Laura Purdie Salas

Small Reads for Brighters Days

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Home
  • Laura’s Books
  • Poetry
    • Poems Published Elsewhere
    • My Poetry–a Sampler
    • Poetry Videos
    • How To Write Poetry
      • Poetic Pursuits
  • For Teachers
  • Presentations
  • Freelancer
  • About
    • Press Kit
      • Short Bios
      • Awards & Honors
      • Author Photos
      • Book Covers
      • Book Reviews
      • In the Press
    • Who Am I?
    • How I Became a Writer
  • Blog
    • Review Policy
  • For Writers
You are here: Home / Poems for Teachers / Qualities I Love in Art Forms and How They’re Reflected in What I Write

Qualities I Love in Art Forms and How They’re Reflected in What I Write

November 9, 2020 By Laura

I was so honored to be part of the SCBWI/Smithsonian Nonfiction Conference! I was on a panel Saturday about The Personal Journey to Nonfiction. (It started right after Biden’s win was announced, and I was positively shaking with excitement and relief!)

The panel was based on Melissa Stewart’s fabulous new anthology, Nonfiction Writers Dig Deep. I just pre-ordered my copy–I’m thrilled to be in it and eager to read it! (In fact, hint hint, if you write nonfiction or you teach young writers, this would be a fabulous holiday gift for yourself–just sayin’!)

In the panel I was on, with amazing nonfiction authors Melissa Stewart, Sarah Albee, Lesa Cline-Ransome, and Paula Yoo, I spoke mostly about how my challenging childhood led me to root for the underdog…for unappreciated things that are really wonderful if you just pay attention. That’s a theme that runs through the heart of many of my nonfiction books.

I also shared how reflecting over the past couple of years on the ways my own experiences and personality affect my nonfiction writing has HELPED my writing process. I’m quicker to find my way in to topics now, because I take into account my own emotional connection to it. In addition, I shared a little exercise I did recently–the results surprised me.

I thought about the qualities I appreciate in art/imagery, in music, and in the books (for grown-ups) I read. Click to open a printable .pdf of this chart.

And here’s my chart, filled out.

This is all hindsight, of course. And it’s not prescriptive. I’m not saying that if I like a certain type of image or music, I can only write a specific kind of thing. I’m just surprised at how many connections it’s easy to draw between the things that appeal to me in other peoples’ works and the things that I feel most happy and most accomplished in writing. I think anything that helps us see ourselves more clearly as writers is a useful tool.

Thank you to Melissa, for inviting me to be part of this panel; to Lin Oliver of SCBWI and Jill Corcoran of the Smithsonian, for creating this conference; to my fellow panelists, who I learned from; and to all the attendees, whose encouraging comments and curiosity were uplifting. And huge shoutouts to the ASL interpreters, the tech people, the moderators, and ALL the behind-the-scenes folks who made this conference work!

Tagged With: activity pages, conferences and conventions, my writing process, Nonfiction Writers Dig Deep

Share:

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • More
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)

Related

« Winter Is the Warmest Season #PoetryFriday
Sing and Share for National Family Week #ClassroomConnections »

SEPTEMBER NEWS

Whee! It's fall, the time of fresh starts. I'm busy working with a web designer to redesign my site--yikes. That's a big project. But I started off the month with a family visit in Florida, which was great. Now I'm prepping for a fall-themed storytime at the South St. Paul Library on Sep. 26 at 10:30 a.m. Hope you can come! Click the image below for details!

Are You Looking For…?

  • Poems for the Classroom
  • Poetryactions
  • 15 Words or Less Poems
  • Poetry Activities for Teachers

Tags

15 Words or Less Poems 30 Painless Classroom Poems anthologies A Rock Can Be... bookalikes BookSpeak! Can Be... books classroom connections conferences and conventions equation poems free verse haiku imagepoems Kidlit Combos Laura's books Laura's poems my writing process National Poetry Month 2012 (haiku a day) National Poetry Month 2014 (riddle-ku) National Poetry Month 2016 National Poetry Month 2017 (#wonderbreak) national poetry month 2018 (haiku a day) National Poetry Month 2020 National Poetry Month 2021 (#EquationPoem) national poetry month 2022 (sticky-note poems) National Poetry Month 2023 (Digging for Poems) nifty news nonfiction books personal photopoetry poems poemsketch Poetry 7 poetryactions poetry books Poetry Friday Poetry Princesses poetry prompts poetry sisters Putrid rhyming nonfiction rhyming poems Rock the Blog school visits snowman-cold

Meta

  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.org

Copyright © 2009–2023 · Laura Purdie Salas · WordPress · Log in