September/October Featured Member

The Chautauqua Experience
by Lupe Ruiz-Flores

Lucky enough to be the recipient of a scholarship, my second time around at the Highlights Foundation workshop in Chautauqua, New York, was just as great as the first. I attended the workshop last year and again this past July. Besides meeting and getting books autographed by renowned authors and illustrators, I enjoyed the fabulous food, basked in the tranquility of the campus on Chautauqua and made lots of friends. I also learned a lot about my craft, which is why I was there. I’d like to share some of what I picked up at the workshop.

First, if you want to write for Highlights magazine, make sure your story applies to their mission statement. Address your manuscript to the appropriate editor. Go to their web site, www.highlights.com, subscribe or get a copy of Highlights so you can get an idea of what types of stories they’re looking for.

“A writer is the verbal painter,” said Peter Jacobi, professor emeritus of journalism at Indiana University. He used examples of art and music, sensual art versus impact. “Capture your reader,” he said. “Think first, plan, then write.”  Some of the writing tips he brought up (too many to mention all): (1) Promise and deliver – The first page should set subject, tone and direction. Then what you promised the reader must began to be delivered.  (2) Flow – Make your narrative flow steadily ahead. A river of words unbroken from start to finish. (3) Clarity in language – Lucidity in thought.  Word choice. Seek to find the right one. (4) Rhythm – Listen to your sentences as they grate against the mind. How do they come together? (5) Movement – Do not bind your story with a pile of ingredients where there is no sense of movement or forward propulsion of your story. (6) Surprise the reader with the unexpected from left field. (7) X-ray – Take the reader behind the scenes.  “Nice writing is not enough.,” he said. “Surprise the reader along the way. Do not write the fact that it’s raining, but the feel that you’re being rained upon.”

Author Sneed Collard III summed up on how to write nonfiction books for children in one word:  good storytelling. Or is that two words? He mentioned there is a market right now for nonfiction books. Some rules he brought up: Be passionate about your topic. Has it been done before? Find a new angle. Do you have the expertise to tackle the subject? On research, think about the length of the book. Focus on specifics. Stay true to the facts and the spirit of the real subject. Incorporate the facts into the story. Primary sources for research: Observation, academic journals, interviewing people, Internet, government web sites, books, and photographs.

Donna Jo Napoli’s comments: Be kind to yourself as a writer. Celebrate a page, a chapter and completion. Write what only you can write. Walk around a scene until you care about it. Be involved in every scene. If your heart isn’t in it, skip that scene. If you want to write fiction, caress the emotions.  Immerse yourself in the culture or situation you’re writing about. With your books, give the world to the kids. Books can change their lives. Never lie to children in your writing.

On the subject of picture books, Illustrator Lindsey Barrett George spoke of the importance of writing an engaging story. “The character that you meet on the first page,” she said, “is not the same character you leave on the last page. There has to be some transformation.” Critical to a book’s success is also the design, she told us. A picture book is about movement, i.e., the turning of pages and the pictures that follow the words.  What happens next? Will a reader want to turn the page? Using visuals, she brought up honesty/truth, emotional connection, and depth in the making of a book.    

Carolyn Coman covered revision.  Her comments: Take a break before revising, i.e., develop some distance. Read your story out loud. If you’re hurrying to get through a page, this is the field test. Identify the problem passage. If you cut it, will you miss it?  Decide the best part of a scene and make it better.  Have you critiqued it to death? Is there a balance between character and action?  Where does your story begin to unfold? Is it the right place? Is there a clear sequence of events? Does the ending feel all right?

Sharon Creech told her audience that reading is an individual experience. “Every child deserves a place of beauty and joy,” she said. “Think of this when you write books.” Her comments: Characterization is very important. Know your character so well that you hear his/her voice. If you start with character, the theme will emerge in the story. Writing the first draft is like putting up the bone structure of a building and then filling in the walls, she said.

On poetry by Juanita Havill, we got the following advice.  Editors like rhyme poems. Meter has to be perfect. Sometimes poems in rhyme are hard because they don’t really tell a story. You need structure for a collection of poems. There has to be a theme woven throughout. 

What can I say about Newbery Medal recipient Jerry Spinelli? He and his author/poet wife, Eileen, were just awesome.  “Write YOUR book,” he told us. “Not someone’s else’s. Tap into your treasure of memories. Be alert to it. Collect it. Extract it. Use it.”

Some of the parting remarks from the faculty were:  Invest in yourself as a writer. Diversify yourself as a writer. Don’t limit yourself. Cultivate and live by a discipline that serves you as a writer well. You need to make the journey by yourself and ENJOY the journey.  Write because you CANNOT.

There was much, much more.  I am only able to skim the surface in this article.  I hope many of you will one day be able to attend one of these workshops.  It is well worth it.  Just ask another SCBWI member, Maritha Burmeister, who was my roommate at Chautauqua.  We both agreed it is an experience we will not soon forget.  What is most rewarding about Chautauqua, to me, is the accessibility of the faculty and the inspiration and guidance they offer in a setting that most writers dream about.  Enough dreaming—back to writing.

*The SCBWI does not endorse any workshops outside of official SCBWI events.  This article is the opinion of the writer.