The San Francisco North and East Bay region of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators had asked me to teach a workshop on plot for their Contra Costa County Meeting in Walnut Creek. Sixty people signed up, all children’s writers eager to hone their writing skills and improve their craft. Now, I love teaching, but when the room is filled with people who simply love what they are doing, people who are dedicated to and persevering in their dream to become better writers, my heart leaps. Yesterday was such a joyful day. I set out to show how plot structure formats — and there are so many out there that a web search brings you 3.000.000 results in 0.76 seconds! —…
Mina Witteman – author | editor | teacher of creative writing
Posts tagged “SCBWI”
Sat. March 3, 2018 2 – 4 pm, Contra Costa County Meeting, Plotting with Mina Witteman! Date/Time Date(s) – 03/03/2018 2:00 pm – 4:00 pm Location St. Paul’s Episcopal Church 1924 Trinity Ave – Walnut Creek, CA 94596 The Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators San Francisco North and East Bay Region Contra Costa/Alameda County Presents: A PLOTTER’S PARADISE Featuring: Mina Witteman Please join us for a presentation on plotting by the plot master herself, Mina Witteman, at our latest SCBWI meeting in Walnut Creek. Mina’s plotting class is for picture book and middle grade/ YA authors. She will demonstrate the techniques required for all genres. Come prepared with paper and pencil to get the most out of this class. Refreshments will…
Tagged: Creative Writing, East Bay, Mina Witteman, Plot, SCBWI, Walnut Creek, writing workshop
This week was the start of a new chapter in my life. I recently obtained a visa for the US, a so-called artist’s visa that identifies me now as an alien with extraordinary abilities in writing children’s books. Needless to say I am super excited at this opportunity to spread my children’s books wings. But it’s also a life-changing leap into uncharted waters and I feel like the little ones in the picture below. Intimidated by the dark around them, you can see them think: are we going in or… I’m that little one at the end of the rudder. I made my choice and went in. These next years I will be exploring and navigating these, to me, uncharted waters. I’ll be enjoying Californian life, too. Let myself be lifted…
Walking down the marina in San Diego my eye caught the name of a boat. The muse. I found my muse! Granted, he manifested a tad different than I had imagined but I took his/her/its picture, just to be sure. Then hopped on a plane to my next destination, New York, where I will attend the Winter Conference of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. To pass time on the flight I decided not to write but to read. A friend had recommended I read Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace, a book that I had missed when it first came out – at that time my mind wasn’t into anything jesty with a two-year-old who had a tendency to stop…
Tagged: #amwriting, David Foster Wallace, Infinite Jest, muse, New York, San Diego, SCBWI, writing process
If you’re interested in finding out more about my writing and me, hop on over to Cynthia Leitich Smith’s amazing Cynsations blog. I was interviewed by the wonderful Angela Cerrito, author of The Safest Lie.
Categories: A Bit of Everything
Happy New Year all! I haven’t been around much lately and I can tell you why. Together with my SCBWI colleagues from France, Belgium, Germany+Austria and Switzerland, I have been super busy with the preparations of the second SCBWI Europolitan Conference. This time, the conference will take place in my fair home town Amsterdam on Saturday April 4 and Sunday April 5. Two days jam-packed with presentations, panels, hands-on workshops and opportunities to share your work with publishing professionals from all over the world. It’s going to be awesome, this conference. For one, because we have a faculty line-up to die for. I mean, what would you do if you could meet and work with two of the coolest agents in the world: Brooks Sherman…
Categories: A Bit of Everything
Daily Distraction: Illustwriter – Writing Picture Books for Illustrators
Mina Witteman
Posted on November 20, 2014
We have a new writers workshop scheduled in Amsterdam: writing picture books for illustrators. But writers who would like to hone their picture book story telling craft are most welcome, too! What’s it all about? You are a fine artist, and you illustrations for children are just what they like. But building those into a picture book – that’s a different story. You may tell yourself you don’t want to be like those writers who try and draw their own characters, which may turn out quite awful. But deep down, you’d like to do a book all by yourself. Why not give it a try? Get help from two experienced children’s book writers and editors. What do you know about different age groups? What…
Categories: Books, Children's books
Mina Witteman 