39th annual International SCBWI summer conference! And...ever do affirmations?

Happy Poetry Friday!  Poem and Writing Workout --how do write affirmations--below.

Today I’m continuing the topic of a writer’s conference I’d recommend…and why.

In the first class I ever took in the UCLA Extension Writers Program in about 1984, my teacher, the late Terry Dunahoo (who I call the Johnny Appleseed of Southern California children's book writers), told us to join the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrator (SCBWI) and to attend the annual international conference which, luckily for us, was in Los Angeles. 

Like a good solider (or a well-trained little sister), I did what my teacher told us to do, and boy, am I glad I did. I swear that the classes I took through the UCLA Extension Writers Program and my membership in SCBWI made me the writer I am today.  I've been going every summer since then.

From this West Coaster’s point of view, SCBWI’s annual conference in Century City, California is a fabulous trip-to-New-York-in-a-box.  Editors, authors and web gurus that we’d never EVER get an appointment to see if we flew to New York on our own, show up in LA to teach us, inspire us, critique our manuscripts and party with us.

Come if you possibly can.  Really.  But here’s the great news!  If you can’t come to my home state, you can follow conference action on the SCBWI Blog, which has already begun posting preconference interviews.
How cool is that?
Here's a list poem about the conference:

EVERY AUGUST IN LOS ANGELES
by April Halprin Wayland

I join 800, sometimes 900
kith and kin,
blood and family,
clansmen and women
as we sing our
anxious,
frightened,
excited,
inspired,
ways through
this galaxy, this most amazing writing world
in solidarity
in fellowship
in unity...
in hope.

And if you DO come to the conference, please find me and tell me you’re a TeachingAuthors reader!  This will be my eighth year of critiquing picture book manuscripts.  Is that cool or what?

Writing Workout

When I was a marketing manager at Pacific Bell lo, these many long years ago, I was pretty much a round peg in a square hole.  I knew the corporate world wasn't the right one for me....but I wasn’t sure where I belonged. 

Every once in a while managers were sent to seminars on business and leadership topics.  One of these changed my life.

I remember sitting on the floor in this particular one-day workshop taking notes and wearing jeans and shoes that were not high-heels.  My feet felt wonderful. This seminar was about goal setting and specifically about the power of affirmations. 

We were taught to write three to five affirmations on a 3 x 5 card and keep it in our wallets. Affirmations, we were told, are in the present tense, as if whatever our goal is had already come true. We were told to focus on our affirmations every day in three ways:
1.    Say the affirmation aloud.
2.    Visualize it as true.
3.    Feel it to be true viscerally in our bodies.

Every day as I drove east on the Santa Monica (10) Freeway into downtown Los Angeles, I would say them, see them and feel them.

I said: I am the author of a published children’s book.
I pictured a stack of my published books on the passenger side of my car as I drove.
I let myself feel the joy of being published.

Shortly thereafter I left Pac Bell and began to write children's books and poetry.

One day, perhaps five years after that workshop, I was driving east on the 10 freeway to speak at a school when I glanced over at the passenger side of my car.  There sat a stack of my first book , TO RABBITTOWN.

I got chills.

So…what are your hopes, dreams, wishes?

Write out three to five goals—
at least one about your writing or teaching.
At least one about your health.
At least one about adding fun into your life.

Every day, for each affirmation:
1.    Say it aloud.
2.    Visualize it. 
3.    Feel your body sensations as if it were already true: close your eyes and feel the blood flowing in your veins, your heart expanding, your breathing slow with a sense of well-being.

And then write.  With joy.

photo, drawings and poem (c) by April Halprin Wayland

We Interrupt This Regularly Scheduled Posting....to ask for more writing exercise ideas (win a book!)!

Happy Poetry Friday!  Poem and Writing Workout below.

Our blog topic is reading as a writer.  I'm going to modify it and list some books I'm currently reading as a writing teacher. 

You may remember that after ten years as instructor with the UCLA Extension Writers Program, I'm teaching a brand-spanking-new class this summer.

My vision is to make this class as playful as the theater games class I took years ago.  No matter how tired my friend Steve and I were after a day in the corporate world, we couldn't wait to get to class.

What was so special about it that energized us?  We were moving or we were mediating, we were reacting to smells or blindfolded, we were hugging or we were chasing each other, we turned into gorillas or bananas.

I want my picture book students to be equally energized.  I want them out of their desks with exercises that get them stretching, walking, laughing, observing, closing their eyes, tasting, singing, crying, playing group games.  I'll be covering such topics as point of view, dialogue, rewriting, publishing and more.  Here are a few of the books I'm using:

• Poemcrazy by Susan Goldsmith Wooldridge
• Unjournaling--Daily Writing Exercises that are Not Personal, Not Introspective, Not Boring by Dawn DiPrince and Cheryl Miller Thurston
• Writing Down The Bones by Natalie Goldberg
• Naming the World--and Other Exercises for the Creative Writer edited by Bret Anthony Johnston
  
  Would you like to win a copy of my novel in poems, Girl Coming in for a Landing?Many of you offered terrific writing exercises in the comments section of my February post. Got any more?  Share one of yours and if I pick your exercise, you'll win an autographed book.  (Residents of the USA only, please.) 
  
  I'm looking for the writing exercise that gets you up and moving or playing a game or using a prop.  An exercise that's physical or emotional or spiritual.  Can you share one writing exercise that you love, either as a writer or as a writing teacher?  What have you learned from it?

Writing Workout
The poet William Stafford wrote a poem every morning all of his life.  Since taking the National Poetry Month Challenge to write a poem a day for the month of April, I'm continuing, inspired by the book, Early Morning--Remembering my Father, William Stafford by Kim Stafford. 

Today part of a sentence Stafford wrote inspired me: "At a certain sound today I hear Father turn onto the gravel drive at supper time..."  It reminded me of our dog, Eli, sleeping on his couch in the upstairs bedroom as I write.

As soon as he hears my husband at the front gate, he runs to the open window, peers down, sees Gary and wildly wags his tail.

So I wrote this for my daily poem:

DOG WAITING UPSTAIRS
by April Halprin Wayland

shoes on cement               
key metal gate                   
whistle of man                
done with day’s work              

lifting an ear                   
wrinkling wet nose
twitching a tail

putting big paws on the ledge
dog looking down—man looking up
wiggly rump

galloping over the hall
tearing down all of the stairs
bounding outside

tangle of legs
plough into man
crash to the ground

licking this
most beloved
shoe

happily ever after

(until man leaves for work the next morning)

*     *     *     *     *     *

The dog's excitement seemed to lend itself to a short, clipped rhythm.  In poetry, a stressed beat is noted with a slash (/) while an unstressed beat is merely a period.  The rhythm I used in this poem was mostly: /../  (Shoes on cement  /../).

What about your memory of someone coming home?  Can you put it into a poem?
If the rhythm I used feels appropriate for your poem, try it yourself.  (For more guidance regarding poetic meter and rhythm, see Myra Cohn Livingston's book, Poem-Making.)

Remember to breathe.  Remember to enter to win my book by posting an exercise and including your email address.  And above all, remember to write with joy ~

poem, drawing and photo (c) April Halprin Wayland

Write, Revise, Repeat

Congrats to our own JoAnn Early Macken on the fabulous review of Waiting Out The Storm in The Washington Post this weekend.  (She might be too modest to mention it, but I am not!  She also happens to be in excellent company.)  If you'd like to win a copy of this terrific read-aloud for young kids, post a comment here by 11 pm Thursday, CST.

Thanks to Mary Roy for the following question:

"I am writing a children's story for the first time. I've published articles in local magazines and special sections, but not yet a book. I am starting at ground zero with this story. I feel that I probably need a class. For certain I need direction, and that's really what I'm asking for. Where should I start? How do I develop the basic story into a charming book for children?"

Mary, this is a question that bears repeating and is something I still ask myself all the time.

One good place to start is this post by Esther Hershenhorn.

I will echo her sentiment that one of the most important things to do is read, read, read.  Study what's out there.  Has a topic similar to yours already been covered in a published work?  How did other skilled writers solve the same problems you face in your own writing? 

I like to visit the bookstore (support indie bookstores!) and see what's new -- what books are being marketed heavily, which ones are facing outward, etc.  It is always fun to find a friend's book on the shelf and give it a little marketing boost by making its place more prominent. :)

Bear in mind that what is trendy today (hello, vampires) will almost certainly be well on its way out by the time anything you write now could be published in, say, two to three to four years. 

I also go to the library.  They might not have the best selection of what's new, but they almost always have the classics.  Check out the works of Esme Raji Codell and Anita Silvey for books every children's author should know.

Google is also my friend, and I often search on http://www.amazon.com/ or http://www.indiebound.com/ for card catalog-type information so that I can get a general sense as to what books are "out there." 

Do you know whether you are writing a picture book, a middle grade novel, or a YA?  Do you have characters in mind?  Plot?  Beginning, middle, end?  I find it hard to begin writing until I have a somewhat solid sense as to all of the above, even though these elements may change significantly in the writing process.  There are so many ways to go about fleshing out a story -- of course you have to find what works for you.  You already have good writing habits, or you would not be a published author.  You will likely find that many of these habits apply to writing fiction as well.

When I write mystery novels and soap operas, I outline.  In fact, all TV writers and screenwriters outline (or write treatments, as they're called).  Many novelists, on the other hand, like to be surprised by the twists and turns that ensue along the way.  There is, of course, no right or wrong way to do it -- just do what works for you!

GET A DRAFT.  That is the most important thing you can do.  Then, finally, the real work begins -- revising.

You mentioned that you think you might need to take a class.  Many of us have our MFA degrees in writing for children.  Assuming you don't want to do something quite so hardcore, you can try to find a class at a local college, where non-credit courses in writing for children are often offered.  Online courses are another great idea. There are a number of excellent courses taught through UCLA Extension and http://www.mediabistro.com/, for example.

Workshopping your manuscript is important.  That said, "clicking" with your teacher/mentor is crucial to a productive experience.  Writing is, obviously, highly subjective.  If you get feedback that doesn't speak to your heart, you don't have to take it; but if you find yourself getting the same feedback from multiple sources, then of course it's time for another look.

You may be able to find a local critique group through SCBWI.  If you find one that you like, you're golden. :)  If you find one that you hate, a break-up may ultimately be in order.

Revise, revise, revise.  How will you know when your pride and joy is ready to submit?  You might not.  You are too close to your own work.  Seek input from other seasoned writers.  Attend conferences.  Hook up with editors.  Network.

Good luck, and please keep us posted. 

And if anyone wants to start an online group, let me know -- I am desperate to find one! -- Jeanne Marie