So I'm back and buzzing from the most wonderful weekend in London. YALC, the UK's first young adult literature convention set up by Children's Laureate Malorie Blackman and Booktrust, took place amidst the cosplay craziness and fun of the London Film and Comic Con at Earl's Court.  I caught up with tons of lovely writerly friends, ate overpriced hotdogs, almost melted in the heat like the Wicked Witch of the West and saw some very entertaining and thought-provoking panels.

Before we get onto the bookish stuff, here are some of the fantastic cosplays I saw:

THE DYSTOPIAN PANEL

Malorie Blackman kicked off YALC in style by giving her opening speech in Klingon!
Patrick Ness joked that he 'was brought up by scary evangelical Christians so I basically grew up in a dystopia.'
Sarah Crossan asked 'How do you survive when the worst thing you can imagine happens? Dystopia looks at that.'
Malorie Blackman was asked why dystopias and not utopias? Her answer: 'Stories thrive on conflict. I just read Dante's trilogy. The part set in Hell is far more interesting than the sections in Heaven!'
Patrick Ness joked that living in a dystopia is like being a teenager: 'Every day seems like the end of the world. There are lots of rules but no one will tell you what they are.'
Malorie Blackman: 'We love books that look at the world in a fresh and different way, and dystopians do that.'
Patrick Ness: In response to the question 'Have all possible dystopian stories already been written?' 'A book isn't a song, it's the performance of a song. You can choose a song that's been done before, because each performance will be different.'
Malorie Blackman said with a smile 'If my books aren't upsetting somebody somewhere, I'm not doing it right!'

THE GRAPHIC NOVEL PANEL

Marcus Sedgwick: 'I wrote my first graphic novel because I had writer's block. I was exploring different types of writing and I remembered how much I used to love comics as a child.'
Ian Edgington: 'Word count must be kept to much more stringently in graphic novels. A regular novel can be 20,000 words longer than expected and it's not a big deal. But that would be suicidal for an illustrated book!'
Marcus Sedgwick: 'One of the best things about comics and graphic novels is the collaboration.'
Ian Edgington half-joked that 'As a writer you have to brace yourself for the artist's interpretation! It might not be what you expect.'

THE FANTASY PANEL

The chair, Mark Aplin, opened with a question about why the panellists chose to write YA fantasy, rather than adult, and if there were differences:
Ruth Warburton: 'YA readers are fearless. YA is open to limitless possibilities.'
Frances Hardinge: 'I think you need to give sex and violence more weight and thought in YA, rather than sprinkle them on like condiments which Adult sometimes does.'
Jonathan Stroud: 'Compared to Adult Fantasy, YA is quicker and more nimble and more personal. It's more about celebrating the individual.'

Amy McCullough: 'I like to know and research as much as I can about my fantasy world - and then pare it down as much as possible.'
Jonathan Stroud: 'The most fascinating fantasies are often worlds where there's just a slight shift away from our own - just one thing that's different.'
Ruth Warburton: 'We're all writing fanfic, really! All books are populated by the books which the author has read.'
Ruth Warburton: 'Whatever you do, stick to the rules you've invented for your world!'
Frances Hardinge: 'I love travel for research and inspiration. I've claimed clambering about on volcanoes against tax!'

THE HORROR PANEL

Derek Landy joked that 'MG and YA Horror is a gateway drug for young readers before they move onto adult writers like Stephen King.'
Darren Shan: 'A little description goes a long way. I prefer to let people imagine characters for themselves.'
Derek Landy: 'What I love about writing a series is that you get to fully explore characters as they grow and change.'
Charlie Higson on series:' 'To quote Tolkein, "The tale grows in the telling." Also if you find you have too many characters and you don't know what to do with them at the end of a long series - you can always take a leaf out of GRR Martin or Stephen King's book and gather a whole bunch of them together and kill them all off!'
Derek Landy, on how he channels his younger self to write books for kids and teens: 'You don't lose the ages you've been before. The 15-year-old is still inside you. You don't forget what it was like to be that age.'
Derek Landy on what he likes best about writing a long series: 'You get to make your readers care so much about your characters... and then you kill them. *evil laugh*'

So that was Saturday! It was a long, hot, exhausting day, so I was extremely happy to retire to the gorgeous pub garden of The Troubadour (who also have the nicest staff) afterwards with lots of awesome writer and blogger friends. *waves merrily to the lovely Nikki Sheehan, Marieke Nijkamp, Luna, Kat Ellis, Rachel Hamilton, Antonia Lindsay, Gary Meehan, Sarah Sky and Dawn Kurtagich* These cocktails were earned, let me tell you!

THE HEROINES PANEL

(Which I sadly don't even have a fuzzy picture of, which is a pity because Tanya Byrne has the most kickass blue hair.)

Julie Mayhew: 'I think most authors have a writing age they automatically slip back to. Mine is fifteen.'
Tanya Byrne: 'The joy of writing villains or bad girls is that they can do and say stuff that you yourself would never do.'
Holly Smale: 'We all still have the child within us, but some of ours are noisier than others'!'
Tanya Byrne, in response to 'Do you feel a responsibility to represent your readers in your stories?' - 'NO. I just try to tell stories you haven't heard before.'
Tanya Byrne: 'Bad girls are more interesting. After all, we're all just a couple of bad decisions away from disaster.'
Holly Smale: 'There's so much pressure on women to be perfect. Authors aren't helping if all their female characters are shiny and perfect. It just makes girls feel crappier. Anyway, flawed characters are more interesting.'
Holly Smale, in response to 'Do you feel publishers take female authors less seriously?' - 'Well, I write comedy, so I'm happy not to be taken seriously!'

HOLLY BLACK & SALLY GARDNER IN CONVERSATION

Holly Black: 'Fairy tales are all plot and no character. Often the characters aren't even named, they're just an archetype. So the minute you turn the characters into real people, you automatically change the fairy tale and make it your own.'
Sally Gardner: 'Fairy tales allow you to go into the dark, dark wood of the psyche - but only as far as you're comfortable with.'
Sally Gardner: 'It's a misunderstanding that fairy tales are for kids. They're actually a vehicle for exploring topics which couldn't be spoken about in the family - like puberty, incest, and other dark things.'
Sally Gardner continued: 'For example, the original Cinderella has her father, the king, looking for a bride. He has a ring, and whosoever's finger fits the ring, he'll marry her. He searches the whole kingdom, but it doesn't fit anyone's... so he tries it on his daughter's hand. And it fits. So a horrified Cinderella runs away, and the story we know begins...'
Holly Black: 'What I find fascinating about fairies - as opposed to vampires, werewolves etc - is that they have never been human. So they have a completely different morality, and a focus on odd things like extreme courtesy.'
Sally Gardner says she 'used to go walking and tell my stories to myself out loud. So, naturally, if I bumped into anyone, they thought I was quite mad. But now, in the age of bluetooth, everyone just presumes I'm talking on the phone, so I can talk to myself with impunity!'
Sally Gardner: 'I never want to write the same book twice.'
Holly Black finds it weird that we make children give up shared storytelling and games. 'Why should we?'
Sally Gardner: 'Our society encourages girls to grow up far too young, and boys not to grow up at all.'
Sally Gardner: 'Fairy tales are a slow knife in the flesh, not wham-bam like superhero stories.'

This post is already far too long, so I'll wrap up now with a big thank you to all my friends and all the organisers who helped make this weekend so brilliant. Earl's Court had its downsides, true: it was very hot, crowded, and noisy, and there were queues everywhere. But overall it was a fabulous experience. I REALLY, REALLY hope that there'll be more YALCs in the future - and maybe even an MGLC one day, who knows? :D

If you follow me on Twitter you might have heard me getting rather overexcited recently about a fabulous new mentoring scheme. Well, after a bucketload of behind-the-scenes work by award-winning and lovely author Kerry Hudson and others, I'm thrilled to announce that The WoMentoring Project is now up and running! Here's why I'll be taking part...

I've never had a mentor. At least, not in the wise-bearded-person Dumbledore sense. (I'm still holding out for a pet phoenix though.) The first time I had something published - a funny article in my university magazine - I simply threw it up there and hoped for the best. A little later, working on a travel magazine, I once again learned by doing, writing articles on everything from spa hotels in Arizona to bonfire nights in England and many other topics I had no clue about. It was scary at times, but I just winged it furiously. When I wrote my first novel, again, I simply sat down at my computer and bashed it out.

But that's where my lone wolfdom ended. Due to the wonders of the interwebs, I found critique partners, writer friends, and cheerleaders online, and all those people taught me so much about both writing and publishing, and made the journey far less daunting. Having gone it alone for so long, I really can't overstate how brilliant it is to have someone support and advise you along the oft-potholed writing and publishing road. 

Lucking into the super-friendly kidlit writing community meant amazing things happened: A bestselling author offered to read my first novel and show it to her agent - all because she liked the first page I'd entered in a competition. Nothing came of it, but I will be forever indebted to her for boosting my confidence. I won critiques from various writers for both my queries and pages, helping me improve as a writer in leaps and bounds. And of course, I found my brilliant critique partners, without whom my book would be a mess of plotholes and lurking adverbs. Even after I had interest from a publisher, numerous published authors were kind enough to share their thoughts on contracts, agents, publishers, and all manner of behind-the-scenes tidbits that you simply can't find on the internet.

All of which is to say: Mentors are brilliant things. I may have not had an official one, but all the kind advice I received helped me immeasurably. And now I'm extremely happy to be returning the favour. So if you're a fledgling writer wondering what to do next, I hope you'll give The WoMentoring Project a try. It just might be the boost you're looking for.

Are you a fledgling writer or illustrator who identifies as female? Looking for a friendly face to guide you up the writing and publishing tree? Then read on...

What is The WoMentoring Project?

The WoMentoring Project offers free mentoring by authors, agents and editors to up-and-coming female writers who would otherwise find it difficult to access similar opportunities. We have no budget, it’s a completely free initiative and every aspect of the project - from the project management to the website design to the PR support - is being volunteered by a collective of female literary professionals. 

I want a mentor! How do I apply?

In an ideal world we would offer a mentor to every writer who needed and wanted one. Of course this isn't possible so instead we've tried to ensure the application process is accessible while also ensuring that our mentors have enough information with which to make their selection.

Applicant mentees will submit a 1000-word writing sample and a 500-word statement about how they would benefit from free mentoring. All applications will be for a specific mentor and mentees can only apply for one mentor at a time. Selections will be at the mentor's discretion.  

All illustrations done exclusively for The WoMentoring Project by the super-talented Sally Jane Thompson, one of the mentors!

So you've only gone and written a book. CONGRATULATIONS. Out of all the millions of people who say 'Oh, if only I had the time', or 'I have a GREAT idea! One day I'll write it', or 'I've been working on my first chapter for nine years', you've ACTUALLY GONE AND DONE IT. Do a few cartwheels. Drink a few margaritas. Pet a few kittens. You've earned it.

BUT. What you have, I'm afraid, is not yet a book. It's a draft. Even if you've already slaved over it and edited it and rewritten it til you've dripped blood on the keyboard (ew, please don't do that), in order to make it really sparkle, to make it stand every chance of getting picked up by an agent and publisher, you're going to need fresh eyes on it. And fresh eyes means knowledgeable critique partners.

It isn't enough just to have a couple of friends who don't even read in your genre cast an eye over it. They probably won't know what to pinpoint, and they're your *friends* so they'll be scared to say anything that isn't YAY LOVED IT for fear of damaging your friendship. You want feedback, HONEST feedback, from other writers. Don't worry if you don't know any other writers. Almost nobody does when they start out. So where do you find them?

Twitter: Are you on Twitter? You should be. The writing community there is incredibly friendly, supportive and helpful, especially the kidlit/YA crowd. If you're brand new and don't know who to follow, try following some of your favourite authors or bloggers and see who *they* follow or are followed by, and just chat to people. Once you've made some pals, you can tweet that you're looking for a crit partner for your amazing new middle-grade zombie-dragon story, and see if you get any takers.

How About We CP: An excellent Tumblr with regular updates from writers of all genres and categories who are looking to hook up with new CPs.

Critique Partner Love Connection: Set up by bestselling YA author Maggie Stiefvater. A great place to find CPs, especially if you write YA. 

CPSeek: What it says on the tin. A website set up specifically for writers seeking critique partners.

The Blueboards: The official forums of SCBWI, the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators. BUT you don't need to be a member to read and post there. You do need to register and post at least fifty times in order to gain access to certain parts of the boards, but if you write kidlit or YA this place is not just somewhere to find crit partners, but also an absolute gold mine of information on every aspect of writing and publishing for children and teens. It's also an incredibly friendly and supportive place. I really, really recommend it.

So you've found someone who might be interested. Yay! Now what? Here's a tip: do not agree to be someone's crit partner without first testing the waters. I recommend swapping your first chapters and critting them. Then you can see if (a) you like this person's writing enough to want to critique their whole book (remember it takes a decent chunk of time to critique a novel, so you really don't want to get stuck with something that just isn't your thing, plus if you just don't like or read in the genre, for example, you will be much less help as a CP than someone who's knowledgeable in the area) and (b) you can see if you like their style of critiquing and find it helpful. Sometimes you might run across someone who is a good writer but just doesn't get your sense of humour, for example, which is no fun.

Then if the chapter-swappage goes well - congrats, you've just found yourself a critique partner! Now all those lazy bits of writing, inadvertent plot holes, and info-dumps will (hopefully) disappear with their help. Also, don't stop at just one. If you can find two or three, then do. That way you'll have enough feedback to know if your main character really *is* hopelessly unlikeable, or if it's just one person's opinion.

ADDED BONUS: Critiquing other people's work - as opposed to just having your work beta read - will help to make you a better writer. And if you're really lucky, your CPs will become good friends too. Win/win!

PS If you have any other tips on where to find CPs or what to do with 'em once you've got 'em, feel free to chime in in the comments :)

PPS If you still can't find a CP or would like some extra help with your story or query, check out my editing page.