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."

One thing leads to another

At the NECRWA conference, I had the opportunity to chat with Susan Wiggs (http://www.susanwiggs.com/). Susan is the author of many books, one of them Table For Five, which I just read and enjoyed so much I immediately passed it along to a woman sitting next to me on the airplane. Susan is from the Pacific Northwest, too, and she encouraged me to look into Field's End, a conference in our area.

I did, and I'm registered. Susan, it was your pictures that sold me! Who can resist such a beautiful setting? (To find out about this conference, go to http://www.fieldsend.org/).

My friend Ellie is going to attend with me. It didn't take any arm-twisting. All I did was email her the conference info and she called and said, "I want to go!" I'm looking forward to spending the whole day with Ellie. It's been...gosh...since my Tyler days...? *Snicker* are you wondering what my "Tyler days" were? Hint: Tyler was tall, dark, full of himself, and terrified of my husband.

That was fun :) On to my writing ~

I'm applying the work I did a few weeks ago, where I nailed down some elements of the plot that desperately needed to be nailed down. KEY elements, like whodunit. Writing a mystery is not like writing a more literary story where the plot is character-driven (my other novel is women's fic). While it was fun writing a mystery and being in the dark myself, I fear I've wasted an awful lot of time. And words. A few of the changes I made dovetail right into the existing MS; others require a bit more work, but that's okay. I keep telling myself that I don't have to get every word PERFECT on this draft, but then I linger and agonize over scenes, trying to figure out why it doesn't resonate the way I want it to. I need to stop lingering and just get the changes down and into this draft and THEN go back and rework the scenes.

One more thing: the world may be getting smaller thanks to the internet, but it can't overcome the distance between me and my writing friends. The drawback to belonging to an international writing group is that the face-to-face meetings are few and far between. Instead of being filled with gratefulness for the opportunity to meet two of my longtime internet friends - which I should be - I'm feeling the empty, lifeless air of the miles that separate us.

Maybe a trip to Starbucks will fill that void...

NECRWA Conference

For my first conference, I couldn't have chosen a better conference to attend. The workshops applied to all genres: going deeper with point of view, setting as metaphor, weaving in backstory artfully, critiquing, the business of writing. The guest speakers were witty and insightful. Everyone was approachable. And meeting my friends? Well, that was worth every penny spent.

What I found at this conference was validation. To describe the validation in cliche: Writing is a lonely business. I can't think of a better way to describe it. Like all other writers, I pour my heart and soul onto the page and hope that someone will enjoy the words I've conjured into (hopefully) living, breathing characters. Publication is wonderful, as are critique groups, for making you feel like a real writer, but a conference makes you feel like you're part of the writing community.

More later. I still need to process all that I experienced! The fun with my friends, the professional input, the increased motivation...there's just too much to fit down in one post.

Writing while life is in progress

In the midst of a hectic time for homeschooling, some sad and happy family events, home remodeling, and tax season, I've hardly had time to think about my writing. I had to make a choice: let go of the story or shirk my responsibility. The writing had to be set aside and eventually I became detached from my story.

Now is when my writing buddies are the salve for my pains. One ruthless friend helped me fill in the holes in my plot. A practical friend mentioned an exercise from a writing book that summarizes your story to help you gain focus. And a brave yet determined friend went through said exercise with her own story at the same time I was doing mine; her encouraging feedback has fueled my determination. I'm still working on the summary (you know it has to be perfect for me to move on), but it's giving me a better foundation for Deception and a desire to use the same exercise for Falling Short. The point is the story is fresh in my mind now. Probably any exercise would have done that, but not any group could have provided that kind of support.

Writing groups and/or writing buddies can be inspiring and supportive, or they can be a drain on your creativity. I'm fortunate to be among the inspiring and supportive. There are numerous writing books available -trust me, I have my own favorites - but when you lose your grip on your story, you need a good slap across the face and a shove in the right direction. Who better to do that than your writing buddies?

In the "Bummer" column: I received the results of a contest I entered, and my story "The Painting" was not among the winners, the finalists, or even the honorable mentions. Ouch. Time to set it aside for a while and think about what is missing from the story.

Onward ho! I have writing students waiting for critiques, homeschooling lessons to plan, airline reservatiosn to make, taxes to file, a variance report to fill out...oh, and a story to write :)

Confessions of a writer-in-progress

I have all these writerly thoughts swimming around my head. Character development. Story arc. Character goals. And every night I go to bed with one particular thought on my mind: Who killed Humbert Watson?

I've written this story once. It didn't work. I'm writing it again and I still don't know who killed Humbert Watson and why.

But I'm okay with that.

This story has evolved. The characters have evolved because I've let them evolve. That doesn't mean that what I'm writing now will end up in the final draft: it means I can explore the possibilities and let the characters lead the way. Sometimes that means I write a scene that has to be tossed. I've got plenty of those! But sometimes I stumble upon the direction the story needs to go, and that's exciting.

It's why I started writing, and why I love the craft.

December

Wow, December flew by in a flash! I've been neglecting my blog. Shame on me.

I received my copy of the anthology yesterday and I sat down and read every story. I needed a day of R&R so it arrived at precisely the right time. It felt wonderful to be holding a book in my hands that contained one of MY stories. I read Devil's Breath again, but it didn't feel like reading a story because I'm (obviously) too close to it. It's still too fresh in my writer's mind for me to have any perspective.

On Thursday, I received a very nice rejection letter from Story Quarterly. It's time to put "Not Your Average Joe" aside for a while - let Joe sit until I can look at him objectively and figure out why he didn't win anything more than finalist status in the Lunch Hour Stories contest.

This December, I enjoyed time with family and friends. I didn't hover over my keyboard. My ISP helped: we've had intermittent connectivity problems for months and in December we rarely had any internet access. But stepping away from my story was good for my family, for me, and for my characters. Guess what they did while I was making merry? They GREW! Isn't that amazing? I'm so proud of them. Now they're ready to pounce back onto the page.

Back home

After a week in Mexico, reality hit before the wheels of the jet touched down at SeaTac. My word count is depressingly low. In order to hit my initial goal of 80,000 words by November 30th, I need to write 6,400 words per day from here on out. (Insert hysterical laughter.)

I think it's time to redefine my goals.

I started the day wondering why I even thought I should write this novel in the first place. I ended it by recalling the fact that I am a writer and I love these characters.

So what if I didn't get any writing done in Mexico? So what if I'm behind on my NaNo word count? Tomorrow I'm going to dive right back in.

Tonight, my nine year old daughter is teaching me how to make a slideshow of my Mexico pics to post on my blog.

Point of View

What's your favorite viewpoint as a reader? Do you prefer first person ("My knees shook as I stood to ask the group a question") or third ("Janelle tried to hide her nervousness when she stood to ask the group a question")?

I prefer to write in third, but for some stories - no, some characters - first is the only way to capture the voice. This presents a challenge to me as a writer; I am limited in how much I can show the reader about what is going on with other characters. Alternating first person viewpoints can be done, but I've only read a handful of books with an alternating first where the author employed the technique well. One such example was a novella where the chapters alternated between the husband and the wife from a first person perspective.

No matter if it's in first or third, nothing frustrates me more as a reader than when an author alternates viewpoint and goes back to show me events I've already read about but from a different character's perspective. It's fine if the author moves the story along and reveals the different perspective of past events in context of the story as it progresses, but please don't backtrack!

I suppose these are the reasons why my favorite point of view to write from, and to read from, is third. Sure, third doesn't allow the reader/writer to get as close to the character as first, but it allows the author to move around, zoom in, zoom out, and even alternate characters without jarring the reader.

But first person sure can be fun to write!