Matt Cibula

Getting Your Readers to Use Their Brains

· Writers are not born . . . they are developed

· Train your brain to think about writing

· Know your reader!

· Make your readers think—they will like that!

· Wake up the reader’s brain—let them “see” your characters

· You are writing for your peers—talk to them in your writing like they want to be talked to, not like they’re little kids

· Start your story in the middle or at the end . . . and then – flashback

Remember: Greatness in writing comes when you WANT to write.

Young Authors

Photo Gallery for Matt's presentation

Biography

Matt has written a number of children's books and is currently working on two new ones. He visits schools throughout the country giving advice to students about writing. But he says he doesn't want to tell them about everything because then they would be better writers than him and they would sell more books. Matt lives with his wife, two children, and four cats in Madison.

This is Matt's ninth year at the conference.