Monthly Meeting: February 2025 - SCBWI NY Conference Panel

Recap of the SCBWI Winter Conference in New York City led by our own chapter exec team: Anna Alsup, Madeline Smoot, and Tiffany Shih, who shared “golden nuggets” from the sessions they attended at the conference. So, instead of traveling to the Big Apple, we relaxed at Book People with friends and heard about conference takeaways. 

Meeting Highlights:

• Prompts can inspire writing and illustrating, help imagine what a character may feel, and allow yourself a chance to remember what it was like to be a kid. Sample prompts: when I was eight years old, I was proud of …; when I was 12 years old I was embarrassed by … ; when I was 16 years old I wished other people knew …
• Find dimension to create more realistic, layered characters, through listing traits that also have a counter trait. For instance: an HONEST character may sometimes be too blunt or rude; a KIND character may also become “a doormat;” a LOYAL character may fall to peer pressure; a SMART character may become too arrogant
• Map connections and relationships of side characters
• Delay the climax scene to be realistic and to stay genuine to the character (based on a character’s growth built in advance of an epiphany or climax)
• Reveal backstory slowly and include only what the reader must know at any given stage
• Map emotional growth of a character from the beginning to the end of a scene
• Be brave: remember that as writers and illustrators, being brave means attempting, enduring, learning, growing, and investing in yourself and others
• Consider “work-for-hire” with certain advantages such as: a faster turnaround time, more regular pay, and a large variety of subject matter
• Breaking into work-for-hire: no agent is needed; research and select desired publishers; read publication guidelines; read publishers’ books; tailor your writing samples to what you want to write; create a submission packet with query letter; attend to deadlines; be purely professional and utilize business letter format
• Breaking into IP and ghostwriting: this is very difficult to do without an agent! Get an agent.
• Focus Points in 2025: help fight book bans; think about writing in “blended categories;” think about what story you are the best person to tell; think about special effects for covers and illustrations such as “sprayed edges;” find a collaborative agent who advocates for you, truly understands your work and authentically roots for you
• Design Illustrator Portfolios to: be not too wide for conference showcases; showcase quality work over quantity; include NO originals (originals not allowed)
• Illustrator Tips: consider using traditional media; when transferring back and forth between digital and traditional mediums keep art at actual size to avoid inconsistencies; consider a limited color palette and/or a limited value palette; lighting and direction of lighting conveys mood and adds interest; contrast and highlights can draw attention; create depth using foreground, midground and background; use values to evaluate illustrations for mood, clarity and focal point; illustrate endpapers to set the tone and begin the story as well as end the story