn tube station. For other upcoming dates keep an eye on the Ning and SCBWI Facebook group, and if anyone is interested in helping organise the brunches (not that it involves much work) please get in touch with Miriam.

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Miriam Craig started off as a journalist on a local paper, interviewing comedians, councillors, and cats up trees. Now she's a freelance copywriter and part-time admin queen, allowing her to spend more time writing humour for 9-12 year olds.