On Saturday 7th June, many wet and weary souls made their way through the torrential downpour that battered Edinburgh city centre. Their aim was to meet up in a much drier venue for the latest SCBWI BI South East Scotland event – Voice and Point of View.

We arrived to make our ‘voice’ heard from the page. Throughout the afternoon we discussed the many different issues we would encounter as we take our characters along the long winding road of our story, but also the wonderful tone that our books rely on so much to get our narrative across.

Once we began to analyse the difference between voice and POV, it became clear that a lot of authors out there use many different ways to get the personalities of their characters over to the reader. It was very easy to see how both of these can easily make or break a story. The trick is to get the balance just right – should your voice be: a child, a Mum, a Dad or even a WW1 pilot.

It’s every writers aim to draw in the reader so much that they are unaware of the time-frame, tense or POV. So, we left no stone unturned and with the help of everyone there we relentlessly reviewed work from Neil Gaiman to Sally Gardener and onto the picture book world of ‘Where The Wild Things Are’ by Maurice Sendak, courtesy of Elisabeth Wein. Her insight into how illustrations play such a huge role in the picture book world made us re-examine those hardback delights we have read so many times before without even realising the subtle details created on the page.

We celebrated with Christina Banach on her recent publication of ‘Minty’ and Sheila Averbuch’s fantastic story written in conjunction with the pupils at Pencaitland Primary School – which is just about to be published. We also raised a glass to Stephanie McGregor, SCBWI BI ARA, on her success as one of the selected few to appear at Story Shop – an event at this year’s Edinburgh International Book Festival.

Another fantastic meeting of like-minded writers from across the South of Scotland. Soggy writers we may have been but we were very appreciative of the time spent together amid the wave of inspiration that floated around the room.