Mem Fox wants her books “to give wings to children so they can fly with words.”  She does not use a vocabulary list.  She chooses the right words and uses them at the right time.  Her books are emotional grounded.  They have rhythm and contain child friendly trouble (conflict.)

Miranda Paul defined creative nonfiction as “facts, concepts, or information presented in an interesting way.”  She remarked that kids can Google anything so as writers we must be creative in order to capture their attention.

Kristin Nelson of Nelson Literary Agency talked about how digital is transforming the publishing landscape.  Her agency has developed a digital platform to help her clients self-publish their books.  She stressed the importance of Metadata in presenting books online.

[According to Wikipedia dictionary:  “The main purpose of metadata is to facilitate in the discovery of relevant information, more often classified as resource discovery.”]

Paul Fleischman talked about writing nonfiction. He commented “every book teaches us to write the next one.”  As far as structuring nonfiction books, Fleischman suggests starting with the strongest part of the story to capture the audience’s attention and then build bridges to the other parts of the book to sequentially fit all the pieces together.  Concerning research he feels it should be like a woman’s slip – essential but does not show.

Kwame Alexander wants writer’s to surround ourselves with people who will cheer us on!  We all need a room full of cheerleaders.

Almost 1,200 writers attended the national conference this year.  Four hundred were brand new to SCBWI. Hurrah!!!