Okay, so here are the last few bits of wisdom I’ll share from the LA Conference:

• The perfect ending is a surprise and is inevitable
• Art is in the details
• Fiction has a higher standard of believability than real life
• Male energy is action, adventure, fun, and blowing stuff up; female energy is relationships, interaction, beauty of language, and character
• Use male energy to make things happen and female energy to make people care

Bruce Coville (from his session “Plotting: The Architecture of Story”)

• Try to create some semblance of order in the chaos of the world and within
• Children are game for anything
• Yearning is part of what defines all art
• Use your very guts to spill out your very best

Susan Patron (from her speech “Endings: Surprising and Yet Inevitable)

Okay, that’s all I have for now. As my brother would say, “Think about it.”

My picture made someone else’s blog! Wow, I’m almost famous! Lisa Yee is a YA author who presented at the conference. Check out the second picture on this post to see me attending her session on revision.

What you can’t find me? I’m all the way over to the right…the blonde in the bluish/green sweater…okay, so really about a quarter of me is cut off, but I’m still mostly in the picture. Well it was fun for me to see it, so I don’t care if you don’t care!

Here are a few more conference tidbits for you to ponder:

• Everyone starts as a beginner
• You never know what might become a masterpiece
• Say what you mean
• No one else knows just what you know
• Time slips away so fast; don’t wait
• Just because a book is a classic doesn’t mean you have to like it

Leonard Marcus (from his speech “Advice from a Legendary Editor: Ten Invaluable Lessons About Making Great Children’s Books”)

• Imagination is more important than knowledge

Dilys Evans (from a panel discussion called “All About Agents”)

• Take the good part and circle it, then use that as your standard; try to make everything else that good and keep working until the rest gets there

Lisa Yee (from her session “ReVision, reviSion, Revision”)

All the following are from the panel discussion called “Emerging Editorial Voices”:

• Do something during work hours that is not related to work; you need to engage other parts of the mind

(Namrata Tripathi discussing advice from her mentor Brenda Bowen)

• Keep working, you’re not there yet

(Gretchen Hirsch discussing advice from her mentor Allyn Johnston)

• When you’re really upset about something ask “Is anyone going to loose an arm?” If the answer is no, then it’s okay.

(Krista Marino discussing advice from her mentor Beverly Horowitz)

Ponder away!

I went to L.A. for a writing conference, so I basically spent four days listening to speeches and attending sessions about writing. (Fear not nonwriters–this post won’t strictly be about writing.) I took a ton of notes and observed many little gems of wisdom.

I was frantically trying to record everything, but I wasn’t quick enough to always get direct quotations. Some of these may be actual quotations, but more likely I’ve paraphrased them. Still, I’ve cited the speaker and talk in which each was written.

Here are some gems that I think not only apply to writing, but can also be useful in everyday life:

• Open your ears, mind, and heart
• Be bolder in what you do
• Celebrate everyday joys
• Joy is free
• Celebrate laughter as the highest human action

Bruce Coville (from his speech “The Art of the Heart: Writing True for the Child”)

• There are no rules–just whatever you are doing has to work

Mark Teague (from his speech “My 20 Years in Children’s Books: A Survivor’s Tale”)

• You will go in the direction you are looking

Margaret Peterson Haddix (from her speech “Dig In”–this was advice from her ski instructor, which just goes to show how universal these thoughts are)

• Stories have such power in the world, even when they’re only about the death of a certain kind of story

Arthur Levine (from his speech “Picture Books Live! An Analysis of Success”)

• Spending a lot of money doesn’t always mean making a lot of money

Elizabeth Law (from a panel discussion called “Today in Children’s Publishing”)

These don’t even take us halfway through the conference, so I’m sure I’ll have more once I finish transcribing my notes. Besides, I think that’s enough to contemplate for one day!