The award-winning Cynthia Kadohata: #LA14SCBWI interview

There are lots of reasons to attend a national SCBWI conference. Among the best, though, is the chance to hear wisdom and inspiration from today's finest authors.

This August, we'll hear a keynote from Cynthia Kadohata, a National Book Award winner for The Thing About Luck, and a Newbery Medalist for Kira-Kira. The author of eight books for young readers, Cynthia was kind enough to answer a few of my questions. Curious about diversity in children's literature, Cynthia's best writing advice, and her favorite kind of taco? Read on!

Conference registration is open and conferences tend to sell out, so if you'd like to give your career a boost, sign up soon.

There's been a lot of discussion lately about diversity in literature. What are you trying to bring the world with the stories you write? 

Apparently books by authors of color represented about 7 percent of all children’s books published in 2013.  That makes my heart sink. That said, I don’t have a particular agenda when I write a book. I pick something I feel passionate about and I write it.  My book Half a World Away, which comes out September 2014, has a white protagonist. 

I want the stories I write to feel universal to readers whatever race is the main character. My mother once told me, “The more specific, the more universal.” I really agree with that and think if you write something as specifically as you can, the result will almost magically be universal. 

For instance, my father’s life of hard labor inspired both Kira-Kira and The Thing About Luck.  I wrote specifically about the hard work by a Japanese-American family in those books, but I hoped hard work by blue-collar employees is something relatable to all races.  But I never, ever think about these things when I’m writing.

The emotional scenes in your book are so clearly drawn and resonant. In The Thing About Luck, for example, the grandmother's illness is so potent you can feel it progress. How do you prepare to write scenes like that? And how do you make them powerful and restrained at the same time? 

As I write, I have to feel the way the character must feel.  It can be almost a self-hypnosis kind of thing where I focus really hard on each scene until I can “catch” the feelings of a character. 

Sometimes I can rely on my personal experiences, but other times I need to do research, and research is a big part of my process.  

With Kira-Kira, I wrote a draft and put it in an envelope for my editor. Then something happened that devastated me and shook me to my core on the same day as I put the manuscript into an envelope. My boyfriend suggested I write down everything I was feeling.  So I did, and later I put it verbatim into the manuscript, which I ended up sending to my editor after I’d worked on it further for a month.  If there’s no personal experience involved, then once I’ve done the research, I have to catch the character’s feeling and write it down as quickly as possible before I lose it. There’s urgency involved, because I don’t have much time before I lose it—I feel like it’s a matter of a few hours, sometimes less.  This probably sounds wacky … Anyway, that’s part of what I’m going to speak about at the conference.

What's the best piece of writing advice you ever got? What's your favorite writing advice to give? 

The best advice I ever came across and the same advice I would give is “Make a mess, then clean it up.”  That’s how I always write.  For my first draft, I just rush through it in a month or so, and then I edit it over and over and over. Then my editor edits it over and over and over. So the “cleaning up” part takes much longer than the “make a mess” part.

Cleaning up can take two years. I absolutely cannot try to perfect each sentence in a first draft. It would take so long, and I don’t think what I wrote during the cleaning up phase would be very good. The rush of emotions I get in that first month of writing a book wouldn’t come to me if I tried to perfect each sentence.  That’s probably a personal matter—some writers might feel differently.

Another way of interpreting “Make a mess, then clean it up” is that when you’re plotting, you can put the character into a mess, and then you clean up his/her mess.

Three tacos at a time, eh? What are your favorite kinds? 

I only like beef ones!  I’ve tried fish or chicken tacos a million different times, and I’ve never liked them.  But beef ones—I LOVE them!

 

More about Cynthia:

Her website

A National Book Award interview

School Library Journal interview

Emma Dryden on plot: an NY14SCBWI interview

Emma D. DrydenHard to believe, but the annual SCBWI winter conference in New York City is fast approaching. Scheduled for Feb. 21-23 at the Grand Hyatt (which now sits atop a Shake Shack), the conference will feature keynotes by Jack Gantos, Kate Messner, Elizabeth Wein, and Sharon Draper, not to mention breakout sessions by all sorts of terrific editors, agents, art directors, and more. 

If you haven't signed up yet, you can do so here. But don't delay! These things sell out. 

One conference item that's sold out already is the one-day plot intensive featuring Sharon Draper, Kate Messner, Jill Santopolo, Elizabeth Wein, and Jane Yolen. But to make sure you're not entirely out of luck if you're struggling with plot, I interviewed Emma Dryden, who will be moderating the day's discussions.

A bit about Emma: Over her 25-year career, she's edited more than 500 books for young readers, ranging from board books through YA, and across the genres for each age group.

Books she edited, or were edited by a team she oversaw as a publisher, picked up starred reviews, appeared on bestseller lists, and won top awards. Among them: the Newbery, Newbery Honor, Caldecott Honor, National Book Award nominations, and Coretta Scott King Author awards and honors for authors and illustrators. (You can see the whole list here.) These days, she runs drydenbks, a premier children's editorial and publishing consultancy firm that provides editorial and strategic services to authors, illustrators, publishers, agents, and start-ups. 

In short, she's a total pro, and she's going to make sure that intensive session is a transformative experience for participants. Meanwhile, she has advice we can put to use now about plotting, about reading, and about whether seeking independent editorial services from someone like her is right for you at this point in your career. 

You're moderating the intensive on plot, which has been described as "the nemesis of all writers." Over your distinguished career, you've edited hundreds of books, and now you're working directly with authors through drydenbks. What are the most common mistakes you see writers make? 

I don’t like the word “mistake,” when it comes to writing—so I’m going to adjust the word to “oversight,” and say that the most common oversight I see writers making is not writing to the hearts of their characters and not allowing their characters to be the emotional and psychological heroes of their own stories. 

I read lots of manuscripts in which amazing, wondrous, exciting, memorable things happen to the characters, but what’s often missing from these manuscripts is how the characters, by the very nature of who they are and what motivates them and makes them tick, are changing and effecting things around them, how the characters are changing themselves, and how the characters are driving their own stories—and this is what I mean by the heart of the characters.

To my mind plot works on two levels—there’s the action plot and there’s the emotional plot of a story.  Emotional plot is much harder to define and much harder to express on the page, and yet it’s essential to creating a book that will thoroughly compel and engage a young reader.

What do you think participants in the intensive can hope to get from their day? And if someone was hesitating about signing up for one of these, what sort of encouragement would you give? 

The faculty guiding this intensive are some of the finest writers and editors in the children’s book business—not only are they consummate pros, but they are also kind, and they have themselves been in the very chairs in which participants are sitting. 

Writing is a lifelong process of learning, deepening and evolving craft—and the writing intensives are to my mind the very best way to assist a writer in honing their craft. Participants will not only come away with information, tools, (handouts!) and inspiration, but will spend time in the intensive actually writing--doing writing exercises, and tapping their creative wells in a safe, supportive space. This is a gift every writer ought to give themselves if they can. 

What are some of the favorite plot developments you've encountered as an editor and as a reader? In other words, what books should we all read to improve our understanding of plot?

I particularly love stories that have plots that offer surprises. I also best love stories that establish motives and goals in the beginning that are changed, deepened, and realized in some way by the end—but the caution here is that the structure of a plot is not something of which readers ought to ever be particularly conscious. Readers need to feel a story, which means the plot, informed by the characterizations, challenges, and world of the book, is the platform in which to allow readers feel as much as possible.

There are many fine writing and resource books about plot that writers can access, though I think an intensive or craft workshop is often the best way to hone in on some of the best techniques writers can employ to work on plotting.  

A few books for young readers that to my mind handle plot exceptionally well include HOLES by Louis Sacher, HARRY POTTER by J. K. Rowling, and HARRIET THE SPY by Louise Fitzhugh (a childhood favorite—and I include this title because it reminds me that the books we loved as children and that stick with us as we grow up are undoubtedly those that were a masterful blending of action plot and emotional plot that spoke to us on many levels when we needed it.) I just realized these are all “H” titles—not sure what that’s about! 

There are way too many excellent books for readers to read to experience great plotting, so the best I can suggest is for readers to keep reading consciously—really read with an eye towards whether you feel drawn along seamlessly on a journey or whether you’re feeling manipulated too much; whether you feel there are too many coincidences; or if the journey of the story itself feels somehow emotionally connected with the journey of the main character. This is but a few elements of a story that speak to successful or unsuccessful plotting.

How does someone know if they're a good candidate to work with you independently? Who tends to benefit most from your guidance?

I work with authors at all stages of their careers—and authors can get a good sense of my work ethic and work style from the drydenbks website (www.drydenbks.com).  Some authors do come to me at too early a stage in their writing careers, when they haven’t written enough and haven’t yet learned something about the children’s book world and about the basics of craft—and that’s when I will often suggest they join SCBWI, hook up with some critique partners, attend conferences, and learn a bit more about themselves as writers, about writing, and about the market before we work together.

More often than not, I find the writers who benefit most from working with me are of two sorts:  either the writer who has a good sense of the market and of their writing craft and goals and is seeking information about career strategies, writing strategies, and tools; or the writer who has been submitting to agents and/or editors, but who is getting rejections and needs to understand why their manuscript isn’t working. 

I do as much consulting as I do editing, so I am always open to a thoughtful query letter (NOTE: please submit according to the specific submittal guidelines on my website!) about pretty much anything a writer is concerned about their work, and I will work up a proposal that I feel best suits the situation and the goals of that writer. 

Mike Jung: an SCBWI success story #LA13SCBWI

Here's another success story from the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators: Mike Jung, the author of the middle grade novel Geeks, Girls, and Secret Identities, and an all-around kind and generous guy.

Not long after Mike started writing this comic gem (about a boy whose favorite super hero is in real life the girl he has a crush on), he joined the SCBWI and found all sorts of inspiration and guidance along the way. Two summer conferences provided turning points for Mike, as they might for you.

Here's his story:

When did you join SCBWI?
I joined in early 2007, a few months after I first started writing the wretched pile of excrement that would later become Geeks, Girls, and Secret Identities, which I now arrogantly think of as non-excremental and lacking in wretchedness.

What was the first moment you realized it might help you?
It was probably when I first read about the Sid Fleischman Humor Award, discovered the work of Lisa Yee, and read Millicent Min, Girl Genius. Yes, I know that's actually three moments. I found info about writing humor in children's fiction (which I knew my work would include to some degree), I discovered the author who's probably influenced my career more than any other, and I realized that SCBWI was a gateway to knowledge that I'd spend much, much more time ferreting out if left to my own devices.

Can you tell me about your transformative conference moment? Was it the LA-conference master class with Arthur Levine, your editor?
I've had a few transformative conference moments, and more than one of them involves Arthur. However, my first such moment actually didn't involve him - it was my manuscript consultation at the 2008 summer conference. I'd only written 50 pages by that point, but in the spirit of honing my craft and building my critique acceptance muscles I sent in the first 10. It turned out that my pages were critiqued by an agent from a very reputable house, and to my utter shock she requested the full manuscript. The confidence boost I experienced at that moment was massive - I walked into that conference feeling like a clueless wannabe, I walked out feeling like a WRITER, and that infusion of creative confidence has never truly waned.
Mike Jung and his editor Arthur Levine, with Conrad Wesselhoeft photo bombing. Nice sweaters, boys!
What advice do you have for people coming to their first national conference?
The industry professionals at this conference are people, real people, first and foremost - please treat them that way! It's easy to think of them as gatekeepers and vehicles for achieving your dreams of publication, but what you'll learn is that they're regular people who happen to be devoted to children's literature. They walk their dogs, play with their kids, eat bacon, listen to their iPods, use the wrong fork, talk about TV shows, eat too many doughnuts, and otherwise do all the same stuff as anyone else. You'll learn from them, and if serendipity strikes at the right moment you might get the opportunity to work with them, but you should approach them and interact with them as the interesting, intelligent, and utterly human individuals that they are. You'll enjoy it, I promise.

As a faculty member, what are you hoping people get from your presentation? WILL THERE BE SINGING?
Well, it's my first time on the faculty, so the neurotic parts of my brain just hope people will experience an absence of nausea. However, I do have other, more optimistic brain cells, and they hope everyone walks away feeling motivated to explore my session topics in their work in some way, whether they actually agree with anything I've said or not. And oooooh, there MIGHT be some singing. Arthur and I are grizzled veterans at that kind of thing, wink wink nudge nudge...

More Mike!

More SCBWI

An SCBWI success story: Deborah Freedman #LA13SCBWI

Oh, no! Debbie's getting splashed!I love Deborah Freedman's picture books, SCRIBBLE, BLUE CHICKEN, and THE STORY OF FISH AND SNAIL (which just came out a couple of weeks ago and is already one of Amazon's best books for 2013).

In a way, it's no wonder she's so good. She's been working at this for more than twenty years. That's the kind of time and dedication it takes for so many of us.

Debbie was kind enough to talk with me about how the SCBWI has supported her career, and in particular, how going to a national conference can make a big difference. If you're still on the fence about SCBWI-LA in August, read Debbie's story. And then sign up! There's still time!

When did you join the SCBWI? 

In 2000 I discovered SCBWI through a friend, after confessing that I’d secretly been writing children’s books for over ten years. It turned out that she had been doing the same thing!

What was the first clue you had that it would make a difference for your career? 

As soon as I joined and received my membership packet, I realized that the Market Survey alone was worth the cost of joining. And then I went to my first conference and began to meet other writers and illustrators — priceless.

Is there any one moment that stands out as one that transformed everything? 

Yes! After several years of sending art samples around, I’d connected with a few editors but nothing concrete was happening, so in 2005 I finally attended the New York conference and put a small, pen-and-ink piece on display at the illustration exhibit held that year. They gave out what seemed like a bajillion illustration awards, and I didn’t get a single one. But an editor picked up one of my cards and contacted me, asking if I had anything else to share. Of course I did, after all those years of writing; I had a pile of illustrated manuscripts, each one screaming me! Pick ME! Poor dummies. They are all still locked in a file cabinet except for one —the dummy for a book called Scribble. A few weeks after I sent those teeny-tiny bound sketches to Erin Clarke at Knopf, she called, and in 2007 I became a “debut author-illustrator”.

Now that you are so well published, how does the SCBWI continue to support your career?

Well, as many authors will sadly agree, publishing one or two books doesn’t necessarily mean that you will publish another. For most of us, there are ups and downs. Making professional connections through SCBWI has helped me keep this thing going — now to the point where I hope I can call children’s books a career. We can call it networking, but that sounds so dry! I have met editors and agents who have been encouraging and generous, and I’ve made true friends. My local chapter (in Connecticut, run by Kay Kudlinski), especially, is supportive, inspiring, and dear to me. I love meeting other children’s writers and illustrators — and we never stop needing each other.

What do you wish every aspiring author/illustrator knew about this business? 

It’s certainly important for us to thoroughly educate ourselves about this business — but the work must always come first. After all, where in the publishing world will we go, if we haven’t yet pushed ourselves creatively as hard as we can? So, patience, my loves. Slow down, make enough space, and mute the chatter — until you can hear your own voice.

An SCBWI success story: Tracy Clark #LA13SCBWI

 Tracy Clark's debut SCINTILLATE, the first in a trilogy, comes out in January of 2014.

Are you thinking about going to the SCBWI national conference in Los Angeles this summer? Excellent! I hope you can go. I went to my first national conference in 2008 and it changed my life. It's where the person who would become my editor--the great Arthur Levine--and I came up with the idea that turned into my picture book, THE DINOSAUR TOOTH FAIRY. That book comes out in just a few weeks.

That same conference, my friend Holly Cupala, who'd just one an SCBWI Work in Progress Grant, got the news that her first two books had sold at auction. While we were ironing our dresses before the poolside party, she came up with her third novel, which she is working on as I type.

In short, these conferences can be essential investments. Whether you're building relationships with other writers, agents, and editors--or whether you're looking for the right bit of inspiration, that's exactly what you get. Ready to go? Sign up here.

But don't just take my word for it. Here's what Tracy Clark, whose first novel comes out in 2014, has to say about her experience with the SCBWI and particularly at the conferences.

I first heard about the SCBWI six years ago from an agent who judged a writing contest in which I placed as a finalist. I was very green, having only written a few chapters of my first novel. The agent sat me down and said, “Let me tell you why you didn’t win…”

This might sound harsh but it wasn’t. It was straightforward and extremely helpful. I was appreciative for her feedback and her advice, some of which was to keep writing, read heavily in my genre, and to go forth and join SCBWI.

I did join, and didn’t have the knowledge to know at the time how fortunate I was to be part of a chapter with such phenomenal leadership as Ellen Hopkins and Suzanne Morgan Williams. My first SCBWI conference experience was in Carson City, Nevada, where I met our local group and heard about an amazing program they had started called, The Mentor Program. I applied and was lucky enough to work one-on-one with Ellen Hopkins over a six month period on my first book.

It resulted in so much growth for me as a writer that I applied a second time and happily, was accepted again to work with Susan Hart Lindquist. I learned very different things from each of my mentors. I’m so grateful to have had that experience and it’s a program that’s still going strong and benefiting many other artists and illustrators. I also joined our local critique group and continue to learn from the other talented writers I’m fortunate to know. I don’t even want to think of the lonely, long path I’d have climbed if I hadn’t joined SCBWI when I did.

In the summer of 2008, I attended my first SCBWI national conference in Los Angeles. There is nothing like the energy of one of the national conferences to stoke your fire! I met people there that I’m still friends with to this day and left inspired and feeling like I had truly found my tribe. These were people who understood the drive, the coffee stained (and sometimes tear-stained) pages, the all-consuming thing that is creating books for kids.

Winning the 2009 Work in Progress Grant from SCBWI was such a thrill! I’d been working so hard on my second novel, and was plagued by doubts about my abilities; an affliction I’m learning doesn’t actually go away, no matter where you are in the process. The timing couldn’t have been better and was the confidence boost I needed to continue on with that novel. I used the grant money to attend the national conference in New York which turned out to be a very fortuitous choice because that’s where I first met the man who would later become my agent, the incomparable and wonderful Michael Bourret.

The story goes: An editor attending the New York conference, who’d been one of the judges of the Work in Progress Grant, approached me at the Writer’s Intensive, and asked about my progress with the novel. Was I agented? When I told her I was not (namely because I was too chicken to send it out) she recommended I talk to Michael Bourret.

This editor didn’t know it, but Michael was at the very top of my agent dream list and I was intimidated (though I needn’t have been) to approach him at the conference. This, my friends, is where participation in SCBWI and knowing people can really help. I asked my mentor, Ellen Hopkins, if she would kindly make an introduction at some point, maybe later, um… sometime…if, you know, she had time… She literally took me by the elbow right that minute, marched me into a party, and right up to my dream agent for a personal introduction! He was very gracious and warm and I ended up signing with him about five months later.

People are always curious about that book in particular because many of the WIP Grant winners have gone on to great success. That novel is a very personal one and I have hopes it will find its home someday when the timing is right. I’ve learned that timing plays a big part in this business and I’ve learned to trust my agent’s advice about when and what to submit. 

I’m thrilled to say that I am officially soon to be published with a different project! My debut novel, a YA and the first in a trilogy, SCINTILLATE, will be published by Entangled Teen in January of 2014. I’m thrilled to share this story with everyone as it’s full of metaphysical mystery, adventure, and romance!

The good things that have happened so far in my career have depended upon putting myself out there and availing myself of the opportunities that SCBWI has to offer by attending both my local SCBWI events and the national SCBWI conferences. If there is any advice I’d give to someone considering one of the national conferences for the first time, it is not to go with the singular goal of getting “discovered” though that can and does happen.

Go! But go to meet fascinating and passionate people. Go to find out that editors, agents, and published authors are approachable, helpful, and open-hearted. Go to learn more about the business so you can navigate the publishing world more easily. Go to learn more about craft so you can continue to grow as an artist. Go to where they understand you. Go to be inspired! If those are your goals, there is no way to leave disappointed. Any other magic that happens is a bonus!

Tracy Clark

www.tracyclark.org

Twitter: https://twitter.com/TracyClark_TLC

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TracyClarkAuthor?ref=hl