What is an Agent and How to Find One: Presented by Carrie Howland, FEATURED MORNING TALK
Agent Appointments: Offered as a Add-On Option with Carrie Howland
The Author & Illustrator Team: Presented by Karen Bell-Brege and Darrin Brege, FEATURED AFTERNOON TALK
Illustrations in Children’s Books: What I know and What I’m Still Learning:
Analyzing the art in picture books. How the art and writing work together to surprise the reader. How they encourage the reader to turn the page. How picture book art has changed in the past 200 years, and where it seems to be going. Presented by Ruth McNally Barshaw, LECTURE
Adding Poetry to your Prose: Whether you are writing picture books, books for middle grade readers, or novels for young adults, this workshop offers tips for making your writing stand out with the addition of poetic elements. Discussion points include paring down the text for less intimidating, more reader-friendly prose; creating musicality; paying attention to sound, connotation and emotionally charged words; adding metaphor, alliteration, assonance, and repetition; and playing with punctuation. Workshop participants will analyze their own work for possible ways to include these elements to generate a more poetic style for various scenes, specific characters, or an entire story. Presented by Heather Smith Meloche, WORKSHOP
Raising Your Voice: It’s the distinct personality that elevates a piece above the manuscript crowd. In this workshop, participants will analyze middle grade and young adult novel excerpts to determine how writers’ choices enhance first person voices. After, participants will complete a series of mini writing exercises to delve into their characters’ personalities in order to determine how to best bring out their own unique and authentic voices. (It is helpful but not required to bring one page of a current work-in-progress for personal use during this session.) Presented by Katie Van Ark, WORKSHOP
Unleash your Novel: Do you have a young adult novel inside you but you’ve never had the courage to write it? Or maybe you’ve written a first draft and don’t know what to do next. Join YA author Melanie Hooyenga for tips on writing to The End, revising the first (or fourth) draft, and making sure your characters are realistic enough that even the most discriminating teen will come back for more. Presented by Melanie Hooyenga, LECTURE
Committing Yourself to Creativity: Writers and illustrators will learn how to reach their full creative potential with this hands-on Picture book workshop. Author Illustrator Amy Nielander will talk about her creative journey and ways you can commit to producing the best work possible. Attendees will leave with new characters and a picture book pitch. Presented by Amy Nielander, WORKSHOP
Three Paths to Publication: A panel of three authors who reached the goal of publication by different paths. Presented by Kristin Lenz, Heather Smith Meloche, and Melanie Hooyenga, PANEL DISCUSSION
The Picture Book Panel: The picture book is all about the illustrations. How do you tell a story with few to little or even no words at all? Presented by Karen Bell-Brege, Darrin Brege, Ruth McNally Barshaw, and Amy Nielander, PANEL DISCUSSION
Bringing it all Together: General discussion of the publishing world, making connections, getting advice, and lots of Q&A. Presented by Kristin Lenz, Katie Van Ark, and Carrie Howland, PANEL DISCUSSION
See the Event Schedule
Rochester Writers 