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This November, YA librarians and authors will descend upon St. Louis for the 2012 Young Adult Literature Symposium. If you haven’t been to this before, I highly recommend it. I went in 2010 and met a lot of fabulous people and rubbed elbows with a few authors (perpetuating my girl-crush on Lauren Myracle) and came away with a lot of great information. This year the theme is Hit Me with the Next Big Thing.

I started thinking about what exactly that means. How can we predict the future of what’s going to be hot and what’s going to flop? It’s not always easy to find what will be successful for your library, even when you’ve seen it be successful everywhere around you. I admit, I was having trouble with this concept until I listened to a webinar from Infopeople called Improvisation at Work! Communicating and Innovating in Your Library. Part of it covered the idea of “Yes, and.” When I did an improv program for the teens at my library this past summer, one of the things that we covered is keeping the scene going versus shutting it down. I didn’t know it was called this at the time, but I was teaching them “Yes, and.”

One of the applications of “Yes, and” is brainstorming without judgment. We’ve all probably been in those meetings where we’re asked to brainstorm ideas on how to do something or come up with something new and innovative. If you’re saying, “Been there, done that,” you’ve also probably encountered the person who always wants to point out the negative aspects of a suggestion. Whether their naysaying is legitimate or not is not the problem. The problem is that the naysayers can stop us in our tracks and keep us from being truly innovative.  (Try making a rule in one of these brainstorming sessions that you can only make positive statements and see your results. You may come up with something truly amazing that you never would have thought of before).

So what will be the trends of the future? What genre is going to be the next vampire-craze? Our teens are changing, so how will that be reflected? What is the Next Big Thing? Start a dialogue of “Yes, and,” see where it takes you, and then share it in the comments or bring it with you to St. Louis!

Hey, there. I'm deep in revisions, so if you think I'm ignoring this blog, you're right. I get to a certain point in the heavy lifting where I become completely obsessed, and do nothing but write and eat soup (or cereal.)

Meanwhile, if you'd like something more interesting to read, check out my new teacher's guide for Operation Yes, written by talented teacher and former military kid, Natalie Lorenzi. You can can download it here or use the link in this blog's side bar or try viewing it at my new teachers page at the Operation Yes site. (If you have any ideas for items to add to that teachers page, please let me know.)

Here's a sneak preview of two of the fun imrov activities that Natalie created for the guide:

FLYING FARMER:  

In the spirit of the Flying Farmer, set up an obstacle course with students, chairs, tables, and low objects (such as blocks) on the floor.

One student is the Flying Farmer and must make it from one side of the stage to another while blindfolded. (You may use two X’s formed with tape on the floor for starting and ending points.)

An “air traffic controller” gives directions. If the pilot brushes or touches an object more than twice, the airplane goes down and the game starts over. You can set a time limit when the airplane will “run out of fuel.”

GOOD ADVICE:

Miss Loupe’s new 6th grade students could use some advice from Bo, Gari, and the rest of the Ugly Couch Players.

Brainstorm a list of “school” words—school supplies, teachers, objects found in school etc. Write the names of each object on an index card, and put the cards in a bag. Students go to the front of the class in pairs and draw one card each from the bag. Each pair must offer a one-line pearl of wisdom for next year’s students.

Rules:
1. One student begins the sentence, using the word on the card he or she drew from the bag.

2. The second student must complete the sentence using the other word drawn from the bag. The advice may be wacky, but it must make grammatical sense.

Example: If the following words are drawn from the bag: paper clip, water fountain... Student 1 might begin with: “Never use a paper clip...”

and Student 2 might finish: “...to fish your gum out of the drain in the water fountain.”

I have a feeling that my first stop in Chicago wasn’t one that many other librarians visited. I didn’t pick up my conference materials or check into my hotel. I didn’t wander through the new modern wing at the art museum or indulge in my first hot dog. I didn’t go anywhere near McCormick Plaza.

Instead, I went to a tattoo parlor.

For me, Chicago is all about improvisation. That’s how I first came to the city–as an improviser, a very overwhelmed 19 year old who tried to take in the wonderful performances at Second City and iO to hone my own craft. So it’s fitting that some six years later I’d return to this city and get a tattoo of one of my improv philosophies: yes, and.

Saying “Yes, and” in the improv world is about accepting the offers you’re given, always making your scene partner look good, and adding more information to advance the scene. Saying yes at conference is very much the same–it’s about embracing the opportunities provided (and the responsibilities that go along with them), supporting your colleagues, and keeping the momentum of the conference rolling.

I’ve said yes a lot in Chicago. Liveblog an event with a day’s notice? Sure. Attend a board meeting? No problem. Traipse all around the city looking for a Hyatt because I have zero innate sense of direction? I need the exercise!

Saying yes is also about letting your plans change at the drop of a hat, much the way they do when you walk onstage. This is what leads to life’s little happy accidents, like getting half price tickets to watch Paula Poundstone (and some other very funny women) knock your socks off, or meeting an author you didn’t know you loved, or realizing a speaker might be just perfect for your next event.

Onstage, saying no can derail a scene. It might be funny for a split second, but it can make your scene partner look bad in the long run. At conference, on the other hand, saying no just might be the secret to your survival.

It’s so easy to get swept up in the excitement of a great panel or productive committee session and feel like you’re ready to go change the world. And you are–trust me, you are going to change the world–but you’re also going to go home and pay your electrical bill and burn some cookies and have a bad meeting and get the flu.

Life gets in the way of good intentions. No matter how many hats you wear at conference, no doubt you wear at least half a dozen more at home and at work. It’s crucial for your own life and work–as well as the work of YALSA–that you prioritize and remember that saying no is also an option.

Particularly if you’re already someone who dives into tasks with enthusiasm and produces fantastic results, your fellow YALSA members are going to want you on their committees and task forces and panels. Often your interests and needs will overlap, everyone says “Yes, and,” and life rolls merrily along. But just as often the fit isn’t right. Saying no doesn’t mean you’ll never be asked again, it doesn’t make you a bad person, and it doesn’t mean the sky will fall. Saying “No, but” can be just as important as “Yes, and.”

What did you say yes (and no) to in Chicago?

It only took a few notes and people came running from every corner of the house to listen to this podcast about the LOTR film score.


A small bit of fun: Some interesting alternate versions of Howard Shore's themes, Peter Jackson's meddling and more information on the book about Shore and his magnificent film score.

Like the folks in the podcast, I wonder if this family's fascination with this subject will ever end?

Nope.



Film Score Monthly Podcast.