2012 SCBWI Conference

            So the conference came and went. I had my manuscript critique done by a fairly high-up editor at one of the Big 6. She basically told me stuff I already knew, but was hoping I could fix later. Apparently, they have to be fixed now, before I submit.

Of course, this means I’ve decided I need a full rewrite of my YA novel. I need to streamline the plot by combining characters and making my MC less passive. I have a new synopsis and outline now, and though I don’t know if it’s going to work, I have to give it a shot.

However, as I’m writing this, I’ve got two weeks before the SCBWI-LA Working Writer’s Retreat, and I have nothing to read at this point. This is unsettling, considering the fact that I thought I had a nearly complete first draft up until two weeks ago. But since I’m essentially changing the entire core of my main character, nothing I’ve already written really makes sense anymore. This will be my third total rewrite of this manuscript, though my writer friends assure me that this is completely normal.

Not to say the conference was entirely frustrating. There were lots of fun bits, too, as always!

Friends came to support me at the Portfolio Showcase:

In between sessions, I met up with a group of authors and illustrators who dubbed ourselves "The Circle of Awesome."

Me with my illustrator buddies, Jennifer Gray Olson (left), and Christina Forshay (right) at the SCBWI Hippie Hop Afterparty.