Post Conference Wrap Up Day Two and WINNER

I had hoped to get this posted sooner, but it has been CRAZY around here!

Anyway, thanks to all who entered my giveaway.  Rafflecopter chose the winner, and she is listed at the end of the post.

The second day of the SCBWI FL Mid-Year Workshop was fantastic.  My friend Tara recently posted a conference wrap up, and talked about her Agent Crush on Josh Adams (and, yes, he's totally Agent Crush-worthy).  I, however, developed an Editor Crush on Noa Wheeler (Henry Holt BFYR).

Anyone who gets to work with her is amazingly lucky.  She is absolutely wonderful.

To keep myself from gushing ridiculously, I'll just pass along some tidbits from the YA Track presentations.  The first thing Noa did was have us come up with 100 questions for our main character.  O.O  I know.  Luckily, they were in sets of ten, so it wasn't overwhelming.  The sets that caught me by surprise were 10 questions your character would ask, and 10 what if questions.  It was really neat to end up with 100 questions that were unique to my character and even just coming up with them helped me get to know her better.

After lunch, Noa had us write flap copy for our manuscripts, and then Nancy Werlin took us through a recent revision she had to tackle.  What stood out to me from this presentation was that even after numerous novels, and awards, Nancy still thought she was done when she wasn't.  She still had to interpret what three different beta readers meant when they all pointed out different things.  It certainly made me feel better about my own revisions. LOL.

We ended with first page critiques and some Q&A.  On this day, my only note during the first page critiques was "Telling REALLY stands out."  Honestly, I think the biggest thing I've learned from all of the first page critique sessions I've sat through is that reading aloud really is your best revision tool.  Especially for that beginning.  Because telling, awkwardness, info dumps, and inauthentic dialogue all REALLY stand out when read aloud.  It's amazing.

Anyway, I hope you were able to pick up a tidbit or two from the wrap ups.  My friend and critique partner, Christina Farley also interviewed me at the conference.  Apparently I like to talk with my hands. LOL.



And, here's the winner! Chris, please email me at lchardesty at yahoo dot com with your snail mail addy.


a Rafflecopter giveaway

Thanks everyone!  Hope you had a great Independence Day if you're from the US!