Course Outline
The following text is the information from the 2011 workshop.
The full 2012 course outline will be posted in the Spring of 2012.
Monday
8:00am-8:20am Registration
8:20am-8:50am Intro by Instructors
8:50am-9:35am Attendee Introductions: Class attendees introduce themselves.
9:35am-10:20am Lesson 1: Martha Mihalick, Editor at Greenwillow
From Submission to Acquisition: How Manuscripts Catch an Editor's — and a Reader's — Eye
For an editor, reading manuscripts can be a lot like a Choose Your Own Adventure book. Each submission has many decisions and any number of final outcomes. How do you make sure your manuscript finds the happy ending and not the dreaded dead end?
Martha Mihalick, associate editor at Greenwillow Books, will discuss the down-and-dirty details of what makes a great children's book — from picture book to young adult novel. What is this elusive thing called "voice"? What do editors mean when they say a book is "marketable"? How can you figure out which editor is "right" for your book? What is the acquisition process really like, and how can you best prepare yourself and your manuscript to get through it? Martha will answer these questions and more, and share the stories behind some of her own recent acquisitions.
10:20am-10:50am First Page Critiques
10:50am-12:00pm Writing Time and Individual Consults: Optional sharing with other students.
12:00pm-1:15pm LUNCH
1:15pm-2:00pm Lesson 2: Heather Vogel Frederick, Author
Much Ado About Middle-Grade
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Manuscript Consult |
Magical, marvelous middle-grade fiction is the heart and soul of children's literature, the place where anything can happen, from a voyage aboard a 19th-century whaling ship to a school called Hogwarts to a farmyard where a pig and a spider become best friends. But when the sky's the limit, how do you choose a surefire setting, populate it with memorable characters, and develop a compelling story that's catnip to editors and readers alike? Heather Vogel Frederick, whose nine middle-grade novels range from historical to contemporary to adventure/fantasy, offers a roadmap. You'll also learn how to spark and fuel creative fire, overcome fear of the blank page and its evil cousin, fear of failure, break through self-imposed limitations, and wield every writer's secret weapon, those two little words, "What if?"
2:00pm-3:00pm Writing Time and Individual Consults: Optional sharing with other students.
3:00pm-3:45pm First Page Critiques
3:45pm-4:30pm Lesson 3: Liz Rusch, Author
Writing Nonfiction for Children
Nonfiction writing for children for both books and magazine articles is so much more than recounting facts. Perhaps the most important creative work must be done before you ever put pen to paper (or finger to keyboard). This presentation will give a brief overview of the nonfiction market for children and then will explore the many ways you can grab young readers and illuminate the topics that interest you. With examples from her own work and from nonfiction works she admires, Rusch will show you how to conceptualize the best shape for your nonfiction writing project and will give you powerful tools to bring the facts to life for your readers.
6:30pm Potluck Dinner in Classroom: Bring anything you like, food or drink, nibbly, main course, dessert. Friends and family very welcome.
Tuesday
8:00am-9:00am Informal Discussion: David Greenberg and other instructors available for informal discussion.
9:00am-9:45am Lesson 4: Noa Wheeler, Editor at Henry Holt
What to Do When You're Stuck: An Editor's Guide to Getting Over Writer's Block
It happens to the best of us: You have a fantastic idea. You flex your fingers and are all ready to WRITE and then... nothing comes out. What do you do now? This talk provides an editor's unique view on writer's block and how to get past it. Noa Wheeler will discuss the questions, exercises, and techniques that will help you jumpstart your writing brain so that you can get your story from your writing desk to an editor or agent's desk.
9:45am-10:15am First Page Critiques
10:15am-12:00pm Writing Time and Individual Consults: Optional sharing with other students.
12:00pm-1:15pm LUNCH
1:15pm-2:00pm Lesson 5: Michelle Andelman, Agent at Regal Literary Agency
The State of the Industry
Michelle will discuss what's all the rage at market, giving insight into children's/YA trends and where they may be headed, what's heating up, what's slowing down, and what will never go out of style. We'll talk about the benefits of keeping up with the buzz and engaging with the unique social aspects of our market, even as we speak honestly about when it's best for a writer to tune in, turn on, or drop out!
2:00pm-2:30pm First Page Critiques
2:30pm-3:30pm Writing Time and Individual Consults: Optional sharing with other students.
3:30pm-4:30pm Guest Lecture One: Susan Blackaby, Author*
Early Readers for Early Readers
According to the latest brain research, the action of reading coordinates and synthesizes a complex physical and mental choreography. One misstep and you stumble. In this lecture, Suz offers simple do's and don'ts to create stories that support readers who are just acquiring these skills or struggling to master them. Meeting the demands of this audience presents a unique creative challenge that can result in reading — and writing — success
8:00pm Optional Lecture: Deb Lund, Author
Fiction Fireworks
No struggle? No story! These hands-on activities will provide the spark you need to fire up your fiction. Learn to raise the stakes for your characters. You'll want to think about or jot notes in your manuscript, or even try out a new story idea that may emerge. You'll move beyond "Show, don't tell!" by getting into your character's body to experience — rather than name — their emotions. Keep readers blazing through your pages, anticipating the explosion they know is coming, along with the oohs and aahs that follow.
Wednesday
Manuscript Consult |
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8:00am-9:00am Informal Discussion: David Greenberg and other instructors available for informal discussion.
9:00am-9:45am Lesson 6: Noa Wheeler and Martha Mihalick, Editors at Henry Holt and Greenwillow
Building a Scene
Like anything else, a whole book is made of smaller parts — individual scenes are the structural building blocks of your story. So you build a story from scenes...but how do you build a scene? We'll take an in-depth look at the key elements of scenes, and what purposes they serve within the story. A scene may set atmosphere, establish character, drive the plot, or do it all. We will discuss some important DOs and DON'Ts, and how to make your scene come alive on the page as well as it does in your head, so that a reader — and an editor — is swept away by your story.
9:45am-10:15am First Page Critiques
10:15am-12:00pm Writing Time and Individual Consults: Optional sharing with other students.
12:00pm-1:15pm LUNCH
1:15pm-2:00pm Lesson 7: Deb Lund, Author
Picture Books: From Ideas to Publication
This map for creating picture book stories will shorten your learning mileage with tips, tools, and rules for the road. We'll start our trip with characteristics of picture books, touring through ideas and plots, character and voice, and structure and format, before detouring into your questions. Prepare to fill your tank with enough information to send your inner critic packing!
2:00pm-2:30pm First Page Critiques
2:30pm-3:30pm Writing Time and Individual Consults: Optional sharing with other students.
3:30pm-4:30pm Guest Lecture Two: Virginia Euwer Wolff, Author**
The Hardest Part May or May Not Come as a Surprise
We've all had lots of good advice and encouragement; we've learned 99 ways to deploy the comma, we know a graceful sentence when we hear one, we've memorized poetry & learned that doing so is illuminating, down to our gizzards. We've found that sometimes it's just not appropriate to be funny. And that at times it seems inappropriate to be anything else. We've ingested muscle-building quotations & axioms, and we know the journey is a lonely one. And still, every one of us finds what appear to be insurmountable obstacles. Virginia will discuss some of the "hardest parts"; she'll share the results of her celebrity poll, in which prominent children's authors and editors tell how they perceive the hardest parts of their work. The session will include some vitamin-rich defensive strategies that may be useful when our writing difficulties threaten to defeat us.
8:00pm Optional Lecture: David Greenberg, Author
The Story Behind His First Novel, A Tugging String (Dutton)
This book describes the Selma-Montgomery Voting Rights March of 1965 led by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., an event to which he is very personally connected. He describes the times, events, personalities, and the powerful connection that impelled him to write this book.
Thursday
8:00am-9:00am Informal Discussion: David Greenberg and other instructors available for informal discussion.
9:00am-9:45am Lesson 8: Michelle Andelman, Agent at Regal Literary Agency
Pitching and Querying
Michelle will read samples of actual queries that she took from slush pile to bookstore shelf. We'll analyze how their writers grabbed this agent's interest with pitches that played up a project's strengths, and compelled her to request more. In this interactive presentation, attendees will weigh in on whether they'd have requested more and why! We'll also talk basic pitch and query etiquette, with Michelle's best do's and don'ts.
9:45am-10:15am First Page Critiques
10:15am-12:00pm Writing Time and Individual Consults: Optional sharing with other students.
12:00pm-1:15pm LUNCH
1:15pm-2:00pm Lesson 9: David Greenberg, Author
Writing Children's Poetry
A great poem seems inevitable, so obvious that anyone easily could easily reel it off in moments. In fact, it takes enormous craft and power of mind to combobulate words so they are metrical and rhyme and tell a story. Greenberg illuminates the craft and technique behind poems that bring joy to a child (of any age).
2:00pm-2:30pm First Page Critiques
2:30pm-3:30pm Writing Time and Individual Consults: Optional sharing with other students.
3:30pm-4:30pm Lesson 10: Pamela Smith Hill
From Hoop Skirts & Little Houses to Agent Orange & the Holy Grail: A Practical Guide to Research for Fiction and Nonfiction Writers
This discussion will provide practical research advice and techniques for writers of fiction and nonfiction. Where do you find essential materials? How do you track down experts and interview them? How do you choose between contradictory sources? How do you integrate research seamlessly into a manuscript? Does research enrich a story or drag it down? Is research even necessary? This lecture will answer these questions and more; it will arm you with ideas to help you research and write more confidently.
6:30pm Dinner at David & Susan Greenberg's House:
Located at 5715 Norwester (a healthy walk from the classroom; I'll give directions), 503-842-1290. All food provided, friends and family very welcome. However, no objections will be made if you bring a beverage of any sort. David and Susan do not morally object to good beer or wine. If you drive up, it's vital that you not park in front of anyone else's house. Neighbors tetchy about this. There are several vacant lots before and after my house.
Friday
8:00am-9:00am Informal Discussion: David Greenberg and other instructors available for informal discussion.
9:00am-9:45am Lesson 11: Liz Rusch
Selling to Children's and YA Magazine Markets
Learn what freelancers must know about magazine publishing. This talk will help you identify children's magazines that buy the writing you want to do; analyze any children's or YA magazine's audience, format, subject matter, and writing style; and learn how to write a query that convinces editors you can nail the assignment. Writers who attend this workshop will learn: The hierarchy of publications from the easiest to break into and lowest paying to the hardest to break into but best paying; how to use the secret of "the smallest doors open widest"; the formula for a winning query, how to follow up, and how to turn one assignment into another.
9:45am-10:15am First Page Critiques
10:15am-12:00pm Writing Time and Individual Consults: Optional sharing with other students.
12:00pm-1:15pm LUNCH
1:15pm-2:00pm Writing Time and Individual Consults: Optional sharing with other students.
2:00pm-2:45pm Lesson 12: All Instructors
Question-Answer Session with Instructors
This session will be with instructors about all aspects of course including marketing and technical details of manuscript submission.
2:45pm-End of Day Final Sharing: Final sharing of all writing and a group discussion.
*Susan Blackaby Suz has worked in educational publishing for 30 years. On the clock, she hones her skills writing fiction and nonfiction titles for the K-8 audience. On her own time, she writes poetry, picture books, and middle-grade fiction and nonfiction. Suz is the author of Rembrandt's Hat (Houghton Mifflin, 2002), named one of the top ten picture books of the year by the Washington Post; Cleopatra: Egypt's Last and Greatest Queen (Sterling, 2009); a collection of poetry entitled Nest, Nook, and Cranny (Charlesbridge, 2010), recently included on the New York Public Library's 100 Titles for Reading and Sharing and the Bank Street College Best Books of the Year; and Brownie Groundhog and the February Fox (Sterling, 2011). She lives in Portland, Oregon, with her family in a lab-mandatory neighborhood.
**Virginia Euwer Wolff is the winner of the 2011 Phoenix Award for her 1991 novel The Mozart Season. Her 2001 novel, True Believer, won the National Book Award and her newest novel for young adults, This Full House (2009), is on the American Library Association's Amelia Bloomer List.
Awards and Honors:
- Distinguished Alumna Award, Oregon Episcopal School, Portland, Oregon (2003)
- Evelyn Sibley Lampman Award for Service to the Children of Oregon, Oregon Library Association (2005)
- Phoenix Book Award (2011)
- NSK Neustadt Prize for Children's Literature (2011)
For more information, please go to the Virginia Euwer Wolff website.
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