Photobucket Photobucket Photobucket Photobucket

Sunday, January 15, 2012

Row80: My Texas Check In

If you're just tuning in, here's the scoop on ROW80
Greetings from the Lone Star state! The Scientist and I are on a birthday getaway in Austin. This is my first trip to Texas, and of course there isn't a better way to get to know a place than meeting its kidlit writers.

On Saturday I stopped by BookPeople, where the SCBWI Austin chapter was hosting a mini event. Lynne Kelly and Tim Crow presented highlights of The Story Masters Workshop they attended in Houston (featuring Donald Maas, Chris Vogler, and James Scott Bell). They broke down some of the larger themes emphasized at the conference, such as using emotion and surprise in your story. A great mix of picture book, middle grade, and YA writers came out to take notes and join in on the conversation. Great bookstore, and great group of writers!

I'm definitely inspired to dive back into my own manuscript. Right now my writing goals are all about revisions. Other than eating tacos and walking around without a coat, here's what I've been up to:
  • I met with my critique group on Wednesday and got super helpful notes. We have just 30 more pages of my story to go!
  • The highlighters are back! I cut about 1,500 words from the beginning of my manuscript to pick up the pace, and now I'm trying to catch all those teensy references and phrases that go along with them. It's smoothing out nicely.
 Hope you all had a fabulous and productive week!

4 comments:

  1. Aw, highlighters, must pick up a brand spanking new set for revisions next month :) Sounds like a great week. Best of luck with the balance of your revisions.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hope the smoothing out continues to progress. I love the editing phase! Best wishes. I look forward to following your Round 1 progress.

    ReplyDelete
  3. That's awesome that you went to an SCBWI event in Texas! Good luck with this final stretch of revisions. I'm sure next weekend's conference will add to your motivation. I can't wait!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Oy! I'd love to be in Texas right now....only if there's warm, dry weather...ha! Sure hope you've had a great trip. Jeepers...what I'd give for some bright sunshine...ha.

    ReplyDelete