Highlights from the 2002 SCBWI Fall Retreat

SCBWI Canada Takes to the Woods

by Rachel Eugster

Recipe for a successful SCBWI Canada fall retreat:

Take 14 eager participants from eight places in Ontario and three in Quebec. Sprinkle in measured doses of manuscripts and illustrations. Add laughter and abundant food and heaping scoops of time to focus on each other's work. Leave to marinate for one weekend among the fall foliage in a beautiful Algonquin Park setting.On October 18, the fourth annual SCBWI Canada retreat convened at Hay Lake Lodge in Whitney, Ontario. After checking into the cabins lined companionably along the lake, the group gathered for dinner, the first of several fabulous meals provided by lodge owner Erin Morlock.

Following the meal, author Frieda Wishinshy led a workshop on focus and voice. Frieda discussed the pacing and rhythm required by a picture book, and the voice that makes each one unique. A picture book's beginning and ending should mirror each other, she said, illustrating the point with sample opening and closing sentences. She then asked participants to spend a few minutes composing possible first lines. The group began to gel as members shared results ranging from poetic to macabre.

Before disbanding for the night, the group decided to ditch the original plan of splitting into two critique groups, and instead to borrow from the free time scheduled for the following day so that manuscripts could be shared by all. Saturday's weather cooperated with this scheme, remaining cold, grey, and blustery. The main lodge, with its fabulous view of the lake, offered an attractive refuge. After reorganizing Erin's dining room to create one large central table, the group got down to work.

Nametags were tossed into the centre, and the order in which participants would share their work was established by a draw. First in the hot-seat was the lone illustrator, Anne Marie Bourgeois from Ottawa. Her work blew the group away--almost literally, as air and wind figure visibly in her painting. Anne Marie's beautiful illustrations set a high standard for the critiquing that followed.

But the writers rose to the challenge. Stretched over the two days, the manuscripts covered the spectrum of children's literature, from picture books and easy readers to chapters from middle grade and young adult novels, from magazine articles to scholastic pieces. The quality of the writing was uniformly high, a gratifying thing in a group that mixed brand-new writers not only with Frieda, but also with Karleen Bradford, the published author of 17 books.

There was time in the afternoon for napping, walking, talking, or writing, although the windy conditions ruled out canoeing. After dinner, publication credits were shared, and then Frieda led a workshop on mining personal history for stories. She described how her GG-nominated picture book Each One Special had evolved out of the story of her own father's late-in-life transition from pastry chef to sculptor. "A story is not reality," she said. "A story is something else. But it has a heart of truth." She asked participants to each think of two or three things they want, and then to use those ideas to write a first line. Once again, the results were fascinating and varied.

After the last critique session on Sunday morning, the group regretfully disbanded--until next year!