Field's End Conference Report

The Field’s End conference differed from the NECRWA in that it was more relaxed which I didn't think was possible. The energy at the RWA conference was palpable. Everyone was so happy and chipper and hyper (oh, wait - maybe that was just me). Here, they were relaxed and chatty. People mingled and chatted, authors and editors all milling about and asking you what you were working on. One woman I spoke with about the two novels I’m working on said something along the lines of, “So often, writers finish something and send it off before they've even had a chance to let the story ripen and find its true potential. It's in the rewrite that the real story is discovered." Her comments made me feel so much better about my year-long revisions! I honestly think my stories weren’t ripe yet, because as I’m revising, I’m discovering a deeper, more meaningful story. Not just fluff and words on the page.

There were maybe a third of the people at this conference as at NECRWA. Maybe that's the only difference in the feeling and mood between the two conferences, because the people at the RWA conference were just as nice...but I think at this one, pretty much everyone there was a writing success story or an independent agent or independent editor or a noted columnist or radio personality or SOMETHING.

One breakout session I attended was so awesome, I could have gone home right after and gotten my money's worth. Jennifer Louden's "Writing Naked (With Your Clothes On): How to nurture your creative truth, romance your muse and get the work done" was - I swear - directed right at me. She's a motivational speaker and her workshop was SRO. I filled 6 pages of standard sized notebook paper. One thing that really resonated with me was her comment not to focus too much on or worry about the market, that there is no HEART in that. She spoke about writing from the heart - and how to GET to your heart, which she calls finding the truth in your writing. She had us free-write, and I discovered some things about my own motivations toward writing. A wonderful moment of self-discovery! But the most valuable things she gave me were steps to take, ways to get my butt in the chair and make my time productive, even if it's only 5 minutes or 15 minutes. A very, very good session and thanks to her, I’m finding ways to write every day!

During the Page One workshop, 11 pages were read and critiqued, but none of them were mine.That's okay, though. I still learned from the session. One thing that ticked me off was some people did not follow the guidelines posted on the website for submission which was one page double spaced. Some people got a good 500 words in there whereas those of us who followed the guidelines could only fit 250-300 words. But that's life. Not everyone follows the rules. Most of the pages read were very well-written, yet there was always something that could be better. I agreed with most of what the 2 critics said, and when I disagreed, it was because there was a great amount of diversity of story types and obviously, just two critics will be limited in their ability to critique based on their genre preferences. They definitely had an element they were comfortable in, and just making the workshop open to "fiction" was too broad a scope for the two critics. There was a stage actor/radio personality who read the pages aloud for all of us to hear. The critics both admitted that reading it was different than hearing it, but I wondered if they could have/should have asked for a second reading. At any rate, what I heard the critics comment on were voice, character, scene, and action. They wanted a distinct voice, an immediate character to relate to, for the opening page to be scenic, and for something to happen. All obvious expectations. However, when a page was in first person, they jumped on voice. When it was in third, they jumped on the action or the setting. I think there's a lesson there.

All in all, a good day, very unlike the fun I had with Mel and Jen, but worth the trip and an enjoyable time with my friend Ellie. We had a lot of laughs and we’re both fired up. I'll end this long missive with a quote from Roy Blount Jr. who was quoting someone else but I didn't catch the name:

"A blank page is God's way of showing us how hard it is to be God."