Marilyn started us off with our daily dose of announcements and Mary Ann got us all ready to hear Judy Schachner’s EAT, PREY, LICK: THE CARE AND FEEDING OF THE FURRY MUSE, aka SKIPPYJON JONES. 
Judy Schachner is simply funny. She’s other things too…talented, kind, a mom, animal lover etc…but she’s really really funny. She started off her talk by letting us know that she was “correctly” diagnosed with ADHD by a 3rd grade boy at a speaking engagement leaving her a little concerned about the skills of her therapist LOL! We all fell immediately under her spell because our therapists haven’t figured us out yet either. I wish that I could regale you with the rest of her stories, but they wouldn’t be funny coming from me. She has a way with words and if you ever get the chance to hear her speak, I highly recommend it. She also brought some wonderful slides to share. She writes “Non-fiction” so it was really exciting to see her muse Skippyjon Jones!
Awwwwww Look at Mr. Furry Pants. His ears are too beeg for his head. His head ees too beeg for his body. What a perfect combination. Judy, thanks for letting us get a little CHIHUAHUA LOVE!!!! Unfortunately for you dear reader, the rest of this post will likely have a Spanish accent. Si? Its Workshop Time… 
I picked the Double Workshop with Sandy Asher this year. Last year I took a lot of workshops geared towards agenting and web promotion. This year I decided to place my focus on craft since I’m revising and attempting to become agent worthy. 
Sandy’s Workshop was entitled WHOSE STORY IS THIS? AND WHY? AND ARE YOU SURE? We used an article on the core psychological needs written by Alice B. McGinty to analyze our characters and their motivations.
CORE NEEDS:
1. Safety/Security
2. Acceptance/Belonging
3. Love
4. Independence
5. Recognition/Esteem
6. Dominance
7. Self-Acutalization
When you understand why your character is doing what they’re doing, a light bulb goes off for you as the writer. Also remember that needs drive the story, but they are not the story itself.
My favorite thing that Sandy said was that she believes that each of us writes one story over and over again, trying to answer the ultimate question that we don’t know. This comment resonated with me. I’m always driven to write in order to make sense of my own world so it felt a little bit like confirmation of the things that I think in that empty space between my ears.
Here are some other great tidbits that she passed along…
*Think of your characters as walking out into a scene on stage. They do not come out and announce themselves and give an info dump.
*You as the author are acting as a puppeteer below the scenes of the story. *There needs to be hope at the end of a YA novel…the potential of good things happening even if things don’t end perfectly. *Characters know what they WANT, but not what they NEED.
*You are not creating life in all its complexity-you are creating a story arc.
*You have to be really careful in fantasy that the plot doesn’t happen and pull the character along with it. Make sure your plot is growing out of your character and not your character following your plot.
*Your characters do not read your outline.
Time for lunch and then it was off to Workshop #3. I picked PICTURE BOOK REVISION: WHAT CAN I CUT? with Margaret Miller. We jumped right in and began learning different ways to focus our attention so that we could distill our stories down to their essence. I learned a tremendous amount and will be applying it to all my picture books.
I then had the pleasure of having a One-on-One Critique with Christy Webster. She was also extremely helpful with a sample of my second YA and I left the room feeling as if she really helped me to focus in on my true north as far as the story was concerned. Her advice is busy percolating while I work on my revisions for TOUCHING THE SURFACE. Thanks Christy!
Another pleasure of the conference is the impromptu groups that get together. Every little nook and cranny is filled writers, helping each other out and discussing anything and everything. But don’t forget to watch the clock…we talked so long, we almost missed our chance to get “dressed up” for dinner.
Kim, Jodi, Jeff and Shiloh
Kim. Jodi, Katie and Shiloh
After dinner we had the Silent Auction/Raffle. I won some really nice books for the kids and we raised $1,993.00 in scholarship money for next years conference. ((((((applause)))))))
More Intensive Author/Illustrator Forums to round out the night and then once again everyone seemed unable to stop talking….Roxanne broke out the cookies and we hung out in the lobby until we couldn’t keep our eyes open any longer. I believe Sandy Asher’s husband summed it up best when he finally joined her at a Writer’s Conference and realized why she always came home from conferences so much happier then he did…Children’s Writers hug!
Back with my final installment soon. Thanks for tuning in. :o)
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