As the San Diego weather vacillates between hot-enough-for-the-beach and dark-and-stormy, I’m putting my summer together. Workwise, it’ll be a fun one, with the SCBWI 2012 Summer Conference in L.A. Aug 3-6. I’ll present a breakout session on writing dialogue, an intensive on revising your MG/YA novel, an intensive on creating youthful narrative sensibility, and the annual Market Survey. I’ll post descriptions of my presentation below, but you can check out the full info on the SCBWI conference page.
- Breakout Session – How to Talk Like a Teen When You’re So Not One: Writing Dialogue in YA/MG Fiction
Teen readers want to hear directly from the teen characters in their books. The dialogue you write must be able to entertain your young readers, intrigue them, inform them, comfort them, and, depending on which characters are moving their lips, sound like them. By applying the techniques in this session, you can craft successful dialogue for young adult fiction. - Intensive – Going from Good to Great: Revising Your MG/YA Novel
This workshop teaches you how to analyze your YA/MG manuscript and arms you with techniques for revising the elements you find lacking. Participants must have completed a draft of a YA or MG novel. - Intensive – Writing for Teens? Then Think Like One
Whether your narrator is your young main character or an all-knowing omniscient being, there are ways to convince young readers that you understand them and their view of the world—and to hook’em good and hard in the process. This workshop teaches techniques for creating a narrative sensibility that reflects the way teens think, resulting in teen fiction that “clicks” with young readers.
