SCBWI NY Writers' Intensives-and the first sharing of Orchards
Today I printed out the manuscripts that I'll share during the Writers' Intensive of the annual SCBWI New York Winter Conference. At this intensive, a group of nine writers plus an agent or editor discuss each writer's work in turn during a two-hour session; writers are assigned a morning and afternoon session with different groups, and writers can share the same work or two different works.
I find intensives extremely valuable. I don't sign up just to get feedback on my own writing. I love to hear agent and editor reactions to all the various pieces, and I love to learn from the suggestions that the writers offer each other.
Sometimes the work I share at an intensive is submission ready. Other times, when I am trying a new genre or form, it is raw and incomplete. Several years ago at one of these New York SCBWI writers' intensives, I shared the beginning pages of an untitled manuscript. The piece, in first person verse, did not yet have any clear direction or plot. I had no idea if I was writing a short story, a poem or a novel. I thought the voice was YA but wasn't certain. I handed it out to the editor and the writers in my group with great trepidation and apologies that this was a very new piece of writing.
But at least some of my words resonated with the readers, and many helpful comments and questions were generated. Midway through the discussion the editor asked what my main character's name was. I swallowed, mortified. My character did not even have a name yet. But I had a story thread and emotion, and the words of encouragement from the editor and the writers in that session fueled me to start drafting a novel from that scrap of a beginning. Now, four years later I am counting down to February 22nd, when Orchards, the YA verse novel that developed from that simple beginning, will be published by Delacorte/Random House.
This week I'll bring new work to the intensives, and I look forward to hearing the feedback. I look forward to jumping into the exchange of ideas and to offering doses of that all-important encouragement to other writers. Then I look forward to coming back home, fueled by fresh suggestions and approaches, and setting to work again on my stories.
I find intensives extremely valuable. I don't sign up just to get feedback on my own writing. I love to hear agent and editor reactions to all the various pieces, and I love to learn from the suggestions that the writers offer each other.
Sometimes the work I share at an intensive is submission ready. Other times, when I am trying a new genre or form, it is raw and incomplete. Several years ago at one of these New York SCBWI writers' intensives, I shared the beginning pages of an untitled manuscript. The piece, in first person verse, did not yet have any clear direction or plot. I had no idea if I was writing a short story, a poem or a novel. I thought the voice was YA but wasn't certain. I handed it out to the editor and the writers in my group with great trepidation and apologies that this was a very new piece of writing.
But at least some of my words resonated with the readers, and many helpful comments and questions were generated. Midway through the discussion the editor asked what my main character's name was. I swallowed, mortified. My character did not even have a name yet. But I had a story thread and emotion, and the words of encouragement from the editor and the writers in that session fueled me to start drafting a novel from that scrap of a beginning. Now, four years later I am counting down to February 22nd, when Orchards, the YA verse novel that developed from that simple beginning, will be published by Delacorte/Random House.
This week I'll bring new work to the intensives, and I look forward to hearing the feedback. I look forward to jumping into the exchange of ideas and to offering doses of that all-important encouragement to other writers. Then I look forward to coming back home, fueled by fresh suggestions and approaches, and setting to work again on my stories.
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