Brian Selznick 2007 SCBWI NY

Once again, fascinating tweets from the NY SCBWI conference got me re-reading notes from conferences past. I did this last year with Susan Cooper’s keynote speech. Current Oscar buzz for HUGO makes me think my notes from hearing Brian Selznick’s speech, which he gave soon after THE INVENTION OF HUGO CABRET was published, might inspire others. So here they are, from the February 2007 NY SCBWI conference:

Artist/writer Brian Selznick gave a great, funny inspiring talk on Sunday morning. If you ever get a chance to hear him speak, do it. He’s entertaining and enlightening. I took a lot of notes, but they’re all over the place. He discussed his own creative process a lot, which was fascinating, but difficult to transcribe in note-form because he used a lot of illustrations. So I’ll just copy a list of things that might be interesting:

Children are the most demanding and intelligent audience of all.

He’s always insecure and angry and frustrated when he starts a new project. Always. And then he always forgets this is how he felt. He wanted to mention this to help us, and himself maybe the next time, remember that this is *part of the process!* You ALWAYS doubt yourself and think you can’t bring your idea to fruition and wonder if you have any clue as to what you’re doing.

He thinks WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE is a perfect picture book. He said if you study it, it can teach you everything you need to know about the form. He likes how during the Wild Rumpus the words fall away and the reader has to do the work of making the story in collaboration with the illustrations. This is something he likes to use in his own storytelling, particularly his recent book, THE INVENTION OF HUGO CABRET–the narrative power of a sequence of pictures.

He talked a lot about all the different sources of Hugo Cabret—the various films and stories, etc. that sparked for him and then slowly all drew together, weaving themselves into this new story—his book. It was fascinating. And it harked back in an interesting way to Susan Cooper’s talk of compost piles and things needing to simmer together until the right moment comes to start telling the story.

He closed by reminding us that of course you’ll feel like you aren’t up to your own ideas. That’s how he felt almost the whole time he was working on Hugo Cabret. Also—bad art, bad illos, bad writing, are *essential* to the process of creating something.

And don’t forget the delicious thrill of when something goes so, so right.

A Totally New Year’s Post–Including a Resolution

For a few weeks there, it looked like my last post, about NOT giving up blogging, would be an ironic conclusion to my online journal fun. But instead I’m back to say Happy New Year! And I resolve to post to this blog at least once a week. [ETA-hahahaha! But I do resolve to post more often than I did in 2011.]

I did come close to quitting, for various reasons. It often seems like blogging takes too much time, especially for an online activity that feels like its heyday is over. I do think that social media has pulled online personalities onto micro-blogging platforms, and that is where the liveliest conversations can be found. Also, I’m more sure than ever that it’s crucial to reserve the heart of your energy and writing time for your fiction.

But something in me just can’t completely let go, so here I am– but resolved this year, 2012! that if I’m going to keep this blog going, then I need to liven the place up! Whether blogging is over like MySpace or not and whether I have one reader or . . . um, eleven.

And now, in the fine tradition of New Year’s posts, a little year-end review:

In 2011, with the brilliant help of my agent, Andrea Cascardi, I successfully revised my MG fantasy novel manuscript, learning along the winding, sometimes steep, way how to deepen and flesh out a story so that it’s novel-worthy.

I attended my first Comic Con, which was so much fun I quickly attended another, and even cosplayed River Song from Doctor Who:

From Mid Ohio Con 2011

Speaking of comics, I started reading a lot more of them, turning into a Wednesday comics shop regular, which also led to my joining the Planning Commission for the Cincinnati Comic Expo. Delving into this new-to-me form of storytelling has highlighted some lessons about fiction writing, which I’ll discuss in a new, upcoming post. Which THERE WILL BE MORE OF!

Whee!

I Have Not Given Up Blogging

Even if I still hate the word. A lot. Bleah to blogging. Also– blog, blogger, the dread blogiversary, all manner of things bloggy.

I was going to write a post mulling about this particular form of online writing, how it’s changed, how much people discuss the value of it (esp. for writers), whether it’s worth the time and energy, et cetera, et blogera.

Then I thought . . . AGAIN?! You are going to write yet another post about how you’re rethinking this endeavor?! You are once more going to chat about trying a new approach or shifting your focus; you’re going to gabble about do people even have time to read these crazy blog things considering every writer of every subject, both fiction and non and fanfictional has one?

And I went . . . Nahhhh. I think I’m done with the pondering and the mulling.

But I know I still want to keep an online journal. I like posting conference notes and having them in an easy to find archive. I enjoy recording family fun and pics. I like mulling here about writing and publishing and art and comics and pop culture.

So that.

Ha! This was certainly well worth waiting two months for, eh?

P.S. I also still enjoy reading blogs even though I leave comments less and less often. I’m still watching all of YOU. Mwah-hahahahaha . . . .

Notes from the Cincinnati Comic Expo 2011

It was fun! It felt like a lot more fun than a writers conference, but on reflection, I’m not entirely sure why. I mean, the obvious fun differences are obvious– you can buy a lot of cool things at a comic con, like amazing art, for one; but at its core, the content isn’t really that different. There are interesting panels at writers conferences too, inspiring, thought-provoking speakers, creators of compelling stories, and gifted illustrators. Maybe this was so much more fun because the air of desperation that often hangs over a writers conference was missing?

Or maybe it was because you don’t see people dressed up as Doctor Who and Wonder Woman at a writing conference.

Cincinnati Comic Expo 2011

Click to see more pics of the cosplay.

I attended a couple of awesome panels and brought back a few notes for ya. I’ve decided not to post big long recaps of these things anymore—blogging feels so different nowsadays, plus, I live-tweeted some quotes.

My fave panel was Michael Uslan’s, “The Boy Who Loved Batman.” Uslan is the Executive Producer of the Batman film franchise and is the person to thank for bringing the original, dark vision of the Dark Knight to the screen. I loved his talk so much I bought his book (with the same title.) He became a fan of Batman at age 8, and was heartbroken and enraged by the TV show version of the story. After seeing it, he made a vow (at age 15) to some day show the world the true story of Batman. Much later, it took him years to acquire the rights and then even after he had them, it was TEN years before he could get the first film made. Everyone else in Hollywood was convinced a serious comic book movie would tank.

Uslan also taught the first accredited college course in comics (at Indiana University), showing the links between comics, myth and folklore. His course was initially rejected as soon as he pitched it. The dean said comics were only cheap, lurid entertainment for kids, but admitted he’d loved Superman when he was a child. Uslan told us as soon as he was rejected, he knew he had to think fast. He said, “before I go, Dean, can I ask you two questions?” The dean nodded. Uslan asked him to give a synopsis of the story of Moses, which the dean did: the Hebrew people were persecuted, being killed. A Hebrew couple put their infant son in a basket and sent him floating down the Nile. The basket was found by an Egyptian couple who raised the baby as their son. When he grew up, the baby found out about his heritage and became a hero to his people.

Then Uslan asked the dean to recount the origin story of Superman, if he knew it. Sure, he knew it, the dean said. A scientist and his wife on a doomed planet put their baby son into a rocket ship and sent him to earth. He was found and raised by the Kents. When he grew up, he learned who he really was . . . and at that point the dean told Uslan his course was accredited.

He told other stories of his life that were just as fun and inspiring. I highly recommend the book. But even more than his fascinating life, I was impressed by Uslan’s perseverance and the way he made the most of every opportunity. He said, as his mom told him, “You can have the best ideas in the world, but no one will ever know if you don’t market yourself.” So when he got his course on comics approved, he called the press, pretending to be an outraged citizen who’d heard the University was teaching about comics of all things! Le shock! What a waste of taxpayer money! The story got picked up nationwide and as a result Uslan developed contacts in comics publishing, including a call from Stan Lee, which he called his “burning bush moment.”

Perseverance, holding fast to your inspiration, making the most of each opportunity, and getting the word out about your ideas – not bad lessons no matter what field you’re working in.

I want to go to more comic cons!

A Certain Number of Friday Things

No, not five! I never have five. I fail at five things on Friday. Friday Five Fail.

But not at fun, right? Fun! I haz it. I am all about Friday Fun. So here’s a few Friday fun things for you:

Did you know there is a medieval castle in Cincinnati? Well, technically in Loveland, OH, which is part of the Greater Cincy area. A man just decided one day he wanted to build a castle here, so he did. By hand. He based it on Norman castle plans and everything.

A Castle in Cincy

Speaking of fun things here in Cincy, tomorrow is the second Cincinnati Comic Expo and I am going! It will be my first comic type con– my first real con, I think. World Fantasy Con was more of a writers conference. I didn’t go to this last year because I didn’t know about it. Plus, even though I’ve been reading comics on and off for the past ten years or so, this past summer was when they truly sucked me in. Before, I could wait for the stories to be published as trade paperbacks, but now there are titles I eagerly buy the comic issues of every Wednesday.

My third Friday Fun thing is this, lookee here!

From Writing Conferences and Signings and Such

Debut novels written by friends! I haz them! It is *such* a thrill to see a story that you read in manuscript form become a fragrant, gorgeous book!

Wishing you all a fab weekend!

Cheered Up By Tolkien and Rowling During Revisions

Hey Writers! Do you ever doubt yourself when you’re writing stories? Or feel insecure about the choices you make with descriptive language, characters, plot twists, emotional impact, jokes, or any other little thing?

Hahahahaha! I know! We’re crazy with doubt and mean voices that whisper nasty comments in our heads about our work.

But during these past weeks of revision on my middle-grade novel, I discovered a Whole. New. Mammoth Cave of Doubt. The Caverns of Revision Insecurity. When you’re revising, a change you make on page 52 can spark necessary rewriting through the whole manuscript. And revision doesn’t mean making one change! So the nasssty inner Gollum critic has TONS of new material to attack you with.

So I was hugely cheered up to find out recently that both The Lord of the Rings and The Sorceror’s Stone went through enormous revisions, complete with deep changes.

Here’s a quote from J.K. Rowling. I can’t currently find the exact source but believe it was an interview on Muggle.net. (ETA– Harry Potter expert, Susan Sipal informs me that this quote is from JKR’s website.)

There were many different versions of the first chapter of ‘Philosopher’s Stone’ . . . There were various versions of scenes in which you actually saw Voldemort entering Godric’s Hollow and killing the Potters and in early drafts of these, a Muggle betrayed their whereabouts. As the story evolved, however, and Pettigrew became the traitor, this horrible Muggle vanished.

Other drafts included a character by the name of ‘Pyrites’, whose name means ‘fool’s gold’. He was a servant of Voldemort’s and was meeting Sirius in front of the Potters’ house. Pyrites, too, had to be discarded, though I quite liked him as a character; he was a dandy and wore white silk gloves, which I thought I might stain artistically with blood from time to time.

The very, very earliest drafts of the first chapter of ‘Philosopher’s Stone’ have the Potters living on a remote island, Hermione’s family living on the mainland, her father spotting something that resembles an explosion out at sea and sailing out in a storm to find their bodies in the ruins of their house. I can’t remember now why I thought this was a good idea, but I clearly recognised that it wasn’t fairly early on, because the Potters were re-located to Godric’s Hollow for all subsequent drafts.

I love seeing that she originally envisioned so many key parts of the story so differently.

And here’s a heartening quote, from J.R.R. Tolkien: Author of the Century, by Tom Shippey, about J.R.R. T. finding his way plot-wise through The Lord of the Rings:

However neat the final product, Tolkien had no clear plan at all . . . It is an interesting, and for any intending writer of fiction rather an encouraging experience, to read through the selections from Tolkien’s many drafts . . . and to note how long it was before the most obvious and seemingly inevitable decisions were not made at all. Tolkien knew, for instance, that Bilbo’s ring now had to be explained and would become important in the story, but he still had no idea of it as the Ring, the Ruling Ring, the Ring-with-a-capital-letter so to speak: indeed he remarked at an early stage that it was ‘not very dangerous’ . . . Another element arrived at early on was the character who would become Strider, the Ranger, but in serveral opening drafts this role of guard and guide is taken not by a man, still less by one of the Dunedain, but by a weatherbeaten hobbit called Trotter, distinguished by his wooden shoes. . . . Christopher Tolkien notes that more than two years after his father started work on the sequel, he was still ‘without any clear conception of what lay before him.’ . . . Even by the time the Fellowship had reached Moria, Tolkien knew no more than his characters what lay the other side of the mountains. . . . Seven months after starting work on the Lord of the Rings, he complained that he still had no story.

An “encouraging experience” indeed! For some reason, I had the idea that most novels don’t change that deeply from first draft to publication. Maybe because it seems like lots of aspiring writers write something fairly quickly, sell it fairly quickly and then bang! just a few months later their books are on the shelves. It’s satisfying to see that two of the writers I most admire did not know where exactly they were going with those early drafts.

Wordy Wednesday

Yoo hoo and Howdy! My unexpected posting hiatus is over. I’m not exactly sure why I had such a long one this time. I got blown off blogging course by the Back to School-End of Summer gale and was slow to find my way back due to bunches of stuffs. Like rethinking this blogging thang. Yes! Again! LiveJournal has had so many woes this year, plus the community is not as vibrant as in Days of Internet Yore.

I’m not leaving LJ, but I’ve decided to mirror most of my posts on WordPress. And iffen you’re interested, the new importing tool WordPress has is AWESOME. It sucked over all my posts, plus my pics, plus links, plus all the comments! The comments are kind of in screwy order, but still! Back in the day, childers, you could only import the text of your posts. And now that I’ve talked about days of yore, as well as back in the day, I think it’s time to buy a clapper or a walker.

Should I make this a big fat catching-up post?

Nah, who has time to read such things? Plus if you follow me on Twitter or Tumblr, it’ll be too repetitive.

Although I will mention that Andy and I caught up with Doctor Who and now I see! I get the devotion. We’re devoted! We yelp and go “oooo!” and high-five each other while watching. And the other day, when Andy was playing a video game and had to make a moral choice, he asked himself, “Hmmm. What would the Doctor do?” and then chose the more compassionate act.

I’ll have more to say about that, and many other things, but will stop now. I’m glad I’m back to blogging. Even if I will never like that word, or “blog.”

Ten Tuesday Things

Ha! No, not ten. Although I have at least ten things I could draw from for a blog post since I last wrote. First LJ went down, down, DOWN. Almost utterly for me. A few times last week I checked in and saw others posting, others leaving comments even, but alas! It was not meant for me.

Then houseguests arrived here, chez Dot, and they often keep me from my beloved internets. But they are gone and here I am.

I did manage one writing/internet related thing while they were here. I’m sure some of you have read about the YA authors booksigning that was at Joseph-Beth here in Cincy on Sat. I managed to drop by it briefly and even though I took pics, my pics are lame. So here are some from Saundra Mitchell The best thing about this event for me was seeing sbennettwealer up there at the author table. We’ve gone to that store together for other writers’ signings and there was SARA! Woo!

What else should I talk about in this, my first August post? I don’t know! I feel kind of discombobulated. So how about a few pics? I took the kids to the art museum and Andy and I geeked out a bit with the angel statues:

See how carefully he is NOT blinking?

And have you heard of Graeter’s ice cream, aka the best store-bought ice cream in the world? Well, one of the reasons it is so awesome is the size of the chocolate chips. Check it out:

Do you see that one in the foreground? It’s a big as a candy bar!

Mmmm, ice cream sounds good today . . . *wanders off*

Speaking of Comic Con 2011

Do you remember my recent post, wherein I discussed the comics I’ve especially enjoyed lately?

Well, three of the comics I mentioned just won Eisner awards at this year’s Comic Con. Joe Hill, writer of Locke & Key won Best Writer. CHEW won Best Continuing Series. And Nate Simpson won The Russ Manning Promising Newcomer award!

So iffen you’re at all interested in giving comics a try, try these! And even if you aren’t that interested in storytelling via comics, you should try NONPLAYER, because look how gorgeous:

I used to want to go to San Diego’s Comic Con

I used to feel all “ohhhhh. I wish I could be there.” But while reading tweets and hunting through Flickr for Comic Con this year, I’m thinkin’ *that’s* the way to enjoy it. The lines sound like the longest, worstest EVAR. And I’ve seen lots of disgruntled tweets about people waiting for HOURS and still not getting in to see something they longed for.

Plus, I’m not a huge fan of huge crowds.

Even so, it looks like fun. And it’s definitely fun to hear the news from there. I can’t wait to see Guillermo del Toro’s new comic, THE STRAIN, coming this fall. And I had no idea filmmaker Ridley Scott was coming out with a new film, similar to the creeptastic glory of the Alien franchise, Prometheus.

I DID Know, and am eagerly waiting for, the new TV series The Legend of Korra, or Avatar: The Legend of Korra, which is a follow-up to Avatar: The Last Airbender, which is one of my most favorite recent TV shows.

A lot of you aren’t on tumblr, so mebbe you didn’t see this example of art for Korra, which debuted at Comic Con:

Of course, I’m also looking forward to reading spectralbovine‘s upcoming recaps of Comic Con. But in the meanwhile, I’ll go back to spending too much time reading tweets, etc. Heh.

Here’s my fave pic from the con so far:

(via theonetruebix on Twitter)

An upside to living in Cincy

Deathly Hallows, Part 2- (spoiler free, duh)

(image from tumblr, but I can’t find who made it)

It kept me up until 3:30 am! Whoa. And I was alert–lively, even! It was especially magical to come out of the theatre, with more than three thousand other HP fans, into the light of an almost full moon.

Three thousand! At one theatre! They announced that it had broken all their previous records, including the most recent one, set by one of the TWILIGHT films — which got a huge roar of approval.

It was cool to leave our particular screen, or “house” as the management referred to it, and see this:

Waiting with the huge crowd was fun, although not as fun as waiting for the midnight release of the final book. But I don’t know if that’s just me–I was a lot more excited to get the book than see the movie.

We saw some fab costumes, but even though I DID remember my camera, I did NOT remember to check the batteries, and it ran out of power (hence the less-than-awesome quality of the cell phone pic above.)

Here’s a wee, mean Draco:

He was with this Bellatrix:

I went with my 12 year old son, and he really wanted to see it in 3D. I love 3D for animated films, think it’s jaw-dropping, but don’t find it nearly as compelling with live action. However, the Harry shaped specs were an unexpected and delightful bonus!

So is anyone else going to a midnight showing of the last Harry Potter film?

Are you? Huh? I’m excited! (even if I didn’t love-love-love the last two books. shhhh. I DO love-love-love the first . . . five? Definitely 1-4.)

Midnight! I can’t remember the last time I went to the movies at midnight. It may have been wayyyy back when I was Magenta for Rocky Horror, which was a comically long time ago.

I did go to the midnight release for the last HP book. Does that count? And I stayed up reading some of it, so that was probably as late as this will be.

I am taking my camera, so maybe Friday I’ll have some pics of costumed movie-goers!

If I’m functioning well enough after sleep-deprivation to post them.

Google+ oh, Google Plus

Does anyone who wants one still need an invite? ‘Cause I could email you one. For someone who always avoided Facebook, I’m having fun playing with Google+. Although it has only been one day.

Leave your email in a comment if you want an invite. Or send me one o’ them LJ messages if you don’t want to post your email here.

Wordless Wednesday