It’s the last day of the Cape Cod Writers Center Annual Conference. Though the amount of learning I acquired this week was insurmountable, it was today that made the most impact.
On the last day, in every class, we have to fill out course evaluations. My e-pub teacher was great and I couldn’t have given him higher marks for providing me with the tools I need to e-publish my books, but it was in my Writing For Young Children class that the impact was made when I sat down with that evaluation sheet. The question was: What did you learn in this class? My answer was: authenticity trumps all.
Adam Gamble is a highly spiritual and intuitive teacher. Authenticity is something that is near and dear to my heart when writing for children, and he kept that first and foremost throughout the class. Every other class I’ve taken in children’s writing focused only on the mechanics. Adam drew in the emotion, the writing from the heart, that thing that a picture book has to have to touch and connect with heart and mind of a young child.
Today’s class was on writing beginnings. After we shared our work a bit, Adam told us not to go crazy trying to find a catchy beginning. Now we all know, to be a page turner, a book has to have a beginning that grabs you. It’s the way you go about developing this beginning that set Adam’s teaching apart from the rest. He told to just write the story – write it from the heart. Then go back and reread it until you find that place where the action starts. There’s your beginning. Trying to write a catchy beginning before you write the story will make it sound contrived and fake and any good editor will spot that in a second.
Do you even understand how freeing this is to me as a writer? Just start writing. Forget about the rules and bells and whistles and just write. He said it’s like cake. You can follow the recipe and bake it, but until you actually stick the fork in it, you’ll never know what it tastes like. Just start writing the story. Wow. He inspired me to go get out my stories and work on them. I have never walked away from a children’s writing class this inspired. Thank you, Adam Gamble, for coming to teach and inspire us.
And so, as another summer camp goes by, watch for my books on Amazon, and…I have written.
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