SCBWI Meeting January 2018

It's 2018, which means it's time for a new year of SCBWI meetings!

A little background for this post: as you may have read in my "About Me" section of this blog, I'm the Illustrator Coordinator for the Central and Southern Ohio Chapter of the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators (or SCBWI for short). I’ve been involved with the organization since 2008 (has it seriously been ten years already?!) and I love helping to plan events and projects for our members. A few years ago, I started posting summaries of the monthly meetings on my blog for any local folk who missed attending, as well as for my readers spread far and wide who are interested in children's literature topics. I hope you will enjoy reading my SCBWI posts!

The January meeting started with an overview of chapter information. The Central/Southern Ohio chapter covers a large portion of Ohio including Columbus, Cincinnati, and Dayton. To help better serve this big region, Jody Casella fills the roll of our Regional Advisor in Columbus (which is where I am, too), and Andrea Pelleschi is the Assistant Regional Advisor down in Cincinnati. Unless otherwise noted, the monthly meeting in Columbus is held on the fourth Wednesday of the month at 7:00 pm at the Upper Arlington Library, and the monthly meeting in Cincinnati is held on the 4th Monday of the month at 7:00 pm at the Sharonville Library.

Information is frequently updated and shared via the following sites and social media platforms:

Email: ohiocensouth@scbwi.org
Website: http://ohiocensouth.scbwi.org/
Twitter: @CSOhioSCBWI
Facebook: Central Southern Ohio SCBWI

Facebook Illustrator Group: Cen/South Ohio SCBWI Illustrators

(must be a chapter member to join the closed FB illustrator group)
Listserv: coscbwi@yahoogroups.com

 

Once all these details were shared with the group, Jody led everyone in a goal setting exercise from The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron. The exercise involved us imagining where we would like to be in our creative lives in five years. Then we worked backwards with stepping-stone tasks to the present, ultimately landing on what we could do over the next week to work towards those big goals.  

 

After the long-term goal exercise, Social Media Coordinator Kristy Boyce talked about a fun new game we're encouraging members to play this year: Query Bingo! Bingo sheets were passed out where the boxes are filled with common responses that writers receive from agents and editors during the query process. (Things like, "This isn't a good fit," and "The voice didn't resonate with me." There's even a square for "No response.") Querying a project can be tough on even the most resilient writers and illustrators, so the purpose of the game is to still have fun in the face of rejections and encourage everyone to keep submitting. If you'd like a bingo sheet, just ask at any of the meetings in Columbus--we'll have some on hand to keep passing out throughout the year, and members who fill out their sheet will be put in a drawing for something good at the end of the year party in November. :)

 

Lastly, members broke into smaller groups for peer critiques. It was a great opportunity to get feedback on query letters and manuscript pages, as well as meet new members and catch up with old friends!

 

This is shaping up to be a great year already! Tons of exciting plans are in the works, so keep your eye on that website for more information. I hope to see you at a meeting or event soon!