Ten Things from the 2011 SCBWI Retreat

I returned from my first SCBWI Retreat yesterday, having consumed approximately 20 biscuits, 5 delicious cakes (thanks Teri and Jo) and 10 glasses of wine, written 850 words, walked 1 mile (cheers for the navigation Anne Marie), learned a lot about the realities of marketing (ta, Nick), received some great advice (grats, Janetta) and laughed innumerable times (special mentions to Tommy and Candy).

Once again, we packed a lot into a short time, but here are the top ten points that stuck in my mind (in no particular order):

1. Published authors need good websites
2. Bloggers like it when you comment on their posts (yes we do!)
3. Are your characters explaining their world? If so, you might need to create a new scene to show, rather than tell
4. Develop a clear sense of your story world's rules and limitations
5. Boys prefer to read about older boys and kick-ass girls
6. Reluctant readers respond to short sentences, short chapters of roughly equal length and a solid quest
7. Frances Lincoln are open to submissions and are looking at all types of children's and teen fiction
8. Frances Lincoln would like more people to send entries to the Diverse Voices competition
9. People love The Hunger Games series, especially the first book. Neal Shusterman's novels also very popular.
10. I need to remember to take photos (apologies for the lack of visuals!)

But mainly, I discovered, once again, that SCBWI members are very nice people indeed.  Thanks for being such good company and good luck with the writing and illustrating!