Network News: North West Reloading

A Sunday afternoon in December is always a good time for a SCBWI social so that’s what a group of us in the North West did.

We met in the café of the beautiful John Rylands library on Deansgate, more or less opposite the branch of Waterstone’s where many a crit group has gathered before.

This proved to be an ideal venue. Not too busy and a little way away from the bustle of the Christmas markets. Those who fancied a glass of wine could indulge whilst those of us who had to drive could keep safe with a luxurious hot chocolate or a fine coffee.  And then there was cake, of course.  Writers and cake. A common combination.  

A bit of a tea-party?

Creative Writing Exercise

First up, something to get the creative juices flowing. Marie Basting, the new SCBWI-BI Network Coordinator, led a short creative writing exercise:Write or sketch for a few minutes on one of the following Manchester themes:

• A child visiting the Christmas markets for the first time
• A visit to the Manchester United grounds
• An extra on Corrie
• A dog’s view of the greyhound stadium  

This brought a variety of responses, some of them hilarious and others heart-warming - like the picture of the child more interested in the stray dog than all the razzmatazz of the markets. This also broke the ice and allowed us to introduce ourselves as writers / illustrators.

Diverse group

It’s clear that there is a good mix of people in the north west: a balance of illustrators and writers, a balance too of published writers and those still working towards their first publication, as well as some new members and some who have been coming for years. There was an academic slant, too, with several members completing a masters at MMU, some already holding a masters in Creative Writing  and one member who teaches children’s lit and writing young adult novels at Salford University. So, although we were having a bit of tea party this time, it’s quite clear we’re all serious about our writing.          

Goal-setting

We broke out into smaller groups to set some goals. Today these were far-reaching and “bottom-line” goals and perhaps goals for the group rather than individual ones. These include helping each other to:

• write that definitive signature work
• recover from rejection, turning the rejection into a positive
• celebrate success

We also agreed that a more closely defined individual goal-setting routine could be useful. 

Ideas for meetings

We looked at holding regular meetings for ten months of the year – leaving out August and December but perhaps organising something social in December. We might meet from 11.00 – 3.00 and include:

• something new
• a creative writing exercise
• sharing business experiences
• a sociable lunch    
• critique

Critique groups

We’re considering holding regular age-group specific critique groups with limited membership. These would take place at the end of the sessions, so those not involved are free to leave.

Saturday was the favoured day and we’re looking at the John Rylands and the City Library as possible venues.

Scrawl crawls

After the very successful event at the Science Museum in March this year, we’d like to try out some of the other iconic Greater Manchester venues such as:

• the John Rylands
• Ordsall Hall
• the People’s Museum  

A reminder perhaps is needed here that it’s perfectly all right to write. You don’t have to draw.   

So, a few good plans then. It looks as if the North West is really going to buzz in 2015. 

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Gill James is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Salford where she specialises in Children's Literature and Writing Novels for Young People. Her latest novel, The House on Schellberg Street, a young adult novel with a new twist on the 1940s, was published in April 2014.       

Network News: North West – a writer on a scrawl-crawl

@GillJames 

Who would have thought it? Late march in Rainy City (aka Manchester) and warm enough to spend a substantial part of the day outdoors. That’s what happened when the SCBWI North West Network group went on a scrawl-crawl at the end of last month.

Outside in March in Rainy City? 

An intruder? 

I’m not really an artist at all. I tend to shy away from it. My father was a very talented one and my son seems to have inherited those genes. So with so much talent on either side of me I’ve not bothered a lot. I can’t really compete. Okay, so my skater was the only who looked as if he was moving on the frieze in year 3, the man at the Van Gogh museum said I had a talent for colour when I managed to paint a convincing mackerel on a “beginners” (beginners? Even I wasn’t one of them and the rest knew a lot more than I did!) course and at about the same time I became quite adept at sketching portraits. I just don’t put in the hours; I prefer to work with words.

 Body occupied, mind on story 

I did, however, bother to draw that day. I often find some of the best ideas come when the rest of my body is doing something else. I don’t get the ideas for stories and scenes so much when I’m sitting at my computer – the ideas come when I’m doing something physical: ironing, baking, walking, swimming or driving. And of course, in this case, sketching. I remember once, when I was doing my Masters in Writing for Children at Winchester, we were told to go to the cathedral instead of the college and just walk around aimlessly. It felt very peculiar and we thought our lecturers had gone a little crazy. Yet some very powerful writing came out of that for all of us. Now, I actually try to recreate that opportunity. Today offered such a chance.

Sign language and word games 

Playing OULIPO games

 

This is something I’ve always loved. When I was a language teacher I used to take my students abroad and get them to collect the stuff. Words are actually all around us. I spent part of the afternoon collecting words. I then completed a little exercise I think the OULIPO poets might have approved of: I circled every third word, then wrote these out consecutively. I then tweaked it all so that it made sense. This is what I came up with:

The youth on the Metrolink Seeks Roman grits,
 Catalan too.
As a Mothers’ Day gift.

Authority 2744285 has affected the Network on this street.
The Railway line opened with success in 1831.
The people loved it, though it ended.
This road was a station.

If he says the Word he will get somewhere.

Hit by story 

Close to home but a different world

A little strange and surreal my poem. Yet as I wrote these words and as others sketched, the “What If” kicked in. What if a young man, shopping for his mum’s Mothers’ Day present, takes a wrong turn and ends up in a place like Castlefield, in this world of bridges, barges and canals, and columns bedecked with portraits, and finds himself in a time-slip situation? And he can only get out when he finds the correct Word? Which of course he does and returns in time for Mothers’ Day with gems form Rome and Spain? Yes, a little rough still. But there’s the beginning of a story there.

Rusty 

Yes, the drawing’s a bit shaky at the moment and I had to admire the great talent of some of the other participants. I’d certainly do this again though. It allows creative breathing space.

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Gill James is a writer sandwiched between two artists. her latest book, The House on Schellberg Street, came out on 11 April. She is very pleased that her son Ashley James, was one of the three people who worked on the cover art.   

Sketchcrawling in Manchester

SCBWI BI North West held its first sketchcrawl day event last month at the Museum of Science and Industry (MOSI), Manchester.

Children's book illustrator/author Lynne Chapman led our group of 12 people, including illustrators, designers, teachers, students and writers. We had the use of MOSI's wonderful Learning Loft as a base on the top floor of the Great Western Warehouse. 


Lynne started filling sketchbooks on train journeys on her way to school visits, and went on to become involved with Urban Sketchers. Lynne sketches in a variety of small easy-to-carry hardback sketchbooks, sometimes with grey paper and sometimes in a concertina-fold format. 

The contents of Lynne's small black sketching bag: 

*Wrist sweat-band (to replace a cloth, for cleaning brusheswhile painting on-the-go). 

*3B pencil & other b&w mark-making stuff incl graphite stick, white chalk, sharpening tool 

*Watercolour pencils (Inktense by Derwent) 

*Calligraphy pen which gives lively lines (cheap Sailer) with waterproof writing ink (Noodlers) 

*Variably coloured pencil (Koh-i-Noor) 

*Small pan set of watercolours 

*Clips (to hold down paper) 

*Waterbrush (brush with a small water reservoir) 

*Blu-tack with 2 plastic hairspray tops (to stick to surface and fill with water, but too messy to use inside museum) 

*Hairspray fixative

We had 4 sketching stops in total, about 1 hour each, spaced throughout the day. The first was at the Air and Space Building, with planes and roadster cars. 

Katie Weymouth

Pattie Callaghan

Jonny Wood

 The second sketchstop was at the Power House, full of moving engines and very challenging to sketch.

Lucie Golton

Pattie Callaghan

Lynne Chapman

The third sketch stop was in the Castlefield canal basin area in the sunshine (yes, it came out specially!). Some of us also recorded writing on signs and overheard snippets of conversation.

sketching & writing in sunshine

Adelina Pintea

Anna Violet

Eleanor Boyle

The fourth sketch stop was the view from the Great Western Warehouse (top floor or ground level). 

Heather Dickinson

Celia Hume

Lynne Chapman

writing by Gill James

 At the finish, we had great fun sharing our sketchbooks and writing. Being part of a sketchcrawl group made many of us feel more relaxed than sketching alone in public places. The event also gave the challenge of drawing industrial scenes and machines, out of the usual comfort zone for most of us there. Gill James will post a further article about this event from a writing angle in Words & Pictures Network News. 

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Anna VioletFreelance Illustrator www.annaviolet.co.uk 
annavioletillustration.blogspot.co.uk

Network News: A Story for Christmas

Gill James 
Once upon a time there was a lonely writer. She slaved away, on her laptop, on the corner of the kitchen table, fitting in as much writing as she could between working part-time at the accountant’s down the road and looking after her three primary-school-age children.
 It was very lonely and no one took her seriously as a writer. One day as she was surfing the net, trying to find some support for writers like herself, she stumbled across Words and Pictures.
This is really interesting, she thought. She signed up so that it would drop into her mailbox every day.

 A few weeks later she noticed that almost every Thursday there was an article about one of the local Networks.
That sounds so helpful, she thought. But she realised that to join a network she would need to join SCBWI. And she couldn’t quite afford that.
 “Have you any idea what you would like for Christmas?” her husband asked a few days later.
 “Do you think you could buy me a membership for SCBWI? It’s $10 cheaper if you apply before the end of the year.
 “What the heck’s that?” She explained as best she could.
Her husband shrugged. “If that’s what you really want.”
As soon as her membership was confirmed she contacted her local Network Coordinator. They talked on the phone later that day. She seemed very nice.
“We’re meeting for coffee next Thursday,” she said. “Why don’t you come along?”

She had to do this. She really did. But it was a little bit scary meeting a bunch of strangers. She needn’t have worried, though. They were all incredibly friendly and it was good to be able to chat to people who understood about writing and illustrating books for children.
Later in the year she attended a Scrawl-Crawl and came home with an idea for a chapter book.

She went to a Goal-setting Brunch and promised herself that she would send out some of her finished work to three agents.

 She joined a critique group and learned how to give and receive useful feedback.
The highlight of the year was when she showed some of her work to an editor who had come to talk to their network group. Okay, she’d had to pay a little extra to have this one-to-one and she only been allowed to submit three thousand words but it had been worth it.
 “There’s still some way to go,” said the editor. “But this definitely shows potential. You must keep at it.”
The year flew past. She was still getting rejections but at least now many of them included an encouraging note.
 “It’s just a matter of time,” said her SCBWI network friends.
It was soon December again.
“There’s a lot of cards this year,” said her husband as they were putting up the Christmas decorations. There were. She’d made so many new friends this year.

“Do you know what I’m thinking?” he looked at her and grinned. “Now that you’re getting somewhere with this writing lark I reckon I could easily turn the attic room into a little writing den for you.”

 She smiled. “Yes please.”

 It really was beginning to happen. Next step: when he introduced her to his new boss at the work’s do the following week would he say “She’s a writer.”
Do you have a network story to tell? If so contact me on networknews@bristishscbwi.org

London Sketchcrawl Report

26th November was the first SCBWI Sketchcrawl event in London.

The event was open for anyone, not just our illustrators, however as it turned out only members turned up on the day. A small but dedicated group of SCBWI children's book scribblers descended on the Natural History and Victoria & Albert Museums, pens, pencils and brushes at the ready. Here are just a few samples from some of the participants, I've posted all of my own sketches on my personal blog.

Amber Hsu - Fish

We started the Sketchcrawl shortly after 10.00 am in the Natural History Museum. The location, exhibits and visitors all proved to be inspiring subjects.

It was great to see the way each artist focused on different aspects of the museum. Some of us made copious notes and explored characters developed from the displays, while others sought to capture the environment and immediacy of the moment...

Clare Tovey - Bats

John Shelley - Griffon Vulture

Clare Tovey - Whale

John Shelley - Moeritherium

Some creatures past and present gave particularly inspiring ideas for children's book characters....

Amber Hsu - Girl and Bird

I think one of the biggest lessons for us all was how these displays encouraged us to broaden our vision, whether through new ideas or for texture, materials, treatment of our drawings etc.

The relatively limited time frame per image encouraged us to open new doors in our creativity.

John Shelley - Distant Relatives

John Shelley - Entrance Hall, V & A Museum

Sue Eves - Notes on Devonshire Tapestries

In the afternoon we moved on to the Victoria and Albert Museum, where once again the location itself as well as the exhibits proved a rich source of subject material.

Amber Hsu - Sculpture

some participants: L to R: Sue Eves, Amber Hsu, Anne-Marie Perks, Claire Tovey, John Shelley.

There were many more sketches and other participants, if I receive any more I'll add them to this post.

At the end of the day we gathered to share notes. It was a fascinating and very satisfying event which we certainly plan to repeat.




Sketchcrawls began in the US a few years ago based on an idea by Enrico Casarosa. Although there are set dates for Worldwide Sketchcrawls this SCBWI event was independent. More information on the original concept is on the Sketchcrawl website.