Monday, November 14, 2011

Update

A couple of people have asked me how my elementary school talk went. I suppose I can tell you...

FABULOUS!!

You guys, it was so much fun!! The first group was 1st-3rd graders, and my prepared talk lasted only about halfway through our time--I had a moment of panic. But they asked MANY questions. It was funny what the little kids were most interested in. It was all about numbers. "How long did your longest book take you to write?" "How many pages was it?" "How long would it take to write a BILLION words?" :)

The 4th-6th graders were pure awesome. They jumped in with intelligent, thoughtful questions right away. I ended up not only talking about writing process, but also self publishing, writer's block, social networking, having FUN with writing, my book (I let them see my plot board, and they were fascinated with the book--they all wanted to read it!), and even my friend's book. (Em, they all want to read your book too, AND see the movie!)

In short: it was an easy introduction to school talks. A little scary at first, but great fun. I love passionate kids!

There are many other things going on that I wish I could tell you, lovelies. Maybe soon!

MORE updates: As part of my presentation to the kids, I talked about my writing journals--my favorite tool--and let them see two of mine. I was tickled when the teacher told me yesterday that THREE of the upper-elementary kids bought their own writing journals over the weekend. :))

4 comments:

  1. So happy to hear your talks went well! I bet you had a blast!! Did Child get to see you?

    I'm speaking to my oldest one's Girl Scout troop in March, which will be my first time to give a talk about books to young 'uns. It's a small group of seventh graders, which I'm sure will be far less daunting than what you experienced.

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  2. Oh, how COOL, Suze! The cuteness must have been overwhelming! Also, thx for pimping my book to grade schoolers...I'll um, get you that cash later today, ok? ;)

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  3. Sounds fab, Suzeroo! :)

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  4. Cathy: Yes, Child was part of the group of older kids. I wasn't sure how she'd like it, but she seemed all proud. Yay. I'm sure your talk will go great!

    Emily: The cuteness was nearly toxic. :) And I couldn't help myself, bb. I was talking about the importance of beta-readers/CPs, and they wanted to know what kind of books my CPs write...

    Linder: I am so happy it went well!

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